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Restaurants, Food-Oriented Businesses Find Social Media Quite Tasty For Driving Sales

Editor’s Note: Today’s post was written by best-selling author Rick Matheison, author of Branding Unbound, and was originally published on his blog, Genwow. It is reprinted here with permission. Check out his new book, The On-Demand Brand, in stores on April 28.

Who says only big brands get in on all the soc-net fun?

As it happens, social media seems to be especially tasty to food-based small businesses.

Clikz, for instance, has a piece on how a 10-month-old ice cream sandwich start up called Coolhouse, which uses funky, architecturally inspired ice cream trucks to sell its confections, quickly discovered that sending offers for, say, trivia questions about architecture to Twitter and Facebook followers in its local area, boosted sales appreciably.

And countless pizza shops offer weekly specials on soc-nets to get people into their stores. One shop, called GoldenKnights Pizza, has discovered 40% of its business can come from these efforts.

Yet another restaurant, Axels’ Food and Ice Cream has found great success by posting special offers through Facebook and Twitter.

According to a recent Rice University study, Facebook fans of one Houston-based café chain visited 20% more often, and spent 33% more, than non-fans.

“Social media is not like direct mail or local print advertising,” founder Kristen Costa tells Clickz. “Those marketing mediums don’t make much difference with our customers. On the other hand, our Facebook fans and our Twitter followers want information from us.”

Actually, it’s exactly like direct mail or local print advertising, only done electronically among people who are expressing interest in your brand by following it on soc-nets.

The real difference is summed up by Jenny Cheifetz, whose confections company started using social media last year: “[Social media] is viral, and it’s free….I’m a new business. I don’t have the money to spend on a large advertising campaign.”

In my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND (out April 21 from AMACOM Books), I look at some of the most powerful ways to make use of social media to drive business. Among them: Limited time offers, which enable brands to get out promotional messages quickly to people just primed to take advantage of them. A growing number of food-based businesses are discovering that, but so are big players in several fields. Dell, for instance, makes millions off limited time, Twitter-only offers.

How is your company using social media to get people in the door and spending money? We’d love to hear from you.

In the meantime, read the Clickz piece, here.

And read more about THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, here.

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Email, Social Media and Mobile Marketing: How They Work Together

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about how social media and email are beginning to come together for both consumers and marketers. But aren’t we leaving something out when we just talk about integrating email and social? What about mobile marketing?

According to this fact sheet from CTIA, as of June of last year 89% of the United States’ total population has a cell phone-and they aren’t just using them for talking anymore, either.

Consumers with smart phones are increasingly doing much of their social networking on their phones-newly released statistics show that both Twitter and Facebook have experienced triple-digit growth in the number of mobile web users (via MediaPost). Facebook has about 25.1 million mobile users, while Twitter has 4.7 million.

Even consumers without smartphones are texting, frequently- in America about 135.2 billion text messages are sent on average each month, and about 1.36 trillion each year.

These statistics show why creating an effective mobile marketing strategy is so important. You need to be able to reach your customers where are-which is increasingly on their mobile devices. In an article on DM News, Stephan Dietrich, the President of Neolane, suggests that to be effective, mobile marketing should be integrated with the rest of your marketing efforts:

To maximize effectiveness, mobile messaging and offers must be tightly coordinated across all communications channels, including direct mail, e-mail and social media.

People already use their mobile phones to share pictures, text messages and more with their friends. Wouldn’t it be great if they were using their mobile phones to spread the word about your company, too?

That’s why Dukky offers an integrated print, email, social media and mobile marketing platform. Encourage your customers to share your offer via email, social networks and text messaging, and watch your promotions go viral with our real-time analytics!

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Companies Spending More On Social Media, But ROI Still Hard to Pin Down

A new survey released by Econsultancy shows that marketers are planning to spend more on social media this year, even though they are still unsure how to measure the success of their efforts.

According to a press release describing the results of the study, 81% of respondents expected to increase spending on social media in 2010, while only 18% expected to see no change in social media budgets or spending.

However, at the moment, most organizations don’t seem to know what tangible benefits, if any, they are actually getting from this increased spending. According to the Econsultancy press release, 61% described their organizations as “poor” or “very poor” at measuring the return on investment for their social media efforts.

The results of the survey should surprise no one-in fact, they closely mirror the results of a survey released last month by Alterian. Marketers know that they need to be involved in social media. However, without an effective way to measure ROI, throwing money at social media is kind of like throwing coins into a wishing well and hoping you get your wish.

According to social media guru Brian Solis, 2010 is the year that this will change, the year that “we enter into a new era of social media marketing, one based on information, rationalization, and resolve.”

He notes that CMO’s want, more than anything, to get measurable results from social media, not warm fuzzy talk about “engagement” and “connection.” Engagement and connection are great, but the not-so-warm-and-fuzzy truth is that they are really just means to a concrete, measurable end, such as obtaining new customers or retaining old customers.

To better manage social media ROI, Solis suggests first “defining the “R” in ROI.” That is, first determine what results you are trying to achieve, whether it be increased revenue or something else, and then set goals and measure accordingly. If you have time, read the whole article (and the lively debate in the comments) for more insight.

One of the great things about Dukky is that our platform allows marketers to integrate social media with direct marketing campaigns in a way that makes it incredibly easy to measure and analyze the impact of social media on the results. Our real-time analytics can show you who’s sharing your offer, which social networks they are using, the social influence of each customer and more.

Other aspects of your company’s social media strategy may be more difficult to measure, but when it comes to integrating direct marketing, mobile and social, we’ve got you covered.

C’mon, check out our demo. You know you want to.

