Since the 2007 economic slide, consumers have found more confidence in coupon clipping by reducing their spending. However, so far in 2013, consumer confidence is at an all time high with the anticipation of good things to come.

As business owners and managers begin to review their advertising plans, it is important to remember that without showing confidence in consumers, they may – in turn – not show confidence in your business.

Putting it simply, invest in your consumers to create loyal and organic relationships. Everyone enjoys a great deal like a dinner for two at a price we just cannot refuse, but coupons cannot be the primary strategy anymore in advertising especially for small businesses.

When consumer confidence grows, shoppers still look for great deals, but they also begin to again value the relationship they have with your brand whether you own a restaurant, a retail shop or a service business such as heating and air conditioning.

While consumers have remained research driven, like I have, throughout the economic crunch, from 2007 to the summer of 2012, coupons really led more of our purchasing decisions. With consumer confidence improving, it is time for businesses to put aside the slim advertising budgets with coupon strategies and get back to what really works and that is building your brand in consumer’s minds.

Am I against coupons? No, but I do know that if we cheapen our relationships with consumers we diminish the importance of loyalty with our consumers and instead make sales more important.

Reward your customers with deals, but also reward them by communicating honestly about why your business is the business of choice so they can keep on choosing to shop with you in the future.

About The Author

Camden Smith, owner of DREAMFly Marketing LLC, has more than eight years expertise in branding and marketing strategy and 13 years in public relations. Formerly a WINK-TV reporter, Smith is an award-winning PR strategist and lives in Naples with her husband. Visit Smith at http://dreamflymarketing.com 

Camden Smith
DREAMFly Marketing

In May, the Harvard Business Review reported that consumers are not seeking a relationship with brands they love online but instead are seeking coupons, discounts and comparative shopping.

This may come as a shock to online brand managers who, according to the Decision Simplicity Report, often assume consumers want a relationship and are simply seeking information to remain informed.

In person relationships remain key for consumers actually in your retail shop, hotel or business, but online it is an entirely different story.

The Harvard Business Review researchers said most businesses are over stimulating customers with too many shopping options and making shopping decisions more difficult rather than easy.

Listen up, because there is an answer. Use the Decision-Simplicity approach explained by Harvard Business Review to create a simpler online decision making process.

Decision-Simplicity means to “keep it simple stupid,” essentially giving consumers only what they seek with a few key approaches.

How an e-commerce website’s checkout is built truly affects a consumer’s experience and the likelihood that consumer will shop with your website again. An e-commerce site, for those unfamiliar with the term, is a website that sells products online with an online payment system.

Brands that scored in the top quarter of the study were 86 percent more likely than those in the bottom quarter to be purchased by consumers.

The rising volume of marketing messages and complicated decision making process pushes consumers away.

The report gives three effective tactics for simplifying online checkouts to boost sales.

Minimize the number of information sources consumers must touch as they move towards a purchase

Provide trustworthy product information including outside sources

Offer tools on your website allowing consumers to compare products (like Verizon, Sprint and AT&T do on their sites for cell phones and calling plans)

The first point is to simplify information and be courageous enough to provide just what the consumer needs not every single fact about a product.

Make sure information is trustworthy. For example, a site posting reviews from the company’s own Yelp account would deliver unfettered information while Consumer Reports might provide expert opinions. Manufacturer information may give way to important detail, but uncensored reviews encourage sales.

Marketing trustworthy information could be fun. Post unfettered product reviews online or run a contest for the best YouTube video product review.

Offer comparison tools like those offered on Travelocity’s website, where consumers can compare one product with another and draw their own conclusion on which is the better buy. This empowers the consumers to make the decision and may help decrease product returns.

View the full Harvard Business Review Article: To Keep Customers, Keep It Simple by visiting http://goo.gl/l6qll. You are welcome to provide comments and tips online at http://goo.gl/vznfn.

