5 Ways to Leverage Social Word-of-Mouth Marketing

By Dennis O'malley

Television media companies appear to be the first to leverage social word-of-mouth marketing across screens to keep audiences engaged and tuned in. You've probably seen several shows and events display a stream of tweets or Facebook posts directly on your TV or the stage set. Why? It comes down to engagement, and a new way media brands can further connect with viewers. By leveraging the power of their social network investments, TV media companies are broadcasting handpicked, visual word-of-mouth marketing expressions from passionate advocates to build a sense of community with audiences — all of which helps drive viewership and engagement.

Retail brands should take notice because consumer brand expression on social platforms is booming. The best word-of-mouth marketing is user-generated content. On the social web, this means Facebook wall posts and comments, Instagram photo sharing, Pinterest boards, tweets (especially accompanied by a photo), and YouTube videos. A retailer's best brand advocates are socially engaged and enjoy sharing testimonials and content that's authentic and shows a real passion for the brand.
The payoff for amplifying social testimonials on retailer shopping pages is measurable and significant, including the following:

• increases in page conversions;
• increases in page traffic; and
• increases in online revenue.

Daniel Neukomm, strategy leader for La Jolla Group, a multibrand apparel licensing company, put it this way after his company began promoting social word-of-mouth marketing content on e-commerce pages: "We knew that if a consumer could see a relevant product with a relevant social comment, it would create an additional emotional reaction or layer of attachment to what they were viewing. To put the right content in front of the right consumer at the right time next to a product they're considering buying is just a no-brainer."
The ways and means retail brand marketers can amplify word-of-mouth marketing from social user-generated content is multifaceted. Today's omnichannel audience wants a connected shopping experience online, in-store, over mobile devices, on social media platforms or through printed catalogs. Here are five ways retailers can best leverage social word-of-mouth marketing:

1. Augment product-level ratings and reviews on your product pages with brand and category-level social testimonials that are visual. Hint: Look for your fans interacting with you on Instagram, Facbook or Pinterest.

2. Have digital displays in your stores? Take a page out of TV media and stream real-time, curated, visually compelling social testimonials to show off your community of brand advocates who are proud to be your customers.

3. Leverage social graph information (Facebook's term for user demographics) from your highly engaged fans to improve targeting of precision email campaigns. Add social testimonials from "similar to me" advocates to email content targeting specific ge
ographies, age groups or settings that your data reveals.

4. Promote brand-level social testimonials as new advertising content for your partner affiliates and retailers on their web and mobile sites.

5. Show off your best customers’ expressions on social media channels as a community "Fan Board" or "Customer Stories" page on your branded web properties and mobile sites, or even in printed or digital catalogs as aspirational "Look Books" to reinforce the social proof we all need to feel confident in making purchase decisions.

The ability to capture, filter and promote your fans most compelling visual social testimonials and bring them to life across screens and marketing channels is very real. This is marketing, and retailers that take advantage of greater social integration will be a step ahead in the consumer sales cycle.
Dennis O'Malley is the co-founder and CEO of ReadyPulse, a provider of testimonial marketing. Dennis can be reached at dennis@readypulse.com.

To View Original Article: http://www.mytotalretail.com/article/5-ways-leverage-social-word-of-mouth-marketing/

7 Marketing Ideas to Make Your Mother’s Day Profitable!

by Charles Gaudet

 

Growing up as a kid, my mother would say: “Everyday is Mother’s Day!”

And while that may be true (after all, motherhood is the hardest job of them all), Mother’s Day presents a tremendous opportunity to boost sales with creative marketing ideas.

 

Strategic Entrepreneurs take advantage of these celebrations as a way to increase profits and provide value for their customers.

Spouses, children and grandparents will be spending money to help celebrate the positive contributions our mothers have made to society.

As Entrepreneurs, it’s our job to think of creative Mother’s Day marketing ideas to help make our customer’s buying decision a little easier … as well as make the day as special as possible for their moms.

Just a little effort, sprinkled with creativity, could produce a windfall of profits for your business!

While restaurants, spas, salons, florists, and clothing retailers are usually the first to come to mind when looking to spend money on mom … strategic entrepreneurs in almost any industry can also use this holiday to create a spike in sales, regardless of the business.

With honed Mother’s Day marketing ideas, retail and service businesses alike can develop methods to stimulate sales.

Mother’s Day marketing ideas need to be interesting, unique, and give your customers a reason to pay attention while creating some exciting buying opportunities for your customer!

