7 Internet Marketing Loyalty Programs That Aren’t Coupons

Met a great prospective client last week who handles the marketing for a store chain who said ‘our company isn’t into couponing’. Boy, I can relate to that. As someone who has been in the same job trying to stimulate traffic but hold onto profit margin, I understood why someone wise said that coupons are like alcohol.

 ”Coupons are like alcohol; originally a stimulant, than a depressant.”

The biggest problem with coupons of course that nine times out of ten erode margin you end up subsidizing those who are already loyal without a demonstrable change in activity outside of them coming to expect the discount every time they show up. You’re effectively saying,

“Here. Go ahead. Reach into my pocket and take some profit margin.”

So what’s a poor internet marketing guru to do? Well, you’re better off identifying an activity that can grow your profits: such as rewarding your brand’s advocates for recommending you to their social network. Use Social Media Monitoring to identify those fans with the biggest networks and give them something to talk about. So here are 7 ways to provide non-monetary rewards to your biggest fans including specific examples from real-life marketers.

1. Invites Them To A Special Event

I love my local businesses that shut their doors after hours and have a party for their best customers. My local hockey shop does it annually for the men’s hockey league. It’s a great way for them to network and thank key decision-makers. It works for special company product launches as well.

2. Give Them Direct Access To Senior Staff

While research into ‘why people follow brands online’ shows that the number one reason is couponing it also indicates how interested people were in potentially being able to (more…)

15 Statistics on Consumer Ratings & Reviews

I don’t trust you.

Not if you’re a corporation that is. And I’m not alone as over the past 30+ years we’ve grown to trust corporations less and less and each other more and more. Word-of-mouth as a marketing concept dates back to when consumers first climbed out of the primordial ooze but what is new is that it’s on turbo-charge and been made into a powerful internet marketing tool thanks to social networking and the explosion of reviewing and rating tools.

Don’t trust me on this?

Don’t blame you. So here are 15 statistics that underline the internet marketing power that comes from activating your most valuable resource: your fans.

1. Traffic on review sites grew 158% last year (Compete.com)
2. 70% now consult reviews or ratings before purchasing (BusinessWeek)
3. Even before making an offline purchase in shops, 51% of consumers use the Internet (Verdict Research, May 2009)
4. 92% have more confidence in info found online than they do in anything from a (more…)

How To Cost Your Next Video Production

Here’s an easy way to budget for your next video production.

When it comes to Film, TV or Internet marketing,  video production costs are always affected by the following four areas.

1.    Length of the video

2.    Production values desired

3.    How many hours are planned to complete the project

4.    Complexity of the elements (# of talent, days on location, special effects, animation, etc.)

Whether it is a simple internet marketing video or a large, complex production, anyone making a video has to consider these four elements when determining video production costs and how they will impact on what the final outcome.

Bottom-line: You have to decide on what you want the outcome to be.  

Here are examples of three types of productions (lower, medium and higher priced videos) that will these four elements impact your video production costs.  (more…)

Adding Video To Your Website: What Have You Been Waiting For?

Videos on your website are worth their weight in gold. And with the price of gold today, more and more marketers are looking to ways to maximize their brand’s emotional benefits while in front of the consumer.

Too often marketers rely on text to tell their corporate story.

Marketers also add photos to help with the messaging, but there is no better way to build a persuasive story than to marry emotion, with motion, sound with (more…)

Amy’s Ice Cream: One Cool Social Media Marketing Example

Came across this great example of ‘fanning the flames’ thanks to a mention by Ann Handley of Marketing Profs on a podcast.

‘Fanning the Flames’ is what I refer to when you use Social Media Marketing and other tactics to activate your fans and get them to talk about you. It’s just like blowing on the embers of a fire to turn it into a roaring flame.

It’s not only an amazing site with great digital storytelling for a relatively small business  - check it out here at Amy’s Ice Cream – but here in this grab from their Facebook stream they’re using monitoring of their name on Twitter to capture positive comments about them and then reposting that onto their Twitter and Facebook streams.

Stats are showing only 1 in 10 fans will actively, publicly talk about a business so when they do this is an awful cool way (pun intended) of getting your fans to share the love across channels.

Hope this helps.

Bob Nunn is an award winning internet marketing consultant based in Toronto passionate about getting brands tuned up for the online age and dessert. He’s the founder of BrandMechanics.ca and a regular speaker and guest blogger. Give him a call to see how Brand Mechanics 9-point social media marketing audit can get you on the road to a winning plan.

The Social Network: Is It Oscar Worthy? A Review From A Social Media Marketing Guy

Ok, to be honest, I’m testing my blog feed and needed to put something here so I thought I’d share my review of The Social Network movie.

Each year for eons Anita and I go to the movies nominated for Best Picture. Oh sure they’ve made it difficult now with less time and more nominees but our own mini film festival is underway.

10 films, 33 days: Can we make it?

I heartily recommend (more…)