There are only a handful of basic needs that are essential for human life; however, far too many people across the United States struggle each day to meet one of those critical needs.
In a nation that prides itself on its wealth and prosperity, food insecurity remains a pervasive issue across all communities — urban, suburban and rural — that is worsened by how easily it can cloak itself and remain unseen. It could be a friend, family member, neighbor or co-worker who is silently struggling each day with hunger.
Since 1979, Feeding America has been tackling food insecurity and hunger across the U.S. Formerly known as America’s Second Harvest, Feeding America is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that feed more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other community-based agencies. The nonprofit is the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization working to connect people with food and end hunger.
Video curtesy of Feeding America
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as the lack of financial or other resources to provide a consistent access to food to lead an active and healthy life. The ramifications of food insecurity make it one of the leading health and nutritional concerns in the nation, contributing to chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular risks.
The issue has only been compounded over the past year by economic hardships stemming from COVID-19. After years of declining rates of food insecurity, Feeding America is projecting 1 in 8 people, 42 million in all, could experience food insecurity in 2021. That estimate includes 13 million children.
Photo curtesy of Feeding America
“In a country that wastes billions of pounds of food each year, it’s almost shocking that anyone in America goes hungry. Yet every day, there are millions of children and adults who do not get the meals they need to thrive,” Feeding America states on its website. “We work to get nourishing food — from farmers, manufacturers and retailers — to people in need. At the same time, we also seek to help the people we serve to build a path to a brighter, food-secure future.”
As mentioned, America prides itself on its wealth and prosperity. Yet, we take equal pride in two additional traits that define who we are as a society: empathy and compassion.
SaveOn provides our customers with ways to get the most from their finances on household groceries. This month we urge you to stretch your dollars further — perhaps even to another household. Consider using the savings available through our partner organizations to make a donation to your local food bank or even helping out with the mission of Feeding America. The Feeding America website can help you locate the food banks in your area and provide you with information on how to donate or volunteer.
Photo curtesy of Feeding America
With the myriad of important issues we face at this time, hunger shouldn’t be one of them. It’s time to take hunger off the table. For details on how you can help, visit feedingamerica.org.
There’s a reason the midway is typically the most popular area at a fair.
It’s the dizzying mix of lights, music, and the seemingly endless rows of games and contests where you have a chance to win that giant, pink, stuffed teddy bear that has been crisscrossing the country all summer and now taunts you as it dangles from the canopy of the carnival booth.
Yes, Yogi, you will be mine before this day ends.
You can feel it even when making a friendly wager with an acquaintance. No matter how mundane the bet or how miniscule the prize, there’s that moment when your pulse quickens, the adrenaline kicks in and the dopamine fires up in your brain as the contest begins. “Could it be possible? Yes, it’s true! If my wall of paint keeps drying faster than his, I may really have a chance to win that last slice of the pizza we bought two days ago!”
You get the idea. It’s the rush. The thrill of competition.
Everyone likes to be a winner. Even more, everyone loves being presented with the opportunity to win. It’s why contests are an easy and ideal promotional tool to help build brand interest and awareness. Here’s a look at a few basic reasons contests should be a part of any marketing strategy.
1. Contests Build a Fan Base
Free stuff is fun and gets attention. The power of promotion is a tried-and-true method to increase Facebook likes and shares — and some contests even urge people to spread the word on the event. According to American Express, “a basic enter-to-win sweepstakes with a lower barrier to entry often provides the best option for those just starting out with social media contests or without a large base of fans in place.”
2. Contests Engage Consumers
The first step of a contest is to get someone’s attention. The next step is to get that person excited, engaged and to take action. “A contest is often distinct from the typical content that brands put out. It pushes people to interact with your brand because they anticipate fun and gain the chance to win something of value,” Submittable wrote in a blog post. “Contests also promote and multiply user-generated content that gets customers more involved and makes your brand more memorable to them and people in their networks.” That user-generated content could be anything from photo submissions to user-made videos.
