“You should get yourself an iPad and start collecting emails” 

 That was the message Lee McLemore heard loud and clear while attending a Yamaha marketing seminar in 2011. As owner of a Yamaha/Honda motorcycle and ATV dealership in Mississippi, Lee was doing some email marketing, having created a Constant Contact account to make it easier. But like many retailers new to the activity, Lee hadn’t had much luck adding names to his email database outside of his website. With the motorcycle season around the corner and events like the Mississippi Boat, Cycle and RV Show leading up to it, Lee decided to follow the marketers advice.

 In early Februray, Lee bought an iPad ($499) and began searching online for something to put it in along with some software to run on his new device. He found many kiosk options and went with a less expensive model; $379 from Maclocks.com which included shipping.   

Lee’s software search began in the Apple Store where he found a new app called iCapture. This app claimed to turn any iPad into a data collection machine. Users could create custom questions which would help Lee not just capture the information he wanted,  but also segment or separate his customer info by interest, brand, age or zip code. Digging deeper into iCapture, Lee discovered the app would also funnel his new customer or prospect information from his iPad directly into his Constant Contact email marketing account.  With a little support from the iCapture team, Lee created his questionnaire along with a custom look with logo. Total cost of the iCapture software; $119 a year.

 Now all he needed was a plan to go about building his prospect list. Lee had remembered one other thing the Yamaha guy had said. Something about hiring an attractive young lady and commissioning her to get folks to opt-in for more info about the great line of motorcycles, ATV’s and Wave Runners at Lake Hill Motors. 

 Lee’s test market would be at the Mississippi RV, Boat and Cycle show in Tupelo the final weekend in February. With thousands of motor sport enthusiasts walking through the Tupelo Furniture market, this was Lee’s chance to reach out and capture a targeted audience, introduce what he had to offer, stay in close touch with them via email, and ultimately sell his products.   

 With the kiosk setup and ready to go at his display, his staff dialed in and looking good, Lake Hill Motors started capturing names, emails and preferences from interested show goers.
Over the next 3 days, the staff collected names and emails from 76 individual prospects, along with their preferred vehicle types. This new information was delivered directly into his Constant Contact account where a “Welcome to Lake Hill Motors” email was automatically delivered to each prospect.


 The kiosk and iPad now sit in the showroom in Corinth where every day another couple of Lake Hill Motors customers take the :30 and enter their information.  As Lake Hill Motors celebrates its 50th year in business in 2012, Lee and his staff plan to pack the Email Kiosk machine to the dozens of outside events on the schedule. He expects to fully double his database to over 1,000 by the end of the year and be in fine position to begin Lake Hill Motors second half century in business.
 
 

Birthday Club.....



 When it comes to diving into the world of email marketing, there may be no better way to break the ice than with a Birthday Club. Studies show that people typically go out more on their birthdays, spend more on their birthdays, and celebrate with friends more often on their birthday.
Who doesn’t like to hear, “Happy Birthday!”?

 For businesses such as restaurants, ice cream/candy shops, entertainment centers, bowling alleys and golf courses its a natural to tie a businesses data collection efforts to a customer’s birthday. They’re going to be celebrating somewhere, why not invite them to celebrate at your business?

 Thanks to technological advancements, specifically the iPad, collecting birthdays from customers has never been easier. Whether the device is mobile and in the hands of an employee or locked down in a kiosk, the ability for customers to enter their own information, clearly and legibly, makes a birthday club strategy one of the more simple initiatives a business can undertake.
 
Bowling/Entertainment
 A new entertainment/bowling center in Nampa, Idaho opened in January 2012 and immediately began a campaign to build its customer database. In the first 60 days of opening, 250 names, emails and birthdays were collected via a kiosk and iPad near the point of sale. What has followed is an automated birthday campaign that delivers a personal invitation for a free game of bowling and rental shoes ($7.50 value) on their special day. The first message is delivered via iContact 2 weeks before the date and then a reminder is sent 4 days before the customer's big day. In a building chock full of interactive devices and video games, the Birthday Club kiosk fits right in. 

Golf
 As an upscale public golf course operator in the southeast US began a birthday club in May of 2011. By offering a free round of golf on a player’s birthday (with one full paying partner) they collected over 350 customer birthdays in 6 months. They are now seeing the results of this effort with an average of 10-15 coupons redeemed per month, a number that continues to grow.  By tracking the total dollars spent along with each redemption, they can attach a value to the Birthday club marketing effort and easily calculate the return on its investment.

