What was Wrong
Distributor channels are great but they do have one flaw: lack of direct contact with the customer. WOW! Factor Desserts needed a way to "talk" to our customers that would not be obtrusive or expensive. Direct Mail wasn't it. Advertising wasn't cost effective. We needed something more current, more viral - e-mail.
Action Taken: Dessert Tip of the Month & Dessert University
We needed a way to be able to reach WOW! Factor customers in a timely and cost effective fashion. Due to the move to a distribution model that was a task complicated by the fact distributors don't give up their customer lists.
The idea of a Dessert Tip of the Month was born.
Our territory managers started by asking on every call they made if the customer was a current WOW! Factor customer. If they were, they were then asked if they would mind providing an e-mail address we could send business building ideas to.
Each person registered to our e-mail database was enrolled in "Dessert University", a seven day program designed to be a light hearted introduction to WOW! Factor Desserts and our unique take on selling cakes and increasing profits.
To help us reach a broader audience, customers are invited to forward the Dessert Tip to colleagues who could benefit from the valuable knowledge the tips contain.
This viral aspect has helped grow our database in a significant way.
The Results
Our Dessert Tip of the Month campaign was started with a database of just 400 customers across North America. Today, over 2,500 customers a month receive tips on how to build dessert sales, new product information and dessert trivia.
The Open Rate on the Dessert Tip of the month is a whopping average of 27% with an Opt Out Rate of less than 1%. These statistics indicate that the Dessert Tip of the Month is one e-mail that chefs look forward to receiving on a regular basis.
Sales data indicates that products profiled in the Dessert Tip of the Month will spike in the month they are profiled.
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