We are at the Innovation Showcase this month. The show was great. There was no way to talk to all the amazing vendors. We did talk to Melanie Greben from Conagra Brands about snacking (:54), Pat Hughes from eGrowcery on how to optimize your labor force for online shopping (5:34), Steve Mehmert from T4 Solutions about e-commerce delivery solutions. Finally, we talked to one of the main speakers at the show, Jason Dorsey (26:38). Jason studies generational differences, and how retailers can harness those differences both in terms of sales and workforce management. Apologies for the sound issue on the conversation with Jason, but the information was too good to leave out.
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2019 Innovation Showcase Preview
The Innovation Showcase is March 25-27 at the Overland Park Convention Center in Overland Park, KS. Sean sits down with Kurt Kloeblen to preview the show. Visit awgshowcase.com for more information and to download the app.
Art & Soul KC – SMCKC Recap
It might not be obvious how an art museum’s quest to raise more money applies to grocery world, I can assure you that I attended SMCKC’s February breakfast for more than just bacon. Angela Pritchett, digital marketer at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, how they increased their membership by changing what they promoted. Instead of focusing on member perks, Prichett began emphasizing why people are members and highlighting the shared community. They saw a spike in membership when they stopped talking about free parking and started detailing how many school children would get to visit the museum because of each donation. Each member knew the impact their money was making. One of my goals for the year is to increase contact numbers for email clients. I plan on taking a strategy from Pritchett and her team. They used a “manifesto” to tell potential members what the goals of the museum were, and how they would be helping as members. Now obviously signing up for emails is much lower stakes than giving money to a museum. However, I think some of…
Grocer Pod – Episode 13
Grocer Pod is back at the VMC show. This episode was recorded on the show floor so there is some background noise. It makes you feel like you were there. First up is David Krueger National Sales Manager for Design Greetings (1:03). David talked about what members can do to improve center store sales. Jan Sokal, from GOT Systems, tells how they can help members with their ordering processes (6:34). Then Natural Native’s Ron Cunningham discusses the hot new trend, CBD (15:51). Finally, Jason Forrester gives another update on StoreFront and how members can use it more effectively (23:54).
KCDMA Symposium 2019 Recap
In January, KCDMA held their annual symposium. It was was a day packed with presenters from disparate industries, but with similar messages. Connecting with your audience through storytelling was a common thread through all the presentations. “People are too smart for ads,” Dennis Yu, from Blitz Metrics, said, “so it is time for marketers to try something else.” Yu also showed examples how things that stand out have a higher authority. AWG members should think about topics which they have authority. Is there an in-house butcher? Some stores specialize in flowers or catering. Focus marketing on the things that sets a store apart from competitors. Maybe a store is involved in the community –- highlight that. Building on this idea, Yu suggests targeting other authorities instead of fans. Yu described a tech client who targeted Facebook ads to employees of tech publications instead of their customers. Doing so caused the ad to be shared much more widely. This means if the floral department is the main attraction, try and interact with big name florists. Customers will take seriously recommendations of…
Grocer Pod – Episode 12
On this month’s episode Sean talks New Year’s resolutions. He also sits down with Jeni Ganzman and Cara Mahon to talk about the upcoming VMC show. To register for the VMC show email vmc_shows@awginc.com Next, Melanie Isenmann joins to talk about social media marketing. There are some new offerings as well as a new focus by the digital marketing team at AWG.
Video content that gets results
I attended a BMAKC event on Wednesday, Nov. 14. KJO Media gave a presentation on Video Content that gets Results. Over the course of an hour they walked from the the video production process from beginning to end. They managed to cram a ton of information into a short time. The single most important fact I took away from them was that they typically spend five to 10 times the amount of time in preproduction as they do shooting the video. If you are going to attempt to make any of the video types below, make sure you have a plan. Videos don’t just come together on their own. You will find the whole process easier if you plan. Consider everything from audience to lighting and budget to who will appear in the video. KJO showed six main types of videos. Most video content falls into at least one of these groups. About Us – Clockwork from KJO Media on Vimeo. About Us videos are basically an elevator pitch. Typically, these last 30-60 seconds. They can be great on social…
Grocer Pod – Episode 11
On this month’s show, we talk to Michael Barber about email marketing and what you can do that goes beyond simply sending out your weekly ad. Then Bob Miklos joins the show to talk about AWG brands.
Episode 10
Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard that AWG launched StoreFront recently. AWG members are wondering what this means for them. Stacey Bowen and Linda Cosgrove join the show to talk about StoreFront and how it will help members (1:37). September also marked the release of the new Compete magazine. Dave McKelvey and I discuss the Not For Resale program that is featured in the issue and how much money members can save by participating (12:21).
emfluence And Then Some 2018 Recap
I attended the And Then Some conference hosted by emfluence on August 24. It was a day full of ways to improve your email marketing. After the conference they sent a list of “10 things to do post-conference.” Not only is this a great example of email marketing, but it makes my job recapping the conference easier, so I really appreciated it. #1 GDPR – The GDPR deadline came and went a couple months ago. The biggest thing that has come from it so far is that no one was truly prepared for the requirements. No more checking permission boxes automatically. Tell people exactly what information you will be collecting from them. Don’t collect more information than you need. If you can make these changes right away that will help a lot. These regulations are coming to the US, so it would be smart to get ahead of it. #2 Post-Sale Series – If you make a sale, add a new subscriber, or anything similar add that address to a workflow to send them a series of emails explaining…