Balihoo

The Balihoo office is a pretty productive place. Our employees are hard-working, enthusiastic, energetic, and extremely passionate about revolutionizing local store marketing.  We work really well together and collaborate with a level of team spirit and cohesion rivaled by (maybe) only a few other groups.

AND... our mascot, 'Scout', is a dog.

Is this some crazy coincidence?  I don't think so.  And neither does the author of Manager's Best Friend, an article that appeared in The Economist last month.  The article suggests, based on research done by Central Michigan University, that the presence of canine friends in the office space can improve teamwork and encourage team allegiance.  Participants in the study who had a dog to "slobber and pounce on them" gave better feedback about their group members in the studied areas of trust, team cohesion and intimacy.  

I'm glad Balihoo culture encourages canine companionship.  We have a dog photo cork board, our meeting rooms are named after employee's dogs, Scout paraphernalia is all over the place, and we're always quick to hand-out one of our beloved Scout stuffed toys.

Just recently, our VP of Marketing, Shane Vaughan, got a new yellow lab puppy named Dexter.  Much to everyone's excitement, he's been paying weekly visits to our office. Other notable past canine visitors include Wrigley, Max and Bronco.

It doesn't take scientific evidence to convince me that a canine companion can lift anyone's mood and therefore, at the least, create a more enjoyable work environment (although I might argue that bringing a puppy into an area occupied by females will most likely temporarily decrease productivity).  But, productivity aside, we can all agree that enjoyable environments make for happier people, and I'm confident that happy Balihoo employees make for happy local marketing software customers!



 


 

You’ve heard it a thousand times: Empower Your Channel to Grow Sales.

Sounds good, right?

Problem is that empowering your channel has always meant hiring more sales people who struggle to control the loose ends. It turns out that implementing channel marketing automation technology is a cost effective approach that will provide a tangible return on investment.

Reality

A recent call with a prospect illustrates the situation. Half of this prospect’s sales come from Group A, a handful of large, national B2C buyers with thousands of local stores. The other half of sales come from Group B, consisting of thousands of local and regional distributors with 1-5 locations. Logically, this marketer focuses the majority of his resources on the handful of big buyers who drive sales quotas.

The irony, while Group A does drive tremendous volume, and total sales, their fixation on price drives profit out of each transaction, resulting in commoditized products. In stark contrast, Group B tends to be very loyal, strong brand advocates, and more profitable (considering the very small amount spent on them currently). So the prospect neglects Group B.

Sadly, this is an all too common problem. Gerald Murray, Research Manager with IDC, recently released a study of channel marketing for large IT companies stating that, on average the IT company participants in his study have 19,000 inactive partners. Beyond IT, the problem pervades other industry sectors.

Solution

How then can the prospect cost effectively drive sales through the more profitable Group B? It turns out that hiring more people is not the solution. The increased human capital costs would outweigh the subsequent sales increase. The opportunity then must lie in the use of technology.

Murray from IDC tends to agree, though his solution is to implement partner relationship management (PRM) tools, though I don’t think that fundamentally tackles the channel marketing problems. Instead, I think a local marketing automation (LMA) platform includes the full suite of tools to solve channel problems. Also based on technology, it focuses on empowering the local channel reseller, a distinct difference from PRM tools that focus on tools for a brand’s channel marketing/sales organizations.

The LMA solution is scalable, cost effective, and ultimately places emphasis on local store marketing execution, a movement that is much more than a trend. To understand this as a solution, one must consider the MARKETING problems a channel faces: 

1. Marketing Materials - Access and ability to customize proven, professionally designed, and nationally branded creative assets.
2. Advertising Funds - Traditionally administered as a co-op marketing solution, national advertising dollars are a lifeline to the small marketing budgets of local channel resellers.
3. Strategy - Local channel resellers typically don’t have the training, experience, or attention to develop, implement and execute effective cross-medium local marketing.
4. Execution - Local marketing requires knowledge of effective branding across multiple mediums.

What do you think? Are these the problems your channel faces?

