If there’s anything we know about marketing, it’s that it’s much easier to keep customers than it is to gain new customers. Social media has been a huge boon for businesses who know how to use it to build and maintain relationships with their fans. Rewarding loyalty isn’t a new concept – but there are definitely some new and exciting ways to do it.
Enter foursquare. Foursquare is a mobile application that combines social media with game-like mechanics, encouraging healthy competition and personal besting. Users ‘check in’ to local establishments using their phone app as they move around town. They are rewarded with badges as they explore new places and check in more frequently. They find friends and share tips about the places they go.
Foursquare has only recently become popular in the Tampa Bay area, and as more and more users sign up (Foursquare is aiming to reach 1,000,000 members by Foursquare Day on April 16th), businesses can benefit by rewarding their loyalty.
As an aside, foursquare day was conceived and organized by Tampa’s own Dr. Nate Bonilla-Warford of Bright Eyes Family Vision Center. It’s been adopted and promoted all over the world – so let’s be proud and represent, Tampa!
There are a lot of simple ways to encourage users to check in at your business, but it all comes down to rewarding customer loyalty based on the data behind foursquare usage.
- Reward your mayor. The mayor is the person who checks in most frequently at any establishment. Offering perks like free drinks, food specials, discounts and public promotion of your support helps build that competitive spirit and encourages others to check-in more frequently. (Example: Hyatt Regency Tampa is giving a 50% restaurant discount to their mayor.) (Don’t allow your employees to check-in and become mayor or it throws the whole game off.)
- Offer discounts. Encourage users to show their phones when they check-in at your business, and give them a discount for doing so. Offer discounts for frequency of check-ins, sharing tips, and inviting their friends.
- Promote your foursquare love! Make sure your patrons know that you encourage the use of foursquare with frequently updated marquees, tweets and Facebook status updates about their check-in behavior. Use your in-store marquees and signage to promote the discounts and perks you offer.
- Let foursquare know. On the iPhone and mobile web versions of foursquare, special attention is given to businesses that offer promotions or discounts for users. Let foursquare know about your deals, and they’ll share some insights into what other businesses are experimenting with, what works and what doesn’t.
- Get involved with foursquare day (April 16). Promote your deals and foursquare itself for the next couple weeks to help encourage people to get on board and start using foursquare. Become a fan on Facebook and stay tuned to what your colleagues and competitors are doing (because if you’re not going to do it, someone else certainly will!).
To learn more about foursquare and how it can benefit your business:
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