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.

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!

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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

Supercharge Your Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs are nothing new, from simple punch cards to sliding magnetic stripe cards, most loyalty programs involve some kind of physical card you carry around all the time. Customer loyalty is a major component of any business especially when considering the fact that it costs 5 times more to acquire a new customer than it is to retain a current one.

Traditional Loyalty Program Benefits

For years, loyalty programs have been a proven way to increase repeat customers, increase customer spend, and ultimately increase sales. Businesses have seen consistent returns and continue to pursue some form of customer retention or loyalty initiative. Customers enrolled in loyalty programs become more engaged and build a stronger relationship with businesses that reward them for their loyalty, as they feel the business is giving back to them resulting in an increased perceived value from the customer. Traditional examples of loyalty program setups include “Buy 10, Get 1 FREE” and “Spend $50 and get $5 back.” These linear, standard, and non-dynamic rewards are a very simplistic and basic program. With today’s technology, businesses should look at rewards programs differently, and be more proactive vs. passive to leverage the power of their programs. Continue reading Supercharge Your Loyalty Program

Guests, Not Customers

I recently came back from a conference, the Franchise Consumer Marketing Conference, and at the conference listened to a panel of franchise marketing executives speak on successful marketing and customer loyalty tactics. One of the panelists, a CMO of a Fortune 1000 company addressed the importance of customer experience and brought up the notion of treating your customers as guests. Whether this means literally addressing your customers as guests or maintaining the underlying philosophy throughout your company culture, the bottom-line is understanding this mentality and championing it throughout your entire organization in the direction of building a better brand, increased customer loyalty, and ultimately a better customer experience.

The Disney Customer

Walt Disney made this famous with Disneyland’s iconic customer service and transformable customer experience. Disney called all the employees “cast members” and called all customers/visitor “guests.” Walt Disney may epitomize this philosophy and have taken it to an extreme extent, but if applied to a fraction of the degree as Disneyland, your customer service and experience will translate to a better interaction with your brand for your guests. This is not to say you need to turn your franchise or business into Disneyland, but understand that details matter and every single customer’s experience may be a new one. Continue reading Guests, Not Customers