The next time that you visit the interlinkONE offices here at 21 Concord Street, you may notice a new decal at our front door. Yes, next to our QR Code is a sign encouraging you to check-in via Foursquare.

Foursquare is a location-based service application that helps people share information with their friends. Primarily, this information pertains to where someone is and what they are doing (i.e. “At 1:30  PM, Jason Pinto just checked into Starbucks”). By providing this sort of real-time data, Foursquare helps people to connect with friends and associates that may be in the area. Or, they may simply be exposing a new business to someone that may one day be visiting.

From a business perspective, this can very helpful. If someone checks-in to your business, their friends may find out in a variety of ways — via the Foursquare application on their phone, but also on sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Yes, when someone checks-in to your business, the name of your company/location/event will now reach many other people — without you needing to push your message.

Screenshot of the Foursquare application on a Phone

This type of application may certainly provide more benefits for some businesses than others. For example, if you own a coffee shop, restaurant or a bar, you could truly increase foot traffic with an app such as Foursquare. Throughout the day, each potential visitor and customer at your business could expose your company name to all of their friends, and possibly increase the chances that one of their associates will swing by and make a purchase.

Another way that businesses can drive traffic with Foursquare is by offering special promotions.

A recent example of this is the restaurant Chili’s.  Here is a quote from the article:

“Foursquare subscribers who check in at Chili’s will receive a free order of chips and house-made salsa. Participating locations will be demarcated on Foursquare with a “special offer” flag whenever a guest is within 200 yards of the restaurant.”

So, should you start to make Foursquare or another location-based service application part of your marketing efforts?

This recent article and study may help you to answer some of those questions. The bottom line is this: while usage of applications like this may be small right now, we are all becoming more and more dependent addicted to our smart phones. We are using them to update our social media pages, to text, to read blogs, watch videos, and to find our way to our next spot. Location-based service applications will help us in our daily routines. They may help us to explore and find hidden gems.  They may help us to save a bit of money by receiving special deals and discounts.

Call me crazy, but I truly believe that more and more people will take advantage of helpful options such as those.

If you are a business, you may certainly want to look for ways to take full advantage of this emerging opportunity.

The package contained a box of 6 of their cookies. Also, there was small card with a message from the salesperson that I did business with last year while ordering our company holiday gifts.

Why did I think this package was so great? Well, because for one thing  I wasn’t expecting such a nice treat (Hint, hint to my boyfriend)! But I really thought this was a great marketing effort. I have ordered from them multiple times. Yes, they have a great product, but their customer service is absolutely excellent. This was another example of that.

This treat helped to put them back in my mind… Sure, it’s July. But before we know it, it will be time to order treats for our customers once again. Also, their package prompted me to go check out their website to see if they have any new items that I may not have seen yet.

So…. When it comes to your marketing efforts, are there any small things you can do today to get your customers thinking about you in a good way?

But for the most part, we are all pausing and doing a bit more research before we actually put money down to acquire a product or a service.

For companies that are selling, it is vital to share as much compelling information as possible in regards to what you can provide.

I recently received a subscription renewal form from The New Yorker magazine. For a low-price of $39.95, I would receive the obvious: a one-year subscription. Now, I love that magazine. However, there are a lot of other magazines that I enjoy. I can’t buy them all. So, the question is — why should I pay for The New Yorker?

Well, I think they did a great job of trying to push me to reach for my wallet. They provided a list of additional benefits that I would receive as a subscriber, other than the obvious. Below is a picture of the list:

Image from New Yorker subscription form

If you are a service provider that is trying to sell print or other marketing-related services to your clients, this example may prove helpful. Perhaps you only sold the printed pieces in years past. But now, you are trying to sell a marketing campaign or solution.

If you simply sell it as “a postcard with a Personalized URL”, you may not be providing enough of an incentive.

For example, you could list out the following benefits:

• Direct Mail piece with multiple calls-to-action (Web, Phone, BRC)
• Hosted landing page that allows people to respond via the web
• Real-Time Access to Reporting Dashboards to see who is responding
• Ability to Instantly Route Leads to Multiple Sales Reps
• Lead Qualification based on Answers
• Automatic Fulfillment (Hardcopy and Electronic options)
• Viral Marketing plug-ins (“Tell an Associate” option)
• Integrate with Social Media  (Ability to share the Response link on Facebook, Twitter, etc)
• Multi-Channel Approach (email sent out to non-responders of the direct mail piece)

These are just a few of the additional benefits that many service providers can offer their clients today. While listing those may not guarantee you sales, it certainly may help your prospects to truly visualize what they could receive by purchasing your services.

