View from the Game Store is a bi-weekly column by Marcus King, Director of Retail Operations at Troll and Toad in London, Kentucky.  This week, King responds to some of the questions readers have sent in, elaborating on topics covered in previous columns.

Welcome Readers to another installment of the view of the retail game store ownership world from the perspective of Marcus King, retailer since March 1986.

Today, I am going through old emails from people who've asked me to expand on some older topics. One of those topics is my outreach program. Outreach being the practice of reaching out into the community and bringing people into the store, or at least attempting to.

A slew of readers sent me Facebook messages asking me to explain more along the lines of what my Bounce-Back fliers are, and how they work (see “View from the Game Store--Managing Outreach”). Here are their questions, and my responses.

What kind of bounce-back offers are most successful?
My bounce back fliers come in a few flavors: The ones everyone gets with purchase with their receipt stapled to it. Then there is the bounce-back flier that goes into merchandise, which I will cover shortly. And, lastly, the bounce-back flier that travels with us to events, called the Away Team Flier.

  • Receipt Stapled Bounce Back Fliers: Always contain our hours, event schedule for the month, and a coupon at the bottom which is good for 10% off a single item the following month. So, the ones I am handing out now, in September, allow for 10% off any single item purchase in October (this cannot combine with other discounts or sales, and must have original receipt accompanying it).
  • Merchandise Fliers: We often put a 4” x 4” coupon in a DVD case or Video Game that is worth $1 off a game or DVD purchase. On the other side of these coupons is a list of what we buy.
  • Away Team Fliers: Usually 4” x 5.5” (half a printed page) these fliers are designed to cause people to come into the store from remote locations. Often they will have special details like “25% off Back Issue Comics” we would hand out at a comic book convention. Or, “25% off Used Video Games” we might hand out at a horror or game festival.


How do you measure response?
This is pretty simple: We count the number of coupons taken in each month. We take the dollars we spent on the printing and divide by the number or responses. I feel that bounce-back fliers need a better response rate than 1/$1 spent. Away Team Fliers need a response rate greater than 1/$5 spent (these are usually NEW customer acquisitions).

Do you know what percentage of the people that come in as new customers become regular customers?
We do not track this. I know we could, but it is a matter of prioritizing staff's efforts. And, with a shop that deals so heavily in used merchandise I have literally 90 employee hours a week devoted to processing used merchandise (cleaning, pricing, printing barcodes, placing product on the shelf, etc).

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Several other readers asked me to expound on my weekly customer emails (see “View from the Game Store -- 'Next Time,' and 'I Have People for That'”).

What do you put in your email newsletter?
Generally speaking, we cover:

  • Events for the next 10 days. Whether this is a Magic Tournament, a Yu-Gi-Oh! Release Party or an overnight RPG Group gaming session.
  • We list the top deliveries and new releases for the past week: This could be highlighting a new comic book release, a big miniatures collection we bought, or a large delivery from our comic book distributor.
  • We then list our address, phone number, cover any staff changes, let people know what are are looking to buy and ask for them to help spread the word.
  • We have 3 images in each email, maximum.


What elements seem to work the best?
Links to our Facebook page, hobby gossip like spoiler lists, and limiting our overall length of the email seems to help our “open and viewed” response, which we can track.

What tone do you use to write it?
Friendly?

Think about it. Our customers think we have the best job ever. After all, retailers just read comics and play games and make a living, right?

Seriously though: If you are a retailer, can you remember when you weren't? I remember the days when I would be at my job, and on lunch, and be thinking about how I was going to Discount Hobby, Bosco's, and Spenard Hobby on Saturday. Yeah, well – OUR customers look forward to coming to OUR stores. So, I want to let them know that I am looking forward to seeing them!


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Thanks.


The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.