Here are a few creative Mother’s Day marketing ideas for small business owners:

1.  What do you buy the mom that has it all?  Stores and websites can make this process easier for children, spouses, and others looking to buy something for that special lady by offering a gift guide or suggested selections for mothers based on their interests.
2. Offer a special combination of products or services just for moms, offered at a discount over each item purchased individually.
3. Free gift-wrapping is always handy and welcome (especially for busy spouses with limited time to sneak away to wrap mom’s gift).
4. Create an event for children to come inside your store and select items just for mom. Perhaps offer a special discount to children, or offer a special low-priced selection just to kids. This will bring spouses into your business that may also be looking for a gift.
5. If you’re offering a service, consider creating a tangible gift that a spouse or child can wrap up to give to their mothers. For example, if you’re a fitness trainer, perhaps you can offer a free gift basket with the purchase of a boot camp.
6. As the entrepreneur, if you know your customer or client is a mother, why not recognize them with a special gift, card, or invitation?
7. Host a special event for mothers at your store. Make it a big event (and kid friendly) as to drive traffic and interest.

Remember, don’t be afraid to think outside of the box, people love being entertained and love originality!

To view the original article please visit: http://predictableprofits.com/5-mothers-day-marketing-ideas/

6 Mistakes that Can Get Your Emails Marked as Spam (Even if You’re Not a Spammer)

                   

You’re not a spammer.

You value customer relationships and work hard to build trust with your customer base.

But even with all the work that you’re doing, you’re still seeing a handful of spam complaints when you send out your email marketing campaigns.

What are you doing wrong?

Because spam reports are often a matter of opinion — someone receives your email, decides it is unwanted, and clicks to “report as spam” — it can be difficult to figure out what you’re doing wrong.

While there’s no foolproof system for avoiding spam reports completely, there are certain warning signs you can watch out for as you prepare to send your next email campaign.

Let’s take a look at 6 common mistakes that you’ll want to avoid:

1. Not asking for permission

People open email from people they know, and they delete or mark as spam email from people they don’t recognize. It’s really that simple.

Permission-based email marketing is the best route to developing long-lasting email marketing relationships. When you ask permission, you’re able to build a list of people who are interested in your business and are excited to hear from you. They’re more likely to open your email, less likely to mark it as spam, and will stay with you longer than contacts that are added without consent.

Asking permission also keeps you in compliance with legislation such the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-Spam) and the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).

2. Hiding your identity

Even if you ask for permission, if people can’t recognize that your emails are coming from you, they could still mark your emails as spam.

An easy fix to this problem is to use a familiar from name and from email address. If you have an email address that includes your business’s website, choose that address over one from a personal account.

Another easy fix is to add your branding to the emails you send out. Include your logo in a prominent location at the top of your email and choose colors that represent your business.

3. Sending irrelevant content

Your email content doesn’t have to be bad or offensive to be marked as spam. Often, the worst offense you can commit is to include content that simply isn’t interesting or relevant to the people you’re trying to reach.

Even if people aren’t marking your emails as spam, if they aren’t interested in what you’re sending it’s likely that they will send your emails to trash without giving you a second thought.

Pay attention to what’s working with your audience. Look at your email reports to see which content is getting the highest number of clicks. If you’re still not sure what people are interested in, ask them! You can use an online survey to collect feedback from your audience or update your sign-up form to include options for people to choose when signing up.

4. Breaking promises

When someone signs up to receive your email communications, they do so with the expectation of receiving something of value. If you don’t communicate clearly what that value is — or if they are signing up for one thing and receiving something different — you could be putting yourself at risk.

Give subscribers clear expectations before they share their email address. Let them know how often they’ll be hearing from you, what type of information they’ll receive, and why it’s a good idea to sign up.

Then, set up a welcome email to re-affirm their decision and remind them about what they’re going to receive.

5. Overwhelming your audience

Selling your products or services is an important part of email marketing, but if you’re sending too much promotional material you could be driving some people away.

This is why it’s so important to find a balance in the type of content you send out. As a standard, we recommend 80 percent helpful/informative content and 20 percent promotional.

When you are including promotional content, make sure it’s timely and relevant to the person you’re trying to reach. People are much more receptive to promotions if it helps them solve a problem they are faced with at that time.

Finally, keep an eye on your overall sending frequency. Even emails that are jam-packed with helpful content can be viewed as spam if you’re sending too frequently.

6. Making it difficult to opt-out

Often, people will mark email as spam because they simply want to get off a list.

While it can be difficult to let go, if you have people who aren’t interested in receiving your emails, it’s better to give them the option to opt out than to try to keep them on your email list.

If you’re a Constant Contact customer, there will be an unsubscribe link in every email you send out. Also, make sure to monitor the inbox for the address you are using to send your email campaigns, as many people will reply to your email and ask to be taken off your list.

If you’re focused on providing value to your email audience and are taking the right steps to obtain permission, you’re already on the right track to avoiding spam complaints.

Hopefully these tips help you solve your spam setbacks.

