old media

[greenoak]

we are in the middle of our february sale....and dropped about 80% of our news paper and radio advertizing..... and our sales are up over 1/3.....
we did 3500 postcards...1500 emails....60$$$ of targeted facebook ads....and facebook to our 1200 fans....
the year so far has been pretty good , the facebook has been great for quite a while... we usually spend 4 or 500 on paid ads for our big events but just didnt this year...i think we feel pretty good about dropping the paid ads....it really feels like old media.... this year i listen to more pandora and cable radio than local....and our paper gets smaller and smaller...
...its hard to really tell what was advertizing, what was just a general pick up in business.... how much credit t o give facebook.... we had a good break in the weather too....
yesterday we had 180 sales...that meant probably 3 or 400 people thru the store.... it was hectic!!!

[Spider]

Well done, Ann. Feels good when all the hard work pays off, doesn't it?!

[greenoak]

thanks spider....the other stores im seeing latley have really been positive about business picking up......im home on a break...we are packed out there today too...

[Paul Elliott]

Ann, what system do you have in place to track new customers and sources of sales?

Paul

[greenoak]

hi paul..... mine is so wrong ...anecdotal feedback, words from humans and A whirling it all together in a BRAIN..
we can count new customers from the facebok, email and paper sign ups..... but where they came from is pretty murky.... we have great word of mouth referrals, im pretty sure of that....
weve tried getting better info with coupons etc....but making our customers actually cooperate, or even respond to marketing probes is really hard..has not worked...
we dont sell online so none of that kindof effort works...

[Paul Elliott]

weve tried getting better info with coupons etc....but making our customers actually cooperate, or even respond to marketing probes is really hard..has not worked...

Perhaps randomizing 20-30 customers with a compelling gift will help. You can even try a mini focus group with a free lunch. Give them a longer form and ask questions from "the stage" recording the responses. Ask for a show of hands. Try something like this once a month or so to get a better "feel."

You need new customers as well as the returning ones. The returning ones are where the main money is but will eventually "die out," so you need the new ones to replace them and expand.

Keep up your excellent work!

Paul

[greenoak]

thanks paul.... are you seeing an upturn in busness happening now? it seems pretty good here....
are your clients using facebook? any theories on it for local businesses like mine?
i sure hear you on needing to replace old customers~~~i love my old customers and so many have brought their young married kids....our new customers...

[Paul Elliott]

thanks paul.... are you seeing an upturn in busness happening now? it seems pretty good here....
are your clients using facebook? any theories on it for local businesses like mine?

Yes, Ann, in general. However, I'm now in south TX and the mood has been better in TX than most other areas of the country throughout the last 2 years. At least some of it is the emotional "fatigue" with the "bad economy." People, on average, are little worse off that 3 years ago. They are on unemployment, they have walked away from foreclosed upon homes, but they still have some money they have been guarding carefully. Now, they are "fatigued" with hearing and worrying about the bad economy, so they are sticking their noses out and beginning to spend some of what they have left.

This was the same behavior of the wealthy people. I have one client who has wealthy clients. They have pulled in their horns until about 6 months ago when they began spending money with her, once again. However, they have had plenty to spend all along! I told her I thought it would simply take time for them to begin doing so, even though they had it all along. It's the uncertainty factor.

Facebook, etc.? Yes, and the success varies with the diligence and persistence with which they deploy their programs. One that is paying off well after about 6 months of work is Lil Dago's Cafe on Facebook. You will notice you are succeeding when your content is generating more and more comments and "Likes." Check 'em out and join them to watch how they are doing. They acknowledge that they need to post on FB more often because they have seen a response directly correlated with their frequency of posting.

BTW, Lil Dago's Cafe instituted a very successful birthday program about 6 months ago, too. They get a free meal in their birthday month with LDC's mailed out coupon. Both campaigns are helping them grow very well!

What about doing a variation of that with your products to your mailing list?


i sure hear you on needing to replace old customers~~~i love my old customers and so many have brought their young married kids....our new customers...

That's where you spend marketing money on the WOM marketing programs!

Paul

[greenoak]

i will be checking the lil dagos....and your wom tips...
word of mouth is the greatest...its really authentic...but i try to remind customers to do it...subtly of course....
i like to give something to the older moms as a thank you for bringing the young ones in...that usually gets a big smile from all...
we used to do a birthday program..maybe i better think about t hat again....it was a little abused but popular.... ...
my main things right now are figuring out facebook and dipping into google adwrds with our free coupon...

[jpohl]

Greenoak, thanks for sharing about the print media and radio advertising spend drop. I keep telling people that print media is dead, they just don't know know it :) okay, I know I am overstating that and there a certainly places for it but you already got the point.

Especially when sending out postcards and email, I suggest businesses find a way to get the customer to bring in the postcard or email (coupon). Give away a free item off the menu or birthday club like paul mentions, anything to get the customer to physically bring in the item or even mention they forgot it is good enough. With an antique store, I am a bit stumped but you get the idea.

