Warm Gun – Designing Happiness
Posted by renee on October 7th, 2010Posted in Events | No Comments »
Empower your people to speak for the company
Posted by renee on October 7th, 2010By now it’s common knowledge that the internet has changed everything when it comes to doing business. Customer Service especially has had to adapt to new customer expectations. Many companies offer ways to give feedback through their websites and, as a result, customers expect problems to be addressed and resolved quickly. There was a time when a company might expect to have a few weeks to deal with a customer complaint or inquiry, now a resolution is expected within 24 hours, if not sooner.
Thanks to the popularity of sites like Facebook and Twitter, companies can now communicate with potential and existing customers in real-time. Many companies have dedicated staff to speak on their behalf, but some might be reluctant to allow employees to speak on their behalf. This reluctance can hurt not only customer relations, but also sales and profit. According to Econsultancy’s 2010 Social Media and Online PR Report:
- 40% of companies polled said they had “experimented with social media but have not done much” and just over a third report they’ve done an “average amount.”
- 45% of those same companies admitted to not having any internal policies or guidance for the use of social media. When companies were asked what was holding them back from using social media sites more often, they reported that they were having problems integrating the use of social media sites with other areas of their business.
- At the same time, however, 83% of companies expect their social media spending to increase in the next year. The question now becomes…
How can companies struggling to incorporate social media with their business make it work?
The answer is simple: empower your employees. In any business, Customer Service representatives have their fingers on the pulse. As calls, emails and letters pour in, these employees are on the front lines fielding complaints and inquiries and, more often than not, being the sole contact most customers have with a company. Most companies have already accepted that their service representatives speak on their behalf more often than anyone in management and so most of these employees are well versed on company policy. Within that group, a manager can hand-pick a team to work as Social Networking Ambassadors by rounding out and fine-tuning their knowledge of company policy. Those ambassadors can then be given access to company profiles on sites such as Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace and others to spread the word about upcoming events, commonly asked service related questions and corporate sponsored community outreach projects. By empowering Customer Service representatives, companies can not only address some issues before they become a problem, but it also makes the company itself seem more human and friendly to customers and clients.
This change may be difficult for some companies to embrace. Many executive teams are reluctant to hand over the reins of corporate communication, and this may be the largest hurdle. But the truth is, once they learn to empower their own employees, those people will become more involved with their work and will appreciate the fact that executives are recognizing the specialized treatment Customer Service Representatives can bring to the table. Empowering employees makes the company stronger, not weaker, Employees who feel they contribute in a more noticeable way have a greater investment in the company and that, in turn, shines through to customers.
Do you know of any small to large size companies empowering their employees to leverage social media?
Tags: engagement, Marketing, social media, tactic and strategy
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7 Steps to Social Media Success
Posted by renee on October 3rd, 2010Social media is a rapidly growing phenomenon, and it’s possible for an open minded person to use this growth, as a medium for selling their product. Success in the social media domain is not just a possibility, but has become a necessity for survival in today’s competitive markets. Fortunately for sellers, success in social media can be simplified to seven steps listed below.
1. Determine your strategy and goals. You’ll need a game plan if you want to succeed, and the strategy you create is going to be what guides your decisions. Firstly, determine the ends you seek, then figure out the means to reach those ends. Ask yourself what you expect as a return, and then figure out just what you need to do to reach that goal.
2. Know your market. It’s important to have as complete an understanding of your target market as possible. If you don’t know your market inside and out, then your approach to the market is to fail. Research the market to determine how best to implement your strategy, or risk futilely wasting resources.
3. Execute in the right channels. Marketing a product is not a linear affair, and there are many channels you can go through to get your message heard. Always opt for the multichannel approach, as this will maximize your exposure and further increase your chances of success.
4. Bank good content. The quality of your content is critical to your success in social media. Anything you generate in the media, be it tweets or blogs is ultimately only as good as you make it. Exposure means nothing if nobody has an interest in what you have to say, make sure your content is of the highest quality, there can be no exceptions.
5. Seeding. Now it’s time to use the expansion and interaction of social media to your advantage and let it do the work for you. Seed the content you created in step four into social networks, and keep it alive by listening and responding to feedback. Interact with other users to best engage your consumer base, and get people talking about what you have to offer. Proper seeding will maximize your exposure, so make sure to put as much effort in as is required for success.
6. Create a rolodex of key influencers. Figure out who the big players are in your target market and who can enhance your exposure. If they’re interested in what you’re doing then you can use that to further your success. Find these people and engage them. Ignoring the key influencers in your market will lose you vital opportunities.
