How a last-minute e-mail blast brought 800 people to a new store

When Berean Christian Stores needed to quickly get the word out about a suddenly planned appearance of a music artist to help promote its newest store, in Naperville, IL, it e-mailed a promotion that brought 800 people to the store within two hours, vice of president of marketing Bill Schinkal tells InternetRetailer.com.

“E-mail certainly helped get the word out,” Schinkal says. By checking the ZIP codes of visitors who arrived for the event, he also realized that recipients of the e-mail promotion must have forwarded the promotion to friends in other towns, he says.

Berean, which operates 18 stores in eight states in addition to Berean.com and a catalog, has experienced strong sales on the web and in its stores over the past year, Schinkal says. Average monthly sales on the web site have tripled since last summer, when the site was redesigned to make it easier for shoppers to research and find products, he says. Berean sells products including books, music, gifts, church supplies, videos, computer software and apparel.

Store sales, though not growing as fast as on the web, have also been increasing-which Schinkal attributes to an improved economy as well as to an increase in customers who first shop Berean.com and respond to e-mail promotions.

Berean uses a hosted e-mail management system from ExactTarget to customize e-mail promotions to particular consumer groups, whether they’re targeted by shopping behavior or demographics like age or geographic location, Schinkal says.

Berean offers a loyalty program that gathers personal information from customers on their areas of interest, then routinely e-mails promotions about products and in-store events.