Courtesy of Broadway With Carol. Carol O’Leary said her business used to be an “expensive hobby.”
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When the last of Carol O’Leary’s six children graduated from high school, she was eager to start a new career. “I was 55,” she said. “I needed to do something to fill my time and maybe make a few bucks.”
But what would she do? As it happened, she had developed some skills over the previous decades while raising her children. In particular, she had organized fashion shows, Christmas bazaars, dinner dances, cheerleading competitions and Girl Scout troops. And she had also led frequent bus tours from the Philadelphia suburbs to New York to see Broadway shows. She had done this for many schools and organizations, and she had raised thousands of dollars for every one.
“I loved going to New York and seeing shows,” she said, “and I had been running bus trips for my children’s high school for years. Then someone said, ‘You’re not going to stop running your trips now that Peggy graduated?’” That was the inspiration that led to the founding of her business: Broadway With Carol. But could she make it a real business?
“I must admit, it’s been an uphill climb,” she said. “I made so many mistakes along the way, bought and had to eat so many tickets and had a few trips that I had so few people that I just drove them up myself — but I never canceled a trip as long as someone paid me for tickets.”
Most weekends, Ms. O’Leary charters a bus and leads groups of theater lovers to New York. On the bus, she gives out maps, directions and the scoop on how to get through the line at Rockefeller Center to ice skate. Often her customers bring their children or grandchildren, and depending on the show, she will arrange for her group to meet the cast or get a backstage tour. She charges $30 each way per person.
And yet, there have been several points where she was tempted to give up. Then a friend suggested that she do more to cultivate relationships with her customers by using an e-mail marketing service, Constant Contact. The service, which charges a monthly fee, allows you to send e-mails and newsletters to prospects and clients if you have their e-mail addresses. Ms. O’Leary’s list is roughly 1,200 names, but even if you have 10,000 e-mail addresses, the monthly fee is only $75.
Then Ms. O’Leary started sending out newsletters. “My newsletters are generally about upcoming trips,” she said. “I might give a review of a show, or sometimes I’ll do a feature on a trip.” She also does a special e-mail blast when there are last-minute seats available — “I reduce the price and send out a newsflash,” she said. And she uses Stubhub if she still can’t sell the tickets. But that has been less of a problem since Ms. O’Leary started the newsletters, which she sends out twice a month. Since then, she said, her business has gone from being “an expensive hobby” to turning a modest profit.
On every trip, Ms. O’Leary sends around a clipboard with a request for cellphone numbers in case her customers get lost in New York and e-mail addresses if they want to receive her newsletters. She how has 1,200 active contacts who receive the newsletters. Each copy is opened, on average, by more than 350 people. And she has hired a social media assistant, Nancy Caramanico, who helps her manage her Web site and her weekly e-mail blasts.
If you are ready to get started with e-mail marketing, here are a few tips.
o Always use a sign-up list. When you meet people in person, especially in your place of business, grab their business cards or invite them to sign up for your mailing list.
o Develop at least three ways to capture addresses. Your Web site is your most valuable tool for this. When prospects visit your site, offer them something — a free quote, a book chapter, a white paper — in exchange for their e-mail addresses.
o Invest in an e-mail service like Constant Contact or MailChimp, which is free up to 2,000 e-mail addresses. The services have templates and offer customer support to get you started.
o To avoid your mailings being labeled spam, send information that is useful to your target audience. You can always add coupons at the bottom of the e-mail blast.
Melinda Emerson is founder and chief executive of Quintessence Multimedia, a social media strategy and content development firm. You can follow her on Twitter.
Article source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/a-start-up-finds-traction-through-e-mail-marketing/?partner=rss&emc=rss
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