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.
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