Most would think that when the NFL playoffs are over, there’s no more money to be made from football till the next season. What if I told you that was a BIG lie?
Whether you own a bar or restaurant, it’s important for you to read this article. Even if you don’t have a football fanbase it’s important for you to read this article. Why? Well, because you can take the strategy I’m going to reveal and use it with a different promotion that suits your business better.
Today I’m going to tell you how you can still profit from the NFL playoffs, seven months after they’ve been over by giving away a 50 inch flatscreen TV that you can get with zero money out of your pocket.
The Big Idea
First step is you want to think of your target market for this football promotion. Men of course. It’s football, right! So what can we do to attract theses guys to your bar, over the competitions, for NFL playoffs? Giveaway a big flatscreen TV.
But those are expensive! Not really. You can get a nice size flatscreen TV for around $450 to $500, but today I’ll tell you a simple way to get this TV with zero money coming out of your pocket.
The big idea with this promotion is to get hundreds of guys signing up to win this TV in house and online and giving them multiple opportunities to increase their chances to win by coming in and watching all the playoff games, then bringing them back in for the Superbowl.
Besides making all your money during the playoffs and Superbowl, we’re going to make more and more money with the follow up marketing we put in place after we capture their information online and in-house in order to win this TV.
How To Run Promotion
Every time they come in during the playoffs to watch one of the games, they can fill out a card with their name and email address to increase their chances to win during the big game. The more they come in, the better the chances they have to win.
To take this a step further, set up a lead capture website. A one page website that pretty much says “Enter to win a 50in TV on Superbowl Sunday” and get their name and e-mail address. What I would do is count the online sign up as 5 extra tickets for them to win the TV. Why? I’ll explain as we go why the online lead capture is so important.
How To Get The TV For Free
If you want to get this TV for free, you’re going to need to find a sponsor. You can either talk to your liquor and beer reps and have them both pitch in $250 that will go towards advertising dollars or discount on goods or whatever you can work with them to receive a $250 value. Maybe you could just get one of them to buy it from the store.
The other option (or do both) is reach out to a local TV dealer and tell them you’d like to partner on this promotion with them. In order for them to even want to do this, you’ll need to show them that they are going to receive 2 to 3 times the value on what this TV will cost them.
The way you’d do this is:
- Put their name all over your marketing and help brand them (I’ll get into the marketing plan below)
- Tell them you’re capturing e-mail addresses for everyone who signs up and you will run a 3 month e-mail promotion for them to bring these guys into their store. You could even give them the e-mails so they can use with their own marketing.
- Tell them in order for these guys to get the TV, they have to pick it up in their store, which they should then have a great salesmen there to sell them the install, speakers, etc, etc. Think upsell.
- During all the playoff games tell them you will give out a coupon / discount or promotional information about their business
- If you already have a customer list, tell them you will give them exposure through your e-mail campaigns.
- Place a few banners / signs in your business about one of their specials.
Really what you are trying to do is think of all the ways you can provide them with exposure in order for them to increase business. If you can show them how they will receive a ton of exposure and new customers, they will see this as a no brainer.
How To Promote To Get The Best Results
There’s multiple ways you’d promote this.
- In-house banners and signs of course. Use your staff as a sales tool and have them send people to your lead capture site to sign up to get the 5 extra entries. You could even have a contest with the staff to get the most sign ups
- Facebook ads. Target men in your area who have an interest in NFL football. I would also target people based on their purchase behavior, meaning target the men who like football but who are also buying beer, liquor, and meals at other bars and restaurants! Not sure how to do that?
Your ads would then direct them to the lead capture page to sign up. Now remember earlier how I said the online lead capture is extremely important and I’d tell you why that was later? Well here it is.
When you drive people to your lead capture page you will get their e-mail address that you can use to remind them every week to come in for each playoff game to sign up again to win the TV. You can e-mail them about the super bowl. You can e-mail them for the next several months with offers to get them back in the door!
You can use this e-mail list as a way to attract sponsors to work with you on this promotion by e-mailing a offer out for them.
- The other strategy to implement on your lead capture page is to set up Facebook re-targeting pixels on your website. What this means is anyone who hits this page, you can put them into a “list” on Facebook and then ONLY run ads to these people.
Why Do This?
Because you know these guys have an interest in going to bars and like football and drink because they saw your first Facebook ads or were sent there by your staff. If they had no interest in your promotion, they would have never gone there would they?
NO! So you can use this retargeting list just as you would your e-mail list and promote other specials, offers, and promotions to them. This is how you see a massive ROI on your marketing dollars because you’re only targeting people who have an interest in what you offer and who has an interest in coming to your business!
- The last strategy would be to run a newspaper ad in the sports section of the newspaper. Drive people to your lead capture page and get them to sign up, get them on your retargeting list, and get them in the door!
How To Make Money From This Promotion 7 Months Later
As I had already mentioned, when you are running a lead capture promotion online, there’s multiple ways you’ll benefit and profit. And that’s through the follow up marketing process of using your e-mail list and retargeting list to keep making these guys offers to get them back in your doors.
Conclusion
With the way digital marketing has changed our world, the old ways of running promotions still work, it’s just now there are much more profitable ways and more strategies to put in place. However, that is a good thing for us owners if we take action and use those to our advantage.
Very informative article.
Thanks Elyse!