Note: This post first appeared on LocalVox.com.
Yesterday, we announced a very exciting partnership between LocalVox and First Data, a global leader in transaction processing that is rapidly establishing themselves as a solutions provider for businesses that want to optimize the entire client experience. They are focused on “delivering an integrated buying experience today’s consumers demand—anywhere, any time and on any device.” Together, we are poised to deliver the next generation of local marketing services – smarter, more effective and trackable to revenue – the holy grail of local online marketing.
First Data as their tagline says is truly going, “Beyond the Transaction,” and our partnership does just that. First Data merchants will now have more tools than ever to understand and grow their business. Here is an example of how the First Data and LocalVox partnership can supercharge the marketing of local businesses.
Marketing Insight Driven by Financial Data
Effective marketing of any kind, especially local online marketing, requires insight into where and who your customers are, how to reach them and what messages are important. And truly understanding those insights is the first step. Powered by First Data’s Insightics, local merchants can:
- Understand how their business is doing, week over week performance, goal setting and what days are slower than others, and even how your business is affected by weather
- Understand their customers better including new vs. existing customer spending habits, where customers come from
- Compare financial performance to similar competitors to understand better where performance should be
And as I recently read in a Seth Godin blog post, Analytics without Action:
Don’t measure anything unless the data helps you make a better decision or change your actions.
If you’re not prepared to change your diet or your workouts, don’t get on the scale.
And that’s where the First Data partnership gets really interesting.
Driving Insight to Action
Based on Insightics, local merchants can now decide what local marketing will be the most effective. And with LocalVox, we make it really easy to drive marketing online quickly, so you can get back to running your business. Here are a couple examples:
Want to Drive New Customers Up? You Should:
- Offer a promotion that LocalCast automatically syndicates to your website; local sites like NearSay.com; directories like Yahoo, FourSquare and CitySearch; and deal sites like Coupons.com, 8Coupons, Yellow Pages App, and more
- Improve local SEO by publishing an event or announcement focused on the keywords customers are searching for
- Check your ratings and reviews on 50+ local directories and improve your social reputation by responding to reviews
Want to Drive Returning Customers Up? You Should:
- Monitor and post to social media like Facebook and Twitter from your Social Inbox
- Send out a promotion or newsletter blast to your email list
These are just a sample of natural actions that are spawned by the insights provided by First Data.
Measuring From Insight to Action to Transaction
Closing the loop in local online marketing is, as I mentioned above, the holy grail. When we talk to our thousands of clients, it’s the number one piece of feedback. We can show you improvements in Google Rankings, how you rank on Google Maps, the number of people reading your content, your growing customer community across social media and email, but the question is always, “well how much did that mean at the register? How much revenue or profit did it generate.”
Now, with Insightics, local merchants can track the effect of those marketing campaigns to transactions, closing the loop and validating local marketing ROI.
Local Marketing Optimized Throughout the Buying Process
We are also excited to have launched our App on First Data’s Clover point of sale. As an App, LocalCast is now at the finger tips of thousands of merchants, further enabling local business owners already invested in maximizing the opportunity at the point of sale. Our App enables Clover clients to quickly respond to reviews, update social media and publish out specials, events, announcements or promotions everywhere online in under 5 minutes – so they can get back to running their business. It also allows them to segment their customers and market to them based on who/where they are and what they have historically purchased. The convenience of LocalCast on Clover is unparalleled, but what’s more interesting is how LocalCast, and thereby local marketing, will be integrated into the entire buying process – such that both the customer and the merchant will win.
Clover’s power is not just in being integrated deeply into First Data, the largest transaction processor, but also in it’s flexibility and openness. As we further develop our App, we will better integrate into the buying process so that customers can sign up for email lists as they checkout, get notifications on their phones to join social media or get specials and redeem and track them, etc. With Clover as the center of the buying process, it’s possible to make the entire customer experience from discovery to purchase to loyalty more automated and effective.
The Power of Transactions in Local Marketing
Ultimately the goal of local business owners in their marketing is to drive more transactions and grow their business. With our First Data partnership, we now have the power to figure out what will drive more transactions with Insightics, deliver more powerful marketing because of it, and track the results all the way to the register. Increasingly, merchants will demand that their local marketing have these capabilities and First Data and LocalVox are at the forefront of making that happen.