NEW YORK — Pet food retailer Treats4Pets tapped e-mail marketing firm Intellicontact for its e-mail marketing promotion, which drove its list size from 5,600 to 56,000 in one month.
The promotional e-mail, offering free samples, was sent out to the customer base and then virally distributed by these customers, who encouraged friends to sign up for free samples. This e-mail was followed up by an e-mail offering to sign up for loyalty program benefits and led customers to the Web site at Treats4Pets.
“This is one of our greatest e-mail marketing success stories,” said Chuck Hester, director of public relations at Intellicontact. “You would sign up for samples, then you’d get another e-mail with offerings like putting a picture of your pet on the Internet.”
Treats4Pets, New York, has two products that are carried in 2,300 pet supply retailers nationwide. The line consists of Petzels, baby pretzels for dogs, and wooferoni, small rubber bones.
Interestingly, Treats4Pets is also using e-mail to push sales in areas where the products are not sold. A consumer who is excited by the samples and cannot find a local dealer, can print out a petition from the Treats4Pets site that can be used to petition a local retailer of pet supplies to carry the line.
Intellicontact, Durham, NC, has just launched its 4.0 version, which it is talking about at OMMA. It now allows for not only e-mail marketing, but RSS and blog management as well. The new upgrade also includes a redesign intended to make the platform more user friendly.
“Many of our clients aren’t very tech savvy,” said Brandon Milford, executive director of marketing at Intellicontact. “It was important for us to make this easy to use whether you are 15 or 80 years old.”
