Customer Marketing Guide

The marketing areas where you can select specific customers are found under automated tasks (under utilities, scheduling) and the direct mail area (under customer menu, customer letters). You should already be be familiar with these areas where you create sms and email campaigns and also direct mail letters to clients. In this article we will not look at how to create the automated tasks or letter, rather we will look at the options and give you suggestions about how to use these options to further enhance your marketing. If you would like to know more about setting up the tasks and letters, refer to the other knowledgebase articles here: Customer Communications.

When you are in the automated task or direct mail area, you have options on what customers you'd like to send the email / sms / letter to. Lets look at each of those options and specific examples of how to use them:

All Customers: All customers are included. This option is generally used for big announcements such as store openings or change of address and store sales. Depending on the size of your customer list, this option may include too many customers.

Best Customers (date range, department, row limit): This option allows you to select customers who have spend the most with you during a specific date range. Use the row limit to restrict the number of customers and the department option to target specific customers. You can use this option to target your best 200 customers, or the best 50 customers in the last six months who purchased diamond jewelry, or all clients in the last month who purchased an engagement ring, offering them something special on their wedding ring purchase (this will work where you have an engagement ring or similar department). You can also use this option to send a thank you note or check on repairs and service work at six month intervals (set the date range to six months, ending six months ago and the department to repairs).

Customer: This option is for sending the letter/email/sms to just one customer.

Customers (search on name, address, phone): This option is for sending to a select number of customers. You can search on the customers and select which ones you want to send the campaign to. You can use this when having a special event that you may want specific customers to know about first or where you want to target a range of customers from a particular city, street or area.

Customers periodical purchases notification (amount range, department, metal type, row limit): This option is similar to best clients and has additional options of amount range and metal type. You can use this option to send a campaign to all clients who spend over $5000 and purchased platinum or the top 100 that spent between $500 and $1000 on beads or charms and purchased a gold charm. By being able to be specific you can then give a specific campaign.
Example: If you have a new range of titanium rings you can send a campaign to your top 100 titanium buyers or if you have a great new princess cut diamond range in platinum you could send the campaign to anyone who buys platinum and anyone who buys princess cut diamonds. You could also use this option if you are starting a new loyalty program. For example, if you are starting a diamond club loyalty program, you could use this option to send an invite to all customers who purchased diamonds over $3000.

Customers that are Married Today: To use this option effectively, without lifting a finger, all you need to do is create a nice template that congratulates the happy couple on their special day and set the task to run daily via either SMS text message or email.The system will then check each day if anyone is getting married, and will send the personalized message.

Customers who have spent more than (amount): This option is used when you want to send a campaign to all your clients who have spent over a certain amount of money.

Customers who made a purchase after (date, spent more than): You can use this option as an alternative to the above. The difference with this option is that you can restrict further, by specifying a date. So rather than send to all customer who have spent more than $5000. You can send to all customers who have spent more than $5000 and shopped with you in the last six months.

Customers with an Anniversary on specified month: You can use this option to let the client know products or gift suggestions for their anniversary well in advance of the date. You can set this up as automated once off task with a template, and set one up for each month.

Customers with an Anniversary this month: This option is generally used with direct mail letters at the beginning of each month, and allows you to send a letter with either a voucher, gift ideas or just a simple congratulations message to all customers having an anniversary this month.

Customers with a birthday on specified month: You can use this option to let the client know products with their birthstone or gift suggestions well in advance of their birthday. You can set this up as automated once off tasks with a template, and set one up for each month.

Customers with a birthday this month: This option is generally used with direct mail letters at the beginning of each month, and allows you to send a letter with either a voucher, gift ideas or just a simple congratulations message to all customers having a birthday this month.

Customers with a birthday today: To use this option effectively, without lifting a finger, all you need to do is create a nice template saying happy birthday and set the task to run daily via either SMS text message or email. The system will then check each day if anyone is having a birthday, and will send the personalized message.

Customers with Overdue Laybys / Lay Aways: This option is generally set up as an automated tasks that runs monthly, where every month it sends a reminder to customers who have overdue laybys / lay aways.

Customers with sales this month (min amount spent, month): This option is often used to target all customers who shopped in a particular month and spent a certain amount. It is most often used in January, to target all customers who purchased in December and invite them back in the store to shop for themselves (rather than as a gift for someone else).

Customers with Surname: This option allows you to target customers with a specific surname.

Customers in a Loyalty Program: This option is a great way of communicating further with clients who are part of your loyalty program. Popular ideas with this option are to send a monthly e-newsletter (the newsletter is created as an email template), send out invitations to events and new product announcements.

Customers in an age bracket: You can use this option to segregate your target market by age bracket. So for example, if you have a new product line that is fantastic for the teenage market, you can send a marketing campaign to teens. If you have some fantastic new high end diamond jewelry, you may send the campaign to clients in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

Customers with outstanding account sales: This option is generally set up as an automated tasks that runs monthly, where every month it sends a reminder to customers who have an outstanding account.

So that's all the options and some suggestions on how to use them. We encourage you to think outside the box and really have fun with this area. Feel free to email in with ideas or feedback on how you are using these options in your store. (email support@onswim.com)

Tip: When using any of the above options, we strongly recommend that you perform a test first to just one customer who is either yourself or a staff member. When using automated tasks you can do this by creating the task, and selecting 'customer'. Run the tasks and then if it is what you want, edit the tasks and select the clients that you really want to target. For direct mail, you can preview the letter first, and print out just one page.