Today’s Consumer Still Loves Coupons
She just doesn’t like clipping them.
When my kids were little, I would rip through the Sunday paper looking for coupons on diapers. I am not much of a coupon person in general, but we went through a lot of diapers and it just seemed silly to pay full price.
Once my kids finally mastered the potty, I said goodbye to diapers and good bye to coupons. They were just too much trouble to keep up with, organize and keep track of when I went shopping.
But I do like saving money, so I am the perfect target for digital coupons. Instant savings I can download to my computer as I head out the door, or better yet to my phone.
And I am not alone, it seems the down cycle in the ecomony, along with an increase in technology which delivers coupons has led to the first increase in the use of coupons in almost twenty years.
From a study by coupons.com (ok so maybe they are a little biased) the demographics of the average digital coupon shopper is not the low income, penny pinching housewife. Instead, the consumer who prints digital coupons is an attractive target for many products and services.
- has an average household income of $97,000,
- a 23 percent higher income level than the U.S average.
- 34 percent of those who print digital coupons have a college degree (up from 32 percent in 2008), compared to 30 percent of those who use newspaper coupons and 27 percent of the general populace.
- Users of digital coupons have higher household incomes and are better educated than users of newspaper coupons and the general population.
So what do these numbers mean to you? As the delivery mechanisms continue to improve, and the economy continues to put pressure on consumer spending, coupons, particularly those delivered digitally can be an excellent incentive for existing and new customers.
Interesting, as I was putting the finisihing touches on this post ( sometimes I write a few weeks out) I read a post by Kyle Lacy on the subject of integrating your marketing, tieing all the elements together, especially when you already use printed coupons in your mix.
Some Things Change, and Some Things Don’t
I am working a presentation for a group of HVAC distributors in New Orleans in April. Having spent 11 years in the industry, I feel comfortable talking about how to apply what I know about marketing to their challenges.
But I have been away for a few years, and thought it would be helpful to see what others have been writing and discussing. What I found is that although it seems things are moving very quickly, much of what I am telling my small business clients today, others have been saving for quite awhile.
For example: In 2003 David Squires wrote n article for the ACH&R News about how to make your websites more efficient. Interestingly seven years later, we still see much of the same issues we saw then. Text heavy and product heavy sites which miss what is really important to the consumer; How well you solve the client’s problem?
Check out David’s list of 12 ways to improve your site and see if you agree with me, that while some things do change, others remain, very much the same!
Build a Better Website in Seven Weeks
These days, a website is an integral part oft he marketing plan for every small business! You probably have one, but is your website doing it’s job? Is it representing your brand, attracting visitors, and converting those visitors to qualified prospects or even customers.
Do you know how your website stacks up against your competitors and do you have a plan to improve?
To help small business owners answer these questions, and many more, we are launching a FREE even week program designed to help you build a better website.
Interested? Simply fill out the form below to get started.
This is part of our FREE On-Line Education Program. When you finish this class, we will send you a link to the others in the program as well.
Shout Out to Vincent High School
This is a shout out to the students of Vincent High School of Milwaukee, Wisconsin! You may be wondering why I am doing a shout out to a group of students at a high school I never attended. The answer is simple: WEB STATS!
Last night, as I took a quick look at my web site statistics I was pleasantly surprised by the spike in traffic I experienced on Monday. At first I thought it was because of the guest post by Robby Slaughter (which by the way was really good), but it wasn’t. Instead, more than 50 people (which for my web site is quite a large number) viewed a post from my How to Write a Business Plan series – (Lesson One) which was written on September 4.
Who were these people? And where did they come from? A quick look at the referring information indicated they were coming from a website sponsored by Vincent High School of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The site itself is password protected (as school sites should be) so I am not sure exactly what the site said. My best guess, however is one of the teachers in the business department found my content and recommended it to his/her students.
The point of all of this is that you should be looking at your web stats to figure out what is driving traffic to your site. In this instance, I am flattered that a teacher in Milwaukee likes my content, but since she/he and the students aren’t my core audience, I probably won’t write more just for them. However, if this was a group of small business owners, I would be paying more attention to what they were reading, and trying to find ways to serve up more of the same.
What do your web stats tell you about your readers? With a simple plugs-in like WordPress.com Stats or the more comprehensive Google Analytics, there is much you can learn about your website. It is up to you what you do with the information.
And if you are a student from Vincent High, thanks for stopping by, feel free to post a comment, and then go do your homework!
Email is Back!
Or maybe it never went away? There are some social media experts who say email as a marketing tool is dead, replaced by RSS feeds, but I don’t agree. I think social media has changed the nature of internet marketing just as cable TV changed TV advertising.
In both instances, the target has more choices. If you want your ad to be watched or email promotion to be opened it needs to be bundled with good content, relevant to a smaller, but more concentrated market.
Pro Blogger Darren Rowse argues that the most successful bloggers use both! If used properly, email will drive traffic and build community. He says:
I’m arguing is that bloggers take a 2nd look at email. My personal approach is to have multiple points of connection with readers which reinforces what I’m doing on my sites and maximise the impression that I’m able to make upon them.
