Tag: COVID-19

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Don’t Have Foot Traffic Right Now? Why You Should Use Zoom for Your Store

use zoom to replace in-store traffic
use zoom to replace in-store traffic
VP of Business Development and Sales Guru Branden Elwell explains why you should think about using video conferencing to supplement your in-store traffic.

Many retailers that rely on foot traffic for sales are in a difficult position right now. Whether local regulations or other considerations have caused your business to lose valuable in-store customers, Branden breaks down alternative technology solutions like Zoom that are free and easy to implement to keep meeting your consumers face-to-face even if you can’t meet them in your store.

Today, in this video, I’m going to talk you through a couple of ways that you can really get the most out of technology that’s readily available to you, and leverage video to bridge a gap between the in-person conversations that we know are so important.

But right now, unfortunately, guys, we’re just not able to have them. You know, we can’t get into a house as we used to or into the home for a consultation. We can’t host our guests on our properties like we used to, and we wish we could. And what’s beautiful, at least out of this situation, is that if this had taken place before, when we didn’t have all this technology readily available to us like this, we would really be struggling to connect with customers.

But right now, we can leverage video, the video capabilities that we carry around with us, and we can use a couple of different pieces of technology to really connect with our consumer. So I want to touch on a couple of those.

First, is video conferencing or video chatting, right? I’m talking about the Zooms, the Facebook rooms, the Googles, etc, of the world where you can leverage the camera, the video capability, to have a conversation with a prospect and really make a connection.

You know, research shows that in a conversation, only 7% of what is perceived is the actual words that are being said, which means there’s 93% of the conversation that is left up to the tone of voice and of course, reading body language. Well, without video and without the ability to have this video connection, you wouldn’t be able to read the 93% piece. So, leverage video conferencing, Zooms, etc. and you turn your camera on when you’re talking to one of your customers and watch what happens they’ll turn theirs on as well.

The other thing is just video in and of itself. Don’t reside on just, or rely on just, stock images anymore, guys, for our products that we carry. Get your phone out and you don’t have to be Steven Spielberg, you don’t have to create Jurassic park here, go and shoot some videos, take some still images and splice them together. Use the technology you have in your hand to better connect with your consumer. Because keep in mind guys, they can’t walk in and learn about that piece of that product right now. So, bring it to them into their home.

I hope this was helpful. If you want to know how to really make this happen, check out the video that you’re going to see a link to right above me. Also, it’s always a pleasure to get in front of you. I hope these videos are helping. Please visit ThumbStopper.com as frequently as you can because we’re going to be putting out some great information like this on a very periodic basis and we hope we can be a help for you.

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Videos

How-to Hack: Use Zoom for More Sales While Foot Traffic Is Down

How-to Hack: Use Zoom for More Sales While Foot Traffic Is Down
ThumbStopper’s Multimedia Designer, Immanuel, explains how business owners can increase their sales by using the Zoom platform.

During these difficult times, your customers may not be able to visit your store to view your products or use your services. Try using video conferencing tools like Zoom to your advantage by offering live demos and product reviews.

In this brief video, Immanuel talks about some tips and tricks on increasing your sales by using videoconferencing services like Zoom.


Hey, my name is Immanuel and in this video, I’m going to share a huge way on how you can use Zoom for your business right now. So, if you’re looking to get more sales through the platform Zoom, then this video is definitely for you. If you’re not already convinced on why you should be using Zoom, here are just a few benefits for both you and the customer.


As you can see from this list, it is highly beneficial to use Zoom for your business, especially during these difficult times where a lot of customers aren’t able to go to your store or office for your product or service. So again, Zoom is a great platform to be using for your business.


Now, the biggest way to use Zoom for your business is to do demos and reviews through Zoom so you can place a link on your website for people to schedule an appointment at the best time that is convenient for them to review your product or service.


For example, let’s say you are a bike shop owner and due to COVID-19 people are not allowed in your shop. How do you get your product or service in front of them? Well, after they schedule that appointment, you do this whole entire demo and review right in front of them at the convenience of their home. You show your product, its different details, different aspects of it. And they’re able to ask any questions from the comfort of their own home.


Just by using this example, you can see how there will be a huge amount of increase in sales. Because there’s a huge difference between nobody seeing your product, nobody going to your store, and people being able to see your product at any time and at a time that works best for them.


So again, use Zoom for your business. Trust me, it’ll be very helpful. Now if you’re still not convinced, no worries, we have another video up here you can click right now, further explaining why you should be using Zoom for your business.


