by inbndmarketing | Jun 13, 2016 | Audiences, Marketing Strategy, Uncategorized
Image courtesy of Cindy Frey Photography. Used with permission.
How to make the most of the changes in wedding traditions
No industry likes to tout trends like the wedding industry. If you’re a wedding professional, you may just roll your eyes at the latest trend report. After all, today’s couples are so individualized that trends may not have a big impact on your wedding business.
However, there are a few things we’re seeing that may make a difference in the way you market your wedding services right here in Lancaster County. Take a look at these three wedding trends that are making a difference in the way couples plan their special day in Central Pennsylvania.
TREND: Destination Lancaster
While plenty of couples are still interested in going to destinations like the Bahamas for a wedding, more and more brides and grooms are choosing Lancaster as the “destination.” These couples already live in one of the top tourist destinations in the country. That’s why a growing number of couples focus the special appeal of Lancaster County to make their wedding more charming, authentic or more relevant to their own family history, or even to their shorter history as a couple.
What does that mean to marketers? When you connect your products and services to Lancaster County, and show how other brides and grooms have created a uniquely Lancastrian experience, you’ll become a more appealing part of Destination Lancaster weddings.
TREND: Digital Wedding Planning
We all know that planning a wedding can exhausting. Even small weddings take a herculean effort to execute. So it’s no surprise that digital tools, apps, and websites have flooded the bridal market to help brides and their families research, plan and share tasks and milestones. Hundreds of digital tools are available to help build a seating chart, design invitations, build a wedding playlist, pick out dresses, or choose the venue.
What does that mean for marketers? It means that digital advertising and marketing will be key to getting and keeping the attention of brides and grooms in 2017 and beyond. LNP Media Group has extensive digital offerings, and can help you create a customized digital plan for your business that is targeted and affordable.
Get local with I Do magazine. Twice a year LNP Media Group publishes what’s hot right here in Lancaster County.
TREND: Locally-Sourced Food
Local food and local sourcing has never been more important to consumers, and it’s never been more trendy on nuptial menus. Brides and grooms are planning menus for the big day that mimic the offerings of the best farm-to-table eateries. Couples want their wedding menu to reflect who they are and how live. That’s why ingredients like kale and quinoa are going to show up more often. Locally sourced meats, vegetable and breads will also be highlighted. Farm stand produce is going to take a more central role on menus. Savvy wedding marketers know that positioning products, foods and services as home-grown and Lancaster-local will set them apart from the competition.
Want more ideas on how to reach brides and grooms in Lancaster County? Contact us to discover print, digital and event options that will help you connect with couples right here in Central Pennsylvania.
LNP Media Group is committed to delivering exceptional experiences to our audiences, our customers, our vendors and our employees throughout Lancaster County and Central Pennsylvania. We provide value to our marketing and advertising partners by building effective and innovative solutions and by delivering exemplary customer experiences.
LNP Media Group is a division of Steinman Communications, one of the largest and most experienced communications companies in the Mid-Atlantic. Steinman Communications is an innovative, multi-channel communications company that delivers high quality news, information and entertainment to diverse audiences.
by inbndmarketing | Jun 13, 2016 | Advertising, Marketing Strategy, Uncategorized
Is it right for your business?
Marketing to high school athletes is becoming more and more popular among smart businesses. It’s not hard to figure out why. In Lancaster County, advertising to teams and players at the high school level means also getting access to coaches, teachers and principals — not to mention their parents, friends and fans.
High school kids are more getting more sophisticated, and all kinds of brands, from Gatorade to Allstate, are marketing to athletes 14 and up.
In addition to products such as sneakers, sports gear and beverages, other categories are also starting to advertise to this influential demographic. You’ve probably seen a lot of local advertising here in Lancaster County, in local gyms and arenas, for orthopedics and physical therapy. Nationally, big advertisers are also targeting high school athletes for things like personal grooming products, restaurants and even groceries.