3. Contests are a Data Treasure Trove
“Contests also offer advantages from a research standpoint. When people sign up or agree to participate, you can collect names, contact information and get answers to other research questions,” according to Chron. “On a giveaway for a television, for instance, a manufacturer may include questions about participant TV habits. When consumers sign up at local electronics retailers, they fill out forms with their information and answers. Companies collect this for research and analysis to better promote that product or something else in the future.”
4. Contests Increase Sales
“The logical and necessary evolution of the benefit of your contest after building awareness and increasing your subscribers is increasing your sales,” said Neal Schaffer, founder of digital marketing consult group PDCA Social. “Contests are a great way to convert your business leads into valuable customers — especially in the case of the winners because they had just tried your product for free (if you chose the wise path of offering your product as a gift and not a random iPad) and they will most likely return to purchase more if your product satisfies them.”
Effective as well as cost-effective, contests are a reliable form of marketing that can boost your business as well as the business of your partners in the eyes of the public.
At SaveOn, we offer monthly contests that showcase the products or services of our various business partners, from winning a tank of gas to walking away with a new KitchenAid Mixer or a gift card to a garden center. Find out more about SaveOn and how we can help take your business to a new level by visiting saveon.com.
Search Seo Online Internet Browsing Web Concept. Website WWW Search Bar Magnifying Glass Graphic
Remember that nondescript, drab and depressing, concrete-block store where you once did all your in-person shopping?
No?
Of course not, because it doesn’t exist. Just as signage and descriptors help guide visitors to the location of a brick-and-mortar storefront and provide a warm, inviting welcome inside, search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) provide the proper digital signage to help the right customers find you online.
There are many complex intricacies and nuances involved in SEO and SEM, and it’s easy to geek out and dive down the rabbit hole of high-level and extensive explanations; however, simply put, SEO produces practices and strategies to increase the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results — in other words, traffic that you don’t have to pay for. Similarly, SEM acts in the same way — and often in tandem with SEO tactics — by using paid strategies to make your business more visible in search engine results pages (SERPs).
“SEM quickly capitalizes on targeted keyword searches; SEO provides the foundation to convert and retain the traffic generated by SEM strategies,” according to an article at Forbes.com. “Carefully intertwining both SEO and SEM techniques will produce a stronger digital marketing campaign with stronger performance and noticeable results.”
At SaveOn, making sure you have all the tools for business success at your disposal is a cornerstone of our mission, which is why we have introduced our custom SEO/SEM solution is designed to drive more traffic and sales to your business through four optimization categories: a web presence assessment, customer services, on-site optimization and off-site optimization.
The web assessment is an in-depth audit of your website to identify and highlight areas for improvement. Among our custom services are keyword research, content development and copywriting, and site updates.
On-site SEO is content and structural improvements that improve your website’s ability to rank well in SERPs. This can include custom content, selective keywords, proper tagging of headlines, links, lists and images. Properly optimizing your content improves the visibility of that page to search engines for the key phrases targeted by the page content.
Off-site SEO refers to other tactics and activities that you do away from your website to improve its ranking in search. This includes content linked back to your website, links from high-value sites back to your site, social postings, business meta-data and content distribution.
Since implementing this arm to help our partners meet each their unique goals, we have already developed numerous successful case studies showing the advantages SEO/SEM optimization can have on the bottom line of any business.
An insurance company sought to improve its ranking on Google search results from Page 2 to Page 1. Our team implemented off-site optimization strategies, to help improve the search results placement. In fewer than three months, we were able to deliver three new Page 1 placements, elevating exposure of this insurance company with a total of five keywords on Page 1.
An HVAC company wanted to increase website traffic and stand out from the rest of the competition. We refreshed the content so that it was more focused toward keywords that the client wanted to target. We also created extra blogs for them every month and put out a press release. Six months later, website traffic rose from 4,000-plus to 16,000-plus, with four of the company’s main keywords on Page 1 of SERPs.
A dental clinic wanted to direct its patients to the website for COVID-19 updates and guidelines being implemented. We recommended that the clinic break down its different services into separate keywords and localize them for the locations being targeted. We also created blogs and refreshed the content for several webpages to get the targeted keywords to rank. After four months, 45% of the target keywords pertaining to the different services the clinic was offering were on Page 1 of SERPs.
