Tag: Advertising

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Marketing

5 Tips for Getting Better Results from Your Advertising Campaigns

Advertisements are everywhere. From TV to billboards to your phone, it’s tough to go through an entire day, let alone an entire hour without seeing an ad. On average, people see 4,000 to 10,000 ads a day, according to Forbes. So how can you break through the noise and make sure your ads are heard? Is it even worth it to advertise when people see so many a day?

Yes. Ads still are influential and — when done right — have the potential to engage new and existing customers.

Whether this is your company’s first-time advertising or you’ve been running them for years, there are ways to improve your ad campaigns and increase your bottom line.

Creative

Any successful ad campaign starts with unique, memorable ad creative. You want your ad to break through the clutter of competitor ads, so you need to ensure your ad will stand out. Look at what all the companies around you are doing — and do something different. Don’t be afraid to step outside of your normal ad creative and push your boundaries.

Like any other marketing piece, start your process by identifying your audience. Next, determine what your key message and call to action will be. Once you have those key elements figured out, you can start brainstorming ideas. Things to consider while brainstorming ad creative are:

  • Research: Research is the key to creating effective ads. Use primary and secondary research to test out colors and ideas as well as learn about audience preferences and behaviors.
  • Brand standards: Although we encourage you to push your boundaries, you still need to stick to your company’s branding. Make sure you keep your company’s voice, logo, colors and fonts intact when making new ads.
  • Advertising medium: What medium will be the most impactful for your audience? Keep in mind what platforms your audience spends the most time on, which ones they are most interactive with ads on and which ones your budget allows you to invest in.
  • Appeals: Will you make an emotional appeal, bandwagon appeal or maybe a humor appeal? There are many types of appeals you can use to capture the attention, hearts and memories of your audience.

Timing

Anyone in sales knows that timing is the most important part of the process — you have to be there when your audience is ready to buy. Although ads don’t always entice people to buy right away, they plant seeds for when people are ready to make a purchase. You can use ads to raise awareness about your products and services, company, and values. These ads will help keep your products and services top of mind when the customer is deciding between you and a competitor. Having seen your ads, they will already know who you are and why they should buy from you; and they will see you with more credibility than a competitor that they haven’t heard about.

Ads also give you the ability to talk to customers 24/7. You don’t have to wait for them to drive by your store or come in and talk to a sales rep.

Repetition

One of the reasons your ad campaigns may not be performing is lack of repetition. Like we said earlier, people see thousands of ads a day. Repetition will help them remember your ad.

Do you remember the HeadOn commercials? Yes, they were annoying, but you didn’t forget what HeadOn was or how to use it.

You don’t have to be as repetitive in commercials as HeadOn was, but you will see more success in your campaigns if you are repetitive over time. Running ads for at least six months helps you consistently stay top of mind to buyers. That’s not to say you have to run the same ad. As a matter of fact, we suggest changing up your ad creative periodically to not let your audience go ad blind.

Offers

If you’re offering a discount or incentive for people to buy your product or service, make sure it’s a good one. It doesn’t have to be outrageous — it just needs to be enticing enough to get people to change their habits and choose you over a competitor. For example: A pizza place wants to bring in new customers, so it decides to offer $2 dollars off. That offer probably won’t make many people change their mind. It doesn’t appear to be that much off, and it doesn’t build excitement. If that same pizza place was offering free delivery, that may be enticing enough to switch. Even though free delivery is only a dollar or two more, using the word “free” builds excitement and catches people’s attention. That kind of offer is enough to at least make people check out your site or menu.

Additionally, really good offers like 50% off or buy-one-get-one-free are sure ways to get people to give your product or service a try. In a report from AMG, 66% of shoppers said they like BOGO the most out of all discount promotions. They also found that 93% of shoppers reported they have taken advantage of BOGO promotions at least once.

Get the latest on coupon marketing

Analyze and Adjust

Advertising campaigns won’t do anything for you if your product or service aren’t great and aren’t delivered to the customer’s expectation. Once you put a product or service into market, keep an eye on customer feedback. Watch your online reviews, monitor social media, use call tracking and digital analytics, and track your coupons. The information you glean from user feedback will help you 1) determine if you are delivering on your promises, 2) ensure your advertisement is effective, 3) adjust and improve ads, and 4) improve your products and services overtime.

We understand tracking and analyzing data isn’t the easiest thing to do. That’s why our team is here. We use the latest technologies to track and analyze your ad campaigns so you can make informed decisions and see hard ROI.

To learn more about how we can help you create ad campaigns that actually yield results, visit SaveOn.com/business.

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Marketing

Geofencing Targets Potential Customers in Specific Areas

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.

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Marketing

Setting Your Company Apart with Direct Mail Postcards

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.