At Roundpeg, we have been using email marketing, with Constant Contact for almost seven years for our business and our clients. We have seen open rates decline from a high of 60% to 15% for good programs. Recently, we added more targeted emails and have seen a reversal of that trend.
For example, we work with an optometrist who sends email reminders to patients to come in for their annual eye exam. These small lists perform significantly better. Patients who ignore his monthly newsletter, open an email with a subject line which says schedule your annual eye exam. His open rate was over 30% on the targeted email, and more than 15% clicked through to the scheduling form on his website. We have seen the same type of performance on our Business Plan list. Small (100 business owners) in comparison to my primary list (3,600 business professionals and owners) the open rate for email to this group is around 60%, with strong click through as well.
So mass email may be dead, but focused, relevant, PERMISSSION BASED email is alive, productive and powerful!
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Looking for help with your emal marketing program? Contact Roundpeg, we can help you get started today!
Web Site Evaluation
You have a website, but how good is it? Do you know?
- How does it compare to the sites of your competitors?
- How does it look to search engines?
- What, if any, Buzz exists in the online community about your brand?
If you don’t know the answer to these questions, we can help with our Free Web Site Evaluation. Simply submit your request today, and we will send you an evaluation by tomorrow.
Are You Using Social Media?
Written by Melinda Cooper
According to this survey, you aren’t.
The article states that:
The study found 76 percent of small-business owners polled were not using social media or finding it helpful in generating business leads during the last year, and 86 percent said the did not use such sites to get advice or information.
It seems the reason for this is business owners feel they didn’t have the resources (time or money) to learn to use it properly.
Is this true? Shouldn’t businesses make time for new technology seminars or attending them to fully use all resources. Twitter and Facebook are FREE. There should be no reason to pass up a FREE opportunity to get your business across.
In November, Rainmakers University is leading two popular seminars on how to use Twitter and LinkedIN and one on general marketing, visit rainuniversity.com to sign up.
[side note: The journalist in me - who also took an Economics course featuring "How to Lie with Statistics" - noticed that only 500 small businesses were contacted. Perhaps, they were all in Appalachia where businesses with access to the Internet was few and far between.]
Building a Relationship Agency
We have never been an comfortable calling ourselves an ad agency, but most people don’t really understand the difference when I refer to Roundpeg as a marketing firm.
After reading Jason Fall’s post on the culture clash between social media and traditional ad agencies I have a new definition of who we are. He says:
Social media is, in many ways, the antithesis of advertising. Advertising is one-way communications aimed at large groups of consumers. Social media is two-way communications that requires listening as well as speaking.
Ultimately, Jason says “social media is about building relationships.” And that is what Roundpeg is; a relationship firm. Long before social media became the new ” buzz word” we were working with small business owners to find creative and innovative ways to promote their brand.
Without the budget or brand recognition of larger firms. we have always felt relationships, built and nurtured over time would give our clients a competitive edge in the marketplace. Eight years ago I taught networking classes, and I still do from time to time. But today I have added Social media to the mix. Why? Because used properly ( and not abused) social media is a great way to nurture relationships.
For more on good and bad uses of social media, check out some of my other posts on the topic. And then read stuff by people I think really are experts: Kyle Lacy, Michael Reynolds and Douglas Karr.
Perfect Score
Written by Neil Chaggar
Creating a website takes a lot of hard work, patience, and creativity… but how do you know if your website is serving its true purpose or how effective it is according to your customers? While there are a number of tools out there, we have found www.WebsiteGrader.com to be very helpful as we try to determine if a website set up to attract traffic, if it is connected to the larger internet community, and how it compares to your competitors.
In just in few seconds, the site evaluates your website on a number of set criteria such as Google page rank, Alexa trafffic rank, links, keywords, images, content, blog etc. The detailed report identifies areas for improvment, with suggestions and links on how to make the changes.
I have been using Website Grader to evaluate websites we have designed for clients, including new sites for www.uhasinc.com and www.investsfip.com and have been able to improve their score thanks to this helpful and free website.
So if you are wondering how your website ranks among millions of others just like yours, give Website Grader a try. You may not be able to get into the 90th percentile right away, but you’ll have enough info and the right tools to get there sooner or later. Neil out!
Measuring Real Success
I have a confession to make. I am a math nerd. This surprises most people. They assume because I am an outgoing marketing person I probably can’t add. But I can! And more interesting to me then simple arithmetic is statistics, data and trends. For a math junkie like me, Internet marketing, with it’s accurate and real-time statistics, is the perfect blend of my marketing and math passions.
The good news is the data when used to provide evidence of campaign success, customer interests and preferences can help even a small business owner make better decisions. But sometimes the data can become an obsession, rather than a tool. How to know if you marketing is out of balance? Here are a few signs:
- Your marketing is more focused on creating thousands of followers, instead of a tight loyal following who really care about you and your product
- Your emphasis is on traffic, rather than conversions
- You spend more time analyzing your statistics then using as a guide for your action plans
What to do? Stop worrying about what other people tell you you should measure. Ask yourself, what are the real key indicators of success in my business, and find a way to measure that!