I used to stress about how to gather feedback the 'right' way from customers.  Before talking to customers about Balihoo's ad builder software, I would have all my W's (and one H - catchy right?) in a line:  Who, What, When, Where, Why, How.  I would search to find just the right customers, plan all the content out via a well defined script, decide a time that would work perfectly for all involved time zones, and then I would worry about whether or not I had the perfect format by which to relay and receive information - Would they get it? Would they get hung up on something? Would they be able to provide valuable feedback? 

Now that I'm a veteran product manager and totally comfortable with all aspects of my job (note the sarcasm), I have more confidence.  Maybe it's in me, but I think it's in the customers.  When I have questions, or when I find myself looking at a few different options, wondering which one is the right one, I go to the customers.  Representative customers can be found everywhere: the people placing the orders (of course), coworkers, third party feedback sites, family (thanks Mom).  Though, taking representative customer feedback as directional and inconclusive is my job. It's still my job to take that information and make a decision based on what will help the affiliate be successful in their local advertising.  All along the process of development, information is power, and that directional input gets us one step closer to perfecting Balihoo's ad builder software. 

Recently, Balihoo received recognition from Inc. Magazine as one of the top 500 Fastest-Growing private companies in the US (full release here).  

Our local Fox affiliate covered the story here:  

Simultaneously advertising on prime time TV and on internet sites may be a solid new strategy to touch consumers according to my analysis of The Nielsen Company's recently released 2010 Q1 Three Screen Report  entitled, "What Consumers Watch: Technology Enhances the Video Experience." 

The report provides information and data about households and their video viewing behaviors when using HDTV, timeshifting (DVR or OnDemand) devices, broadband internet, and smartphones.  The findings are interesting for local advertising buyers for franchise marketing efforts, and they suggest a new strategy may be in order.

The report finds that DVR usage and penetration into homes has increased 14% to more than nine and a half hours per month.  Interestingly, while DVR usage increases, the rate of commercial viewing during playback remains steady—good news for advertisers. According to the report, on average, "45% of commercials are viewed during [DVR] playback in Q1 2010 compared with 43% in Q1 2009." 

Also interesting is that 58.7% of people are using TV and the internet simultaneously.  This number astounds me and got the wheels turning.  Perhaps, integrating a local internet marketing campaign along with a prime time TV schedule could be an effective way to target my audience and reach them where they are currently absorbing a majority of their advertisements.  It may seem obvious, but paying attention to the data and placing advertising in multiple mediums where consumers are most receptive, in an integrated fashion, is a critical component to advertising success and is one of the Balihoo media team's strengths.

Whether you work in advertising or are on the other end as a consumer, I encourage you to check out the report.

The other night, I caught an episode of CBS's Undercover Boss, a show in which, if you haven't already heard (hopefully, you have, as your CEO could be lurking--perhaps even watching you now as you read this, posing as an interested temp as he scribbles a mental note, "This guy likes to read blogs when he should be working . . . fired!") features CEOs of Fortune 500 companies—never mind—I just explained the entire premise of the show.

Anyway, this particular episode trailed Chris McCann, the President and little brother of Jim McCann, the CEO of the largest floral and gift company in the world, 1-800-Flowers. [An aside: the best scenes came when Jim treats Chris like they're both 9 years old again, going so far as to almost blow Chris' cover in a stunt to embarrass him in front of people that technically work for him. Classic!].  The episode proceeds as most do. Boss finds some bad. Boss finds more good. Boss hands out promotions/gentle coaching.  However, one particular scene made my "hey-Balihoo-could-own-that-if-given-the-chance" light bulb go off. Yes, I have that light bulb. Jealous?


Shortly after this scene was shot, Chris was almost fired by this lady! No joke!

The scene involves Chris visiting a franchise that recently went from locally-owned to a 1-800-Flowers branded florist shop. When the manager of this particular store was asked why the store was struggling, she stated simply, "people just don't understand we're the same shop, with a different name, especially since we aren't involved in local advertising." DING!  Enter Balihoo.  With Balihoo actively enabling breakthrough local store marketing, that store, and other 1-800-Flowers franchises just like it, would have been quickly outfitted with the tools neccessary to get their store performing optimally.  

