Welcome to the latest edition of my new weekly blog series, Steal This. Each week I’ll highlight a marketing activity that a company is using and suggest ways that you can model it and make it work for you. Last week’s topic was – Seamless Warning Emails.

Today’s topic is: Quiznos Lunchtime Email

Quiznos managed to sneak their way into my list for this week with one clever email (shown here).

Notice the time of day, right before lunch. Notice the $1 off coupon. Notice the easy location finder.

This email is as close to perfect as marketing emails get.

So how can you steal it?

There are several parts to this email that come together to make it so great, in my opinion. But you can steal the parts and still accomplish something.

Part 1 = Time of Day.

Is there a specific time of day that people might be more or less likely to purchase from you? Does your product or service resonate with mornings, nights, bed time, dinner time, the commute, etc? If so, use that as a tool in your messaging, and contact people when they’re most likely to take action.

Part 2 = Coupon.

Instead of just promoting a product or service, offer a discount that people can use right now. This is nothing new, but Quiznos makes it simple and specific.

Part 3 = Location Finder.

This type of promotion is difficult to pull off. It’s an email campaign aimed at driving in-store sales. Anytime you want an online ad to drive offline sales, a location finder is crucial. And this tool is only one-click away from the Quiznos email.

As always, tell me what you think of this week’s idea and suggest other marketing programs to “Steal” in the comments below.