Anissa Milburger created a restaurant bingo campaign to help local businesses during COVID-19. She designed cards on Canva, mailed them to 25 businesses with a personal letter, and offered $50 gift card prizes. Players photographed receipts as proof and shared on Facebook.
Chapters
Hi, how are you?
Good, good.
So I have Anissa Milburger with me from the next Home Gadwood Group, and she. Actually, you guys emailed me about a really cool thing that you were doing with the bingo, and that's. We just wanted to share it with everyone. This is one of our flash webinars where we get in, we get out. We're going to get you some really cool information. And, Anissa, thank you so much for being willing to be here and do it with us.
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Yeah, of course.
So, questions tab. You guys see it? If you got questions, please go ahead and type them in. We'll do our best to answer them. And for those of you that are in the Facebook group, Rachel from our marketing team is monitoring the questions in there, and she'll push those into us as well. So let's start. Just. Actually, let's probably start. Let me share. Hey, where did my PowerPoint go?
It's all right. At least we're not doing this for.
A living or anything. I know how to find it. Here we go. We were talking about how I hadn't done a zoom before a month ago, and now I'm getting pretty darn good at it. So here we go, party people. So let's talk about the bingo concept, first of all. And probably for starters, we should give credit where credit is due. Imran always talks about the case method, which I think is something like copy and steal everything or something like that. Right. So you didn't come up with this concept. Melissa Howe did out of South Carolina. But you saw it and thought it was really cool.
Right?
Yeah.
You had mentioned it on one of your seminars that you did, and I thought, what a great idea. So I reached out to her and just asked her if she had a template or anything, and she said no. I just went on canva canva.com and you can create a free account. And she said, you know, it has templates on there that have different bingo templates that you can just download and create and make your own. So it was super simple, and that's what I did.
So, first off, credit where credit is due. I'll be honest, this was all going so fast. I don't know if you guys noticed. I've done a few webinars in the last month, and so I wasn't sure who had originated the idea. And then I got an email and I said, oh, sweet Anissa, would you do this webinar with me? But we want to make sure we're giving the proper shout out. Credit where credit is due. So, Melissa Howe, congrats to you. You are the one that came up with it. And then Anissa saw it and ran with it. Melissa, this wouldn't even be happening if it wasn't for you. Thank you for this great idea. You saw this and then you thought, what, I could do that, too?
Well, yeah, it seems simple enough, and it really was. When you get on there, it took a little time to create it. So really, I guess what I would say is when you're putting in all the restaurants, make sure you call them and touch base and make sure that they're open. Because what happened was I was looking on our we belong to the Shawnee Chamber in Shawnee, Kansas, and went online, and I was looking on there and trying to compare what I knew was open and. And they had a list of some that were supposed to be open, and by the time I put them on my card, they had closed. Then I had to reach back out to the Chamber and tell them, hey, this one's not open, or it's only doing dinner or whatever. So then we had to go back and tweak it. And it was so new. It was like one day old, which was not a big deal, but sure, I'd driven out to a restaurant and it was closed. And I called the owner. I know her, and I was like. She said, yeah, we decided to close. So anyway, so the good thing about calling the Chamber was he said, what are you doing? And I said, well, it's this restaurant bingo. And we're trying to get people to remember to support the restaurants and the staff. And, you know, we certainly don't. We need all of them. And they're local, mom and pops, a lot of them. They're not franchises, which franchises need help, too, you know, but when, you know, I mean, we know half of the owners in our area and, you know, so personally, you know, he just said, well, that's a great idea. I'd love to pop that on our chamber, you know, and let other people know about it. And I said, well, that's great, you know, and he did that. And I've come to find out a lot of chambers, even if you don't belong, but you live there and you're doing something for their city, they will put it on there anyway. So I would suggest call them, say, hey, can you put this on your. On your calendar, on your Facebook page? Or whatever. And anyway, they're really more than willing to do it, especially because it is helping Their local, you know, community commerce.
Right. That's what they're there for. Whether or not you remember, they should be driving commerce, especially in times like this. All right, so for starters, first pro tip, call each restaurant. If you're doing restaurant bingo, call each restaurant, make sure that they're open. Get ahold of somebody, and make sure they're open and plan on staying open.
Right.
So that you can build out your bingo card. And I've got it up here on the screen. The one on the left is yours. That's the one you built. And we should not have done this at lunchtime in California, because now I'm starving. Mexican restaurants. And I bet McAllister's Deli makes a mean sandwich. But so pro tip number one, make sure they're open. Pro tip number two, talk to the local chamber of commerce, which I think is great. So they picked it up and they ran with it, and we're helping promote it as well.
