Category: Blog

By Mike McDermott | Categories Blog | Featured | April 16, 2020

Many people think that live chat support is the same the world ’round. In reality, the type of chat support offered varies quite distinctly from industry to industry and sometimes from business to business. The way you answer clients and the services each chat agent is prepared to provide are not universal. A live chat agent for a luxury retailer is not going to take the same attitude or offer the same kind of advice as a chat agent for a company that sells building supplies.

As a professional chat agent, and for those chat agents who work in an outsourced call center for multiple companies, it’s vital to know the difference between one brand and the next. Sometimes, two different companies in the same industry would like you to approach live chat support in two different ways. While you will always be chipper and helpful, you may need to decide the right moment to ask questions, offer advice, and what kind of help the customers of each brand would prefer.

Let’s dive into five interesting use-cases of industry-specific live chat and the kind of tactics that would work best for each type of brand.

Clothing Retail – Online Personal Shopper

The easiest place to start is consumer-oriented eCommerce websites. Brands that focus on online retail usually want their live chat associates to offer straight technical help or to become personal shoppers for interested customers to help move the conversion along.

This is especially true for clothing retail brands where customers may be worried about finding not just the right material and color, but the right size and shape for their needs. Unlike buying home items, shopping for clothing is a deeply personal experience. So when customers reach out to live chat to ask questions, they are often hoping that the chat agent will be able to help them pick clothes that will make them happy.

Being a personal shopper doesn’t necessarily mean fully understanding the customer. But rather, helping the customer narrow down what they’re looking for and then quickly linking them to the pages that will be most useful. One of the best things you can do, especially for clothing shopping, is to help customers translate their own personal vocabulary for clothes into the keywords, categories, and pages used by your website. For example, they might say “Boxy button-up” and you might know that they mean a “straight-cut dress shirt” based on how your brand sorts items.

In this way, you can help customers find exactly what they need, even when their own search terms were never going to get there.

Building and Manufacturing Supplies – Online Assistant Project Planner

Another likely example is providing live chat for a brand that sells supplies for building projects and manufacturers. Whether you are selling to consumers or businesses, your role is likely to be similar – that of an assistant project manager. Rather than becoming a personal shopper, helping clients find what suits them, you are now trying to help your clients find the parts and components that suit their project.

The project becomes the main focus and your top priority is to answer questions aptly and to ask the right questions to identify exactly what the client’s project requires. It’s important to remember that even with B2B and professional builder clients that product terms don’t always translate correctly. They might say “I need a hammer” and you’re thinking claw-hammer but they’re thinking sledgehammer.

Clients who know exactly what they want by name and number will simply shop it. But customers who reach out to live chat are far more likely to need professional insight on the tools, parts, or direction they need to go to complete their project satisfactorily. This is particularly likely for consumer-clients as opposed to professional builders or manufacturing businesses seeking components.

B2B Client/Supplier – Online Key Accounts Manager

Then there is providing live chat support in a purely B2B setting when each client is also essentially a business partner. Even if they have come to buy from you. Someone who is looking to make you their supplier or become your vendor doesn’t need consumer-level chat support. What they need is a person who is ready to step into the role of a Key Accounts Manager (KAM).

Key-accounts managing is the act of focusing on a specific B2B client to explore their needs, priorities, and pain points and then guide their experience toward the best solution. Some clients will want to be your partners and talk with you about how they can gain the most benefit and best service from your company. While others will want you to take the reigns and simply show them your best products and deals available to them. Either way, as the live chat contact, you are at least temporarily in charge of understanding your new lead or customer and making them happy as an important business client.

Luxury and Hospitality Market – Online Concierge

Luxury and hospitality have a different approach. Clients looking for a luxurious experience are looking for someone to listen and to cater to their desires and their comforts. Rather than a personal shopper, project planner, or account manager, luxury customers want to feel like the center of attention and to be handed things that immediately make them happy. What they want is a concierge experience.

The concierge is ultimately flattering, helpful, and a bit more passive than other roles. If the guest wants to talk, the concierge listens. If the guest isn’t sure what they want, the concierge offers them a selection of delightful things to choose from. And if the guest knows exactly what they want, the concierge makes it happen with a few words and a flourish of presentation.

Software – Online Tech Consultant

Finally, there are software and online services. If you are offering anything technical then you will be dealing with two completely different types of client. There will be the business-folk who don’t really understand the technology but they know what it does and want it to work. Then there are the technical professionals who want to talk in-depth specs and performance before they make up their minds.

For both the highly technical and the non-technical, the live chat agent takes on the role of the online tech consultant. For your business owners and managers who just want it to work, you can take them on a tour of features and packages. For the technicians and admins who want to know the details, you invite them into the documentation and rattle off stats about how well each product performs. The chat technical consultant is there to make sure systems are compatible, to provide information and support, and ultimately to show both types of client the same packages and share the details until they’re ready to convert.

Creating conversions through live chat is a practice that is different for every industry. The ideal service you can provide is shaped by the company, the product, and the clients themselves. For more local business insights and innovative marketing tactics, contact us today!

By Mike McDermott | Categories Blog | Featured | April 13, 2020

In the wonderful world of digital marketing, there are few thresholds a small marketing team can’t cross. Even if there are only three of you sharing an office, you can dip your toe into everything from SEO blogging to PPC keyword bidding. You can run campaigns, shoot videos, and build an online community a million times bigger than your actual office or team. And it’s great! But it’s also a ton of work. The more successful your small marketing team is, the more overwhelming the amount of Do-It-Yourself work there is to actually do.

So today, in honor of all the amazing tiny team out there working your butts off for big money, and big prizes, we’re featuring the five essential strategies that every small marketing team can use to optimize your results and make life a little easier.

1) Work with Great Software

Always, always, always start with the software. When your marketing team is small, your software needs to pick up a lot of the slack and help you make the most of your super talented time.

– Dashboards and Channel Management

The dashboards you use are everything. They help you schedule, monitor, moderate, and improve every one of your marketing channels. You can curate your content, interact with your community, and keep everything running like clockwork when you have great dashboards like TweetDeck and Hubspot.

– Automated Marketing Tools

The more you can automate, the better. Use a big automation platform or a dozen little ones. It doesn’t matter as long as the grunt-work is getting done for you.

– Partner with an AI

If it’s in the budget, get your team an actual self-learning AI. At first, it’ll be like an automated marketing boost. But soon enough, that intelligent piece of software will become like an extra team member. An extra team member that can chat-bot with hundreds of people and/or analyze mountains of data and never get bored or tired.

2) Repurpose Every Story into Multiple Marketing-Channel Assets

When you create great content, don’t just use it once and let it fade. Slice and dice it into a dozen tiny bite-sized pieces and spread it around every marketing channel you’ve got in ways that work best for each individual channel. make sure your stories get out there and make the most of your precious content creation time.

– Pull Your Best Quotes into Social Media Blurbs

Write a great article or host a great interview? Pull out the best quotes and turn them into social media posts that link back!

– Capture Your Best Video Moments as Still Frame Images

If you recently made a video (or are going through the archives), don’t forget that videos are just a ton of still images all strung together. Capture your very best still frames and use them to fuel your constant need for great images.

– Rewrite Stories for Each Platform Style

For every story you write on one platform, rework it to be an equally great story for the style of every other marketing platform. Long-form for blogs, bite-sized for Twitter, and medium blurbs for Facebook. You get the drift.

– Embed Images and Videos from Social Media in Your Blogs

Most marketing teams to the majority of their content work for social media, especially images and videos. But that’s not the only place those pics and vids can go. Remember to spice up your blog articles, websites, and newsletters with that vivid photo-goodness as well.

3) Let Your Team Talents Shine

Your team is staffed with amazing individuals who wear a whole stack of hats for various parts of the marketing campaign. Don’t just spread out the work, specialize it. Get everyone doing what they’re best at or leading the projects they understand the most deeply. Make the most of your individual talents.

– Separate Tasks Based on What You’re Best At

Make sure your best writer is drafting the blogs, that your best graphic designer is crafting the infographics and your best director is shooting the videos. Only then will the truly amazing talent of your team shine through, and the work will be easier because you’ll each be doing what you love.

– Support Each Other on Big Projects

Of course, just because you have a ‘best blogger’ doesn’t mean they don’t need help on a massive content campaign, or the graphic designer can’t use a few hundred extra images to work with. Prioritize talents, but always apply teamwork to get the job done.

– Explore Ideas Based on Team Talents, Idea, and Networks

When your marketing team members have something unique to offer, use it! One of you is great at the accordion? Make some fun accordion videos! Have a little inside access to a network? Interview them on camera. Use your special ideas and connections to make your campaigns uniquely awesome, too.

4) Know When to Outsource

When your team is tiny, it is totally OK to outsource. Even big teams outsource when it’s most practical to do so. Know when temporarily (or long-term) contracting a big team of outsourced specialists is more effective or necessary than trying to take on everything yourselves.

– Huge Campaign Projects

When the projects get enormous, the smart small businesses outsource. Whether you need a flash-mob for something or just a backup marketing team to whip up a ton of content, don’t be afraid to contract!

– Video Production

If video production isn’t your thing, or you want to see how it’s done before taking it in-house, then hire yourself some professional videographers for one big shoot and/or make them teach you the ropes.

– Community Management

When your community gets so big you can’t even read all the comments, much less reply, it may be time to hire a professional team of community managers. Or just for big special events when you need to judge a contest with thousands of entries or moderate a particularly important thread.

– Content Creation

One of the smartest things a small team can do is build up a stockpile of content to spool out over the next year between your hot new stories. And a great way to get it all done at once (or pick up quick content packs along the way) is to outsource.

– Analytics, Optimization, and the PPC

If analytics and optimization don’t send you over the moon, that’s okay. There are teams that specialize in marketing by the numbers that will lend you some of their time and expertise.

5) Brand Partnerships for Double-the-Marketing, Double-the-Fun

Finally, don’t forget to partner-up! By pairing with everyone from micro-influencers to big companies that want some new-cool feel, you can seriously boost your own campaign’s impact when you share audiences and hype.

– Micro-Influencers

Micro-influencers are sometimes bigger brands than small businesses and they are fantastic at working their audience. Get in on that hype by partnering with some e-celebs that are really cool and fit well with your brand.

