E-mail Promotions Can Pick Up Slow-Winter Business

Nothing seems as perpetual as winter cabin fever. As tough as it is for those home bound, the restaurateur faces insurmountable hurdles attempting to juggle payroll, vendor bills, rent, advertising bills and other expense when customers have all but disappeared. A friend on the snow-riddled east coast believes that the weather pattern is built around holidays. It blows in regularly just to alleviate any possibility of profit is his mantra.

Although enticing customers with specials events, creative menu items and lower prices frequently works, it is difficult to get the message out if the mail is frozen and the newspapers have come to a standstill. Or is it?

One of the beauties of modern technology is the immediacy of delivery. The email campaign is the snow bound answer to advertising. Broadcast emails consistently work. Recent data proves that if the recipient knows the sender, the email is not only opened and read, but the content leaves an impression on the reader.

There are numerous email broadcast programs available. One of the best is Constant Contact. It´s easy to use, has numerous templates and allows the user to pay monthly, based on the email subscriber lists, which makes the service cost effective with a monthly charge as low as $30.00.

If you are not using email to reach your customer base, you are missing a relatively simple, reasonable method of advertising. If you are not as creative as you would like, ask a waiter to help you with the program. Eventually, put them in charge of your advertising and pay them a set amount to handle the database, develop the ads, and come up with the ideas to entice customers.

Cabin fever infects everyone at this time of year. There are ways to beat it. Being Internet creative is a sure remedy to beat the blues while getting your message out to those who are stuck at home, checking their email.