Low Tech, High Touch Marketing
I’m often in meetings with CEO’s and business leaders looking for cutting edge ways to reach their customers. I must confess that I love technology–almost as Kip in the movie “Napoleon Dynamite” for those of you who saw it–but technology can be a trap. Today I was reminded that it’s not technology that sells, but creative, self-motivated people behind technology that make the sale.
Yesterday I got an email from Courtney Ivey. Courtney works for a men’s store, John Craig, in Orlando, Florida. Earlier this year, I bought a shirt from her during one of my speaking engagements at the Shingle Creek Rosen Resort where her store is located. Yesterday, I got an email from Courtney with 5 pictures she took of her new shipment of Robert Graham shirts. I have gotten more compliments on my Robert Graham shirt than anything else I’ve bought lately and have wanted to buy another one for quite some time; however, I have been too busy to loook for it. The email was just the reminder I needed. I just got off the phone with her after buying my new shirt.
What Courtney did was simple, but it was the most effective marketing tool possible. She found the most direct way to reach out to an audience she knew was predisposed to buy her product. She didn’t need a powerful email marketing tool or a fancy html editor to create a dazzling eblast. That’s corporate’s job. And frankly, most of the time they will screw it up anyway. She knows that Orlando is a tourist town and that her customers might never come back to her store, so she takes their email address at every purchase. With each new shipment, Courtney takes pictures of the merchandise and sends them to those on her list who, based on their previous purchases, might be interested.
So simple and yet so effective. She got me, and I’m sure others who are either too busy or who cannot buy these shirts locally. She probably did it all in a couple of hours of effort and at no extra cost. Like most retail managers, Courtney could be on the phone complaining of a recession. Today, however, she is on the phone taking orders.
Way to go Courtney.
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