WhatTheyThink.com has just posted a new case study that tells how Sir Speedy of Tampa is using interlinkONE’s QReateAndTrack QR Code Software to better their customer service.

“Sir Speedy of Tampa will use the application to expand its marketing and fulfillment services, increasing sales opportunities and enhancing the scope and profitability of its customers’ sales and marketing campaigns. Sir Speedy selected interlinkONE’s QR Code solution for its ability to offer marketing solutions that truly manage and measure each component of the campaign from start to finish.”

Click here to read the Case Study

However in many industries, that is not the case. Financial Services and insurance companies have many rules that dictate which collateral can be shipped to people, based on the State that they live in.

Many of our service provider clients have received business from companies in those vertical markets. One way that our software supports them is via our State Restrictions feature.

In the Inventory Management section of our software, users have the ability to create and define details of the products that they are responsible for. This might include reorder points, descriptions, print instructions, and order approval rules. Users can also define if a product (or kit) is restricted to specific States.

If a product is restricted to specific States, our Order Placement/Shopping Cart pages will honor those rules.  Users will only be able to view and order products that are available to the applicable State. This helps to ensure that any laws surrounding distribution of that sensitive literature are honored.

Another example of how this feature may be used is if a person orders a kit. Let’s say someone orders the “Welcome to ACME Insurance” kit. This kit might include a generic Welcome letter, a What’s New document, and perhaps a description of the various insurance options that are offered. But if the person lives in the State of Massachusetts, the system could automatically inform the warehouse that they must include a supplement that provides state-specific guidelines when they ship the order.

A&M Label was kind enough to provide a few details about how they are using QR Codes to grow their business.

“Our company has a history of being on the cutting-edge of new technology, so when we first heard about QR Codes we began researching, seeking providers that not only offer the Codes but take it one step further with tracking and traceability capabilities,” said David Platz of A&M Label. “Knowing which products are being looked at, by whom, when, and how often, helps businesses see what’s selling and what’s not, which is valuable information for implementing marketing initiatives. Being able to offer this service to our customers would be just one more way to ensure we are adding value to the partnership.”

Click here to download the case study.

interlinkONE certainly has modules that customers can use to offer those types of services. In some cases, service providers use our solution to offer online portals where sales and marketing representatives can log-on and order printed materials. This may include postcards, brochures, or business cards. In many cases, the user placing the order can also customize the item that they are ordering and view an instant proof of their personalized materials.

We are also seeing that many of our customers are also looking to offer “public storefronts”. In these cases, people will head to a website to order merchandise. It could be anything — clothing, equipment, or perhaps promotional & specialty items.

To help support our clients in endeavor for public storefronts, our software includes a “Product Bunches” feature.

This allows customers to easily add products that contain many variations. The most popular example of this may be when it comes to clothing. Below is a screen-shot of how the Product Bunches feature can be utilized in an online storefront:

As you can see in the screen-shot above, a product bunch may be used to show different sizes, colors, and even prices.

It is really easy to set up a product bunch in our system. Below is a screen-shot of one of the Administration pages. If you have any questions about using this feature, please feel free to contact our sales team.

• John Foley, Jr. along with Christopher Parr of Sub Zero- Wolf, will be presenting “Creating a Successful Social Media Campaign”

Here is an overview of what they will be discussing:

Find out the tools and techniques for implementing an effective social media campaign.

• Identify the right audience
• Get and keep the conversation going
• Translate the conversation into business results.

For more information about the InterACT! Conference & Expo event, click here

Hopefully you caught the article in the print-edition of their magazine. But if not, we are happy to share with you a link to the electronic version.

Here is a summary of the article:

Communication today is nothing like it was 10 years ago — or even two years ago. We now receive messages from vendors, family, friends and even our dentist in a variety of ways. It might still be through a traditional phone call or a letter, but more often than not, it is via email, a text message, a post on our Facebook page or a tweet on Twitter. Today, there are so many vehicles for communicating, and most are driven by our ability to use the Internet and cell phones, technologies that allow us to communicate with one another no matter where we are in the world. Without a doubt, the emergence of web-based and mobile technologies have changed the game.

• John Foley, Jr.,  will be presenting “Transition from Print Service Provider to Marketing Service Provider”

Here is an overview of what John will be discussing:

• Transition from Print Service Provider to Marketing Service Provider
• Using Social Media to Build Business
• Multi-Channel Marketing
• Integrated Marketing
• Marketing and Data Management
• Emerging Technologies for Marketers to Embrace 

For more information about the PIM Summer Management Conference event, you can visit their website at http://www.print.org/Index.cfm