Yesterday I received an email from Waterstones, a major UK bookstore chain. They were offering 10% off all books when bought from waterstones.com....nice. But what's even more exciting was the discount code that you needed to use in order to receive the discount. Hmmm - Did this actually mean that this was a special offer only available to email subscribers!...or was it available to everyone who happened to go to www.waterstones.com? Me, being the sad, email marketing geek that I am, started to get excited and dashed on over to waterstones.com to look for this offer. High and Low I looked - but I was unable to find it on their website... So, kudos to Waterstones. They have realised that they need to offer subscribers incentives for not only subscribing to, but for staying subscribed to their newsletter - so, they offer emails which have value. You can't get this same offer anywhere else - not on a pamphlet, not on the website, not in the store - only by email. So many brands are using email to deliver online and offline offers and specials - which is well and good and email certainly an ideal medium for doing so, however, many are forgetting to reward their subscribers by offering deals and specials which can only be gained by being a subscriber. Waterstones have also carried this onto their Waterstones Card Program. They say when stating the benefits of joining their membership program: "Please note... many of the above benefits are available via email only, so make sure we have your correct email address!" Wow - impressive! They have obviously discovered that email is an excellent way to communicate with their clients as well as realising the value of an email address. PS: It worked for me.... Originally Posted: Be Relevant
Labels: incentives, subscriber rewards
