How Blooms Today’s e-mail marketing flowers with sales, number of addresses

Floral retailer Blooms Today has earned a return-on-investment of 1,200% and expanded its list of customer e-mail addresses using e-mail marketing software implemented in April, the retailer says.

Blooms Today, which operates BloomsToday.com and is owned Flowers Sent Today Inc., is using an e-mail marketing application from Bronto Software Inc. to send e-mail promotions and monthly e-mail newsletters, says Blooms Today e-commerce manager Gabe Harris. The Bronto application includes a conversion-tracking system to measure revenue per delivered e-mail, which is determined by dividing monthly revenue by the number of successfully delivered e-mails. It also uses web analytics to monitor the clickstream activity of e-mail recipients. As a result, Blooms Today has been able to identify its most effective e-mail campaigns and modify others to make them more effective.

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“Thanks to Bronto`s technology and ongoing guidance, we have greatly increased our conversion rates," Harris says. "Bronto helps us convert our e-mail list contacts to customers, which equates to an improved bottom line." Blooms Today chose Bronto, which replaces an in-house e-mail marketing system, over several other vendors because it offered the best mix of price, functionality and personal assistance in developing more effective e-mail marketing, Harris says.

The Bronto application also issues error messages that alerts Blooms Today to e-mail delivery problems, allowing the retailer to determine whether an address needs to be reformatted or deleted. Bronto also works with ISPs to ensure that Blooms Today is included in e-mail whitelists of accepted e-mail senders.

Blooms Today also uses Bronto’s cost-per-order campaign management tool, which tracks the cost of acquiring new customers through multiple marketing channels, including e-mail, search engine marketing and business directory ads.

Blooms Today currently does most of its sales through phone orders generated by yellow pages print ads, but it’s growing 50% year-to-year on the web, Harris says. Its orders from both channels are fulfilled through the FTD and Teleflora networks, making Blooms Today both a competitor and partner of them, Harris adds.