Chris Baggott's Email Marketing Best Practices

Sony DCR-SR80

To give credit where credit is due. I tried the Sony Chat (which by the way is the greatest thing to ever happen to customer service) and got another person who gave me the right answer. This camera uses the mpeg-2 format. Apple has a $20 download that coverts to Quicktime automatically. All good now :-)

Sony DCR-SR80

Ok, this has nothing to do with my topic of Email Marking, but I'm so angry.   I use a Mac.  I want to do more video blogging.  Went out to buy a camcorder with a hard drive.  Read the reviews  and came home with a fantastic looking Sony DCR-SR80.

Took about 15 hours of video with it.  Plug it in to learn that it's not compatible with a Mac???

If I want I can buy third party software.  Deep on page 21 in the manual is a site that will sell to me for an addtional $153. 

The image attached is a screenshot from my chat session with the Sony customer service people.....

More on Best Buy

What's interesting about the word "Sucks" is that it is so pure in it's meaning and in it's ability to get people talking.

So does Best Buy's marketing suck? 

What I like to fight against is Mass Marketing tactics when you have the ability to do targeted marketing.   If you don't have any data then you are stuck with Mass Marketing. If you have data however, why wouldn't you use that data and build better one to one relationships?

The data I'm talking about is individual data.  I'm not talking about "Campaign Data".  Campaign Data tell the marketer that if they blast enough mass advertisements more people will buy...enough people to cover the cost of the "Campaign".

Julie explained how this works in her comment.   She got an offer for a radio after buying a laptop.  Does the data tell Best Buy that women in Michigan who are mothers and have lived in Germany and who buy laptops are more inclined to buy radios or does everyone get a radio offer no matter who they are?

Does it matter?

Why Best Buy Marketing Sucks

Ok, so why would I possibly have an ax to grind with Best Buy’s marketing?   

The simple answer is that they are great in so many ways that when they are horribly weak in one area it is completely magnified.   When great companies do something that is completely average it’s more painful.

Imagine if Starbucks started serving coffee with Gas-station cups or Apple added more buttons to an iPod? 

So my beef with Best Buy is the “Rewards Zone”   

There is a problem that plagues any “box” retailer.  That problem is that customer transactions are anonymous.    There is no excuse for poor database marketing with online retailers or airlines for example.   The online companies know me, they know my transactions, they know my visits…they have the data.

In the physical world the customer is kind of invisible.   They can’t really tell when I enter the store, where I browse and what I actually buy….unless they are able to compel me to join some kind of loyalty program.

Compel me to join your loyalty program and you know have permission to not only monitor my behavior, but my hope and encouragement that you will do something to actually use that data to build my loyalty.

I could go on for another two pages on what that means to both me and to the merchant, but suffice it to say that the benefits of loyalty should flow two ways.

I’m sure lot’s of you out there are members of the Best Buy program.   I would love feedback on the Rewards you are getting from being in this Zone.

I get paper based junk.  My reward for spending around $10,000.00 since joining the program…..and the most recent offer following the holiday season?

A Credit Card Offer!!

Man do I feel special.

This is a campaign, nothing more.  Marketing 1.0 just like the airlines.   Monetize your list, not build better relationships with your “special” customers.

Hey!  How about an email thanking me immediately after a purchase?  How about an email a week later making sure I was happy and not in need of some additional service, support or upsell item…I’ll I’d be happy to pay for.   (I’ve got a giant hard drive I still can’t figure out how to use),  I needed a mounting bracket for a Flat Screen TV,  I would have loved to have been notified when Nacho Libre was available on DVD, and I would have loved to see how the many gift cards I bought this holiday are being used )

Too much to ask I guess.   

How do great brands become average?  How does leadership sink and innovators emerge?  I think we are witnessing it here.