Whipping Up a Delicious Email

Houston's the Chocolate Bar has two locations run by four local businessmen. The owners do everything, from conceiving and making the goodies to working the counter. The store is more about the "experience" than just the custom-made chocolates, gourmet ice creams, mile high cakes, and chocolate gifts it sells. "The Chocolate Bar is about fun. The exceptional customer service and clever gallery of chocolate gifts, along with the fabulous quality chocolate, are what make it a must-go-to for Houston visitors as well as locals," says Lynne Singerman , TCB's Ambassador of Chocolate. The Chocolate Bar's original location has been in operation since 2001, with a second store opening in 2009.

Challenge: Lacking online design skills

While you might think its name alone would attract any chocolate lover through the door, the Chocolate Bar had not done Internet marketing until it hired Lynne. "There's a lot of competition for the dessert dollar," Lynne explains. "My goal is to create awareness of our new location and introduce the happy spirit of the Chocolate Bar to all chocolate lovers. A newsletter is a great vehicle to communicate our range of products and our options for entertainment."

The owners of TCB were collecting email addresses as part of a weekly free-dessert contest, but weren't doing anything with the list besides notifying winners. As Valentine's Day 2010 approached, Lynne thought the quickly growing email database (there were 300 names collected in the first two weeks of the contest) could be put to good use for marketing the Chocolate Bar's newer location, and could create excitement about the seasonal gifts offered, new flavors of ice cream, and new live music nights.

Lynne did some due diligence research on email marketing providers and selected Constant Contact. There was just one problem: Creating the template for an online newsletter to perfectly express what the Chocolate Bar has to offer customers was proving a challenge.

Solution: A customized template from Custom Services

It was like having my own designer on staff for the period of time we were doing this piece.After an attempt to outsource the email template design job to a local designer failed, Lynne turned to Constant Contact's Custom Services group for help in building a "whimsical" look that matched the Chocolate Bar's atmosphere.

In a matter of four days from when the project began to when the email was sent, the Custom Services team catered to Lynne's art direction, using her words and images to build a customized template that conveyed the sense of wonder one experiences when entering one of the Chocolate Bar's locations.

"I was always able to get a person on the phone," Lynne says of the Custom Services group. "It was like having my own designer on staff for the period of time we were doing this piece."

Results: Even better sales

The Chocolate Bar's Valentine's Day promotion email went out two weeks prior to the big candy-giving holiday and immediately made a splash, with nearly half the recipients opening the message.

"It blew me away," Lynne says of the immediate feedback. "Within moments of the email going out, we were getting responses from people. In the print world, you design it, print it, mail it, wait for the post office to deliver it who knows when, and then you hope it makes a difference. Here, we sent it out and got a response right away. That's so cool."

The impact on in-store traffic was big too. For the first time, the company's new location had the excitement and sales energy of the original store, a feat Lynne attributes to the success of the email newsletter.

The Chocolate Bar will be using its custom-designed template going forward for a monthly newsletter that highlights various new treats available, and shows off pictures from parties and innovative promotions. "The first email newsletter was a big hit and something that couldn't have been done without a little help. I am a very happy customer. Custom Services is a huge asset!" Lynne exclaims.