Case Studies

minui HandySitt, on turning leads into customers with Campaign Monitor

Managing an online storefront isn't child's play, especially when it involves shipping innovative furniture to homes and restaurants across the US and Canada. We sat down with Adam Neilson of Keiki Enterprises, the distributor of the minui HandySitt high chair, to share his experiences with marketing an online store.

First of all, tell us why you chose to use a combination of Shopify and Campaign Monitor for your storefront and email marketing respectively. Do the two work well together?

"With some design, HTML and CSS skills, we've been able to build an online business without ever hiring a developer!"

We're designers and entrepreneurs - Campaign Monitor and Shopify provide superb low-cost tools that allow us to customize the look and feel of our email campaigns and storefront to our heart's content. With some design, HTML and CSS skills, we've been able to build an online business without ever hiring a developer! Both services seem to be listening to designers and marketers and aggressively improving their products on a regular basis. Their simple, smart user interfaces are a plus too.

And yes, they both work very well together thanks to the new Campaign Monitor app for Shopify. Even before that release, I used both applications - it just required a bit of manual work.

What advantages does email marketing provide your business in comparison to other marketing channels, such as catalogs or direct mail?

Mostly cost. I can test campaigns with very little capital investment, refine them through metrics, then know that I'm delivering the message that's going to give me the best results. I can do this quickly and without much money - which is critical to a start-up.

How did you grow a mailing list of potential customers?

Several ways - by gathering leads at trade shows, opt-in through sales completed via our online store and the newsletter subscribe form on our website.

Like your child-friendly furniture and accessories, your email designs are both functional and elegant. What has the response been to your newsletters?

They work. We sent a campaign to key restaurant buyers in the fall, many of whom we'd been trying to follow-up with for months over the phone, and the response was overwhelming. The same people that called us after getting the email had not returned our calls previously.

Any advice for other online stores who want to use email newsletters to keep in touch with their customers?

Be strategic in how you grow your mailing list. Start thinking about the how when designing your business model... And, offer real value. It's much better to send something of value twice a year than it is to provide little value, twice a month.

Many thanks to Adam Neilson from Keiki Enterprises for participating. Visit the minui HandySitt store to view a great example of Shopify + Campaign Monitor in action.

A sample campaign by minui HandySitt

minui HandySitt have a design philosophy that's complimentary to their products, as channelled though their simple and functional email newsletters. Note the use of the product as hero, which is consistent with the use of imagery on their marketing site.

Using Campaign Monitor and Shopify

Want to add email marketing to your storefront? A Campaign Monitor application for Shopify is available - take a look at our Shopify app download page for more information.