A potential customer is simply a customer you haven’t met yet. SaveOn’s digital business strategies help make those initial introductions and connections easier. In addition to making your website more discoverable and desirable through SEO and SEM strategies, we also can give your business a boost with microsites, an email database, geo-addressable fencing, retargeting, digital contests, event targeting and more.
SaveOn is top-of-mind provider of innovative marketing solutions, and we are passionate about the growth of our business partners. Connect with us today at saveon.com to find out more about how we can help you make connections with your customers.
We’re bombarded throughout life with messages both implicit and explicit telling us what it is to be ordinary and what is required of us to fit in with the crowd. We’re told what it means to think ordinary, look ordinary, dress ordinary and act ordinary.
The problem about ordinary is that it’s just so … ordinary.
Ordinary is pedestrian. It’s mundane and routine. In a word, ordinary is boring. It’s boring because it lacks excitement, distinctiveness and the individualism that makes something special enough to stand out to be noticed and appreciated. The truth is, it’s those sometimes subtle and sometimes overt differences between us that make us unique and interesting. Ordinary will always fall short because it’s not extraordinary.
April is Autism Acceptance Month, and the Autism Society of America is commemorating the designation with its Celebrate Differences campaign. The campaign is designed to raise awareness about the signs, symptoms and realities of autism, but it is also focused on providing information and resources on how to become more accepting and inclusive of the autism community in everyday life.
Autism refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication. According to a 2020 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, roughly 1 in 54 children have been identified with autism spectrum disorder, and it is four times more common to be diagnosed in boys than girls.
Society’s attitudes toward those on the autism spectrum has drastically shifted in recent decades as awareness has increased about the disorder and new therapies have been created to treat the diagnosis, such as the Autism Recovery Through Synergy (ARTS) program implemented by Dr. Tami Peterson, founder and CEO of the Oxford Recovery Center in Brighton, Michigan. The ARTS program teaches autistic children the behavioral skills that will help them become more successful in their homes, school and communities.
Raised awareness has created a bridge of understanding and the ability to see beyond the dry and clinical stigma of diagnosis to the flesh-and-bone, feeling-and-thinking people behind it — and, more importantly, an understanding of how the members of the autism community are able to play a valued role in the fabric of our society.
That bridge of understanding connects awareness with acceptance. Yet while attitudes have shifted, there are still more steps to take on the journey. It’s part of the reason why more autism advocacy groups are changing April’s designation from Autism Awareness Month to Autism Acceptance Month.
“While we will always work to spread awareness, words matter as we strive for autistic individuals to live fully in all areas of life,” Christopher Banks, president and CEO of the Autism Society of America, said in a news release. “As many individuals and families affected by autism know, acceptance is often one of the biggest barriers to finding and developing a strong support system.”
At SaveOn, much of our focus is turning the ordinary into the extraordinary for our customers. However, we encourage you to take time this month to recognize the extraordinary all around us every day and help accept and celebrate and our differences by taking part in Autism Acceptance Month. To find more about how you can help, visit the websites of Autism Society of America or Autism Speaks.
In his early 20th century work “Mending Wall,” American poet Robert Frost wrote that “good fences make good neighbors.” Due to the technological advancements of the 21st century, that phase can be revised to denote that “good geofences make great customers.”
Deploying the wrong marketing strategy for the desired result can have all the grace and subtlety of a Sherman tank. Sometimes the big and noisy scattershot guns need to remain holstered in favor of the surgical and exacting preciseness of the simple scalpel. Geofencing is a digital marketing tool of such delicate and effective accuracy in aim and intention.
Geofencing is a location-based technology that allows a business to define a geographic boundary and then create a virtual barrier around the location that communicates with mobile devices entering the area. That communication can be anything from a text message to an email alert to an app notification.
According to Business 2 Community, mobile ads with geofencing have double the click-through rate, and 53% of shoppers visited a retailer after receiving a location-based message. With geofencing being compatible with 92% of smartphones and the average user spending five hours a day on a mobile device, the odds of finding success with this marketing technique fall greatly in the favor of the brand sending the message.