Restaurants
 For many national chain restaurants, the birthday club has been around almost as long the birthday itself.  A free dessert (and usually a song) is pretty standard for patrons celebrating a birthday. This makes competing for birthday business pretty easy; simply offer something a bit more attractive than a free dessert (really, more cake?) and replace the over worked wait staff singing out of tune with a little peace and quiet.   


Perhaps the best part about a Birthday Club marketing program is that its completely automatic and year round. It's always somebody's birthday. With most ESPs featuring a field for birthdays among their autorepsonders, just capture names and dates and let the party begin.

Bike Shop Customer Database Case Study


     In early 2011, the owners of Boise’s oldest and most established bike shop, George’s
Cycles got word that a large national chain was coming to town. They knew in order to stay competitive they needed a solution that would engage their many existing customers while reaching out and connecting with as many new customers at the same time. With fewer than 500 contacts in an email database, management figured correctly that growing that number
was critical if they were to remain on top.


GROW THE LIST, GET INSIGHT
  Wanting to systemically gather as much information as possible from their loyal
customer base, the shop partnered with iCapture in March of 2011. Together they
developed a sequence of questions designed to give them a better understanding of
George’s customers. An interactive kiosk was installed in store in April 2011.

THE OFFER(S)
The Kiosk by itself wasn’t going to automatically build a massive customer list.
Customers would require some direction from the staff as well as some other incentive
or offer to sign up with an email. A universal bike tube was offered as a low cost item
that most cyclists would want and use. The iCapture system allowed them to promote
the free tube giveaway with a flashing offer on the kiosk/screen. After registration, the
system instantly delivers a dynamic and time sensitive coupon with an expiration date for a free standard tube.  


          


  Besides the offer of a coupon alone  customer uptake. The staff’s education,
interaction and promotion of the offer are critical to its success. So management
implemented a contest between employees and tracked the number of new contacts
added during shifts with the winners receiving cash or credit towards merchandise.
So, both customer and employee have something to gain or “skin in the game” by their
participation in the inputting of contact names and preferences and the ever expanding
customer databases at George’s Cycles


THE SET UP
With limited space by the cash register, the Kiosk was located by the front door on the
right when walking into the store and features some signage. While not ideal, it is highly
visible and easily accessible.


SEGMENTATION
Besides name and email, customers answer questions that help segment them into
smaller more targeted groups, so that each could be more directly and personally
messaged. The natural breakdown was type of cyclists (Road bikers vs.Mountain bikers
vs. Commuters, etc), level of cyclists (pro, sport, novice), and related issues or interests
(health/fitness, road safety, group events, etc.) In an effort to limit opt-outs, the question
of “How often would you like to hear from us?” was also added. These questions not
only let management target different groups with different messages and frequency, they
give owners important big picture information about their customers that they may not
already know or able to gather elsewhere.

EXECUTION
  With the Kiosk in place, the customer aware of what’s in it for them, the staff fully aware
of what’s in it for the customer as well as for each of them, the shop’s capture effort is
on. In some cases, employees walk customers through the series of questions, even
helping input their information and preferences. Most of the time, however, customers
are directed to the kiosk with the promise of a free bike tube upon completion of the
short series of questions.
For staff, a successful pitch must emphasize the store’s desire to deliver only the most
relevant information to each customer. No spam! Ultimately giving every customer
complete control over what is delivered to them and how often they will receive it.


RESULTS
  After 6 months of iCapture, the shop doubled its database adding 557 contacts
with preferences. Each of those received a customized Welcome email which nearly half
opened in the first 48 hours. Roughly 70% of those opening it clicked through to view the
coupon, with about half of them printing it. Overall, approximately 10% of the total new
contacts redeemed the coupon (58).
  In addition to nearly doubling their email database, the shop has also garnered
valuable feedback from their customers, including an overall preference for mountain
biking and commuting over road biking, a preference for weekly messages over monthly,
and an overwhelming desire to receive health and fitness information. From this, they
are devising content and frequency strategies for 2012.

Event/Product marketing with an iPad

 
A product and event sampling company,  SPN specializes in introducing healthy products to families, active consumers, and athletes nationally.
In an effort to better generate and build loyal brand advocates for their clients at events throughout the U.S., SPN turned to iCapture to provide a low cost solution that would allow their team in the field to more easily connect with the public, garner instant feedback, collect an email, or execute a short survey, all on an iPad.

 These devices would replace the pencil and paper and eliminate the process of manual data collection and at the same time save the staff hours once spent deciphering and inputting consumer information.

 The week before the event, SPN staff in Colorado loaded the iPads with the iCapture application, and in a matter of minutes, created a customized questionnaire with a Vivarin logo and brand colors to present a consistent and professional look. Once loaded, the iPads were delivered to Florida in the days leading up to the event.

