Marketing Planning Systems

5 Steps: Creating an Effective Referral Marketing Program

Monday, August 23, 2010 by Marcie Blagden-Ellison

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.

The ABCs to Know Your Audience

Friday, August 13, 2010 by Tiffany Schrenk

Recently, I have had multiple, similar conversations with Balihoo clients about the importance of identifying target consumers..

Establishing a target audience is one of the most important aspects of a successful local marketing campaign. Without this, advertisers cannot accurately identify likes, dislikes, and habits of potential consumers which are critical to the success of the overall integrated strategy and marketing plan across multiple mediums.

Unfortunately, more often than not, those who manage local advertising make a mistake assuming that their target audience consists of individuals just like them. As a case in point—based on a recent situation I had to correct—most females older than 35 are not listening to sports radio during their morning commute.

In general, this ABC approach provides a good starting point for identifying target audiences. It is a simple model with some good succinct advice and is a great exercise for local advertisers developing a local marketing strategy.

A - Audience - Define the characteristics of your target audience. You can't serve everyone and so you must weigh specific characterizations with generalities. You are often better to lean toward specifics.
B - Behavior - What actions do you want that target audience to take now and over time.
C - Conversion - How will you turn that prospect into a customer. Consider the paths from their position to your product and leverage people, processes technology to influence your target to become a customer.

Common sense should be your measuring stick in all local advertising and local media buying practices.

Facebook or Email? Where does your target consumer turn first?

Thursday, August 12, 2010 by Marcie Blagden-Ellison

"What is the first thing you do online on a typical day?"

ExactTarget posed this question during a recent research project developed to provide insight into how consumers interact with brands online.

The study concluded with some interesting findings, including:

42% of U.S. internet users use Facebook daily (69% of which are FANS of one or more companies on Facebook)
88% of U.S internet users use email everyday (95% use it at least monthly)
93% of U.S internet users are subscribers (i.e. they have opted-in to receive permission-based emails)
58% of online consumers check their email first
11% start their day by checking Facebook

Looking deeper, it turns out that how and where internet users start their online day can reveal a lot about how they typically interact with brands online - and what they ultimately want from those online interactions.

TO SUMMARIZE:

Facebook-first consumers:

Tend to share more information online
Prefer that brands maintain a solid distinction between how they communicate via email vs. Facebook
Engage with brands for entertainment or to be 'in-the-know' regarding brands' activities
Tend to be younger - 43% of high school aged teens begin their day on Facebook (compared to 22% who start with email)

Email-first consumers:

Tend to more task-oriented online
Are more readily engaged through the use of deals, promotions or new product announcements
Less interested in providing feedback to brands on their products and services without an incentive to do so
Tend to be older

So what does this mean to you? Well, several things:

Skilled Coordination:  Marketers need to coordinate their Facebook and email strategies to ensure that they're maximizing their communication with their target audience.

Messaging and Communication Balance:  Brands need to carefully balance their tone, engagement level and message to deliver their target audience with the savings, information, entertainment, deals etc. that appeal to them.

Both are "Keepers":  With 93% of online consumers 'subscribers' and 38% 'Likers' of brands on Facebook, both email and Facebook are powerful tools for connecting your brand to your target consumer.

Ultimately, national brands' (and their dealers, distributors and affiliates) have local advertising needs that could greatly benefit from carefully planned and researched integrated marketing plans. Balihoo's local marketing automation and services solution (which includes Facebook and email - as well as TV, Direct Mail, POP, Radio, Display, Outdoor, Newspaper, Magazine, etc.) AND co-op functionality AND a professional media team can streamline the efforts of virtually any local business owner, product distributor, dealer, etc.

Optimizing your facebook and email effort is just the tip of the iceberg! Explore the possibilities by scheduling a demo today!

Got great customer service? Flaunt it!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010 by Kallen Hayes

A few days ago I encountered what struck me as a very unique online banner ad for Zappos.com. It was an image of a charming customer service representative with a speech bubble that read 'Happy to help 24/7". How interesting, I thought, that the message of the advertisement was focused not on Zappos' wonderful selection of shoes, their speedy (free!) delivery, or even their multitude of other clothing and home goods offered for sale on their website, but rather on their customer service! I figured it was not just a standalone banner ad that I had stumbled upon. I knew there had to be a good sized campaign going on with more of these charming puppets promoting Zappos famous customer service and quirky (er... charismatic) employees.

Perhaps I've been living in a cave for the last few months to not have already seen this retail marketing campaign on any other media outlets. After just a little bit of investigating, I learned the campaign, developed by Mullen, currently spans TV, print, and online video, and has already garnered quite a bit of attention for its trailblazing focus on the company's customer service department. The ads center around phone calls made by Mullen employees posing as actual customers making unusual (and rather hilarious) requests. The puppets fielding the phone calls are modeled off of real-life Zappos employees. Their responses to the requests are authentic -- the employees didn't know the calls were pranks. (I can't help but make a comical comparison to the Crank Yankers episodes).

The campaign is clearly taking the lead in a recent trend to bring customer service out from the dark cubicles of off-shore office buildings and onto the center stage of integrated marketing plans. Customer service has for too long been considered a cost center for companies, and hasn't received the attention and promotion it deserves. As service departments improve, it makes sense that this aspect of a business would naturally become a bragging point to attract new customers. Ann All supports this idea in her article, Customer Service: a Selling Point for Those That Get It Right. She says customer service as subject matter for sales and marketing is smart because great customer service is an excellent differentiator from the masses of other companies who've neglected that department.

