Tag Archives: increasing sales; connecting with consumers; building brands
Do you suffer from “email reluctance”?
When you meet someone and they give you their phone number and ask you to phone them – the likelihood is you will.
If a relative asks you to send them some photos of your children – you do.
If someone asks you to send them a postcard from you holiday – you will.
But – weirdly – when someone signs up to your mailing list and asks for you to email them on a regular basis – all sorts of strange thoughts go through your head:
- Why would they want an email from me?
- What on earth have I got to say that anyone wants to read?
- They are going to delete my email even before opening it
This is what Sales Expert Matthew Kimberley calls “email reluctance” and since GDPR it seems to have become even more common place.
It is so strange – as these people have actively asked you to communicate with them, but you convince yourself that in reality that’s the last thing they want!
Don’t worry – you are not alone – and it’s easy to overcome!
You just need to look at it from a different view point – here are a few key things to consider:
- Firstly – and most importantly – your list is a group of individuals all of whom have specifically asked you to keep in touch with them – so really, if you don’t, it’s almost a bit rude.
- Your emails should cover 3 key areas:
- Educate – everyone loves to learn new things
- Entertain – everyone likes a laugh and a giggle
- Sell – this is probably the area that most people find difficult to do. As long as you are helping your contacts out by providing the education and the entertainment parts – of course you can sell to them. And if you don’t like the “selling” word – you are helping them by showing them a solution, be that for a gift or a need for themselves. People aren’t going to stop buying things and as these contacts have specifically asked for you to stay in touch with them – the likelihood is they like your product – so be proud of it!
- If your emails entertain, educate and sell – people will be pleased to hear from you – and indeed if you email them regularly they will start looking forward to your next email.
- Think about which emails you enjoy receiving regularly and positively look forward to and why
- Why not ask your audience what sort of information they would prefer to receive from you?
- Finally – write beautiful delightful emails and you can’t go far wrong!
If you would like any help with your email marketing campaigns please drop me a line at [email protected] or call me on 0772 335 1884
Top 10 Tips for a Successful Food or Drink Crowdfunding Campaign
I have recently been working with a few clients who have been looking into crowdfunding so I thought I would share a few tips to help other food and drink producers who may be thinking of this route to raise much-needed funds for their business to grow. I hope you find them useful.
- Spend time planning your campaign page well ahead of launching it
It will take months of preparation to prepare a successful campaign and to make sure you have everything in place once the donations start rolling in. So make sure you have the time and resources to devote to it before you start, as you don’t want to spend all your efforts and time on the campaign to the detriment of the rest of your day to day business. So work out who is going to be doing what within your business during this period so focus is on the campaign as well as keeping your business going. - Why are you crowdfunding?
You know why you are crowdfunding (well hopefully you do!) – but make sure you think about how you convey this to your audience. What exactly are you going to be doing with the money? When and how? What will it mean to your backers? People want this information – they want to know that if they support your campaign that the money is going to be effective in achieving what you are setting out to achieve. So you may be crowdfunding for a new oven for example – but what does that mean exactly? Better working conditions for employees? Quicker production so you can make more product and get it to more people? - Build up the audience before you launch your campaign
This is absolutely key and critical to the success of your campaign. Maybe you already have a massive database of emails that you can be communicating with prior to the launch, but if not, why not do a lead-generation booklet – such as a Recipe Booklet to build your audience.? Social media is a great way to build your audience. Take a customized approach to each platform and write a social media content planner for the pre-campaign period as well as the campaign period. Think about what your pre-campaign teasers/hooks will be. - How to make your campaign page stand out
Spend time creating your campaign page – tell the story, using photos, and graphics and video. The video really is the key selling point – remember people aren’t just investing in a food or drink product, they are investing in people and a story.
- Think about your rewards carefully
Make sure you have rewards for every budget. Also think creatively. There are different sorts of rewards you can offer: Product (your food or drink or branded merchandise such as a T-shirt/bag); Experience e.g. learning to bake with you or a tour of your factory; Creative – having their input into something such as developing a new flavour, tasting some new products with you; and finally Sentimental e.g. name something after them e.g. your new drink variant could have their name. Make sure you think of all your potential investors e.g. direct consumers, your wholesale customers and corporate. - Keep the Momentum Going
Once the campaign is launched, you may think all the hard work is done – but unfortunately not!! It’s important to keep the momentum going, keeping your audience updated with any new perks, new videos and key milestones. This is easily done through social media, but don’t forget to update your campaign page too. - Get as much coverage in the press as possible
You don’t need a massive PR budget – take a look at the following two websites where you will find journalists looking to write about your campaign. Anewstip and HARO - Choose the best time to launch your campaign
Think about the best time to launch your campaign – it needs to be a time when people have money – just before Christmas or January are probably not ideal. - Follow up once the campaign has finished
Make sure you send updates once your campaign has come to a close and keep those who contributed updated as your business grows – you never know when you might meed them again! - A successful campaign that I love!
And here’s a link to a successful campaign that I love – personal, quirky with humour, clear mission and story to buy into…see what you think.SNACT CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN
For a FREE month’s trial of Relish Food Marketing Club visit www.relish-marketing.co.uk. UNLIMITED mentoring from the Relish team and access to oodles of resources to help your business grow.
Many people are great at planning for food and drink exhibitions, sparkle on the stand – but then wonder a couple of months down the line why they haven’t got lots of new customers?
Made with milk and cream mixed with brandy dried fruit and spices and topped with an indulgent Brandy Butter Ice-Cream – it really is a rival to the traditional Christmas Pudding – and certainly succeeds in giving ice-cream it’s proper place in the heart of Winter – not a traditional peak selling time for Ice-cream.
Many people are great at planning for food and drink exhibitions, sparkle on the stand – but then wonder a couple of months down the line why they haven’t got lots of new customers?
Blogging is a great, cost effective marketing tool, but not all food and drink businesses seem to do it – and I am completely aware that sometimes it is a question of not enough time to do everything! 
We all want to grow our businesses which means we need to increase the sales of our products in-store. Whilst offering price discounts is a short term fix it is not sustainable as we all need to make a profit at the end of the day! 
For many of you I am sure January can often be a long, quiet(ish) month where you take time to recover from the busy Christmas, reflect on what went well last year and start planning in earnest for 2016.