What I should have learned at

SHOP.ORG

’S

Digital Summit

So, 5,000 digital retail professionals, dozens of keynotes, workshops and sessions, a few drinks, some good times and… what was it, again, that I learned at Shop.org’s Digital Summit?

No worries. We’ve got your back — and we took notes. Enjoy the first in a series of reminders of just what it was that you learned in Dallas.

“Email is such a driver. Our goal is to collect an email address from everyone who comes to a store or the website.”

— David Cost, Rainbow Shop’s VP e-commerce, digital marketing5 tips for better e-mail campaigns

1 Send only to active subscribers

Photo by Consumerist.com published under Creative Commons license.

“Don’t spend money to send email to people who aren’t opening your email.”

Rainbow Shops sends emails only to subscribers who have opened an email in the last 90 days.

2 Test and monitor results

• Be sure to analyze exactly how your brilliant ideas are doing.

• That doesn’t mean there is no room for art among the science: Cost says outside factors can affect consumers’ receptiveness.

3 Send emails twice a day

Mail photo by Judith E. Bell published under Creative Commons license.

Yes, be a pest. A strategic pest. Rainbow Shops sends a daily morning email to subscribers. Those that don’t open it, receive another email in the afternoon.

David Cost’s thinking: Those who didn’t open, probably never saw the email. They’re not going to know you’re reaching out a second time.

4 Cart abandonment is your friend

Photo by Joel Kramer published under Creative Commons license.

OK, sometimes they add to cart, but don’t buy. Why not remind customers what they really want, but haven’t purchased, by including those items in an email?

What better sign of customer intent than what shoppers put in their digital shopping carts?

5 Give to get

Photo by Bert Heymans published under Creative Commons license

Mind your manners: If you want something from your customers — say, an email address — be willing to give something in return.

Rainbow Shops gives a little something for the trouble: a 10-percent-off coupon in return for an email address.