Page 20 - Sonoma County Gazette Janaury 2019

As part of the Sonoma County Airport (STS) parking lot renovation and expansion, the Airport now offers expanded ChargePoint electric vehicle (EV) charging stations located in both the long- term parking lot and in front of the Airport terminal, and Tesla Charging Stations in the long-term parking lot. This invaluable upgrade is another feature that highlights the beneficial ways in which STS accommodates regional passengers, and is doing our part to support clean air initiatives.
North Bay consumers and Airport passengers driving zero-emission electric vehicles is a rapidly growing market. STS is excited to now be a CPO (charging point operator) for both ChargePoint — the world’s largest and most open electric vehicle (EV) charging network, and Tesla, which has a network of 1,359 Charging Stations across the nation.
While emails make it easy to send information to your customers, these same customers are also receiving emails from many of your competitors. Which is why I am going to talk about many of the ways you can make yours stand out from the crowd.
New Electric Vehicle Stations at STS
Segmentation of your email list is one of the most important things that you can do. The top 10 to 20% of your customers who buy, or used your services the most, should receive more emails from you than those who purchase once each year. Sending too many emails to infrequent buyers could cause them to buy less rather than more.
STS Airport Manager, Jon Stout, says, “We’re dedicated to continually finding innovative ways to accommodate our loyal passengers and upgrade our facilities. One of the greatest benefits of utilizing STS is the hassle-free experience we provide. Providing EV charging stations is yet another way to maintain STS as the Airport of choice for regional travelers — and do something good for the environment.”
How often they buy; What products they buy; When they buy; The process (buy through email, in person, over the phone, at events)
20 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 1/19
The EV charging stations at STS were partially funded through a partnership with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
How many emails for businesses that you compete with do you subscribe to and read? Take your 10 closest competitors and make sure that you are on their email list. I subscribe to many emails and most of the emails I receive are very much alike. Create your emails to incorporate subjects that your cometitors are not covering.
Personal Stories Connect
Charge! Program,
Make the lead story one that will further connect your customers to your brand. Many of your customers feel connected with your winery and with the people who own or work for the winery. Feature a different employee once per quarter, or solicit stories from your customers about your products. Use those topics as the opening story though keep the stories short. You can add information about the products in the next paragraph or two in the email
which provides funding to public agencies and businesses to expand
the network of publicly available plug-in electric vehicle charging stations at workplaces, multifamily dwelling units, and public locations.
People connect with people more quickly than they connect with technical or product information usually. Once you have secured the connection, then move onto product information, keeping in mind the response you would like them to have.
Learn more about ChargePoint or Tesla EV charging options at STS: sonomacountyairport.org/ parking
That being the case, create a subject line that will connect with recipients and make them want to read more. Open up to your customers in your subject line. Give customers (especially your most loyal customers) information about your lead story.
All parking lots at STS are within close walking distance to the terminal. The furthest space is less than 300 yards!
For example the headline might read:
Since the broad acceptance of email as the most efficient way to communicate, the medium has grown exponentially. According to an article written by Sharon Hurley Hall, more than 74 Trillion emails are sent every year. The numbers of emails being sent continues to go up year after year.
I remember as far back in the early 2000s, asking people at conferences at which I was speaking, “How many of you don’t receive enough emails?” No one ever raised his/her hand and emails have become much more pervasive since then.
Create individual emails for different groups of customers
Sort your customers by their buying patterns
Subscribe To Your Competitors Emails
Subject Line
“47% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line alone.”
“Four things you don’t know about our business”
“Why we opted to build our business in...” (insert name of town)
“Our staff, a great group of people”
“Meet our dog, the most popular person (??) in our business.”
When you have customers who are loyal to your business, they want to
get to know you and the employees. There are lots of places they can find information on your products, but on most websites personal information about owners and employees is woefully absent. Let your customers take a peek “behind the curtain.” Don’t be afraid to let them know when you have made a small mistake or that something unexpected has happened.
Creating Emails Customers Want To Read
MARKTING cont’d on page 21