We might be a little biased, but the southern region of the United States is a special place. We are blessed with great weather, gorgeous mountains and beaches, and exceptionally unique food. Fried chicken, collards, and biscuits are all classics, but what about after the main course is happily settling in the belly? Enter a class of desserts all their own.
River Street Sweets, based in Savannah, Georgia, creates traditional southern treats that anyone from the South could find in
their grandparent’s home, or a classic pig picking or barbeque. From pralines to caramel cake, toffees to pecan pie, River Street Sweets has it all. Happily, they also ship nationwide and internationally, sharing the secret of Southern sweets with the rest of the world.
River Street Sweets has an e-commerce website to serve its customers, but it’s email marketing that drives 30% of sales on their website. Raven Lundholm, River Street Sweet’s Website & eMarketing Manager, walked us through how they created their 2016 Mother’s Day promotion. Let’s take a closer look at a their holiday email marketing strategy.
To start, River Street Sweets uses segmentation to talk to their audiences in different ways. “The most important thing is that you send the right promotion to the right people,” says Raven. “For example, we found that VIP discounts and free items are preferred by recent buyers, whereas free shipping is more appealing to an older, repeat buyer.” Using iContact’s ‘manage preferences’ functionality and segmentation, River Street Sweets gives their readers the ability to pick the level of communication they prefer, so Raven can more easily determine the the best message timing. Using what they know about their customer base, they begin to plan a holiday promotion.
“We begin to think about our holiday promotions at least a quarter in advance,” says Raven, “and usually use the previous year’s campaign as a benchmark.” Raven evaluates the previous year’s campaign performance to see if changes need to be made. All facets of an email advertisement are scrutinized – subject line, imagery, wording, the audience, time and day sent, and more. “While mapping out initial steps of creating our Mother’s Day campaign,” says Raven, “we try to also take into account new trends that might appeal to the buying habits of our customers.”
Raven works with her iContact Premier Strategic Advisor, Beth, to remain cool, calm and collected, even in the midst of a busy holiday promotion. If Raven needs to send more emails than usual, the iContact platform is flexible enough to allow for increased sending. Likewise, if she ever needs quick assistance, Beth is easy to reach and can always get Raven the answer she’s looking for. “Raven is a professional user,” Beth says, “She knows what she’s looking to get out of her email marketing, and I’m just there to help her when she hits a speedbump.” Raven herself even admits that she’s used a lot of email platforms, so she can accurately gauge how iContact stands against the competition. She particularly loves the value of cost versus ROI, the easy user interface, and the tracking to accurately gauge their return on investment.
Mother’s Day is a big holiday for River Street Sweets, so no stone remains unturned. “For Mother’s Day,” says Raven, “we begin
to run promotions a few weeks prior, but we can adjust our campaigns right up to the morning of Mother’s Day, if needed.” She varies the offers from specific item discounts to an express upgrade for a last minute shopper, depending on what is performing best each year. “In iContact, it’s easy to schedule an email days in advance, or make a quick edit, hit send, and have it flying into inboxes,” she says.
Raven and River Street Sweets rely on iContact Premier Services to get their essential holiday promotions delivered. Check out their e-commerce site for sweet southern goodies; and as a special treat for our blog readers, use coupon code EMOM16 if you are searching for the perfect gift for your mom!