Take a look around any city sidewalk, classroom, restaurant or waiting room, and you’ll see how prevalent technology has become in our society. In fact, according to a 2018 survey by Pew Research Center, just more than a quarter of consumers say they're "constantly online." But technology could never eclipse real human conversations and interactions, could it?
According to Daryl Plummer, managing VP at Gartner, that reality is just a few years away. Plummer believes that by 2020, artificial intelligence tech (such as chatbots) will dominate both our social and business cultures, heading up everything from customer service interactions to lead discovery conversations. And because bots will be trained to deliver targeted messages, have personality and incorporate hyperlocal nuances into conversations, people could find great joy in engaging with them. Before we know it, we could all be conversing more with bots than with our own spouses.
We can thank today’s information-fatigued consumers for innovative solutions such as this -- and, in part, for the growing popularity of account-based marketing. Rather than wasting time on mass marketing that fails to grab or keep targets' attention, ABM calls for marketers to tailor messages to specific personas or audiences -- ultimately personalizing the brand experience for users and generating more viable leads for the company.
And when paired with certain technology, ABM can be a real game changer for businesses, especially resource-strapped startups and time-starved entrepreneurs looking to tip the scales in their favor.
Related: Don't Let the Hype Around Account Based Marketing Confuse You
Making ABM work for your startup.It's the scaled-back, prospect-focused approach of ABM that's key to effectively engaging your targets and maximizing your team’s efficiency. Each success you have with a targeted account will offer you new insights, skills and tools that will help you expand your marketing efforts as your startup grows.
However, the true secret to ABM success is leveraging the right technologies to set your business apart from the others. The best emerging technologies will help you not only target and streamline your efforts, but also track and strengthen your engagement rates, saving you valuable time and money in the long run.
Some technologies are already known to pair well with ABM. For instance, digital footprints can aid in identifying your audience’s unique obstacles, and predictive intelligence solutions can help you anticipate target accounts' needs so you can perfectly time marketing messages. Furthermore, addressability and programmatic buying can enable you to target messaging to those with certain characteristics, such as job title.
But it's important to investigate less-common technologies and automation systems, too, until you’ve customized a tech package that fits your company’s unique audience, focus, needs and budget.
Related: 18 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2018
With your tech choices squared away, your next step is to incorporate them into your business plan. Here are some tips for making the conversion to ABM:
1. Don't be a one-trick pony.Since 2013, Amazon has been the king of curating product recommendations. You can thank its ultrapersonalized home pages, in part, for teaching targets to ignore email blasts and banner ads that don’t speak directly to them. That’s why ABM emphasizes seizing their attention through personalized messages and customized brand experiences.
There are really no limits to how creative you can get personalizing your brand message or user experience. But you’ll typically find that the more effort you put into customizing your outreach, the more engagement you’ll get in return -- a top benefit of ABM, according to 83 percent of marketers surveyed by Demandbase.
You might start out by building personalized landing pages on your company’s website for specific clients and target audiences. Customize these pages with images, text and special offers that fit the audience’s unique preferences, interests and needs. Then, monitor whether these pages draw users back to your site and which features they interact with the most, and adjust your efforts accordingly.
2. Take a course in social intelligence.What really sets ABM -- and potentially your brand -- apart is how you can make each account feel seen, heard, understood and appreciated. Doing so is vital to keeping your contacts satisfied. In fact, 84 percent of marketers told ITSMA that ABM has the highest return on investment of any marketing strategy or program, showing that ABM’s customer-driven approach is key for marketers in retaining and growing business relationships.
How do you learn all the nitty-gritty details about your contacts so you can craft messages that make a real impact? And how do you keep up with all the changes and challenges they experience over time? A great place to start is by subscribing to a public information service, such as Google Alerts, that allows you to customize search parameters, track company activity and receive alerts whenever changes occur.
To unveil more minute distinctions, interests and challenges, monitor your target account's online social activity on sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter (try the list-building feature). Each new tidbit of information will help you anticipate your contacts' evolving needs, reshape your marketing messages and boost your startup’s value in their eyes.
3. Look beyond sales.We all know that networking can be helpful in business. But when you’re working on a smaller scale, recognizing and capitalizing on business connections are frequently a pivotal part of building enduring relationships. It’s often that “we run with the same crowd, so let’s be friends” connection that pushes target accounts to choose your startup over your competitors.
Related: How to Reconfigure Your Sales Operations for Account-Based Selling
It’s important to remember that networking for your startup isn’t all up to sales, though. The rest of your team can make valuable connections that propel your business forward, too. In fact, a SiriusDecisions study found that when its clients cross-aligned their product, marketing and sales teams, they saw a 25 percent increase in revenue growth and a 56 percent increase in profitability.
The ideal way to uncover every valuable business connection your team may have is through the TeamLink feature on the LinkedIn Sales Navigator. With that information, you can then work your connections, get a dialogue going with potential customers and start building rapport that will hopefully lead to a sale.
Technology isn’t going anywhere. It’s infiltrating our social and business lives more and more every day. But that doesn’t mean you need to adopt every form of new technology just to get your brand noticed. Instead, focus your efforts on account-based marketing solutions and technology. It’s the surest way to build meaningful connections, increase marketing efficiency, stay on budget and put your startup on the road to success.

​Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/310762

Referral marketing means utilizing customer loyalty and positive customer experiences to generate word-of-mouth promotion of your product or service.
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Creating a Referral Program for your business is not only more effective than many forms of traditional advertising, but it’s also easy to do. Let Edgylabs break it down for you.
Firstly, who are you more likely to trust? An ad on social media or genuine advice from a friend?
If the answer isn’t the latter, I’d seriously recommend reevaluating your social circle. As humans, we value opinions from trusted sources that are expressed directly to us. As consumers, this fact remains true.

Companies regularly spend millions of dollars on extensive advertising campaigns. Yet, most of the time, these are not anywhere near as powerful as word of mouth recommendations, which can often be far cheaper for your business.

​Word-of-Mouth Referrals Can’t be Simply Bought; They Must be Earned.Before even thinking about setting up a referral program, you need to do some honest evaluating of your company.
I’ll cut to the chase: if the loyalty isn’t there, your referral program will crash and burn.
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Ask yourself, have I done the groundwork? If the answer is yes, then your company should be offering an exceptional service that is worthy of repeat business from current clients and their referral. The product or service you offer should also be the best you believe it can be.

If you’re still unsure, here are some indicators which show your company is ready to set up a referral program.

Positive reviews online and messages from happy customers are go-ahead signs that your company is ready. If referrals are happening organically, without you having to try, this is a great sign that a referral program will be extremely beneficial.

However, before you jump on the bandwagon, take a step back and ask yourself one more question. The goal of referral marketing is to channel new customers to your business. But, is your business ready to handle this influx?

If you don’t think you’re ready to expand your customer base just yet, if you’re not offering top-notch customer service, if you’re unsure in any way, go back to the drawing board.

If your company has ticked all the boxes, congratulations! The foundations of customer service and loyalty are there. This means you’re ready to set up a referral program.
Know When to Introduce the Idea of Referrals

Introducing the idea of referrals at the wrong point in the sales cycle can zap your customer loyalty faster than you can say ‘incentive’.
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If a customer is bombarded with spammy e-mails and notifications about your referral program as soon as they make a purchase, your business is going to seem insincere and pushy.

Making your customers feel like their only value to you is monetary is a recipe for disaster. Instead, you should allow them time to make their own mind up about your business.

If you have done your job, they are bound to see the full value of your product and service on their own. Holding off at first will really pay off in the long run.

Once customers have been given time to experience your exceptional customer service, it will help them make up their mind about your company before you ask them for a referral.

Figuring out the best time to ask customers is a tricky one and will be different for every business. At first, some experimentation may be necessary.

Try different times, for example. Try asking after a client’s second purchase, or ask clients who engage the most on your site.

If you are offering an app, you may want to consider introducing the referral opportunities after a number of downloads or sessions.
You should try out a few different approaches and take note of results. Once you get to know your client base, it will be easier to predict what methods will reap the most positive reactions when it comes to referral marketing.

