Customers are increasingly mobile
Online and digital marketing channels are more accessible and affordable for SMEs to reach an increasingly fragmented audience, which traditional, mass media finds harder to reach.
By Richard Jones, Vice President National Accounts, Groupon UK & IE
Digital marketing is beautifully flexible – not least the ability to offer tokens and coupons – as it works across many channels and with many traditional and non-traditional media. So what digital marketing techniques should SMEs be thinking about?
Go Mobile
It’s important to remember that consumers are increasingly mobile, so using channels that will target them via their mobile devices will help drive sales. To do this, it’s all about having a strong digital presence. We work with SMEs to help them with this. Consumers can use apps or open emails to discover the latest deals from our merchants, giving them a convenient way to browse and buy goods and experiences.
Go Social
Social media can easily be integrated with other channels. But, for this strategy to work, you need to listen to what your audience is saying about you first and then analyse and use this data and insight to engage with them in an appropriate way. The ultimate aim here is to create an active dialogue with your customers online rather than selling directly, so that they build trust and rapport with your brand.
Mix it up
Every business is different – when implementing your marketing strategy you have to look at what you are delivering and to whom. Once this is determined, you can then work out which channels will be most appropriate to target your customers. This might require a mix of digital and traditional methods.
The great thing about digital channels is that they can easily be combined with others. For example, on print media you can include links to your twitter handle or Facebook page to encourage consumers to go online and this can also be replicated on your website.
Measure your success
One of the benefits about online marketing in particular is that it can be easily measured. With social media, metrics can include the number of fans and followers gained since the start of the campaign or activity, quantities of negative and positive feedback, and the amount of direct sales leads generated.
There are many ways to evaluate the success of your engagement, influence and content online with the use of sites such as Klout, Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and of course Twitter itself.
You can also use tools like Google Analytics to find out the numerical success of your social media presence by showing the conversion rates and monetary value of conversions that occurred due to referrals from each social network. In addition, you can use tools to measure how many page visits your website receives and how many items are bought online, if there is an e-commerce facility.
Getting the most out of coupons
In today’s economic climate, people are still hungry for value. Increasingly, they want access to unique experiences and high-quality products that cost less.
This price point is a great way to get increase customers coming through the door, but it is down to the SME to ensure their Groupon customers are treated the same as regular customers and that they have the best experience and customer service as possible to maintain a relationship and encourage them to return. SME’s should also do all they can to cross-sell and up-sell their products and services to further increase revenue.
A hotel we worked with in Ireland for example, recently sold over 800 vouchers on their weekend package and found that customers would spend an average of €80 extra per visit on other services. That’s a lot of extra revenue that they otherwise might not have generated.
We can increase footfall (both locally and further afield) to SMEs with our strong online presence, but it is also advisable for the businesses to think about
how they can retain their new customer base, whether it be through on–going promotions or other marketing activities following the feature and how they can capture customer data effectively as their Groupon customers come in.
The craziest marketing ploy I have seen
The weirdest marketing strategy I have been involved in is successfully convincing esteemed Olympic athlete Greg Rutherford to strip off down to his under pants and model for a life-drawing class in support of our Grassroots campaign to raise money and awareness for the Male Cancer.
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