To view the original article please visit: http://blogs.constantcontact.com/avoid-spam-reports/?cc=SM_FB_ConstantContact

How to put your POS to work - POS Features and Integration Study #1 – Marketing

We just recently surveyed the action sports industry and

found that 48% had either no system for customer

management or have not put their existing system to use.

A few years ago we surveyed our retail clients and asked

them what their plans were to market to their existing

customers for the holidays. We were shocked to find that

almost 40% had no plans to do special holiday marketing

to their existing customers and 64% had no customer

loyalty program of any kind. Almost 60% said they had

no idea how to market to their customers using their POS

system. This was something that we set about rectifying

quickly for our clients and we want to share our tips for

success with you.

Your investment in your existing POS system can only

show a return if you learn and utilize the things it can do

for you. So we ask, what tools do you ALREADY have in

place that can help you effectively market? One Step

Retail Solutions, VP Sales, Kevin McAdam has some

tips and information for retailers everywhere.

“Of all the retailers I have talked to over the last couple

of years, ignoring the marketing potential of your

customer base is among the most dangerous decision

you can make in your retail business. Capturing it and

leveraging it is among the best.’

“Many retailers I talk to do virtually zero marketing

because it’s so expensive and because they see so little

measurable return from it. That’s often because it’s

shotgun marketing.”

So how do you AVOID shotgun marketing, how do

you make your efforts pay off?

“Marketing today is getting more and more precise

and as an independent retailer you need to be riding

that cutting edge to stand out. Let’s take a look at

Facebook and how they market to their members.

They know your profile (likes, dislikes, where you go,

what your hobbies are) and so they put advertising

on your sidebar that they know will have the highest

probability of catching your attention.” You could say

that the key to effective marketing is knowing your

client base and their needs.

So how does one find out their needs? How does one

leverage that information in a small to medium size

retail shop without spending thousands of dollars in

research and marketing campaigns?

“First of all, hopefully you have a robust POS system

that can hold large amounts of information about your

customers, because this is literally your gold mine.

Studies have shown over and over again that it costs 5

times as much in marketing dollars to get a new

customer as it does to re-sell to an existing customer.

It’s easy to understand: someone who has already

bought from you knows where you are and what inventory

you carry and, given good customer service, would buy

from you again. You just need to stay in touch with them

and offer them things you know they will buy. (This is why

Customer Loyalty programs work and yours should

definitely marry up with your POS system.)”

Please note that this is as vital for small and medium size
retailers as is it for the big box stores. “Now you need to

collect the information. Usually it’s as easy as telling the

customer that you make special offers to your regular

customers and then offer to put them on that list. Get as

much information as you can, street address, email (assure

them you don’t let anyone else use their email address),

home phone, cell phone (ask if they would like to be text-

messaged if there’s a really hot sale on something you know

they might like) birthday, sizes, color preferences, family

members….anything that you think might help you

promote to them. It might not make sense to try to get all

this information at one time, but sales clerks should try to

help build their ‘profile’ within your POS system” As a side

note, you can also create a sign that has “Follow us on

Facebook and Twitter” and “Check in on Yelp”. Facebook

contact data has become as relevant as an email address or

mailing address.

Marketing ideas made available by having a solid directory

of clientele in your POS system:

- Hopefully your POS system will not only keep a record of

that customer but also the record will show everything they

ever bought from you. This should be an available

customization in your POS. This way, the next time you get

a new item from the designer they have purchased before,

you can easily pull up the list of all customers that buy that

designer and email them that there’s a new shipment in

the store.

- You might even want to have a wine and cheese party to

kick off a new line and invite all the customers that have

bought similar categories in the past, let them know they

can bring along a friend as long as they are added to the

guest list (with their contact data of course).

- For a men’s store, make sure you have their wife’s

contact information so that just before the customer’s

birthday you can email their wife alerting her to the fact

that you have all his sizes and favorite designers.

- For a jewelry store, make sure that you have the

husband’s contact information so that before major

holidays and birthdays you can alert him to an

exclusive sale or offer.

- Reward customer loyalty. You can rank your customers

using the information in your POS system. You should

know which customers bring you the most margin, who

are the ones that buy the most at regular prices, who are

the ones that only buy when things are on sale, and who

are the ones that you make the most money from. Offer

exclusive deals, first pick or even host a invitation only

preview of your new season.

Don’t let it just be an expensive cash register! Learn it

yourself or have one of your employees learn at least the

marketing functions of the software and then put them

to work to increase your profitability.

“I think one of the most important things you can do as a

retailer in today’s marketplace is stop the old shotgun

wasteful marketing and get on the sophistication band-

wagon to precisely market to precise customers that you

want back in your store and that you know will appreciate

and buy the wonderful merchandise you work so hard to

provide.”

If you would like more information on our POS solutions

or for a free POS consultation please contact Amy Hanson

at 818.543.4777 ext 4116 or email

ahanson@onestepretail.com
www.onestepretail.com