Times Square vs. chocolate e-mail marketing

Times Square is a marketeer's ego wall. With more billboards than there is coffee at an AA meeting, Times Square is the Internet's ground zero for spray-and-pray marketing. Definition of spray and pray: (1) in near panic, spray fresh VC funding on big image advertising; (2) pray in several languages that the right people come to your site; (3) tell VCs your dog ate their money.

Because our VCs would never believe the dog story, we decided to spend our marketing dollars on other, less glamorous, measures. I'd like to tell the story of one particular campaign, because it yielded a 36% click-through, added tons of people to our permission database, and exposed a qualified group of people to our brand.

1000 pounds of chocolate
It all started with the bare essentials of an e-mail campaign: a targeted opt-in e-mail list, an intriguing subject line, a personalized message, and 1000 pounds of chocolate. Okay, let me explain the chocolate. We knew we had to come up with a compelling offer that would elicit response and enhance our brand, so we co-marketed with a well-known chocolatier to give away wrapped boxes of truffles.

We blasted the mass e-mail out with the subject line, "mmmm