Three Emails You Should Send in March to Capitalize on the Madness

According to the NCAA, 181 million viewers will tune into the three-week basketball bonanza known as March Madness. Brackets, pools, parties and team t-shirts will take over offices all across the country.

We’ve got some email marketing ideas that you can use during the 67-game streak to capitalize on the excitement for your business.

1. Send a March Madness promotional email

You don’t have to sell sporting goods or run a pizza place to cash in on March Madness. A frozen yogurt shop came up with this promotion.

Yogurt doesn’t have much to do with basketball, but the simple reference to March Madness makes it a slam-dunk in the marketing world.

You’ll notice this company didn’t use the words March Madness in its promotion. These coveted words can’t be used for promotional purposes unless it’s an officially sponsored event. You can, however, come up with creative marketing slogan that separates the words “March” and “Madness.” For example, “March Markdown Madness,” is fine. That’s what this car dealer is using to promote a big sale this month.

2. Invite customers to participate in a giveaway

There’s a lot of excitement around March Madness, so try to capitalize on some of that basketball love with a giveaway.

Consider creating an email giveaway that’s tied to the tourney. Pei Wei, a Thai restaurant, did.

The giveaway draws on the madness title while giving away some great prizes. If you plan to run a giveaway like this, make sure you cross promote it on all of your channels. Pin it, tweet it, post it. Do whatever it takes to get the word out.

3. Send email bracket invites

March Madness wouldn’t be madness without brackets. An accounting firm invites its customers, contacts and friends to participate in the company’s bracket competition, which is dubbed Tax Madness.

“It’s a good way for us to interact with both clients and non-clients,” says Paul Herman, founder of Herman & Company. “If a non-client at some point in the future has a need for our services, hopefully they will think of us and also remember that we are an accounting firm that is not just about work.”

The New-York based accounting firm runs a typical bracket pool, where customers try to pick the winning team.

A southern lifestyle magazine took this idea one step further. Rather than running a basketball bracket, Gardens and Guns ran a food bracket. The idea was to name the best southern food. The company emailed customers asking them to participate and vote for favorites on Facebook.

The idea here is to capitalize on the marketing frenzy that is March Madness. There’s no right or wrong answer, only creative ones. If you have an idea, run with it. When you tie your marketing efforts to a current event like this, it’s all about thinking outside the box. (Check out: 5 Creative Topics to Get Your Marketing Mojo Going for other email ideas).

Have another March Madness marketing idea? We’d love to hear about it. Share it in the comment section below.

This post contributed by guest author, Lisa Furgison. Furgison is a media maven with ten years of journalism experience and a passion for creating top-notch content.

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The post Three Emails You Should Send in March to Capitalize on the Madness appeared first on VR Marketing Blog.

Source: Vertical Response Blog

Three Emails You Should Send in March to Capitalize on the Madness