Consider All Referral Marketing OptionsSure, e-mailing clients is possibly the most tried and tested method, but there are so many other options available to you.
You could reach out to online publications asking for them to review your products, you could ask podcasters to mention them, or even add a place where customers can leave comments or reviews to your site. 

The possibilities are endless as long as there is a human element and the source is trusted.
Bloggers and Influencers on social media like Instagram, Snapchat, and Youtube can also offer referral options. It’s easy to find someone who has built up an audience who trusts their opinions. A simple Instagram selfie or including your product or service in a review can be a very powerful method of referral marketing.

Read More: B2C Influencer Marketing Trends for 2018

This can help your referral marketing campaign be much more targeted. As these influencers tend to know their audiences pretty well, it allows your brand message to spread more effectively.

Make Your Products and Product Experience Sharable

There is no point in doing any of this without implementing a mechanism of tracking successful referrals and distribution of bonuses.

This will not only help your referral program to be more effective in the future but will prevent your company from potential loss due to unsuccessful incentives.

Most companies that need to manage referrals at this level use paid software like RewardStream or Referral SaaSquatch which can help some companies to manage referrals.
However, adding a question to the transaction process is another simple way to manage per-transaction referral bonuses.

Smaller companies may even be able to keep track of referrals on their own spreadsheet. It’s all about finding the most effective method for you.

Protect Yourself from Legal Risks

Referral programs are extremely valuable. However, if they are not carried out professionally, they can get messy. You should outline a concrete set of referral marketing standards.

Firstly, you should define the goal of your referral program. How is it going to represent your brand when it is being shared with others? Are there any content sponsored guidelines you should make customers aware of?

These should also clearly outline who is eligible to earn referral bonuses. It’s often a good idea to limit the number of referral bonuses that can be earned by an individual customer to avoid scams or exploitations.

You should also cover bases such as whether or not you will disallow participants from posting discounts on web deal sites. This information should be clearly stated on your website and also sent out via e-mail whenever a new referrer signs up to your program.

Referral Programs: a Defining Factor in your Company’s Growth

Referral programs have the potential to greatly increase not only your company’s loyalty base, but also your brand recognition, product sales, and, most importantly, the size of your customer base.

If used effectively, these referral programs are the perfect way to get your company’s name out there in a way that is simply not possible with more conventional forms of advertising.

Use social media and influencers to your advantage and, above all, listen to your customer’s and gauge their reactions to your program. Often the best way to start a referral program is through trial and error; begin with small customer sample sets and see what works best.

In time, you’ll eventually find the perfect balance that’s right for you.

What’s the most unconventional referral program you have ever come across?

Source: ​https://edgylabs.com/how-to-create-a-referral-program-for-your-business

For your digital marketing efforts to produce desired results, you need a strategy. And to stay relevant, you need to revisit that strategy from time to time.

Advertisement Four Digital Marketing Optimization Steps Every Brand Should Take NowAccording to Florida-based advertising and marketing company, MDG Advertising, there are four things every brand should do now to optimize their digital initiatives.
Revisit Which Social Networks You’re Engaging OnThe social media landscape is changing constantly, making it essential for marketers to evaluate the platforms and their popularity among users.
It’s even more important to be sure the platforms are popular among your target audience. For example if you’re targeting a young demographic, focusing on visual platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram is a great idea.

Clean Up Your Data and Secure it ProperlyData is the key factor determining the success of your digital marketing initiatives. But as many marketers focus on quantitative data, it becomes a challenge for them to leverage those numbers.
On top of that, hacks and cyberattacks pose a big threat to data protection.

Taking a close look at the quality of your data and how it’s being handled can help you improve performance and address consumer concerns.
Make Mobile Load Speed a Top PriorityOn platforms like mobile, digital marketers should ensure their pages are loaded within seconds. For this, you may consider downsizing pages.
Go All In On Marketing AttributionAssigning a proper value to each channel or touchpoint contributes significantly to marketing success. It enables a better understanding of online and offline interactions, facilitates better budget allocation and provides key insights. Yet, not many marketers are making the most of attribution.
As a digital marketer, you should invest in executing marketing attribution to reap great results.
To learn more about areas where you should prioritize this year, check out the infographic below:​

