Alan’s Bakery: TOOLS RECOMMENDATION

Table of Contents

Background: Alan’s.........................................................................1

Target Audience.................................................................................1

Situation Overview.........................................................................2

Features Comparison..................................................................3

Segmentation...................................................................4

Price.........................................................................................5

Reporting.............................................................................6

Ease of Use........................................................................7

Customer Service..........................................................8

Integration...........................................................................9

Comparison Summary..............................................................10

Final Recommendation.............................................................11

Background: Alan’s BakeryMetro Atlanta is going crazy for Alan’s Bakery, a deli/bakery/confectionary with ten convenient locations. From melt-in-your-mouth baked goods to local and light lunch options, Alan’s has something for everyone. Complete with an upscale dining experience and friendly staff, it is no wonder Alan’s is quickly becoming the go-to place for the breakfast/lunch

crowd.

Target AudienceAlan’s target audience consists of affluent suburbanites, corporate workers, and brides-to-be. The Alan’s fan is health-

conscious and looks for locally sourced ingredients, yet is not opposed to a sweet treat after lunch. The suburban mom may be meeting her tennis friends for lunch. The corporate lawyer may be grabbing a coffee and bagel on her way into

work. The excited young bride may be taste-testing wedding cakes for the big day.

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Situation OverviewAs Alan’s continues to grow, so does the need for a reliable way to stay in contact with customers. We

have determined that an email program is the best way to encourage repeat business as well as reach new

customers. The goals of the marketing communication strategy include:

1. Promote the menu specials of the day.2. Remind customers about the catering options for

groups of 10+.3. Target brides to promote wine/cake tasting parties and

bridal cake designs.4. Encourage loyalty through “VIP” offers and events.5. Seasonal offers to cater Christmas parties, summer

picnics, etc.6. Remind customers of specialty cakes about the anni-

versary of their special event.

Alan’s currently has an email database of two hundred-thousand names, separated by store location. In addition, we have purchased a mailing list of local brides’ email ad-

dresses as part of the Great Bridal Expo. 12

21

200k

EMAILS PER WEDDING CAMPAIGN

EMAILS/WEEK TO LUNCH

CROWD

EMAIL/MONTH TO SPECIALTY CUSTOMERS

NAMES IN THE CURRENT

DATABASE

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Features ComparisonThere are two email service providers that can accomplish Alan’s email marketing objectives: Mail Chimp and Constant

Contact. In order to choose the best email provider for Alan’s, the following pages will compare the two across vari-ous features. At the end of each comparison, one of the two providers will be chosen as better in that feature area and awarded a check mark. After comparing each individual feature, it will be clear which provider is the best fit for Alan’s

based on the number of check marks received.

Segmentation

Price

Reporting

Ease of Use

Customer Service

Integration

Total

Segmentation

Price

Reporting

Ease of Use

Customer Service

Integration

Total3

Features Comparison: Segmentation

Segmentation Segmentation

Mail Chimp offers a range of options for segmentation. It allows you to target subscribers inside a particular radius, therefore allowing Alan’s to target sub-scribers located around each of the 10 locations. You can segment based on your most engaged subscribers, which will help with developing a loyalty program and offering special events. It even allows segmentation by date added to send new subscribers a wel-come email. There are endless options for segmentation.

Constant Contact is not as user friendly for segmentation options. Although you have the option to create multiple lists, there are not simple options to segment based on location, time of sign-up, etc. This will not make it as easy to determine who to send special event invitations or offers to. However, Constant Con-tact does offer the option to send polls in order to receive better information for creating lists later on. Nevertheless, these do not compare to the pre-built segments offered by Mail Chimp.

4

Features Comparison: Price

Price Price

$875.00 per month+ $199.00 Pro subscription

Mail Chimp’s pricing breakdown is inexpensive for small businesses with short subscription lists, but not as much for a business like Alan’s. With 200,000 subscribers, Mail Chimp will cost $875/month. Additionally, the Pro subscription costs an additional $199.