So, click that video right here. Trust me, it’ll be very helpful. If you need more information, visit Thumbstopper.com and we’d love to help. Thank you again for choosing ThumbStopper.


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Case Study

ThumbStopper Retailers Experiencing Improved Social Metrics During COVID-19

ThumbStopper Retailers Experiencing Improved Social Metrics During COVID-19
The landscape has changed drastically for small businesses across the world as the COVID-19 pandemic keeps people safe at home. With the lack of options available, more Americans are turning to social media for news updates, socialization, and distraction.

Check out our latest case study to learn how retailers are benefiting on social, including:

  • How their brands are supporting their local messaging strategy
  • How retailers are experiencing significant increases in valuable social metrics

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Case Study

Retailer Enrollment Spikes As Social Media Viewership Swells

Retailer Enrollment Spikes As Social Media Viewership Swells
The coronavirus pandemic is still gripping communities worldwide. Local businesses in particular are being affected, leaving retailers unsure about how to communicate with their fans during this crisis. Now more than ever brands have the opportunity to support their local retailers by providing guidance and assistance with their social content.

As more consumers flock to social for information on the pandemic, communication with their loved ones, and a distraction from the day-to-day, retailers have a real opportunity to connect with their customers.

In this case study, we explore:
  • How brands are assisting their retail network
  • How retailers are signing up for help in droves with their social messaging

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Blog

Content is Key to Your Company’s Success

Content is Key to Your Company's Success

As a business owner, online traffic is vital to the growth and success of your entire operation. But in these trying times, it’s important to choose a marketing strategy that will give your business the most traction among your target audience.

Luckily, the road to success runs through content.

Content is the driver behind many of today’s successful digital marketing strategies, providing a unique opportunity to assist your target audience through the buyer journey with useful, genuine information. Much like your physical storefront requires appealing goods to catch your consumers’ attention, your digital presence requires similar love and care to increase traffic to your business.

As we continue to traverse through a digital-first environment, your business should have a content strategy and social presence operating in tandem to engage with your consumers and keep them up-to-date on the status of your operation. But before you invest money into the content creation process, it’s important to understand the ins-and-outs behind a strong content strategy during COVID-19.

Staying Attuned With Your Industry

Producing high-quality, informative content can be a difference maker for your business, but it’s not everything.

The content marketing process involves becoming an active member of your community, asking questions and providing moments of education for your consumers. And while many of your consumers are practicing stay-at-home and social distancing techniques, it’s important to be mindful of the content you produce and share to best inform your audience moving forward.

Invest time in better understanding your industry – its status during COVID-19, current trends, etc. – and following industry-centric resources to stay up-to-date with what’s pertinent for your business and its consumers. You’ll see a return on investment in the form of brand awareness, consumer engagement, and customer loyalty.

Curation is Critical

A strong content strategy is more than just churning out content. If you curate content to address specific problems and provide useful information to your audience, you can position yourself as a thought leader for your consumers and your industry.

Even if you think anyone can benefit from your content, focus on tailoring your content to reach consumers that will most likely engage with your content in a beneficial way. Your interest in providing genuine content will reflect with a higher retention rate towards your social page and greater awareness toward your business.

Your consumers will also build a better impression of your business as they engage with your content. If they find what they read to be helpful, informative, or enlightening, your business’s reputation can increase.

Paid or Organic

Lastly, your plan of attack is vital to your content’s success with your target audience. It’s imperative to choose a method (or two) that fits your company’s budget while being perceived as genuine towards that audience.

Paid media refers to content that is influenced by advertising dollars – such as boosting, targeting, etc. This form of media enables businesses to display content beyond their followers in areas where it otherwise wouldn’t show up.  In fact, marketers spent more than $89 billion last year on social media advertising efforts alone.

With thousands of pieces of content vying for your potential customer’s attention on social media, paid media is sometimes necessary to break through the noise and gain traction toward your business. However, you should not overlook the impact that organic media can have on your business. As a cost-effective marketing tactic, organic media can help develop authentic interactions with your consumers and promote your value propositions without using paid promotion.

We recommend utilizing both paid and organic media in tandem to maximize on reaching a broader audience while crafting authentic, compassionate content that doesn’t bombard their news feed. By finding a balance between paid and social, you can supplement your social feed with brand-safe messaging that is promotional but also sensitive to the present climate.

