My Progress Thread: Local SMS Advertising

[czach41]

Hey Fastlane. So I'll start off by saying that my first two businesses were unsuccessful in getting them off the ground, boostrapped. Learning experiences (and humbling as well.)

What has helped me tremendously is the guidance of two fellow Fastlane members who have been steering me in the right direction, starting from scratch.

I am doing local SMS marketing for restaurants here in my resort town (top 10 tourist destination in the USA.)

I've been building a list targeting locals, and storing them in my database. The execution here is to solicit restaurant's and have them create a personalized message/deal/text "coupon" to send directly to the cell phones on my targeted list. Everyone who has manually opted into my list has made the choice to do so, expecting to receive my texts from local restaurants with exclusive deals.

How I've grown my list from 0 to its current status of 87:

Step 1: I created flyers with a call to action, stating that if you join my list you will get a free fountain drink from the restaurant.
In return for allowing me to put up my flyer in the restaurant, and them honoring the free fountain drink, I am giving the restaurant one free advertisement blast. I tried to make the restaurant's involvement as risk free as possible.
I was only successfully able to get into two restaurants using this method, and had 5 people opt in.

Step 2: I created business cards with my message "Local restaurant deals sent straight to your phone - for free."

My pitch has been to give restaurants a few hundred cards, and have them promote my business to their customers by including them in the check booklet when people are paying for their meal.

In return for their cooperation they get a free advertisement blast to my list.

I got about 30 opt ins through this method.

** I've also placed my cards in a few local businesses, and the biggest local grocery outlet. My cards are on the cashier counter where people pay for their groceries.

Step 3: I am advertising on the local radio station (two week campaign which commenced last Monday). We created a local radio commercial 49 seconds in length.) The commercial airs about 6 times a day on the radio station.They are also doing live DJ reads throughout the day, and also sent out 4 facebook blasts to their 1500 "friends" on FB.

As a call to action on the radio, I've teamed up with a local pizza parlor, and he agreed to give away one free large pizza per day to a randomly chosen winner who opted in from the radio ads.

(Through this process of walking into restaurants, talking to countless owners, I've been fortunate enough to meet the owner of a local pizza place who wants to see me succeed, and has been more than generous in helping me out. He has introduced me to countless restaurant owners, as well as helped me create an ad and is sending it out on all of his pizza boxes that are delivered.)

What I'm doing right now: I'm exploring my options with the local newspaper. There are a few different publications I could advertise in, as well as creating a banner ad on their website. $200 for 2,000 impressions. I just met with the paper this morning so I'm going to be reviewing my options today.

Tomorrow (Tuesday the 20th) I am doing the first test run of the business.

I'm meeting with the pizza owner today and we are going to create the ad for him to run tomorrow. I will be at the pizza place all day with my camcorder. I'm going to track the statistics of the 1st test run, as well as interview as many people as I can on camera to get their testimonials. Wednesday I'm going to edit everything into a video. I'm going to use this video to send out to restaurants here in town as a way to solicit their business/interest.

That is the progress which I've made in about 40 days so far.

I need to keep building my list, gather data and testimonials, and create the video in order to show/send out to restaurants.

I figure the more people I tell this to, the more accountable I will be with executing this business to my first successful sale.

Thanks for reading

* My bad, should have put this in the sub forum.

 

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[77startup]

Welcome to the winners circle my friend. I don't say this to often to fastlane members but you are actually taking all the steps that are required to make it. Don't give in to fear and anxiety and see this all the way through. Focus on the numbers, and your ability to persuade others.

 

[czach41]

Thanks for the reply 77. No fear or anxiety here, I'm ready for the taste of success.

I made a few mistakes with testing out the business yesterday.

I should have tailored the deal differently: towards one person's meal as opposed to a deal that would feed the entire family. (I did a buy 1 get 1 free at a pizza joint)

I wasn't able to get any video testimonials as all the takeouts were from their regular Tuesday promotion.

The business operates 75% delivery and 25% takeouts, I'll check the delivery numbers later today.

In the mean time, I'm going to pursue building my list in person as everyone I've spoken to ends up opting in. I will do this by targeting restaurants where people frequent often. Pretty easy... "How would you like to eat at this place but get a fantastic deal so you end up saving money." I'm also catching them in the element of my business, which is eating at restaurants.

