We are often asked about successes with email marketing from other businesses so we decided to start publishing more email marketing case studies from various industries. This is a great one about how a the LockPickShop used email marketing to increase their social media following and ultimately sell their products.

Background

LockPickShop.com supplies a number of businesses & organizations with lock picking and auto entry tools. And no, not to thieves, their customer base includes locksmiths, students of the trade, US Military and first responders. Another major part of their customer base is made up of law enforcement personnel such as Police departments, Homeland Security, the FBI, and the DEA.

LockPickShop is also a large supplier of props for TV shows such as Law and Order, CSI, and Bones. Glynn Gallagher owns the company and operates it by herself, through the help of a fulfillment center for shipping and invoices.

“When you see a television show or a movie where someone is breaking into a car or a home, it’s likely the tools came from the LockPickShop,” said Glynn Gallagher, Owner, LockPickShop.

Problem

When LockPickShop started 10 years ago, Gallagher did not have much knowledge of formal marketing techniques. Prior to using email marketing, LockPickShop was primarily advertising on specialty forums for locksmiths and using Google AdWords.

The LockPickShop is a very niche business, and needed to expand their customer base and ensure more customers were connecting with them through social media. Gallagher decided to try email marketing two years ago in order to meet those goals.

Discovery

Although Gallagher was new to email marketing, she was convinced it would be a good tactic for her small business. Initially, she decided to test out several different email marketing companies, and see which one she liked best.

“I went through the trial program for three email marketing companies, and chose to stay with VerticalResponse because it was easy and didn’t make my head hurt!” said Gallagher.

Solution

In October 2009, she decided to embrace social media and start a Facebook group for her business. To jump-start the Facebook page for LockPickShop, Gallagher launched an email marketing campaign asking her customers to become ‘Fans’ or ‘Like’ the LockPickShop Facebook page. There were no Facebook Fans at the time the email went out, and within five days she had over 300 Facebook Fans. A whopping 250 of these joined in the first 48 hours.

After the success of this first email, Gallagher decided to send out a second email to customers who had not yet joined her Facebook page, asking them to do so. She was advised to keep emails simple with one key message for her customers. So Glynn sent an email asking them to join the Facebook page. Within one day LockPickShop gained another 125 Facebook Fans, and now is at over 800.

“The email I sent out was my most successful email ever,” said Gallagher. “I’m shocked by the quick results and this really proves to me that email marketing and social media really do work well together.”

Results

For the first email she sent, Gallagher achieved a 17% open rate, and 9.06% click through rate. Gallagher also included a discount code in the email, which was used by 34 customers to make a purchase.

“Sales attributed to the email marketing campaign were an unexpected surprise because our business sells locksmith tools. You’d expect that sending out a Halloween email about locksmith tools would not generate any revenue, but this didn’t happen,” said Glynn Gallagher, Owner, LockPickShop. “As a result of the coupon we offered, we finished with $3000 in revenue from one email campaign.

Gallagher attributes more than 10% of LockPickShop’s revenue to email marketing. When she sends an email campaign, Gallagher sees the number of website visitors quadruple for a 24-hour period.

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