LNP Media Group produced the first annual county-wide high school sports banquet this year, reaching thousands of high school athletes and their families.
Why are high school athletes becoming more important to marketers?
High school athletes are important influencers among their peers, but there are also more of them. The number of participants in high school sports increased for the 26th consecutive year in 2014-15 – topping the 7.8 million mark – according to the annual High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). That’s an increase of over 80% over the past 30 years. The most notable increases are a result of the proliferation of women’s sports and team opportunities for young women.
How do you know if marketing to this growing demographic makes sense for your business? Ask yourself these questions.
Do athletes use your product?
While it’s great to get more access to coaches, parents and fans, if athletes don’t actually use your product, this might not be the right venue for you. High school athlete marketing strategies must promote usage and acceptance with athletes first, secondary audiences later. So if you’re a fertility clinic or a retirement community, this might not be the most effective way to spend your marketing dollars.
Do you want to support your community in more meaningful ways?
Advertising to high school students often means sponsorships. Whether you’re sponsoring an awards banquets or a stadium, associating your business’s name with high school sports can be a win-win situation for you and your sports community
The High School Football Preview gives Lancaster County a preview of who to watch in the Lancaster-Lebanon League.
Does your product have a positive effect on athletes’ lives?
While athletes play video games and drink sugary drinks, marketing these products to people under the age of 18 can be politically fraught. These athletes have a team of adults around them protecting and policing them, so make sure your ads will be seen as a positive influence with a “Rated G” message.
Does your product appeal to the people around the athletes?
While marketing directly to the high school athlete can be powerful, even with recent growth numbers, the overall market is fairly small. To make your marketing dollars work harder, make sure your message and your media is built to appeal to athletes AND coaches, families, fans, etc.
Marketing to high school athletes can be profitable for your business, but if the marketing doesn’t feel appropriate, you may experience backlash, so make sure this growing audience is right for your business, and then have fun reaching out to this passionate, engaged audience.
Ready to find out more? Contact us to discuss how your business can reach all kinds of high school athletes throughout Lancaster County.
LNP Media Group is committed to delivering exceptional experiences to our audiences, our customers, our vendor and our employees throughout Lancaster County and Central Pennsylvania. We provide value to our marketing and advertising partners by building effective and innovative solutions and by delivering exemplary customer experiences.
LNP Media Group is a division of Steinman Communications, one of the largest and most experienced communications companies in the Mid-Atlantic. Steinman Communications is an innovative, multi-channel communications company that delivers high quality news, information and entertainment to diverse audiences.
by inbndmarketing | Jun 2, 2016 | Insights
Major local survey uncovers what grocery shoppers really want.
LNP Media Group surveyed over 1,500 Lancaster County grocery shoppers to find out what shoppers in this area like and dislike about the grocery stores already in our county.
The bad news?
The bad news for Lancaster County grocery stores is that consumers are no longer very loyal to a single store:
- While this research revealed that about half of shoppers report they are “loyal” to a single store, we also discovered that even “loyal” shoppers regularly visit two, three, even five different stores each month
The good news?
The good news? The same thing:
- Consumers are looking for value, deals, and the kind of products they need to live their very individualized lifestyles
- They’re willing to shop at more than one store to find the kind of products they want
What can grocers in our area do to attract these fickle shoppers to their grocery or food store more often?
1. Romance Unusual Offerings
In the LNP Media Group grocery survey, shoppers say the most appealing feature of Wegmans “variety”:
- Survey respondents believe Wegmans has new products and offerings not readily available in other grocery stores.
- Grocery stores need to offer hard-to-find items such as lamb, real sugar cane, red lentils, vegan meatballs, or even peach Fresca. By highlighting unusual offerings, grocers start building their own reputation for variety.
2. Win the Coupon War
Coupons plan an important role in a grocery store’s popularity:
- About 70% of our survey respondents report that it’s important that their grocery story provide coupons flyers.
