Case Study: Local Burger Shop Drives Big Results through Free Fry November
This month, Four Burgers offered customers a free order of fries with the purchase of any burger- talk about a fry for all! Within 4 weeks, they were able to leverage social media to win almost 200 customers and drive some awesome engagement!
Did you know that more than half of your Facebook fans and Twitter followers “like” your page or “follow” you for exclusive access to offers and specials? It’s true! They want to be the first to know about what’s going on, and they want to be rewarded for choosing your brand. By working with Privy, Four Burgers was able to effectively engage social media followers in a way that really drives sales, measurably! In a month’s time, Privy delivered 193 new customers to Four Burger’s doorstep. Of those customers, 30% have redeemed the offer so far. Further, Four Burgers can see exactly where customers are finding the offer and even where they’re redeeming it. And what about the customers that haven’t redeemed yet? Well, Four Burgers gets contact info for every single customer, so they can remind them to come in and get their free fries!
Ask yourself why you want more fans and followers. In and of itself, a Facebook “like” is worth very little, but the implication is that a like bolsters easier, quicker communication with your fans. However, the truth is that the strength of your connection with your fans is reliant on far more than the initial like. Once the connection’s established, you must be posting interesting and engaging content on the reg! But what type of content drives engagement? Well, promotions are a huge one! Throughout the course of Four Burgers’ campaign, for example, many posts received over 10 likes and one post even received over 50. Pro tip: the more likes, comments and share you get on a Facebook post, the more that post will show up in the newsfeeds of others. Four Burgers’ campaign, therefore, not only drove sales and engagement, but also increased their exposure and branding.
P.S. If you haven’t yet, grab your free fries today! Only 2 days left!
Save yourself, Shop Local
There’s no better way to burn off your extra plateful of mashed potatoes and stuffing than an early morning rat race through the aisles of WalMart. Indeed, nothing says holiday cheer quite like Black Friday- throwing elbows and pillaging through department stores. And, if you don’t get your fill Friday, you have 24 more bliss filled hours on Cyber Monday to max out all of your credit cards as you ice your bruises in the comfort of your own cubicle.
As enchanting as this all sounds, we at Privy are partial to the little known holiday, sandwiched between the mall madness of Black Friday and the digital chaos of Cyber Monday. We’re talking about Small Business Saturday, a day devoted to all of the businesses we actually love. American Express created this glorious holiday 2 years ago, when they pledged to give a $25 credit to cardholders, who shopped at participating local businesses. On the largest shopping weekend of the year, Small Business Saturday is all about driving more business to the local shops we grew up with- the ones who know our faces and not just the last 4-digits of our credit card. Last year, over 100 million people came out to shop local and support small business, and this year AmEx is projecting an even larger turnout!
If you’re a business owner, get involved and promote your business for free!
If you’re an American Express cardholder, enroll today and save $25
How Local Businesses can take advantage of Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday Holiday Shopping
FACT: Black Friday and Cyber Monday are not just for online businesses. This is your friendly reminder to plan ahead for the next couple of weeks of online marketing.
It’s no secret that the holiday shopping season is fast approaching. But even if you’re not an e-commerce business, you should still gear up to take advantage of an increase in gifting and time spent online web surfing. Estimates of mobile and web traffic increases are as high as 120% during the holiday season! This is a major opportunity for any local business who uses email, facebook, twitter and or a website to market themselves.
It’s simple – make sure you have a holiday special online that you can push out to your audience through a holiday newsletter, your facebook and twitter pages and also on your website. Not only will you capture online interest, these offers are great content for inspiring virality and sharing.
Streetfight Mag also wrote a nice summary of other ideas here.
The easiest way to create and buy google ads for your local business
Today brings us one step closer to our ultimate vision. Today we’re announcing the addition of Google Adwords as another avenue to push out your offers with Privy. What are you waiting for?? Start advertising through Privy today.
We’re excited for a few reasons:
1. Simplicity. There has never been an easy way to create online ads for your local business. We know how daunting it can be to create a Google Adwords campaign on your own, so we’ve changed all of that. Now, as a Privy merchant, all you have to do is create a promotion, and then set your budget. From there we’ll handle all the rest.