Used wisely, geofencing can communicate with potential customers who may already be interested in the service or product you offer. Content can be tailored to specifically to customers in the geofence who are already more inclined to be open to receiving information associated with your brand. For example, a vehicle dealership might geofence an automotive show to highlight the dealership’s ongoing offers, promotions or events. This targets an audience base that is likely already interested in your product.
However, the effect of geofencing can take an even more hyperlocal approach by setting up a perimeter around a competitor. Such a tactic provides customers the ability to immediately comparison shop or, at the very least, raises awareness of an alternative local option, according to GeoMarketing.
Finally, geofencing helps to personalize the customer experience by finding desired group of prospects for your business, delivering ads to them and providing businesses with the ability to track the success of converting prospects into customers.
Geofencing can be extremely helpful for businesses looking to generate new leads, promote exclusive offers, distribute information about upcoming sales or events and so much more. Geofencing enables your business to reach an audience of potential customers based on where they are and have been. Whatever your message might be, geofencing allows you to reach an audience of real-world people who are already in the proximity of your brand and who could eventually become loyal, valued customers with the right information while they are there.
SaveOn takes great pride in providing a well-stocked arsenal of marketing options that fit whatever need you have and reach whatever audience you want. For more information on how we can help your business target the right customers, visit saveon.com.
The room is packed shoulder to shoulder. It’s hot. It’s sweaty. It’s hard to take a breath.
This is your battleground.
Everyone is vying equally to gain singular attention of your target audience. The noise of competitors makes it even more difficult for your voice to rise above the growing and steamy static and discord. You could resort to a gimmick to be noticed, but that would only detract from the message you want received.
Why try to stand out in the crowd when you can separate yourself from the crowd completely? You can stand on your own as the sole voice without anything or anyone else distracting from the information you are relaying.
That’s what direct mail postcards provide — an uninterrupted link between you and your future customers. No distraction. No competitor. No problem.
In a world where the wielding of technology is often heralded as the ultimate marketing weapon, the humble postcard seems like it should be the antiquated antithesis of good marketing strategy; however, what the troubadours of all things tech tend to overlook is sometimes the simple, the tangible and the simply tangible resonate most deeply with respondents.
The mailbox is like a year-round Christmas tree. You never know what sort of unexpected presents are going to show up each day. According to a Gallup poll, more than 4 in 10 U.S. residents enjoy checking the mailbox, which makes it an ideal avenue to get direct access to your target audience.
Direct mail marketing is the process of delivering marketing materials directly to people’s homes through magazines, inserts, postcards, flyers, catalogs and more. Using direct mail postcards has numerous advantages.
In a study by Marketing Charts, more than 30% of baby boomers made a purchase from direct mail marketing methods, which outperformed recommendations from friends and family, online consumer reviews, email ads, TV ads, print and radio.
Direct mail postcards have a personal feel and high readership. BusinessKnowHow.com noted that postcards are much more likely to be read than direct mail letters — 94% to 14%. In addition, a postcard lets a business communicate directly and immediately with customers.
Direct mail is not cost-prohibitive. At a fraction of the cost of traditional postcards, direct mail postcards are one of the most cost-effective and affordable forms of targeted marketing available.
Postcards can be used as a complementary piece to a larger marketing initiative, and they provide an immediate-impact response with the customer. There are no envelopes to open with a direct mail postcard. You message is front and center when customers are flipping through that day’s mail. And the unencumbered colors and graphics on the quality-stock card are going to give a person pause to take a closer look.
Each month, SaveOn reaches millions of people in Chicago, Detroit, Twin Cities and West Michigan in their mailboxes via our monthly magazine, postcards, inserts and more. We make reaching your future customers easier by offering supreme deals on direct mail postcards that include design, printing and mailing. Reach out and capture the attention of your target audience with postcards, flyers or 4-page circulars at 75% savings. Leave the crowd behind and standalone proudly. Visit SaveOn.com for more details.
You have a great company, and you have a solid product or service. You are even doing some advertising and marketing to attract new customers, so why aren’t sales where you expected? To get the results you want out of your marketing efforts, you need to have a well-rounded, fully thought-out marketing plan from inception to execution. Our team has put together a guide to creating a marketing plan that is sure to result in the hard ROI your company is looking for.