- This reinforces what we’ve been telling advertisers for years: grocery shoppers are looking for a strong coupon offering from their stores.
- In fact, 10% of our research participants said that if their grocer starting offering coupon flyers less often, it would be a reason to switch stores.
3. Be Nice to Customers
When asked which factors inspire store loyalty, customer service and the checkout experience were top factors:
- No matter how well grocers manage other aspects of their stores, customer service can make or break a customer’s desire to return.
- Grocers who want more loyal customers will not only provide more staff at checkout, they will also staff the registers with people who are happy to be there, willing to talk to customers and, in general, know how to be truly helpful.
- It makes good financial sense to reward the best cashiers with more money and preferential treatment. They can literally make or break the grocery business.
4. Talk About The Family
Our Research shows that Lancaster County likes family-owned grocery businesses, and they like knowing that the money they spend stays local:
- Many respondents noted that family ownership is a primary reason for staying loyal to a grocery store.
- “Family Owned” is important, but it’s also smart to start talking about the family. Does the family work in the store? Promote it. Add family photos to the photos already posted of deli managers and head bakers. Add the family name to name tags. Tell customers about the family and share the family’s business philosophy with customers. Call out family favorites throughout the store. Make the grocery store personal and human to increase shopper loyalty.
5. Specials and Discounts Still Work
Specials and discounts play an important role in enticing customers to come back:
- 90% of our respondents report that specials and discount are an important factor when choosing a grocery store.
- Grocers getting ready to run a big sale, or who have impressive specials running, should let ALL the shoppers in Lancaster County know. Our research shows Lancaster County grocery shoppers are willing to try new stores, so make sure to give them a reason to try your store.
LNP offers more grocery and coupon delivery systems than any other media available in our area. To find out what’s new with LNP grocery marketing, contact us.
LNP Media Group is committed to delivering exceptional experiences to our audiences, our customers, our vendor and our employees throughout Lancaster County and Central Pennsylvania. We provide value to our marketing and advertising partners by building effective and innovative solutions and by delivering exemplary customer experiences.
by inbndmarketing | May 26, 2016 | Insights, Marketing Strategy
Discover how to stand out in a crowded industry.
For any business, getting noticed can be challenging, For banks, credit unions, mortgage companies, and financial planners creating awareness is critical. After all, financial services companies don’t offer ordinary services. In fact, many consumers consider financial services on par with emergency services—important, urgent, and vital.
So how do you, as a financial services provider, stand out from the competition in the critical moments in which your services are most needed? It’s not a quick fix, but if you follow these five tips, we can help you streamline your financial marketing and guide prospects to your solutions when they’re ready to act.
Create Awareness with Repeated Messages
Consumers need to be aware of financial services businesses well before they’re ready to buy:
- Consumers equate name awareness with trust and stability— key attributes for financial services. By repeating your message over and over, you’ll create the kind of exposure that allows your business to come to consumers’ minds when it matters most.
- While there’s no magic formula for creating awareness, it’s good to know that many marketers believe consumers must see a message a minimumof three times before it begins to sink in.
- Leading financial marketers are exposing consumers to their message hundreds of times before the consumer is ready to make a decision. The more often a consumer sees your message, the more likely you are to build top-of-mind awareness.
Build Trust by Surrounding Your Ad with Credible Media
What you say is important, but where you say it is equally important:
- Have you ever found a stranger’s business card on your windshield? How did that make you feel about the business? It might be an effective strategy to get people to try a new burger joint, but it doesn’t convey trustworthiness.
- While it’s easy to see that print has more credibility than windshield flyers, it takes a little more time to figure out if your message is surrounded by compatible messages.
- If you’re a conservative financial institution, you probably won’t want to be surrounded by ads for local nightclubs. However, if you’re a financial planner that focuses on helping the arts community, you might want to consider running ads in the newspaper’s cultural section or entertainment magazine.