As more customer interactions move to the online platform, companies are beginning to realize that their online presence --be it their website, their online chat services or their local internet marketing-- must convey the empathy and personalities of the people behind the technology. For Zappos, even their tagline 'Powered by Service' aims to draw the attention away from their highly advanced warehousing and shipping technology to the actual people manning their phones, executing orders, and happily on call to serve their customers.

I know for a fact that our company, Balihoo, is making great strides to reach out to our current and prospective customers to understand their wants and needs in order to continue moving forward as a customer-centric company. We want to design our local marketing software as an easy to use self-service portal while at the same time providing fantastic customer service to our end users seeking technical support or professional help with their media planning strategy.

Kudos to Zappos for being one of the first companies to embrace the new age of customer service and to step out with a memorable and entertaining campaign that rightfully gives tribute to its valued customer service agents. From the ads' featured customer interactions it's clear that the contagious energy and joyful attitude of the Zappos employees is easily perceived through every phone call and live chat conversation with their customers. As the bar for customer service continues to rise, I think Zappos is a clear front runner in the game.

Guest Post - The Best Strategy for Implementing Marketing Strategies

Thursday, July 22, 2010 by Shane Vaughan

The below is a guest post from Evan Hackel at Ingage Consulting.

The Best Strategy for Implementing Marketing Strategies

By: Evan Hackel

Evan Hackel is the President and Founder of Ingage Consulting, www.ingageconsulting.com. Throughout his twenty-five year career, he has seen the need not only for improved engagement but for an understanding of why engagement plays such an important role in any organization. Evan’s company works closely with the managers and leaders of franchises, co-ops, and buying groups, to help them improve their business practices. Evan can be reached directly at ehackel@ingageconsulting.com.

When it comes to creating and implementing marketing strategies, many organizations miss an opportunity to engage their franchisees, members, or dealers. Companies tend to just present their ideas and force them down through the ranks until they have reached everyone associated with the brand. Of course, this is not really the case, but it can seem that way to recipients of the information. Implementing a marketing strategy this way will only cause franchisees, members, or dealers to resist the new strategy. In general, people like to feel like they are part of the process; therefore, they respond better when made part of the process.

In an ideal world, franchisees, members or dealers would enthusiastically implement all new marketing programs. In high performing organizations, there is a lot of enthusiasm and support for new ideas; communicating is relatively easy and there is a great deal of support for the efforts. But for many franchises, co-ops, and dealer networks, it is difficult to implement the organization’s message effectively and in the way that management would like.

One of the best ways to ensure that a marketing plan is received and executed at all levels in the organization is to first, involve franchisees, members, or dealers in advertising groups. These groups, local or regional, will represent what is happening at the consumer level and be networking groups to support each other in marketing efforts. It's important to use the groups to get input on the development of marketing plans; not just as a way to roll out a program.

Another way to engage franchisees, dealers, or members in carrying out your marketing strategy is to create a brand council. The brand council should be involved in aspects of your marketing efforts. Participants of the brand council should also be included in presentations to the franchise, cooperative, or dealer group and should be invited to write articles and postings for the organization’s intranet.

Engaging your members, dealers, or franchisees in implementing marketing strategies is just the first step. Organizations need to measure and understand the success level of their current marketing plan. Of course, this is a good practice for understanding success and helping with future marketing efforts. It is also important for franchisees, members, and dealers to know that you are paying attention to them. Many of you, I am sure, are tracking sales, which is good, but there are intangible aspects to marketing efforts that sales alone can't measure. Having a report form for your franchisees, members, or dealers to feel out their opinions on the marketing efforts is a good way to get high-quality feedback. Ask questions like: how could we have made this local marketing effort better, would you do this again in the future, and did customers mention the local advertising? Report back to the group what you have learned. This will show you have been listening.

The reports are a great idea for improving engagement and for learning more about the success of your marketing efforts, but you are likely to only get a small sampling of reports back. This is okay; the fact you are asking for feedback and that everyone knows they have the ability to share their thoughts and ideas is what's important.

How do you engage your franchisees, members or dealers with your local marketing plans? Do you have a brand council and how does that work? How do you get feedback on success?

Thanks for the guest post Evan, good information. I couldn't agree more, specifically when you're dealing with Local Marketing Automation. Whether implementing a new local advertising campaign, new channel marketing software or new local marketing software, it's critical to get buy-in from the key players. This will be one of the key drivers of adoption - in fact, we recently wrote a whitepaper identifying the key issues with adoption around new co-op marketing solutions, you can download it here.

Tracking the ROI of a New Product Launch

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 by Marcie Blagden-Ellison

When it comes to introducing a new product or service, one's product launch marketing options are limited only to one's imagination.

You can opt to go with one of a variety of standby, traditional marketing tactics: downloadable coupons, free samples, unique giveaways, etc. OR you can opt to stretch yourself and consider trying something a little different.

Chick-fil-A recently received some buzz after doing just that. Teaming with Mobilization Labs (a company recognized largely for their work work with the Jonas Brothers - they helped the then "new" band build an online fan base of over 600,000 in less than 4 months) the QSR launched a new sandwich via an online reservation system that did two three very important things:

1. Informed customers about the new "Spicy Chicken Sandwich" in a personalized, rewarding fashion
2. Provided Chick-fil-A with crucial data regarding their valued customers (Do you know who your most influential customers are?)
3. Supplied Chick-fil-A operators with adequate information to ensure that they were well-stocked (but not overly so) come launch time.