– Brand Partners

Partner with other small businesses for double-the marketing power, sharing your audiences, budget, and ideas to super-boost a campaign or event together.

– Community Events

Do community outreach and get connected to other local businesses, schools, churches, and groups that would love to be a part of your brand. Community stuff warm and fuzzy and is also totally awesome for social media stories.

– Big-Brand Sponsorships

And if a big brand wants to sponsor an event with you or invite you to attend one of their big to-dos, go for it! You could use the publicity and they could use your trendy, dynamic brand flavor.

Having a small marketing team doesn’t mean you are required to limit your marketing campaigns. With the right tools, strategies, and outsourced assistance, you can rock the biggest campaigns and customer audiences your brand can attract. And with that kind of success, pretty soon your marketing team may have a few new members. For more great marketing insights, tips, or campaign assistance; contact us today!

By Mike McDermott | Categories Blog | Featured | March 15, 2020

In the past 24 hours, I’ve seen photos of empty restaurants, vacant boutiques and long lines for toilet paper. Images that are a stark contrast with a normal Friday night.

Social distancing should prove to reduce the effects of the virus on human illness and mortality rates, however many small businesses may not be able to withstand the impact of consumers distancing themselves from venues that are dependent on crowds, fans, and even worshipers.

So what can small businesses do to weather this unprecedented event?

Move to Virtual

Sales managers often rely on visiting customers at their place of work. That may not be available to them now. Instead of rescheduling your meeting for weeks into the future, consider scheduling it as an online meeting. Our favorite tool for this is called Zoom. It’s really affordable and super reliable. Google has also put some help out there for businesses by offering their enterprise meeting tools FOR FREE

Shift your Sales Strategy to Online

NIKE just informed us that they are closing 100+ of their retail stores for good. Why you ask? Because they understand that the strength of their brand will force those who want/need to wear their shoes will be able to find them online. All the sales without any social interactions to hold back sales. Win-Win. (or, not… that’s a conversation for another day)

Chinese companies in Wuhan Province were forced to confront the reality of coronavirus shutdowns well before most American companies. As storefronts shuttered their doors and workers practiced social distancing, savvy business owners shifted their sales strategy to avoid heavy losses.

The Wuhan-based cosmetics company Lin Qingxuan closed 40% of its stores — but the brand’s 100+ beauty advisors took to digital platforms like WeChat to engage customers virtually and increase online sales. “As a result, its sales in Wuhan achieved 200% growth compared to the prior year’s sales,” writes Harvard Business Review.

If you’re closing your store, find ways to keep your employees earning a paycheck by selling your products on social media, putting your email list to good use or using a video tool to reach new leads.

How quickly can an eCommerce website be setup?

Wix and Squarespace both have great and inexpensive web development portals to sell merchandise. For the time being, it may be best to try your hand at setting up a virtual store for your products.

Not at all technical, and want someone else to do this? Our web development team has set up online eCommerce websites in 48 hours or less. If you have a strong social media presence, you can drop links to your new eCommerce site and start selling to them very quickly.

By Mike McDermott | Categories Blog | Featured | March 13, 2020

Distributed to clients (past and present) 3/13/2020 

We know that organizations and individuals around the world depend on Bash Foo to ensure that their websites, email, ad campaigns, and digital marketing are all available to serve up experiences for millions of visitors. I wanted to send you a personal note to let you know how Bash Foo is dealing with the Coronavirus emergency.

First, the health and safety of our employees and customers is our top priority. We have implemented several sensible policies to this end, including encouraging employees that regularly work in our offices to instead work from home. Because Bash Foo is inherently a distributed agency, this emergency will have no significant impact on our operations. Our project, support, and technical teams will remain fully operational and can do their jobs entirely remotely, as needed.

Second, we are tracking Internet usage patterns globally. As more people work from home, and sales plans quickly migrate from convention centers and large meeting rooms into online Zoom meetings and email drip campaigns, peak traffic in impacted regions has increased, on average, approximately 10%. In Italy, which has imposed a nationwide quarantine, peak Internet traffic is up 30%. We estimate your website will see an increase in traffic of 15-20% over the next four weeks.

Traffic patterns have also shifted, so peak traffic is occurring earlier in the day in impacted regions. None of these traffic spikes raise any concern for us. Our webservers and digital networks are powerfully redundant and ready for the task at hand.

Finally, we recognize that this emergency has put a strain on the infrastructure of small businesses around the world as more employees work from home. Marketing plans created months ago may now be in play, but you may not have the ability to execute them, thanks to the new quarantine rules in your state or country.

I am making myself personally available, as well as our entire team during this time, so that whatever plans you had that changed thanks to the Coronavirus can continue to be executed with precision and excellence. While your marketing team may be struggling to deal with these emergency changes in life, our team is uniquely situated to assist them.

The healthy functioning of our economy depends on work continuing to get done, even as people need to do that work remotely. If Bash Foo can do anything to help ensure that happens, I believe we must do so.

Thank you for being a Bash Foo customer. These are challenging times, but I want you to know that we stand ready to help; however we can. We understand the critical role we play in the functioning of your marketing efforts, and we are continually humbled by the trust you place in us.

