Bass Pro adds e-mail marketing campaign

David Seifert, director of operations for direct marketing at Bass Pro, said a new e-mail marketing system, in development for six months, is being tested and should be launched by the end of June.

Using Coremetrics Analytics Solution software, Bass Pro will track products viewed by customers who have subscribed to the company’s e-newsletter at www.basspro.com.

“Initially what we intend to do is provide the customer with a more targeted selection of merchandise that matches exactly what they were looking at when they were on the site,” Seifert said.

A personalized e-mail message will be sent to customers three days after visiting Bass Pro’s site, using an e-mail system from CheetahMail, an e-mail marketing firm in New York City.

“We’re going to be using (the system) to target e-mails back to those specific customers with merchandise that is either the same or very similar to what the customer browsed when they were on the site,” Seifert said.

The system will confirm that the customer hasn’t purchased the item or something similar and verify the item is in stock.

“It’s pretty instantaneous,” Seifert said of the process, adding that checking an item’s status takes a matter of seconds.

Customers won’t be bombarded with e-mail for every item they browse, he said. Instead, a message will be generated only if the customer views multiple items within the same category.

E-mail marketing

“Companies are becoming smarter about e-mail marketing,” said Matthew Seeley, chief operating officer of CheetahMail, in a news release. CheetahMail’s clients include Borders Books & Music, Harry and David, Sears, Brooks Brothers and the National Geographic Society.

While everyday e-mail programs aren’t capable of handling mass e-mail campaigns, CheetahMail provides reporting tools for clients to interpret campaign results and features that help businesses avoid accusations of spam.

The system also will keep track of

customers who put items in their online shopping cart and then abandon them.

Ashley Johnston, director of marketing for CheetahMail, said e-mail marketing systems like Bass Pro’s that trigger personalized e-mail message based on customer behaviors are powerful ways to re-engage customers when they’re in the mood to buy.

Online sales for companies utilizing systems similar to Bass Pro’s average 26 percent higher than standard bulk mailings, she said.

“Get to know (your customers). Show them that you value them with relevant offers. The data is there. It’s just connecting the dots. And that’s what we’re helping them do,” Johnston said.

“On the Internet, most retailers have found a wealth of information about buying habits,” added Seifert, who leads a staff of 27 devoted to the Web site, including advertising, search engine marketing, an analyst to study the Coremetrics data, graphic designers, editors and writers. “It basically helps us arrange the site in a more logical fashion so that it’s easier for the customer to find what they’re looking for.” Seifert declined to disclose the size of Bass Pro’s e-newsletter subscriber list.

Campaign goals

The goal of the new system is not to increase the subscriber list.

“It’s going to make the e-mail customers more satisfied, but in itself, it isn’t going to cause people to sign up. They’re not even going to realize the benefit of this unless they’re already signed up,” Seifert said.

Instead, it’s a way to keep customers coming back. The site’s Outdoor Library, launched by Seifert and staff a year and a half ago, is another feature he said has customers returning. The library comprises more than 3,000 articles, product guides, videos and tips from professionals.

Visitors to the Outdoor Library, Seifert said, are more profitable customers. “They normally spend more time on the site and buy more as a result of the information that they were able to get on the site,” he said. “It’s forming more of an affinity with the customer by providing them with more things than just shopping.”

Seifert declined to share revenues generated by customers that clicked through to the Outdoor Library.

Replacing Bass Pro’s catalog with its Web site also is not a goal.

“Catalog and Internet sales are intertwined,” Seifert said. “We have a tremendous number of customers that receive the catalog and then go online and browse or go into our stores.”

He declined to share catalog circulation numbers or revenues.