From sports fans to corporate businesses, everybody loves a branded hoodie, mug, and backpack. I was once so attached to a CamelBak from a student magazine I staffed that I refused to buy from another brand for several years.
Open rate year over year: 40%
Click rate: 6%
Contact list growth year over year: +54%
Genumark, a family-owned business based in Toronto, Canada, is in the business of making that same experience happen for corporations, sports teams, and product makers. Genumark’s branded swag comes with the loyalty, quality, and pride sewn in.
The company has served Canada for over 40 years and is now expanding its market to the United States. While it’s an exciting new opportunity, it has also come with some challenges, such as maintaining customer relationships during rapid growth and building connections with clients who have unique cultural practices, including differences in spelling, product names, and purchasing behaviors.
To support that level of effort, their business needed digital marketing tools to create content, support brand initiatives, and ultimately get their message to the right audience.
Over the past 10 years, Genumark’s relationship with Constant Contact has grown from simple email marketing to leveraging advanced tools. Features like segmentation, landing pages, tags, and events enable them to deliver more personalized customer experiences, while branding tools elevate their content during this new era of exponential growth.
Email, list segmentation, and personalization
The company’s motto, “Big enough to matter, small enough to care,” is at the center of its business strategy. Customers working with Genumark receive an individualized experience from planning through execution, with personalized communications as well.
“I’m a big believer in email,” said Jasmin Bollin, Genumark’s Marketing Manager. “If you can send an email — that’s going to hit their inbox, and [customers] are going to see that. They’re going to engage with it if it’s personalized to them.”
Jasmin Bollin works with Marc Newberry, the team’s Creative Director, to develop and personalize Genumark’s marketing emails. They’re the team that’s in Constant Contact most frequently. Marc handles creative and scheduling, while Jasmin’s on copywriting. Their biggest project is a monthly newsletter.
“Our month ends with the email blast we send out — Merch Makers Monthly. It’s a collection of all the work we’ve done during that month,” said Marc. The blast features links to view new merchandise options or collections by type of product (examples include festive drinkware options and products made with recycled material), as well as customer case studies and features from Genumark product designers.
“We have really good interaction with it [the newsletter],” said Marc. With an open rate of 43% and a click-through rate of 5% (2% higher than the industry average), Genumark’s Merch Markers Monthly is making its mark on its audience.
List segmentation
Tools like list segmentation allow Genumark to target customers by the account manager serving their industry and location. In total, Genumark has about 40 account managers. When a customer receives an email, it’s coming “from that specific account manager rather than from a generic info@genumark.com,” said Jasmin.
Marc is the one who came up with the idea, citing his own experience with generic email senders: “They get lost in the pile. I get tons of emails every day that I don’t even open just because they’re generic; they’re sent out to everybody.”
Now, thanks to Constant Contact’s segmentation features, the connection from the account manager to the client means clients can respond, ask questions, or get back in touch. Email keeps the conversation going.
“We’re always available. We’re on name terms with our clients. They know us. So why wouldn’t they get an email from James Wilson in Winnipeg?” — Marc Newberry
Events, landing pages, sign-up forms, and tags
Events are a big deal for Genumark. Product showcases, conventions, and meetups (like appreciation BBQs) help fuel customer relationships and new client growth.
“We do a bunch of events,” Marc said. “We have the PPPC National Convention, which is the biggest promotional product convention in Canada.”
To manage their process, the team uses Constant Contact’s event tool to create, send, and track events. Once subscribers receive an email invitation, they can sign up for the event via a custom landing page. From there, account managers can track RSVPs to coordinate swag, employee attendance, etc.
Potential clients roaming the event floor can stop by to learn about Genumark and are invited to join their email list by adding their name, email, and company to an account manager’s sign-up form. Once submissions are made, new subscribers are added to the account manager’s email list and tagged with the event name, segmenting them by event type so they’ll receive relevant content for future communications.
Rebrand and BrandKit
Genumark completed a rebrand process at the beginning of 2024. From illustrations and logos to voice and tone, Genumark’s new branding shows current customers the company has evolved to serve them better and new customers that it’s ready to take them on. “We were overdue for a refresh,” said Marc, having focused his team on updating brand colors, designs, and copywriting style guide.
A rebrand means it’s more important than ever that customers and potential clients recognize and remember their brand. To keep consistent, the team uses BrandKit, a platform feature that helps centralize new brand collateral.
Keeping it all together
With a ton of to-dos, Genumark’s creative team has found solace with Constant Contact. Knowing that email, landing pages, and events exist in one tool, their team can quickly write, design, and personalize customer marketing content. “I don’t have to worry about having two programs to coordinate with,” said Marc. Jasmin continued, “Constant Contact is invaluable.”
Next, listen to Marc and Jasmin talk all things Genumark and marketing success with Constant Contact.