Together, we can get through this.

Mike McDermott
President and Founder, Bash Foo

By Mike McDermott | Categories Blog | Featured | March 10, 2020

Google Ad campaigns allow you to raise awareness about your business, target people who are already searching for exactly the keywords you cover and expand your reach. In spite of its many benefits, however, many businesses choose to forego Google Ad campaigns–or perhaps to put them off for an undefined “later.” The trouble is, you cannot benefit from a campaign you never create.

Is it time for a Google Ad campaign for your business? Consider these key signs.

1. You aren’t bringing in search traffic for the right keywords.

Creating an SEO-optimized website includes ensuring that your website brings in search traffic for the keywords that are most important for your business. Unfortunately, bringing your website up to the top page of those rankings can take time. If you’ve noticed that you aren’t bringing in search traffic for the keywords you most need to see traffic for on your website, running a Google Ad campaign can help increase your website’s overall visibility–including visibility for specific keywords. That ad campaign can also benefit your usual SEO, since the more visitors come to your website and stay on it, showing that you offer quality content.

2. You’re not targeting your advertisements.

Google Ads allows for highly targeted advertisements that will go straight to the audience you choose. Instead of casting out a broad net with a traditional advertisement, Google Ads allows you to send your advertisement directly to people who are already searching for that specific keyword. Based on your keyword research and understanding of the ad funnel, you can even target people who are at specific stages of the buyer’s journey, designing advertisements that will reach out, answer their questions, and help bring them into your funnel to complete that journey.

If you’re a local business, you can also benefit from Google Ads. You can narrow your targeting to people in a specific geographic region, including searchers using specific geographic search terms or those using the “near me” term.

3. You’re ready to expand your business.

When you create advertisements, you’re looking for opportunities to expand your business: to bring more traffic to your website. If you’re looking to expand your business, increasing your search traffic is a great way to bring in more leads and new business. Test your Google Ad campaigns and see how effectively they bring in the traffic you need–and what percentage of that traffic is new traffic.

Build your future ad campaigns based on these statistics and what they tell you about people coming into your business. As you decide to grow and expand your business, you’ll find that Google Ads campaigns are a great way to accomplish that expansion, from increasing awareness about the latest products you’re ready to offer to expand into new geographic areas. If you’ve recently changed the location of your business, a Google Ads campaign can also help new customers find you.

4. You’re looking for a budget-friendly way to launch a new marketing campaign.

The keywords you choose to target in your Google Ad campaign will determine the expense associated with your campaign. Some high-priority keywords may have a higher price tag than others. You can, however, choose the funds you want to put into your ad campaign. You may have a relatively low budget to work with, or you may have a higher marketing budget that will allow you to target a wide range of potential customers who are already looking for information related to businesses like yours.

Once upon a time, Google Ads campaigns were considered a more expensive form of advertising. As they’ve improved, however, many people have found that they can find a Google Ads solution within their budget. Even if you’re on a budget for your marketing campaign, you can still make the most of it!

5. You want fast results.

When you’re trying to bring new leads–and potentially new business–to your website, you may want fast results that will help you immediately start building your profits. Not every type of ad campaign will make that possible. Instead of relying on older, slower methods, including trying to build SEO through website content, consider the benefits of a Google Ad campaign. In some cases, traffic to your website can jump within a matter of hours. Many business owners also discover that their websites make a faster rise through search rankings when using paid Google Ads over free SEO tactics alone.

6. You want to build greater awareness of your brand.

Brand awareness helps guide many of the decisions customers make. If they’re considering making a purchase in the industry, they’re more likely to choose a brand they recognize one that has presented information they trust in the past or that has helped guide them through the earlier stages of the buyer’s journey. Through your Google Ad campaigns, you can build greater awareness of your brand even for customers who don’t click on that link and visit your website. Customers may also show a higher degree of trust for brands that appear in ads or Google’s recommended results.

7. You’ve noticed overall traffic to your website is decreasing.

Your website is like a digital storefront: it’s an opportunity for customers to visit your brand, check out the products you have to offer, and consider whether they want to make a purchase. If customers aren’t visiting your website, they’re less likely to make those important buying choices. If you’ve noticed a decrease in your overall website traffic, a paid Google Ads campaign can help bring in fresh, new traffic and raise awareness of everything your brand has to offer, which can, in turn, increase your sales.

Are you ready to launch a Google Ad campaign that will help grow your business and expand awareness of everything you have to offer? Do you need help designing an advertising strategy that meets your needs, created by a Google Partner? Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you reach your goals.

By Mike McDermott | Categories Blog | Featured | March 5, 2020

A native ad appears to be a natural part of the user’s feed or part of the site’s normal flow of content suggestions. You’ve seen them everywhere; on Facebook, in Twitter feeds, Google search results, even embedded in blog posts. Some are so smooth and well designed that users hardly realize they are being advertised to. Native advertising creates a seamless user experience that allows users to view the content without the usual no-promo bias we all put up when we think we’re seeing a commercial.

By Mike McDermott | Categories Blog | Featured | January 20, 2020

Automated marketing is a great way to streamline your marketing department and make sure that you can expand your reach and your customer base. In some cases, however, so-called automated marketing can take up a great deal more time than you think. Are you aware of how long your automated marketing tasks really take–and of where your time drains are? Consider how these strategies can help you become more aware of where you’re wasting time in your day–and how to reclaim it.

