If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m sort of a sucker for email marketing. Let me rephrase – I’m a sucker for email marketing that’s done right. Perhaps it’s the marketer in me, but I really love an email marketing program that effectively mines the data in the company’s system to speak effectively to current customers.
Gaining a customer takes time and energy. However, once you have that customer, speaking to them effectively with valuable messages can mean a phenomenal return on your investment. The hard part is over – you won them! So why not keep those customers by offering them incentives and value that appeals to their personal interests?
Case in point: I am a new convert to RedBox. For one reason or another, my husband and I rarely make it to the movies. Personally, I prefer watching at home with a bottle of wine, the absence of a backseat neighbor kicking my chair and the ability to pause the movie on my way to the restroom. Consequently, we have missed quite a few movies as they’ve headed from the theatre to DVD.
For the past few weekends, we have now been making our Friday night a “RedBox” night with a two-movie marathon. Quick reservation on the computer, followed by a short 2-minute drive to the RedBox and our movie date night is set.
After registering my RedBox account and agreeing to receive promotional offers, I received my first email from RedBox and was overjoyed at their datamining ability; this email came a few days after I’d rented Sherlock Holmes:
Clearly RedBox has partnered with Warner Brothers to offer discounts to valued customers – genius! This is not only an example of phenomenal email marketing, but a prime example of synergy that can be created through strategic partnerships.
Of course, this partnership did come after a heated lawsuit in which Warner Brothers successfully passed restrictions prohibiting RedBox from releasing movies in their kiosks the same day the DVDs became available for purchase. While RedBox dropped the lawsuit, I believe they have won with the partnership for discounted DVD purchases.
At the end of the day, customers want value. RedBox continues to offer conveniently located kiosks and valuable discounts on the movies customers love.