Brand Positioning
Every good marketing plan starts with research and background. The first thing you should do is perform a SWOT and competitive analysis. The SWOT helps your company identify its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The competitive analysis will show how your business and products compare to your direct competitors. It’s important to know what your competition is doing, as well as how they’re positioning their companies and products because you need to differentiate your business from theirs.
Using the information from your SWOT and competitive analysis, you will be able to identify your company’s key differentiators and unique value proposition, or the one thing that sets your business and offerings apart from the competition. This will help you formulate messaging that speaks to your distinctive attributes.
Finally, before you can form messaging and a marketing plan, you have to determine who your target audience is. A big mistake many businesses make is trying to talk to everyone. There’s no reason to waste your money marketing to people who have no interest in your products or services. Although you may get less impressions or have to spend more initially to reach people in your target market, it’s worth it in the end because your efforts will result in more qualified leads, sales and new long-term customers. To identify your target audience, you will need to ask yourself demographic and psychographic questions like:
What gender are they?
Where do they live?
How old are they?
Are they married and do they have kids?
What is their education?
What do they want?
What are their pain points?
Where do they go?
You can learn more about who your audience is through customer surveys, reviews, competitive analyses and creating customer personas. Additionally, you can use resources like call tracking. Call tracking data allows you to know where your calls are coming from by ZIP code, day of the week and hour of the day. All of this allows you to make educated decisions about your advertising campaign and coach your call center or receptionist to make the most of the leads you receive. At SaveOn, we offer call tracking to our advertisers at no additional cost.
Once you have your research and background information finished, your next step is setting a budget.
Budget
Businesses should have a firm budget identified before drafting a marketing plan. You will need to take several things into consideration when setting a budget:
Your marketing plan will need to include a variety of marketing and advertising mediums.
Will you outsource artwork and creative for the campaign?
Will you need to purchase software to execute and track the campaign?
How long will your campaign run?
You will most likely want to leave a little room in your budget for additional costs. Looking at past marketing campaigns can help you estimate costs for your upcoming marketing plan.
After your budget is approved, you are ready to start drafting your marketing plan. The first step is identifying your goals and key performance indicators.
Goals and KPIs
A plan without an end goal is a sure way to waste your money. By setting SMART goals, you ensure your campaign is headed in a good direction, but it also is achievable in the timeframe you set. After setting your SMART — specific, measurable, accurate, realistic and timely — goals, you will need to identify KPIs. A KPI is a measurement that tells you if your campaign is meeting its goals. KPIs can include but are not limited to:
Revenue growth
Number of new customers
Website visitors
Digital ad conversions
Your next step in your marketing plan is identifying the strategies and tactics needed to reach your goals.
Strategies, Tactics and Marketing Mediums
Now that you have long-term SMART goals, how are you going to achieve them. You need to create a few strategies and tactics to carve a path out to reaching your goals. Strategies should be a big-picture plan to reach a goal, while tactics should be concrete, smaller steps to get there.
For example:
SMART goal: To increase visitors to our website by 10% by Dec. 31, 2021.
Strategy: We will use digital marketing to drive people to our website.
Tactics: We will implement geofencing, retargeting and SEO/SEM.
Your strategies can and should use a combination of marketing techniques to reach your audience.
Types of Marketing
Content Marketing
Content marketing is creating shareable material that you put online, such as blogs, videos, e-books or webinars. The purpose of these marketing tactics is to position your businesses as a thought leader, answer customer questions before they have to ask, create brand equity, attract new customers and increase sales. These can be valuable tactics for your business because they are easily accessible and sharable. They drive customer interaction and inevitably convert to sales.
Email Marketing
Email marketing allows companies to send commercialized messages to your segmented audiences. You can promote sales, offers, information and more to your customers. In the United States, more than 90% of people 15 years or older use email, and email marketing has an ROI of 4,400%, according to OptinMonster. That means, for every dollar you spend on email marketing, your company will potentially see a $44 return.
