Do you know what to do with this QR Code ->

I remember years ago, before there were smartphones, visiting a doctor’s office, and grabbing a magazine.  I had about 15 minutes of wait time, and although the chair looked like it had some padding, I believe it was simply an elaborate paint job, that gave the appearance of a cushion, when in reality it was cold steel.  I was flipping through a magazine, and came across an ad for a product.  It looked interesting, and the call to action was “Please visit http://www.thecompanywebsite.com/thiscurrentpromotion for additional information.” 

I had only a few options:

1. Find a pen and paper, and write down the webaddress to look it up later.
2. Smuggle the magazine out under my jacket on my way out the door.
3. Be that guy that rips pages out of a magazine.
4. Hope that I’d remember what it was.

I’m not the type to steal the magazine, and destruction of other’s property is never a viable option.  I don’t typically carry a pen with me, and it seemed like it was too much work to bother the busy nurse at the desk for one, so I went with option 4.

Needless to say, I never went to the website.

Enter in a new era.  A smart advertiser now would have attached a QR code to the ad, and made it so that I didn’t even have to type the web address into my phone.  I would have simply scanned the code, and presto! I would have been on the site the author wanted me to visit.  

QR (Quick Response) Codes are wonderful little graphics that have hundreds of uses.  Basically, they allow the creator of the code to build a graphic that stores the text of a website’s URL.  The person with the scanner can “read” the image, and the scanner will direct their device to open up a particular webpage.  Every smartphone has a different app that can do this, and so every smartphone user can be automatically linked to whatever the QR code points to, with the push of a button.  

These little codes are popping up everywhere.  They can direct users to websites, to watch videos, to social media sites, and more.  They can link a mobile phone to anywhere on the web, simply by scanning.  Looking to increase traffic or customer engagement? Take a look at QR codes. 

There are so many different uses for these codes, it does not make sense to try and create an example that would fit everyone.  The beauty of these codes is that they are completely customizable for every situation.  For ideas on how to use these codes for your business, please feel free to contact us.  For a free PDF guide on these wonderful codes, click here.

Facebook’s New Discounted Deals Approach: Peer Pressure at its Finest.

According to Bloomberg, Facebook will soon be rolling out a new test service that will allow consumers to buy discounted, one-time offers similar to the services offered by Groupon.

Groupon does this via email, which means that it is a one on one conversation between the consumer and Groupon if the customer chooses to take the deal.  Bringing this discussion over onto Facebook is completely up to the customer, which means he or she can choose to talk about the wonderful deal that he or she received, but is in no way obligated to do so.  The way that Facebook shares information, chances are, the customer that takes Facebook up on a deal is going to automatically share this information with all of his or her friends.

Imagine if there was a 50 inch flat screen on sale for $200.  It’s two weeks before the Super Bowl weekend, and a group of friends will be gathering around at John Smith’s house to watch the game.  John’s friends could see the sale, and send John a message, saying, “Hey John, look at this deal.  Time to replace that 14 inch b&w set before the big game!” General ribbing takes place, and John buys the television.  Ads would fly around, some taken as jokes, some as legitimate suggestions, and the consumer and the seller wins.

Here’s another example.  A great deal comes along, and you, the customer, take advantage of it.  Your Facebook status is automatically sent out to all of your friends with “John Smith just bought a $150 day spa visit for $20.00! You too can take advantage of this!” Since it’s a great deal, six or seven of John’s friends also go and buy it.  And five or six of each of their friends also takes advantage of this excellent deal.  You can see how this is a great sales model.

Proponents of this service on Facebook will certainly have no issues with this.  The answer heard from them regarding the lack of privacy involving the purchase will most certainly be “So what?  If I chose to get a great deal on a local business’ service, why wouldn’t I want to share this with all of my friends?  Wouldn’t I want to offer this same benefit to everyone that I know, if it’s a great deal!”

Except that maybe, just maybe, you don’t want your wife to know that the spa day you got for her birthday, a $150 value, you bought for $20, on her birthday during your lunch break at work, when Facebook kindly reminded you it was her birthday in the first place.

I’m just guessing.

This is not to say that it is a bad idea.  The structure of this form of socialized selling is an excellent idea, one that has the potential to really help small businesses capture more customers through word of mouth.  Depending on the pricing requirements, and the commission rates paid to Facebook, this has the potential of replacing services like Groupon. 

What other potential pitfalls do you see in completely socializing your purchases?

Isn't Found Money Fun!

