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Well, Zazzle.com isn't exactly OLD (even in Internet years). But they seem to be doing things a lot differently than when I first met them in 2002. As a result, they are getting ancient customers like me totally re-engaged with their Web site.
If you haven't heard of Zazzle, it's a business that allows the inner artist in you to put your designs on shirts, posters, mugs and more. So what, you say? So can my local Kinko's, you say? Sure, but what if the product you created became available for the world to buy?
Who cares if only your mom would do the shopping in your personal online gallery -- the concept is pretty cool. I say they were pioneers on the whole user-generated content frontier.
But here's another cool part: Zazzle is making me smitten with them all over again with some clever email campaigns. For instance, in March I got an intriguing promotion that allowed me to create my own postage stamps for a song. Voila! I was able to affix Snikkers the BarketingProfs Schnauzer to my IRS envelope last month. That actually made me smile when I filed my taxes.
And this week Zazzle sent me an invitation to submit a design for their Mother's Day contest. Who could resist that? They did the same for Earth Day and got 521 entries. I couldn't help myself, I entered something I actually did create there for my mom, albeit five years ago.
Zazzle looks even more clever with this contest when you throw in the fringe benefit of word-of-mouth marketing. I realized this just now as I emailed all my friends, asking them to vote for my Mother's Day design.
Good going, Zazzle! You turned a dormant, unprofitable customer into someone who's spending money AND talking about you.
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Comments
Shelley,
Thank you for sharing Zazzle. Anything that brings out the inner creative within all of us is good. We need to spend more time in fun ways discovering our creative sides.
Posted by: Lewis Green | 05.08.07
Hi Shelley,
Thanks for the thoughtful post! We're really excited by the new features and programs on Zazzle and your suggestions & feedback matter a lot to us.
The contests program was created for the benefit of the community and it's been awesome to see hundreds of designs submitted to each new contest. We're brainstorming some fun new contests and if you have any ideas or suggestions, send them our way at feedback@zazzle.com.
Stay tuned for more exciting updates over the coming months!
Best,
Josh Reeves
Product Manager, Zazzle
Posted by: Joshua Reeves | 05.08.07
Just to set the record straight, folks, my post here won't help me win anything with Zazzle. The Mother's Day contest ended yesterday. ;]
Posted by: Shelley Ryan | 05.08.07
Shelley,
Nice post -- and I LOVE that magnet you created! If you didn't win... well, you should have! ; )
What I'm digging these days are new & clever twists on email campaigns, like Zazzle's. The email company MyEmma (www.myemma.com) recently ran a campaign in honor of Arbor Day, launching votefortrees.com, a fun web site with the goal to plant a forest full of trees.
Good campaign for a good reason, and it made sense for an email marketing company to align themselves with Arbor Day, as email = no paper.
Posted by: Ann Handley | 05.08.07
Ann, I loved that campaign from MyEmma! Not only did I vote for trees, but I also got a thank-you email from a Cedar as a result.
Posted by: Shelley Ryan | 05.08.07
Ann and Shelley -
Thanks so much for voting. The trees appreciate it, and so do we. Here at Emma, we've learned quite a bit during the making of the Vote For Trees project. Did you know, for instance, that trees aren't particularly good at tennis? Sad but true.
We've already hit our goal of 5,000 trees (quite exciting), but the voting and cheeky good times continue on the site. If any of your readers would like to join the chorus of YES votes streaming in, please feel free to do so at www.votefortrees.com. Go trees!*
Thanks again!
Clint
Clint Smith
Co-founder, Emma
clint@myemma.com
*Except Hackberries.
Posted by: Clint | 05.09.07