The reservation system - getspicychicken.com - allowed visitors to select a store as well as a timeframe (between March 31st and June 5th) to receive their free sandwich (Facebook, Twitter and email options followed reservations). In the end more than 1 million customers redeemed their "invitation" - and Chick-fil-A was able to track the viral spread to learn more about who their 'most influential' customers are, where and when coupons were redeemed and who redeemed them.

Combining a personalized "invitation", a free lunch and a feeling of elite-ness (you could only receive the new sandwich during the first week with a printed, barcoded "invitation" in your hand) Chick-fil-A brillantly (and seemingly very successfully) launched their new sandwich (while gaining valuable customer data) that is sure to help them plan future local store marketing events!

I am always fascinated by the different, seemingly simple, systems or concepts that prove to be immensely successful. Chick-fil-A's product launch marketing tactic managed to make customers feel that they were receiving a personalized benefit, franchisees feel adequately prepared, while also learning a tremendous amount about their demographic. Nicley done.

And if you are really only reading this post because you are curious about the sandwich - check out these reviews: Review 1, Review 2, Review 3

OR if you are confused as to why Balihoo finds product launches interesting, schedule a live demo with us!

Real Men Clip Coupons? How about the Wealthy and Affluent?

Monday, June 28, 2010 by Marcie Blagden-Ellison

According to Harris Interactive, coupon-clipping has become increasingly popular among men. Typically tailored to the female consumer; coupons are increasingly being used by males (with 51% of men reportedly having used a coupon in the past six months)! So, if you market to men, it may be time to get into the coupon game.

Also of interest, increasingly affluent, highly educated and metropolitan-located Americans are hopping on the coupon-bandwagon. “The advent of digital savings tools coupled with a challenging economy has taken couponing mainstream. All sorts of people – including what we call the ‘sophisticated couponer’ – are proudly aboard the couponing bandwagon.” said Steven Boal, CEO of Coupons.com. ”We all want

the biggest bang for our buck, so the fact that well-heeled, educated and urban shoppers are taking advantage of coupons and searching for them online further illustrates the proliferation of the culture of couponing.”

The same study reports that 8 of 10 U.S. adults believe that they will continue to use coupons even after the economy improves - which supports the belief that the adult American's shopping habits and/or criteria have permanently changed as a result of the past 18-months. While the economically troubled climate has undeniably altered the way we shop and budget - whether or not the changes will prove to be long-lasting waits to be seen....

What is certain: your local customers, at this moment, are different than they were 2, 3 or 4 years ago - their priorities have shifted - and if you haven't reviewed and altered your local advertising and media planning strategy to meet their needs and appeal to their new ideals and interests, you're missing a huge opportunity.

Working across all media forms, helping local affiliates and distributors across numerous industries, the average Balihoo employee has developed a deep understanding of the components that go into a tailored, quality integrated marketing plan. Curious about how to enable your local affiliates, distributors or franchisees to revamp their marketing efforts to appeal to their local customer's new ideals - CONTACT US!

The Future of Marketing is Local.

Monday, June 28, 2010 by Phil Bear

It seems that every futuristic movie I watch imagines a reality void of individualism and riddled with technology. Filmmakers, it seems, believe in a future where, as we create increasingly advanced technology, we lose our humanity at the same rate . However, if real life has taught me anything about movies - it is that movies can be deceptive. Totally serious!

I've got spicy films that cost $34.99 for $40.00.

With the advancement of technology in recent years, it seems that everything is becoming more focused on sustaining and enhancing individuality: services like Twitter allow people to give updates on the most minuscule aspects of their lives, people receive news from friends and celebrities rather than subscribing to something old- fashioned like a "newspaper," and location-based services give you a notice on your cell phone if you walk near a favorite store.

With this shift in our priorities, and our focus, does it really make sense to market to the consumer with a non-personalized, generic message, in hopes that they connect with it?

Methinks not.

Local Marketing Strategy, the ability to take a national brand and customize for different demographics, needs to be the focus of every major franchised brand. Without the ability to connect to the consumer on a personal level, franchises are going to struggle to retain a customer base--no matter what the economy looks like.

Balihoo gives large brands the ability to reach out and connect with the individual, no matter the marketing medium. Our local marketing software gives franchisees the ability to access, customize, and execute a brand-approved marketing plan from one centralized web portal. Gone are the days of frustrated franchisees who don't know how they should market themselves. No longer will technology be stereotyped as the end of mankind. (See: Terminator).

Balihoo: Making the future of marketing bright, one brand at a time.

Gaining Qualified Dental Implant Leads from Consumer Advertising

Monday, June 21, 2010 by Betsie Richardson

Being in the dental implant marketing space, we at Balihoo are often asked how to gain more qualified leads in local advertising. There are many consumer barriers to overcome with dental implant marketing. How much will this cost? Is it painful? Will it take a long time before I have functioning teeth?

These questions can be answered in a free-to-the-public education seminar. Now the doctor has the ability to speak in great detail to a captive audience of consumers, and they can ask questions in a comfortable setting where they are surrounded by people who also suffer from the discomfort of missing teeth.