 On Feb. 19, 2012 at the Tribute to the Military 5k in Coral Gables, Florida,  for its client  Glaxo Smith Klein, SPN situated two iPads at the Vivarin table along with product samples and coupons. Participants were encouraged to sign up with name, email, and age to win a $400 Amex gift card.  In a five hour span, hundreds of participants and/or supporters entered their name, email, and age.

 On Monday, Feb 20, SPN staff in Colorado remotely accessed both iPads from the office  desktop via the iCapture App and remotely downloaded the data in CSV format as requested by the client and emailed the file.   

 Three more events are scheduled for the client between now and July. If the trend continues, SPN will have essentially doubled the amount of consumer information collected vs. past efforts at a cost of less than $200.  

                                                                                                      

Golf Marketing Lesson - The Birthday Bounce

Golf course manager Mike Fentress has been on a mission since his company took over 3 daily fee golf courses near Virginia Beach, Va. last year. Its a mission to gather and build as big an email list of area players as he possibly can.
“We now have over 8,000 names and emails and seem to be the only course around here making any kind of effort to collect them.”
 While the competition continues to do little, or has come to rely on third party tee providers and the database of customers they build, Mike’s efforts to build his own have been rewarded with dramatic increases in rounds and revenue at 2 of the 3 courses he operates.
 “We have customers fill out a card with name and email at the counter and that’s been fairly effective.”
 But with the introduction of a Birthday club and a dedicated iPad at his courses, he is now arming his starters and/or beverage people with all the power they need to take the data collection process to the next level.
While players are standing around waiting to tee off, the employee asks if any of them would like a free round on his or her birthday. Input is a first name and a last initial, a players birthday and an email for notification purposes.  That information is then shot directly into the golf courses email sending program (Cybergolf, Mail Chimp or Constant Contact) for regular marketing purposes.
 While the collection and data entry process are super simplified, the long term effect of an automated year round marketing effort is the real game changer for 5 reasons;
-its always somebody’s birthday
-people typically spend more $ on their birthdays
-they typically bring others
-they appreciate the gesture
-they remember
  Most email service providers have an autoresponsder feature that accepts birthdays and delivers timed messages based on specified dates. 
 With each birthday message/coupon closely tracked, the redeem rate is easily calculated as well as the return on the investment of an iPad and the software to capture the data.
So, while Mike is automatically drip marketing to folks around their birthdays, staying top of mind,  inviting them back to play his courses, creating gobs of goodwill with that player and his buddies, he is also building his player database quickly and efficiently in which to market tournaments, events, specials and other deals that add directly to his bottom line.
If you ask Mike, marketing his golf courses just got a little easier.


-Ed Vining
Straight Shot Solutions

Start Today, don't delay

As a business owner you know there are a lot things you could or should be doing to add value to your company. But for one reason or another, you just keep putting them off. Building your customer database just might be one of those things. Yeah, it sounds great in theory; a list of all (or most of) your customers with emails and a few of their basic preferences. A responsive group that you can communicate with whenever you want or need to. A list that just might be your businesses greatest asset if and when you ever want to sell your business, or worse, if you ever have to relocate or close up shop. Yes, but that's just in theory. The truth is it takes time and a serious amount of effort to develop this valuable resource and the longer its put off, the less likely it will ever happen.  But even the smallest effort today can payoff handsomely down the road. Placing a pencil and  clipboard or small forms for customers to fill out and throw into a fishbowl near the cash register doesn't require much time or investment but it's this initial effort that can do two things. 1) Help you realize that your customers are willing to give you their information, if asked. 2) It doesn't take a list of a thousand to begin realizing the value of a customer list.  Get started and be ready to take some baby steps, pretty soon you'll be off and running

3 Things to know for your busines to win the Facebook Revolution

   If you haven’t figured it out already, the Facebook revolution is real. Just ask the guy that used to rule Egypt. There is real power behind this revolution and if done correctly it can revolutionize your business.  If you choose to ignore it, you just might suffer a similar fate as a now former Middle East dictator who made the same mistake.

  Nobody really wants to be deposed

So, in order to make the most of social media it helps to understand how it works.

It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to do via Facebook, there is one immutable fact about the social media behemoth; interaction is rewarded. 

FB has an equation it runs for every post which determines how long it remains in its Top News category. It includes but is not limited to the following 3 factors:

1. how much interaction did the post create?
2. what is the history of interaction by this user's previous posts?
3. how large is the variety of posters interacting?

So, if you want to remain front and center amidst the Facebook revolution, keep these things in mind as you create your social media strategy.