Case Study: La Belle Femme
Summary:
imail's integrated design, print and delivery solution allows the UK's leading occasion boutique to produce and post promotional flyers easily, efficiently and economically.
Introduction:
La Belle Femme is one of the UK's leading occasion boutiques specialising in mother of the bride wear, prom wear, occasion couture and celebrity dressing for star-studded events such as the Oscars, BAFTAs and MTV Music Awards. While its two stores are located in Tunbridge Wells and Chislehurst, this high-end fashion retailer has built up a strong reputation nationwide thanks to its winning combination of first-class service and up-to-the-minute style.
La Belle Femme's exclusive collections draw its clientele from all areas of the UK and beyond to find that unique outfit for an all-important event. Its direct mail campaigns therefore target some 4,000 clients spread around the country. Its mailings are primarily promotional, but also announce La Belle Femme's fashion exhibitions which take place at regular intervals throughout the year.
Until recently, La Belle Femme undertook all of its mailings in-house, with promotional literature produced by a local printer. The process was expensive and inefficient, with store staff having to manually mail merge, envelope, frank and post the flyers. The outsourcing of print and production was proving to be particularly costly.
La Belle Femme needed a better way to produce and post promotional flyers easily, efficiently and economically – and imail provided the ideal solution.
The solution:
This innovative desktop-to-doormat mail solution is accessed via the internet using a simple step-by-step browser. Although not particularly IT-savvy from the outset, La Belle Femme received strong support from imail's technical team and found the solution extremely simple to get to grips with. La Belle Femme now carries out large-volume mailings to its geographically-dispersed customer base via a few simple clicks of the mouse.
La Belle Femme uses imail's Mailshots service to promote its fashion exhibitions with a particular emphasis on targeting existing clients. Mailshots allows the boutique to create, customise and send full-colour, double-sided A5 flyers directly from a computer to its target audience, in seconds. All mailshots are printed on quality, high-gloss paper for a sophisticated look, with La Belle Femme's own artwork simply uploaded via the web browser.
Benefits:
Since using imail, La Belle Femme has reported a 50% reduction in mailing costs as well as time savings of up to 90%.
imail's Mailshots application means the boutique is no longer at the mercy of expensive design agencies or high street printers. With no minimum run restrictions, highly targeted mailings have become financially viable. This is particularly helpful when new, sector-specific collections are launched, allowing it to focus on small, highly-relevant and disproportionately profitable customer groups.
With mailshot production managed in-house, La Belle Femme is now enjoying freedom and flexibility with its creative. Artwork and copy can be updated easily and this has led to a heightened number of ad hoc, impulse direct mail campaigns, promoting current offers, sales and new stock. The boutique has seen a resulting improvement in response rates and a 30-40% increase in in-store footfall.
And facing the future, imail is helping La Belle Femme to boost brand awareness, offering a cost-effective and persuasive means of influencing purchasing habits.
About imail:
imail was launched in 2008 by UK Mail as the only alternative to the first class postal service. It enables users to send letters and postcards with just a click of the mouse from as late as 3pm for next-day delivery, or 6pm for two-day delivery. The mail documents are sent electronically to the UK Mail sorting centre closest to the destination, where they are printed, enveloped and sorted for onward delivery.
imail is ideal for all sizes of business, from SMEs to large corporations, offering a dynamic desktop-to-delivery service at a keystroke that provides a host of cost, time and environmental benefits.
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