Friday Corner: What Does Your Email Provider Say About You?

Original image found here

Groupon and local businesses buy into T-art’s status update t-shirt

It's been a couple of weeks since the GraphicMail marketing team started nurturing the success of T-art (a group of 7 University of Cape Town students who created an innovative status update t-shirt) so there's been lots to report on.

With our marketing tutorship, they've been making use of GraphicMail's mobile services to raise awareness about their product and create a buzz around their special promotions and competitions.

The go-getting people at T-art have been hard at work and pushing for sales as they are in the last month before possibly winning the “50 to Infinity” Genesis award.

"50 to infinity" was the day they actually launched the product on campus, which was a great stepping stone for raising awareness about the status update t-shirts.

Don't know about the status update t-shirt yet? T-art has recently launched a helpful video which shows consumers how it works, check it out.

The “50 to infinity” launch was also how they met the Groupon CEO and where they realized their product’s appeal to corporate environments; such as the Nedbank, which has bought the t-shirts for in-house use at their Waterfront branch.

This week they’ve received an amended tally of the number of t-shirt sales from Groupon. It turns out they sold 503 during their first offer and Groupon is keen for them to make the next deal soon!

T-art is looking keep striking the Rugby World Cup iron while it’s hot by organizing sales events where they will strictly be selling their Springbok supporters’ t-shirts. After the first match they've been getting positive feedback and have been collecting more orders after offloading the stock that they had available for their agents.

The T-art crew can be seen selling their product at the UCT campus every Wednesday, and at Bay Harbour in Houtbay on the weekends. They'll also be at the Rocking the Daisies music festival in early October to make a final sales push before putting an end to the "Genesis" year.

T-art's product has also caught the attention of two major retailers:

• They’ve met with fashion chain Jay Jays, whose marketing representatives absolutely loved it and said that it's perfect for their chic image. They are interesting in having it as part of their internal marketing campaign where their staff will wear them, as well as actually stocking the t-shirts for in-store customers.
  
• TEDx Mfuleni has purchased their t-shirts and the event (to be held on the 15th of September). It is an independent TED talk (such as TEDx Cape Town and Stellenbosch). They have incorporated their brand into the t-shirts so that these have a different logo than the standard shirt, along with their"an IDEA worth sharing" slogan. Nathan Roberts, one of the T-art group members, will be a speaker at this event.

Mobile Coupon Marketing with GraphicMail

People everywhere are on their mobile phones, some even sleep with it or take it to the bathroom so not to miss a call, message or deal. Are you one of them? Chances are that most of your clients are, so make use of that knowledge! With GraphicMail, you can send them a mobile coupon on the go.

Everyone is keen to save in today’s economy, which is why the coupon redemption rate has been increasing over the past year

People everywhere are spending more time on their mobile devices and are expecting to receive mobile coupons more regularly; since QR coupon deals are becoming very common and because they are much easier to receive and use than their paper-based ancestors.

Gone are the days of the stereotypical housewife figure, dutifully snipping up piles of newspaper promos just to save a few cents on her next bulk buy of knitting wool.

The times have changed: Mobile coupons are everywhere and for everyone.

What makes it special is that it encourages the consumer to go into a retail store to redeem it

Old-hat coupon practices are now moving to bulk mobile communications because sending mobile coupon messages to a cell phone is more efficient and costs less – which is why companies all over are busy dedicating a higher percentage of their marketing budgets to engage audiences through this channel.

How coupons fit into the Mobile market

• In a new study by ReturnPath “The future of mobile messaging” the most popular mobile promotions mentioned were special offers (27%) and vouchers (21%) as being the most preferred email types to receive on mobile.

• Mobile coupons are already the 5th most popular mobile marketing method today, and the $90 million 2009 U.S market is projected to grow to $6.5 billion by 2013.

• Compete, a consumer behaviour survey panel and digital intelligence agency for top brands, asked mobile users about their most recent purchase with a coupon and learned that 57% would not have bought the item if they did not have one.

Small businesses are often not equipped to handle the pressures of coupon-driven traffic. The send-volume and technology challenges can sometimes prevent businesses from tapping into customer potential and driving them to become coupon users, but GraphicMail has a solution…

Mobile coupons made easy

We have launched a mobile coupon program with a free mobile editor that lets your create a mobile page to set up your graphic rich promotions with the use of images, videos, advertising copy and the option to add direct feedback forms and quick polls.

This can be sent via a link in an sms and draw them to your business with the incentive to redeem their coupon.

It is cheaper and faster to build than a mobile application or an entire mobile site, and your engagement can be measured quickly. You can even see how interested people are before the coupons are redeemed – by looking at the open and click through rates per mobile number.

Our innovation lets anyone enter the mobile communications world with little effort and at low cost.

How would you describe GraphicMail?

A recent survey shows that most of our clients like our value-for-money email marketing service and the fact that we are reliable and professional. What do you like us for? Or dislike? Post your comment below.

The other main reasons provided as feedback by those clients who delivered assessments of our services were:

- "Great place for non-profits"

-" A company that is trying to provide a strong product"

- "Love the cost!"