Despite rumors to the contrary, email marketing is alive and well and, collecting emails is pretty easy in today’s world. Last week, I asked a restaurant owner if he had considered taking advantage of seasonal opportunities by selling gift certificates online. Unfortunately, the profitable Black Friday and Cyber Monday retail opportunities had passed us by; neither of which should be missed by any C2C business. One of the easiest ways to capitalize on these opportunities is through email marketing.
Fighting from where we stood, we decided to focus on Valentine’s Day. We started with a drawing for a free $100 gift certificate. Enrolling was easy – a fishbowl was placed at the entrance to the restaurant. Visitors simply had to drop a business card or a completed slip into the bowl. Likewise, a pop-up link was added to the website urging visitors to sign up for a chance to win a $100 gift card. The links were simultaneously posted on Facebook and Instagram.
Voila! The restaurant’s email list multiplied threefold within the first hour. These simple marketing tactics are an effective way to gather leads to be used in automated email marketing campaigns.
