One of the biggest technology advances over the last few years to benefit businesses has been in Location Based Services. Just a short time ago, in mid 2008 I was working on a mobile application in which we were trying to use location to find local businesses. Continue reading
So you are at a social gathering, catching up with old friends and having a good time and then this school mate enters the room. She starts talking about this great new system/product/scheme and how it’s going to change your life / make you independently rich / introduce you to some inspiring new people. Continue reading
Every now and then I get excited by an amazing new app that shifts the status quo and today I discovered one called Prezi. The site delivers a brand new approach to setting up presentations and it’s good to see something that offers a real alternative to PowerPoint. If you do presentations then give Prezi and go and it’s sure to WOW your clients! Continue reading
The old saying in advertising “half of all my advertising is wasted. I just don’t know which half!” is typical of ‘old media’ and is a quote attributed to a number of famous people including Henry Ford, Rance Crain, John Wanamaker and others.
In the past, asking about impressions, performance, results and measurement of your campaign was usually given the standard ‘rate card’ response with statistics, prepared by an independent research company. The problem, traditional media was incapable of giving accurate feedback about YOU and YOUR promotion.
One of the best things about new media sites available today is the fact that you can measure everything.
Add Google Analytics to your website and you can get detailed information about the number of hits to your site, visitors, time on site bounce rates and conversions. The best part is it’s free.
Set-up an ad with Facebook and you can view click through rates and get dynamic real time information about how your promotion is performing.
It doesn’t matter if the story is good or bad; you are in control and can make informed decisions about your promotion based on real time statistics.
So before you hand over your next advertising dollar make your ability to measure the real time results of your promotion a priority.
There are many local directory businesses that ask you to promote in their directory via a coupon. This includes printed directories, promotions on the back of shopper dockets, local flyer drops and of course online directories. Continue reading
This morning I collected my snail mail at 11:20am. Like any other day I noticed the junk mail or ‘spam’ in the mailbox and it made me question who’s sending me this stuff. So in one day, from my single mailbox here’s a summary of what I got:
I have assisted many companies with running their local discount reward programs and part of this process involves contacting local small businesses and asking them to provide some discount for members of the reward program. One of the first questions I’m usually asked is ‘should I provide a discount?’ and the answer isn’t always clear so here are some guidelines: