Retail Internet Innovation Finalist Marketing Achievement Finalist: The Cordial Cricket
Jane Kitchen -- Gifts and Dec, 8/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
Elizabeth Howard started The Cordial Cricket in Chester, VA, in 2005 as a home-based stationery business producing custom invitations. Two years later, she opened her first retail store selling stationery and gifts along with custom invitations in a 700-sq.-ft. space. And this year — just four short years after she began — Howard moved into a new 1,954-sq.-ft. store and launched a new Web site that's bringing in clients from across the country.
Howard had maintained a Web site since 2005, but it was a basic outfit that sold only ready-to-ship gifts — not custom invitations or stationery, the bread and butter part of her business. So along with renaming her store, designing a new logo, and moving to the larger retail location, she took the plunge to expand the Web presence of The Cordial Cricket as well.
"It was a big jump for us," said Howard.
While she has always emailed an electronic newsletter, as part of the expansion of the Web presence, Howard started a blog for the store to stay in more continual communication with her customers. The blog features information on new products, events at the store and product associations, such as when a new bag line carried at The Cordial Cricket was featured on the ABC reality tv program, "The Bachelorette."
"We try to make it lighter and friendlier and more fun (than the e-newsletter)," said Howard. "It appeals to younger readers."
E-Marketing and Social Nets
Howard also expanded her Internet marketing strategy with her new Web site, advertising with The Knot, Wedding Channel and Party Spot, as well as the local Richmond Wedding Guide. While she still feels wedding invitations need to be ordered in-person, advertising on The Knot keeps her store visible to local area brides-to-be.
The Cordial Cricket also has its own Facebook page, where Howard posts information about and invitations to monthly events such as her successful Teacher Appreciation Day. She said he is growing her social networking fan base daily through Facebook, and bringing in new customers that way.
Howard also coordinates sales in her brick-and-mortar store with the online store, offering coupon codes in the advertising that customers can redeem online.
"I try to keep everything linked," she said.
This cross-promotional marketing strategy seems to be working to improve business across the board for The Cordial Cricket. Howard said her store now ships orders all over the country almost on a daily basis. The online store receives an average of 1,000 visits each month, she notes, 83 percent of which are new, unique visitors, and the blog is receiving an increasing amount of traffic and comments every day. Howard has also increased the number of customers on her active customer list 360 percent from 2007 to 2008, and monthly sales in the brick-and-mortar store average 250 percent more than the previous location.
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