Candy Torahs credits its successful email marketing campaigns for its structured follow-up system

 CandyTorahs.com manufactures personalized, Jewish-themed party favors and place cards for special occasions. Unlike most of its competitors, the company specializes in serving a niche of Bar Mitzvah moms, planners, Synagogues, Jewish agencies, clergy and schools.

It’s a “one-man” show, says owner Harry Liebman, who develops the products, builds the website, designs the promotional materials, manages the customer database and drip marketing campaigns, takes the orders and customizes the designs. “My family helps me make and ship orders,” he says.

A few years ago, Harry had a big problem: Tracking and following up on sales leads. The typical lead time for his products is 3 to 24 months. But when a mom would contact Harry a year or more before her family’s event, he would lose sight of her after a few months.  Sometimes, he says, so much time would pass without communication that he’d feel too uncomfortable to contact her again. After all, there’s nothing worse than saying to a once-hot prospect, “Um..you might not remember me, but about a year ago you contacted CandyTorahs.com about party favors,” says Harry. “Ugh!”

After talking to The Database Diva, Harry realized drip marketing was his answer. “In fact, I knew it the first time I heard the term ‘drip marketing,'” he says. “I could see the value of creating a well-thought-out email marketing campaign, planned in advance and delivered over time, targeting different types of prospects. It seemed to be the best way to stay in touch, offer prospects useful information, and deliver persuasive information as the event approached.”

But now Harry had a new problem: He couldn’t figure out how to launch his drip marketing campaign. “When I tried to start, I ended up going in lots of different directions, starting over, and getting discouraged. I needed a roadmap, a guide.”

Enter The Database Diva and her DripMarketingCamp, which gave Harry exactly what he needed: a drip marketing blueprint that helped him plan a complete communication campaign. He also learned how to find his own authentic writing voice.

“I began to understand how to see my messages from the mom’s point of view. I learned how to be someone she liked–a giver of useful info and resources about planning big special parties–and not someone she scorned–a spewer of product data about CandyTorahs.com sizes, prices, colors, choices, blah, blah, blah. The Database Diva gave me confidence. Most important, committing to the DripMarketingCamp process forced me to allocate the necessary time to finish and launch my campaign.”

Email Campaign Design

One of the biggest benefits of creating email marketing campaigns is tracking the results. Harry says his results have been “good to excellent,” and he generously shares his top three benefits here.

1. Staying in touch. “Right now, I have about 50 people in my database who are having events within the next 3 months. Each of them has heard from me on a monthly basis for a while, and more often as the date draws near. My niche is very small. It’s critical that I keep a tight focus on every lead I get. Swiftpage has made that automatic. This is excellent.”

2. Engaging with prospects. “My open rates are astonishing. One of my mailings TO PROSPECTS went to 80 people. 36 people opened it (a 45% open rate). Each person opens my emails an average of 3.5 times! They click on my links an average of 59 times!”

3. Retaining customers’ interest. One mailing Harry sends goes out after the customer’s party. It gets an open rate of 72% and a click rate of 7.5%. The message includes just one link inviting them to CandyTorah.com‘s Facebook fan page. “Here’s one of my secrets,” Harry says. “Fully leverage ACT e-Marketing’s mail-merge personalization features.” Below is the letter Harry sends. He thinks at least half of all recipients reply personally to this message. “That’s relationship building!” he says.

Hi [[First Name]],
How was [[Child Name]]’s Bar Mitzvah weekend? Are you still on cloud nine? How about [[Child Name]]? After you decompress, you might check-out the CandyTorah’s Facebook page. You can post photos (I’d love to see them), review our products (please), share advice with other parents and so on.
Congratulations on this milestone. And be sure to enjoy these upcoming years – they go by so fast. This year my eldest, Elliot, started college!
Harry

Like many other businesses, Harry believes his business has been off this year, but he understands what he must do next. “I’ve neglected my pipeline (no post card mailings, for example) and that’s a factor. And although I engage my prospects, I must refocus on closing sales. I believe the drip marketing sets up the sale. I need to figure out the best way to close more.

“My customers love me, but currently I don’t have anything else to sell them. Once the party’s over, it’s over. I’m thinking about products for their kids as they start driving, graduating, etc. These are some of my next steps.”

Email Campaign Tips

Before he leaves us for Candyland, Harry has these 3 drip marketing tips to share so you can create your own successful email marketing campaigns.

Tip 1: Don’t delay. Set-up a drip campaign now. The sooner you start, the sooner you can develop it and focus it on your goals. It takes time and you will get better at it. So start now.

Tip 2: Don’t be stuffy. Talk to your prospects like they’re your friends.  For example,

BAD: If we can be of assistance as you consider your party favor needs, please give us a call.
BETTER: Your party’s coming up fast. Please let me know if I can help.

BAD: Thank you for entering our monthly drawing. We will notify you early next month with the results.
BETTER: Thanks for entering our drawing. There are 22 entries so far – hopefully I’ll have good news for you after the 1st.

Tip 3: Look at your own email inbox. Which regular mailings do you look forward to receiving? Which emails do you always read? “Why? I know why! Because they’re useful, valuable, entertaining, forward-able. Make your own mailings that way, too!”