It’s the deal of deals … Groupon, Living Social, Yipit, DealsbyGolly …. the list goes on. What are the effects on small businesses? Good or bad?
While a lot of press is given to the bad of utlizing these deals for small businesses, we’d like to focus on the good. Or rather some ideas that might help you get more out of offering those discounts to customers.
The premise to small businesses is of course to obtain more customers, a new set of customers and retain those people into coming back again.
Obtaining More Customers: Getting new people to see your place is where the deal dot com company has their responsibility in this venture. They have the eyes … they’ll get people to see your deal and notice your company. I know I’ve been surprised by new locations based on these deals … some of them I never knew existed. It’s been great discovering new places.
The New Set of Customers: The job of getting people into your door is only half of that deal dot com and half you, the business owner. The deal needs to be thought out. Analyzing your average customer bill to see what people typically spend in your location, then halfing that amount is probably a smart thing to do. Those that are already coming in now may be tempted to bring a guest with them. Now that average bill could become a larger amount due to your offer. New customers as well as an increased bill.
Retaining those people: This is the win … how to you keep those people coming back and how are you getting their data to show them your deals and events beyond using that deal dot com marketing channel. This is the important key to your deal dot com success. Are you getting their email? Are they “liking” your facebook fanpage? Following you on twitter? Subscribing to your newsletter? Before you do any deal dot com … this is a must. How are you going to retain them as your customer.
Of course … someone has even put together a helpful calculator to help you decide if those daily deal marketing channels are for you and your business. You can read about it here: Merchant calculator for daily deal profitability
We hope these few tips help! Of course we always like working with businesses to help work hand in hand with their marketing efforts. Got an idea? Think we can help? Give us an email!
As we go about working on our client accounts, there are a few tips that I can share with others out there. Today’s tip is all about things you can do to get your message spread a little easier.
What’s the magic banana you ask??
Make It Easy For Me!
As a blogger, I’m approached by PR companies and other social media coordinators in the hope that I will help spread the word on whatever project they are working on. I love being able to help, most people do. I DON’T love helping if I have to do all the work on top of spreading the message.
Example: I received an email with a PDF attachment from a social media coordinator asking me to spread the word on the event his client was having. Just an email. Just a PDF. How could he have made it easy for me?
- Providing an Elevator Pitch on the event.
- Providing a shorten link to the event / website with the event information so it can easily be tweeted. (Even better, form an easy “tweet” to copy and paste!)
- Provide a link to the website to share on Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr or other sites. Send something easily shareable. PDF’s don’t work for sharing.
- Want people to bookmark the event if appropriate? Be sure to suggest what sites. Make sure you send the right link / info
Making things easier to share and providing suggestions on how to share the event not only provides a sigh of relief to the person you are asking for help … but it also allows you to control how your message is shared.
While we are on the subject of making things easier … want those Tweets ReTweeted? Be sure to leave a space so others don’t have rework your 140 characters to make the RT possible … remember … a RT consists of a user ID and the “R” “T” letters. Save at least 10 characters for an easy RT … keep your original message to about 130 characters if able!
Can I get a RT???
Hope this helps you in your endeavors.
What is Klout and why should you care? Klout, in a simple definition, is the overall measurement of your online presence or your “Social Credit Score”.
Why should you care about your Klout score or your online influence? Joe Fernandez, CEO and co-founder of Klout, says, “Consumers should care because it affects the way employers, companies and everyone looks at your ability to spread information as a critical part of the attention economy today.” as stated from his comments in the recent Forbe’s Interview.
The site has now evolved from originally just monitoring and scoring your twitter account, to now monitoring your Facebook connections and interactions to obtain your Klout score. Soon to be considered in the Klout monitoring; LinkedIn and Foursquare. I’m excited about the possibilities of checking into a restaurant, hotel or any other consumer establishment, having that company check my Klout score and upgrading me to …. oh, I don’t know … a first class seat on the plane? One can only dream!
Below is Joe Fernandez in his Forbe’s interview:
Have you set up a profile on Klout? What’s your Klout score …. feel free to tell us in the comments below!
Since we’ve formed our partnership with The Active Business Network group located out of Denver Colorado for QR Code creation, my head has been swimming with ideas. Most of my ideas surround around ways that small businesses can utilize QR codes for more sales, more promotion of their stores and product awareness.
I really see QR codes taking off this year. In fact, one of my favorite uses that I’ve been told about is Home Depot’s use of QR codes. Not only are they integrading QR codes into their print ads, but they are now placing the codes on their products. This past Christmas, I used QR codes to scan and learn more details about a product I was considering. As you can imagine, during the Christmas shopper rush, staff was limited. I scanned the code, which went to the product site, which answered my question. I bought the item versus waiting another day or going to another store that may have provided me the information I needed to make that purchase.
There are a lot of ways to use QR codes — here are just a few you might consider using in your campaigns or around your brick and mortar location:
1. Use it to point to your location on Foursquare, GoWalla, Yelp … make things easier for people to “check-in” at your establishment.
2. Use it at the end of your power point presentation. Are you a Design Build firm? Point to the rendering of your finished product. Send your contact information into the QR code or simply point them to your company website.
3. Use your code to point to your paypal so they can easily buy that product from you. Where to use that?: Farmer’s Markets, Garage Sales and book sales after a seminar.
4. Use QR codes on the back of your business cards for all your staff. Extremely important for your sales staff!
5. Use it on your For Sale signs: Selling your car? Selling a snowblower? Selling your home? … point to listing information.
With our partnership with The Active Business Network group … we have a QR platform for your business. Tracking ability, report generation and all your mobile marketing on one platform. We’d love to show you a demo of our product! In the meantime — check out eJenn Solutions’s List of services.
What other ideas do you have for QR codes? Have you utilized something that really worked well for you or your company?
When I (Jennifer Stinnett) started with the web back in the day … responding to customers was the big topic. What do we say, how do we use the information, how long do we contact them… (yes .. WAY back in the day) What we realized back then was that we needed to be more efficient at electronically keeping in touch with people, talking to people and helping people. We didn’t have facebook, twitter, myspace or YouTube. We had email.
So getting back to my “roots” here is a list of retorical questions to ask yourself as you work on your own Social Media business plans … how social is your email?
1. Are you thinking of your audience in your emails? (how are they viewing what you are saying? Can they use what you are sending?)
2. How customized are your emails? (does it promote a similiar item they bought? does it showcase accessories to their recent purchase – not just showcasing what you have a large stock of that needs to be reduced?)
3. Have you made it easy for them to contact someone at your firm? (phone numbers, hours, locations, emails, responses)
4. Can they reply back to your email and get a response?
5. Do you thank them?
6. Do you follow up with those that have made purchases?
7. When you say you’ll follow up with them? do you?
8. Are you watching how people come to your site? Watching what topics people select and then using your email newsletter to go into more detail on that subject?
9. Are you asking for suggestions? Issues? advice?
10. Are you providing ways for them to become a part of your brand community making them loyal and loving your customer service?
11. Do you showcase customers, promoting them, their company and how they used (are using) your product or service?
Just some things to think about…
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