If your email database isn’t quite large enough to reach your audience, you can always use advertisers to help you. SaveOn has more than 140 million opt-in email records in our database. We can help you target your message to the audience you want to reach using more than 750 filters, including geography, age, gender, household income, levels of interest and more.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is using social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and more to promote your products and services. According to Statista, there are more than 3.6 billion people on social media today. Businesses have a great opportunity to reach their target audiences on social outlets, increase brand affinity and convert fans to sales. In fact, 70% of business-to-consumer marketers have gotten their customers through Facebook, OptinMonster found.
Businesses with a strong social media following can gain sales and customers through creating engaging content with calls-to-action. Those without a large, active following can still find success on social media through social media advertising. Social media advertising tends to be less expensive than traditional ads and gives businesses more control over the ad spend.
We offer social media advertising to our business partners. Our team of advertising experts help create messaging, set up campaigns and monitor your budget, so you get the results you want without the stress or hassle.
Digital and Mobile Marketing
Digital and mobile marketing is using the internet and online digital technologies like desktops and smart devices to reach audiences. A Nielsen study found that chief marketing officers said they found digital marketing was more effective than traditional marketing like TV or radio, and 82% of CMOs expected to increase their digital advertising budget. Additionally, 50% of consumers who search for a local business on their mobile device visit a store within a day.
SaveOn has years of experience working with companies to deliver effective digital marketing campaigns. We’re able to offer our business partners special lowered digital advertising prices, and we specialize in mobile marketing, geo-addressable fencing, websites, retargeting, SEO/SEM, event targeting and deliver marketing messages.
Direct Mail Marketing
Direct mail marketing is the process of delivering marketing materials directly to people’s homes through magazines, inserts, postcards, flyers, catalogs and more. Although email and direct mail campaign tend to generate similar response rates, a MediaPost study found that direct mail marketing generates five times more purchases than that of email marketing.
SaveOn connects millions of local savers in Chicago, Detroit, the Twin Cities and West Michigan to businesses through its monthly magazine, inserts and postcards.
Coupon Marketing
Coupon marketing has been around for decades and has not let up in popularity or effectiveness. In 2019, 91% of Americans ages 35-54 used coupons, and 77% of consumers spend $10-$50 more than planned when using a coupon. We strongly suggest incorporating coupon marketing into your marketing plan. If you need help reaching new customers, using a trusted couponing source like SaveOn is a solid choice. We send coupons from local businesses out to millions of consumers in Chicago, Detroit, the Twin Cities and West Michigan each month through direct mail and digitally.
Write Messaging
Now that you have your marketing mediums chosen, you’re ready to write your messaging. Messaging should be targeted at your audiences identified earlier in the process and optimized to each marketing platform. Remember to always stick to your unique differentiators, and don’t be afraid to venture outside the box with your ideas.
Evaluating Success
Finally, your plan must be measurable. A marketing campaign can only be called a success if there is something to indicate whether you reached your goals or not. Use your KPIs to see if you reached your goals. If you find that something isn’t working, evaluate why and change it. The people who you are marketing to are constantly changing their opinions, wants and needs based on the world and what they’re being offered. Make sure you are open to trying new marketing methods when things no longer are working. Staying up to date on marketing trends is an important piece of the planning and evaluation process. Our team at SaveOn is here for you. We specialize in shining a light on your company’s unique offerings and can help you identify and reach your target audience through our marketing solutions. To learn more about our marketing programs, visit SaveOn.com.
In retrospect, Pete Townsend seems a bit more of an oracle than a songwriter when he penned The Who classic “Going Mobile” in 1971.
A half-century later, there are upward of 5 billion unique mobile users worldwide, and 2.7 billion of them use smartphones, according to the digital-insights gurus at DataReportal. In the United States alone, the Pew Research Center estimates that 285 million residents will have a smartphone by 2023. Then there’s the oft-cited statistic released several years ago by the Mobile Marketing Association of Asia indicating that more people on the planet own a mobile phone than a toothbrush.
As disquieting as that information may be to the American Dental Association, the growing use of mobile isn’t going away and shows no signs of plateauing anytime soon. It’s a reflection of the changing on-the-go world, and every day more people are relying on their mobile devices as their window to view and stay in touch with the wider world wherever they may be.