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Marketing

9 Promotional Tactics to Maximize Local Business Traffic

worker at cash register

Having a solid consumer product or service is only half the battle of owning a successful business. The other major piece of the puzzle companies try to perfect is getting customers through the door. A recent survey found more than half of Gen Z, millennials and Gen X are actively trying to shop at local establishments.

How do you get local patrons through your doors (or onto your e-commerce site)? Promotion.

Here are nine promotional tactics that can maximize your company’s local traffic.

Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising is a great way to introduce potential local customers to your brand, products and services at a relatively low cost. You can advertise on a number of sites or apps, including:

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Snapchat
  • TikTok

These popular platforms vary in spending minimums and advertising options, but they all have one thing in common: control. You have absolute control over your campaigns. With social media advertising, you can adjust creative, spending audience and more throughout the campaign at no extra cost, as seen in traditional advertising.

Another benefit of advertising on social media is that your ads can be seen 24/7. With traditional media, you often pay a flat rate for an ad — and if people don’t see it, they don’t see it. Social media ads run all day and night, and they bill by impressions, clicks or conversions. This results-based billing method is enticing to companies that have a tight budget and need hard ROI.

A third pro to social media advertising is your ability to easily target and track audience engagement. Social media platforms let you target people by age, gender, location, job titles, interests and more, so you will be able to get as specific as you want, ensuring your money is going toward the people most likely to buy your offerings. Additionally, the analytics included in the platform will let you know your impressions, reach, clicks, audience demographics, etc.

Digital Advertising

Digital advertising is another way to meet your audience where they are. In fact, a report from Hootsuite and We Are Social discovered people are spending around six hours and 42 minutes on the internet every day. This presents a unique opportunity for businesses to target their local audiences through digital ads.

Through online advertising, your business can increase brand awareness, build a better understanding of your audiences and their behaviors, and create higher-performing content.

Like social media advertising, digital advertisements are billed based on interaction and run 24/7. You can also adjust creative more easily than traditional ads. This type of advertising has a few popular options for advertisers, including:

  • Geofencing – Targeting audiences by building a geographic boundary. When a mobile device enters the geofenced area, some form of ad will be triggered to populate their phone.
  • Retargeting – Ads that are sent to people who have recently visited your website to remind them of your brand, products or services.
  • Display – Push ads that appear based on targeting parameters.
  • Search – Pull ads that appear when someone searches keywords that you have paid for.

Traditional Advertising

Traditional advertising includes newspapers, magazines, billboards, radio and direct mail. Although we’ve talked about some of the downsides of traditional advertising, there are still many benefits of using traditional media.

For one, your target audience may prefer to see ads on traditional platforms. Older generations like Gen X, baby boomers and traditionalists tend to be more receptive to traditional ads than millennials and Gen Z.

Another upside to using traditional advertising is it gives your company a bit of legitimacy among people who are unfamiliar with your brand. Younger generations who grew up with the internet know to be skeptical of scams and fake news online. If they are unfamiliar with your brand, you may come off more legitimate in traditional media because they are thought to be more trustworthy.

Finally, by advertising out in the community, you will be sure to reach people locally and build word-of-mouth publicity.

SEO

Search engine optimization is another tactic that can be used to promote your business and pull people into your website. Simply put, SEO is the process of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search results, according to Moz. Ensuring your website has useful content, includes keywords that people are searching for (without overdoing it), have informative title tags and meta descriptions, and build qualified inbound links will help you rank higher in organic searches, which will drive people into your website.

Sponsorships

Sponsoring community events has two major benefits. First, it can get your business’s name out in front of the right local audiences. Secondly, it generally supports good causes or organizations that help your community. Local sponsorships tend to not be overly expensive, and they also help your brand build credibility and good rapport. Sponsorships sometimes will even include the opportunity to have a booth or table at the event, which gives you the chance to meet and talk to potential customers. This is an awesome way to introduce your company in a fun and authentic way.

Host a Sale with a Community Link

I’m sure you’re thinking, “We have sales all the time, and it only brings in a few extra purchases.” What can make these sales more exciting to potential customers is connecting them to a local event like a big game, community event or gathering, or a holiday that your town loves. Bringing locality to a sale or having it connect with other things happening in the area makes your sale more relevant, adds an excitement element, brings attention to the sale and will likely attract more local customers to your business.

Offer Samples or Product Demos

Who doesn’t love free samples or trying before you buy? People love to get free stuff and know exactly what they’re buying. Giving away free samples and offering product demos give the customers a chance to test out your product or service and see that they can’t live without it.

