Attracting New Customers via Mobile Coupons: It’s a winner!

So, all of us are now realizing that we’re becoming, at least in this one way, more like the rest of the world;  our use of cell phones is going way up, and it’s become our lifeline to functioning competently in the day-to-day.  Here’s what I’ve been adopting myself,  either for my personal use or as someone on the lookout for ways to help small businesses establish some presence — sans the obnoxious, ‘in your face’ behavior, of course.  I will cover mobile in the next series of posts.

Mobile Tools that help me save money: Coupons via mobile  are taking off like never before.  From a small business angle, this means that getting involved in coupon opportunities has the capacity to do more than just give my customers a break during these recessionary times.  It also has the potential to build customer loyalty, give you visibility as a featured, local, neighborhood destination, get both interested individuals AND their friends into the act (many coupon tools have social forwarding built in), and even give you a bit more of that “here’s a business that’s hip” persona (translated: you get to to tie into young (20’s-30’s), single, educated women in the way they find is uncomplicated and cool).What I like:  Groupon or Living Social, both of which feature a SINGLE coupon for purchase every day.

It works on the principle that there is power in a collective — that a certain mininum number of people expressing interest will make it financially viable to offer a good deal and ensure that a deal will come to pass.

You might think that collective purchasing would work best for businesses people already know a bit about, but actually, the most active audiences are people seeking new engagements, and a quality business could very well fit the bill.  I know I find many offers showcase the creative or unique, which certainly gets my attention and interest.

One statistic from Groupon shows merchant feedback with the average check size 60% greater than the Groupon’s value, and that most participants are first-time customers.  If this fact continues to be true, it behooves small business owners to be at least as far along as they can be in terms of being able to field excellent service once interest on a couponing site is sparked.

Here’s what I like.  Check them out!

Groupon Contact: 877-788-7858 Ext. 2
Living Social Contact: 202.408.1745 x1117, deals@livingsocial.com

Oh, and for some information on the general state of couponing, here is an excellent article by Mashable.

Help in the Modern Age

This is not my strong suit, this business of asking for help.

I’ll admit it. My will to figure things out on my own inevitably interferes, and I’d willingly go ’round and ’round with something myself, sometimes for many painful hours on end, than stop the swish in my brain to find another way. The sad fact is that I’m stubborn, and can refuse to let in what would make my efforts easier.  Doesn’t have to be your fate though.  Interested in some valuable tips?  Read on.
 

 
 NAME WHAT YOU NEED

First, it’s a good thing to name what it is you actually need. For me, the passage of time and the chance to be still usually hint at where I’m lagging. Then, I follow that up with a written plan of my top 3 strategic goals and my most passionate implementation ideas, both which become incredibly useful devices for helping me see my own needs. And finally, there’s nothing like the evidence of what never seems to get done at the end of the day to amplify the ways I am simply standing in my own way (just in case I might prefer to forget!).

No, you aren’t perfect and no, you can’t do everything yourself.  But, there’s good news awaiting. Name the thing, maybe even two things, to turn things around for that day, that week, that month, and you’ll do a whole lot better.  To get closer to what this might be for you, consider naming:

• what it is you are going for so you remind yourself where your energies are best placed,
• what those things are that are not getting done, and preventing you from reaching any kind of task closure, those times when even your body feels like a slug, and you’re going ’round and ’round, and
• those small steps you can take that will pull you up and out. If you don’t know them, read ahead.

It’s an ongoing cycle, this process of checking in, naming, and moving forward by the way. And we’re not done yet!

ASK FOR HELP

You’ll need to ask for help next. There can be loads of things to say about this and nothing really to say.  Or to put it another way, you’ll either ask or you won’t (sure, since it’s always easier not to.  Avoiding keeps our super person fantasies alive). Nevertheless, it really feels like crossing a threshold when you finally can make asking primary because suddenly you’ll find many people can be helpful. Letting yourself be available to influence brings a whole lot more serendipity too.  A story someone casually shared when you asked suddenly becomes the subject for you–a useful article, angle on a creation or job lead.  It’s all good.

One caveat.  Always stay true to your overriding intention or goal. If you subsumed your own interests, now is the time to put an end to that. Instead, use your metaphorical sword and shield, remember its use.  Because to continually return to what it is YOU are going for, that’s what matters. It’s the bigger picture, the grander idea you are hatching, that even our closest friends may sometimes not truly get.  So, deflect idle comments as much as possible.  And if you’re the type that’s easily thrown off course, make sure there’s a place you pass by every day that showcases a reminder photo or  mind map to help you stay on course.

ZERO IN AND GET SPECIFIC! (what really needs a boost: managing quality, cost, service or time?) 

I’ll add that knowing where to get help is certainly going to up your chances of following through. It’s distinct for each one of us.  If you are underhanded, think virtual support or sources of volunteers. If you are time-starved, timely reviews so you get to the point of what’s primary to take care of.  If you feel distanced from your own goals and/or out of the flow of the networks you want to reach, identify a few ready advisors whose guidance can get you closer. Here are some strategies for all these areas.

