Join Us Tomorrow, Tuesday April 30th!

Join us tomorrow, Tuesday, April 30th starting at 6pm for the Back To Back Bay Pub Crawl! We have some fantastic bars and sponsors participating – list below:

•  Lolita Cocina & Tequila Bar: Co-sponsored by Flybridge Capital (with help from BzzAgent)
•  Towne Stove and Spirits: Sponsored by Hubspot
•  Solas Irish Pub: Co-sponsored by Kibits and Plastiq
•  Globe Bar And Cafe: Co-sponsored by Promoboxx (with help from Dataxu)
•  LIR: Sponsored by Wayfair
•  McGreevy’s: Sponsor Announcement Coming Soon

Interested in Hosting or Sponsoring?

If you’re interested in being a sponsor or host bar, just send an email to kburke [at] hubspot [dot] com to get started.

Many Thanks

Many thanks to Katie Burke and Laura (Pistachio) Fitton at Hubspot, as well as Kate Castle at Flybridge for helping to organize this event!

Thanks also to Boston.com, BostInno.com, and Boston Business Journal for helping to bring visibility to #BackToBackBay

Brand marketers are becoming increasingly more concerned with how their retailers think. These brands place a high value on knowing values, goals, and concerns of retailers to understand how those retail partners market themselves along with the brands they sell. Every effort made is to gain additional insights into how retailers are growing and strengthening relationships with customers. That’s because both brands and their retailers have something in common: everything starts with the consumer.

In the automotive industry, we all know how it works: Automotive brands market to shoppers, shoppers buy at dealerships, dealerships order more from their automotive manufacturing brands. It’s the circle of life. It’s why automotive brands are so concerned with helping their dealers more effectively forge strong relationships with consumers. Because ultimately, the dealerships control the shopping experience for the majority of national automotive manufacturing brands.

When it comes to automotive brand marketing, Volkswagen is a thought leader. This past October, Volkswagen of America took its dealer marketing programs to the next level by launching its first dealer-focused online marketing initiative. Dubbed “VW Stories,” this initiative allowed VW dealers to take national “Why VW” content, customize it, and share on their local online marketing channels via Facebook and Twitter – for free. All with the purpose of drawing new consumers into the Volkswagen experience.

To further leverage its “Why VW” program, VWoA is using Promoboxx to engage its dealerships across the United States by encouraging them to co-brand and share new VW multimedia content such VWoA commercials. VWoA even brought it’s dealers into the fold of its highly anticipated Super Bowl XLVII commercials via “Why VW Stories.” An example of one VW dealer, Coastal Volkswagen of Hanover, MA pictured below:

“Promoboxx gives our VW dealers a quick and easy way to market VWoA national content locally on Facebook and Twitter. We’ve always been dealer-focused, so this is just another way for us to support our local dealerships.” – Sara Devine, Manager, Brand Marketing, Volkswagen of America

Ben Carcio, CEO of Promoboxx adds, “The advertisements around Super Bowl always cause lots of excitement in the media, especially for a brand like Volkswagen. So, we were thrilled to work alongside its agency, Edelman, to help VWoA dealerships become more involved.”

In 2013, manufacturing brands like Volkswagen will need to focus on localizing marketing efforts to achieve goals and surpass competition in today’s digital world. With 85% of consumers searching for local businesses online, brands can’t afford to ignore how important it is to engage dealers in order to cater to local consumer audiences.

- Sonciary // Co-Founder, VP Client Marketing // @shonnoll // sonciary [at] promoboxx [dot] com

I recently received an email from a new Promoboxx client asking: What are the secrets to launching successful campaigns, and how else can I best leverage your platform?

I love getting emails like this because the answer continues to evolve as we launch more and more features. So, here it goes…

How To Get To 100% Retailer Engagement With Promoboxx

If you’re looking for 100% retailer engagement rates (yes, this is possible!) it’s not that complicated. We’ve already done all the hard work, research, and testing for you. Here’s what all massively successful campaigns have in common:

1. Massively successful campaigns make use of the Promoboxx Invitations System.

The Promoboxx Invitations System enables brands to alert retailers about newly launched campaigns via email. The invitation email contains a unique link that tracks the retailer’s actions telling the brand if they’ve successfully completed all steps (i.e. accept invitation, add store data, share campaign), or where they may have fallen off along the way. The unique link generated by the Invitations System prevents retailers from creating duplicate accounts on Promoboxx, and ensures the continued cleanliness of your retailer data.

