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Big Idea? PS- Hello, Strangers! [Archive] - Bob Ross Offline Forum

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westhope84
01-22-2014, 02:16 AM
Wassup, everybody!

Working full-time plus as a service coordinator at an apartment complex with 120 residents has continued to be a justification for my failure to even really attempt to get anything going on the side. However, my grant that supports my current position runs out in a few months, and I'm considering getting back into the game.

As some of you may know, I was interested in doing a dining card. I know this model works, but there's a lot of selling to consumers involved to create a substantial income.

My thought (perhaps preposterous, perhaps awesome): What if we featured 20 restaurants on a 9x12 card with a "spend $30 on food, get $10 off" exclusive discount, redeemable once at each restaurant? This particular deal is huge in the dining card world right now (check out the massively successful City Dining Cards franchise). It gets people in the door and doesn't completely massacre the restaurant. I have a layout that would allow room for a wallet-sized dining card could be included on the 9x12 to be cut out by the consumer.

I feel that this method would essentially guarantee a fantastic response rate for restaurants. There's so much value for consumers, and restaurants know that a tremendous number of people are going to be coming through the door because potential customers aren't even having to worry about dishing out $20 for your typical discount dining card. Distribution is guaranteed with this model.

So where does our profit come from? The restaurants.

How many postcards should be sent out? Well, why not as many as you can? In my city, I could nearly saturate every last household by mailing 100,000 pieces, Yep, that's a lot. Can you imagine the response rates?

Let's say a particular restaurant featured on the card gets a .05% response. That's over 1000 people (assuming a bit over 2 persons per household. That's big stuff. If the restaurant does its job, many of these folks will come back.

So, the trick is selling 20 (or however many you want) restaurants on the efficacy of this method. The number I have floating around in my head is $3500 per spot ($1750 down, $1750 upon mailing). 3.5 cents per household for a piece that promises great response. That's 70k for 20 spots. I'm not sure what mailing/printing costs are running currently, but the total cost would be well below 30k, right? So, we're talking quite a payday. Could you do two per year?

Well, that's it. Is this a goofy idea? Would restaurants pay $3500 with the right pitch? You tell me. I sense a tremendous amount of potential, though. I covet your feedback.

Mr Subtle
01-22-2014, 10:32 AM
My thought (perhaps preposterous, perhaps awesome): What if we featured 20 restaurants on a 9x12 card with a "spend $30 on food, get $10 off" exclusive discount, redeemable once at each restaurant? This particular deal is huge in the dining card world right now
Here's what's huge in Tulsa and every other town across 'Merica:

http://i41.tinypic.com/2ltlp9v.jpg

I could of inserted another dozen Tulsa Groupon deals with many of them selling over 1,000 deals. Spend $30 get $10 off is lame.


Would restaurants pay $3500 with the right pitch? You tell me.
If you can get $3500 upfront from a restaurant owner, then you're a better salesman than Zen... especially for an ad that's going to be slightly larger than a business card(?).

westhope84
01-22-2014, 03:50 PM
Thanks for your reply, Mr. Subtle.

I know the spend $30, get $10 off deal doesn't sound too exciting, but the market proves otherwise. City Dining Cards are selling their packs of cards featuring the exact same deal, and they have grown to 12 cities in only a few years, selling 10's of thousands of packs at $20 each. Sure, the medium is key in their success, but people are obviously responding well enough to the offer to PAY for it.

Where I think you're spot-on is in regard to the price (assuming I mail 100k). $3500 is a lot. I would ask for $1750 up front. That's a lot. Even though we're talking 3.5 cents per home, $3500 is a lot of money. Probably a very difficult sale.

On this card, I don't see ad size as primary an issue as on other projects. People would see the offer and then identify which restaurants they can go to and take advantage of the offer. Not too much info would be needed in the individual ad space. The offer does most of the work.

Perhaps I can look at scaling this down or offering a 10k per month subscription mailing.