Be Mindful of the Moment

We understand that today’s environment presents challenges to promoting your business and generating sales. But If your business has yet to incorporate a content strategy that is promotional while being mindful of these uncertain times, you may miss out on an opportunity to genuinely connect with your consumers to provide useful knowledge, now and in the future.

If you’re still having some trouble cultivating the right strategy for your business, it always helps to get a few pointers from someone who’s helped with messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic. Do not hesitate to reach out to us and inquire about how we can help navigate your business’s content strategy during these trying times.

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Blog

Using Organic Reach to Your Advantage

Organic Reach TS

As a business owner, traffic is vital to your company’s success. But recent events are already bringing entire operations to a screeching halt.

As a business owner, traffic is vital to your company’s success. But recent events are already bringing entire operations to a screeching halt.

While the COVID-19 crisis continues, many owners are struggling to cope with the virus’s impact on their business and their employees’ livelihoods. And for those not bearing the brunt of the impact just yet, it’s become difficult for businesses to bring traffic to their cause.

If you are cutting back on your business’s operation while adjusting to the ramifications of the new normal, you may be stressed trying to generate buzz for your products or services. But with more eyes on social media, there isn’t a better time to start crafting organic relationships with your consumers at a fraction of the cost.

It’s time to use organic reach to your advantage.

Finding a Better (Cost-Effective) Way

Organic reach is a common metric used in social media marketing to track the number of unique individuals viewing your content without paid advertising. A strong organic reach can directly benefit your sales funnel by generating leads via authentic individuals who view your content without utilizing paid media strategies like boosting.

Unfortunately, organic reach on Facebook and Instagram has declined in drastic fashion over the past few years, due in part to greater competition for ad space on users’ news feeds and changes to their respective algorithms. As a result, many companies have turned to paid media out of necessity to build their social presence.

But there’s still hope! Organic reach is still a fundamental metric on social media that can generate traffic and engagement with the right approach. With a bit of strategy and creativity in your content strategy, your business can stand out and create unique connections with your target audience.

Whether your business is on Facebook, Instagram, or another social platform, here are some tips on mastering organic reach and maximizing your content’s thumbprint on a budget:

Understand the Algorithms

Each social platform has undergone changes to its respective algorithms, tailoring content to specific users based on the platform’s specifications. To ensure you’re achieving strong organic reach from your content, make sure to understand the ins-and-outs of each social platform’s algorithms to effectively reach your target audience.

For instance, Facebook’s algorithms have adjusted in the past few months to correspond with its paid advertising measurements. Ranking well with these algorithms is also dependent on various factors, including who a user typically interacts with, the post type, and the popularity of the post itself.

By understanding each platform’s intricacies in greater detail, you can equip your business with vital knowledge on how to best position your future content.

Post Consistently

Consistent posting is key to growing your business’s organic reach. Businesses that post consistently see higher engagement rates, which in turn leads to higher organic reach.

Posting once or twice a month is like being open for business once or twice a month, and then wondering why customers are flocking through your doors. If you post infrequently, your potential customer will begin to form an opinion about your business. Think of restaurants with little or no patrons… Do you want to eat at a restaurant when you’re the only customer there? 

Quality and Timeliness Matter for Content

Using Organic Reach to Your Advantage

Consider the type of content you’re posting on social media, and consider the trending topics of the day and how your business can ride the wave of increased engagement. 

As an example, author Jeff Goins loosely incorporated ‘The Walking Dead’ into his social post while the topic was trending to benefit from the trending topic for his book launch.

Resist the Bait

Don’t get caught using deceptive social practices. Social platforms have begun cracking down on baiting tactics, ensuring that users follow the platform’s rules or pay the price.

Using paid followers, spamming irrelevant content, and using engagement bait are just a few instances of practices that can be detrimental to your business’ social media strategy and reputation among your followers.

Automate and Elevate Your Content Flow

Sometimes, you can also leave your social media content flow to the pros. Enter ThumbStopper.

At ThumbStopper, we work with thousands of business partners to automatically post high-quality, brand-curated digital content for the retailers that sell their products. This, in turn, has contributed to a 22% average organic reach among our retailer subscribers.

If your company is looking for digital content that makes an impact on a budget, we’ve figured out the ins-and-outs of maximizing our partners’ social thumbprint and helping them focus on engaging with their consumers.

Whether your business has or hasn’t been affected by recent events, it may be time to pivot your social media strategy to address organic reach. With a mix of strategy and creativity, you can cut back on costly techniques that don’t secure the right audience and focus on building authentic, organic relationships with your consumers through organic reach.