Wednesday

Email marketing solutions

I'm not pushing any particular company, just that you build your email marketing infrastructure and competency. Build your list, use your list.

List building. Offer something free on a regular basis (free lunch, free catering, new menu item). "Join our list and you could win" eliminates some of the barriers to joining.

Also, train counter and wait staff to suggest joining. Concepts that ask customers to sign up at the point of sale increase their lists faster and have better contacts.

Enable customers to join in multiple ways. A business card is the most common, but what about moms? Create a sign-up sheet with boxes for each letter - it improves readability when it comes time to enter them.

Choose a provider. There are rules and laws associated with email marketing. One of them is the ability to opt out at any time. This is not something you want to manage on your own. Constant Contact and Fishbowl are two companies that offer software.

Determine what you need from your provider. If you just need list management and the ability to send good looking emails, Constant Contact is a solid solution. You can segment your lists and send as many messages as you want for a fixed price. If you have franchisees who need access to the system, need the ability to monitor the messages of others, and maintain brand standards, a more inclusive provider, such as Fishbowl, is a better choice.

There are a bunch of providers, these are only two. Use the popular search engine Google to find one that fits your needs and your budget.

It's not all about pictures. Email gives you the ability to show food and pretty pictures. But remember that many email clients don't show images in emails by default and security settings often block them out. If your message is really a graphic add that you cut up and send via HTML, many of your customers can't read it. Use text. It works.

Monday

The benefits of email marketing

There's a right way and a wrong way to do email marketing. Done right, it can not only increase frequency of visit, but also increase ticket average, put butts in seats and, whether you're a franchise or a single-unit operator, increase the value of your business.

You just need to set your expectations as to what it can accomplish for your unit.

Increase awareness. Email marketing is inexpensive compared to other media and should be used to augment existing efforts. If you're posting billboards and running ads, email becomes an additional contact. Unless there is an offer in the mail you likely won't spur traffic, but you can increase awareness among existing users for new products, catering services, dayparts, and community involvement.

Drive sales. I just said you likely won't drive traffic with email, but that's if you use it as an additional contact and for frequency of message. If you add an offer (free drink for the first 20 people today, BOGO this Saturday only, 10% off catering orders of $100 or more) you can spur sales within a defined period.

Increase frequency. The people getting your message are existing customers. Use email to drive menu trial (you love our burgers, but have you tried our chicken?) and increase frequency of visit. Combine with an offer to get customers to come back within a few days, or to try carry-out, or cater a meal.

Increase sale price / value of business. As a franchisor, your email database is an asset. Having thousands of names and email addresses raises the value of your organization because you have the infrastructure and process to consistently communicate with your customers. As a single-unit operator, the value is increased for the same reason, but also because you appear to have a more intimate connection to your customers - something for which a prospective buyer will pay a premium.

Saturday

Franchise intranet system

Communication with your franchisees is half the battle when it comes to supporting them. Face to face and by phone is best, but time consuming. It's also NOT best when it comes to routine questions and becomes very inefficient for your limited staff.

Email is not real-time, making it more efficient in some cases but it's also one to one. Another franchisee with the same question gets a similar email, but your staff doesn't get economies of scale. Email can be one to many, when you're the one initiating the communication ("remember to put up your ad campaign materials"), but not when franchisees are the ones asking the questions.

Email is also a difficult way to post new information. Updates to the ops manual, vendor lists that change often, new forms and tools - who has the most recent and who needs a new one?

A franchise intranet system is another tool for your franchise support people that makes them twice as efficient as before. They can post the latest forms and documents, answer franchisee questions so that others can read the answer too, builds a knowledge base for franchisee self-support, and enables your staff to focus on the troubled units.

Your concept is NOT too small to have an intranet. Big or small, you have the same issues. It's part of the infrastructure you need to support units, maintain your brand, and ensure consistency of operation.

Friday

Email marketing for franchises

Restaurant owners, and most small franchise companies, tend to miss out on one of the most important parts of the advertising mix: email marketing.

I've seen lots of reasons for this. Fear of technology, or ignorance in it's usage; lack of understanding as to the benefits or email; unrealistic expectation of results; lack of money.

As a stable part of your marketing mix, email marketing provides regular contact, more impressions, and should play more of a supporting role to your other efforts. It gives you a chance to contact your existing customers one more time (or two more times) about your special price point, your new entree, your community involvement, or your expanded daypart. It's a chance to remind customers, to incentivize them, to call them to action.

Too many small franchises, selling to single-unit operators, don't even mandate that a computer and Internet connection be present in the unit. Many of their Z's don't check email, or have an AOL account. Often franchisors know the value of email advertising, but can't get their franchise partners on board.

The next few posts will help to make the benefits of email marketing clearer, and offer some solutions to getting set up to be easy and automatic, getting franchisees on board, and increasing the value of your company.

Wednesday

Increase Ticket Average with Variable Offers

I've worked a lot of retail. Every place I have ever worked we've always played the same game: who can get the highest sale today/this shift/this week. We'd create friendly competition between ourselves to see who could get folks to add more to their purchase.

Here are some of the ways we'd outdo each other:
- Cross-sell, upsell. Kind of an obvious one, but we were pretty damn good at it. Belt to go with pants (and then the shoes). Not THAT belt, this belt. I found I get better at these things when there was a reason to be good (ie: bragging rights or lunch from the manager).

- Variable offers. Back in the days before scanners we put stickers on everything. Stickers fall off or they're taken off or they don't get marked-down in a timely manner. It was a crappy system, but it offered the ice-breaking question: "How much is this?"

The answer to that often depended on how much was in their basket. I might be willing to give 10% off the item just to get it out of my store, but we could get more out of each customer if we got creative:

*It's $25, and I'll throw in [fill in something you've been trying to clear out] for free.
*I'll give you 10% off if you get the blank that goes with it. (Smart shoppers would ask for 10% off both the item AND the blanket. The answer is YES.)
*If your total is more than $50 I'll give you $5 off of that; if it's more than $65 I'll give you $10 off.
*For you? 25% off, but don't tell anyone.

The trick was to get more from someone. We knew we were making money off of the customer, so percentage after their initial purchase wasn't as important. Now it's about contribution to the bottom line.

In a retail environment this is not just good for the sale, it's great for building a relationship. "For you it's 15% off", "it's free if you'll buy one of these", "I throw in another one at half price just for you".

In a restaurant, the tactics change a bit but the concept is the same. Sample desserts at dinner, other food in line. Comp the coffee if they'll get the dessert. Whatever. There are as many ways to do it as their are consumer tastes. That's what makes it so easy to do.

This is where the art of retail / restaurant comes in. Awaken the PT Barnum in you.