So, Mr. McCann (and others just like you) . . . can I get you our local marketing playbook?

Being in the business of local advertising, we at Balihoo are often asked by our small business owner clients about how to utilize local internet marketing. They hear buzz that their customers are overwhelmingly adopting online media. But the internet appears to our business owners as, well, the world wide web - rather daunting, and they don't know where to start.

Our retail store owners in particular spent much of their local marketing efforts in the past few decades hanging coupons on doors and running inserts in the local newspaper. This method simply doesn't cut it in today's fragmented consumer marketplace.

Online advertising is a great way to market on a tight budget and reach a targeted demographic. Google Paid Search (pay-per-click) and SEO efforts should be top on any local business marketer's list. Then consider what your local media outlets offer on their online properties.

Groupon's online display campaign in the NYTimes.com illustrates a great example of local targeting through online news sites. Admittedly, I was reading an article about Snooki, but my shame aside, Groupon's ad on "Boise's Best / Up to 90% Off / Get Today's Special" caught my eye, and I found myself adding to their click through rate. The special today happens to be laser hair removal at a high end spa in Boise. Well targeted at me - a young female professional reading the Fashion & Style section of the NYTimes.com.

Groupon is averaging 500,000 new subscribers a week. After they ran an $11 million promo for Gap, they gained 750,000 subscribers (see Advertising Age's article).

What to learn from Groupon's online marketing:

• Identify your target demographic and only buy top-rated pages against that audience
• Keep your message concise and easy to read (the less words the better)
• Focus the message on the call-to-action
• Leverage the measurability of online advertising - track your results closely and optimize as you see upward/downward trends

Are you a franchise owner looking for guidance with local store marketing? Check out Balihoo's white paper.

Balihoo has recently launched a fantastic new function within our local marketing automation software - Microsites.  One of the key use-models of this functionality is for product manufacturers who sell their products through a set of regionally distributed dealers (channel).  These manufacturers are using microsite functionality to be the landing pages on the back-end of the dealer-locator section of their websites.  Let me demonstrate:  

I'm interested in buying a new motorcyle, from Brand X.  My first step is that I'll research the product online (which research proves) .  First, I'm going to go the website of the manufacturer.  Once I explore all of the options and determine what I'm going to buy, I'm ready to purchase it locally (this even has an acronym - ROBO - research online, buy offline).  I punch my zip code into their dealer locator, and up pops the 5 dealers in my immediate area.  Naturally, since I'm on the web, I'm happy to see that they all have websites.  As I click into the dealer that is closest to me, I'm directed to their website, which represents several motorcycle brands, and in fact the Yamaha is on sale on their front page.  Brand X has given me the info, the research and directed me to a dealer - however, because they lost control of that customer, they also lost the sale to Yamaha.  

Let's contrast that experience with a motorcycle brand that is doing it right - Honda.  (note - Honda is not a customer of ours, but they're doing a great job!).  See the video below for the exact Honda experience:  



Want to see how this could impact your brand?  Hit us up for a live demonstration, we would be more than happy to show you!  
 

In 2008, the 100 Thing Challenge created quite a stir on the web, motivating people to own fewer material possessions and cap that ownership at 100 personal items. While Dave Bruno’s challenge lasted for a finite period, some analysts think recession fueled decreases in consumer spending may represent a permanent trend in consumer behavior. 

When considered along with the 100 Thing Challenge, the idea of a permanent decreasing in spending leads to a challenging thought experiment for marketers: what if your advertising not only had to generate interest from consumers but also had to motivate them to displace another possession prior to acquiring your product?

The thought begs a number of questions:

• How does your marketing emphasize the value your brand provides?
• Would severely constrained demand change your approach to demonstrating this value?
• If yes, would that approach be different in Albuquerque, New Mexico compared to Augusta, Maine?
• How would you coordinate your efforts in different geographic areas across multiple mediums?
  

