Posted by TJ Goulet on Jan 9, 2013 in Advertising, Branding, Content Marketing, Coupons & Deals, Marketing, Multifamily, Multifamily News, Multifamily Tech, Press Release, Resident Communication, Resident Places, Social Media | Comments Off
For Immediate Release
Resident Places Launches Facebook Coupon Reveal Tab for Apartments
Philadelphia, PA January 9, 2013 – Resident Places has expanded its local coupon amenity program. We now offer participating communities a reveal tab for their community Facebook pages loaded with co-branded local coupons that can be printed and shared by their residents and prospects.
Resident Places (www.residentplaces.com) is pleased to announce the launching of our new Reveal Tab for Facebook that allows participating apartment communities to place hyper-local coupons on their Facebook page for their residents and prospects. The coupons are easily printed and shared directly for the social site of each individual community.
The Resident Places Coupon Reveal Tab will support the social activities of apartment communities by providing them with valued content that will generate more likes, more shares, referrals and recommendations, and increase visit frequency by their residents and prospects.
Resident Places President TJ Goulet stated, “We are very excited about the prospect of supporting our client’s endeavors to build a robust and active social network with their residents.” Goulet went on to say, “Coupons have both real and perceived value to residents and the cobranded printed coupon increases our client’s reach into their local neighborhoods. Resident Places is a win for residents, for local businesses and, most importantly, a win for the participating apartment communities.”
Coupons, deals and giveaways have the highest response rates and share rates on Facebook. An Exact Target Survey showed that the top two reasons Facebook users like a fan pages was to get discounts (40%) and freebies (36%). Wildfire Interactive reported that coupons had a 49% response rate and a 34% share rate among 10,000 Facebook campaigns surveyed.
Increasing Facebook “Likes” improves brand loyalty and referrals according to a survey by Syncapse.com. They surveyed 4,000 Facebook users for 20 top brands and found that Facebook Fans are 28% more likely to stick with a brand and 41% more likely to recommend a brand than non-fans.
About Resident Places
Resident Places is an amenity program for residential and mixed use properties that delivers property branded, hyper-local coupons. These neighborhood deals enhance current resident retention initiatives, while augmenting community outreach to local businesses. Every coupon printed through the property specific co-branded portal includes the name of the property and are shareable via social networks like Facebook and Twitter. The Resident Places call center handles all sales and service activities related to the coupons and target businesses that are in close proximity to each property ensuring that they represent the businesses most desired and used by residents.
Property Managers interested in offering Resident Places to their residents should contact Rob Remus at (484) 474-0590 or by email at rremus@residentplaces.com. Learn more at Property.residentplaces.com.
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Posted by TJ Goulet on Dec 18, 2012 in Advertising, Branding, Content Marketing, Marketing, Multifamily, Multifamily Marketing, Resident Communication, Resident Places, Social Media | Comments Off
Companies are often on the hunt for more “likes” for their Facebook pages, hoping to get more brand advocates and social media fans. However only 42% of US Facebook users think marketers should interpret a “like” in that way.
This data comes from a June 2011 study from ExactTarget, “Subscribers, Fans and Followers: The Meaning of Like,” which found that 25% of US Facebook users disagree that marketers should interpret “like” to mean they are a fan or advocate of the company.
Facebook users themselves have some preconceived notions about what to expect when they “like” a company on the site, and among those who do not become brand fans, many are negative. More than half of users expect to be bombarded with messages or ads (54%), while 45% do not want to give companies access to profile information and 31% do not want to push content from a company into friends’ newsfeeds. These possibilities have prevented users from making brand connections on the social networking giant.
On the flip side, many US Facebook users also have certain expectations of perks they should get after following a company’s Facebook page.
The ExactTarget study found that 58% of US Facebook users expect to gain access to exclusive content, events or sales after “liking” a company, while 58% also expect to receive discounts or promotions. Additionally 47% expect to see updates about the company, person or organization they “liked” in their newsfeed, which bodes well for brands as they work to have their content always show up for their followers.
Additionally, younger consumers, ExactTarget found, have fewer expectations and generally “like” brands as a form of expression, not to get certain perks. Meanwhile, older consumers want something of value for “liking” a brand. By listening to what their target fanbase wants out of the Facebook relationship, marketers can get more interaction on their page and encourage more people to “like” rather than avoid brands on Facebook.
About the Author: TJ Goulet (58 Posts)TJ Goulet has been a leader in sales and marketing for almost 20 years. His background includes both entrepreneurial endeavors and nationally recognized achievement with a Fortune 500 Company. He entered the local search and coupon industry in 2005, when he launched his first directory and coupon portal. TJ's expertise is in utilizing current technologies and marketing platforms to increase sales productivity across a broad range of products and services.
