Summer Marketing Ideas

[Denominator]

Got good promotional ideas? Found a sure-fire way to put butts in seats? Share the ideas...

Here are several that tie into each other (7 Core Competencies)...I'm sure you've got others.

- Gather calendars of events from libraries, parks and recreation departments, day-care facilities, and local newspapers

- Sponsor, attend, or 'crash' events with coupons, promotional items, and samples

- Take your fishbowl so you can gather names for your email list

- Offer $50 gas cards to winners (increase sign ups)

- Use the addresses, don't just collect them (everyone gets a free drink, some people get a free sandwich at lunch, some get a free entree after 6pm, etc.)

[Ron-DFW]

My First Time here....
We have done Fish bowl marketing and it has given us a huge email list to work with.  We send them a newsletter with coupon twice a month....
I would like to have a list of 5000 people but we are not there YET....but working on it very aggressively.
Ron

[garner]

Welcome, Ron. Since the boards are new, we're all kind of new too. Glad to have you.

By 'fishbowl' marketing, do you mean "gather cards in a fishbowl" or that you use the email marketing company Fishbowl Marketing?

[Local Girl]

What kind of coupons do you send? I'm worried that people will make copies or forward to all their friends and I'll be swamped. (Also, what kind of business do you have?)

I like the thought of doing "get something for free if you purchase something else" - maybe a free upsize, or get a latte for the price of hot drip, or something - but again, I'm worried about abuse.

[soonerfan63]

What kind of coupons do you send? I'm worried that people will make copies or forward to all their friends and I'll be swamped. (Also, what kind of business do you have?)

I like the thought of doing "get something for free if you purchase something else" - maybe a free upsize, or get a latte for the price of hot drip, or something - but again, I'm worried about abuse.

I have managed Planet Smoothie stores for 7 years and I think I have only had 2 or 3 photocopies of printed coupons. On the odd occasion someone had one that looked photocopied I gladly took their money and politely told them I could not take another coupon like it from them. Someone coming in every day with a photocopied coupon would be abuse.

Our previous email marketing coupons had a statement in it that encouraged people to pass it on to their friends (we want MORE customers). I'm not sure if FISHBOWL has the same message. I want the message to get out to more people. In this economy I will take being swamped over being slow. More people coming in spending money is not abuse to me.

[garner]

So what kinds of offers are you sending?

[Ron-DFW]

Sorry for the late reply.....
I collect business cards or "join our email club" cards.
I use constantcontact to send out newsletters and coupons.
I have a feature that if they forward this newsletter to 7 friends, I send them a coupon for a free smoothie.  Other than that, I send them BOGO or Free cookie.
My intentions are to get them inside the cafe.  Once they are in,they spend more....theybring their coworkers.....
What kind of marketing are you guys doing???
// Ron

[garner]

A couple of things come to mind. First, because you're collecting business cards, you're probably focusing on the lunch daypart. Is this your bread and butter, are you in the middle of a lot of office buildings/complexes?

Second, given your products, are you near any schools? There are only a couple of weeks before school starts back up and now is a great time to be the first to meet with principals, coaches, booster clubs, pta's, and so forth.

Different audiences would have different tactics and offers, but we can come up with some for each.

Have you tried a GREAT offer for a limited number of people? 99 cent smoothie for the first 10 customers tomorrow morning? (It's a limited time, limited exposure.) Just be sure to add some value for disappointed customers 11-20 ("oh, you just missed it, how about I upsize you?" or "you weren't in the top 10, but here's a BOGO for tomorrow, bring a friend")

[garner]

Ron - which dayparts are currently working for you? My suggestion would be to start there.

For example, if you're doing best before 9:00am (coffee), even if you aren't doing great - but if that is your best daypart, start there. You know people are in the area (but you don't know that for the afternoon).

Do you have coffee "to-go" in quantity? Something like service for 10 in a carrying container? Draw a "winner"* per day, tell them they have won a free one, pick it up anytime before 10am this week. When they get there, since they're taking coffee for the office, they'll purchase muffins, bagels, or other items. (We've found this one to be really effective at a) introducing office mates to your product and b) building loyalty with the original customer (they look like the hero).

*When we say a "winner" it's not really a drawing. Look through the cards for someone that works at a large company (AT&T) or with a particular job (Pharmaceutical Representative, real estate agent) - they're the people who can help you reach hard to find groups, or they buy for groups frequently.

[garner]

Some target audiences for the morning daypart:

- Real Estate brokers/agents: free wi-fi makes your coffee place a meeting place; RE agents have open houses - which need coffee and bagels; every RE broker has a weekly meeting (Tuesdays, 8:00 am) with all of their agents. These are catered by movers, mortgage brokers, and storage places - people who want their business.

- Networking groups: find them in the paper, offer to let them use your place for meetings, offer to cater a meeting for free (less than $20 food cost in most cases, but you get to do a free demonstration of your product and get to know them)

- Nurses and other jobs that start a shift at 7am

*Note: AM business is the hardest to acquire because you have to battle ingrained habits. Breaking those habits, incentivizing people to become regulars, is worth the effort because they are some of the most loyal customers, too (their new habits are just as hard to break).