At Balihoo, we believe that knowledge and know-how to adapt marketing to local markets probably already exists within your Brand’s organization. Rather, what most brands are missing are the tools to execute locally.  Balihoo’s local marketing software simplifies and automates your local marketing strategy, enabling national brands to collaborate with franchisees and affiliates to drive demand and appeal to local buyers with local needs. Specifically for national brands, Balihoo provides tools to streamline funds allocation and administrative oversight of Co-op Advertising programs.  Take a look at our White Papers to see how our software can help both your franchisees, and affiliates to drive sales with creative and targeted campaigns tailored to the local level. 

Software is wonderful at creating economies of scale by automating processes that are time intensive, repetitive, costly, and error prone when done by humans.  However, a problem that can occur when you have access to software engineering resources is making automation the default first option when there is any problem with the business process.

Interestingly, process development challenges are very similar to product development challenges. Automating a bad process will likely make it faster, but won’t necessarily fix the bad process.  Though, you can create optimal results through rapid customer testing and refinement using lean principals to guide you.  Automation can and should be used as one of many options to reduce or eliminate bottlenecks but not necessarily as the first option.

At Balihoo or any startup, institutionalizing processes is a direct tradeoff to being lean. Startups begin with no processes and the goal of adding just enough process with growth to ensure great products and a stellar customer experience.  Add too much rigor to processes too early, and you can reduce a key competitive advantage - agility to react to the market.

In contrast, not adding enough rigor to processes can result in errors, employee wheel spinning, and inconsistent results, leading to unhappy customers.  Because growth is unpredictable, this balance is constantly changing and requires constant vigilance and involvement by all.  One bad event can cause knee jerk over-reactions by management that can cause massive downstream process effects if not checked.  Was that event isolated, or was it part of a bigger upstream problem?  How much process is required to solve this problem effectively?  Is this a process that we even want to continue supporting?

Balihoo management is vigilantly monitoring this balance.  Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we don't. However, at all levels of the organization, we have built an ownership model that helps mitigate these types of risks which results in open discussion between process owners with questions like, “Hey we could do this better here? Maybe we shouldn't do this anymore?”
Key lessons we have learned are that:

• Total company buy-in is critical. 
• You don't have to be a process engineer to build a lean process. 
• Most of the time success happens as a result of a combination of common sense and an injection of ingenuity!  See these videos below for some great examples of human ingenuity with existing resources. :)

Balihoo was recognized this morning as the #401 fastest growing company in the Inc. 500 list. It is an incredible accomplishment and as Pete, our CEO, stated in the company's official press release, this "validates both our vision, and effort to deliver superior solutions and customer service" for a growing list of national brand clients.

Congratulations to all Balihooers who have been a part of the effort since 2006.

If you own a local business or are a local product distributor, you likely know how powerful customer referrals can be to your bottom line. While most business owners recognize this opportunity, many mistakenly leave Referral Marketing out of their annual local marketing strategy. 

Perhaps you're thinking:  "Referral Marketing - as a strategy? Referrals should be organic," which, in part, is correct. Referral marketing should be organic; however, if you aren't providing your satisfied customers with the tools and an incentive to share their experience(s) with their social networks (via referral marketing tactics), you're missing out on a huge opportunity. 

At the end of the day, nobody talks about businesses that allow themselves to be forgotten. In order to get a significant amount of referrals, you need to ensure that you've made it EASY for customers to refer you. To do this, you need a referral marketing plan.

To get started, follow these steps:

1. Consider the companies that you've referred. Why did you refer them? 
Taking a minute to consider the companies that you've referred will help you to identify some tactics or methods that can help kickoff your referral brainstorming process. Once you've identified several referral marketing masters, consider what seems to 'work' for them.

Example: My gym has practically mastered the art of referrals. They continually run members-only promotions that encourage members to bring friends and family into the gym (free training, free gym bag, discounted month, discounted Smoothies, free body analysis, etc.). As such, I've referred several neighbors and family members. So, If you have a membership-based business, take note!

