In addition to having a sign-up form on your website for visitors to register for your email list, I saw a great idea in a little local ice cream shop the other day. If you have a retail store put a small laptop computer at the checkout area that allows people waiting in line to pay to add their own email address to your list. This avoids the hassle of having to ask them for it, it is definitely opt-in, and you know the email address is inputting accurately. This is a great option for coffee shops, ice-cream shops, restaurants, etc… where people are standing around waiting for their coffee, ice-cream, or order to be filled.
Archive for small business
Growing Your Email List
Another Inexpensive Marketing Campaign
I was on my way to my brother’s house for the annual 4th of July celebration with the family and as I pulled into his upper class neighborhood I noticed little American Flags in the yard of every house right beside every mailbox. Wow, I thought, his neighborhood is so fancy that the Home Owners Association put out flags in everyone’s yard to decorate for the holiday. As I pulled into my brother’s driveway, I looked down at the flag in his yard and noticed that it had a little 4×6 postcard attached to the flag pole which was advertising a local real estate agent that worked the area. What a great marketing idea. This real estate agent was being very clever. He knew if he put the flags in everyone’s yard by the mailboxes with his little advertisement attached, that no one would take them down because it was for the holiday. My brother informed me the flags had been up for several days. Who doesn’t want an American Flag in their yard on the 4th.
This concept would be good for companies that are targeting specific neighborhoods, income levels, etc… Maybe you are a high end landscaper looking to get your name out there in a specific area. Buy some decorative item for a specific holiday and get cracking. 4th of July is perfect but perhaps something for Thanksgiving or Halloween since it seems to be universal holiday. I particularly like Halloween since people are out and about walking the neighborhood with their kids.
Don’t forget to send me any great inexpensive marketing campaigns you have tried. Please spread the knowledge. Thanks and good luck to all you marketers out there.
Case in Point
Hello everyone. Per my previous post on 1/21 in regard to hosting and domains I have a client who called me on Monday with the problem I was talking about in my post. Actually it was my brother who owns two businesses. Here is what happened. He set up a website for one of his businesses over 6 years ago. I didn’t design or help him with that website. This is the smaller of the two businesses he owns so he doesn’t really work on it day to day and never paid attention to the website or the email accounts tied to the website. The company that put up the website for him handled the hosting and email set-up. He called me on Monday asking me for his email password to get into his “squirrel mail” (a webmail platform). He apparently forgot that I didn’t set up the website/email for that business. When I told him he needed to track down the website hosting provider who put up his website he didn’t seem to know who to call, or even remember the name of the company that did it. I am sure he finally hunted down the website designers and got the information he needed to access his email but this just another example of how important it is that you know who is providing your hosting and email. Keep a record of it. Make sure they aren’t a Mom and Pop provider that is at risk for closing their doors someday or you might up the creek without a paddle. Also, please remember to own your own domain name!!
Direct Mail Does Not Have to Die
I know, direct mail is almost dead or at least everyone but mailhouses think so. Well, I am somewhere in between. Sometimes I think it is dead and then sometimes I do a campaign for a client and WOW, the ROI is incredible. So, here is my approach. A VERY well thought out campaign with a specific goal in mind can work if executed correctly. The biggest mistake my clients have made is trying to do a campaign on their own and they have no clue about sizing, offer, demographics, postage, etc… and their campaign bombs and then they swear that direct mail is dead. I ran across this short and informative article about direct mail that is useful for a beginner. Bottom line, think long and hard about direct mail and your goals. The most expensive part is going to be postage so make sure you understand how bulk postage works. For truly great direct mail I would recommend hiring an expert to help with creative, list, printing, data management, and mailing. By the way, the most successful direct mail campaigns for my client base have been campaigns that are up-sells to current customer bases. Good Luck and please share with us your direct mail successes and failures. We can learn from everyone’s experiences.
Starting Fuzzy Fans
This is post #2 of the Fuzzy Fan case study. Fuzzy Fans was the brainchild of my partner Brad. In September 2009 he sent me a sketch of a baby in a University of Louisville Cardinal Beenie hat and from there our Fuzzy Fans venture took off. Obviously it helps if you have a creative person on your team, but a lot of getting a business up and started on a tight budget is thinking in advance about what you really need and sticking to the bare bones. Before we started to pour a ton of money into marketing/manufacturing, we knew our first barrier to entry was we needed a to be approved by the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) to manufacture and distribute collegiate apparel. We needed a prototype for our CLC application so I went to the fabric store with Brad’s sketch in hand to buy the necessary fabric to sew a prototype. I have zero sewing skills, so I dragged my mother-in-law with me. She was happy to help and I was thrilled just to have some sewing expertise with me. I walked out of there only spending$50 in materials. Of course if you don’t have a talented free help at your fingertips you can always post an ad on Craigslist and find someone with any skill set you need at a reasonable price. So, the first lesson for the shoe string budget is look at your resources (friends and family). Call in a favor and beg for help if you have to. You will find that most people come through for you in a pinch.
12 Days of Christmas Email Advertising Campaign
I got a very clever email the other day from a local retail store. I have purchased from them before so I am now on their email list (remember: It is very important to keep your customer data files clean and up to date). Anyway, they started a 12 days of Christmas email campaign and each day they send out an email highlighting an item in their shop. There is a coupon attached to the email for a 10% discount on any item. I like this concept and I find myself checking the email everyday just to see what they have highlighted in the email. They tie the copy for the email into the song so it is very clever. If I were managing the campaign, I would take it a step further and provide a discount for each item highlighted and then on the last day of the campaign highlight a very expensive and high end product with a HUGE discount. Perhaps build up the suspense and make each and every item bigger and better everyday building up to the “grand finale”.
Finding Topics to Blog About
You started your blog and you have the best intentions of blogging everday about something. The first couple days go well, maybe even weeks, but then the inevitable happens. You run out of things to blog about that are relevant to your business and fresh. Well, problem solved. Sign up for Google Alerts. This great new service from Google will send you an email everyday on topics you request. Here is how it works:
Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. Enter the topic you wish to monitor, then click preview to see the type of results you’ll receive. Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:
- monitoring a developing news story
- keeping current on a competitor or industry
- getting the latest on a celebrity or event
- keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams
Very cool and very handy when you run out of things to blog about. Good luck with that new blog.