Camden Smith, owner of DREAMFly Marketing LLC, has more than eight years expertise in branding and marketing strategy and 13 years in public relations. Formerly a WINK-TV reporter, Smith is an award-winning PR strategist and lives in Naples with her husband. Visit Smith at http://dreamflymarketing.com

To be newsworthy means to be interesting. If this were true, every newspaper in every community would have to write articles from the thousands of press releases editors receive each day.

This month, we will review what makes business news newsworthy. Last month, we provided tips for amplifying seasonal marketing strategies, one of which was to focus on newsworthy publicity. A board of directors may find a new CEO exciting, but unless the company sending this type of announcements is a national brand, most of time this type of press release will hit the editor’s waste basket. Publicity is defined as promoting or gaining exposure for a business or an organization’s project such as a special event. It is a key part of strategic marketing plans, which every business should have.

While writing press releases is easy for publicity experts, for business owners it may prove a challenge. Often business owners focus on the less important facts of a story and more on self promotional language and information. Use these easy tips for writing press releases: focus on economic trends and connections, view news from a consumer perspective not the business’s, write for the media not a board of directors and finally, analyze if you read the news whether you would find it interesting.

Tell the media why the release is important with a very strong lead. Rather than leading an event press release with the name of the event, the date and time, lead with a benefit-rich statement on how the event helps consumers. As a marketing agency owner, it is often the agency’s job to walk a fine line between pleasing a client and writing material that will also capture the media’s attention. Embrace control as a business owner or manager and learn what interests the audience.

Just because boring news is interesting to a business, does not make it interesting to consumers or the media. It is easier to think about newsworthy as a measure on how beneficial or interesting a news item is.

Take advantage of free online services to distribute press releases to national and international media members such as Pitch Engine. Make press releases newsworthy and boost publicity. Even if you hire a PR expert to write a release, the publicity will deliver more than a thousand percent of that cost back to the business in advertising savings.

Be publicity smart. Write newsworthy content, and you will improve media relations as well as profits. A few press release sites that provide free or paid memberships: Pitch Engine, pitchengine.com PR Web, PRWeb.com PR Newswire, prnewswire.com

BUSINESS BASICS

DREAMFly Marketing

Many of our readers have asked for effective season planning tips so this week the column breaks down four must-haves for any business’s advertising promotions.

First things first. Let us just get this out of the way. If you are a manager or business owner and you focus entirely on season, this is why you go into a slump in May.

With 320,000 year round residents in Collier County, it is imperative to target advertising to both residents and visitors. Both audiences are equally important. Planning for our seasonal visitors has become unique. For service industry organizations such as restaurants, art studios and other destination-type shops, making friends with local concierges is critical.

The top tip is for all business owners to designate a staff member to drop by promotional information and a monthly gift to hotel concierge’s who host your target audience. You cannot drop by every hotel in Naples, but you certainly can make the easy drive right on Marco Island. If you sell cupcakes, drop off cupcakes to the concierge or give him or her their favorite candy or free tickets to say a comedy show at our favorite Marco Island comedy club. Make the connection genuine.

Second, during season advertising must be frequent and should include call to action statements placed prominently with promotional discounts exclusive to each ad. This makes promotions easy to track and encourages consumers to look for the next ad with the next promotion.

Third, advertising must be focused. Too many small businesses both on and off Marco Island make the mistake of buying in four newspapers for examples but buying too little in each publication in order to meet the minimum ad frequency reach of three times for consumers. Running fewer ads less frequently in more publications actually harms your campaign.

Finally, do not assume because there are more people in town you can forget about publicity. Make sure to send professionally written, typo free press releases with strong lead sentences telling the media why your news is a story.

Local media outlets with fewer writers today are always looking for newsworthy content. Next, month I will outline what makes news newsworthy.

Collect client names and emails no matter how small or big your business is and create an e-promotion newsletter using a platform like MailChimp or Constant Contact. Remember, email lists are opt-in, you must ask to add a customer to an email list.

Make this season successful by connecting with key concierge staff at hotels, targeting advertising buys, adding stronger promotions in ads, and focusing on publicity.