2. Identify Your Target Referrer 
Not all of your customers are going to be your best referral candidates. Carefully consider who among your most satisfied customers are your target referrers. Once you have that person identified, think about what makes him/her happy with your service. What do they find valueable? You want to make sure that the value(s) and benefits(s) that they will be sharing align with your referral marketing goals.

3. Create Your Custom Referral Plan
Ultimately, everyone likes to get a deal. Offering a discount, free item, unique promotion, etc. is often the best way to prompt referrals. Most satisfied customers will be more than happy to recommend your business - especially if you're offering them an incentive to do so. To ensure that your plan gets off to a successful start, make sure that all of your employees are onboard. 

NOTE:  As a rule of thumb, industry experts suggest waiting until the transaction (i.e. cash register exchange) is complete before asking for referrals.

4. Elicit the Correct Information
Using a referral form or card will help you capture the information you're after AND will encourage referrals.  Consider creating a personalized form or card of some sort (that offers a discount/free item to BOTH the referrer and the referree). Following the business transaction, send/provide these referral cards to your satisfied customers.

5. Keep Track - and Keep in Touch!
Don't worry if a number of your referral candidates don't immediately recommend your business. Depending on your business, the referral process might take longer (i.e. car dealerships). Make sure you have your referral contacts' info on file and keep in touch with them by sending quarterly letters or newsletters.

Example: The car dealership that I bought my last car from sent me a personalized tin filled with cookies around the holiday season. I've sent them two referrals and won't forget them anytime soon (i.e. - Send more cookies, please!).

At Balihoo, our media planning strategy team provides many of our clients' local business owners with integrated marketing plans. The different types of referral programs that I have seen this team come up with is remarkable. To continue exploring the art of customer referral programs check out this Entreprenuer blog post. Or to learn more about building a breakthrough local store marketing plan, check out this free white paper. 

 What does it mean to be locally owned and operated?  I found myself asking this question when I stepped into Tully’s Coffee the other week and noticed that exact phrase written on one of their gift cards.  The card itself caught my attention because it had a beautiful picture of Boise on it (a smart local store marketing tactic).  What really got me thinking was their use of ‘locally owned and operated’.  I’ve always thought of Tully’s as a chain coffee shop, whereas ‘locally owned and operated’ makes me think of an individual, independently-run store.  I'm positive the Tully’s on 8th and Broad in downtown Boise isn’t the only Tully’s coffee shop in the world and I know the company's corporate headquarters aren't located here in Boise.  So does my favorite coffee shop (with great tasting lattes) really qualify as local?  The question has been raised by other Balihooers and undoubtedly brings to mind the arguments of our era's epic battle between the 'big box' businesses and the local ma and pop shops.  Though, with the growing trend toward franchise and chain businesses and the continual blurring of the line between local ownership and corporate control, has the meaning of locally owned and operated evolved?

Imagine a big jar filled with Skittles.  The Skittles are randomly distributed throughout the jar; a jumbled mishmash of red, green, yellow, purple and orange. The jar is on a machine that shakes it vigorously.  Now, imagine that this shaking action is captured on a video and played in reverse. There is no way that you can tell the video is being played in reverse.   When the video is played backward, the candies bounce just as they would when played forward.  You have no way to know if the video is playing forward or in reverse.

Now, record a new video in your mind.  This time, start with a jar where the Skittles are arranged in colored layers.  Moving from the bottom to the top, you have red, green, yellow, purple and finally a orange layer.  As the machine shakes the jar, the candies bounce and collide until they are again randomly distributed. 

In this video, you can easily distinguish a forward playing recording from one that plays in reverse.  This experiment illustrates the effect of entropy known as the arrow of time.  The basic principle of this model is that without the help of an external exertion of energy, a system tends to become less ordered over time.  Interestingly, this is the only physical property that seems to define the flow of time from past to future.