Earlier this week, I was looking to gather up enough change to buy a stamp, so I could pay the garbage collector, and I came up 12 cents short.  This is the only bill that I cannot pay online, and since I didn’t have a stamp left at the house, it was time to head down to the post office. I guess I could have broken a $20, or I could have bought the stamp with my debit card, but neither seemed like the way to go.  Instead, I just checked in the couch cushions and under the car seat, and found a quarter rolling around. Voilà! Problem solved by “Found Money”.

How often do you go out, searching for new money, instead of looking more closely at what you have? Of course you need creative advertisements to draw in new customers.  In addition, you need to market to your existing customer base, and provide additional services to the people you are already catering to.  This refocus on loyal customers can be that extra cash that is just lying around.

Examples of programs meant to increase spending from your existing customer base:

• Loyalty programs, such as punch cards or electronic club cards, provide free product with enough consecutive purchases or visits. 
• Customer Appreciation events, in which customers are invited to participate in special events or sales, with special savings for loyal customers only.
• Grouped product sales, like the Charter* Bundle or Two for $20(Applebee’s*), provide a greater value based on multiple products bought together at the same time, versus the a la carte sales model.
• Cross promotional sales that capture additional revenue for products that you regularly would not have sold. (e.g., selling Sunday newspapers at your coffee shop drive thru.)

“Found Money” is great.  Every once in a while, you put on a jacket you haven’t worn for months and stumble across an amount of money just by checking the pockets.  When you are able to capture extra sales from your existing customer base, you are finding that extra money, it’s just coming out of other people's pockets.

Groupon Tool Explained

I have read a lot of articles about Groupon. This blog post looks at Groupon in a more analytical way, since it seems every other article either sings their praises, or wishes they would burn for eternity.

For those that don’t know, Groupon is a social media tool that allows businesses to market to customers in an alternative way. The gist of Groupon is that customers sign up and connect their email, Twitter, or Facebook account to Groupon. When the customer signs up, they have to list their approximate location, of which there are around 150 cities available. First thing in the morning, Groupon contacts the customers and informs them of the “Deal of the Day”.

Although Groupon does try to have time sensitive ads, they cannot guarantee it. Therefore, do not try and line up a Groupon ad with a particular saving time period, (ie. Automotive groups could not guarantee that the Groupon promotion lines up with President’s Day weekend.)

Groupon writes the copy for the ad, and creates the links to your company’s sites, social media, etc. The reason for this is that they want the ad written in their voice, not yours. Although the goal is to bring customers into your store, they are not your customers. This is completely reasonable. Once they enter your store, they are your customers, and you can talk to them. Your company has to be concerned with two factors: how long is the offer valid for, and how many people have to take advantage of the Groupon for the offer to be valid.

Let's use an imaginary customer named Joe, buying a t-shirt from Sam’s T’s, as an example. Joe gets an email at 8:00 in the morning, telling him that there is 50% off of a particular shirt at Sam’s T’s. The shirt is regularly $25.00. Joe can buy a voucher to get this shirt for $12.50. Joe decides it’s a good deal, and so he clicks, “Buy deal.” He gives his money to Groupon via a PayPal account. He does not give the money to Sam’s T’s. One of two things happens at this point.

Not enough people take advantage of Sam’s T’s deal, and Joe is sent an email from Groupon, stating that the sale did not happen, and Joe never pays a dime.

OR

Enough people do take advantage of the deal. Joe’s credit card (checking account, etc.) is digitally billed for $12.50. Joe is not charged until after "the deal is on", meaning that enough followers have decided to take advantage of it for the sale to occur. He receives a voucher electronically for the shirt. He goes into the store, hands over his voucher, and walks away with his nice new shirt. Sam’s T’s gets a check in the mail from Groupon. They do not give Sam's T's the $12.50 that Joe paid. They keep a portion of that amount. Groupon doesn’t tell you the exact amount until you are ready to do business with them, so it is not possible for me to disclose their commission rate. However, most sources on the internet put the commission rate at 50%...

Groupon calls this a “Win Win”, since your company put together the sale and never had to pay anything out of pocket for the advertising. There is no upfront cost, but you are certainly discounting your product by more than whatever the sale amount is, due to the commission rate. Everyone is in business to make money, and I am not saying anything derogatory about this process; I just want you to be aware of it. It is also important to note that since only one “deal of the day” occurs, chances are that Groupon is going to promote the deal that makes Groupon the most money. If your sale will have less penetration than a different sale, yours may sit on the back burner. If you are not extremely aggressive, your ad will never be shared to the Groupon followers.