Posted by TJ Goulet on May 8, 2012 in Coupons & Deals, Marketing | Comments Off
Unused Coupons Still Pay Off
by Rajkumar Venkatesan and Paul Farris
In 2010, U.S. consumers redeemed 3.3 billion coupons, cutting roughly $3.7 billion from purchase prices. That’s a lot, particularly since only about 1% of all coupons are ever used. Conventional wisdom holds that manufacturers and retailers see little benefit from the other 99%. But new research suggests that unredeemed coupons are highly valuable. In fact, the coupons that wind up in the trash ultimately deliver greater returns to a company than the coupons that are redeemed.
In a experiment with eight national retailers, we analyzed campaigns involving more than 500,000 targeted coupons, for items representing more than 300 brands, mailed out over 16 months. We found that consumers who received but did not redeem coupons still typically increased their purchases in the associated stores. In fact, as a group the nonredeemers accounted for 60% of the coupons’ “sales lift”—the additional amount spent on both promoted and unpromoted items. Customers who did not receive coupons served as the control group to establish that the observed lift came from the coupons and not something else.
How do coupons produce a lift among nonredeemers? They increase awareness of a brand or a retailer even when they’re not cashed in.
This finding isn’t surprising, but the magnitude of the benefit is. Smart marketers have long realized that coupons can serve as advertisements that attract new customers and inspire gratitude and loyalty among existing ones by delivering important messages about a company. The effect has become stronger in recent years as technology has enabled businesses to personalize their coupons. If businesses realized how powerful this increased awareness can be, they would take as much care with coupons as they do with other marketing materials, striving to delight customers, not simply to close a deal.
Our findings are especially relevant to new-media players such as Groupon and LivingSocial and their partner companies. Recent research and media coverage have criticized those services for attracting lots of bargain-minded customers who patronize a business only once. But when assessing the efficacy of a Groupon campaign, marketers should take into account the many people who become aware of the business when they see the coupon.
This isn’t to say that redemption rates aren’t important—a very low rate is the sign of a flawed campaign. But they’re only part of the story. If companies learn to think in terms of the broad exposure effects of their coupon offerings, they can open up whole new channels for attracting and communicating with customers—and add considerably to their bottom line.
Rajkumar Venkatesan is the Bank of America Research Associate Professor of Business Administration, and Paul Farris is the Landmark Communications Professor of Business Administration, at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
via Unused Coupons Still Pay Off – Harvard Business Review.
About the Author: TJ Goulet (58 Posts)TJ Goulet has been a leader in sales and marketing for almost 20 years. His background includes both entrepreneurial endeavors and nationally recognized achievement with a Fortune 500 Company. He entered the local search and coupon industry in 2005, when he launched his first directory and coupon portal. TJ's expertise is in utilizing current technologies and marketing platforms to increase sales productivity across a broad range of products and services.
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Posted by TJ Goulet on Apr 25, 2012 in Advertising, Coupons & Deals, Leasing and Releasing, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Multifamily | Comments Off
Coupons are a tremendous marketing tool for all businesses that are looking to increase customers, traffic and brand awareness. Even if you sell a product or service that doesn’t lend itself easily to coupons, you can take advantage of the messaging opportunities that a coupon offers. Whether you are a pizza shop with great carry out offers on Tuesday or an insurance agent representing a company that offers multi-policy discounts, you can use coupons as a messaging tool and direct traffic driver.
Keys to success:
Bigger tickets mean bigger profits. A big issue with many small business owners is the fear that their coupons are going to be used primarily by existing customers and that they are actually losing revenue and profits from folks that would have made purchases anyways. A way to make sure that doesn’t happen is to write coupons that promote bigger ticket sales than what that customer might normally purchase. Promotions like buy one get one half price, or buy two get one free ensure that you make your profit on the total order and still offer great value.
Another way to promote to existing customers is to promote products or services that they aren’t currently purchasing. Since most small businesses don’t have customer tracking, a great way to make this idea work is simply to promote products that are slow selling or to promote service during slower times. Examples are specials on last year’s models, early bird specials, lunch/happy hour/dinner specials on your two slowest days of the week. Don’t discount your meals on Friday night, discount your meals on Tuesday night or Monday at lunch.
Update your coupons weekly. One of the biggest mistakes I see with small businesses is that they have static coupons that never change. A coupon has value because it both promotes a good deal and because it has an expiration date. If you have the same coupons all the time, the expiration date becomes meaningless. You should have a rotation of coupons so that you customers know that if they don’t take advantage of this sale price soon, they will lose it.
Write better coupon offers. Make sure you are writing your coupons in an appealing and thoughtful way. This coupon is the window into your business and if it doesn’t elicit excitement and desire it won’t bring in new customers. Here are some helpful tips.
Getting started with coupons is easy…first, start with a great offer!
- Offer Discounts…”$50.00 Off!”, “60% Off!” (percentage discounts are only good when they are high percentages and the value of the product or service is well known.) Dollars Off discounts work best.