Yeah, they've been great. They just said they put it on their Facebook page. And a bunch of people that I know, even someone in my office, we didn't say. I didn't mention that to anyone. And he said, I just saw this. You're on the Shawnee Chamber.
And.
And I was like, I know. Isn't that great? And so the word kind of spread. And anyway, that's been helpful, so.
Awesome.
Yeah.
Katie Slater commented that happened to her as well with the bingo card that she had. Make sure you call the restaurants, make sure they're open. Make sure they plan on being open.
Cause that seems like something that can happen.
And so I want to get tactical for just a second. Like, when you called, what did you say? Did you. Did you. How did you explain it? Was anybody. Were you nervous to call them? Like, this is kind of weird. Were any of them. Like, you're a crazy lady. Like, what are you doing? Walk us through that process of those initial calls.
Well, when I called, usually it's not the owner. It's people working, you know, taking orders. And I would say don't call during their busy time, because I did end up calling on a lunchtime for. And they were kind of. I could hear they were busy. And of course, they had phone ringing off the hook. They don't want to talk to anyone that. That long. So I just told them, and I. What I did was after talking, confirming, you know, are you open all day, night only lunch or whatever, you know, I got that information. But then I also followed up, and I sent them a letter. So I Printed out the bingo. And then on the other side, I wrote just a quick note, personal note, and it was very simple, just like you're writing to your friend. And I just said, dear Shawnee restaurant owners and staff, I wanted to help our local restaurants and their employees by supporting you in some way. I created a Shawnee restaurant bingo game and posted it on my personal and our Facebook pages to spread the word. The goal is to help you keep your business going during this unprecedented time. We all love you and want you to be here after this is over. Our family hopes this can help you in some small way. And then I put, it takes a village. Cheers to you and all you do to feed our families.
So you mailed that directly to the business owners?
Correct. So I had whatever, 25 or 24, and I mailed it to their place, place of business, and then signed our name, our family names. And I put our golden retriever, Jesse, who sometimes is lucky enough to get any leftovers, just kind of like a fun, playful, you know, whatever. And then I had one of the business owners reach out. He emailed me and thanked me and said, that is so wonderful. What a great idea. And, you know, just kind of made it fun. And, you know, they get a $50 gift card. But, you know, the truth of the matter is I never said you have to go spend $100 at a restaurant. I mean, they could literally go buy a Coke or. You know what I mean? I'm not telling them how much to spend. I'm just saying, mark it off and show me proof that you did it, you know, in a picture or a receipt or whatever, for sure. And, you know, you get a $50 gift card. And so right now, I've got people that are close, but nobody's won yet. I have to constantly update the Facebook page saying, keep going. We don't have a winner.
And.
Yeah.
So I'm going to.
I want to ask you some ways that you promote it, because one question was. Or comment was that maybe they've tried it. Renee's tried it, but she's not getting the traction. But before I ask you about that, will you share that letter? Will you send that to myself or Rachel, and then we can include that. We'll send it out to everybody that's on the webinar or anyone who wants it, because sometimes it's easier to edit than create. And I just think that's a great idea. Another thing I will mention. How many of those restaurant owners called you? Was there just one of the 20, or did several.
I talked to one of the owners wife. She had picked up the phone. She was taking orders one day, and so I talked to her one day, but then the other one. And I thought about reaching out on. I think I'll have more luck if I reach directly out to the owners that I know personally on Facebook or social media. Because my concern is maybe somebody in their office got some mail and saw it, and maybe they don't really know. I don't. I truly don't know. It's not a big deal.
But in the end, you spoke to all. I don't want to do math, but 1, 2, 3. Like all 20 or so restaurant owners, you spoke to them at some point, right?
Yeah, I spoke to someone in their office. It may have been the owners.
Sure, sure.
But their manager or someone in charge. Yeah. So what a beautiful, elegant, lovely way to grow your sphere of influence too. Right.
Because now you're. Yeah. You're letting them know you care. I did put my business card in the envelope with the bingo card and the letter, but that was more if they wanted to reach out with my email or whatever, because.
Yeah.
So they had your copy printed out. It didn't have my information on it like it does online.
Yeah.
So I put the card in there for that reason, in case they're like, you know, whatever. So I know some people were getting kind of donations from businesses that said, hey, I'll donate a gift card if somebody went, you know, and all that. I didn't get into that because I didn't want to bother them. Does that mean I didn't. I just didn't want to make it more work for them. I wanted it to be like, oh, great, you know.