Some real thought needs to go into the math before you create a Groupon ad. For example, if you need to sell 100 products at 50% off before you are able to turn a profit, you had better set your minimum requirements above the 100 member mark. Unless, of course, you are trying to simply blow out a particular product to reduce your inventory, and are hoping to sell additional point of sale items. I would strongly recommend working with your advertising people before setting up a Groupon deal, since you have the potential to hurt your business by not fully understanding the goals of the particular sale.

Another factor to consider when creating your Groupon deal is how are you going to market your Groupon deal? Are you going to simply allow for current Groupon members, or are you going to leverage your other social media channels to get the word out farther? Groupon states, quite clearly, that there should be additional social media used to promote the sale. If your company is not fully comfortable in the world of social media, then additional conversations should occur beforehand. Again, talk with your advertising firm beforehand, to make sure you have the reach to make this campaign reaches its full potential.

Are You Famous?

When I was young, I thought that my Uncle Robert was a superstar. Everyone in our little town of 10,000 people knew him. As I became a teenager, I came to the realization that there was a great big world outside of my little town, and he most certainly was not a celebrity, even though everyone in our little Podunk area knew him. Now, as an adult, I have come to understand fame a little better.

Robert drove a fruit truck in town. Basically, this means that he woke up around 3:00 in the morning, and drove out to Quincy Market (the real farmer’s market, not today’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace) and bought the freshest fruits and vegetables available. He would hit several farm stands on the way back to town, where he knew of good deals on excellent produce. He would organize all of the product into bins, and drive around, selling. All of the restaurants in town bought from him. His route took him to every business in town, and he sold to every worker. People would flag him down as he drove down the street, and buy their produce to use that night.

You can understand how I thought this was akin to being Elvis, when I was a small child. Everywhere we went there were people were pulling him over, and waving him down. Every time the truck stopped anywhere, a crowd formed around him, and people came out of the buildings to see him. Although this happened back in the 80’s, not too long ago, there was still a lot of bartering going on, so I’d see him giving away pounds of potatoes and taking a chicken in trade. I thought he was receiving gifts! How much more famous could he be!

I can look back on this, almost thirty years later, and realize that although he was not a celebrity, he certainly was famous. He did not reach millionaire status, but was able to live rather comfortably. He raised a family that understood hard work, and everyone in town knew where to go if they wanted fresh food. I’m sure the local supermarkets sighed in relief when he retired.

You have this same ability. Brand yourself. Become the absolute best place to buy your specific product from. Offer a level of service that no one else can compare to. To be cliché, go that extra inch, mile, etc. Use you business’s good reputation to grow. Use the social media tools of today to expand where businesses couldn’t in the past. Make your business famous, even if it is just locally, and you will be successful.

-Submitted by Chris Gregoire

Multiply Your Brand Power

Today we are going to go back in time to third grade math class. The teacher started the lesson with a question, “What is 4 times 1?” She held up four fingers, and asked us how many. We all said, “Four!” This is not a trick question, although when I was a child, I thought it was. Then again, I also thought that adding or subtracting zero to or from any number was a waste of time as well. What do you have if you had four, and take away zero? My answer was, “You didn’t do anything. Don’t be silly.” Multiplying by one seemed to be the same waste. “If you take four fingers, and count it once, then you already did the work. Why point out you only counted it once? ” I guess I was a little too analytical in third grade. Now I’m older and wiser, and I realized why we had to learn the “1 x X = X” kind of math. It’s so that we can understand relationships.

If you are a relatively new or small company, chances are you have a small client base. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could piggy back on another company, and count its client base as your own? That would be some multiplication that you would get behind. Even my third grade self would have understood “X x 2 = 2X”. That’s where Cross Promotional Marketing come into play. Today we are going to focus on the power of doubling your audience.

Let’s start with the benefits from Cross Promotional Marketing. This is the short and sweet.

• Expands the customer base. Both your clients and their customers see the ads.
• Added credibility from a company with followers. If they are willing to work with you, why shouldn’t your potential customer?
• Potentially lower cost of advertising. It can be lower because you can shoulder it with your partner in the cross promotion.
• Added creativity. There’s no way to advertise lawn care with auto body work without getting a little creative.
  

