AlwaysInStyle.com Integrates Print Catalogs and Email Marketing To Drive Traffic

THE COMPANY:
A joint venture between Hanover Direct, Inc. and AIS Marketing Services, AlwaysInStyle.com launched January 2000. The site is a "style, fashion and shopping advisory service." Visitors are a mix of women, teens and some men seeking personal advice. Doris Pooser is CEO.

THE OFFER:
AlwaysInStyle.com regularly uses its opt-in email list, compiled from site registrations, to keep visitors up-to-date on product offers that match a "Personal Profile." Detailed profiles include a person's characteristics, preferences, and needs, allowing the site to target product recommendations accordingly. Over 70% of registrants trust its online marketing practices, asking the site to save information from visit to visit. With over 200 brand-name products in its Partner Network, AlwaysInStyle further encourages visitors to maintain online profiles through free gifts and coupons.

OFFLINE COLLATERAL:
Noting that catalog recipients are "great prospects for Web sites because they already buy things," AlwaysInStyle has placed ads in Hanover Direct catalogs. According to Pooser, they reached 8 million people using a two-page ad promoting the site in "Domestications" (home decorating catalog.) The campaign drove "a lot of traffic to the site the week it hit -- more than double the normal traffic. We're still getting quite a bit of traffic (from that campaign)," she says, noting plans to continue similar offline promotions.

DIRECT E-MAIL:
Beyond print ads, AlwaysInStyle's relationship with Hanover affords it "quite a bit of email addresses and customer profiles." E-mail campaigns through some of the site's affiliates combined with other Hanover catalogs, such as Silhouettes, have been the most successful in continuing to drive site registrations.

AlwaysInStyle delivered personalized hyperlinked email to Hanover’s Silhouettes catalog customers and received "a 67% percent clickthrough" for apparel offers. On cosmetics offers, they received "over a 20% clickthrough," still far exceeding any banner ad placement. Pooser observes that the best email campaign response rates come from select buyers who have "opted in and already developed some relationship" with the company.