Results speak for themselves, in this case our last two emails with 43% and 46.3% Open Rates for New England Hydroponics. Category Open Rate Average is 17%. On September 1, the new owner takes marketing in house.
I’ll miss working on the business, specifically the people, several of whom have become lifetime friends. It’s been good fun, and I wish them all the best. And I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for the brand we built over the 5 years we worked with its owner, and the many stakeholders. But it’s onto what’s next (see text below graphic).
Permission eMail Open Rate Over 40% on-2 Variations by Tom Lanen Thomas Marketing Services ThomasBoston.com
Are you ready for results like these? Call me, Tom Lanen, at (508) 951-0130 and let’s talk action points on my nickel. Let’s see what kind of end game we can devise; it’s closer than you think! T-
As our 5-year contract draws to a close, we continue to over-achieve on our permission email open rates for for NEW ENGLAND HYDROPONICS. Our ‘First Look’ August Deals send hit a final 45.4% (8.17.22 update). The category average is 17% (Springbot ESP).
Our strategy: create imaging and copy with an appropriate balance of the emotive and transactional. To communicate only the transactional “Sale” is not a strategy: it’s a “seen-that, been-there” boring tactic with little to no cumulative benefit to the brand or its equity.
Key to the emotion – my very own sunflowers in my garden! Who doesn’t love sunflowers!
But the ‘secret’ is in the subject and preview lines – what we used to call ‘headlines’ in display advertising. Call me if you like to know them.
Call me, Tom Lanen, at 508 951-0130 if you’d like more than the ordinary from your email and brand marketing/sales support programs. On my nickel, of course.
I’ve had a productive, albeit challenging and single-minded week creating and fielding a new multi-faceted & branded Everyday Deals promotion initiative for client New England Hydroponics (a Hydrobuilder Holdings unit). Everything in the visual, along with website product posting, was created in 6 business days – moving at the speed of retail!
Nothing like the adrenaline of creating a new branded promotion! (Click the image to expand your view of the elements.)
Up first was the creation of the branded promotional logo, a “Violator” BOOM burst featuring the primary green in the brand design palette as the primary brand “touch point.”
The strategy was to use it as a point-of-sale tactic, on labels & Buyer’s Guides for individual products, maintaining the singular DEAL singular focus for a singular customer shopping that moment; and tucking in the stylistic lower case ‘everyday’ into the larger font construction to hold/work together as a unified brand design element.
Then, finding letterform on the plural DEALS didn’t work with the same compact footprint of the original violator BOOM, and wanting to expand the concept to attach an emotion to a transactional concept, I went back a standing strategic brand design tactic, the sunburst and its positive feeling, to create some branded drama and expand the focus to the overall portfolio of products in the category.
I executed Point-Of Sale signage in two sizes, Social Media and website imagery, both the primary & category pages, to this branded design strategy. Our plan is to more fully roll out the promotion across the media/web and in-store touch points.
December 2021: Please click here for an update on current offerings from Thomas Marketing Services.
Thomas Marketing Services Corporation is a process-driven and agile problem-solving, branding, marketing, and business acceleration resource. Strategic & tactical, I’m helping business owners prosper in the tumultuous business and world climate.
Here’s the thing. In good times and crazy, it’s all about the brand, and the story behind it. At its core brand is a story; it’s about what makes it different, why it matters, and why we should care. How it provides certainty amidst uncertainty.
The difference is you.™ Because far more than a logo, a brand reflects the vision and values of its principals and stakeholders. Those with good instincts evolve theirs in a strategic manner, adjusting aligned tactics to meet the day at hand. And in doing so, they create sustained momentum and valuable equity.
I’m Tom Lanen, and my track record as a brand marketer, writer and integrated advertising & design agency principal is wide-ranging with mainstream brands such Velcro™ fasteners (global – 17 years), Ovation Benefits Group (15 years), Boston Whaler™, Keurig™, and several Thermo (Electron) Fisher Scientific™ business groups. I’ve also worked with many technology, services, retail, and consumer product start-ups and mid-market brands.
The brand difference: its people, The Indoor Gardening Experts™. It starts at the top.
Currently, my lead client is New England Hydroponics, for whom I work in a marketing and creative role for its 4-MA retail stores; and also online.
Right now, I’m looking to help one or two business owners who could use a hand, especially in these extraordinary days. We should talk.
I work with principals and stakeholders on revenue-building branding and re-stage strategies, which may employ tactics such database-driven permission email, social media, and online advertising; broadcast, video/streaming, and print marketing; and point-of-sale merchandising and packaging design systems. I can also help manage full-blown business and /or line expansion initiatives.
A branded visual design and marketing ‘eco-system’ that expands upon the identity established by the (new) logo; with all tactics aligned with the core strategic brand communications platform (a new way of seeing™) to create a consistent and engaging brand presence. This rebranding program was created for a management buyout team with a 5-year end-game; it was sold at private sale to a major consulting business after just 2 years.
As a business owner and brand guy with 30 years to the better, I can help navigate these tricky markets of 2020, and provide you with perspective and options. While nobody has ever seen this, sound brand marketing and design principals, and genuine story-telling still get it done.
It will be surely be the foundation of a return to normalcy and prosperity. It always has. What’s more, it can be an opportune time to pick up market share while others retreat.
In short, I’m flexible and capable, and wide open to your vision and ways of doing business. I also fully believe in budgets and transparency; and a measurable return on your investment.
Marketing is about communication and trust, a strategic balance of transactional and emotional. Do it mindfully, and you engage people in meaningful ways, and create loyalty. You prosper.
Are you ready for what’s next? Please contact me in confidence and without obligation, and let’s chat a few minutes on my nickel. (508) 951-0130
