Give away a 2 night break!
Every month we give away a 2 night break free!
To qualify for entry into our monthly Prize Draw prospective clients sign up to receive our monthly email newsletter 'Winners News'. We deliver this newsletter via a professional server (Constant Contact) which provides this service for a modest cost. Currently we pay £30 per month to reach a list of almost 5K, which I think is good value considering other methods of reaching clients and those costs. Our service provider also makes available all sorts of add on features as part of our package including:
- A selection of email templates for us to customise.
- A sign up form to enter our monthly draw which we can place anywhere (i.e. any website)
- A photo library to use as we wish
- The ability to upload our own photos
- Links to any other internet facility including videos
- Links to Twitter and Facebook pages (so my newsletter is delivered to those followers)
- The ability to add clients to the database
- The complete elimination of any SPAM issues with a double sign up option if required (a must from any provider)
- Results of any mailing sent (opens, links clicked, etc)
- A help desk and advice on all matters relating to email promotions.
Add ons at an extra charge include surveys, (ask your clients what they think) tips from successful users and a whole lot more.
Now newsletters are a great way of staying in touch but they can be greatly abused. If you use yours to sell, sell, sell, it will eventually become what people consider SPAM and they will opt out or set their SPAM filter to refuse delivery, neither of which will do you any good.
What I quickly discovered was to try and not sell using my newsletter. This may sound strange but it works for me. I use humour, links to other stories of interest, photos, local news from where I live, what's happening in the area, up and coming events and finally an offer for clients to come and stay. Being from Yorkshire I also make myself appear mean and slightly chauvinistic. Neither of these attributes are true (on no they're not!) but it gives me an opportunity to theme most of the newsletter content.
Of course we also list the name (only) of our winner each month with the request that the email us on their return home with a comment about their break which we then publish.
You can see a copy of the newsletter here
The sign up page to receive it here
Some comments from Winners here.
So that's about it. We give people who are thinking of coming to stay the opportunity to sign up for and possibly stay 2 nights for free. In return they part with they email address and a couple of other bits of information and agree to receive our monthly newsletter. At just a half a penny delivered it has to be a viable consideration for reaching your clients and for a cost item of say £10-£12 per you get to build a database (tribe) with an interest in your product.
You can of course tailor your prize draw to your business. Say for example that you are busy every weekend, then make your free 2 night visit only available during the week. and vice versa.
Finally with direct mail which this very much is, statistics state that it takes up to seven contacts to get someone to take action, i.e. buy your service. This is a great way of keeping in touch at a low cost and repeatedly hitting your prospects and regular clients with your name and your business details. When they do decide to take a break guess whose B&B they will consider visiting.