7. Monitor your progress. Obviously you have no idea what level of success you’re achieving, if you aren’t monitoring your progress. Fortunately there are lots of free tools that will let you monitor your success. Here is a good list
Following these steps will allow you to utilize people’s gregarious nature and ensure your success in social media. The expanse of the internet has provided us with an affordable, and easy to use marketing tool, don’t let it go to waste.
Tags: Marketing, small business advice, social media
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Klout.com
Posted by renee on September 24th, 2010One of the 10 Most Influential Tweeters in Toronto – Klout.com
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TheGlobeAndEh.com
Posted by renee on September 24th, 2010Renee Warren is not only one of the founders and organizers of #GenYTO, probably the coolest Tweetup in Canada, but also one of Toronto´s most popular twitterers – TheGlobeAndEh.com
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Casie Stewart – Star Blogger
Posted by renee on September 24th, 2010Renee is a really smart girl with a great attitude … She’s tech savvy and beautiful and blogs too! – Casie Stewart
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KarmaCake.com
Posted by renee on September 24th, 2010Renee’s one of those ladies that gives so much hope to folks like me. She makes running a business look easy and a lot of fun.” – KarmaCake.com
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Daily deals, mobile, hyper local offers. We Want More!
Posted by renee on September 21st, 2010Still on the fence about location based services, mobile, daily deals and if they’re even worth it? You shouldn’t be. Here are some case studies that will go down in the history books, and others not so much, of some entertaining and creative mobile and location based campaigns.
Gap
When an e-mail was sent out offering a $50 gift card to the Gap for just $25, more than 440,000 people purchased it. This offer was made through Groupon – a couponing site which provides daily deals in fun and interesting ways. The Gap deal was Groupon’s first big national promotion. With such an overwhelming response, it actually stalled the servers. At one point, the site was selling 534 offers a minute. Success? Yes! The campaign generated $11 million for Groupon. Wow!
Domino’s
In the UK, Domino’s up’d the ante and began offering free pizzas to mayors on Foursquare. Who can say no to free ZA? They even gave away free side dishes for those who check in and spend more than $14.50. Ok, wow. All people had to do was check. Many of the locations weren’t even sit down restaurants, yet the promotion still drove foot traffic. It increased drive pick-up orders and helped eliminate costs associated with delivery.
Best Buy
And back in the news, Best Buy teamed up with Shopkick, an app that turns offline stores into interactive worlds, to roll out the 257 store promotion. No need to ‘check in’ or even press a button, Shopkick automatically recognizes when someone with the app on their phone walks into a store and, boom, deals are sent to them. An app for the lazy. Though it’s too early to tell if this campaign has been successful in terms of revenue/loyalty generated, it certainly has the media all excited. Why? Well it made news by taking shopper rewards to entirely new and location-specific levels, literally allowing shoppers to earn rewards simply for moving through specific areas of the store. Who’s next? Macy‘s, American Eagle and Simon Property Group have all jumped on board the bandwagon.
East Coast Aero Club
A lesser known Groupon promotion from a small east coast flight school brought sheer panic to the company, but in a good way. They put together a deal: $69 for an introductory flight lesson, 70% off the regular price. The company expected to maybe sell 200, but was told by Groupon to expect more like 500. You know what happened? They sold 2600. Wow! Needless to say for the following few weeks the flight school instructors were very busy. All this from one little email.
Starbucks
Want to be an honorary barista for a day? Become a Mayor of Starbucks. Simple if you are an addict. The person who checks into any individual Starbucks the most becomes the “Honorary Barista” of that Starbucks through an App called Loopt. Does that come in Venti? Who knows, but it certainly has more people checking in, whether or not they are buying. Checking in using Foursquare, however, gives you $1 off a Frappucino – now that’s more my cup of tea – or cup of yummy awesomeness. And moving on – there is even another Starbucks mobile loyalty program, their own iPhone loyalty card App, built by mFoundry. Customers collect stars in a cup on their phones every time they make a purchase and get a free drink every 15 visits. I visit the Bucks two times a day, so that would mean a free drink every week and a half. I’d do it.
InterContinental Hotels Group
The hotel chain used Gowalla (Another check-in app) to give gift cards and airline miles to loyal customers of its hotels. Piggy backing off their Hit It Big promotion which offers rewards such as retail gift cards and double air miles to guests who stay multiple nights. The campaign launched at the beginning of summer with the hopes of getting summer tourists checking in like crazy. I haven’t been able to find data on its success but know it ended June 30th.
