Boston Globe Magazine
Thursday, December 4, 2008
getsugar was named one of the best of the local web in the November 30, 2008 Boston Globe Magazine. Even better, we were listed as the only shopping site! The writer, Michael Prager did a terrific job pulling all the info and summaries together, a big task and it makes for a fun read and you'll definitely discover some new sites.
A New Program. A Big Success.
Friday, October 17, 2008
getsugar recently teamed up with Kiss 108 to offer local businesses a powerful new way to promote themselves and drive immediate sales and traffic. The idea is to give exposure to Kiss 108's audience (which is the number 1 radio audience for women) and getsugar's audience, in a targeted and cost effective way. LuxLash tried the program starting in September and were very pleased with the results. We want to thank Suzanne, Wendy and Shawnie at LuxLash for giving it a try, creating a fantastic offer and working hard to make it a success.
Here's how the program works. getsugar helped LuxLash create a strong offer. In this case, they did half off their lash extension service. So women could buy the fabulous LuxLash lash extension service for $147.50 through getsugar or half off the walk-in price of $295 (see offer). This offer was then the sponsor of the entertainment report on the Matty in the Morning show which is the number one show in it's slot and with women. Billy Costa did terrific live reads about the offer each day for a week. In addition, there was a heavy rotation of Sweet Spot banners and streaming commercials on Kiss108.com. getsugar promoted the offer through a Dedicated email, 2 Tuesday emails, Monday emails and homepage placement. All of this drove traffic to the offer landing page where women could learn more about LuxLash and purchase.
So, how did we do? We sold 24 services for more than $3,500. Even better, LuxLash brought in new clients who they then had the chance to convert to regulars. So, they received terrific exposure to women through Kiss 108 and getsugar, drove immediate sales, and can now upsell. In addition, LuxLash paid for the program using their own gift certificates. So not only does this save them cash, it also means that when getsugar sells these gift certificates to our subscribers, even more women will be coming into LuxLash to redeem, which is more traffic, more new customers and more additional sales above the face value of the gift certificates being redeemed.
72 Pairs
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Wow! We just had a blow out offer on behalf of French Dressing in Beacon Hill. They put together a strong offer and we sold 72 pairs of a popular thong in under 48 hours.
We promoted the offer in our Tuesday email and had it on our homepage as well. The offer was also included in Misstropolis' Wednesday email. Misstropolis is one of our marketing partners and I'll be talking about them more here because we are doing some really interesting things with them.
French Dressing was recently bought buy the new owner, Melissa, and she is working with getsugar to do an offer each month. We are looking forward to see what her offer in September will be!
UPDATE - Our Fastest Turnaround Yet
Friday, July 25, 2008
Today's offer is really fun. Last night at 8:20, Jill, the President of MiniLuxe emailed to see if there were any options for doing something at the end of the month. Jill, Julie (Manager of their Newbury Street location) and I emailed back and forth a couple ideas and by this morning, we had the details set. We got the offer up and a Dedicated Email designed and ready to send and in less than 24 hours we went from desire to drive more business to booking sales. That is fun. MiniLuxe has been a terrific client and not only has good ideas, but is open to trying new things to grow their business. The offer is a terrific one and I am looking forward to seeing how it does!
UPDATE (Friday 7/25) - We sent the email out at 5:40pm and by 11:40am had sold all of the 46 appointments! Not many people buying in the middle of the night, so all the purchases were either within the first couple hours or first thing this morning.
Note From Ben: What Would Be Your Ideal Offer?
Monday, July 14, 2008
We have learned a ton from the people and companies who have helped us, the businesses we work with, the people who have bought offers and especially from everyone who has signed up. For those of you who have been with us since 2004, you have seen how we have learned as we have changed the look and feel and offerings of getsugar along the way. So, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for all the great feedback, ideas and suggestions AND to ask for more! We need to keep improving and we would love your help as we do it.
One area we want to improve is our offers and so I am asking you to share with us your ideal getsugar offer. What would be an offer you would definitely buy and tell all your friends about? Please be specific because while we can't promise we can make all the offer suggestions happen, we will looking to your ideas for new offers to bring out soon.
You can respond by adding a comment to the post below. That way others can see your suggestion and it can help them build upon your idea. If you are not comfortable with commenting, you can also send an email to feedback at getsugar dot com. Thank you in advance and I look forward to reading and responding to your offer ideas. Don't be shy. Let us know. Who knows? You might see it in your inbox soon, so fire away!
Local Online Advertising To Increase 50% In 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
In a recently published report, local media research firm Borrell Associates projects a 50% increase in local online ad spending in 2008. Their research shows that small and medium sized firms are reducing their off-line spends and focusing more or all of their dollars on local online (link to Mediapost article).
