What is it?

Geofencing sends a message to consumers’ mobile devices after they enter a predefined geographic area, whether it’s around your business, near a related venue, or even at a competitor’s location. When a prospect enters the chosen perimeter, their location-enabled mobile device is tagged, which enables businesses to deliver promotions, ads, coupons, and more to mobile phones. By creating a geographic “fence” around where your customers will be, you ensure you can reach those customers wherever they travel.

How does it work?

LNP Media Group helps you create mobile ads and messages, and then we work with you to identify which geographies should be targeted for best results:

• – You’ll want to target a number of locations to ensure you reach a critical mass of customers.
• – Messages are triggered once prospects enter the fenced areas. The messages appear on a host of popular websites or mobile apps on the user’s mobile phones.

What are the benefits?

You’ll be able to reach on-the-go consumers who are physically near your business, your competitors’ businesses, or any fenced location, even if they don’t live or work near you. Over 81% of Americans now own smartphones, which means you can reach the vast majority of Americans wherever they are:

• – Geofencing allows you to attract new consumers by showing them relevant ads and special offers in the right place at the right time.
• – Geofencing also allows you to weed out less interested consumers and engage the most relevant local shoppers.

Not sure how Geofencing will help your business? Here are a few ideas to try.

• – Geofence customers your own business so that when customers are near your business you can remind them of rewards or send them a special offer.
• – Geofence around your biggest competitor and nearby locations to steal customers and increase your market share.
• – Geofence around event venues. Send sponsor deals and promotions to customers that will be attending events.
• – Geofence real estate. After a potential buyer enters the targeted area, they get a notification of the available listings in the neighborhood.
• – Geofence hotels, airports and train stations to trigger last minute travel deals to users in the designated area.

Contact us and let’s develop a plan that reaches your prospects with the right message, at the right time, in the right place.

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Donating to worthy causes can be as beneficial for the givers as it is for the receivers. Businesses that support non-profits can increase customer loyalty, boost brand awareness, and even garner more sales. With so many reasons to give, this may be the right time to start thinking about how your business can incorporate charitable giving into its marketing strategy.

A survey of small business owners on charitable giving around the holidays found that 66 percent of small businesses planned to give to a local charity.

Businesses like to give, and give to support local causes. So how can your business develop a plan for charitable giving?

Be Passionate About Your Cause

Picking a cause you believe in is important. Consumers are skilled at figuring out which companies are sincere, and which are simply going through the motions. If you care about your cause, your passion will shine through.

Promote Your Efforts

Whether you’re donating goods or services to a local charity, don’t hide your good deeds:

• Send out a press release to local media outlets with information and photos that highlights your involvement.
• Include it in your newsletters.
• Create links on your website.
• Send out emails asking customers to get involved. Feature posts on your social media.
• Use all the media at your disposal to spread the work about the cause you’re supporting, and don’t forget to mention the work you’re doing for that cause.

Partner with a Local Media Outlet

Each year LNP Media Group has a great opportunity to be a part of Extraordinary Give. The Lancaster County Community Foundation sponsors Lancaster County’s largest day of giving:

• LNP produces a special publication for the event, and encourages nonprofits to tell their story.

Involve Customers

Include your customers in the process. Surveys have shown that many consumers would select one product over another if a percentage of proceeds were going towards a charitable cause:

• In 2012, REV Your Cause deployed a survey to over 100,000 consumers across the US. Statistics showed that more than 80 percent of respondents indicated they were more likely to use a service provider that supported a charitable cause over one that didn’t.

Can LNP help your charitable giving marketing? We offer sponsorships to select charitable giving events. Contact us and we can customize a plan that makes sense for both your business and your charity.

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Tis the Season!

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when the holidays are near? Food! Food might even be higher on the “favorites” list than holiday shopping and gift giving. Lots of Lancaster County foodies celebrate the cooler months by whipping out their seasonal recipes and indulging in seasonal foods.

Holiday baking, eating, drinking, and dining are a big part of the season. While appetites are running high, your competition is also ramping up their marketing during the fourth quarter. You’ll need extra marketing power to ensure your business will attract more customers.

Be Social

Let’s be real. Most of your customers, regardless of age, are active on some form of social media:

• Social media has rapidly become an increasingly influential marketing tool. Social media is extra active and festive during the holidays; this is a great time for food businesses to promote themselves.
• Businesses in Lancaster County should be inspiring customers and employees to post seasonal food photos, recipes, and stories. After all, food not only tastes and smells delicious, but looks beautiful too.
• Mouthwatering photos are sure to get consumers in the door. Use the best photography you can afford, and make sure everything you post looks delicious.

Location Marketing

It’s no surprise that we use our mobile phones to do the majority of our searches for local businesses, and it’s especially true when trying to find a place to eat:

• According to industry research, 68% of consumers said they were more likely to dine at a restaurant based on the results of their digital searches.
• People are performing more and more internet searches when choosing a restaurant in hopes of finding a full menu and reviews. Those two things make it a little easier to choose where to eat when you’re surrounded by so many great restaurants in Lancaster County.
• Investing in geofencing is a great mobile marketing strategy to incorporate into your marketing plan. Geofenced ads only appear on users’ phones after they have entered a defined virtual geographic boundary that your digital marketing agency has defined. Since so many people are already on their smartphones searching for somewhere to dine, chances are that extra mobile push might be the decision maker.

Boost SEO

RetailMeNot’s study, “The Evolution of Dining in the Digital Age,” found that consumers are turning to their smartphones to make dining decisions more frequently than ever before. Many diners are also choosing to use their personal devices even while at the table. Using SEO strategies combined with geofencing is a guaranteed way to get you in front of people searching for food solutions at the exact moment they are performing their search.

Event Marketing

Hosting an event that allows customers to try your food or drink is a surefire way to jumpstart business for your Lancaster County restaurant:

• Try sampling events that bring your holiday food and spirits to them in bite size or miniature form. Wow them with trial events, and they’ll be sure to be a customer in the future.
• One of the easiest ways to reach lots of new customers is by participating in Taste! Lancaster, Festival of Food, Wine & Spirits. This fun festival is a showcase of Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s restaurants, food vendors, vineyards, microbreweries, distilleries, retailers and much more. Thousands of prospects attend to find out what’s new and interesting in Lancaster County.

If you would like to talk about more marketing ideas for your food or spirits business, contact us. Our food marketing team will develop a customized plan for your business.

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