Mr Subtle
01-22-2014, 04:53 PM
I know the spend $30, get $10 off deal doesn't sound too exciting, but the market proves otherwise. City Dining Cards are selling their packs of cards featuring the exact same deal, and they have grown to 12 cities in only a few years, selling 10's of thousands of packs at $20 each. Sure, the medium is key in their success, but people are obviously responding well enough to the offer to PAY for it.

What you're missing is the fact the restaurants in the card pack didn't have to pay a penny. So, if a single card isn't redeemed it cost them nothing to try it. No out of pocket expense for the restaurant owner.

You on the other hand will be charging them $350 (and up) to advertise up front. Then you're telling them to advertise an anemic $10 off a $30 order.

Russ
01-22-2014, 05:44 PM
As somebody who has worked with restaurant's all of his life, I think you'll be extremely lucky to get any restaurants paying this (like MS has already told you).

Here's what you could do...

Let the restaurants on for free.

Charge $20 like CityDiningCards does.

Promote the cards with Facebook PPC - start with people who have listed 'food' and 'restaurants' in their interests.

You should pay around 20 cents per click at the most.

If you can convert 3% of the visitors then you'll spend $20 to sell 3 which will yield $60 in sales.

So each sale would gross $40/3 or $13.33.

Less 60 cents each for paypal, 25 cents for printing and another dollar or so to throw it in the mail.

Let's call it $10 per card.

Once it's set up it is pretty automated though. Just stick cards in the mail and handle any support inquiries.

And it will be a lot easier to get the restaurants on board.

Can you sell 10,000 of them? That's $100K.

You can test this by selling them on FB before you ever approach a restaurant. And there's no reason you need to use a 9x12 if another format makes better sense.

Lastly - you can sell a bunch in other ways; I just like the automatedness of Facebook.

Mr Subtle
01-23-2014, 12:20 PM
I personally like the drink deck idea where you buy one drink and get one free. It's a new approach and many groupon-like dining deals often have disclaimers not allowing alcohol in the deal. Targeting the 30 and under crowd I think would be "killer". Downside of course is financing a 1000 decks upfront to start.

Russ
01-23-2014, 01:05 PM
I personally like the drink deck idea where you buy one drink and get one free. It's a new approach and many groupon-like dining deals often have disclaimers not allowing alcohol in the deal. Targeting the 30 and under crowd I think would be "killer". Downside of course is financing a 1000 decks upfront to start.

A pity that the Canadian government feels they have to protect us to the point that a free drink promo is illegal here. Even though the Mayor smokes crack.

Mr Subtle
01-23-2014, 05:39 PM
You told me you're not too far from Buffalo. There ya go.

Russ
01-23-2014, 05:45 PM
Still pretty far to drive for a free drink.

Mr Subtle
01-23-2014, 06:06 PM
Still pretty far to drive for a free drink.
My point: For you to market in.

Russ
01-23-2014, 07:12 PM
Well I have thought of that frequently. Unfortunately at any given time it can take 2 hours to cross the border. And technically I am not supposed to see clients without a Visa. The laws are rather archaic in this regard.

proteinman
01-24-2014, 02:57 PM
Mr. subtle...im in buffalo!

Mr Subtle
01-24-2014, 03:28 PM
Mr. subtle...im in buffalo!
My condolences.

proteinman
01-24-2014, 03:50 PM
it is cold!!

infoseek
02-13-2014, 11:57 PM
don't quit your day job :)

BobRossIsMyHero
04-21-2014, 10:45 AM
Okay, here's another idea to mull over. Not all businesses advertise to get immediate sales as (expensive) Yellow Pages', (long term, contractual) exposure advertising will attest...so...why not look for advertisers who are happy to find a better way to get direct customer exposure? Now, couponing, isn't important because the highlight selling point is the fact that their ads are being directly mailed to people's homes--and their ads will be magnetized. They will be going onto people's home refrigerator's! Why is this so important? Because it will get seen over and over again--getting constant repeat exposure! Yellow Pages nor any other advertiser's can say the same!

You will be in a league all your own with 'repeat exposure' magnetic advertising! How 'bout that?!?