It makes sense to us here at getsugar. Over the past few months we have seen a marked increase in the number of inquiries and interest in getsugar from past and new advertisers. Anecdotally, we are also hearing more advertisers telling us they are reducing their print buys and looking to do more things online.
New Client: Barbershop Lounge
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
We started working today with a new client, Barbershop Lounge (245 Newbury Street www.barbershoplounge.com). They have a cool concept which is a place where men can go to get services they would normally have to go to a salon or spa to receive. So, men can not only get their haircut, they can get a hot shave, a massage, pedicure, manicure, facial, show shine and other services. The space is very male friendly and meant to put a guy at ease. Plus it has a plasma TV, pool table and coffee bar.
Bruce Miller, one of the owners of Barbershop Lounge, contacted us because his trainer Justin Budovsky (thanks Justin!) has run several personal training offers through getsugar. Bruce thought that reaching women might be a good way to reach men. It's counter-intuitive and none of us were sure how it would work, but we all thought it worth a try. Bruce and Judy Fogarty, the General Manager, put together a great first offer - a 60 minute mens facial which normally costs $85 and sold it to getsugar women for $42.50. We launched the offer today and have had really nice sales (see offer and buy). Next up is a Father's Day special offer scheduled for Thursday June 5
Email Marketing More Effective Than Search and Display
Thursday, January 24, 2008
A new study was published by Datran Media that echoes previous marketing studies. Eight out of ten marketers rated email marketing ahead of search and display. 82% of marketers said they planned to increase their email marketing budget. And the ROI on email marketing was $45.65 for every doallr spent, which was twice that of search and display.
getsugar's email marketing choices are the best way to reach women in and around Boston and outperform every other list by a wide margin. To learn more, please contact Ben Tregoe at ben at getsugar dot com or 617 833 8515.
Editors' Collection - Holiday Bliss List
Thursday, December 20, 2007
On December 6 we launched the first getsugar Editors' Collection Holiday Bliss List. We gathered holiday themed offers from Wish, twilight, Moxie, Velvet Ribbon, dresscode and Healthworks Fitness.
Each offer is placed in the catalog and then is part of the Dedicated Email announcing a new Editors' Collection. Over the month, each offer is placed in as many Monday and Tuesday emails as we can as well as receiving prominent placement on the getsugar homepage. In addition, the business gets to keep and use their photos for their own marketing.
The idea behind the Editors' Collections is for businesses to get their item beautifully shot and styled and then promoted heavily by getsugar as part of a package that costs much less than if they did a similar amount of photography and promotion by themselves.
To learn more about the photographer, Tim Gray, please visit his website www.furnaldgray.com.
Skin Cancer Fundraiser - Cause Marketing
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
In the early spring of this year, we took an idea for a marketing and fundraising project to Cheryl Clarkson, President & CEO of SkinHealth Centers. The idea was that SkinHealth would run a series of offers through getsugar and getsugar and SkinHealth would then donate a significant amount of the sales to a charity. We would market this through getsugar, SkinHealth, 3rd party advertising and PR. We thought this would be a terrific way to raise money and awareness for a great cause, help build the business of SkinHealth, and help build the awareness of getsugar.
Cheryl loved the idea and we got to work. Cheryl had lost her sister to skin cancer and since then has been very focused on raising money for skin cancer research. For example, SkinHealth has donated a percentage of sales from all their skin care products to skin cancer research. We thought it was important to find a local skin cancer charity to work with and Cheryl agreed so she reached out to Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and they were delighted to be the charitable recipient.
We launched the first promotion on May 30, 2007 with SkinHealth sending an email to their email list. The first offer was a choice of three services, all significantly discounted. On the day of the SkinHealth email, we did $290 in total sales, raising $125. The next day, getsugar sent out its first Dedicated Email about the special promotion. We generated $1,958 in sales that day raising $925 in donations.
Over the next month, getsugar spent $2,750 on dedicated emails to the Stuff@Night email list, Shecky's Boston email list, Boston Magazine email list, The Phoenix email list and the Boston Event Guide email list. As would be expected, we saw significant spikes in the number of visitors to the landing page as well as in sales. Using the same creative, we could then see how each list did relative to each other and the results are below:
getsugar Dedicated on 5/31/2007
(4443 sent, 2619 opens (59%), 431 click-thrus)
Stuff@Night Dedicated on 6/5/2007
(2822 sent, 690 opens (24%), 86 click-thrus)
Shecky's Boston Dedicated on 6/6/2007
(results not available)
Boston Magazine 411 Dedicated on 6/11/2007
(21808 sent, 3318 opens (15%), 354 click-thrus)
The Phoenix Dedicated on 6/12/2007
(8092 sent, 1013 opens (13%), 89 click-thrus)
Boston Event Guide Partial Dedicated on 6/26/07
(2260 sent, 596 opens (26%), 123 click-thrus)
Summary of Results
The fundraiser has been seen by over 12,000 unique people.