Camden Smith, owner of DREAMFly Marketing LLC, has more than eight years expertise in branding and marketing strategy and 13 years in public relations. Formerly a WINK-TV reporter, Smith is an award-winning PR strategist and lives in Naples with her husband. Visit Smith at http://dreamflymarketing.com

Camden Smith

DREAMFly Marketing

Facebook has become a bad version of the “Spam-a-Lot” musical rip off of Monty Python’s movie “The Holy Grail.”

People using Facebook for personal communication with friends and family have long complained about unwanted spam messages and mail on the popular social media website. The issue now arises for business owners who are beginning to feel the pinch on their own Facebook accounts.

Facebook is the second most visited website in the world. In an effort to protect its users, developers have consistently rolled out significant tracking tools of spammers or people sending unwanted messages and mail to other Facebook users.

Last week, Facebook notified me that my personal account, a non-business account, had been suspended for violating community guidelines and had been identified as a spam account. In order to keep the account active, I had to sign off on the community guidelines.

It had been more than five months since my personal account had sent out any friend requests so I filed a complaint with Facebook, but because some of my friend requests went unanswered the help desk said that identified me as sending “spam.”

So many of us accept LinkedIn, Google Plus and other friend invitations and then when the same people try to connect with us on another platform, we fail to recognize the name and identify the user as spam.

My advice to every Facebook user and business page manager is to know exactly who you are connected with online on all social media sites. You may be connected with a person on Google Plus and speak with them frequently, but the minute you deny that person’s friend request on Facebook they could be identified as a spammer, an unwanted and unknown contact.

While many marketing firms and social media gurus sing Facebook’s praises, I believe the extremely strict spam controls are causing confusion and a disconnect with millions of users. Dozens of friends who own business have complained about the same issue.

Facebook has become a vicious cycle of account shutdowns for many times innocent users who simply sent a friend request to their neighbor who then decided not to accept the invitation for one reason or another. If too many requests go unanswered or are denied by the receiving party, Facebook often suspends the Facebook account between 14 to 30 days preventing further friend requests.

Spam control seems to be out of control. Business owners using the platform need to watch accounts closely and heed this warning that sending out massive friend requests could in fact shut down your account.

Be cautious, responsible and respectful and learn Facebook’s constantly changing set of rules.

 Camden Smith, owner of DREAMFly Marketing LLC, has more than eight years expertise in branding and marketing strategy and 13 years in public relations. Formerly a WINK-TV reporter, Smith is an award-winning PR strategist and lives in Naples with her husband. Visit Smith at http://dreamflymarketing.com.

As business owners, we think we can do no wrong sometimes, until of course a customer brings to our attention the fact that we may be wrong. The simple solution is to remember the customer is always right; however when it comes to publicity and the public’s reaction it is much tougher to control the result.

Recently, news arose about a young life guard who saved a drowning person out­side of his protection zone and was then fired because he went out of his employer’s insured or covered area. The media blitz that has proceeded has provided a clear picture that where the consumers’ minds are could be entirely different than a com­pany’s CEO and managers.

Following the news of the young life guard’s firing, millions of people from all over the world have commented online and directly to the company about how they feel it is wrong he was fired.

As a marketing agency owner, what has amazed media experts is the clueless nature of management that discussing the company’s controversial decision to fire the life guard is a bad idea. Although insur­ance may be a valid reason for the young life guard’s firing, management commented to newspapers he should have left the man he saw drowning alone.

This is what has outraged so many peo­ple. While there are usually two sides to a story, it is important to keep in mind talk­ing your way out of a controversy is often the worst decision you can make.

If it sounds bad as a sound bite on the news, it probably should not be said. Basic public relations plans include a crisis com­munication plan. A crisis communication plan provides steps for better public rela­tions or public reaction. Media plans often suggest rather than control media inter­views and direct management, to instead release a statement focused on the posi­tives with few mentions about the contro­versial points.

In this case, a release or statement may have focused on the heroic nature of the company’s life guard who saved a drown­ing man’s life and then towards the end could have discussed briefly a reason for the firing.