Strategic Partnerships

Strategic partnerships are used all the time in marketing. Starbucks and Barnes and Nobel, Spotify and Uber, Nike and Apple, and Taco Bell and Doritos are famous examples of hugely successful strategic partnerships. Partnering with a local, reputable business does a few things. It expands your marketing efforts, doubles your audience reach, adds value for media coverage, creates excitement and builds brand credibility. Many local businesses form partnerships every day to increase local traffic to their businesses.

Content Marketing

Breaking through all the noise from the internet, advertisements and media is harder than ever for businesses. Content marketing is a proactive strategy to create interesting, shareable content in which your audience is interested. Your content should have a narrative and tell a captivating story. This helps you appear authentic and gets people genuinely energized about your products and services without feeling like you’re just trying to sell to them. Types of content marketing can include:

  • Blogs
  • Social media
  • E-books
  • Videos
  • Photo galleries
  • Websites
  • Webinars
  • Infographics
  • Podcasts
  • Paid ads

Our team has been working in the marketing realm for decades, not just promoting our own brand but helping connect businesses to local savers. We are always here to guide you, answer your questions and to help you increase sales. Learn more about how partnering with SaveOn will help you reach your business goals at saveon.com/business.

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Marketing

Your Business Needs Coupon Marketing, Here’s Why

When someone talks about coupons, what do you think of? Some people immediately reference moms using Kohl’s Cash or recall an episode of “Extreme Couponing,” but studies show that coupon use is much bigger than those common examples. In fact, coupons can be integral in enhancing your current business model.

Why Offer Coupons?

Business owners and marketing professionals often ask us why they should start offering coupons. Whether your business is doing well or has room for growth, coupons can expand your current customer base and increase sales. 

Although coupon marketing can look like you’re giving away product for free, 77% of consumers actually spend $10 to $50 more than planned when using a coupon, according to Invesp. Upselling is a common practice in coupon marketing. Making conditions like “$10 off when you spend $50” or “buy-one-get-one half off” can persuade customers to purchase more expensive items than they normally would or buy a larger quantity than intended. These types of offers allow customers to get more expensive items cheaper and increase your profits. Coupon marketing is a great opportunity for you to not only upsell but also cross-sell. 

Cross-selling can occur in a number of ways, but two common methods are pushing products at the time of sale, like asking customers if they would like to purchase silverware to go with their new plate set, or making a coupon requirement that a customer must buy a product of a certain type to redeem the deal. For instance, in the same kitchen supply store example, you could have a coupon that offers 50% off silverware with the purchase of a new plate set. This is a great way to unload items you’ve had in stock for a while or introduce customers to new products. 

Another benefit of coupon marketing is increasing the speed of a sale. According to Kelton Global, 48% of consumers say they will make a purchase sooner if they have a coupon. Speeding up the conversion rate is a smart way to meet quarterly sales goals and unload seasonal products. 

Finally, by offering coupons on a trusted site, through direct mail or via email marketing, you can entice new customers to give your brand a try. Elect an offer that is powerful enough to get a customer to change his or her habits and chose you over your competitor. Then, customers will add you to their lists of places they frequent.

Who Uses Coupons?

So now that you know why you should offer coupons, you’re probably wondering if your target audience even uses coupon. The short answer is yes, they do. According to a study by PRRI, baby boomers (people 55 and older) are more likely to use coupons than any other age group, with 96% saying they use coupons, followed by Generation X with 91% and millennials with 87%. Additionally, a study from marketing firm Acosta found Gen Z is three times more likely than millennials to use mobile coupons. 

The bottom line is coupons are still highly valuable to your customer base regardless of age, gender or other demographics.

How to Start Offering Coupons

How and where you advertise coupon offerings depends on each individual business and what services/products it provides. You should start by considering whether paper or digital makes more sense for your company. 

Paper can include direct mail, magazine, receipt roll or newspaper. Paper coupon marketing will likely have printing, design and placement costs but is still a preferred method among older generations. Placing paper coupon ads in popular newspapers and magazines is a good way to get coupons in front of new customers. As younger generations are more digitally inclined, more companies are turning to digital coupon marketing.

Digital coupons also have an assortment of advertising opportunities, including email and text marketing, online publications, couponing apps and websites, geofencing and retargeting, and digital advertisements. Each method will still likely have a design and placement cost but will save you the cost of printing. Email and text offers are a special exception. If your company has a strong email or text list, you can actually avoid that placement cost. Another benefit of email and text promotion of coupons is that emails containing coupons offer a 48% increase in revenue per email, ReadyCloud found.

Whether you’re new to coupon marketing or just trying to navigate the changes, SaveOn has a team of experts who are ready to help you find the right method for your business. SaveOn helps savers live life for less by connecting them with relevant and trusted businesses. We are the top-of-mind provider of innovative marketing solutions, and we are passionate about the growth of our business partners. To learn more about how to get started in coupon marketing, visit saveon.com/business.