To date, getsugar has sold $11,398 of SkinHealth services to 117 people and together we have raised $4,400 for Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.
getsugar has devoted over $2,000 in web development, $2,000 in advertising inventory, $2,750 in paid advertising through third party dedicated emails and $285 in credit card processing fees for a total contribution of over $7030. We have also enjoyed working with SkinHealth and the people at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center including Dr. Arthur Sober and Dr. Tsao.
If you are interested in learning more about this fundraising project or are interested in seeing how getsugar can help your business or charity in a similar way, please contact Ben Tregoe at btregoe at getsugar dot com.
Myre Studio Parties
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Myre has come up with a really fun idea to introduce more women to their couture line. Women can host a Studio Party at the Myre Studio. Myre will have complimentary wine and treats. The guests meet Jess Meyer and her team, hear about the inspiration for her desgins and then see how her couture pieces are made. Even better, women can pick out a design silhouette - like a jacket, dress, top, pant or skirt - then choose a vintage fabric from their large fabric library, and be measured to ensure a great fit. Myre then produces the unique piece. And, all purchases are at 20% below retail prices. The Host also receives a complimentary piece with a value up to $250. Myre also makes it clear that the Host and guests are under absolutely no obligation to purchase anything. So, the Host invites her friends and Myre throws the party. Studio Parties can be booked for anywhere from 5 to 20 guests. Individual appointments are also welcome. To book a Studio Party, contact Alexandra at 617 464 4404 or alexandra@myredesigns.com.
It sounds like a fun way to get friends together to do something new, learn a little more about fashion design and manufacture and potentially create some unique and beautiful clothes just for the buyer. getsugar promoted the concept through a Dedicated Email.
UPDATE: November 17, 2007
Myre let us know that their Dedicated was a success. They had 4 people call to book the Studio Parties and Stuff@Night contacted them to do a story.
A new client | Premier Dental Care
Monday, November 5, 2007
Dr. Jinous Hassanein, owner of Premier Dental Care, contacted us because her friend, Michael Albor, owner of The Loft Salon and Day Spa, recommended getsugar (thank you Michael!). We talked about her practice and her goal of bringing in new clients. We also talked about her marketing to date and what has worked for her and her colleagues. We have never worked with a medical practice before, but I thought there could be a good match given the getsugar audience and what Dr. Hassanein has done with her practice.
One part of her marketing that impressed me was her attention to the design of the office. She spent considerable time and money building out a very inviting space which looks like a great place to visit and work.
She had run a complimentary teeth whitening offer before (free teeth whitening take home kit with a full fee exam, cleaning and full mouth x-rays - a $300 value) using direct mail, so we tried the same offer, but using getsugar email banners. I like how the banner came out (link to email) and think they looked strong and eye catching at the top of the Monday emails where we placed them. I am looking forward to seeing the results. And if anyone is looking for a new dentist, call Premier Dental Care in Watertown at 617 923 8100!
A new getsugar.com!
Monday, October 29, 2007
We have been hard at work over the summer and into this fall, preparing the new getsugar.com for launch and we are very excited to be unveiling it. Our goal is be a catalog of local luxuries. What we mean by that is helping women find and buy services, experiences and merchandise from the Boston area's best spas, salons, stores, restaurants and other businesses. Much of the time, these things will be buyable online through getsugar and so we have set the site up like a catalog where you can browse or search for specific offers.
The feedback we have had from businesses has been very positive. But it takes awhile for us to get the word out. So, our catalog of offers will be growing. In other words, we are asking for a little time to make the catalog all we believe it can be!
When you sign up for getsugar emails, you will be the first to know about the latest offers in the catalog. We will send no more than 1 email per day (other than purchase confirmations etc.). And we promise that each email will be carefully edited for content and relevance. Some of these emails will have advertisements, but these also will be relevant and we hope useful. Additionally, many businesses pay for their ads using their gift certificates, which we can then turn around and sell to you at a discount.
Please let us know what you think. For each offer, we have added shopper feedback and a cherry rating system. You can also add comments here on the blog. And you can email us (feedback@getsugar.com) or call us 866 438 7842.
If you would like to work with getsugar, please contact me at btregoe@getsugar.com or 866 438 7842.
I hope you enjoy the new getsugar.com!