I got to thinking about this principle as I was mowing, weeding and maintaining my yard yesterday afternoon.  Everything in life follows this principle: yards, cars, homes, computer systems, roads and even business strategies including your local advertising strategy. It will slowly fall apart and become less effective over time if you don't continually test, measure and refine it.  For example, if local internet marketing was not a part of your strategy a few years ago, it may not have hurt your sales.  But, today, if you aren't investing in local internet marketing, then you are almost certainly losing opportunities.

Even if you are executing a successful local pay-per-click campaign today, it is almost guaranteed to be less successful in the future if you don't continually test, measure and refine your approach.  The same goes for all other mediums, strategies, tactics and local marketing ideas.  You have to stay up-to-date on the new tools and techniques or your competitors who do keep up will leave you behind.

As a national brand, local affiliate, reseller or independent small business owner, you have a lot to worry about, and probably don't have time to get into the nuts and bolts of fighting local advertising entropy.  That is where Balihoo comes in. We do that work for you; from ad builder software to email campaign automation, microsites and local media buying.  Click here to take a look at some of our whitepapers and case studies.  If you are a franchisee or product reseller, then direct your national brands to Balihoo, so that we can help them and you to get your skittles (aka: local store marketing strategy) to look more like this:

I was recently catching up on some light reading at FastCasual.com, a site devoted to insights for innovative restaurants, when I stumbled upon an article that made so much rationale sense in a world that can sometimes be so irrationale.

The article, Moe's invests in local-store marketing strategy, is in reference to Moe's Southwest Grill's recent corporate initiative to increase local marketing efforts by adding a grassroots element to the franchisee's bag of available tools for franchise marketing.

Below are two favorite quotes from the article, and my thoughts on them:

1. "Local-store marketing has always been a part of what we do and we have always provided a kit to our franchise partners, but not many of our franchisees are comfortable leaving their four walls." - Right on! So many franchises want to focus on local advertising and marketing, but neglect to provide quality tools to the franchisees that truly enable them to act as effective local marketers. Ahem. . .better take a peek at Balihoo's Local Marketing Automation solution.

2. "It allows the franchisee. . .to totally control his or her territory, and they're less reliant on corporate staff or the franchisor to do the marketing for them." - FINALLY! While their effort is primarily focused on grassroots marketing, at least they are working to put tools in place so that local marketing isn't something that is only discussed during executive brainstorming sessions, but rather something that is actively done at a local level to drive demand generation.

Kudos to the team at Moe's. Now my recommendation to them: Call us, because we all know that grassroots marketing is just one component of the numerous marketing activities that should take place at the local level. We can help you with the rest!

In the last few years, Balihoo has served a growing list of national brand clients. The attention that has been given to our ‘local marketing automation’ platform has caused me to reflect on five signs that ‘Local Marketing’ is much more than a trend:

1. ‘Local Marketing’ Search Volume is Dramatically Growing—As a search term, ‘Local Marketing’ started growing in 2008 and has exploded in the last year, according to Google trends. Variations of this term have seen a similar explosion in growth. Balihoo coined the term ‘local marketing automation’ and owns that space as evidenced by it owning the top three Google search results.
2. Analysts' Increased Attention—Analysts like Forrester and BIA/Kelsey are giving increased attention to local marketing, local search and now ‘hyperlocal’ media trends.
   
   1. A recent Forrester “Distributed Marketing” report illustrates the ‘local marketing’ challenges. It was music to my ears and I was glad to see Balihoo was included as a vendor solution, although sad that Forrester didn’t give more attention to define the integrated approach Balihoo employs to combine ad building, co-op management and execution across all mediums. That approach is how we are changing the rules of the game. Seriously, a 30-minute demonstration will prove my point.
   2. A review of BIA/Kelsey blog posts illustrates the growing interest in local, hyperlocal and geo-targeting topics.
3. Steady Saturation of Mobile—the ubiquitous adoption of mobile phones has changed how brands can “connect” with consumers.
   