1. Take a look at how long you spend on miscellaneous tasks.

In many cases, miscellaneous tasks–those not really related to any specific goal or marketing campaign–can leave you scratching your head, wondering where the time has gone. To help you better keep track of those miscellaneous tasks, make a note of those tasks as you complete them throughout the day. For several weeks, keep track of how much of your time each day is spent on those tasks, whether it’s managing your email lists or sorting through and updating existing content. You may want to list the specific tasks you take care of on a regular basis and consider how those impact your overall campaign.

2. Try a time tracking app.

A time tracking app will automate the process of keeping up with what you’re doing every day. It’s all too easy to lose track of what you’re really doing during the day, whether it’s spending a little too long at the water cooler or dealing with those miscellaneous tasks related to your marketing automation processes. A time tracking app can make it easier to keep up with what you’ve really done during the day, including:

• Harvest
• Toggl
• Time Doctor

Time tracking apps can keep up with what you’re doing on your devices throughout the day. They can let you know which programs and apps you use the most often, which projects you’ve spent the most time on, and where your time drains might be. As you use these apps, you’ll often discover that your productivity goes up because you can keep up with your actual time usage.

3. Keep up with your transitions. 

Transitioning from one task to the next can take up more of your time than you think throughout the day. Transitions between one job and another can transform your productivity. An effective transition may include taking a 5 to 10 minute break between tasks to help clear your mind and make it easier for you to focus on the new activity. Spending too much time on transitions, however, can completely destroy your productive flow throughout the day. If you have many transitions in your daily task list, including handling those important marketing automation tasks, you may need to group similar activities together to make it easier to take care of them.

4. Note how interruptions impact your flow.

Simply experiencing distraction in the middle of a task can, in some tasks, take much more time than you think: it can take as much as 25 minutes to fully return your focus to the task you were taking care of before the distraction. Often, distraction begets distraction: when you walk or click away to take care of one distraction, you find other things that need your attention. Even though some of your marketing tasks, including emails and social media posts, may occur automatically, you may need to take care of other things on your own: answering customer comments and emails or posting fresh content about recent industry events, for example. Keep an eye on how those interruptions impact the daily flow of your work–and how much time they take away from your other tasks.

Improving Your Time Management Skills

As you track your time more effectively, including noting how interruptions and distractions impact your ability to complete your job responsibilities, you may discover that many of your so-called simple work responsibilities take a considerably longer portion of your day than you initially thought. Do you need to improve your time management skills to make it easier to handle all of the tasks on your marketing agenda? Consider some of these strategies.

1. Minimize Interruptions

Take a look at the interruptions that are most likely to spend your day spinning off-course, including the ones that are most likely to result in excess distraction. You may need to turn off your phone or ignore your emails while you’re working on other tasks, especially tasks that require a great deal of attention.

2. Set a Timer for Transitions

When you know there’s a transition coming, set a timer. You can take five to ten minutes to refocus and get ready for the new task, but don’t allow those transitions to drag out for too long. Instead, get back to work as soon as possible.

3. Schedule Handling Marketing Automation Tasks

Your marketing might be automated, but there are many tasks you’ll need to take care of on your own. You will, for example, need to create the social media posts you have scheduled. You’ll need to write the emails that are part of your automated marketing processes. Once those tools have been created, they’ll be posted automatically–but in the meantime, you have to create them. Around the holidays, during new sales, or when you take on new products or services, you may need to change or review your current content and put together new content. As you develop a better idea of how long it will take you to take care of those tasks, you can work them into your schedule for the day so that you aren’t left scrambling to complete everything on your list.

As a marketing professional, time management is essential. Even the processes you automate require your time, energy, and attention, whether you’re creating those processes, creating the content that goes into them, or reviewing your content to ensure that it meets your needs. Learning how to manage your time effectively can help propel you to greater marketing success and remove a great deal of stress from your day. Want to learn more about how automation can help? Contact us today.

By Mike McDermott | Categories Blog | Featured | January 16, 2020

“You say it’s your birthday. It’s my birthday too, yeah”

– The Beatles

Customer birthdays are a fantastic time for marketers. It would be our favorite time of year, but customer birthdays happen once a year all year long. Birthdays are a time to celebrate with your customer. On our birthdays, we expect to get presents and an abundance of fun opportunities to choose from. Many people spend time with friends or family and treat themselves to a few special birthday reward. This is the perfect time to offer your customers a gift they will love, one that benefits everyone involved.

Birthday Demand Generation

In the business of demand generation, birthdays are a fantastic example of using desire and positive sentiment to create a strong incentive to buy. Customers want to treat themselves to something good, and a special deal or discount on their birthday becomes a desire to take advantage of every good birthday opportunity. In other words, you have generated new and enthusiastic demand in your customer to accept their birthday gift and buy something.

Birthday deals, discounts, and special package offers are a hallmark of marketing existing long before the internet. Consider the Birthday Song tradition at family restaurants where birthdays are often celebrated with a nice meal out.  It’s nice to get a little party from the restaurant and maybe a free piece of cake. Birthday marketing handled with automation can offer that same warm feeling with an even more personalized birthday gift from your brand. Wishing your customers a happy birthday with discounts and bonuses made just for them.