In life as in business, there are few ac­tions that are right or wrong, but a con­sumer’s perception is reality so think hard and fast before you react to a controversy.

Lesson of the week: have a PR plan and keep news positive even if your company is in the hot seat.

Camden Smith, owner of DREAMFly Marketing LLC, has more than eight years expertise in branding and marketing strat­egy and 13 years in public relations. Smith is an award-winning PR strategist and lives in Naples with her husband. Visit Smith at http://dreamflymarketing.com

Camden Smith

DREAMFly Marketing

DREAMFly Message QR Code.

A Quick Response Code could help businesses grow in popularity with younger consumers.

It may sound like a foreign language, but most of us have seen business cards and promotional products with odd looking sci-fi codes on them, usually in the shape of a square. These are QR codes, also known as Quick Response Codes, and although they have not become overwhelmingly popular with local businesses, national companies are using them successfully.

Disney, Macy’s, Sears, Estee Lauder and movie production houses, to name a few, are the businesses lining their stores with QR codes for consumers to scan and learn about products in a matter of seconds. QR Codes can be scanned by mobile devices and are “short coded” or linked to information designated by the QR code creator.

For example, some business cards with QR Codes link you to the company’s website, whereas others will link you to a sales pitch video or deliver the person’s contact information directly to your phone to save you time. The options are virtually limitless.

Naples Print Source has used QR codes to create more interactive direct mail campaigns for its clients, linking a mailer QR code to a personalized website for the recipient to sign up for information or receive a free sample of the product promoted.

The idea that direct mail or print media is dead is absurd, because with technologies like QR codes linking new and old media, a new market is waiting to be saturated with consumer information. The trick is bringing QR codes on board with your existing marketing.

Clever cupcakes.

A great example of a creative use of QR codes was by a bride who printed QR codes linked to her bridal registry on her bridal shower cupcakes. While she was not acting as a business looking to sell products, she certainly scored by reminding her guests about what was important to her. Every business should do the same.

In my firm’s blog, for example, we often place a QR code linking readers to coupons, exclusive tips or our contact information as a means to connect organically with our blog readers.

Find a way to use QR codes and make sure you have one on your business cards, because whether you want to or not it is time to face the fact the world is mobile so we had better follow. For more information on QR codes visit http://bit.ly/IfxnFf.

Camden Smith, owner of DREAMFly Marketing LLC, has more than eight years expertise in branding and marketing strategy and 13 years in public relations. Smith is an award-winning PR strategist and lives in Naples with her husband. Visit Smith at http://dreamflymarketing.com

Camden Smith

DREAMFly Marketing

As local consumers cheer for the end of season and say goodbye to bumper to bumper traffic and a lack of reservation spots available at their favorite restaurants, business owners gear up for the slower summer shopping season.

Without national, multi-million dollar budgets, local business owners will need to call on more creative methods to grow business rather than closing for an entire month in August or September, known as “summer vacation.”

The last U.S. Census Bureau report shows more than 300,000 annual residents in Collier County alone, so there are plenty of consumers to connect with if you use targeted methods. Avoid the usual summer revenue drought with these four steps to drive non-seasonal business.

First, use any social media profiles or pages available to create a promotion. The easiest method is to use Facebook and Twitter to promote a discount for check-ins at the business.

For example, Coastland Center Mall vendors offer shoppers 10 to 20 percent off purchases simply for checking into the store on social media platforms including Foursquare, Facebook, GoWalla and Yelp. It creates a loyalty discount, avoids devaluing products and services and advertises the promotion to unrelated nearby mobile users.

The second way to grow business is to create consumer-focused events where shoppers set appointments for one-on-one attention with sales associates. This method is consistently used by cosmetics and clothing retailers. It can be used as a promotional method for every business if staff commits to calling loyal customers and promoting the event. Events often make the difference between making and missing sales goals.

Finally steps three and four require businesses to participate in local summer events as free advertising and develop client cards to track customers. These steps both focus managers on cultivating customer relationships and connecting with new customers.