Make Contact Simple with a Clear Call-to-Action
Once consumers start noticing your advertising and see that you’re advertising in the kind of media that they like and trust, they may want to contact you to learn more:
- It’s important to remove any roadblocks in the communication path.
- What phone number are you including in your advertising? Once readers call the number listed, will they get a real person, or will they be sent to an automated phone system? Did you list a website in your ad? Are you directing prospects to a website that isn’t mobile-friendly?
- All it takes is a single barrier or frustration to lose a potential customer, so it makes sense to spend time reviewing what kind of call-to-action you want to include in your ads. Make sure you run through the call-to-action yourself so that you can see or hear what the customer is experiencing. This will help you identify potential road blocks beforethey happen to your prospects.
Resist Changes and Stay Consistent
Whether you are a chef creating nightly masterpieces or an athlete training for the big race, consistency is key. The same concept applies to your marketing. Maintaining your core message and values conveys stability and trustworthiness, traits that consumers look for in their financial service provider:
- Is your brand consistently and accurately reflected through the proper colors, logo, and tone of the content? Keep track of how you’re using your logo, and make sure you use it in exactly the same way every time.
- While marketers tend to get bored seeing the same messages and logos over and over, customers see these messages only a few times. Consistency isn’t boring to customers, it’s a recognition tool and helps consumers remember and internalize your brand benefits.
Have a Plan and Stick with it
It’s important to stick with a media plan, even if you’re not seeing immediate results. Financial marketing is rarely a sprint. By building awareness in credible formats, staying consistent with your message and adhering to your brand standards, you’re building a solid reputation. Don’t be tempted to change ads, media, and messages when your internal marketing team gets bored. Remember that your company’s goal is to communicate stability and trust to consumers. Stay the course and you’ll build the kind of brand equity that competitors will envy.
Want to learn more tips for financial marketing? Ready to set up a free consultation? Contact us here and we’ll start talking about ways to build your financial services business today.
LNP Media Group is committed to delivering exceptional experiences to our audiences, our customers, our vendors and our employees throughout Lancaster County and Central Pennsylvania. We provide value to our marketing and advertising partners by building effective and innovative solutions and by delivering exemplary customer experiences.
by inbndmarketing | May 16, 2016 | Insights, Marketing Strategy
Are you marketing to adults 50+?
You may think that traditional marketing, such as newspaper and print, is the best medium for your target audience. After all, it has powerful benefits: you get broad reach, you have well-developed audiences, you can ensure exclusivity within a time block or within news sections. It’s true that print is still one of the very best ways to build brand awareness.
Digital marketing tactics, on the other hand, offer their own set of benefits. Most notably, digital marketing offers:
- Refined analytics
- Precise targeting
- Reliable success measurements
- Budget-friendly options
- Increased exposure
So what percentage of your budget is spent on digital vs. traditional marketing? The reality is that the most effective programs are deeply integrated. The question is: how do you build an effective marketing plan when your target audience is mainly offline?
Marketing for Older Adults
Research is showing that not only do seniors (and their adult children) want to become familiar with a product or service before purchasing, the internet has now become the most popular way for them to do that kind of research.
Take a look at the following facts that dispel the senior/anti-tech stereotype:
Welcome to the World of Digital Marketing!
Where to begin? Think about how you want to allocate your advertising dollars; the most effective plans use the best features of both digital and traditional together to build awareness, create engagement and generate sales leads.
Don’t think of digital vs. traditional marketing as “either-or.” The right answer is both.
LNP Media Group offers all kinds of successful print and digital strategies. Contact us to learn more about how to activate your target audience through both traditional and digital media.
LNP Media Group is committed to delivering exceptional experiences to our audiences, our customers, our vendors and our employees throughout Lancaster County and Central Pennsylvania. We provide value to our marketing and advertising partners by building effective and innovative solutions and by delivering exemplary customer experiences.