Today, we’re here to share a few smart tips on demand-generating an awesome birthday message for each of your customers and loyalty club members.

Detailed Account Profiles

Your customers are the best possible source of birthday information about them. You can catch the birthday during registration, but the real trick is also knowing your customer’s favorite color, brand, and the products on their wishlist. The more you know about your customer, the more personalized and motivating your birthday gifts can be.

The best way to do this is with detailed account profiles. Make it possible and rewarding for customers to personalize their account profiles. Set the background to their favorite color, pick a few favorites, and start a wishlist. From there, each customer’s shopping habits can help you shape their preferences and desires.

AI-Driven Gift Selection

Personalized gifting is one of the superpowers of modern business with the help of business AI analysis. Set an algorithm to calculate what a customer will want in the future based on their shopping history and any personal information they’ve chosen to share. This is a task that takes time and effort to do by hand, but a computer can generate a potentially great birthday gift for any customer at any time.

This is true no matter what your business sells. If you sell carpets, an AI can pick out the colors and patterns each customer likes best based on previous choices or current set preferences. If you sell bedding, your AI will choose the fabrics, colors, bed sizes, and accessories based on things your customer has bought in the past.

You can generate one or several different gift options for your birthday customers with this AI-generated or algorithm-driven method.

Birthday Month and Day

For most birthday deals, the opportunity lasts longer than the actual day. You can’t guarantee that a customer will log in on their birthday, check their email, or choose to buy. So widen the net. Offer a special birthday-month discount where customers can consider the opportunity all month and finally treat themselves before or even after their birthdays. Make sure you are targeting your customers with an understanding of where they are most likely to buy.

You can then pair this with a more targeted offer on the special day itself. This way, your customer gets to celebrate their upcoming birthday and get your birthday wishes. A month-long birthday discount means customer’s birthday-week schedules don’t have to adhere to treat themselves to your gift.

Birthday Discounts, Packages, and Free Gifts

There are several different ways to offer birthday rewards and gifts to your customers. Discounts are the most common method, and often appreciated for customers treating themselves on their birthday. A discount can be the perfect opportunity to get a special desired item at a low cost. Your suggestion could be anything, and as long as it’s something the customer really wants, they may well decide to take up the opportunity.

Birthday Package Deals

Package deals are another way that some brands send birthday wishes. Gift baskets of any composition can be a special reward for someone shopping on their birthday week. A package of items that you know they’ll want is incredibly tempting. Especially if it also comes in their favorite color. You can make specific product sets available at a single discounted price or you can make an entire category of items available for a discounted selection.

In-the-Box Birthday Gift

And if they do make a birthday purchase, consider throwing in a little something extra, and hint that you will do so before the purchase is complete. The temptation of a free birthday surprise is often enough to drive curious birthday shoppers to fully complete their purchase. Birthday gifts and in-the-box surprises are always appreciated to make your birthday offer a real gift to the customer. This might be as simple as a chocolate bar or a personalized special birthday gift.

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Birthdays are the perfect opportunity to connect with your customers and generate a celebratory demand for your products. People want to accept their birthday gifts, take advantage of special birthday opportunities, and generally feel like the world is celebrating with them. They are ready for birthday greetings from every direction and are in the mood for a treat. As adults, birthdays take on a slightly different tenor . Your customers are more than prepared to treat themselves if a special birthday opportunity comes up that isn’t connected to friends or family. Every time one of your customers is about to experience a birthday, that is your perfect moment to use your automated marketing tools. Send birthday wishes to generate demand and increase the likelihood of a birthday sale. For more insights into demand generation and building strong customer relationships, contact us today!

By Mike McDermott | Categories Blog | Featured | January 13, 2020

When most marketing teams consider building an automated marketing experience, it’s only natural to start at the top of your funnel. The experience you plan to craft is one for new shoppers who are discovering your brand for the first time. But focusing only on the unique shopper experience is severely discounting (and not in the “good way”) the value of your return shoppers.

Automated Marketing is Ideal for Return Shoppers

Returning customers have bought from you before and liked what they experienced. They have come back to buy again, but they may not necessarily know exactly what they’re looking for or have the full motivation to complete the purchase. They also are less likely to need or want the help of a real person through live chat or email to push them along through the shopping experience.

Automated marketing is the ideal solution for return shoppers because they can enjoy the platform itself, guiding them toward the best possible product selections and rewarding them for completing each returning purchase. But you don’t have to accept simple generalities. Let’s dive into the seven most persuasive reasons why automated marketing is perfect for helping your return shoppers come back time and time again.

Return Shoppers …

1. …Don’t Need the Whole Top-of-Funnel Pitch

Automated marketing usually stacks on top of all your SEO and blog content work designed to catch the attention of new shoppers and entice them into a purchase. But return shoppers don’t need any of that top-of-funnel pitching. They know exactly where your website is and already know that you carry things they enjoy. When automated marketing would usually pick up where SEO left off, return shoppers can jump directly into a delightfully automated shopping experience.