Yeah, get them some more business. Because gift cards are great, but they need business too.
Right.
So, yeah.
So let's talk. The first time you put this out and you put it on your Facebook wall, did you have hundreds of people, like, were you as popular as the winner of American Idol? Or did you put it out there and kind of nothing happened and you had to do it five or six times, Talk about how you launched it and then also talk about how you've had to nurture it since you launched it?
Right. I think, really, I think it's your sphere of influence. I have it on my realtor page, but on my private personal page, I have more, you know, likes or friends or whatever. And so I've seen people share it and I. That's great. And really, I think that would be a great idea to say, hey, Guys. And you know, you're welcome to share this with anyone, of course. I mean, it's for the community.
I'm sorry to interrupt. How many times would you say you've posted about it on your personal wall since you started? Yes. Just guess. Don't sign up.
10.
10.
I don't know.
Yeah, yeah.
And how long ago did you start?
I started last week.
Okay.
So I updated. I probably should update it every day. I updated every other day about saying, hey, no winners yet, or whatever. Keep going. But if somebody says something, I always reply right away to whatever they say because I want to stay on top of that.
But so Renee and others who are thinking about implementing this or if you implemented it and it didn't get off the ground, something to think about is really, you're doing something on this at least every other day. And in the last week, you've been pretty consistently a week or 10 days, you've been pretty consistently posting about it in your social sphere in addition to doing the letters and all the other stuff. So it is going to take a certain amount of oomph to get it off the ground. Right. A certain amount of oversaturation. And do you have people, like, sending in partial cards and you're sharing those cards, like, as people get closer or how are you sort of building that anticipation about it?
So they. People are uploading a picture with the X, like it X'd out, you know, and that's handy. And then they'll say, hey, I ate at this place, this place, whatever, whatever. And. And that's kind of a good way. They said they were doing it to keep track of it because they were afraid they were going to forget, so they would put it on there. And the thing is, I think the. I like the visual. Personally, I would rather them send a picture of them next to the food or. Yeah, no, I think that makes it, I don't know, more personal. Just the bingo page. Whatever. I mean, it's. Whatever's makes them comfortable. But. Yeah. So there was something I was going to say, but I lost track.
Well, I'll add one thing, and I don't know if you've done this, but for those of you that were on Sean Carroll's webinar that we did the other day about his T shirt staying home, maybe part of what you could do to promote this is tell the story about the owner, like, how long profile the restaurants. Maybe one a day or one every other day. So that you're talking about how the Sunset Grill opened five years ago and this is Jim and Julie, the owners. And they were originally from California and had to get away from the California crazies or whatever. Right. But like, just tell the story about the owners and the restaurant as well as a way to sort of cross sell each individual restaurant, have a human story behind it. And this bingo concept.
Yeah, that's a great idea. Yeah. I mean, the thing is, it really. It probably seems overwhelming to think about, oh my gosh, and now I gotta call an owner. I mean, if you could just. I mean, call them, Leave a message, say, call me when you have just a few minutes. I'm not gonna take up your time, but if you don't mind. I mean, most people would be more than willing to do that, I would think.
I would imagine. Especially if you let them know, hey, I'm working on something to try to drive business to local restaurants. I want to get more people coming to your restaurant. A very good friend of mine owns a restaurant in Pleasanton, California, that I've actually launched two different companies where I'm sad to admit or embarrassed to admit, a lot of the work was done from his bar. Right. Me and the other founders and laptops and we were working well into the night. And, you know, he's a dear friend of mine. He's been there while I've launched two different companies. And you know, he's. I've donated some food through him to healthcare workers and done some other things through his company just to keep him going. So those kinds of. This kind of outreach is so humans over houses. Y. Right. It is really the kind of. What a beautiful connection and connection point with those local entrepreneurs and those local owners and of course, out into your sphere of influence as well. I do want to take a second Anissa because the whole Anissa admiration society is now chiming in with messages. So a lot of people think you're a rock star. So I just want you to know that. So had to get that out of the way. So what would you say is the. What was the hardest part of it all?
I think just, you know, making the time to do it. And I mean, I think we all are so busy with all the COVID stuff and trying to make that all right and maybe adding stuff to Facebook pages or website pages. Whatever, whatever. You know, there's so much change lately that I think we've all felt like we're behind the eight ball. You know what I mean? Like, we're trying to catch up. So I think you just. I mean, really. It took me an hour maybe to do that and make it look right and feel good about it and download it and then upload it. I don't think it really took that much time. Now when I did the letters and mailing, that, that took a little time. Just, you know, addressing and calling and whatever took a little, little more time.
