Keurig Adds 1,000,000 New Members In Less Than 12 Months

Now that I have your attention, let me repeat:

Keurig added 1 million new subscribers in less than 12 months

I’m hoping that a few thoughts/questions came to mind as you (re)read that sentence.

1. Wow.
2. Wow.
3. Wow.
4. How?
5. Cool, but did that lead to more conversions? If so, how many more?
6. Great, but did they remember to capture email addresses?
7. Awesome, but it’s less about list size … more about relevant messaging, right?

How Did Keurig Do It?

According to the Internet Retailer article (read entire story)

Each morning an associate in the Keurig marketing department goes online to monitor the leading coffee drinking and coffee equipment blogs ranked on the Google and Yahoo search engines. When it comes across a blog posting about a Keurig or Green Mountain product, the Keurig manager will contact the blogger and offer them a membership in Coffee Club, Keurig’s online customer loyalty program, free gourmet coffee samples and or an in-home trial of a Keurig brewing system. Keurig, which sells direct to the public online and through retail chains such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., also placed more coupons good for discounts or free merchandise on multiple pages of its user’s manual and even on the warranty registration card.

So, it seems to me like they used some of the free tools (Google and Yahoo search) and “new media” (blogs) to listen. However, they went beyond this initial step. Keurig then responded to the bloggers by thanking them with a membership in the Coffee Club. A relatively simple strategy, and one that is easy to implement.

Yeah, But Did It Lead To More Conversions?

Per the article, “…the number of repeat buyers on Keurig.com in the past 12 months has increased from 15% to 30%.” This statistic alone would indicate an increase in conversions. However, what is unclear (to me) is what impact the bloggers who Keurig offered the membership in Coffee Club had on the top line. Did these bloggers spread the word? Were they the “connectors” as Gladwell calls them?

Did Keurig Remember To Capture Email Addresses?

As an email marketing company, this was actually my first question. Well, 2nd. I shouted “Wow” out loud first 3 times. The article mentions nothing about email, which was pretty disappointing. I’m very hopeful that part of their new Coffee Club membership drive included collecting email addresses, sending welcome messages, etc. One can only hope. *If you have information about the email component of this campaign, please share in the comments below.

Less About List Size, More About Relevancy

As Mark Brownlow wrote over 2 years ago, “…we have this unhealthy obsession with list size.” This same post challenges marketers to “Reclaim your list!” I believe this is one of those blog posts that is timeless. Marketers today still are often compensated by the size of their list, while they should be more motivated by sending timely, targeted emails to those that have asked for them. Part of a presentation I gave at the Online Marketing Summit (OMS) Whistle Stop Tour focused on this very point - relevancy. This is not a presentation you want to watch if you are hungry.

Read the entire Internet Retailer article and tell us what you think. Can anyone help in answering #6 above? Did they remember to capture email addresses?

DJ Waldow
Director of Best Practices & Deliverability at Bronto

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Tagged as: conversions, Internet Retailer, Keurig, list growth, relevancy