Many dental clinicians - specialists in particular - run education seminars for general dentists to open a channel of patient referrals for dental implant procedures. These prospecting patients call the implant specialist's practice with a fairly knowledgeable understanding of the procedures available, obstacles and costs. The office staff is used to this "qualified" lead. Now try running a strong :30 second TV campaign like we do for many of our clients, and your staff is suddenly hit with an influx of prospecting consumers who have many questions about the exciting procedure they saw marketed while watching Oprah. Simply put, a :30 second TV spot cannot qualify a dental implant patient on its own.

In our integrated marketing plans, we often include such an education seminar in the annual strategy. The one medium that has proven most successful is...drum roll please...newspaper ROP. This "dying" medium is still highly read by our target demographic in most markets. My anecdotally-based theory is that consumers are value or event-shopping newspaper's advertisements. They can physically hold onto the paper, read your ad in detail and cut it out and post it on the fridge to remind them of the date.

One of our local clients held a patient education seminar last week. Running an integrated approach of newspaper, network TV and online advertising, they had a great turnout of 14 consumers. Nine of them scheduled personal consultations that evening. Needless to say, that client found their answer in seeking more qualified leads.

Download our white paper here to learn the three cardinal rules of dental marketing.

(Nobel Biocare taps into our local marketing automation software to provide a co-op advertising solution for their partner clinicians. Using our print ad builder, these clinicians tag their advertisements with their photos, logo and customize the messaging.)

Childhood, Co-Op Marketing, and Perception Versus Reality

Friday, June 11, 2010 by Phil Bear

Childhood. For most, it is a time that you can look back at the wonderful memories you experienced with family and friends. The hardest part of your day was having to go to school, generally that lasted only 3/4 of the year. No job, no responsibility, and adults had all of the answers. Or so you thought.

As we gradually transform from children into adults, we start to realize that parents don't have everything figured out. They are faking it with their confidence and authority over us. (Those tricky adults!) I am constantly reminded of this bamboozling the more I do research on co-op marketing.

Co-op is an essential piece to a brand's retail marketing puzzle. It's the grappling hook in a ninja's arsenal. Brands know this, and because they know this, they have a co-op marketing program. The thing is: a lot of brands don't know what they are doing when it comes executing effective local co-op marketing.

Companies I research and talk to repeatedly tell me that they have no clear vision on how to execute co-op advertising. They are aware of the elements that make up co-op marketing, but putting them together and making them work is where things get rough.

Essentially there are two parts that make up brand's co-op marketing strategy: digital asset management, and co-op administration.

Digital Asset Management is the online warehouse where a brand stores all of its marketing material. Dealers and distributors can go in and access this material, usually in the form of some kind of ad builder software, and order co-opted brand advertisements.
Co-Op Administration is how the brand tracks and administers subsidies for dealers and distributors who use their brand. This can range from imputing the information into a spreadsheet, to website devoted entirely to tracking subsidies. Depending on a brand's particular system, dealers and distributors may have to wait for up to six months to get approved for reimbursement. Ouch.

Because these two aspects are not generally integrated into a single solution within a company's local marketing strategy, there is huge potential for a lose/lose situation here.

Take this example:

Local dealer Manfred Winthrop accesses marketing material from the brand's online ad builder.
Manfred creates his own ad, and executes. Believing he has complied with the brand's messaging, sends the ad to the brand to get a co-op reimbursement
The brand finally gets to Manfred's request a few months later, and doesn't like the look of the advertisement. His request for co op reimbursement is denied.
Manfred is frustrated, and stops using the brand in his advertising, costing him potential customers.
The brand loses its local advertising, and potential customers.
Lose/Lose

Balihoo can solve this massive problem in one integrated co-op marketing solution. We have introduced an innovative software and services solution that bridges the gap between digital asset management and co op administration - streamlining the entire process into one user friendly web portal. Imagine if Mr. Winthrop could access pre-approved brand marketing material and immediately receive the subsidy for the local advertising plan - all while giving the brand complete visibility into his marketing efforts. That's a win/win. That's Balihoo.

Big Outdoor Advertising Ideas

Thursday, June 3, 2010 by Tiffany Schrenk

When researching media vehicles for an advertising media plan here at Balihoo we make certain to cover all of our bases, from television to newspaper advertising and everything in between. Inevitably we end up requesting local advertising information about out-of-home (which comes in many forms: traditional billboard, vehicle wraps, bus shelters, etc). Out-of-home can be a very efficient media type for clients whose initiative is to drive brand or promotional awareness at the local level. It's one of the oldest forms of advertising that remains one of the most effective. I recently heard about two very established global brands who have turned their attention to out-of-home for upcoming promotions. They are taking out-of-home to entirely new and creative level.

Universal Studios Hollywood is making a real "footprint" in the marketplace on the promotion of a new attraction opening this Summer; King Kong 360 3-D. Check out the attached article to see where King Kong has been sighted and the damage he's doing in places like Dodger stadium.

www.slashfilm.com/2010/06/03/cool-stuff-king-kong-attacks-dodger-stadium-and-santa-monica-beach/

JELL-O another global brand with a very strong following is once again teaming up with Bill Cosby (after a 10 year hiatus) this summer traveling around the country with the "Give it a Giggle Tour". Participants at 22 different locations across the US enter a traveling recording studio to voice their best giggle. The winner will be selected by Cosby himself and aired within a national television spot. Click below to read more.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/17/bill-cosby-jell-o-togethe_n_578592.html

During a time when most advertisers are relying on Internet and interactive media as primary advertising tools it's refreshing to see large well known brands implementing out-of-home into their marketing plans. I encourage those responsible for local marketing strategy to reexamine this medium and integrate it once again in local marketing and media plans. Out-of-home that stands out from the crowd does require creativity and reinvention but it's not a lost art. Advertisers will be pleased with the amount of consumers that receive their message and how far the reach will extend.