Consumers are faced with millions of choices any given year and in order for new consumers to find you, you may need to put yourself right in front of their faces. The best way to connect with new consumers is to sponsor or participate in local events that are expecting audiences of 2,000 people or more.

Finally, tracking your client should be your business every day. Know what each and every one your customers wants and needs are and follow up with them regularly. Electronic client tracking systems are fabulously convenient, but make it mandatory for staff and management to set phone call, email and birthday reminders so clients avoid falling through the cracks.

Non-season does not mean dead business months. It simply calls on us to be smarter and more engaged business owners, because after all we owe it to our customers.

Camden Smith, owner of DREAMFly Marketing LLC, has more than eight years expertise in branding and marketing strategy and 13 years in public relations. Smith is an award-winning PR strategist and lives in Naples with her husband. Visit Smith at http://dreamflymarketing.com

Camden Smith

DREAMFly Marketing

If you are finding yourself swamped or feeling uninspired, you are not alone. Many business owners need a vacation, but are unable to take time off due to economic pressures and reduced staff to support time away from work.

Three ways to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and lose the need to feel sorry for yourself at work will reward you with reduced stress and improved customer loyalty. When a worker is down in the mouth, customers notice.

If you find yourself with the same attitude that makes you want to slap others, it’s obviously time for a change. Three ways to fall back in love with work are to identify what is causing the dislike for work, list three things you love about work or your business and finally complete two projects perhaps the low attitude has delayed.

As Ambrose Bierce said, “Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.”

While most of us can keep our boredom and exhaustion bottled up so others do not notice, customers are very clever and informed and often your attitude directly affects customer loyalty.

To identify what has been causing dislike for work, it is important to dig. It could be because someone complained about you, a coworker disagreement or even perceived finances that do not meet your needs. Bad days lead to worry, angst and unease while turning around an attitude leads to a brighter outlook.

Bag the attitude at the door, look at the day as a great opportunity and let problems roll off your back, so that you can focus on positives. Look in the mirror and recite “I will have a good day and today is a great opportunity for growth.” While a little out of the box in repairing passion for work, giving yourself a purpose for the day often lifts worry and creates open avenues for work performance improvements.

This brings us to step two which is to list three things you love about work. A personal example I like to use, is a recent client asked the firm to reconstruct customer service standards.

During the new customer service training, one employee posed several questions, pushing back or rejecting the new standards. To overcome the one employee who had the potential to do the client damage, we asked each person to name challenges at work. This same employee said it stressed her out to return dozens of customer calls, and so, in response, the trainer suggested adhering to the new standards of answering the phone every time would eliminate this stress.

If you love solving things, make that your priority. Find what tasks or projects get the internal engines running and find ways to incorporate those in your daily routine. Happiness spreads. It is a basic rule of life as well as work.

Finally, complete two projects that you have been putting off because of the lack of motivation. This is the easiest task for most of us.

Contributing to projects successfully creates enthusiasm and renews dedication to work. It also allows supervisors and coworkers to take notice of your renewed vigor and energy creating continued passion.

One of Oscar Wilde’s best quotes is, “The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.”

In today’s job market with Florida leading the way of unemployment, grasp onto Wilde’s quote, embrace passion for work and regain purpose on steady ground with an improved attitude.

Camden Smith, owner of DREAMFly Marketing LLC, has more than eight years expertise in branding and marketing strategy and 13 years in public relations. Formerly a WINK-TV reporter, Smith is an award-winning PR strategist and lives in Naples with her husband. Visit Smith at http://dreamflymarketing.com

Camden Smith

DREAMFly Marketing

Digital Consumer demographics. SUBMITTED GRAPHIC

A new generation is born called Generation C, short for the “connected” generation. Assumptions may have business owners thinking this is a generation outside of the target audience traditionally 25 to 54-years-old, but according to Nielsen and NM Incite’s U.S. Digital Consumer Report released in February, Generation C is the primary digital consumer audience.

