It’s a Saturday, so naturally I’m working my tail off. But it’s also time for a little reflection. Today I just received some feedback from a couple of customers and thought I’d share it.

I just got off the phone with our favorite insane business owners, Web and Jordan from Psycho Donuts. They used the new Fanminder Offers feature to blast a one-day only offer for their “Cereal Killer” donut and shared the wonders of our automatic revenue tracking.

Said Web Granger, Partner, “I liked how I didn’t have to go and ask our Nurses (ie, Staff, yes I know, they are crazy!) how the Offer went, I could just go and look it up.

Exactly.

Earlier today I also had the pleasure of exchanging emails with Jennifer Ayre, the Owner of Savvy Cellar Wines, in Mountain View. Jennifer and her husband are indeed, quite savvy, but not just about wine. They’re also genius social marketers, and now, Mobile Marketers too.

I dub them “geniuses” because they have figured out a way to get the highest redemption rate of all Mobile Marketing programs we have had the pleasure of transmitting thus far: “About 80%” – according to Jennifer.

What’s her magic? I can boil it down to 2 simple methods any business owner can replicate:

• Great Offer - She offers 25% off a flight of wine for joining the list (see below)
• Relentless promotion - She advertises her Mobile Club on each page of her wine menu, and as you can see below, within email blasts, in addition to in-store and on her website. This tends to attract exactly the kind of customer most interested in engaging via mobile because it’s easy for those customers to find the message.

What are you doing to drive higher redemption rates?

Paul

You can watch a series of mini-webisodes drawn from the session here:

http://bit.ly/socialmediavideos

This fall, customers using Target-branded credit cards will a get 5% discount on every purchase at its stores. Gauging by the results of an eight-month test Target recently concluded in Kansas City, the company expects the program to drive a 1% to 2% nationwide increase in sales at stores open at least a year by luring shoppers to its stores more frequently to take advantage of the savings.

“A 5% discount every day on every transaction is unique in the retail world and has the power to drive profitable sales to Target,” said Terry Scully, president of Target Financial Services.

In addition to leading to meaningful sales gains, some Wall Street analysts think Target’s credit-card rewards program will be a powerful low-price hook that competitors would have trouble matching. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., in particular, has a larger base of lower-income shoppers who would be hard-pressed to qualify for a credit card.

“I think it is one of the most innovative programs to come along in retail in a long time,” said Colin McGranahan, a retail analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein LLC. “Five percent off prices that are already discounted and are almost at parity with Wal-Mart is a good deal,” he added.

Check out my comments.

I give the store kudos for:

• Offering a big discount to get me to join/like their social lists. It becomes a no-brainer to join with such a bargain in front of you.
• Even having a sign in the first place.
• Making a nicely designed sign.

But upon a further look, there are areas for improvement:

• The list of benefits is too long and small font. Who wants to read that entire list? Keep your reasons for joining to 1-3 short bullets.
• Their logo takes up a big portion of the sign. Since I’m already in the store, it’s not needed.
• The staff helping me wasn’t too sure about the discount. He asked another staff member who agreed to give me the discount.

To join on Facebook, I opened my Facebook app and searched under “Places” for “We Fix Macs” found them, and then “liked” them. In all, only took less than a minute. Unfortunately, only a fraction of visitors are going to have a smartphone with Facebook on it so they would have to do it at home. Which got me wondering how the store would know the fan joined in order to receive the discount? They’d need to log in and check to see if the fan is a member. Or maybe everyone who walks into the store can do this like I did

The entire experience got me thinking:

• Which wins? Choice or Preference? Join my email, text, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube… the list is only growing. Is choice the enemy of response? or is preference the friend of the consumer? Both? With the proliferation of choices, merchants are now forced to “show them all”
• It’s critical to give an offer for RIGHT NOW. – Getting 20% off my memory for a simple 60 seconds while I’m waiting around is a no-brainer.
• Give a focused set of benefits – long lists of benefits are like throwing spaghetti against the wall and hoping something sticks.

This issue isn’t going away and it goes to the heart of fanbase marketing. More in another post.