Source: https://smallbiztrends.com/2018/03/digital-marketing-optimization-small-business.html

Running a restaurant is a combination of art and science. The creativity of the chefs in the kitchen paired with business-minded managers in the front of the house can be a recipe for success.
"It's not hard to open a restaurant," says Ming-Tai Huh, restaurant owner and a director of Toast, a restaurant technology firm. "The hard part is to stay open, make money, and do it over a long period of time. I am a big believer in technology to help get there."
Large restaurant chains have been using data science and data management to run their operations for years. But now that mobile and cloud technology are widely available and more affordable, small restaurants are embracing them to take some of the guesswork out of restaurant management and stay competitive against the big chains.
A 2017 report from Toast, which tracked technology use in restaurants, found that technology allows managers to be more aware of how their businesses are actually performing from day to day. The report found that, thanks to new tools, 78 percent of restaurant managers look at their metrics and finances daily compared with only 46 percent two years ago.
"It's powerful to open your phone and have data that shows you insight and summarizes it instead of having to dig for it," says Toast co-founder Aman Narang. "Software in general is getting easier and easier to use. It allows restaurants to make better data-driven decisions about menu placement, staffing, and marketing."
Narang says restaurant marketing has historically been hard to do. Thousands of customers would come and go each month and restaurants would know almost nothing about them. Now, he says it's possible for managers to learn something about their diners through things like guest Wi-Fi signup, or by analyzing the daily receipts and reservation information that's recorded and saved in the restaurant's online system.
"Restaurants are mini factories," says Huh, who is also the co-owner of Puritan & Company, a restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "It's like building a car on demand every 20 minutes. The data we collect helps us understand what the guests' expectations are, whether it's a plate on the table or a bag at the door." Data can help managers decide whether to add another cocktail to the drinks menu based on customer sales, or reposition an oven in the kitchen for better efficiency.
Even something as simple as weather data can shed light on new ways to make money. Chip Adkins and his husband Charles own Piper's Cafe, a locally focused, vegan/vegetarian ice cream and sandwich shop in the suburb of Covington, Kentucky. They're self-described "Apple fanboys" who love tinkering with spreadsheets as much as they love ice cream.
"In addition to the sales summary for each day, we download a weather statistics summary from Weather Underground," Adkins says. The weather data turned out to be some of the most significant and surprising information they captured.
"We knew we were at the mercy of the weather gods," he says. "But it turns out that for us, at least that sales dropped whenever the temperature changed quickly from one day to the next and even if it changed from cold to hot. "That surprised us," he says. "Now, I'm starting to collect data to analyze how weather affects delivery sales — something that's very different from our in-person sales."
Adkins says he's also thinking about employing additional tools to help him get to know his customers better. "We are growing and we can't remember all of our customers by name and face any longer. I'm looking forward to seeing what patterns my new regular guests fall into and adapting," he says. "Our urban-core neighborhood will get to 100-plus unit residential complexes and we are starting to plan now to learn about them and their needs."
Data collection also helps manage labor costs, including wages for kitchen staff and servers, which make up a large chunk of restaurant expenses. Huh says Puritan & Co. used Excel spreadsheets to manage scheduling but knew they needed something more robust. "The costs of sufficient staffing and paying a living wage to employees could potentially sink your restaurant," Huh says. "Anything that moves a cost bucket can be catastrophic." Puritan & Co. now uses a staff scheduling tool to help them with staffing based on a variety of factors. "We can look at how we typically do on Saturdays or Saturdays when it’s raining,” Huh says, "or when the Red Sox are playing." This eliminates the need to frantically call extra staff in to work at the last minute and hope someone is available. It also reduces the chances of having too many people on the clock when business is slow.

While data management solutions can help small restaurants run more efficiently and attract more customers, the National Restaurant Association industry trade group warns its members not to be fooled into thinking technology can solve all their problems. "It's important to understand that every restaurant is different and will have its own unique requirements," the association says. But even the industry trade group concedes that using mobile technology to capture customer data like age, demographics, favorite orders, and high-traffic times is something most restaurants should be doing.
Huh admits a successful restaurant isn't run purely on science. "Restaurants really don't want to go all-in in that direction," he says. "The kitchen and the menu are all about creativity — our restaurant is chef driven and the food comes first. I'm a tech guy and my focus is on guest management and guest acquisition. We want to use data to help restaurants be more efficient and help diners have a great experience."

