Active Club Forum: Club Update: Preparing For a Fabulous Summer

Active Club Newsletter: Preparing For a Fabulous Summer

This is your May Active Club Newsletter. Summer is knocking on our doors and we want to make sure that our customers and prospective customers have good reasons to come on in, visit, shop and return!

The May newsletter provides ideas for boosting sales with basic courtesy, creating events and increasing sales after events and post club releases.

Topics in this issue:
• Added Value Basics
• Fee or FREE events?
• Create an excuse/event
• Set Goals and Expectations
• List of national and self proclaimed holidays

ADDED VALUE: Price is important but more and more people are looking for “value”. And offering an “ADDED VALUE” may be the key to you winning your customer’s attention and sales. Added value comes from your products and from the service provided from your staff. It can also be created with information via a newsletter, education via classes and events.

Many are just like you and me. We are focused on daily chores and can find ourselves stuck in routines. An invitation to a local event may just be enough to grab our attention and get us out the door and into your business.

VALUE BASIC COURTESY: The basics of remembering to greet people and thank them for coming by your business are small courtesies that set a nice standard. Basic? Yes, but it always surprises me when I can enter a store or tasting room and never have a single word spoken to me. This is a missed opportunity that is easy to change. Even phone calls can have a simple “Hello” and “Thank you for calling” which can leave a nice feeling to the conversation. Take the time to listen in on how your visitors are greeted and make changes if and where they are needed.

NON-TRADITIONAL EVENTS: Are you limiting your business to traditional events? There are plenty of days and weekends between the Labor days, Memorial days and Fall Festivals that give you the opportunity to create an event of your own. This can definitely help you build a loyal community of clients. I gathered a list of national and self-proclaimed holidays. When you see the list you will notice that there is plenty of creativity to the list and lots of room left for you to add your own ideas to the list. (The list of dates and respective holidays are at the end this letter.)

NO BIG EXPENSE REQUIRED: Events can be weekly, monthly, annual or a one-time occurrence. It is up to you to decide what works best for your business goals and customers. The “event” does not have to be an extravaganza of entertainment and expense. In fact creating more frequent, smaller occasions can help you become more familiar with your customers and thus, build a stronger community of repeat business.

FEE or FREE? Free is not always the right way to go. After all, you are doing this to increase business and making sure your investments are paying off is important. Consider charging a fee for non-club members with a discounted fee for Club Members. You may also consider the event as an opportunity to offer a discount on one or more products that you want to highlight.

BRING A FRIEND: Suggest that your attendees bring friends to make the event even more fun (and successful for you).

CREATE YOUR OWN SPECIAL EVENTS:

1. Dance Class Night: Have a local dance teacher do a demonstration or short class. (They should do this for free as they are promoting their dance lessons as well.)

2. Bring Your Own Bottle: Have people bring their own clean wine bottles and pay a token fee. You refill the bottles, label them and the customers watch the entire process.

3. CRAZY HAT DAY, T-Shirt–Day, Harley Day, Bicycle day, Dog-Day Afternoon, Full Moon Celebration, Falling Star Night,

MID-WEEK EVENTS:
1. Permission to PLAY HOOKIE from work: Send out a certificate that reminds people that taking a day off, by yourself, with one or even with your work-group. This can be the best medicine for staying healthy. Provide a mid-week discount of free tasting. Another twist is a VACATION PASS FOR A MENTAL DAY-OFF.

2. Off-site “MEETING”: People are working hard to keep their jobs and a day away from the office can help your co-workers release some steam and be more productive when everyone returns o the office.

3. Thursday Night “BOOK CLUB”: The book club can be the perfect excuse to get together with friends and enjoy a great glass of wine, cheese, chocolate, etc.

4. Friday “Rush Hour”: Avoid the traffic by stopping in the local shops, taste the wine, cheese, chocolates, and get back on the road after the rush hour has passed.

5. Casual Pairings: Contact local (or not so local) companies with complimentary product that pair well with your wines and have a cigar night, cheese pairing, chocolate, fruit, olive oil, cookie, etc. night.

6. STAR TREKKING: Contact your local scouting group and have an expert on hand to point out the seasonal star gazing wonders, satellites, constellations, and more.

7. Walk Between the Vines: A short or lengthy walk through a vineyard can mean a lot to people who do not generally have that opportunity and spark quite a few interesting conversations.

VIRTUAL EVENTS:
1. Online classes: Learning about vines, wine making and tasting does not always have to be done in person. You can offer classes that build over time, and provide people who are far beyond your geographic area access to your products.

2. Open the “SPECIAL BOTTLE” night: Many of us put bottles away for a special occasion. Well remind your customers that they can make their own special occasion by setting a specific night as “Special Bottle Night”.

3. Recipe & Pairing Contests: I just received an email announcing a chocolate chip cookie contest that required the recipe and wine for pairing. I sent if off to my friends who bake cookie and enjoy wine. That winery received free advertising just because they announced their contest. You can do the same. Have people submit recipes and pairings. The top 10 may be listed on your website, be distributed with your next club release, or go out in a newsletter.

4. Photo Contests: It is vacation time and you can have people send you photos showing where and with what they paired your wines.

SET GOALS: When deciding to invest in an event please take a few moments and set your goals.
>> What is the budget?
>> How many people will attend each event?
>> What is the revenue target for the event?
>> How many people will become club members?

AFTER THE EVENT: Gather the email addresses of the attendees at each event. Send an email to each person thanking them for being a part of the day and making the event a success. Offer a bonus of a re-order discount. The discount could be available for one week. Hopefully, they will have found something they enjoyed and want to order more!

I researched Holidays and found some of them quite entertaining. Take a look below and put a twist on them for your own style and success.

We hope you enjoy the summer and have tremendous success!
If we can help you in any way please let us know.

Best Regards,

Theresa Dorr
Active Club Management
www.ActiveClubManagement.com
866-450-CLUB (2582) and 925-447-CLUB (2582)

May 15th – National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
June 8th is Best Friend's Day
July 7th – National Chocolate day
June 11th - King Kamehameha Day (Hawaii)
July 18th – National Caviar day
July 20th – Moon Day
July 23rd – National Hot Dog Day
August 3rd - National Watermelon Day
August 4th – National Chocolate Chip Day
August 4th – Coast Guard Day
August 5th - Sister’s Day
August 6th – Elvis Presley’s the day he passed away
August 8th - Sneak Some Zucchini on Your Neighbor's Porch Night
August 9th – Smokey the Bear’s Birthday
August 10th - S’mores Day
August 12th – Perseid’s Shooting Star & Meteor Shower Night
August 26th - Women's Equality Day
September 19th - Talk Like a Pirate Day (unleash your inner Buccaneer)
October 16th - Dictionary Day
October 24th – National bologna day
May 25th - National Tap Dance Day

REMINDERS: Send an email to your clients:
** Remind people of the days and hours that you are open
** Invite them to come and see you. YES, invite them!
** Create ways for people to use your products be it tasting notes or recipes, hostess gift, thank you to a babysitter, neighbor, teacher, etc.
** Remind people of reasons to celebrate a birthday, anniversary, weekend, friends, family, etc.
** Thank them for their past business and for their future purchases as well
** Ask your clients for feedback as to how you can provide the best service and products possible

The most immediate way to increase sales is to ASK for the sale. Do not be shy. Just ask.

Theresa Dorr
Active Club Management: Providing a Club Solution like no other – Affordable and Powerful!

Call today for a FREE demonstration and consultation.
866-450-CLUB (2582) and 925-447-CLUB (2582)
www.ActiveClubManagement.com

Edited by Theresa (Wed Mar 24 2010 05:13 PM)