Bravo Starbucks, Cheers to Your Java!

Starbucks is a social media innovator. The coffee giant seamlessly bridges the gap between customers’ online and IRL (in real life) experiences, enhancing the brand’s relationships with consumers with every exchange.

QR codes, mobile apps, social media and points of sale form a powerful system of customer engagement, retention and sales when properly designed and executed. Enter ‘My Starbucks Rewards’ program.

Customers earn a Star for every purchase made with a registered Starbucks Card. 5 Stars delivers Green status which gives users:

• a free birthday drink
• syrup or soymilk on the house
• free refills
• buy beans and get a beverage

30 Stars gets Gold status:

• all benefits of Green
• free drink every 15 Stars
• very own personalized Gold Card (love this touch)
• special members offers

Starbucks ties it all together with their iPhone and Android mobile apps and direct-to-fan engagement via social media channels. Once a consumer registers their card and downloads the mobile app they can:

• manage their Starbucks card balance
• reload their card
• track their progress in rewards program
• geo locate the Starbucks nearest you
• keep track your favourite drinks, your friends’ too
• search jobs at Starbucks
• explore the world of coffee

When performed in concert the result is a sales cycle that integrates the POS with social media/mobile apps, earns new customers and rewards existing ones while providing interest based content relevant to all parties. Bravo Starbucks, cheers to your Java!

9 Awesome Ways Bands Can Enhance Their Email Campaigns

Email marketing is a remarkably effective sales tool for solo artists and bands at any level. Optimizing your email campaigns will have a positive affect on sales, cultivate loyalty among fans and increase the size of your audience in the social web.

Right off the top some standard ways to optimize your E-Newsletter are:

Add social follow buttons: make it easy for fans to find your social profiles by including social icons in your E-Newsletters.

Add an image: images are a great way to spice up your content.

Use a Post Script: include a post script at the end of the body of your email to capture the reader’s attention. You can use the P.S. to emphasize your main selling point, create a sense of urgency or add a special bonus offer. Often times people scan the body of an email but their eye will fall on the post script. Be sure to include a link that leads the subscriber into the sales process.

Include a “special offer”: special offers allow you monetize your email campaigns and segment your lists by differentiating customers from subscribers. You can then design specific email campaigns for each segment to further optimize your sales process.

Optimize the newsletter for mobile devices: to ensure maximum open rates optimize your email campaigns for mobile devices.

Segmenting

Segmenting your subscribers in the following ways will further optimize your email campaigns:

• geographically
• content interests
• brand advocates (social media fans, frequent buyers, customers, non-customers)

Once you’ve segmented your subscribers into best customers and brand advocates you can acknowledge them with special emails:

• thank them for their loyalty
• advanced notice and promotional discounts on new merchandise
• feedback requests
• rewards
• special offers

Special Offers

By segmenting the subscribers and sending each segment a “secret code” or “hidden discount” email that requires them to click through to see what they’ve won, you can determine what kinds of offers work best with your fans and create more of that type.

Conversion Optimized ‘Thank You’ Emails

When someone has made a purchase or downloaded some cool content, sending a conversion optimized ‘thank-you’ email can increase sales and earn more fans by:

• providing access to the offer – a link to the download
• adding social sharing functionality
• include a call to action – like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter
• send an auto-response email in the event they’ve made a purchase with a promo code for their next purchase

Testing & Analysis

Conducting A/B and multivariate testing to determine the optimum placement of social features and calls-to-action by segmenting the audience and analyzing the click-through-rates and goal conversions with direct comparisons to each will provide you with valuable insight into how your email campaigns are performing.

Email campaigns are one element in the marketing mix. Optimizing your social media strategy and engagement, website, eCommerce and email marketing to perform in concert will yield higher profits and a larger fan base.

P.S. Grüv Media is available to discuss how we will enhance your presence in the social web, drive sales and increase your audience. Contact us today!

What Social Media Marketers Can Learn From the Marx Brothers

The Marx Brother’s career spanned several decades and multiple mediums, from vaudeville and broadway to print, radio, film and television. They seamlessly traversed mediums and continuously expanded their fan base with engaging content that hit all the right notes.

The Brothers were adept at using myriad mediums in concert to support their endeavors and this is what savvy social media marketers are doing today.

When creating a content strategy for a new client, first consider the audience and the forms of media they prefer to consume. Then, consider the ways you can increase the longevity and scope of one form of content by offering it in several mediums.

For example; you can generate a podcast from a video interview and then feature its transcription in a blog post and schedule the release of all three over the period of 7 days. By offering the same content in multiple mediums you extend its reach, maximize its potential and engage your audience in the formats they enjoy.

Experiment, have fun and above all, engage!