Using Send Windows for Exceptional Targeting: A Restaurant Example
September 8, 2009 | Comments Off
The Autoresponder Send Windows feature can help increase the relevance of your emails - that sometimes hidden factor that ultimately determines how well your email marketing campaigns perform.
However, you may be at a loss for just how you might employ send windows in your campaigns.
Fortunately, with some creative thinking, we think every email marketer can come up with a use that will make a significant difference in their results.
Let's take a detailed look at an example of how send windows might be used to boost the effectiveness of an email marketing campaign.
How a Restaurant Might Use Send Windows
The owner of a restaurant wants to send a series of autoresponder messages to all new email subscribers to advertise regular events and promotions. They can use send windows to help ensure they reach the subscriber in their inbox when they are most relevant and likely to provoke a response.
Here is what this autoresponder sequence might look like:
Note: If you're unfamiliar with Autoresponder Send Windows and how they work, you may want to learn a bit about them before reading further.
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Message 1 - Welcome Message
Every autoresponder sequence should have a welcome message.
In this case, our restaurant may want to provide some basic information about their restaurant (e.g. link to menu, directions) and set some expectations about what the subscriber will receive later.
Note: This message has no send window, since it is always sent immediately after someone subscribes.
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Message 2 - Mornings, Monday through Friday: Buy a breakfast sandwich and receive a free coffee
To promote a work week, on-the-go breakfast special, we probably want to catch our subscribers early in the day, the first time they check their email.By setting a send window covering Monday through Friday, from 6:00AM to 9:00PM, perhaps we can hit them when they could really use some breakfast and a coffee.
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Message 3 - Sunday through Thursday: Buy one dinner, get a second dinner at half the menu price
Sunday and weekday dinners are often relatively slow at restaurants, so our restaurant provides a price incentive to help fill tables.By setting a send window covering Sunday through Thursday, from 6:00AM to 3:00PM, we can send messages advertising a discount that arrives in the inbox when subscribers are looking to solve their dinner plans for the week.
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Message 4 - Wednesday Dinners: Free dessert on a bill of $25 or more
We send each subscriber a message giving them something for their sweet tooth to look forward to, with our send window for this message set to Wednesday, again from 6:00AM to 3:00PM. -
Message 5 - Thursday Lunches: 20% off entire lunch bill when business card presented with check
Our restaurant has a large banquet room with a TV that has video inputs perfect for laptop slideshows. We send a message with a send window set for Thursday between 6:00AM and 12:00PM, to target subscribers when they might be thinking of planning their next lunch meeting.
See Them in Action
The calendar below shows an example of a subscriber who (conveniently) signs up on the first of the month for the campaign described above.
Toggle on and off send windows, hovering over the green highlighted calendar dates to observe how they affect this sequence of autoresponders.
(Click to see the calendar demonstration)
Notice that with send windows off, we don't accomplish what we set out to do with our message campaign - target our subscribers when each message is most relevant to them.
Only with send windows on do we deliver these messages to all new subscribers when they are most likely to bring them into our restaurant as patrons.
Send Windows Aren't For Restaurants Only!
Of course, the benefits of targeting subscribers during specific windows of time are not unique to restaurants, and we'll highlight some other examples we've developed in future blog posts.
For the meantime, we might all benefit from some real examples from real businesses like yours. Have you setup your send windows, or do you have any ideas about how your industry might use them you'd like to share?
Video: Moving Day at AWeber
September 8, 2009 | Comments Off
We're just about all moved in at our new office - here's how moving day went!
(You can also watch the video on YouTube and subscribe to our "emailmarketing" YouTube channel for more videos in the future.)
AWeber Moves to a New Office Friday, June 26th, 2009
September 8, 2009 | Comments Off
It seems just like yesterday that AWeber moved into a larger office to support our growing team.
As it turns out, that was about three and a half years ago now. And we've grown more, to the point that the office we moved into in 2006 just can't hold us.
So after over a year of planning and construction, we're moving into a new office.
Limited Support on Moving Day - Friday, June 26th
Tomorrow, AWeber's team is moving out of our 4000 square foot office into a much larger building (it's 24,000 square feet!).
It's going to be a busy day for our Customer Solutions Team as we move computers, phones, chairs and other equipment to the new office and get it all hooked up there.
However, we still want to be able to provide support to the 60,000-plus customers who rely on us for their email marketing.
We're going to stagger the move throughout the day so that at least part of our team is answering your questions throughout our normal business hours (8:00am - 8:00pm).
Please Bear With Us As We Move
Since some people will be moving while others "hold down the fort" we may not be able to answer all of everyone's questions as quickly as normal on Friday.
So if you call and can't get us on the phone promptly, leave a message and we'll get in touch with you as soon as we can. As always, we'll work to answer your questions (by phone, email and live text chat) within one business day.
We're excited to get into a new facility that will help us provide email marketing services more effectively than ever.
Thanks for your patience as we move!
Around the Net in Search Marketing: New Rules For Old-School SEO, Email
September 8, 2009 | Comments Off
Email Insider: 4 Must-Subscribes: My Favorite Retail Email Programs
September 8, 2009 | Comments Off
I was recording a podcast with Alex Williams of eROI recently and he asked me what ONE retail email program I would recommend that people subscribe to. It's a tough question because all the retailers that I track do things that are likely to spark new ideas and encourage testing. You'll have to listen to the podcast when it's released to see who I named, but I thought I'd talk about four of my favorite retail email programs here.
