As a smaller and more exclusive toy store, Learning Express Toys of Lake Zurich needed a creative, effective marketing tool to compete with large big box stores. Particularly around the holidays, they needed a way to move their “hot” inventory and keep loyal customers informed when in-demand toys arrived.

After joining CloseBy® Text Marketing in December 2013, owner Rick Derr committed his team to invite every in-store customer to their new text loyalty program and receive an exclusive same day discount.  This simple consistency in inviting store customers to join his text list has helped rick grow his list to over 2,670 subscribers.  At the moment of Rick’s choosing, he can put an announcement or a special offer on the phones of those 2,670 clients, and when those texts arrive with a ‘ding’ they creates a great return for every message he sends.

Rick Derr had this to say about CloseBy®:

“It’s really easy to tell you what I love so much about this program, from a small business perspective, not a major retailer – it’s quite clear that the way to communicate in this day and age is on mobile devices and if you’re not putting most of your resources into delivering information, events, & deals LITERALLY in the hands of your consumers, then you’re falling behind.   We’ve also tested Facebook, particularly with a princess event we had, and in two weeks we received 2 sign-ups for the event through Facebook – when we sent a text out we SOLD OUT that afternoon… our staff was swamped.  The people on our program are a different level of customer, they’re our elite group.  We WELCOME people and get excited when they show us their opt-in offer, I can’t stand when you walk in to a store and hand the cashier a coupon and they just scan it and throw it away. Let them know that they’re a VIP and this is an exclusive thing that they’re now a part of!  We have the Premium Program and while we’ve only had our birthday club for a few months, we’re seeing great results from it. We offer a heavy $25 off of $50 offer for it so it doesn’t generate a ton of revenue, but we get raving feedback from customers and huge smiles when they redeem it. Building a strong relationship with them is more valuable than anything. I tell business owners all the time that they NEED this program – even if they think they’re doing well now without it, why not be great? Why not make more money – because this program will do that for you.”

Read some of the messages Learning Express Toys of Lake Zurich has sent out to their customers so far:

  • 25% OFF our top craft brands Creativity For Kids, OOLY, Horizon & Ann Williams. Ends 6/30/22 Birthdays, activities, crafts
  • Flash Sale! 25% OFF Everything Today 5/31/22 only. Incl. Lego, Squishmallows, fidgets & more. Phone Orders ok. 10am-5pm.
  • The 2022 Summer Squishmallows drop has arrived. Gamer, Boba Tea, Snack, Black Light, Sea. 5″ thru 14″. Over 54 styles/sizes
  • 2 New Products Alert! Squooshems by Squishmallows series 1 $4.99 each. Topps baseball cards 2022 series 1. $4.99/pk 10-5pm