A Marketing Plan is like a Bagel Sandwich

Monday, May 31, 2010 by Caroline Moore

Working for a company like Balihoo, which offers local marketing software, really has its perks. One of those perks is the Friday coffee and bagel run which is part of the unique Balihoo culture. I was on today's trip that I realized the similarities between my amazing bagel sandwich and the marketing plans we often help build and execute as part of our integrated marketing strategy for clients.

You can have this amazing vehicle, in this case a sesame bagel, that then encompasses all these interesting and interchangeable pieces that make up the whole. Those ingredients, or media types, can be selected and combined to make the perfect sandwich that appeals to the consumer/customer. Maybe you have a combination of cream cheese, egg and tomato, but you find the tomato just isn't working. No problem, you can switch it out for sun dried tomatoes and olives. It is much the same with a marketing plan. The right combination of ingredients, or media types, combine to most effectively drive business in a given market. If email, combined with radio and cable isn't working, you can switch out the cable with direct mail and come up with a more effective or winning combination.

It's every planners dream....the perfect marketing bagel sandwich!

Will TweetWords Pay Off? Part II

Friday, May 21, 2010 by Alex Fascilla

On April 16th, I wrote a blog that's way better than this one that unveiled Twitter's plan to roll out Promoted Tweets, or "TweetWords" (as I completely uncleverly dubbed them--I thought of a new one right after I posted the blog: "Pay-per-Tweet"...I said new, not better) that would allow advertisers to place ads at the top of Twitter search results.

Keywords would be purchased, searches would be tracked, performance would be measured, and Twitter would become yet another marketing money-maker aesthetically hobbled by advertising... ...So is it working? To be honest, I haven't seen one Promoted Tweet since the program was rolled out. However, that's a sample size of one so I wouldn't trust the data.

To Twitter's delight and contrary to my data above, its Promoted Tweeters have reached people that are searching for normal things like #airfare, or #travel and not #lonelyisland. As MediaBuyerPlanner daily recently reported, both cable channel Bravo! and Virgin America Airlines have both enjoyed early Pay-per-Tweet (use it!) retail marketing success. As the article states, Virgin announced selling out of 50%-off airfare tickets just three hours after posting it as a promoted tweet. Similarly, Bravo! increased impressions to their website by 200,000 after one particularly popular Promoted Tweet.

As a media planner constantly seeking cutting-edge alternative media--especially in the social media arena--for inclusion in media planning strategy, we could have an AdWords circa 2000 situation arising. It's almost *gasp!* better than AdWords; however, considering Twitter's re-tweet** functionality: A tweep sees a Promoted Tweet offer they like, say, a free bacon burger at Carl's Jr. for one-day only, re-tweets it to their followers, and effectively adds exponential (particularly if the re-tweeter has thousands or even millions [@aplusk] of followers) reach to Carl's Jr.'s campaign. Invaluable! Just make sure there aren't any regional restrictions first, guys... BIG mistake.

Currently, Twitter has re-tweet max/cap of 200 and features a very Google-esque keyword bidding system. Get rid of the re-tweet maximum and switch the Promoted Tweet pricing to be performance-based, and Promoted Tweets will quickly become an absolute no-brainer in any advertising media plan.

When Balihoo makes media recommendations to its partners in local advertising, a social media component is always included--it can't be ignored, this is where web 2.0 advertising is headed! I know I was skeptical at first, but with these Promoted Tweets, we've got a local internet marketing sleeping giant about to awake here.

Had to try it. The keywords I bought? 'intelligent', 'strong as an ox', 'black belt', 'powerful core', 'real cool'. The Promoted Tweet? "AlexFascilla: what you've always been searching for". Still waiting on that first lucky lad... er, click.

**Clicking the re-tweet button below another's tweet will post it to your profile as if you had tweeted it yourself

Tools to Succeed

Monday, May 17, 2010 by Caroline Moore

Everyday my company, Balihoo, engages with Franchises and Brands to look at local marketing automation and to discuss our software as a solution to help their Franchisees, affiliates and distributors with local store marketing.

I am consistently impressed by the number of clients that value marketing and advertising and put adequate dollars toward this initiative. They understand the need to "get the word out" about their great product and services. No longer can you just put up a sign and expect business to walk through the door. A business's location can be an immense benefit, but today's consumers are savvy and do not just award their business frivolously. Additionally, you must apply an integrated marketing strategy to reach those consumers. Local Internet marketing, local store marketing, and traditional marketing must all come together as part of the local advertising budget and plan for a franchisee or affiliate.

I am also consistently shocked at the number of Franchises or Brands that do not account for local advertising and offer few local marketing ideas to their affiliates. Marketing is a key contributor to the success of a new business. Additionally, if you are launching into a market space that is already occupied by competitors, you have to stand out. You have to make some noise! There are media vehicles that are more cost efficient than others and there are some vehicles that offer a better fit to reach the target audience. A market analysis and a good plan go a long way in getting the biggest return on investment for the affiliate or franchisee.