Source:http://theweek.com/articles/754665/how-small-restaurants-are-harnessing-big-data-survive

By GalaGrigoreva, head of marketing communications, LoyaltyPlant
Automation of restaurant marketing campaigns is no easy task. Experts say that traditional channels such as emails and SMS are vulnerable to spam. According to MailChimp, the average open rate for restaurant businesses is about 21 percent, so sending promotional messages to your customers' messenger apps may be more effective with an average open rate of up to 70 percent.
Many of your customers, however, may not use the messenger app you are communicating through. Besides, people normally prefer using messenger apps for private and professional chats. They may likely consider your messages as spam and delete immediately or even block the sender. Messenger marketing is good at bringing you one-deal customers but requires extra measures to make them repeat customers and brand advocates.
For this and other business purposes, mobile apps are getting more popular with restaurants. If you encourage your first-comers to download your app in order to receive rewards for engaging with you, you will most likely manage to build a loyal community.

Your customers will be on their mobile phones for a myriad of reasons, so it only makes sense to create push "blasts" that go directly to their mobile hubs. Let's discuss three types of blasts you can use to maximize your customer outreach.
1. Getting pushy
The first step is to send them a basic push blast that shows you are paying attention — a simple "Happy Birthday from Our Team" — type of message. If you want to take it even further, you can offer a personalized gift offer — a discounted group meal at your establishment, for example.
You can also throw in recommendations in the push notification to attract the customer to something specific in your establishment. With such notifications, the goal is to attract a larger group of people, because the customer in question will likely bring friends. In order to optimize fulfillment of the offer, you can put a time limit on the offer. This way, you can maximize your customer's loyalty and attract new customers within the same period.
However, it doesn't take a birthday to optimize loyalty. You can also optimize push notifications to increase customer retention after the initial first visit by way of a bounce-back coupon.
Bouncing back
The bounce-back coupon is delivered by push blast after the initial visit with some kind of incentive encouraging the customer to return. We recommend choosing a low-cost gift suitable for most customers so as to maximize the possibility of a positive experience for everyone. Customers will also be encouraged to try something else on the menu upon their return. Again, consider imposing a time period for redemption, such as seven days. A little fire under the seat will increase the possibility of customer retention, as customers are more likely to return if they sense they will lose an opportunity. Once they've received the first message, you can keep them up to date with reminders about the gift, so you don't slip to the back of their mind.

Don't overdo it, though. One or two reminders within a seven-day period are fine, and a reminder on the last day, if they still haven't redeemed their gift is appropriate. Be careful to toe the line between helpful and annoying. The right number of announcements and reminders, however, will turn a one-time customer into a long-time devotee.
Have a geo-blast
The last thing to consider in your marketing campaign is physical proximity. You can optimize the physical space your establishment is in through a "geo-blast." A geo-blast entails sending a push to all phones within a set physical boundary — say, 500 meters — of your location.

You can consider a push blast within several locations so as to optimize multiple establishments, as well. The geo-blast can entail a specific time for redemption that can help attract new customers. The item chosen for gift-ing should be low-cost and fairly universal, as previously discussed. The geo-blast allows for outreach to customers who may be on a pre-established route already and secure your place in their routine.

Blasts can take your outreach and loyalty a step beyond. Whether the focus of the blast is on an existing customer or reaching new audiences, optimizing your customer's mobile phones can be automated in an ultimately quite successful method. Remember to keep it short, attractive and to the point. Your customers won't be able to forget you.
Mobile apps allow restaurant not only send push blasts to customers' smartphones but also track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. You can learn how many users open and read the message, how many take your promo in-app or in-store, how much they spend, how their average check increases, how your retention rate changes, etc. All these stats and much more like demographic and preference data are displayed with dashboards in the CRM-system integrated with your restaurant loyalty app.

Source:https://www.fastcasual.com/blogs/3-mobile-marketing-campaigns-that-will-send-your-traffic-blasting-off/