2. Massively successful campaigns make use of the Email Notifications System.

The Promoboxx Email Notifications System allows brands to keep their launched campaigns front and center in the mind of both retailers and consumers. Brands use this feature to send emails reminders to their retailers of the, letting them know it’s time to promote the campaign again on their online marketing channels (i.e. website, email, Facebook, Twitter). The Email Notifications System also reminds retailers of updated brand content on Promoboxx, and well as campaigns that are about to start or end. This system single handedly keeps retailers excited and in-the-know on all launched campaigns.

3. Massively successful campaigns make use of the Group Management System.

The Group Management System was created to help brands better target and connect with subsets of their retailer base. This system is integrated with Promoboxx’s reporting features, so you can view and compare different groups to others. The best part about Group Management is that you can create any group around any retailer data criteria you’d like for a more targeted campaign. Examples include: regional groups, most active retailers, retailers with Facebook pages, etc.

4. Massively successful campaigns make use of Cross-Engagement.

Each Promoboxx campaign comes with a “Cross-Engagement” link. The Cross-Engagement link, included in the footer of each retailer landing page, says “Are you a retailer? Contact us to participate.” This simple link can generate up to 33% of retailer opt-ins because it leverages the competitive nature of retailers. They’re always watching each other.

5. Massively successful campaigns make use of the National View.

Promoboxx automatically generates a retailer agnostic campaign page, in the look and feel of the brand’s brand-to-retailer campaign, for the brand to share nationally. The National View localizes a consumer and directs them to the landing page of the closest retailer to them – allowing the brand to drive leads directly to its local retailers.

There you have it! Stay tuned for B2R Marketing Success Secrets – Part 2!

This year, we’re launching a new Discovery Series that focuses on the latest revealings of retailer insights. Every week, we’ll uncover what our Client Marketing Team is learning about the thousands of retailers actively using Promoboxx. To kick-off the series, here’s our first retailer insight.

Retailer Insight #1: Retailers Love To Be Asked

“This is awesome!”
“DON’T STOP LAUNCHING CAMPAIGNS”
“All of my brands need Promoboxx.”

These are just some of the recent responses we’ve received from retailers on Promoboxx. And when one comes in (after jumping up and down for joy) I usually pick up the phone for a quick chat with the retailer. Let’s just call him “Roy” for now. We always want to learn more about Roy. Why does Roy love Promoboxx? Why does he loves the brands that use Promoboxx?

Here’s what I’ve found: Roy’s the “CEO” of his store. On average, he pulls 3+ Million in for the bigger brands he sells, so he knows his worth. No one is going to tell Roy what to do because he knows what’s best for himself, his employees, and his store.

The difference with brands that use Promoboxx is that the platform incorporates an “Invitations System.” That means, retailers are asked if they want to participate in brand marketing campaigns launched on Promoboxx.

To Roy, that makes all the difference. He can choose to accept or reject a campaign invitation. His ability to choose tells him that that brand respects him. His choice tells that brand how best to optimize their content over time to attract more and more of Roy’s attention.

Each brand has its own unique nuances as well as its own vernacular when it comes to relating to retailers. Our team understands this, so Promoboxx is built flexible enough to handle these intricacies.

That’s why every brand client has its own Promoboxx platform settings. A place to set custom terms (ie: retailer, showroom, dealer, store) and request custom data (ie: store ID, region, unique identifier) from the retailer when opting into a Promoboxx campaign.

Brand Custom Retailer Fields

Within your brand settings, you can set custom fields in order to capture more unique data on your retailers. Check out the screenshot below to view a few examples of the type of custom data you could request of your retailers with Promoboxx.

Earlier this week, I visited Boston Start Up School to chat about what it’s like to be a Client Marketing Manager at Promoboxx and why (I believe) we have the best job in the world. What I found is that the BSS group is an amazing one – I’m not sure, but I think I learned more from them then maybe they did from me.

