June 11, 2014
Employee Contest
Increasing your database of email addresses is a difficult challenge but it’s a necessary and ongoing challenge you need to tackle if you’re serious about digital marketing to your customers.
Although any of your customers can subscribe to your eBlast ads and weekly promotions on line at any time, you really can’t and shouldn’t rely on your customers to take the initiative to go to your website to sign up.
Why should new shoppers sign up for your eBlasts?
1. Free gift coupon for all first time signups (in most stores). Ask any MSC Customer Service Rep for information on how you can do this for all new customers.
You’re offering them (in most stores) a free item each week with qualifying purchase.
2. You’re emailing them your weekly ad directly to their email in-basket. Contact your MSC wholesaler sponsor for information or your MSC Customer Service Representative for information on a “ballot box” entry box and email signup form (see below).
Enlisting the support of your employees is perhaps the easiest way to increase your email database since your employees are the day-today “touch points” with all your customers.
Providing an incentive to your employees to help you increase your email database is an idea worth considering but it’s best to not depend solely on recruiting shoppers already in your store shopping . Why not reach out to those who are not in your store to shop to signup for your weekly eBlast ads and promotions by recruiting outside your store.
Recruiting new customers to provide their email addresses
There are four (4) considerations to successfully gaining new email addresses to your store’s email database:
- You want to reach out to those not currently shopping at your store. New customers equal new business.
- You want to present eBlast offers that are appealing enough that “new shoppers” will make the initial trip to your store AND will provide them a timely reason to return within three (3) days.
- You want to retain those addresses so that your new subscribers don’t “unsubscribe” shortly after your incentive promotion.
- You need to make the “signup” process incredibly simple to your new potential shoppers.
Recruiting Outside Your Store With Your Employees
Obviously you can always promote new signups inside your store at any time. Set up a “sign up” table with a laptop connected to the web and you’ll find and gain new subscribers. Also, you can recruit new signups anytime on your store’s Facebook page.
Here’s an idea to motivate your store employees to recruit new potential shoppers email addresses.
Step 1:
Buy some “prize awards” for the employees with the best results in gaining new addresses for your store. To make it an incentive keep in mind that the value your employees are bringing to you with each new email address. Most companies who outsource others to find new opt in customers value an email address at $2 to $3 per address. For our suggestion we’re budgeting less than $1 per address.
Employee and Customer Prizes= 4 Popular Tablets
Employee Prize Pool for 750 new email addresses from your employees = $680
(The prices for the prizes I’m providing is from Amazon.com)
2 (two) Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 with 7″ screen. A popular tablet for only $199 each
2 (two) Kindle Fire HD 7:, HD Display, Wifi , 8 GB for only $139 each
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| Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 |
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| Kindle Fire Tablet |
Your total investment to get 750 new customer email addresses is $680- that’s less than $1 per new customer.
Step 2:
Who wins?
Tell your employees that you need a minimum of 750 valid email addresses from friends, relatives and others. Tell them that there will be a prize drawing for two customers using the email signup forms that your employees give to me.
Also, tell your employees that they need to write their name down on each of the forms because they can win the identical prizes. And, the prizes are high demand items from your customers and your employees. Don’t believe me? Just ask a few employees if they have a tablet now or if they’d like a new tablet.
Although you can give away any prizes you want, a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 or a Kindle Fire HD 7″ tablet are low cost and high demand items that are great prizes.
The employees collect the addresses and provide them to you so they can be entered into the email database. Again, have your employees write in their own name on every slip of paper with an email address from a future email customer.
When you reach your goal of 750 employee generated email addresses you do a drawing of all the slips of paper and you’ll select a customer winner for a Galaxy Tab and a customer for a Kindle Fire. You’ll also award the employee who provided the address with the identical prize.
The customer wins.
The employee wins.
The store wins.
Also, this is critically important!
If you have 750 potential new customers receiving your weekly ad and weekly eBlast with this contest, PLEASE be sure to send out your “hottest” eBlast offers for a minimum of 3 consecutive weeks so you can encourage these 750 new shoppers to keep coming back to your store after the contest.
Go to www.special-deal-ivery.com to select some great eBlast offers to keep your new customers returning each week. Here’s a few examples of some eBlast coupons that will bring customers back to your store.