Pepsi
This ain’t no Britney Spears endorsement. This is geo-location marketing at its best. Last May Pepsi launched Pepsi Loot, an iPhone App that uses geo-targeting for people to find nearby restaurants that serve Pepsi beverages, including chains like Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Arby’s and Panda Express to individual restaurants that have Pepsi contracts. Power! Customers that check-in to restaurants that sell Pepsi products can begin to earn loyalty ‘loot’ points. These points can be used to get downloadable songs from artists such as Keane, Katherine McPhee and Jamie Cullum. Sha-la-la-la, sing it.
What about charity?! Ok, ok, Shopkick has that covered.
CauseWorld
This is stellar, a free location based app for iPhone, iPod Touch and Android, which allows users to collect “karma points” while shopping, and then convert them into cash donations for charitable causes. Since it’s inception the app has brought in over $100,000 in donations to the American Red Cross for the victims on Haiti. This is location based cause giving (LBCG) at its best .. I just made that acronym up, but it sounds good.
I could go on and on with the many new campaigns popping up each week, but these set some good examples. Basically this is where it’s at. Marketing dollars are shifting from offline to online to mobile to back offline. It’s an eclectic mesh of integrating all forms of marketing for the most impact. Although mobile marketing is very new and under much scrutiny, it is inevitable that demand for LBA will continue to grow far beyond large retailers and into hyper-local shops.
Do you have any good examples of successful mama and papa shop location based marketing?
Posted in Advertising, Blog, Marketing, Mobile Marketing | No Comments »
Location-Based Ads Boost Customer Loyalty
Posted by renee on August 16th, 2010Very often when you make a purchase in a store, the cashier asks the same question: “Do you have your card?”
The cashier’s not asking for your Visa or Mastercard. She’s talking about those ubiquitous reward cards that track how many times you might order a bagel, a latte, an ink cartridge refill, or whatever you happen to be purchasing at the time.
Buy 10 and get one free. Purchase six and get the next at half price. Promotions differ, but the concept remains the same: the store wants to inspire customer loyalty, and it’ll reward you for it.
Some people benefit from loyalty rewards and save money. Others find the cards annoying. Imagine if you could replace the process with something that suits your lifestyle better. Instead of having your card punched at the sandwich shop or scanned at the pharmacy, how would you feel if you received a mobile-based coupon on your smartphone?
Location-Based Ads: A Business Boon in the Making
Businesses are increasingly working to improve marketing ROI. A recent study by the Mobile Marketing Association shows that almost one in four adults use mobile location-based services. Nearly half of those shoppers who saw ads from location-based services took some sort of action.
Few metrics exist on location-based advertising and customer loyalty, but so far, results have been promising. Foursquare, one of the most popular mobile location tracking applications, gives its users the chance to become a location’s “mayor” by checking in frequently. Many restaurants, coffee shops and other locations give their “mayors” discounts and freebies as a reward for customer loyalty. Most recently GAP offered a 25% discount if you checked in on Foursquare. The idea was to encourage store exposure, as friends of those ‘checking in’ would see the deal and would, hopefully, also act on it.
The Proof is in the Numbers
Another great example, Starbucks, offered its “mayors” $1 off any size of Frappuccino. Since beginning the promotion, the coffee haven has experienced a 50% increase in check-ins. AJ Bombers, a burger spot in Milwaukee, reported a 30% increase in sales after offering free burgers to the “mayor” (plus free cookies to anyone who checked in.)
Not wanting to limit promotions to a select few, Foursquare lets businesses provide frequency-based specials to users who check in often. Pepsi has built upon this feature by using Foursquare to give points for each mobile coupon used. Loyal soda lovers can redeem the coupons for music downloads and other Pepsi Loot.
The promotion is designed to increase brand loyalty and also to generate valuable data about repeat customers – where they purchase Pepsi, how often they purchase and what they do before and after they make the purchase. In time, this data may help Pepsi and other businesses make location-based ads even more effective. (It’s all in the data)
Have you ever used location-based advertising to promote your business? If so, how did the marketing effort turn out? If not, do you find that location-based advertising increases your loyalty to other local businesses?
Posted in Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Social media for small business | 3 Comments »
Renee’s knowledge in marketing and social media has helped me gain a better understanding and increased exposure for my photography company. She is incredibly talented and fun to work with!
Donna Santos, Donna Santos Photography