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5 Rules for Stand-Out Marketing Campaigns

These steps helped an old company achieve record growth, and they can help your business too.

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By Ann Handley

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Steve Sheinkopf’s Yale Appliance + Lighting is a case study in effective digital marketing.

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Seven years ago, in the midst of an economic recession, Boston's Yale Appliance + Lighting was losing money. "I'd read somewhere that people will buy some things anyway during a recession -- and one of those things was refrigerators," recalls CEO Steve Sheinkopf. "So we pumped more money into radio and newspaper advertising, thinking it would help. It didn't -- it hurt."

Sheinkopf, who had taken over the store founded by his grandfather, refocused with what was (at the time) a radical approach. He doubled down on a digital marketing strategy that included social media, blogging, reputation management and email components.

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