Constant Contact success story · Gift boutique

How a Rochester gift boutique grew its list 22% with one or two Constant Contact emails a month.

Name: Overtop Media Digital Marketing
Address: 933 Louise Ave Suite 101-18, Charlotte, NC, 28204, US
Telephone: (704) 237-0707
Price range: $$

Parkleigh started as a neighborhood pharmacy in 1960 and is now an upscale boutique with two locations and more than 400 brands. Email took over from costly direct mail. Its contact list grew 22% and its open rate rose 12% year over year.

Business: Parkleigh
Market: Rochester, New York
Goal: Bring more shoppers into the store

Boutique shelves filled with house plants, candles and decorative gifts

The results.

Year-over-year growth and a comparison with the industry average open rate, as stated by Constant Contact.

+22%contact list growth year over year
+12%open rate year over year
+16%open rate vs. industry average

Published in June 2023. Figures as reported in the story; Constant Contact does not publish how they were measured.

The challenge.

Parkleigh became a full gift store by the mid-1980s and opened a second location in 2015. Its main store carries more than 400 brands, many from local makers around Rochester, and its marketing had always run mainly on word of mouth.

Television and radio commercials never really took hold, and direct mail was becoming expensive and time-consuming. The shop needed to reach many more people without losing the personal feel its customers love.

Promise a calm inboxOne or two messages a month, stated at signup.
Segment by interestLists by brand and purchase history.
Review monthlyReports and industry benchmarks tune frequency.
Bring them inCustomers arrive asking about the product in the email.

What they did.

Monthly email · Segmentation by brand · Industry benchmarks · Social media and a yearly postcard

A clear promise at signup: Customers are told they will get one or two messages a month, which makes joining the list an easy yes.
Segments by what people buy: Lists split shoppers by interest and purchase history, such as a loyalty program for one homeware line, using list tools, so each group gets offers that fit.
Monthly reporting: Email reports showed that sending too often raised unsubscribes and sending too little left customers uninformed, so the store tuned its frequency, and it compares its numbers with other retailers.
Reusable templates: Each new email starts from the last one, so the store name, address and hours stay consistent and the time goes into the content.

Why it worked.

Our read on the decisions behind the numbers, and what any business can take from them.

Respecting the inbox grows the list: A clear, modest sending promise made people comfortable signing up and staying on.
Relevance beats volume: Shoppers who love one brand hear about that brand, which keeps opens up and unsubscribes down.
Benchmarks show where to improve: Comparing results with similar retailers turned reports into decisions about what to change.
Email brings people through the door: Staff could see the return when customers walked in saying they had just read the email about a new product.

How we would run this play for your business.

You do not need a national budget to use the same ideas. This is how Overtop Media Digital Marketing puts them to work in our Constant Contact email marketing.

Set the right frequency: We test cadence against unsubscribes and sales and settle on the rhythm your customers welcome.
Segment by brand and category: Tags from purchases and signup interests, so each shopper hears about what they actually buy.
Collect emails at the counter: In-store signup, QR codes and receipts that turn walk-in customers into subscribers.
Pair email with local ads: Store events and new arrivals promoted with Meta ads and Google Ads near your shop, retargeting your own list.