So from the day you said, I think I'm gonna try this, until you had the bingo card built, you talked to the owners, you had the bingo card built and you were putting it onto social media, how long was it? From the, from the day you start. Not from the day you thought about it, but from the day you started on the idea till it hit social media. How long was it?
I think it was about three days.
Oh, wow.
That fast?
Yeah, because I. Well, I didn't. I didn't think that was very fast, actually. I felt like it was like. But I think because I had to keep making sure all those restaurants, it took me a while to reach and they did have different hours. Some of them weren't even open until the evening. And I would be calling them a day and then whatever, Whatever.
So I've got another question for you. Have you been a cold call person for most of your career? Have you cold called businesses before?
Not really. I think I'm more, you know, in my sphere, in my area.
So you don't have to, you don't.
Have to say that.
You don't have to say that like you're sorry. There's nothing wrong with that. Most of us aren't cold call animals where we're willing to pick up the phone. And what I find interesting, though, is that psychology never occurred to you that it was a cold call because you were calling to help somebody.
Right. And I do think that is a big. And I think that's why they also want to listen, because they realize you're not hitting them up for something. It's, oh, you're doing something for us. I think it's. Yeah. And I think that's what we're all trying to do right now is just help each other because we're all stuck inside. Yeah. We all have to eat. And not everybody wants to cook three meals, four or five meals a day. If you have little kids, you never know.
Yeah.
It's nice to. To get out and think. I mean, seriously, I'm crossing. I'm doing every square on that myself. Yeah, I feel like I should.
Yeah.
You know, I feel like I want to help them too.
So you're doing the blackout. You're doing the blackout bingo restaurant. Card.
Exactly.
Yeah. So I love that, that when the idea has enough meaning, you push through.
These normal barriers that we put in front of ourselves. Like, I know I should call five people from my sphere of influence. But you don't.
Right. Or I know I could cold call.
Businesses to talk to them, but we don't.
But now in times like this, when the caring is enough, we just push.
Through all those barriers that we normally have. So I think that's really awesome. Okay, so the hardest part was chasing down the owners and getting the agreement. You pretty consistently have to nurture it.
And water it every.
At least every other day through social. Has this just been only on Facebook? Have you also used Instagram?
You know what? I did not. And it's just. I don't think I posted it. Now, I would say to everybody, if your broker can get in on this with you and help. I mean, our. We have somebody in our office, Kevin, that likes to do kind of. That kind of stuff, and he just puts it out there and, you know, and your broker can put it on their page, their main page and that kind of stuff, or your Facebook pages. So kind of let everybody in your office know and share because really you're just, you know, you're all in it together too.
This kind of turned into a thing, right, where multiple people in your.
In your office who work different areas are now.
Like, how many agents in your office are doing this?
I think we have five agents. And we're doing different cities because we all live in different cities. Even if we overlap, there's plenty of restaurants that can, you know, you can go to, but. But and make it your own. Anyway, so, yeah, we went. We kind of blanketed the Kansas area outside of greater Kansas City. And then one of our agents, she thought maybe she would do a little twist on it. And she did a Kansas City scavenger hunt, which is super cool. And she put like landmarks of Kansas City. Like, go take your photo in front of this whatever Kansas City landmark. She did, like 10 items. And then at the bottom, I love what she did. She put, go to one of our listings and stand in front of our signage and Luke, and take a picture of yourself and then post it on her Facebook page. And then they win, like, you know, different 50, 25, 30, whatever gift cards that if they get them all done. And I love that she incorporated that signage for next home and getting people out to these people's houses. And I just. I don't know, I thought that was a great idea. So.
Sounds like I might have to do another webinar.
Email me her information.
I'll reach out to her. I'd love to monitor how that goes.
Yeah. Suzanne did it in our office. She's awesome.
All right, Suzanne, I'm coming for you.
You're going to be on a webinar soon. Get ready, lady. Okay.
Anything else that you. What's one more thing you'd want to share?
Anything.
I should have asked you that. I didn't.
Oh, I did this. And I love that some people did it. They. So you have that QR code there is. You can go to, like, free QR code.com or some. I. I don't know. It's QR code.com, and they're free. Go to the free ones. And I created my own with Luke in the middle, and they zap that, and it goes right to your website.
Oh, that's awesome.