Between the ages of 18 and 34, Generation C, formerly known as Generation Y, is connecting with brands and products in new and unique ways. More than 58 percent of Generation C members use mobile phones to access social media accounts compared to 36.3 percent of users between the ages of 35 and 54.

This spend-happy audience makes decisions on wants not necessarily needs, and frankly their needs are defined a lot looser than those of us planning for retirement soon. Although Generation C may appear to have less buying power than Baby Boomers, they are now the primary target audience, because of their diverse media habits making them an impossible captive audience.

Businesses in all industries will have to garner the attention of Generation C members, because without their attention and money, businesses will begin to slide down a slippery, profitless slope.

The challenge is to captivate this audience within your budget, and we have some tips to help you connect. Generation C individuals visit blogs to learn and read news more than they visit valid news websites. By the end of 2011, NM Incite’s reports there were 181 million active blogs across the globe online.

Nielsen’s research also shows this audience trusts advertising more when it appears on a brand-connected website as opposed to receiving an ad on their mobile device seeming to view mobile ads more like spam until mobile ads build momentum.

Study participants gave more weight to ads with products placed in television programs than they did to social media website ads providing real insight for building trust with Generation C. Tablet users are twice as likely to click online ads than mobile users in this age group.

Quick tips to connect with Generation C include creating an ongoing blog to attract Generation C visitors, post articles as a guest blogger on sites such as WordPress and to target online advertising on valid, well-known websites rather than paying for a more expensive, blanket ad campaign. A reasonably priced way to boost your ranking online with all consumers is to pay to be listed as a sponsored, local business link in Google’s search results.

Learning how to target your marketing successfully to Generation C, a group whose attention is so diversified, it can be tough to capture. Download the free U.S. Digital Consumer Report at http://goo.gl/XlaZp.

Camden Smith, owner of DREAMFly Marketing LLC, has more than eight years expertise in branding and marketing strategy and 13 years experience in public relations. Formerly a WINK-TV reporter, Smith is an award-winning PR strategist and lives in Naples with her husband. Visit Smith at http://dreamflymarketing.com

Camden Smith 

DREAMFly Marketing

Facebook, the second most visited website in the world, has grown even beyond a social media giant into a serious investment opportunity.

On Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012, the social media king filed papers to raise $5 billion or more with a stock offering this spring. Facebook filed its intention with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) online.

The SEC has reported it may take until May for the Facebook stock to become publicly available. Financial experts have been flooding the television with estimates on the soon-to-be net worth of Facebook founder’s Mark Zuckerberg as high as $27 billion. Advertising has been the primary supporter of the social media platform, until now. With companies looking to market themselves to a core audience, Facebook has been a leader in offering the ability to target online ads to active online consumers.

Facebook currently has more than 800 million active users, according to the SEC filing, which is an increase by 45 percent over 2010; however, user growth has slowed in the United States.

Zuckerberg, 27, reported on Facebook he wanted to take the company public once the company became too big to keep its finances private.

More than a news story, this is a boost for investors and users already on Facebook. It is assumed everyone is using Facebook, but this is simply not true.

For businesses selling products or trying to connect personally with consumers, Facebook has become an effective communications platform just as LinkedIn has.

Google Plus is on the rise with active users, but, with Facebook making a public stock offering, the social media platform is set to raise enough funds to inject some serious technological muscle behind its visionary ideas.

In Zuckerberg’s letter in the IPO filing he said the goal remains to provide better social opportunities for Facebook users to share their thoughts and opinions that historically had not been as readily available. He wrote, “Simply put: we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.”

While businesses connect with consumers and Facebook users connect with family and friends, this is certain. Facebook is about to change the history of social media once the stocks begin to sell and new features are most definitely added.

Camden Smith, owner of DREAMFly Marketing LLC, has more than eight years expertise in branding and marketing strategy and 13 years experience in public relations. Formerly a WINK-TV reporter, Smith is an award-winning PR strategist and lives in Naples with her husband. Visit Smith at http://dreamfly marketing.com 

Camden Smith

DREAMFly Marketing

Consumers are calling on businesses to cultivate stronger relationships with them and to deliver faster, more personal service. This year is about engaging customers in a shopping environment saturated with local, Internet and social media shopping options.