• Do a google search on virtual assistants (there are hundreds but check here and there) to give yourself a little relief. Some of them are good and affordable–even in our recession, 
• Check out mentoring blogs to see who you can line up to give you feedback (the words “mentor” or “coach”,  your geographic location and area of need are worthy searches to do online), 
• Get active on social networks that pull together people around the same issues as yours, 
• Put the word out to friends, online and off, who can give you leads on where they turned.

Of course, you can also check out my previous posts on good sources for volunteers and how to find good advisors.  And if anyone out there has found their own great options, please feel free to leave your helpful comments below. 

DEVELOP NETWORKS BY BECOMING USEFUL! 

One parting thought: Getting help is a new pattern for loads of us out there and quite frankly, it’s not always clear how to get within some people’s sightline. But using our networks and continually putting our real needs out are perhaps some of the smartest ideas one can have on staying afloat.  Don’t think you always need the sturdiest of vessels to close the gap between what you don’t yet know and what you think you should; an inflatable raft is really just as good.  Need to borrow one?  Ask!

Location-Based Advertising: How’s it going?

This is the second in my series on mobile, and what’s getting me interested is this.

Whatever can save me time in seeing whether something is worth purchasing (and I’m one of those who think fewer and fewer products actually are) and save me money, I can become interested in, even if I start out lukewarm.  As a woman, what matters most to me is to have appeals that I can confidently say are within reasonable range of my own needs and interests, and avoid the feeling of fatigue associated with extraneous, poorly targeted stuff. Location-based deals AND reviews/ratings, therefore, have the potential to make my decision-making easier.

So, up comes location-based advertising tied into reviews on my radar, things like FourSquare, YELP, Loopt, Google (local directory bar codes), Gowalla, and Merchant Circle. But so far, much of it feels extraneous — how much can I actually rely on these reviews, given the critical mass is not quite there?  And for whom is location-based advertising useful when businesses can barrage you with what you don’t need or when your network produces more diversity than these groups?  Of course, location-based anything has its own terrors; take a look at Please Rob Me for what I’m talking about here.

Trust can also be undermined in other ways.  The report by the East Bay Express on YELP, a bit of time back, left many consumers feeling tricked. The allegation that businesses were put in the position of having to cozy up to YELP in order to be assured of positive reviews muddied Yelp’s reputation as a trusted source. Merchant’s Circle seems to have had issues with consumer preferences being ignored as well. The lesson: If you have a small business, what you definitely don’t want is to sully your own reputation by association and/or not understand a company’s built-in bias, preferences and terms.

Still, I believe it is better to give people space to course-correct than vilify questionable behavior  interminably (I certainly don’t have first hand experience of YELP so I can only be wary).  At any rate, it does send me down the path to explore issues in more depth on my own (I’ll keep you posted) and to encourage you to read the reviews below.

So, check out the following articles from those who can speak with more confidence, and my nod in support of those sources which can point me toward informed decision-making.

On FourSquare:
http://www.colinalsheimer.com/foursquare-friend-requests
http://www.mpdailyfix.com/do-you-play-foursquare/
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/17/please-rob-me-makes-foursquare-super-useful-for-burglars/

On Yelp:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_11/b4170027355708.htmhttp://www.yelp.com/biz/yelp-san-francisco
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/technology/start-ups/03yelp.html
http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/15/yelps-new-and-improved-iphone-app-officially-hits-the-app-store/

On Loopt:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/08/loopt-partners-with-mobile-spinach-to-offer-location-based-deals/
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/loopt_iphone3g.php
http://www.wirelessandmobilenews.com/2009/11/lbs-loopt-adds-pulse-and-partners-with-navteq-zagat.html
http://download.cnet.com/Loopt-for-iPhone/3000-12941_4-10863030.html

On Google:
http://techcrunch.com/2009/12/16/check-in-google-foursquare-loopt/
http://www.quickmark.com.tw/En/info/Show.asp#sw5

On Gowalla:
http://gigaom.com/2009/10/14/gowalla-vs-foursquare-who-will-win/
http://mashable.com/2009/12/25/foursquare-gowalla/
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/gowalla_is_the_anti-farmville.php
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gowalla/id304510106?mt=8

On Merchant Circle:
http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/merchantcircle-com-promote-your-business
http://www.sugarrae.com/merchant-circle-can-kiss-my-consumer-ass/

Shock! You can make a simple mobile app…and faster than you think!

Somewhere in the part of the world where curiosity seekers seek lies a little habitat called Mobile. Here, people go hungry if they don’t get fed, that is, when they lose access to those ubiquitous, ‘you really want me now’, increasingly useful mobile apps.

I didn’t think I knew much about this place, until one day, I saw that my home ground was a deja vu. Right on my very own iphone dashboard (I counted them) were approximately 75 apps. How did it happen? Quite obviously, I downloaded them all, slowly over months perhaps, but still, the herd was overtaking my screen.

