MaBelle says no to direct mails

RADICA   DIRECT MARKETING   EMAIL MARKETING

Hong Kong - Jewellery retailer MaBelle said it has cut 90% cost by eliminating its direct mail activity in favour for email marketing and will use EDMs to expand to Mainland China.

Theordore Ma (pictured left), Dorical spokesperson and representative of MaBelle.com and MBLife.com, said before MaBelle.com and MBLife.com switched to email marketing, they used to invest around HK$2 million in printing and mailing cost on those posted promotional materials per year.

When MaBelle started using Radica's email marketing services, they have saved up to 90% of cost on average in one year.

The decision to switch to email marketing also stems from the company's concern for the environment.

This year, Mabelle.com and MBLife.com have sent out close to three million eDMs and assuming one eDM is equivalent to two pieces of paper, the company would have minimized the use of at least six million pieces of paper.

Ma explained one of the the key reasons for choosing email marketing started in early 2006, when they found they couldn't measure any results by direct mails nor collect data on customers' preferences.

"Most often, DM marketing generates only one-off experience because of its high production cost, which makes us difficult to maintain a continuous and constant communication with our customers," he said.

As MaBelle has positioned its brand to focus on a DIY approach to diamonds, the company decided to personalise its eDMs by sending monthly e-newsletters, festive greetings and special promotions.

Using behavioural tracking and segmentation, MBLife.com increased its open rate by 60% and click through rate rose 10% following a subject line change for unopened emails.

According to MaBelle, email marketing help generate between 30% to 40% repurchase rate currently.

With plans to expand in China, Dorical will continue to invest heavily in email marketing for its MaBelle.com and MBLife.com portals to boost its page views and sales in branches across Hong Kong and China. 

Ma said based on experience, email marketing can generate a higher conversion rate compared with other promotional channels.

"We believe that we should have a more targeted and personalized marketing strategy especially in China and email marketing would be our first choice for its relatively high cost effectiveness," he added.

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