In my last blog post I mentioned the growing popularity of Facebook and Instagram stories. If you aren’t familiar with how to create them, it might seem a little daunting. In this post I’m going to give you some step-by-step instructions on how to create everything from simple picture stories to more elaborate types of stories. How to Create a Story Since Instagram is owned by Facebook, the process of creating a story is similar across both platforms. Instagram has an option at the top left corner of the screen when you first open the app. It’s your profile picture with a plus sign on it. The text below it reads “Your Story.” Just click on the icon and it will take you to a camera setting where you can create your story. To create a Facebook story, the options will vary based on the app you are using. If you are using the regular Facebook app, go to your business page and scroll down until you see the “Your Story” heading. You will see your cover photo with a…
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Retail Innovation Conferece Recap
There’s one thing that’s for sure about retail today: it’s changing. There’s a debate to be had about how and to what capacity this change is happening and it certainly impacts different industries differently but what’s not debatable is that brands and retailers are frantically trying to keep up. This past week, I attended the Retail Innovations Conference to see what brands in all industries are doing to try and keep up with the evolution. Two days of content are hard to distill down to a short recap but here were the themes I saw emerge. Not Your Old Loyalty ProgramsIn the age of data, loyalty programs are not only still alive and kicking, they’re going strong and evolving to fit the needs of retailers striving for meaningful connections with consumers. Shinola talked about how they reconsidered their program with their brand promise in mind. Macy’s Style Crew re-envisioned a program inclusive of consumer viewpoint and a new reward attainment structure. Personalization for Born shoes is driven by consistent acquisition of consumer online activity behavior data. Hershey’s hasn’t ever collected…
Communicating in a Smart & Connected City – PRSA recap
Chris Hernandez, chief spokesperson for the City of Kansas City, Missouri and director of the City Communications Office, spoke at a recent PRSA luncheon. Chris’ office handles media relations, social media, the city’s website and community engagement. He shared with us some progress Kansas City has made with technology and why he sees it as a smart city. What is a Smart City? It is a city that uses creative engagement and technology to reach residents, improve sustainability and enhance the quality and performance of its services such as energy, utilities and transportation. Chris says, “It’s not about technology. It’s about delivering better services for our city.” Kansas City, Missouri is a leader when it comes to having services for our residents, compared to other cities in the metro. Why is Kansas City considered a Smart City? Google Fiber Street car Smart street lights Bird electric scooters and bike sharing Use of social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) For those who have been affected by recent flooding, they might be relieved to hear the city is currently in the process…
The Future is the Shelf Edge
The digital world is infiltrating all aspects of grocery stores and supermarkets. Whether that be blockchain allowing consumers to track food from farm to store or gathering customer data through a loyalty program to offer tailored promotions. It has now even taken over one of the oldest parts of a store, the shelf but more specifically its edge. Paper and vinyl tags will soon become a thing of the past. The days of printing shelf tags and replacing them anytime a price changes or a sale is implemented will soon be a distant memory. Not only will these digital shelf edges allow you to change prices instantly it will also allow customers to look at online reviews or ratings of any product at the shelf while shopping. How’s that for point of purchase marketing? There hasn’t been much implementation of digital or electronic shelf edges in the United States yet but the UK has shown much success with utilizing this technology and all the advantages it offers. There are two separate types of digital shelf technologies. One uses the whole…
AWG Brand Digital Promotions: May Edition
Summer is almost here! Which means it just about time to fire up the grill. Below is the digital content created to share with your customers on your website, social media platforms, emails and more to promote AWG Private Brands. Best Choice Recipe Video The May recipe video is called Four Ways to a Better Burger. It features four different burgers using Best Choice Beef Burger. The four recipes are Pesto Patty, Hawaiian Style Burger, Saucy Burger, and Cowboy Burger. You can share this short video from the Best Choice website, YouTube, or using the native files found here. Best Choice Recipe of the Month The May Recipe of the Month from the Best Choice Calendar is for Chicken Enchilada Soup. The recipe can be shared from the Best Choice website or from the Best Choice social media sites, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. The native files can be found here. Dietitian Content AWG Brands Dietitian, Rebecca Mueller, is getting into the grilling season with her recipe about a hamburger patty and her lifestyle blog about unique ways to use a grill. Recipes will be posted on the second and…
Episode 15
This month is all about the Compete magazine. The latest issue dives into digital marketing. Sean sits down with three authors. First up is Lisa Nelson to talk about websites (4:43). Then Morgane Freeman gives a snap shot of Instagram (11:43). Finally, Kurt Kloeblen talks about the issue as a whole and gives five things retailers can do in the digital space (19:59).