Overall, advertising and marketing is not a "nice to have" for businesses, especially new businesses, it is a "need to have". Understanding the importance and value quality local advertising and a good marketing plan can bring, will have long term implications on the success or failure of a business.

When Trying Harder Stops Working

Monday, May 10, 2010 by Kallen Hayes

I read a blog by Seth Godin a few months ago titled ‘Try Different’. In the three brief paragraphs of the blog, he brought up a great point, and one that I’ve been mulling over ever since. Seth’s idea was that trying harder is tough to do when you’re already trying as hard as you can. He said that sometimes, all you need to do is try different.

The more I thought about his suggestion, the more I realized that many times in my life my efforts to try harder had only caused me to sink deeper into the same rut I’d been following for too long. If you're trying harder to do the same thing, and it’s not working, it’s likely you need to make some sweeping changes to your game plan, not just improvements to the same one. A quote that was given to me by a coach a long time ago follows this same school of thought, ‘If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got’.

I’ve spoken with a number of franchise owners that have done the same kind of advertising for twenty years. It’s a very frightening moment for them when they suddenly realize their ‘tried and true’ advertising approach has stopped working. While I hate to see it get to this point, I’ve also learned that sometimes it takes utter failure on behalf of an advertising medium for a business owner to realize a change in their advertising plan is imperative to the success of their business.

One thing I love about Balihoo’s channel marketing software is how it makes it really easy for small business owners to try something different. Planning and executing advertising in today’s vast market of media vehicles can be extremely daunting. It’s hard to know if a strategy is the best one for a company, audience, and media market.

Of course, Balihoo will always recommend a comprehensive and professionally-developed integrated marketing plan, but if that isn’t feasible for a small business owner, it’s great to have a resource like our platform from which someone can customize and place a media buy with a few easy clicks. Our online software makes it easy to test all the traditional media outlets, and it even simplifies the process of experimenting with the new wave of social marketing.

Trying harder, if you’re already trying as hard as you can in a given direction, isn’t going to turn you in right direction. You have to try something different. And while that’s not always an easy task to accomplish, there are no excuses if you’re a Balihoo client looking for a new route to take with your local store marketing. You’ve got a whole team of advertising experts just a few clicks away, who are dedicated to helping business owners just like you try something different and exceed.

Local Business Owners - Offer new products and services during a down economy?

Thursday, May 6, 2010 by Marcie Blagden-Ellison

With local business owners across the country struggling to stay afloat in this economy, many businesses are branching out by offering new services and products in the hope that it'll spur additional traffic and revenue. With Botox now being offered in dental offices and teeth whitening pitched in tanning bed salons, it seems that almost all industries are expanding their services.

This Wall Street Journal article, Time to Reset Your Business caught my eye because it argues that branching out to non-core offerings is the wrong thing for local businesses to do.

While I agree that offering new products or services doesn't make sense if: (A) It will require a substantial amount of both time and money that you don't have to spare or (B) You aren't adequately equipped to provide it as well as you provide your other, core services - I think it's important for local business owners to ALWAYS be open to the want and need of their local audience. Monitoring and responding to your local customers needs is what makes a local guy not only successful but a part of the community.

If adding a new service or product makes sense for you, the next step is to ensure that your local advertising and media planning strategy are aligned with your new offering. Consider the above example of a dental practice providing Botox services - their dental marketing plan should be revisited to ensure that their newly added service is utilized to reinforce the added convenience and value they offer to their patient base. By successfully and professionally marketing that they offer both valued services, the practice could very well increase repeat patient loyalty and recruit new patients.

Local Marketing Automation Gains Momentum

Thursday, May 6, 2010 by Shane Vaughan

Taking a moment to step back and survey the forest (instead of focusing on all the trees) sometimes has a sobering effect.

A few weeks ago I realized that we hadn't made an announcement recently regarding all of the new customers that had been joining Balihoo. I decided to focus on just our wins in 2010 - and as I developed the list, I was astounded at its depth and breadth. I built the press release associated with this announcement, and it quickly became apparent that it was going to be overwhelming to include all of our great new customers.

So, to those that were unable to be included because of space (or because of confidentiality reasons) please know that you're still incredibly important to us.

Without further delay - here's the announcement from today:

Boise, ID (May 6, 2010) – Balihoo (www.balihoo.com), the premier provider of Local Marketing Automation technology and services to national brands with local marketing needs, continues to gain traction with national brands representing a diverse range of industries. During the first quarter of 2010, Balihoo solidified multiple partnerships with leading national brands that have local marketing needs – representing everything from dog care to delicatessens, home fixtures to auto maintenance.

Now leveraging the Balihoo platform to empower thousands of franchisees and resellers are national brands including Specialized Bicycles, Kohler Co., ProTect Painters, Oil Can Henry’s, Mattress Firm, Dogtopia, Gandolfo’s, Granite Transformations, TSS Photography and Verlo.

“Our new partners understand the power and influence of targeted local marketing and believe in Balihoo’s ability to help drive demand – and ROI,” said Pete Gombert, Balihoo’s CEO. “Our local marketing automation solution will empower the franchisees and resellers for each of these leading brands to deliver effective and customized marketing campaigns that resonate with their local customers.”