Time to hit the pavement some more, and execute a plan to get all of the community college students on board.

 

[lotus_pearl]

wow, its wierd reading this post as someone was just tellingme how big this is in Asia and starting to catch on in Europe. Its Definately something to keep interest in. Good luck my friend.

 

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[JEdwards]

Wow.. Good Luck.

 

[czach41]

Thanks Jack (hope you aren't being sarcastic here haha)... I know your opinions on the biz model and how it would kill a brand. However, the town I live in is a resort/vacation town with a population of about 24,000. The restaurants here quite frankly don't even know the meaning of brand, and desperately need a new way to bring in business during the down times (fall & spring).

I am giving them a way to bring in business that they desperately need.

 

[JEdwards]

I am not being sarcastic, I truly hope that it works for you.

I would love no less than being proved wrong. So again. Good luck to you.

 

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[czach41]

Update:

My list is at 127 people.

My first test run of the biz went well. I sent out a promo for my friend's pizza place. It got sent out to 84 people. 8 people redeemed the deal, via delivery. That's about a 9% conversion rate. Not too shabby. I learned a lot too about how to formulate these deals successfully, when to do what type of deals, etc.

I didn't make a testimonial video as while I was at the restaurant, nobody redeemed the deal via take out. I'll implement what I learned on my next restaurant promo in order to make the video.


My 2 week radio campaign was a big success. It tripled my list from 42 to 126.
The cost per opt in was $6.39.

My new goal is to acquire opt ins at a much cheaper cost per acquisition.

In order to do this, I am running a Facebook ad campaign targeting my local zip code.
I'm in the process of running the 1st ad and gathering data so I can split test another ad.

I am also going to send a blast to my entire list with a cool promotion for them. I'm having them tell as many of their friends as possible to get onto my list (10 minimum to be eligible). The promo will last one week. The winner will receive a gift card to their local restaurant of choice for $50.

I'm in the "desert of desertion" as MJ says, so its imperative that I keep pushing forward everyday building my list.

 

[Davidla]

In the mean time, I'm going to pursue building my list in person as everyone I've spoken to ends up opting in. I will do this by targeting restaurants where people frequent often. Pretty easy... "How would you like to eat at this place but get a fantastic deal so you end up saving money." I'm also catching them in the element of my business, which is eating at restaurants.

Time to hit the pavement some more, and execute a plan to get all of the community college students on board.

I'm not sure about the value you will add to the restaurants where people frequent often.
If the people are already coming often and paying full price, what incentive does the business have for providing deals to these customers?

That being said, I'm glad to see your progress! +Speed
I hope the pond you decided to target is big enough to make it worthwhile for you.

 

[czach41]

I'm not sure about the value you will add to the restaurants where people frequent often.
If the people are already coming often and paying full price, what incentive does the business have for providing deals to these customers?

Great question Davidla.

The idea of talking to people in front of a busy restaurant is that there are... plenty of people to talk to! Basically, this is where I can communicate with my target market, in person. Also, if they are eating out at a busy restaurant, it's reasonable to assume that they enjoy eating out at other restaurants as well. Another thing, I am not propositioning to only bring them awesome deals from that one restaurant they are already familiar with, and love. They will be getting awesome deals from quite a few local restaurants. They would find this valuable because they will get enticing deals from restaurants that they might not have visited before, or knew existed. Or, maybe they haven't gone to a particular restaurant because they felt it was overpriced. I will be giving them a reason to try that restaurant out for the 1st time. Who knows, they might end up loving that new restaurant I brought them to.

Basically, I'm talking to customers in front of one busy restaurant, in order to get them on board to receive awesome (and free) deals from all of the restaurants in town.

And from a restaurant owner's perspective, what is the lifetime value of a new customer?

With regards to your question about my pond. The town isn't very big. My goal with this business is to create enough semi-passive income to live off of. Once I'm fully supported by this, I can expand the business model to other industries, or focus on a truly fastlane business while being supported by this.

 

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[johnnyc]

How has progress been for you? I am doing the same in my area. Let me know if you'd like to chat and toss around some ideas. I've got a great list building method that has been pretty effective for me. Shoot me a pm if you'd like to talk. Thanks.

 

[BostonH]

Any updates?

 

[LeungJan]

Would love an update too.

 

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