It's awesome. It's free and it's easy to do. So it's QR code dot com.
Will you send us that link when you send us the letter?
And we'll make sure that everyone gets a copy of that as well.
Rachel, I think you're lurking somewhere. If you could put that in the comments section, you could Google that for us, Rachel, and put it in the comment section so people could see it. That would be awesome. Okay, I got one more quick one.
Because Julie, your broker owner, did a.
Twist on this, a twist on the twist, which was to do, basically, office bingo, Right. Where there was activities that you could do, and the first one to complete the line would win something. Tell us a little bit about how this sort of evolved in your office, because I think it's pretty cool.
Yeah.
Julie said she loved that bingo idea, and she said she thought, oh, I should do that. But then she started thinking, how could she get the agents in the office motivated? I mean, you know, more motivated and have fun at the same time. And so she just sat down and created her own bingo card. And I think we have. I think at this point, they have four winners or something. They've gotten five in a row, and. And people are just sending them in as they get it. It's just been really fun and kind of makes you, like, again, get outside the box and think about something maybe you need to do you haven't done and push yourself to do it. And so that was the goal, just to get people involved and have fun.
That's awesome. And it's got things like send a handwritten note, write five handwritten notes, went for a walk. So there's some self care stuff in there close to home that's everybody's personal favorite. So highly recommend that one if you.
Can pull it off.
Reached out via text to 5 people. I think it's a really cool, clever way to, you know, we all need to be motivated sometimes. So I think it's a really.
Julie's great at that. She's great at motivating and getting people together and, you know, all of us working together as a team. So it's really been fun.
Yeah. Julie's on the webinar. She says it really keeps us relaxed and engaged during a time of crisis, which I think is just really elegant and beautiful because that's. Those are the kinds of things we need. So I really think that's very, very cool. So Rachel put in the QR code for us and she'll do it in the Facebook group. Julie was also nice enough. Let me know that you guys have a Happy hour at 4 o'.
Clock. So I'll be trying to make an appearance at that.
That's two o' clock here, but I.
Have a very hard job but one.
I'm willing to do, so love it. Yes.
Join us.
Yeah, I just really want to encourage all of you to keep the ideas coming, keep the energy level up, keep the enthusiasm. I've closed most of my emails with stay safe and stay motivated because I think those really are the two most important things right now that we.
And in that order, I want everyone.
To stay safe first, but we also need to stay motivated and we've got to keep doing the things and investing in our business and doing the things that are going to get us the result.
Right. Because some of us, some of our.
Peers in this industry are going to be tapering down and shutting down and the agents and offices and companies that can press forward through it, we will come out the other side better for it. So really appreciate you Anise sharing with all of us.
We know you weren't the first one.
But you're the one that somehow made it onto my radar. And so thanks for sharing the ins and outs and the highs and lows of it.
Sure. Thank you. Thanks for keeping us motivated too because all of your webinars have been great. I mean, I feel like I have to catch up, you know, if I miss one, I go watch it because we're getting so much from it. So thank you.
And just in case, first of all, you're so welcome. It's absolutely an honor and a pleasure to get to do it.
What we're trying to do.
Everyone, all of us is. We believe really strongly that this is the time to be the voice. And it's our job to be the voice inside of NextHome so that we can give you guys energy and content and enthusiasm to go be the voice in your local markets.
And I thank you for the compliment.
But truly, I have the easiest part. Petya, Rachel, Charmaine, the marketing team, everyone else at corporate does so much. I get to turn the zoom camera on and bounce around like a big knucklehead for 30 minutes. And really, truly, the team does so much, so much work behind the scenes.
We appreciate them, too.
Yeah. That's what we got for today on bingo. We got more stuff coming for you. I do want to remind you, as the recordings are done, we put all of these on humansover houses.com. if you haven't checked out that website, that's where we're keeping all of our content. It's all there, as well as podcasts, useful links.
We'll probably put the bingo card up.
There at some point so people can see samples of it, knowing marketing is probably already there. So just checking for questions. Nope, I think we're good. Yep. Awesome. All right, Anise, thank you again so much for carving out a little time. Sounds like I'm going to see you in a couple hours on a virtual happy hour, which will be fun. Thank you again.
Thank you.
All right, I love you all a lot, everybody.
Please stay safe, stay motivated, take care of yourself, and take care of each other. And I'm sure there'll be another webinar soon that I will be on.
You gotta get be tired of hearing.
My voice and seeing my face. But we will keep the content coming your direction.
All right, bye, guys. Love you all a lot.
Be safe.