Gombert continued, “This flood of well-respected organizations, along with Balihoo’s acknowledgement by Gartner as a “Cool Vendor” in the marketing landscape, is a clear indication that Local Marketing Automation is becoming a key strategic differentiator for national brands.”

Clients that have recently partnered with Balihoo include:

Specialized Bicycles

Specialized Bicycles was founded in 1974 by riders for riders. Headquartered in Morgan Hill, California, with global distribution, the company focuses on making everyone’s time on a bike better by delivering functional and technically advanced equipment that provides a performance benefit. In their quest to provide a superior dealer experience through their exclusive IBD channel, Specialized is utilizing Balihoo to ensure alignment of local dealer marketing to the national Tour De France promotional launch.

Kohler Co.

Kohler Co. is one of America’s oldest and largest privately-held companies and is a global leader in the manufacture of kitchen and bath products, engines and power systems, furniture and decorative tile, and hospitality and real estate including world championship golf resorts in Kohler, Wisconsin, and St Andrews, Scotland.

ProTect Painters

ProTect Painters is a member of Service Brands International, a privately held, multi-concept franchise system with worldwide headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. ProTect Painters has become one of the largest painting companies because they have the experience to handle all painting needs, both exterior and interior. ProTect Painters is using Balihoo to provide a completely outsourced local marketing solution to their franchisees nationwide.

Oil Can Henry’s

Oil Can Henry’s makes vehicle maintenance quick, convenient – and even a little fun at their service centers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington. They selected Balihoo to ensure their franchise system is marketing and communicating in a common voice by putting a local marketing automation platform in place that will consolidate all local marketing activities.

Mattress Firm

Mattress Firm is one of the nation’s leading specialty mattress retailers, offering a broad selection of both traditional and specialty mattresses from leading manufacturers, including Tempur-Pedic, Sealy, Simmons, Stearns & Foster, Sleep to Live and Serta. Founded in 1986, Mattress Firm's purpose is to improve lives one night at a time. While Mattress Firm had been utilizing a traditional ad builder system for several years, they called upon Balihoo to develop a comprehensive Local Marketing Automation platform capable of enabling their franchisees with the ability to easily execute local marketing efforts.

Dogtopia

Dogtopia has a clear mission to be the premier provider of the highest quality dog care in the United States, and continues to experience promising growth driven by quality service and leadership. Balihoo and Dogtopia share a passion for making the franchisee successful and are working hard to provide the marketing tools and planning needed to execute and grow in the local marketplace. Solid media planning, customizable creative and excellent support services are being utilized to make every promotion and campaign “paw-rific”.

Gandolfo’s New York Delicatessen

Dan Pool discovered Gandolfo's New York Delicatessen in Salt Lake City, Utah. It took one bite into a Gandolfo's sandwich for Pool to invest and ultimately become owner and CEO. Founded in 1989 by New York native Craig Gandolph, Gandolfo's New York delicatessen is the nation's only "authentic" franchised delicatessen. Gandolfo's has spent the last twenty years spreading the love of authentic New York delis across the country by providing the freshest deli meats and vegetables on top of its selection of homemade breads. Balihoo has developed an end-to-end email marketing platform that offers Gandolfo’s franchisees with everything they need to quickly and easily communicate with their local customers in a manner that it is 100% in concert with the national brand.

Granite Transformations

With U.S. offices based in Miramar, Fla., Granite Transformations, a division of Trend USA, has facilities and showrooms around the world offering new and exciting alternatives to traditional countertops, backsplashes, floors and more. They have teamed with Balihoo to provide franchise owners with an integrated marketing platform that gives them creative flexibility, email functionality, media planning services and cost savings through economies of scale. Granite Transformations was looking for an easy-to-use and cost-efficient solution for their franchisees and Balihoo delivered.

TSS Photography

TSS Photography has been the leader in youth sports, school and event photography for over 25 years. They specialize in team picture days, sports photography, school photography, special events and tournament photos. They plan to utilize Balihoo technology to maximize promotional campaigns, retention programs and lead communication. Customizable creative templates paired with customer management systems will allow them to accomplish these goals. With additional services and tools, Balihoo offers their franchise owners the resources they need both currently and with future growth.

Verlo

Headquartered in Fort Atkinson, Wis., Verlo Mattress Factory Stores is the nation's largest Craftsman-Direct® mattress retailer. Offering the only franchise opportunity in the $8 billion-a-year sleep specialty industry, Verlo Mattress Factory Stores was selected as one of the 100 companies to be featured in the 2009 (3rd) Edition of Bond's Top 100 franchises, competing with over 3,000 active North American franchise systems. Balihoo has supplied Verlo with a consolidated marketing solution that will dramatically improve system-wide visibility into overall marketing spend.

For more information on how Balihoo can help companies translate national strategies into local execution, download Balihoo's Local Marketing Automation Whitepaper and Integrated Co-op Marketing Whitepaper.

Facebook Kicks off its Local Business Advertising and Marketing Strategy

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 by Marcie Blagden-Ellison

Facebook has just begun sending out window decals with SMS instructions on how to text to 'Like' local businesses on Facebook. This move reinforces the idea that online engagement strategies perform best in conjunction with offline efforts.

While social media is currently one of the biggest buzz topics in the marketing industry, it has become increasingly apparent that it's most powerful when incorporated in an integrated marketing strategy.