- Offer Bonuses…”Buy One/Get One Free!”, or “2 Free with Each Case Ordered!”, “Free Batteries When You Buy One Super Flashlight”, or “Free Drop Cloth with Each Gallon of Super Paint”, etc.
- Offer Premiums…Offer premiums for a presentation, for a trial order, for a subscription, for a demonstration, for a new customer referral, for an order amounting to $xxx or larger”, etc.
- Offer Free Information…”FREE booklet”, “FREE brochure”, “FREE estimate”, “FREE details”, “FREE samples”, “FREE trial”, “FREE consultation”, “FREE quote”, etc.
Use Bold, Commanding And Specific Headlines!
- “Save $50.00 on Any Portable TV….This Month Only!”
- “FREE BROCHURE…’Beauty Secrets for Career Woman’!”
- “Free Catalog Saves YOU 70% on Office Supplies!”
- “Rent Two NEW RELEASE Video Movies–Get One FREE!”
- “Buy One Dinner Entree–Get One FREE!”
- “Buy Five Cases of Copier Paper–Get the Sixth Case Absolutely Free!”
Sell The Benefits.
- Save time, save money, increase profits, protect your family, improve your standard of living, be happier, improve your health, increase your income, and increase your comfort, more convenient.
Make Effective Use Of The 17 Most Powerful Words In Advertising.
- Free, now, new, how to, save, guarantee, money, easy, simple, you, proven, love, results, discovery, fast, amazing, profit.
No one hit wonders! For coupon campaigns to be effective and profitable you must make sure that you generate repeat customers. You have done the hard part and gotten that new customer through your front door on the telephone…now make sure they come back. Collect their email and utilize an email marketing campaign to stay in contact with your customers. Email marketing is super easy to manage and can be free with programs like Mail Chimp.
Make sure your restrictions are clear and thorough. All coupons have restrictions. These restrictions can be used to promote specific products or services and to set an expiration date or limitation. Here are some great examples of restrictions that you might want to try:
- Expires on
- May not be combined with any other offer
- Must present coupon at time of order or mention coupon when scheduling your appointment
- Offer only valid Monday and Tuesday from 11 AM – 4 PM
- Offer not valid on ______ brands
- Half price item of equal or lessor value.
- New Customers Only
The final piece to coupon success is don’t stop! One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is they stop offering coupons after they start to work. Why? If you write targeted, well thought out offers, you will be increasing new customers, increasing frequency and ticket size of existing customers and increasing your bottom line profits. Don’t stop offering coupons, just stop offering bad coupons.
About the Author: TJ Goulet (58 Posts)TJ Goulet has been a leader in sales and marketing for almost 20 years. His background includes both entrepreneurial endeavors and nationally recognized achievement with a Fortune 500 Company. He entered the local search and coupon industry in 2005, when he launched his first directory and coupon portal. TJ's expertise is in utilizing current technologies and marketing platforms to increase sales productivity across a broad range of products and services.
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Posted by TJ Goulet on Apr 16, 2012 in Coupons & Deals, Marketing, Multifamily, Multifamily News, Multifamily Tech, Press Release, Resident Communication, Resident Places | Comments Off
For Immediate Release
Philadelphia, PA April 17, 2012 – Resident Places announces the launch of the Philadelphia Pilot with select communities from Morgan Properties, University City Housing, and Korman Residential Suites and Apartments.
Resident Places President, TJ Goulet stated, “We are very excited to have these three companies take part in our initial Philadelphia launch. All three are committed to bringing their residents great amenities and pioneers in utilizing social tools to promote themselves and their resident services. We are confident, with these partners, that we can fully demonstrate the value of Resident Places in advance of our national launch.”
If you would like to preview specific Resident Reward Center pages for each property or get a breakdown of which properties are participating, please visit our CommunityPartner page.
About Resident Places
Resident Places is an amenity to residential and mixed use properties where residents receive valuable money saving offers from local businesses through a co-branded coupon portal. These neighborhood deals are delivered without any sales activity by leasing staffs. Every deal printed through the co-branded portal will include the name of the property and is shareable via social networks, which expands the reach and audience of the community’s brand. For business owners, our unique offering gives access into a typically difficult advertising market – multifamily communities, with a low cost, high tech solution.
For business owners, our unique offering gives access into a typically difficult advertising market – multifamily communities, with a low cost, high tech solution. Business owners can be sure that their marketing dollars are focused on potential customers who are immediately proximate to their location.
If you are a local business, learn more by visiting our advertiser info site. If you are a property manager, contact Rob Remus at (484) 474-0590.
About the Author: TJ Goulet (58 Posts)TJ Goulet has been a leader in sales and marketing for almost 20 years. His background includes both entrepreneurial endeavors and nationally recognized achievement with a Fortune 500 Company. He entered the local search and coupon industry in 2005, when he launched his first directory and coupon portal. TJ's expertise is in utilizing current technologies and marketing platforms to increase sales productivity across a broad range of products and services.
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