How to Promote Your 4th of July Events
The most challenging part of putting on 4th of July sales and events is promoting them. You’ve probably already got some awareness campaigns going. But, the holy grail of promotion is direct marketing, especially for promoting limited time events.
However, it can be tricky to get the data you need for direct marketing campaigns.
Mailing addresses are good. But, mail can be too unpredictable in its timing for short duration events. The most effective direct marketing campaigns are run through email and text.
The major barrier to running these types of campaigns is getting the email addresses and phone numbers you need for direct marketing through these channels. The good news is that there’s an easy way to get email addresses and phone numbers for direct marketing: batch skip tracing.
Batch skip tracing enables you to reach out to potential customers when your promotion will be most relevant and most likely to inspire action.
This article will show you how to use batch skip tracing to get valid email addresses and phone numbers. But, first we need to cover how to properly use this information once you get it.
How to Use Email Addresses and Phone Numbers
Ideally, you’ll only send emails and text messages to people who have voluntarily given you some of their information. That means that you’ll build your email and phone lists from your existing customer and prospect databases. We’ll show you how to do that in the next section.
But, once you get those new pieces of contact information, it’s important that you follow the laws when you use them. Phone numbers and emails each have their own rules for how you can use them.
It’s a good idea to understand all the details of the regulations. But, these are the most common violations.
Phone numbers
Before you use any phone number for any sort of marketing, you need to know if it’s on the Do Not Call (DNC) List. Calling numbers on the DNC List can rack up fines. Additionally, people put their own phone numbers on the DNC list. So, they’re usually unreceptive to cold calls.
So, before you call any phone number, you should use a phone validator to find out if it’s on the DNC List. Then, cleanse all the DNC numbers from your lists.
Cold calling may not be the best way to promote 4th of July events. But, the 4th of July holiday is a great time to reconnect with clients and leads that you haven’t contacted in a while. Just be sure to call at a reasonable hour: after 9AM and before 8PM.
A quality phone validator will also identify disconnected phone numbers, and cell phones and landlines. That way, you can also use the phone numbers for text messaging without wasting text messages.
Speaking of texting, if you plan on sending text promotions, you must give people a way to opt out of text messages from you. The easiest way to do this is to include instructions for texting a stop word to the phone number you sent the text message from.
Check the SEC cold call and text and email marketing regulations to ensure that your phone and text marketing is within compliance.
Email addresses
The regulations of the CAN-SPAM Act are actually rather straightforward. Just be clear about who you are and why you sent the email, and always honor requests to stop receiving your emails.
If you follow these five steps, you’ll be fine:
- Use an actual email address in the “from” field. Never try to hide who you are.
- Be clear in your subject line. Your subject line needs to communicate what’s in the email.
- Tell people the email is a marketing email.
- Include instructions for how to opt out of receiving future emails.
- Immediately stop sending emails if someone opts out.
Check the text of the act if you need additional guidance. But, this is the gist of it. Don’t be a jerk when you send marketing emails.
Now to the important part. There’s no need to worry about compliance or using contact data properly if you don’t have any data. Here’s how to get it.
How to Get Email Addresses and Phone Numbers
When you’re trying to locate a relative or an old friend for the holiday, an online people finder will usually do the trick.
However, businesses need information in bulk. That’s where batch skip tracing comes in. Batch skip tracing will get you contact information for entire customer lists.
Now, you need a piece of information to start with. For example, if you’re a retail business that collects names and phone numbers for all your customers, you can use batch skip tracing to get email addresses for all those customers.
It works the same if you have names and physical addresses, or names and emails. In any case, your current customer lists are your best source of information. They provide enough information to expand your marketing channels. And, your current customers and leads are most likely to convert into sales.
However, you can purchase lists from places like Listsource, and use batch skip tracing to get the phone numbers and email addresses. However, this is a truly cold contact, and you need to be extra careful when you reach out to people from a list you purchased. And, be super diligent about following the regulations.
So, there are two ways to conduct batch skip traces: batch processing and data integration. Here’s how to do both.
Batch processing
Batch processing is best if you don’t use much software to handle your contact lists. If you’re just plugging phone numbers into an autodialer, batch processing will work well for you. It goes like this:
- Add your contacts to a .csv, .txt, or Excel file. Put each piece of contact information in its own column. You’ll have a separate column for first names, last names, addresses, zip codes, phone numbers, email addresses, and so on.
- Upload your list. You can usually do this through an online self-service portal, right in your browser.
- You’ll usually get your results in a matter of minutes, depending on the size of your list. The results will be in a comma-separated .csv file.
- Start using your phone numbers.
A few notes here:
If you’re collecting and using phone numbers, you should run your new list of phone numbers through a batch phone validator. This will show you which numbers are on the DNC List, so you can remove them.
It’s best to run emails through a batch email validator to avoid sending emails to invalid addresses, catch-all emails, and spam traps. Otherwise, you could end up sending a lot of useless emails.
If you validate your phone numbers and emails, you’ll get better results and reduce the risk of incurring fines or being marked as a spammer. So, validating phone numbers and emails is technically optional. But, it’s best if you verify emails before you use them.
Data integration
Data integration enables you to automate the process of collecting and validating contact information. Data integration connects your CRM or data management software to a data stream with an API.
Then, you can establish trigger events to send data out for completion and validation before that data gets used. After that, simply plug the completed contact lists into your call center, email, or text messaging software.
Using data integration is actually rather simple. Though, it might sound daunting. Most CRM and data management software has an interface for connecting an API. And, most APIs connect through a custom URL. So, implementing data integration is a fairly plug-and-play process.
Also, if you need a customized dataset, you can get a custom API that collects only the data you need. So, data integration also offers the most tailored data solution for your business.
Watch the fireworks
Once you’ve got dependable customer data, you can use direct marketing to personalize your messaging, and really boost sales during your 4th of July events.
So, check out Searchbug if you need dependable contact data for your 4th of July direct marketing campaigns. And, happy 4th of July!