Facebook's strategy: A simple, 100% customizable direct marketing initiative. The key ingredients: personalization and relevancy to the audience and simple instructions on how to engage. The below is a picture that was sent to Mashable:

You can also read the full letter that Facebook sent alongside of the sticker here.

Now, really, should we be all that surprised by this? Integrated marketing plans that incorporate a variety of media forms have shown time and time again to be both effective and efficient. Social media marketing, even done amazingly well, can rarely thrive in a vacuum. In order for social media to be as effective as possible it needs to be implemented in tandem with other, offline efforts.

With over 400 million users, and the value of an "instant Fan", Facebook is increasingly appealing to local business owners. And to further encourage you, Facebook is gifting beta testers with $25 in ad credits to help drive home the utility of the service and propel businesses to participate in on-site advertising as well

Interested in incorporating more media forms into your strategy but unsure of what makes sense for your local business and budget? Check out the 2010 Local Franchise Marketing Playbook here to get a snapshot of all media types.

Earth Day + Social Media Campaigns = Marketing Success

Thursday, April 22, 2010 by Ashley Moore-Cliff

Today marks the 40^th Earth Day and organizations team up with social media networks to spread the message that we need to do our part to save the earth! U.S. Senator, Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day in 1970 with the intention that it would create awareness of environmental issues.

Many companies both large and small use social media in their integrated marketing plans. It is a great way to do local marketing. Social media is defined by Wikipedia as “are media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social media dialogs. They support the democratization of knowledge and information and transform people from content consumers to content producers.”

Social media uses the Internet to reach its target audiences. There are several different types of social media such as blogs, pod cast, email, instant messaging, etc. (If you are reading this blog you are participating in social media!) Teaming up with a non-profit to promote a special event or cause is a great way to do local store marketing. It helps build your brand as wells as help your local community.

This Earth Day, Coca-Cola North America and the Ocean Conservancy teamed up with a social media campaign. There campaign is advising consumers to help clean up the environment by volunteering, donating money, or MyCokeRewards points to the Ocean Conservancy.

Tom McCann, director of media affairs for Ocean Conservancy stated “We are all trying to find solutions to environmental problems, and the Facebook app is a great way for people to get involved and connect with the ocean”.

Ocean Conservancy is asking Facebook members to “pledge to change your profile photo to an underwater image and Coca-Cola will donate $1 per picture in your honor, up to a total of $200,000, to Ocean Conservancy between now and May 12. Oceanus your photo now: http://bit.ly/9PmU4g” According to the social media campaign”. It will also contribute up to $50,000 through the Micrometers points program.

This is just one of many social media campaigns that are promoting Earth Day 2010. I encourage you all to celebrate Earth Day by getting involved in your local community!

Sincerely, Confused at 55 (miles per hour)

Sunday, April 11, 2010 by Kelly Mason

I love coming across examples, outside of software product development, that relate to our local marketing software program. There are two reasons that this is fun for me: I learn something new to apply to my job from an unexpected source and usually gain a new perspective in the process, and second, because I'm reminded that others deal with the same challenges we do.

This morning over breakfast and the Idaho Statesman Sunday paper, I was hit over the head with an example of one of these real-world lessons. The article was the section where readers can write in with questions and had to do with Idaho Highway 21. Highway 21 is a popular road, leading to boating, camping and hunting - 3 things Idahoans love. Along this highway there is a very official-looking state sign, which has a question mark and an arrow on it. The question-asker wanted to know what in the world that sign was trying to communicate.

As avid boaters, my husband and I have had a conversation about this exact same sign on one of our many trips up to the lake. It went something like this: "What the heck is that supposed to mean? It's like the state of Idaho is trying to tell us that they have no idea what can be found left of this road." We then proceeded to joke about it - maybe we should turn left and then report back to them what's there so that they can fix the sign.

In the answer, the author confirms that Idaho Fish and Game gets A LOT of these questions.

As a local marketing software product specialist, I'm constantly struggling with the fact that I know the ad builder software in and out, and yet when planning out new enhancements, I need to look through the eyes of someone who has never used the system before and knows nothing about it. The quote from the article, stated so matter-of-factly, provides a great gut check for me: "What [the sign] means makes perfect sense when you know what it means."
Umm, okay...

The sign is meant to convey that if you have questions for Boise River WMA, turn left.

As soon as people hear the intent behind a feature, or how it is supposed to be used, it usually makes perfect sense, and it's hard to go back to that time before you knew what it meant. Once someone knows what it means, they can usually come up with a pretty good reason why everyone else should know what it means too. In the article, they quoted a representative from the Idaho Transportation Department. "The way I read it is that it's a more succinct way of saying 'questions.' It's bigger, so you can catch a little more attention with it." This person is right about one thing - the more confusing something is, the more attention it will get. If the sign had said, Speed Limit 55 or Deer Crossing, I guarantee it would not have spurred a confused conversation in my car, and in the cars of many other folks just heading to enjoy the outdoor fun that Idaho has to offer.

Even after all the confusion, it sounds like the Idaho Transportation Department does not plan to replace the sign, which at one point used to say the same exact thing, but with actual words.

When it comes to creating ad builder software that people know how to use, it doesn't mean we should pretend that all users are dumb. They're not. The fact that people didn't know what the street sign meant doesn't mean they're dumb (and I'm not just saying that because I was one of those people). It means that it will make perfect sense - once they understand it. So make sure you're explaining it.