All of this is why mobile marketing is essential to incorporate into the marketing strategy for any business. Your audience is no longer a static target. To reach them and get your message seen and heard, you have to meet them where they are at any given moment. There are a variety of ways to use mobile marketing, and often different methods are employed to meet different needs. Some of the most common strategies include:
Mobile apps:Smart Insights reported 2020 saw 35 billion mobile app downloads. Companies that have mobile apps are primarily targeting existing customers through promotions and increased engagement to enhance retention and reward loyalty. Coupons and special deals can transform existing customers into brand ambassadors.
Mobile game marketing: Mobile gaming is a booming business, with 2.7 billion gamers around the world at the end of 2020, according to Pocket Gamer. Additionally, an average of 234 daily minutes spent gaming is anticipated by 2021. Advertising appearing in mobile games through pop-ups and banner ads is an exceptional way to promote new products or deals.
Location marketing: Location-based marketing strategies such as geofencing and geotargeting puts your business in front of an audience at a predetermined location. Location marketing is an ideal tactic for small businesses seeking to target a particular audience in a specific community.
QR codes: Quick-response codes work with any camera-equipped smartphone and provide a wealth of data from text to URL links, sending consumers directly to whatever information a business is looking to put in front of eyes.
There is a plethora of other mobile marketing avenues that can be explored to meet the distinct objectives of a business of any size. It’s important to experiment with different approaches and then analyze and benchmark results to see what works best for you. However, being succinct in your message is key. Mobile devices have small screens, so make your message count in a low word-count to have the biggest impact.
SaveOn can keep you moving to reach your audience at any place and any time. Find out more about how we use mobile marketing to help our clients obtain a higher level of success by visiting saveon.com.
But that quippy proverb takes on a whole new meaning now. After the tumultuous year the business community just experienced, it’s likely many business owners are pleased to see the number 2020 in the rearview mirror.
A new year brings new hope and new opportunities. It’s a reset button, a fresh start, a tabula rasa to reexamine your goals, recommit your determination and reinvigorate the idea that the unknown days ahead contain unlimited potential for success.
However, just because the days ahead are unknown doesn’t mean you have to approach them unprepared. There are steps that can be taken to help kickstart success and begin 2021 — ah, that beautiful number that seemed to take so long to get here — with a bang.
The coronavirus pandemic that tested the limits and endurance of the business world isn’t over, but the sun appears to be coming up over the horizon and the dawn of better days are approaching. Here are a few tips to help you put your best foot forward and greet 2021 chin up and head-on:
Don’t make your marketing budget an optional expense: Although many businesses continue a day-to-day struggle to keep the doors open, the lights on and make payroll, it’s never a good idea to stop thinking about marketing strategy. The marketing budget may be smaller than in years past, but it is still a vital component for your business to keep your name in front of the right eyes. It’s an investment in you.
In a forbes.com article, PostcardMania founder and CEO Joy Gendusa explained that the company slashed its marketing budget following the 2008 recession to detrimental effect, losing $5 million in revenue by 2009. The lesson: The marketing budget is sacred.
“Where possible, you need to get the word out to prospects and customers alike that your business is alive, kicking and ready to be of service,” Gendusa wrote in the article.
Bolster your social media presence: From the mom-and-pop shop to the national chains, a strong social media presence is a critical strategy for success in the 20th century. We live in a world where word of thumb has replaced word of mouth, and social platforms are one of the best ways to stay connected with your current customers and raise your profile and awareness with your future patrons.
With more than 3 billion people worldwide using social media every month, the potential for engagement only keeps growing, according to an article in marketinginsidergroup.com.
“If people don’t know about your business, they can’t become your customers,” the article states. “Social media boosts your visibility among potential customers, letting you reach a wide audience by using a large amount of time and effort. And it’s free to create a business profile on all the major social networks, so you have nothing to lose.”
Put your business on the Google Map: Take the time at the start of the year to update your Google My Business profile. Google My Business provides business owners with the ability to have their companies pop up in local search results and appear on Google Maps. Setting up a Google My Business profile is relatively simple and can reap numerous rewards when properly optimized — from improving engagement to boasting your business in local search results.
An article in business2community.com, recommends filling the Q&A section of the profile with frequently asked questions, adding images or video and responding to all reviews.
