Website: www.handsongourmet.com
In 2004, Molly Fuller came across a very charismatic chef at a catering hall and was amazed at how the guests were drawn to him. Being an aspiring entrepreneur at heart, she asked herself, "How can I capitalize on his talent?" When the chef moved on to doing culinary corporate events, Molly did research and realized that companies were doing these types of events all the time. She decided she wanted a piece of the pie.
So she founded Hands On Gourmet. Located in San Francisco, Hands On Gourmet offers private cooking classes ranging from large corporate events to family birthday parties. "People get to come together and cook with professional chefs," Molly says. "It's a team building exercise, it's camaraderie building, it's an activity ice breaker for co-workers."
CHALLENGE: HOW TO FEED HER GROWING BUSINESS
In order to generate more business, Molly turned to the Internet. "We put up a website and business started to grow through word of mouth." But Molly wanted to reach more potential customers faster—and on a much larger scale. She also wanted a way to remind her existing clients to book other events.
That's what led Molly to use Constant Contact® and email marketing to send out her newsletters, special event notices and save-the-date messages. "I knew nothing about email marketing," Molly says. "We started using it because it seemed like we could scale to our growth." Molly compared Constant Contact to other email-marketing services and found the interface to be more user-friendly and the customer service to be better. "We started out on a pretty small program," Molly says, "and then expanded it as our list grew."
SOLUTION: HANDS ON GOURMET GIVES CONSTANT CONTACT 5-STARS FOR EXCELLENT SERVICE
Developing an email campaign with Constant Contact helped Molly manage her marketing costs. "Email marketing is very inexpensive compared to Google ad words, print advertising, even direct mail." Also, unlike other forms of marketing and advertising, email marketing gave her the ability to track her investment.
Molly was pleased with how easy it was to customize her own template for her newsletters and special event notices. "Constant Contact has a whole album of templates that you can use for many different industries. You can start with one template and modify it to meet your needs." For Hands On Gourmet, Molly uses the same format every month, updating it with her latest recipes and photos from recent events.
Molly is also impressed with Constant Contact's technical support. "We've relied on them to keep our images in place and to make sure the fonts are always consistent throughout our newsletters."
RESULTS: A HEARTY BUSINESS EVERYBODY LOVES
Molly has found that using Constant Contact for web marketing is more influential, scalable and cost effective than other forms of marketing. "I think if people are ignoring email marketing as a tool, they are missing out on a huge opportunity."
Molly credits American Express OPENSM with having a great influence on the success of her business. "I have a Gold Card with no pre-set spending limit, and a Simply Cash Card for my employees. "Without American Express OPEN, I don't know what we would have done."
Starting with $15,000 in revenue in 2004, Hands On Gourmet has since grown to over one million dollars, becoming a Make Mine a Million $ Business. Co-founded by Count Me In and American Express OPEN, the program's goal is to inspire one million women-owned businesses to reach one million dollars in annual revenue by 2010.
With the help of Constant Contact and American Express OPEN, Hands On Gourmet continues to grow. But even with all of Molly's success, nothing has really changed. It's still about having fun. "It's about team building." People come together, cook together, eat together, and of course, do the dishes together.
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