Category: Chou Musings

Twitter Tips and Strategies To Jumpstart Your Marketing

Twitter Marketing

It was considered a fad when it started, it turned into a niche network and it’s now become one of the most important marketing tools for marketers, brands and businesses alike. Twitter, the micro-blogging social network which started in 2006, has grown into one of the most effective tools in penetrating new markets and spreading news.

For businesses, Twitter can play an important role in local marketing efforts because of then unique opportunities that it provides. Twitter provides an array of tools that can be used to find potential customers, new trends as well as networking opportunities with other businesses that might help form strategic partnerships.

Advance Search

One feature in particular that every business should utilize is the robust social monitoring tools available today. Through Twitter’s advance search, a business can search for keywords or phrases with specific target searches that include by user, mentions as well as place/location. Continue reading Twitter Tips and Strategies To Jumpstart Your Marketing

Infographic: Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate and Statistics

Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate and Statistics Header

For eCommerce sites, knowing why a customer abandons their shopping cart is at the top of their list. In what is typically the last step toward a conversion, the average shopping card abandon rate is approximately 65%; a staggering number in any business.

While the reasons for a a customer abandoning their cart after adding products to it ranges from user to user, the eCommerce best practices provides us with some of the more obvious reasons as to why this event occurs. Among the most common reasons are High Shipping Costs (44%), a customer not being ready to make the purchase (41%) and a high product price (25%)

In the following infographic, another important area highlighted are conversion optimization problems during the checkout process. The top 10 reasons for this in no particular order are: Continue reading Infographic: Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate and Statistics

Video Interview: Local marketing with Carmen Sognonvi

Interview details:

About Carmen:

Carmen Sognonvi is co-owner and general manager of Urban Martial Arts in Brooklyn, NY.  Her views on local business and entrepreneurship have been featured in Fox Business, Inc.com, and Crain’s New York Business.  You can reach her at (646) 504-4092 or carmen AT carmensognonvi.com.

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Carmen is such a terrific person and professional.  I love that she not only talks the talk on her blog, but she walks the walk as well because she’s a local business owner.  In her interview, Carmen gives concrete tips that a local business can utilize to use social media to drive traffic and retention.  If there’s one thing I learned during the interview, it’s that online content is the most important asset that a business owner can focus on for the web.  Without content, there is no social presence.

Enjoy the video!

Continue reading Video Interview: Local marketing with Carmen Sognonvi

How to find the right person to lead your digital marketing efforts

How to find the right person to lead your digital marketing efforts

The perfect marketing plan is only as perfect as those who execute it. As a business owner, having the right individual to lead your digital marketing initiatives can be the difference between creating relevance and creating noise. In today’s current digital climate, where everyone calls themselves a social media expert, this can be an especially difficult task.

While the traditional route in filling a position is to post a job opening on a job board or in some cases a recruiting agency, employers are looking toward social media to find the right talent for their digital positions such as community managers and digital marketing coordinators. From Twitter to blogs, the amount of talent available is abundant; the hard part is finding the quality.

If you are currently in the process of hiring or evaluating your digital marketing team, here are 5 things to consider when choosing an individual to lead your digital marketing efforts:

1. Brand Awareness – Perhaps the most important factor to consider, the individual who leads your brand online should be someone who has a full understanding of your brand, past and present. From knowing how the company started to knowing how the brand has evolved (product, brand message, etc.), having a firm understanding and foundation of the brand will be reflected in their level of engagement and creativity. Continue reading How to find the right person to lead your digital marketing efforts

Effective local marketing strategies for your business

Effective local marketing strategies for your business

Whether you are a large corporation or a small mom and pops business, local marketing plays an important role in generating buzz and interest in the area around your business. Contrary to popular belief, being successful with your local marketing doesn’t mean you need to have a huge budget. While it helps, execution and a clear, well-thought out strategy is often the key determinant.

Depending on who your target consumers are as well as other factors, such as the type of business (grocery store, gas station, etc.), there are many marketing avenues that a business may choose to take. On the digital end there is Facebook and Twitter while for those looking for a more traditional approach there are press releases and mailers.

So what is local marketing?

Also known as ‘neighborhood marketing,’ local marketing generally refers to any marketing techniques a business uses to market and promote itself to the area in which it operates. In most cases, local marketing often becomes the responsibility of the franchisee with the parent company being responsible for the national and regional marketing initiatives. An example of this is how McDonald’s would focus on national advertisements that focus on brand awareness and new products that will be at all the stores across the nation, while the individual franchise owner may promote special deals they have on Monday’s at their own location. Continue reading Effective local marketing strategies for your business

A comparison between Belly and RewardMe – by the stats

RewardMe vs Belly Data-driven comparison by the numbers

Andreeson Horowitz recently invested $10 million into loyalty startup Belly.  I’d like to start off by congratulating the Belly team on their Series B – we wish you good luck in reaching Groupon-like scale.

This recent news warrants a fair and honest comparison between Belly and RewardMe.  We welcome the founders of Belly to write their responses in the comments section at the end of this post to continue the discussion.

Comparison snapshot: this post will compare Belly and RewardMe in the following 6 important customer loyalty program topics

  1. Customer sign-up rate: how many new customers sign-up to the program
  2. Participation rate: the number of check-ins to the rewards program
  3. Return on investment: measurable ROI that is backed by data
  4. Reward structure and customization: the ability for the business to customize rewards
  5. Data capture: the type of data that is collected from consumers
  6. Ease of use: ease of use for the business and the consumers

Continue reading A comparison between Belly and RewardMe – by the stats

RewardMe video case study: Fraiche Yogurt

Business: Fraiche Yogurt

Type: Yogurt shop

Owner: Patama Gur

Fraiche is an incredibly popular yogurt shop (with 3 locations) that uses RewardMe to power their rewards program.  Patama (the owner) is such a terrific person and incredibly smart business owner.  As you’ll see in the video, she has been hesitant to use a rewards program for a long time because she doesn’t want to give away free food; however, when she found out about RewardMe and the incredible data that we collect, she quickly took action and has used our program to capture over 35% of her customers.

Check out the video to learn more about her first-hand experience with RewardMe.

Continue reading RewardMe video case study: Fraiche Yogurt