   1. Texting was slow to take off, but according to CTIA, the Wireless Industry Association, in ’09, 152B SMS text messages were sent monthly, up from 9.8B in 2005.
   2. According to the Pew Research, adult cell phone ownership has gone from 65% to 83% between ’04 and ’09 and 93% of 18-29 year-old adults and 75% of 12-17 year-old teens have cell phones.
   3. Smartphones and mobile devices--with the launch and adoption of the iPad and Kindle platforms-- are fueling a revolution in mobile computing.
4. Meteoric Adoption of social platforms and geo-location tools—Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter’s meteoric rise along with other evolving geo-location based tools like Yelp, Foursquare, and Groupon are changing the way consumers consume and share information. It presents huge opportunities and challenges for marketers.
5. Increased Acquisition/IPO Activity—The last few months have resulted in some interesting acquisition/IPO activity that affects local marketers including IBM’s announcement to acquire Unica, and ReachLocal’s $54 Million IPO. Other activity includes Yelp’s Rejection of Google’s $500 Million offer, Google’s subsequent launch of Google Places, and Facebook's announcement today of its geo-location solution, Facebook's Places.

So what does this all mean for national brands?

First, it means every national brand needs to have a local marketing strategy. What is yours?

Second, as stated in the Forrester research, local marketing is very difficult. That is where Balihoo comes in--pardon the quick plug. We have the best tools available for ad-creation, asset management, co-op advertising administration, media planning, microsite creation, and execution across all mediums including social. In addition, Balihoo has an incredible CEO, management team, and board of directors that understand Balihoo's opportunity to revolutionize local marketing.

Pete Gombert said it almost as good as Bob Dylan sang it, that Times They Are a Changin' and all signs indicate that 'Local Marketing' is much more than a trend. It may be a revolution.

One of the things that I regularly address with clients and potential clients is the phenomal pace of change in local marketing, and that dealing with these rapid shifts is extremely challenging as a local marketer.  

As an illustration of these rapid shifts, Beloit College in Wisconsin publishes an annual Mindset List.  This list is intended to give its faculty a reality check to ensure that they are communicating in a fashion that is commensurate with the way incoming students communicate.
Read through the list and as you do, imagine yourself as a local marketer in a college town trying to reach the freshman class.  Are you going to use:

1. Newspaper - Nope. They don't read it.
2. Radio - Nope. They don't listen to it.
3. TV - Nope. It is too expensive for the few channels that students watch.
4. Online displays - That has to be a good fit, right? Well maybe, but if you are too intrusive or disruptive to their online experience, they will be gone in a flash.
5. Email - That is the ticket, right? Everyone uses e-mail, right? Nope. Try again. E-mail is "too slow" for this generation.

The reality is that the best way to reach these students is to use the evolving mediums that have only been around for months or at most a few years: 

1. Social Media - Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp
2. SMS Text
3. Mobile Apps

So how many local marketers know how to execute well over these new and emerging media channels? Based on my experience, not many.

That is where a local marketing automation solution like Balihoo can make all the difference.  We take the pain out of staying up-to-speed on these technologies. We then identify the best channels to be utilizing according to your target and then execute your campaigns.

Contact Us or Download a White-paper to learn more 

Working on the local consumer advertising side of the dental implant industry, I understand the barrier of finding financially qualified leads. This procedure is still young, and consumers are simply uneducated on the cost parameters. Once they see the high out-of-pocket cost, they have to ask themselves how much they would pay to smile proudly again, eat apples and steak, speak confidently, and eliminate the stigma of dentures going in the sock drawer at night. What is the price tag on quality of life?

The New York Times posted a good article on this topic on July 29 - read it here.

As Lesley Alderman writes in this story, insurance typically only covers up to $1,500. When a single implant procedure runs $3,000 minimum and full-arch implants start at $20,000, you can imagine the sticker shock experience for a consumer who just wants to eat steak again.

Based on our experience, the best prospect-to-patient conversion rates in dental implant marketing happen as a result of public education seminars and our local media buying experts have given clients great results by recommending advertising in newspapers. It turns out to be a key medium for the target of this specific marketing campaign with these demographics (female in house, 55+, household income of $75,000+).