Well, well. We’re talking iTranslate, Zhing, Brightkite, iBlueSky, Dogtag, Skype, NPR, Pandora, FMtouch, Stanza, Ruler, NightCamera, Spanish, Showtimes, Ichillout/iZenGarden, Foursquare, and Evernote, among many others. Apparently, I’m famished, not to mention I must find them tantalizingly useful. It’s true — when I’m on the run, the information’s right there,  less floundering.  Nice!

Now, after a few additional trips to the land of Mobile, I’m also learning, with some counsel, that I can actually make one of these too. Although mobile development tools like Corona that works on the iphone require understanding of code like javascript and actionscript, there’s also Build an App that lets you create something simple in less than an hour. Unbelievable how fast things turn around to encourage mobile participation.

But if you’re really smart, I’m told by Barbara Ballard, author of Designing the Mobile User Experience and President/Founder of Little Springs Designs which offers up an incredibly informative mobile design site, you’ll want to use an open source tool like Phone Gap that works on the iphone plus the Blackberry/Android platforms as well (AND they offer online training!).  Their pitch and ours: it simply makes more sense to build an app that can leverage several platforms instead of just one. And with more app stores from multiple vendors on the horizon, the appeal is obvious.

As for myself, I’m not living and breathing life as a designer in the mobile terrain yet but I have to say it’s fun to realize that there’s interesting opportunity ahead for any of us creative types who have an idea for a useful service. Whether we’re just prototyping an idea or actually diving straight in to do it ourselves, we don’t have to pray for bumping into a competent geek to jumpstart our idea. I’d say that’s a bit of a wow! What about you?

That’ll be mobile offers on herbal tea only, thanks!

I recently realized that something that has a great appeal to some folks, like location-based sharing, has less relevance and appeal to me — especially when it comes to keeping things in the short term much simpler.

Not sure why that is really, except that I just finished a job where I realized I simply prefer choosing my own influences.  The fact that some choices I need to make come recommended seems to matter less when there’s not that compulsive need to check in with others. At times, what you want, you simply already know.

So, when I saw that some mobile services actually encourage you to sign up with companies, brands, and services which you know would already compel your participation, I could see I liked that more.  For example, with mobilecoupons.com, you can just put in your area, choose your category of interest, and get deals that way. So, as this post title suggests, I can get offers just on herbal teas. Location-based services has that element of keeping tabs on everyone  and keeping you in step with your friends, when that may not be your mindset. May not always be true, but for now, yes.

More and more, I see that companies and brands can easily develop their own private apps, offering up discounts directly to those who have already expressed interest.  I could offer up those offers through a privately branded app. I find that simpler too.  As a small business, could you see this having appeal to you?

Volunteers as ready resources: they’re here but in a different way

I remember, not too long ago, being a part of a community nonprofit, and needing some extra hands. I knew where I wanted the help but I just couldn’t figure out where to look for people, and never seemed to have the time either. This may be familiar to you, but if it is, stop what you’re doing and take a look at what’s changed.

First off, we now have the ability to register ourselves online for volunteer opportunities and see others registered for the same quickly and effectively. Organizations like Idealist and VolunteerMatch allow people to post long-term and short-term assignments on their sites, and make it possible to look folks up/post according to one’s specific needs as well. Some organizations even focus on enticing volunteers by providing an active social component (volunteers go to trendy places to eat and drink afterwards) so no longer does volunteer look like duty alone. Volunteer meetups and organizations like OneBrick are two such examples of virtual volunteering.

Another major shift in volunteering is the fact that commitments are also super flexible. Typically, in the past there was a looming set of concerns on both sides. Individuals and organizations needing volunteers would worry about no-shows and waning loyalties while volunteers would worry about over-committing and not getting enough of what they wanted from the experience.

And now? Sure, there are similar possibilities but what’s different is that volunteers can sign up for just a few hours (as opposed to every week or for 3 months). Again, One Brick, located in a few select cities including New York, Seattle, SFBay Area and Chicago, does a wonderful job of this. You have some free time just this week; well, check it out! (From the group offering up the opportunity though, figure in 6-8 weeks lead time for posting. Yea, not as quick).

On the other hand, if you are a service-related group with a task that needs to get done, a very specific task like fundraising, or PR right before an event, you can post on All for Good, dubbed the Craigslist of service. This is a group that was inspired by Obama’s Serve America initiatives. The people behind All For Good, who work at places like Google, Adobe, YouTube, Causecast, and the Craigslist Foundation, essentially set out to prove him right (e.g. people are the solution). And if you put in the word, “Creative” in their search, some listings even come up to give you some inspiring ideas to keep your own involvement active.

But we’re not done yet. Ever heard of on demand volunteerism by phone? You may never meet the people directly but you can avail yourself of their help. The volunteer effort is called The Extraordinaires, and yes, it works entirely via mobile. Simarily, how about looking up virtual volunteering to take advantage of all those laid off highly skilled workers who want to continue networking and sharing what they know.  

All quite different from the classic image of volunteering just below, wouldn’t you say?

So, now back to you. In many of these cases, you may need to realign your work with a nonprofit cause or service in order to receive support. Not as direct, perhaps, but there’s more opportunity for a creative thinker than there ever was. Wouldn’t you agree?