Micro-Channels: Dell Outlet on Twitter

Have you ever had the challenge of having to clear out six pair of shoes, or a single couch, or a handful of sundresses?

Social media guru Shel Israel points us to Dell Outlet, who is using Twitter to clear out various items.

Think about the contrast in this style of marketing, and traditional direct marketing.

• Direct mailers identify an audience, send direct mail at a cost of $0.25 to $1.00 per piece, and generally do a good enough job to make money targeting a list of "x" likely buyers.

• E-Mail marketers identify an audience, send an e-mail campaign that is virtually free, then sit back and enjoy as 1 in 700 customers purchase something.
  

• Micro-channel marketing combines an advertising channel (Twitter) with an e-commerce sub-channel (Dell Outlet) and a community (subscribers to Dell Outlet via Twitter). Those who wish to participate actually participate, those who don't want to don't have to. You're marketing to avid fans on their terms.
  

Given the cost of this marketing platform (hint, it is nearly zero), it is almost embarrassing to consider how few catalog/multichannel brands are willing to test micro-channel strategies.

We're in the very early days of micro-channels. Clearance strategies are a logical place to start testing micro-channels.

Now go give the strategy a try!!!

Move That Merch!

If your business is struggling, you're thinking ahead to January, that glorious month of off-price bliss.

You can move excess merchandise when everybody else is moving it.

You can also use the Christmas shopping season as a proxy-clearance season.

Sit down with a finance representative, and somebody from your inventory management team, and run some numbers.

For instance, how much of a lift do you get on free shipping with a hurdle? How much additional lift do you get on free shipping with no hurdle? Expedited shipping? You name it, run the numbers, and see if it is more cost-effective to move merchandise with incentives now, or if it is better to recover pennies on the dollar in January.

This is another place where Multichannel Forensics come into play. You can run a three channel simulation, where your channels are "Christmas/Promo", "Post-Holiday-Sale", and all other time periods. If the long-term value of a Christmas shopper using a promo is greater than a post-holiday-sale customer, use promotions now to clear excess merchandise.

Using E-Mail For Sale And Clearance

When business misses expectations, catalogers have long enjoyed printing additional "clearance" catalogs ... 48 or 72 or 96 page offerings with significantly marked-down merchandise.



For instance, if business is missing expectations by 15%, a clearance catalog will quickly make up much of the business shortfall.



So here's a question for my loyal e-mail marketers. If you don't have access to print advertising, and your business is missing expectations by 15% (across all of your product lines), how would you use e-mail to make up the kind of volume that a 72 page catalog, with 420 items, typically moves?