“A robust Google My Business profile is more important now than ever. If you want to show up when local searchers are trying to find businesses like yours on Google or in Google Maps, a complete and optimized Google My Business profile is the place to start,” the article states.
It’s important to also take stock of the previous year and pinpoint what did and did not work for your business. However, equally important as looking back is looking forward. You invested your life into your business, so do your homework and study up on the trends and predictions being made in the coming year to determine how you can better reach your customers.
SaveOn has been helping business of all stripes extend their reach to target audiences for years. Find out more about what SaveOn can do for you by visiting saveon.com.
There’s good reason that it’s not known as “The Season of Getting.”
From the smaller stage of helping workaday employees make their everyday ends meet to the broader perspective of keeping the nation’s economy on track at a steady hum, consumerism indeed has its undeniable values and virtues. However, even the most squinted and pessimistic eye can’t deny that the holiday season encompasses a softer and more global approach to giving of ourselves for the purpose of offering a hand to our friends and neighbors who are struggling and in a time of need.
That’s why in the height of the holiday shopping hysteria, Giving Tuesday plays a vital role in reminding us that the threads of kindness and compassion bind us all together in this complex tapestry of humanity. It’s also why businesses large and small play essential parts in the ensemble cast of making Giving Tuesday a success each year.
Since 2012, Giving Tuesday has encouraged people to engage in acts of good on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving through its mission of building a more just and generous world.
“Giving Tuesday strives to build a world in which the catalytic power of generosity is at the heart of the society we build together, unlocking dignity, opportunity and equity around the globe,” according to the organization’s website. “We believe that generosity leads to greater civic participation and other pro-social behaviors. … Whether it’s making someone smile, helping a neighbor or stranger out, showing up for an issue or people we care about, or giving some of what we have to those who need our help, every act of generosity counts and everyone has something to give.”
At SaveOn, we’re proud that so many in our extended family of businesses choose to take part in the spirit of Giving Tuesday during the holidays, as well as throughout the year. These businesses serve as shining examples of compassionate commitment in the regions they serve as they strive to do their part to make their community’s better places to live, work and play.
With so many feeling isolated and alone this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, The UPS Store in Lake Orion, Michigan, is using its care package services to help families and loved ones stay connected while following social distancing guidelines.
As a designated essential business, The UPS Store has remained open during the pandemic. Care packaging is just one way the brand is helping customers get through this time as a resource of hope and outreach.
“Many of our customers are missing their families and friends, so sending a care package is a great way to be there for one another from a distance,” said franchise owner Neil Patel. “Our packing experts are trained in advanced packing techniques and can pack just about anything. We know how important it is for your package to arrive intact to help bring a little good cheer.”
Another proud member of the SaveOn family, MSP Plumbing, Heating and Air in St. Paul, Minnesota, has been committed to the comfort of its customers for more than a century. MSP takes great pride in being an active member of its community by supporting local charities and causes.
“We know that 2020 has been a tough year for all, and we believe everyone could use a little extra comfort. MSP would like to take the holiday season to show our commitment to our community by supporting people in need,” MSP said in a statement. “We are asking for your help by sharing instances of individuals, families or groups who may have had a rough year and could use a little extra happiness this holiday season.”
MSP is asking people to visit mspoffers.com/committed-to-our-community and nominate an individual or family that has had an especially challenging year and could use a little help. The MSP team selects a winner each week to be awarded and celebrated on the company’s website.
Ann Arbor, Michigan, favorite Wags to Wiskers Pet Supplies spreads its Giving Tuesday sentiment throughout the entire year to our four-legged friends by accepting year-round donations for local pet rescues and charities.
“Our community is our family and our priority at Wags to Wiskers Pet Supplies,” said owner and founder Dan Gilmore. “You can feel it in the way we treat our customers, both new and returning. You see it in the way we partner with local businesses and organizations. We are most grateful for all the support and consistency in our businesses during this most tumultuous year. We miss seeing everyone all the time, but we know things will be better soon, and we plan to be right here.”
These businesses, and many more just like them, reflect the importance SaveOn places on taking an active role in the community and giving back to the people and the causes that help define a region’s purpose. There are no small acts of giving. Consider supporting the local businesses that support you this Giving Tuesday.