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Cross Promotional Marketing is not always mutually beneficial. Often times, one company gains a lot more than the other, and if the costs of doing this business are not aligned the right way, you could end up shouldering more cost, while the other business gains all the sales. It is important to understand the demographic of the audience that your new partner brings to the table. If I run a hair dressing establishment, it may be easier to partner with a pedicurist than a chainsaw salesman. How many of my clients need a chainsaw, versus how many of his clients need a haircut? This would probably not be the best relationship for both parties. And if you are trying to give haircuts with chainsaws…..

Sometimes, it makes sense to get a group of businesses together. Banks, insurance companies, and financial advisers often times make good brand partners. Most concert series have multiple businesses sharing the costs of the venue, so all benefit. Multiplying your brand power as a group sometimes makes sense. 3x, 4x, etc. The problem can arise if there are too many partners, and your message gets muted by all of the other brands involved.

Cross Promotion can liven up your marketing strategy, and if done correctly, can really benefit your customer base in some incredible ways. It can show that you care about your customers outside of just your establishment, and that you want them to get the best deal everywhere. The pitfalls typically cannot hurt your clients or customers at all, but you can end up taking it on the chin, if you are not aware of the demographic you are trying to reach, or if your marketing campaign favors one business over another, with evenly distributed costs. The easiest way to make sure you are in the right place is to work with an advertising consultant, to make sure everything stays even.

Making a Big Impact with a Small Budget: Part 3

Get to know the demographic

There are definite ways to improve your odds for success. In the real estate business the aphorism is, “location, location, location.” In the business of marketing, it is, “focus, focus, focus.”

How do you focus? No matter what goals you are aiming to achieve, your campaign has a target market. Adults, women, seniors, and teens are all possible targets. The more defined your target market, the more likely your marketing campaign will work. The following questions help to define the members of your target market.

1. What is their income level?
2. What is their education level?
3. What do they like to do in their free time?
4. What types of media do they use?
5. What types of music do they listen to?
6. Do they spend time on the Internet?
7. What sites do they spend time on?
8. Where do they live?
9. Do they own or rent a home?
10. Do they have children?

If you can accurately identify your market and their lifestyle, then your marketing has a greater chance to succeed. The failure of many marketing campaigns is in skipping this step and developing creative materials that the target audience either glances over or completely misses.

Making a Big Impact with a Small Budget: Part 2

Where do you start?

Be clear about your marketing goals. Whether they are to increase your customer base, raise the quality of applicants, re-establish or create a new identity, reverse a misconception, or all of the above, goals must be set prior to the beginning of your marketing plan. This first step forms an overview that enables your team to acknowledge strengths and weaknesses in order to develop a unique plan designed to meet specific needs and expectations.

If your marketing campaign has numerous goals, focus first on specific areas that demand immediate attention. A strong marketing strategy will prioritize goals in order of importance. Targeting too many areas at once will stretch your budget too thin, and none of your goals will be met.

Remember, your product/company is a living organism that will change over time. While long-term plans are ideal as a core structures, it is imperative for monthly and quarterly budgets to be monitored and revised. Expect evaluations and advice, and if you are not receiving any help, perform your own re-evaluation of the company you keep. It is the job of an advertising agency to stay informed of trends and to share that knowledge with you.

An example of a recent trend advertising and marketing agencies alike were forced to work through took place within the automotive industry. For years, it was common practice for annual marketing strategies to plan automotive dealerships’ Q4 advertising toward selling the next year’s lineup, limiting pre-owned vehicle advertising. Our current economic state broke this pattern as buyers’ spending habits decreased dramatically. Pre-owned sales began to surpass new car sales, and advertising creative had to change accordingly.

In Q1 2009, we directed many dealers to continue to feature pre-owned vehicles, in addition to brand new 2009 models. Budgeted dollars for the quarter were adjusted to accommodate the need to reach secondary demographics not originally planned for at the close of 2008. Monitoring customers’ spending habits and adjusting client creative as soon as trends arise is just one way that Davis Advertising works for you everyday.

Making a Big Impact with a Small Budget: Part 1

Marketing with a small budget is a true art form that requires the utmost skill of the advertising professional. In the same way a photographer needs greater skill to produce black-and-white works of art, a true marketing artist shows his/her skill by making a small budget produce greater results than a large budget produced by marketers with less skill.

There are many ways to make a small budget act larger. The one rule when marketing with a small budget is that you do not market to save money, but to ensure that each dollar spent brings a handsome return.

The most important premise to keep sight of is that you can accomplish your goals, regardless of the size of your budget.