Possibility in Perishables
While online grocery shopping continues to gain steam, a mysterious and myth-riddled sector of the store often gets talked around. Perishables is the most under-penetrated category in online grocery shopping. So how do retailers help customers feel comfortable shopping this important category online? Recently, at the Home Delivery World Conference in Philadelphia, I hosted a panel of industry experts in this area. The panel consisted of Duane Snyder of Seasonal Roots, Ben Chesler of Imperfect Produce, & Mike Demko of locai solutions. We talked through how to attract customers to the perishable category, how to deliver what customers are expecting, and how to gain confidence and repeat purchases. Tempt TrialSome customers are hesitant to try online shopping for their entire grocery basket. While online grocery continues to grow, customers sometimes need a little nudge to try the service. A popular statistic in the space says that customers don’t become an “online customer” until they have tried the service three times. That means you need to get them to try it. Some will based just on word of mouth. Some need…
Trending Now: April
Trends in April were dominated by holidays. Some are official, and some aren’t. Major League Baseball’s opening day may not officially be a holiday, but plenty of people treat it as such. Baseball’s grueling six month season can cause all by the most passionate fans to tune out, but everyone loves the romance of opening day. It is no surprise that ballpark and tailgate fare are popular at the start of April. Hot dogs, burgers, chips, Cracker Jack I don’t care if I ever get back, are all obvious things to push in early April, especially if your store is near a baseball stadium. Easter and Passover also fall in April. Expect shoppers to be stocking up for large family meals. Easter traditions vary. Some families opt for a brunch, while others go for the full meal. This means you need to promote a wide range of items. The one thing that most everyone will be looking for is eggs. Dying Easter eggs is obviously very popular year after year. Customers look to by larger quantities than usual. With that…
Social Media Trends
I mentioned in a recent blog post that your social media plan “needs to adapt as the social landscape changes.” It’s helpful to know how changes and new trends might affect your strategy so you can determine if you need to course correct. Digital strategy shouldn’t be reviewed only once at your annual planning meeting. It should be an evergreen conversation to help you keep up-to-date on the tools and trends you can use to make your digital strategy as successful as possible. Here are some things I’ve noticed in the first few months of 2019: Using Stories to Tell Your Story Are you using Instagram and Facebook stories? The idea started with Snapchat, where you share an image or a short video that disappears after 24 hours. Both Instagram and Facebook have launched similar features on their platforms and they are steadily growing in popularity with users. Consider creating content that you can share across all areas of Facebook, including stories. Also consider using stories to help you create content that your customers will connect with more. Buffer suggests…
The Future of Typography (KCDesignCore Recap)
In this blog post I won’t be sharing information on how to get customers to your store or how to increase your sales, but for those graphic designers out there, this may spark your interest. I occasionally visit the monthly Adobe users group meetup here in Kansas City, called KCDesignCore. This month Dan Rhatigan, manager of Adobe’s in-house type foundry, presented some new cool stuff Adobe has been working on in typography. Dan took us back in history to when type was set and printed on a page. Certain fonts were considered “good typography” and were more legible than others when printed. But we don’t engage in text the way we used to. We now read on digital screens. We have adapted to moving objects and 3 dimensions. Even in the early days of web design, there were limitations on fonts. When I first started designing websites, we had only 5 or 6 fonts available for use. Verdana was suggested to be most legible on computer screens so we were pretty much locked into using Verdana for everything. Well, at…