There are four easy steps that every business should take during 2012 to grow organic customer relationships based on the 2011 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) report.

In 2011, consumers reported in the ACSI that they were least satisfied with airlines, most likely due to price hikes and Federal Government regulations. Satisfaction slipped slightly for social media websites hitting a low of 70 percent which is below the national average of 75.7 percent.

Consumers have ranked satisfaction highest in the manufacturing nondurable and durable goods industries, seemingly most satisfied with electronics, foods, personal care, cigarettes, pet food and soft drinks. Based on the ACSI results, buyers seem to be in the mood for immediate satisfaction and less complicated decisions.

To nurture customer relationships, experts recommend taking five easy steps. First, Sweat EquiTees has used its consumers as the clothing brand’s models and managers believe that has built the brand’s following. Local businesses can more easily use customers whether the company is selling clothes or sporting goods.

The second step is to learn about your customers and connect them with other clients who might be able to give them business so you are creating a referral circle and a stronger consumer base. Calling customers and following up on their purchases, or to promote a sale, remains a key third step.

The final two steps are to create a simple YouTube channel to take your message viral by recording testimonials and posting them on YouTube. Finally, show customers love by featuring a fan of the week on Facebook, Twitter or your company website.

“If you build it, they will come” is over. Today is about answering immediate consumer appetites and creating unique connection opportunities.

Camden Smith, owner of DREAMFly Marketing LLC, has more than eight years expertise in branding and marketing strategy and 13 years experience in public relations. Formerly a WINK-TV reporter, Smith is an award-winning PR strategist and lives in Naples with her husband. Visit Smith at http://dreamflymarketing.com

DREAMFly Marketing

The name of the game this holiday season is saving for businesses and consumers. You may have hot sales plans under way for your business, but are you tapping into the free mobile application coupon systems? Sounds complicated, but it’s even simpler than those famous holiday coupon mailers and much less costly.

Kohl’s has already mailed out its “Gift Guide”, and Macy’s has sent out its Friends and Family coupons, but this year mobile location-based applications Foursquare, Yelp and Gowalla are more important than ever for marketing retail business.

Foursquare boasts 10 million users with only 5% age 55 or older. Business owners looking to reach younger consumers, ages 50 or younger, should look seriously at location-based mobile platforms as cost effective advertising outlets.

Yelp, Foursquare and Gowalla are all three mobile location-based applications that list local businesses and allow application users to check in at local businesses. These applications are the mobile world’s Yellow Pages.

By running specials on the top three mobile check-in applications, businesses receive viral exposure without the big ticket advertising cost.

Mobile application check-in deals are threatening to become bigger than Groupon, and it costs businesses nothing to run the deals. Yelp also hosts a couponing system that businesses pay for, so be careful when you choose how to run your specials here.

Recently, I visited the mall and checked into Starbucks using my Android’s Foursquare application. Foursquare notified me there were 10 other stores in the mall offering discounts if I check in using the application. So I did just that at four of the stores listed and on average, I saved between 10% and 30% on my purchases. In return, the stores received free advertising, because Foursquare notified my Facebook connections every time I checked in at a new place. When I commented about the deals during my check-in, that generated interest from my friends.

List your business locations on Yelp, Foursquare and Gowalla, and then claim your listings. Claiming a listing is simple, and then you can begin check-in promotions. As with any marketing tactic, make sure you consistently promote your mobile application listings to customers to make them aware a new savings opportunity is available. It takes very little effort to create a mobile buzz for your business.

Camden Smith, owner of DREAMFly Marketing LLC, has more than eight years expertise in branding and marketing strategy and 13 years experience in public relations. Formerly a WINK-TV reporter, Smith is an award-winning PR strategist and lives in Naples with her husband. Visit Smith at http://dreamflymarketing.com