I have had service station clients have their personnel ask each customer how they heard about "us" especially when doing a media spend. It's a bit of training for the clerk but I found it does a couple things. It does give you an idea of where the customers are coming from (big caveat, the employees need to be diligent about keeping track of the answers) and it also starts a conversation:

"How'd you hear about us?"
"I got your postcard in the mail"
"Great, We are continually getting new items in so if you don't see something right now, we highly encourage you to come back...Where you from?" - Important, How far will your customers travel? Should you be expanding your area....

Good luck

[mobile resolutions]

Just wondering, are any of you using mobile in your marketing campaigns? Adding a texting campaign to your current marketing WILL enhance your sales and slash marketing costs by 50%, but it will also give you a real time tracking tool to see which marketing campaign is working best for you.

[mettro2]

If I may ask, what industry are you in?

[Paul Elliott]

we used to do a birthday program..maybe i better think about t hat again....it was a little abused but popular.... ...

Abused? How?

I would suggest that you may want to make the abuse worse!! That may seem like a stupid suggestion, but if they will "abuse" it some, you may be able to parlay that into additional sales.

Having said that, tell us more and let's see how you may re-engineer your birthday program to make it better for you and your customers.

Paul

[Paul Elliott]

Especially when sending out postcards and email, I suggest businesses find a way to get the customer to bring in the postcard or email (coupon). Give away a free item off the menu or birthday club like paul mentions, anything to get the customer to physically bring in the item or even mention they forgot it is good enough. With an antique store, I am a bit stumped but you get the idea.

Precisely, Jeff. The postcard or email (when printed out) can look like a coupon or a special certificate with the very obvious request that the user bring it in.

You are also very correct that any business should strongly consider acknowledging that a mention of the coupon they received should qualify the customers as being eligible for the benefit.

Paul

[jpohl]

I'll also point one additional thing out for those that may not have thought about it. Postcards work! The noise is in the email. Its getting more difficult to rise about that clutter and noise of email. I recommend businesses build an email/e-newsletter relationship with their customer so they look forward to the email.

More to the point, postcards are enough of an oddity today that they generally will get looked at. It's more expensive but you can also count on a few seconds of attention which you don't always get with emails.

[Paul Elliott]

... Postcards work! The noise is in the email. ... More to the point, postcards are enough of an oddity today that they generally will get looked at. It's more expensive but you can also count on a few seconds of attention which you don't always get with emails.

Good points, Jeff. Not only do they get looked at, but both sides get looked at. We human beings simply cannot resist turning the card over ... at least to glance at it. ;)

A postcard can be thought of as having 4 panels: on the address side there is the address panel with a marketing panel to the left of it; on the back side there are 2 marketing panels. Thinking of the card that way allows for more copy writing area. Obviously, the entire back can be used as a larger single panel.

Paul

[greenoak]

firstly, the ones who pushed to drop the program were the ones who were assigned the work of sending them out etc... ...hmmmm...the abuse was too many came in and only bought the big offer on the card...... something like, spend 10$ and get a 5$ candle free.....or get half off for any 10$ purchase....
it was really popular tho...i wasnt for dropping it...my dh and dil do all that kind of work...
i really like post cards too...

[deesseboutique]

Hmm, like the Birthday idea. Very traditional but very universal and should be a cinch with FB if you could see the BD of all your fans (you can for your friends). But I guess they should volunteer that info if they want to get free stuff.

[Paul Elliott]

firstly, the ones who pushed to drop the program were the ones who were assigned the work of sending them out etc... ...hmmmm... it was really popular tho...i wasnt for dropping it...my dh and dil do all that kind of work...
i really like post cards too...

PM me and I'll send you some information on sending postcards ... or cards in envelopes ... like an auto responder. It's much easier and cheaper--if your labor is worth anything--than any method by hand.


... the abuse was too many came in and only bought the big offer on the card...... something like, spend 10$ and get a 5$ candle free.....or get half off for any 10$ purchase....

Actually, I view that as a success. If you break even on the deal, you have gotten them in to your shop. Enough times in your shop and their minds are seeded with ideas about what you sell.

That unbalances the "something-for-nothing" psychological seesaw in your favor, so they begin figuring out how they can use your products for decoration, gifts, etc.

Encourage your "dears" to understand the psychological benefit loaded in your favor. That translates into "buzz" and then sales. Voila!

Paul

[Paul Elliott]

Hmm, like the Birthday idea. Very traditional but very universal and should be a cinch with FB if you could see the BD of all your fans (you can for your friends). But I guess they should volunteer that info if they want to get free stuff.

Yes, but from your FB page, you can direct them to another page--a squeeze page--where they get the very special deal, discount, etc., for filling in their information.

PM me if you want to know more about this technique.

Paul