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5 Ways to Use Data to Create Compelling Direct Mail

Editor’s Note: Today’s post was written by Jean M. Gianfagna, the President of Gianfagna Strategic Marketing, and originally appeared on her blog, Smart Marketing Strategy. It is reprinted here with permission.

Savvy direct marketers are using data and digital printing technology to develop engaging creative approaches and compelling direct mail campaigns that are almost fully customized to the individual recipient. The result is more relevant direct mail and stronger customer relationships.

Chances are, you’re already capturing transaction data and contact information every time your customer makes a purchase. You may even have demographic and lifestyle data on your files.

Using that customer data can help you create high-impact mailings that generate better results.

When it’s time to produce your next direct mail campaign, ask yourself this key question: “What do I know about the people I’m mailing to and how can I use that knowledge to develop a more effective creative approach?”

Here are five ways to use data to develop great direct mail creative:

Idea #1: Use Data to Allocate Creative Resources

Conduct pre-campaign data analysis to determine each customer’s value or potential. This measurement should drive format selection for your direct mail pieces and the allocation of creative resources. Higher value customers – and high-potential prospects — should get a more elaborate and personalized mailing; less valuable customers and prospects should get a simpler, less expensive piece.

Idea #2: Use Data for Better Targeting & Personalization

Append demographic or lifestyle data to your customer files, then use this data to segment customers into smaller, more targeted groups of individuals with similar characteristics. Develop creative approaches and marketing messages that more accurately target the specific interests of these smaller groups.

Idea #3: Use Data to Get Attention and Engage

Grab attention on the direct mail carrier envelope and engage readers throughout the mailing with data-driven messages. Even simple geographic and demographic references in copy can have a big impact. Printing technology now enables you to customize almost every element of your mailing.

Idea #4: Use Data to Strengthen Relationships

Customers know their value to your organization and they expect YOU to know it. Use data from your customer database or CRM system (such as the length of time they’ve done business with you, the types of products they purchase, or information on their last transaction) to speak to customers more personally in your mailing about their relationship with you and its value.

Idea #5: Use Data to Facilitate a Response

To make it easier for prospects to say yes, pre-populate customer data on response forms and create personalized URLs (PURLS) with the customer’s name that link to pre-populated forms on your website.

Dukky makes it easy for you to use these strategies to create compelling, personalized direct mail campaigns, as well making it easy to track and collect additional data to make future campaigns even more compelling.

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Cross Media Marketing is a Great Way to Get Customer Information

Editor’s Note: Today’s post was written by Ivana Taylor, and originally appeared on the QuestionPro blog. It is reprinted here with permission. Ivana is the CEO of Third Force, a strategic firm that helps small businesses get and keep their ideal customer. She’s the co-author of the book “Excel for Marketing Managers” and proprietor of DIYMarketers, a site for in-house marketers. Her blog is Strategy Stew.

Have you ever considered using direct mail as a way of gathering demographic and psychographic information? If not, then this is your opportunity to really get some bang for your marketing budget dollar.

With the advent of on-demand printing and publishing, we’ve been able to literally convert mass-marketing to a more personal one-to-one experience. All it takes is a list, a database and some creativity and for a relatively small budget, you will be on your way to:

1. Getting more information about your list (email address, buying preferences, job title)

2. Learning how to better communicate with your list (how would you like to be contacted?)

3. Drive list members to your website

4. Present them with a specific offer

5. Invite them to an event

6. Register for a conference or event, including break-out sessions, etc.

All of this can be yours by exploring “cross-media marketing.” Read more

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New Personalized URL Best Practices

Editor’s note: Today’s post was written by Heidi Tolliver-Nigro and was originally printed on The Digital Nirvana. It is reprinted here with permission.

Have you noticed? The best practices for personalized URLs are becoming more sophisticated. You may not always see those best practices listed, but they are being reflected more and more often in industry case studies. It’s really neat to see the evolution.

It struck me because, earlier this week, I released an update to “Personalized URLs: Beyond the Hype,” a primer and training and educational tool for printers and marketers. In the best practices section, I had previously separated out the best practices into two categories: those commonly seen in industry case studies and those not yet commonly seen but practiced by some of the industry’s leading practitioners. During the process of updating the report, however, it struck me the extent to which the two are converging. In fact, in the October 2009 update I removed the distinction between the two classifications.

Here are three of the best practices that have now moved into the mainstream:

Incorporating personalized URLs as part of a larger, multi-channel campaign. Although personalized URLs are, by definition, multi-channel, I’m talking about using them as part of a larger, more comprehensive strategy that includes email, text messaging, and other channels to prime the pump, follow up, or reinforce the message.

Using personalized URLs as one of several response mechanisms. Personalized URLs are not a marketing strategy. They are a response mechanism. Sometimes they are the best response mechanism. Sometimes they are one of several “best” response mechanisms, depending on your target audience. The recognition that different audiences respond to different response channels and that marketers don’t want to lose responses by forcing them into a single channel is finally starting to sink in.

Using the survey buttons to really learn something. For a long time, marketers were using the survey buttons on the mini-sites to be cute. Tell us your favorite band, your favorite color, or some other thing like that, and then marketers would follow up with a personalized poster or sign to show their ability to process variable data, but in the long run, it didn’t really accomplish much. The buttons weren’t really being used to learn about the prospect in a way that could either be used by the sales force to make follow-ups more effective or that could be used to wrap around to better personalize future campaigns. Today, they are.

Those are only three of the major changes I’ve seen, and there are many more. The point is that 1:1 printers and marketing services providers are really beginning to wrap their minds around these applications and do a better job of implementing them. That is good for everybody — printers, their clients, and the customers and prospects, too.

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