2. …Feel Special When the Platform Comes to Life for Them

The automated marketing process for new and return shoppers can and should be different. Shoppers who get a “welcome first-timer” message the second, third, and fourth time they buy will feel your brand enthusiasm as hollow.

On the other hand, if your automated marketing greets return shoppers by name and thank them for coming back, your return customers suddenly feel remembered and special. Stack that on with exclusive deals just for them based on previous shopping and browsing histories and you’ve practically made a new friend, all without having to spend a single moment of human sales rep time.

Automated marketing is fantastic at making return shoppers feel appreciated and personalizing their experience in a rewarding and encouraging fashion.

3. …Are Already Looking for Something to Buy

Another perk of a custom return shopper experience is that you know return shoppers are already looking for something to buy. They’ve read your blog if they care to, and they’ve browsed your products so they already know approximately what you sell and the variety available. They must be back for a reason and automated marketing is there to help.

Automated marketing often jumps right into offering customers products they might enjoy and discount codes that might inspire shoppers to fill their virtual carts. When you’ve got a customer who is already ready to buy, these encouragements just make the shopping experience more fun and rewarding. And their final purchase more assured.

4. …Still Need Encouragement and Guidance to Complete a Purchase

Speaking of assured purchases, it’s also important to remember that while return shoppers are looking to buy, they also need the same kind of guidance and encouragement that many first-time buyers need to actually complete that purchase. Return shoppers are just as likely, if not more likely, to start filling their cart and then wander off because they’re sure they’ll come back for the items eventually. There is also a chance that return shoppers will fail to find exactly what they’re looking for, just like a new unconverted lead.

Automated marketing can help return shoppers not only find what they’re looking for by making AI-backed suggestions, but it can also keep up the shopping momentum all the way through purchase. Automated marketing encouragement often helps return shoppers complete their carts and the purchase process with satisfaction instead of getting distracted or discouraged on their own.

5. …Appreciate Automated Cross-Selling of Associated Products

When a return customer is shopping through your site, they often don’t know exactly what they plan to buy. Perhaps they liked your shirt selection and would be happy with a whole outfit, if only they could quickly choose the right pants and shoes to complement their favorite tops. The examples are infinite, but the point is the same: most return customers actually enjoy when your automated marketing engine tries to cross-sell or even up-sell them on practical additions to their cart.

A shopper looking for a nice blender might really enjoy that your automated marketing platform suggests a smoothie starter pack to go with it. A shopper looking for kid’s Christmas gifts might be delighted to see your cross-selling selection of toys for a similar age group as the toy they’ve clicked. Cross-selling is, in fact, far more effective with return shoppers than first-timers who are not yet sure they love your brand.

6. …Are More Likely to Return Again if Their Shopping Experience is Rewarding

Consider the second-time shopper who enjoyed their first shopping experience and has come back to see if a second purchase is just as satisfying. Automated marketing steps up to act as their personal assistant with a non-intrusive DIY flare that most people enjoy. Your automated marketing might suggest the perfect follow-up purchase or provide a discount code that delights your second-time shopper when they punch it into the checkout form.

When a return shopper has a wonderful time upon their return visit, they are far more likely to return again and again as a soon-to-be loyal customer because your website treated them right.

7. …Have a Reason to Invest in Referrals and Loyalty Rewards

Finally, never forget that your return shoppers are infinitely more likely to get involved in loyalty programs and even refer your brand to friends and family for rewards than first-time shoppers giving you a trial run.

Return shoppers who know they will return have a strong personal motivation to join the loyalty rewards program and sign up for emails because they know they’ll be using those discounts and reward points in the future. They can confidently refer your brand to friends because they know the experience is good, and they’ll do so because they want the reward points to spend on future purchases.

When your automated marketing makes loyalty program offers, your return customers are going to be the real takers every time.

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Automated marketing isn’t just to usher new leads through the first conversion purchase process. In fact, once a shopper has returned for their second or third purchase, your automated marketing system can become many times more effective because your return customers are engaged and invested in interacting with the site and earning the discounts you have to offer.

Now all you must do is craft a unique and rewarding automated shopping experience that doesn’t mistake every visitor for someone who’s brand new to the site. Instead, greet your return shoppers by name, offer them personalized deals, and generally make them feel like honored loyal patrons of the brand. For more automated marketing insights, contact us today!

By Mike McDermott | Categories Blog | Featured | December 3, 2019

As companies “lean up” their teams, they are finding that recruiting new talent is more than just a part time chore for “that guy in accounting”. And as the talent pools out there become more competitive, prospects are expecting more red carpet and less assembly line treatment from employers. “Why should I work for you?” vs. “Why should I hire you?”

Enter Bash Foo. Our teams for years have been mining leads for our clients, poring over gigantic spreadsheets of useless data to find just the right segment of engaged prospects and turning them on to our client’s products and services using persuasive copy and tried and true sales pitches.
So what happens when the experts in lead persuasion try their hand at prospecting job candidates in addition to sales opportunities? *Cue suspense-filled background music…

Something awesome happens, that’s what!