I posted the slides from my presentation below. For our brand clients, and retailer friends – this presentation might give you a little peek into our crazy world of Client Marketing. For individuals wondering if Client Marketing is for them, I hope this helps you in your journey. And, selfishly, I hope you consider Client Marketing as a (wonderful, challenging, educational) opportunity!

Hey! Retailers, you may have noticed a few changes on your Promoboxx dashboard. That’s because we’ve updated a few things. Let me walk you through the changes, and as always – any feedback is welcome!

Brand Notifications

At the top is a Notifications section. Here you’ll find the latest in any upcoming events from your Brands. If a campaign is about to launch, or end – you’ll find those details in the Notifications section.

Consumer Activity Updates

In the top right, you’ll notice there’s a Consumer Activity box. This box holds the latest in actions a consumer has taken on any of your live campaigns. Whether it’s a Facebook like or share, a Twitter retweet, or a lead capture – you’ll find a summery of these in your Consumer Activity box.

Support Contact Details

Also on the right, you’ll notice a Support section. Our Retailer Support team – composed of Brand Client Marketers – is always ready to help with any questions you might have. So, we make that contact information readily available.

Active Campaigns List

Last, but certainly not least, is a Active Campaigns feed – front and center of your dashboard. This feed details all of the active campaigns available to you. From this section, you can opt-in to a campaign, edit a campaign’s details, or share a campaign again on your online marketing channels.

Let us know what you think in a comment below!

Part of our job is making sure brands can easily communicate Promoboxx benefits to their retailers. During the typical onboarding process, Promoboxx Sales and Client Marketing work together to make sure new retailers understand who we are, what we do, and why it’s important to them.

Who We Are

Promoboxx is a Digital Marketing Platform for retailers.

What We Do

Promoboxx gives retailers access to a brand’s national content, allowing them to easily co-brand and distribute that content on their local online channels.

How It Works

1. Brands invite retailers to access their national content via Promoboxx
2. Retailers accept the brand’s invitation, opting into Promoboxx (process takes 60 seconds)
3. Promoboxx takes local retailer info and creates a custom campaign for them
4. Promoboxx gives retailers tools to easily distribute their campaign online

Benefits to Retailers

Promoboxx gives retailers the ability to…

• Tap into brand content, sharing it on their local channels (website, email, Facebook, Twitter)
• Drive awareness that a brand is sold at a specific retailer location
• Gather local leads (consumers enter into promotions via the retailer’s local campaign page)
• Highlight their local branding alongside the national brand’s

Earlier this year, Volkswagen of America, Inc. (“VWoA”) launched a campaign which taps into the strong passion that people have for the brand and its products. Known as “Why VW”, the VWoA campaign has put out a call for owners and enthusiasts to submit their stories and explore those submitted by others.

To extend the reach of this innovative program, VWoA partnered with Promoboxx to launch the brand-to-retailer extension of Why VW – a first for the manufacturer. Focused on capturing and sharing the stories of Volkswagen owners and fans, the application was ported to dealerships’ Facebook^® pages with an aim to draw new consumers into the Volkswagen experience.

But that’s not all; with the Why VW Stories application, VWoA is allowing each of its dealers to customize and share their own versions of the app in order to connect with local consumers.

The good news? VW dealers are loving it! They’re participating and sharing their very own #vwstories apps daily. Here are some examples of their apps and shares:

Carolina VW #VWStories FB App

#VWStories FB App Shares

Valley Motors VW of Hunt Valley #VWStories FB App Tab

McKenna Suft City VW #VWStories Twitter Share

We recently launched a sparkly piece of functionality. I get more and more excited about it every time I log into Promoboxx. Called the Notifications Map, it shows me which retailers have recently shared, from which parts of the country, and on which channels.

If you click a retailer’s name, Promoboxx will take you to that retailer’s full profile. If you click on a campaign name, Pboxx will take you to that campaign’s reporting dashboard.

The Retailer Notifications Map 2.0 will include links to the individual retailer shares to bring more visibility to the retailer’s individual marketing efforts. Pretty cool, eh?