We worked with a dental implant center in Boise that ran their third public education seminar last night. They had 21 attendees, of whom 17 had missing teeth (the other 4 were supportive spouses). Not bad for two hours of the surgeons' evening! These were These attendees scheduled personal consultations on the spot, and when they walk into their appointments, they will have a solid understanding of the benefits and costs of available procedures.

If you are interested to learn how Balihoo's dental marketing arm can provide local marketing ideas to benefit your business, contact us: www.dentalmarketing.balihoo.com.

I find the recent actions of Steven Slater, the ex-JetBlue flight attendant interesting, but what has me captivated is the huge response from media and the general public. The situation reminds me of good and bad lessons of customer service discussed at a conference I recently attended, based on Bill Price's book Best Service is No Service.

Price evangelizes customer service as one of the most important business tools to create customer loyalty. Further, he suggests that a company can stand out by doing simple things such as eliminating unnecessary customer contacts, listening to and reacting to feedback, and that by doing this a company can begin to stand out from the crowd.

This is exactly what JetBlue seemed to do to its industry which had been plagued with failings in customer service. Those who know JetBlue will recall that they were a new entrant into an industry dominated by Goliath-sized airlines like American Airlines and Delta. Though, along with great prices, and flights that served niche travel needs, their real secret weapon, seemed to be their customer service agents, most who worked from-home and provided incredible value to JetBlue clients, as detailed by Fast Company in 2004. In a matter of years, JetBlue appeared to be the David with a model ready to slay the Goliaths.  

Ironically, overnight, Steven Slater became the symbol of the company and brought issues of customer service into the limelight again.
So, did the outburst hurt the company’s reputation for superior customer service? While the jury may still be deliberating on the details, the media is having a hay-day with this event as evidenced by Jimmy Fallen’s "Took Two Beers and Jumped” jingle. The events may soon turn Steven Slater into the next reality TV star.

But, back to the point. Customer service isn’t about canned responses or never messing up. Those things happen—and did to JetBlue back in 2007 when passengers waited on the tarmac for more than six hours—but when a company has a history of making good decisions based on the needs of their customers and fixes mistakes, people are willing to forgive the occasional missed flight, a lost bag here and there, and yes, even a public outburst that ends in a couple of beers and a ride down the emergency slide can turn into a media opportunity for JetBlue.

And now, just for fun, a reenactment of a recent encounter with a major airline (not JetBlue), because airline humor never gets old.
Scene:  Husband and Wife trying to change seats in order to sit together on a flight that is not full.

Attempt 1
Husband:  Can you help me change seats on this flight?
Person who looks like a gate agent:  I’m sorry, sir.   You’ll have to wait for the gate agent to do that.
Husband:  You’re not the gate agent?
Person who looks like a gate agent:  No.
Husband:  Okay… Thanks.

Attempt 2
Husband:  Are you the gate agent?
Different person who still looks like a gate agent:  Yes.
Husband:  Can you help me change seats on this flight?
Different person who still looks like a gate agent:  I’m sorry, sir.  You’ll have to wait 25 minutes to do that.
Husband:  Aren’t we boarding in 25 minutes?
Different person who still looks like a gate agent:  Yes
Husband:  Okay…  Thanks.

Attempt 3
Husband:  Can you help me change seats so that these are together?
Same gate agent as Attempt 2:  Yes, I have two seats together in an exit aisle.
Husband:  Great.
Same agent as Attempt 2:  It is in economy plus so it will just cost $29 per person
Husband:  No, thanks.  Is there anything in economy non plus?
Same agent as Attempt 2:  I don’t know.  I’ll check and I’ll call you.
Husband:  You’ll call me?
Same agent as Attempt 2:  Yes
Husband:  So I should just sit down?
Same agent as Attempt 2:  Yes
Husband:  Okay…  Thanks.

Conclusion: Gate agent never called.  Thank goodness for in-flight movies.