2. Quality of Customers. The beautiful thing about running google ads is targeting. We have the ability to surface your Privy to the thousands of potential customers searching for services and businesses like yours, in a 0-10 mile radius of your business. This enables you to convert potential customers at their decision-making point. Never miss a customer again!
3. Trackability and ROI. For the first time ever, you’ll be able to attribute sales and a Return on Investment from your advertising dollars. Only through Privy can you truly understand where your customers come from, down to the specific keyword, advertisement, or platform.
To Yelp or not to Yelp – That is the question for Local Businesses
This morning we were tipped off that a local business owner was actually offering to pay yelp users for positive reviews. Turns out he got caught in the act, and punished, so don’t try it for yourselves 
But it brings up a valid point. As a local business owner, do you advertise on Yelp? What’s your approach to Yelp reviews and ratings? We’d love to hear from you in the comments, or email us at yelp@getprivy.com. Without naming names, we’ve spoken with at least 10-20 businesses and marketers that have had true horror stories when it comes to yelp.
In one instance, a salon that had tons of positive reviews was solicited by a yelp sales person to see if the salon would advertise on yelp. After politely declining the advertising opportunity, that salon noticed that their Yelp page started showing their few negative reviews on the front page, and apparently the positive reviews were shoved way down. When they called Yelp to see what was happening, they were told that they could advertise on Yelp’s platform, which would help their page, and show the positive reviews. They’re not alone.
So, what can you do as a business owner?
For starters, Yelp is a powerful avenue of customer discovery. So it’s important to follow these guidelines:
- Claim your business page on yelp. It’s easy and super important for SEO and improving your searchability.
- Make sure your contact information, hours of operation and category are all accurate, and listed.
- Respond to every review – positive and negative. Even a simple “Thanks!” for a positive review helps. For negative reviews, be genuine, and don’t freak out. Maybe try “Hi, I’m Joe, the manager of X. I’m sorry to hear about this experience. I’d love for you to come back and ask for me when you get here”
- Lastly, ask your in-store customers to review you. It’s amazing what you can accomplish by having a small sign next to your registers, and even asking happy customers to review your business. It makes a world of difference.
And if all else fails, there’s a site built just for you: http://yelp-sucks.com/
6 Month Case Study: Stone Hearth Pizza + Privy
It’s official, the end of October marks our six month anniversary with one of our first clients, Stone Hearth Pizza. This is an incredibly exciting milestone for both of us. I thought it’d be fun to take a quick look at some of the highlights of how Privy has helped Stone Hearth over the past few months.
Currently, Stone Hearth is running a promotion on their website, facebook, twitter, and through google ads. This month’s offer is “Celebrate National Pizza Month with a FREE Pizza”.
Just 2 weeks into October, they’ve already seen 87 customers, 91% of which are new customers, as measured by their email address. It’s no surprise, but still worth noting that 74% of their offer views come from mobile devices, and 63% of offer views come directly from customers who land on Stone Hearth’s mobile website. (Hint: MAKE SURE YOUR MOBILE WEBSITE IS OPTIMIZED). It’s true what people say – if you’re not capturing mobile interest, you’re losing customers.
Below you’ll also find a list of other offers Stone Hearth has run through Privy:
- Half Price Pie
- Free Parmesan Flatbread
- $2 Off Gluten Free Pizza
- Cinco ‘Til Cinco
- Early Week Pick Me Up
It’s like music to our ears. If you take a look at any one of the offers above, you’ll notice they’re more in line with what you might see on a restaurant’s chalkboard, not what you might find on a daily deal site. Stone hearth is just one proof point that merchants can take back control and get smart about online marketing and advertising.
According to owner Jonathan Schwarz, the annual value of a Stone Hearth customer is $100. By that calculation, Privy has helped deliver over $69,800 in value to Stone Hearth Pizza. Not bad!
We’re looking forward to continued success working side by side with stone hearth and to other upcoming milestones together like the 1,000 new customers and email addresses mark. To infinity and beyond!