$895.00 per month

Constant Contact is a straightforward $895/month. Additionally, the email provider offers a discount up to 15% if you prepay six or twelve months, as well as a free trial period for 60 days. Therefore, Constant Contact is less expensive in the long run.

5

Features Comparison: Reporting

Reporting Reporting

Mail Chimp offers individual reports after every email. In these reports you can monitor your audience growth, campaign engagement, and e-commerce performance. The reports feature interactive graphs, trends in subscriber activity, revenue reports, industry comparisons, and even click-maps showing where the reader clicks. Overall, the reports on Mail Chimp make it easy to analyze email marketing success, troubleshoot the problems, and make improvements.

Constant Contact offers detailed reports as well. You can compare campaigns by looking at the levels of engagement. Just like Mail Chimp, you can see the open, click-through, and bounce rates. However, Constant Contact does not tell you why certain emails had better click-throughs or bounce rates. Also, you can’t see as detailed into what parts of the email were clicked on. Overall, the reports are simpler, but not nearly as detailed.

6

Features Comparison: Ease of Use

Ease of Use Ease of Use

Mail Chimp features customizable email templates including a drag and drop editor, custom content, image storage, and image editing. It is important that Alan’s has beautiful emails that are easy to put together, but also highly functional. Thanks to Mail Chimp’s dynamic content recommendations and automated adjustments, it is easy to ensure that the emails are doing their job.

Constant Contact also has customiz-able email templates with a simple drag and drop editor. In addition to image storage and editing capabili-ties, it also offers access to free stock images. However, it is not as auto-mated as Mail Chimp and therefore requires extra steps when it comes to bounced emails and unsubscribers.

7

Features Comparison: Customer Service

Customer Service Customer Service

Mail Chimp has a more laid back company culture complete with creative guides featuring their chimp mascot. Alan’s would appreciate doing business with a fun brand like Mail Chimp. The provider offers self-service support available through their online Knowledge Base articles, as well as 24hr/5days a week chat and email support. Chat is not available on the weekends.

Constant Contact is a little more seri-ous in their company culture. They also have more limited hours for calling customer support, as it is only offered 5 days a week from 7am-11pm (9pm on Friday). However, they do offer 24 hr live chat, as well as email and twit-ter support. Also, many questions can be answered with the FAQ page or the video tutorials. When all else fails, the community forum on Constant Contact offers support as well. Overall this out-weighs Mail Chimp’s laid back culture.

8

Features Comparison: Integration

Integration Integration

Mail Chimp offers integration with EventBrite for event marketing which will be significant in developing our marketing for special events. It also allows integration with SurveyMon-key for creating simple polls. Fi-nally, it integrates with all the major social media platforms for social w.

Constant Contact does not integrate with EventBrite, but does offer some event marketing integration with an additional cost. However, it does offer competitive social media and survey integration.

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Comparison Summary

Segmentation

Price

Reporting

Ease of Use

Customer Service

Integration

Total: 4

Segmentation

Price

Reporting

Ease of Use

Customer Service

Integration

Total: 2

10

Final RecommendationsEmail marketing is vital for Alan’s to build awareness, acquisition, and retention of customers. In order to be successful in email marketing campaigns, we need the best email service provider. Upon analysis of the individual features of the two leading email service providers, it is clear that Mail Chimp is the best option for Alan’s.

Mail Chimp simply has the edge in terms of powerful features and functionality. The areas that Constant Contact excels in such as customer service and pricing are less important when it comes down to Alan’s specific email marketing goals. The price difference is not significant, es-pecially when considering all the features offered by Mail Chimp. Alan’s will be paying a little more but getting a lot more. Additionally, I believe that once we get past the learning curve with Mail Chimp, we will no longer rely on constant cus-tomer support. 24/5 chat support will be plenty for our business needs.

-Vanessa GilletteMarketing Analyst

Alan’s Bakery

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