Job candidates appreciate the approach of a marketing agency. We understand that they are a valuable asset to our clients and we treat them like gold, not just a job order. Reason being is that our clients trust us with their valuable marketing dollars and we know how precious those are. When used wisely, recruiting dollars are just as efficient at printing money for a small business as new sales are.

So. Just What is Sourcing as a Service?

Instead of bogging down your internal recruiting team or “that guy in accounting” with hunting for candidates and qualifying them, we do the legwork of building lists of ideal candidates for the job description supplied by the hiring company. This kind of partnership helps businesses boost productivity and save money by Bash Foo doing the “legwork” of recruiting.

Finding the right candidates, and those who are serious about the job market, is one of the most tedious tasks in the recruiting field. In fact, recruiters spend as much as 50% of their time sourcing candidates.

But, Bash Foo can procure the right candidates for the position, and all you need to do is focus on the actual hiring process. It saves time, money, and productivity.

Here’s how our marketing agency can empower your hiring team to make better placement decisions for your company.

#1 We Free Up Your Team’s Time and Productivity

If your team is 100% focused on scanning job boards, resumes, and LinkedIn profiles, they will have little time to focus on actually recruiting your potential job candidates.

By utilizing our sourcing service, you can keep a list of qualified candidates in the hopper for any upcoming opportunities that may arise in the company. Then, your recruiting team simply reviews without the pressure and distraction of hunting for candidates.

#2 We’ve Already Got the Tools…without the Fees.

Bash Foo has invested in quality tools to procure the right candidates for the job. Have you ever looked into what it costs just to HAVE LinkedIn Recruiter, let alone pay someone to use it? That’s right. It’s expensive. And there is no reason why you should carry that full burden of those tools alone. Bash Foo spreads those costs out across all of our hiring companies.

This allows you to find quality candidates for your job position, trim back on expenses, and increase productivity in your recruiting departments.

The lists of candidates you receive will include verified contact information and background details, so you know exactly who you are getting in front of before the interview.

#3 We won’t be Hounding You to Hunt

We do a good job of staying in our lane. As a marketing agency, we’ve got plenty of tasks to focus on, so we won’t be dogging you for job orders to go hunting.

We simply provide the sourcing we promised, deliver on that promise – nothing more, nothing less. We aren’t about fluff around here, but we will be here when you need us to take on the next opportunity.

So, how does the process work?

If recruiters are constantly stuck behind a computer researching and vetting potential candidates, they aren’t spending their time getting to know future team members.

By utilizing our sourcing service, your team can focus on finding the right fit for a company’s culture and the job position.

There are three general steps to sourcing as a service:

1. Identify your ideal candidate. This can be a short form or questionnaire to determine the exact candidate you are looking for, immediately disqualifying anyone who does not meet the criteria for the position or culture.
2. Within a few days, we provide matching profiles to review against your ideal candidate. At this time, we ask for feedback so we can continue to narrow down the search.
3. Then, we deliver a full list of qualified profiles (with contact information) which you can reach out to and begin the hiring process.

Companies of all sizes utilize sourcing services as a way to free up their internal departments. As your chosen marketing agency and now sourcing expert, you can trust us to get the job done.

If you are interested in learning more about hiring Bash Foo to source your next employee, reach out to us today. A member of our recruiting team will help you find the best fit, and do so easily and affordably.

By Mike McDermott | Categories Blog | Featured | December 2, 2019

Chances are you were not trampled down by the crowds if you went out Black Friday shopping. The sales data is in… And it should be eye opening to any business and retailer.

Black Friday Sales Comparison

In store: Sales in physical stores dropped 6.2% from last year, AND the number of shoppers in those stores fell by 2.1%

Online: Black Friday purchases made online increase by 20% to hit a record $7.4B.

I’m sure you are not shocked to learn that ecommerce outpaced physical shopping. Buying new pajamas while in your pajamas is the way to go!

The surprise found in this year’s sales data is the way that mobile online orders lapped any other form of shopping this Black Friday.

Mobile Phones Rule Black Friday

Mobile Orders: Shoppers were apparently too tired to open their laptop. 65% of Black Friday’s online deals happened on smartphones. That’s the biggest day ever for mobile ecommerce transactions. Up a full 35% from last year!

Pickup Orders: Why wait for 2 day shipping when you can pick it up at the store RIGHT NOW! The buy-online and pickup in store sales jumped 43% from last year.

Bottom line, if you retail anything. You really need to get a website. AND you really need to consider making it a “mobile first” website.

But what if you are a service industry? How many sales did you pick-up over Black Friday weekend?

Bash Foo offered discounts again and we netted 2 new clients, and 2 existing clients who opened their wallets this weekend to take advantage of a great set of discounts on digital marketing for 2020.

By Mike McDermott | Categories Blog | Featured | November 26, 2019

Where do leads come from? This is a question that has spurred thousands of marketing campaigns and tactics. It’s true that some channels are going to be more productive for your brand and customer base than others. But the fact of the matter is that modern leads come from everywhere. They come from search engines, from friend recommendations, from affiliate links, and from social media. Leads will come to you from all directions. Therefore, to build a complete full-funnel experience, it’s vital to consider every entry point for the top of your funnel.

Today, we’re here to talk about mapping your top-of-funnel entry points so that you can map the full funnel experience for each lead, no matter where they may have come from.