At Promoboxx, our focus is making both retailers and brands happy. We do this in a variety of ways, but early on we realized the simple equation to this utopia is happy retailers = happy brands.

For now, we’ll concentrate on one side of the equation: the responsibility of brands to keep their retailers happy. By believing in retailers and providing them with the necessary tools for success, brands will be rewarded in loyalty (and sales) ten times over. Below you’ll find our top 5 tips for brands to make their retailers happy and ultimately, their biggest advocates.

1. Share Leads

Brands aren’t going to gain any points with the retailer if the leads that they collect during a national campaign go straight to corporate. After all, why should the retailer promote a campaign that doesn’t directly help them? Using Promoboxx, retailers that opt-in to national campaigns gain access to the leads that they collect. This motivates the retailer to share their campaign more often and push your product, in order to gain more leads. Impress your retailers by offering them the opportunity to gain consumer leads and allowing them to use the leads they collect for future marketing purposes. By rewarding their hard work it shows them that you support their success.

2. Provide Multiple Opportunities to Be An Advocate

What works for one retailer won’t work for another, so give your retailers plenty of ways to promote your brand. If your campaign is digital, encourage them to share via Facebook, Twitter, Blog and Email (to name a few), or if it’s an in-store promotion, make sure they have access to several types of signage, print ads, or whatever will work best for them to get on board your brand’s campaign.

3. Do the Leg Work (and Make it Free)

One of the most common reasons we hear for why retailers don’t market their stores (and the brands they carry) is that they simply don’t have the time or the resources. Take a load off your retailers’ backs by giving them the content to customize and share. If you really want them to be your advocates, provide it free of charge. At Promoboxx, our brands know that their retailers are the number one way to promote their products, so they use our platform to make their digital content as accessible as possible. Bonus: the brand’s national campaign will result in a more streamlined, cohesive effort.

4. Reward Your Retailers

Encourage your retailers to promote your campaign with an incentive. In a recent Promoboxx campaign, a brand offered its retailers a chance to win a dream vacation in exchange for promoting a national sweepstakes they were running. Another Promoboxx campaign rewarded the top-performing retailer with a discount on their next order from the brand. Giving your retailers a little extra motivation will not only get them excited about your current promotion, but it will also generate a desire for them to participate in future campaigns.

5. Give Retailers the Inside Scoop

Retailers interact with consumers more than anyone else, so their opinion is extremely valuable. Recognize retailers as an excellent source of information. Invite them to give their feedback on what type of promotions they would like to run, their preferred methods of communication with their consumers, and what works (and doesn’t work) for them. By working as a team, retailers and brands can build and thrive in a mutually beneficial relationship.

Here at Promoboxx, we’re always striving to help brands connect better with their retailers and distribute co-branded content to an increasingly social consumer base. Recently Promoboxx has released several new features that not only improve the experience for retailers using our system, but these features also help brands optimize campaigns in order to better connect with their retailers and reach their consumers.

New Enrollment Flow

As new retailers sign up for Promoboxx, they are taken through the enrollment flow process, which allows Promoboxx to gather the necessary data to create a co-branded campaign. The updated enrollment flow includes features that help retailers understand the campaign they are activating, take them quickly and easily through the share process, and also allow for quick access to Promoboxx support channels if they need it. We’re excited for more retailers to use the new enrollment flow, and we’ve already seen significant increases in participation rates and sharing of co-branded campaign content.

New Retailer Dashboard

As a Promoboxx retailer, you want to know how well your co-branded campaign is performing, how many consumer views it’s received, and how many of your fans and followers have shared your co-branded content. The new Retailer Dashboard gathers the most important metrics of campaign success in one place, and shows each retailer their progress as well as how they stack up to other retailers promoting co-branded campaigns. One of the coolest features on the new dashboard is the Boxx Score for retailers. This score ranks each retailer based on campaign activity – a retailer’s score is calculated based on how many times they’ve shared on social channels, and how many consumer interactions they’ve generated. We love a little bit of friendly competition here at Promoboxx, and we think that retailers do too!

Enhanced Reporting for Brands

Ok, so we’ve updated the retailer experience in Promoboxx, but what about new features for our brand users? We want our brands to run successful campaigns co-branded with their retailers, and gathering reporting is essential for optimizing those campaigns. With the enhanced campaign reporting that we’ve introduced for brands, we hope to provide the metrics that brands need to track measure the progress of their campaigns, and provide actionable insights into how brands and retailers can optimize their co-branded campaigns.

Share Options for Retailers

We think that one of the most important aspects of a successful co-branded campaign is cross-channel sharing of content. We’ve encouraged retailers to share co-branded content on Facebook, Twitter, and their websites, and now we’ve included an enhanced option for sharing via email. With the new and improved Consumer Email capability, brands can create an HTML-rich email which is co-branded with each retailer’s information. Retailers can then send this email to their customers, either by using a list of leads captured through a Promoboxx campaign, or by importing their own list of leads.

We’ve also heard that sharing images on Facebook can be pretty darn effective in driving view of business and campaign pages. So we’ve given retailers the option to not only share a link to their co-branded campaign, but also to include a share image. These wall posts show up in the newsfeeds of a retailer’s followers and fans, and provide a visually interesting hook for consumers to click on and view co-branded campaign content.

Are you a Promoboxx user? What new features would you love to see?

We’ve all heard of B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing, but what is this B2R marketing Promoboxx seems to talk so much about?

B2R (Brand-to-Retailer) marketing is connecting brands with their retailers by providing them with marketing materials they can use to facilitate the sale of their products and services they offer. Brand-to-Retailer marketing also plays a major role in strengthening the relationship between the brand and retailer, ultimately building a strong brand preference with each independent retailer.

Why is B2R Marketing important?

Manufacturing brands spend millions of dollars every year on national marketing programs. The majority of these programs focus on attracting and retaining consumers. In the past, retailers have been neglected in the marketing process. However, as competition has risen, brands need to find new ways to create preference of their products over others. Brands have started to realize that their retailers are their biggest advocates; in the end retailers have control of the products they sell, how they promote them and what they say to their consumers about them. What retailers don’t have, is the bandwidth to market these products and create preference on their own. Through brand-to-retailer marketing, brands give their retailers access to marketing programs that they can call their own and use to market to their consumers locally.

And what does Promoboxx have to do with B2R marketing?

Promoboxx is the glue for B2R marketing programs online. Shopper marketing has been around for a long time. Brands have provided independent retailers with in-store signage, fliers and coupons for years. However, with more and more consumers going online to research products and make purchases, brands are realizing they need to start providing online marketing resources to their retailers as well. When retailers build their presence online they can re-leverage national brand assets and activate consumer engagement throughout the digital path-to-purchase.

Promoboxx makes it easy for retailers to participate in the brand’s national online programs by providing easy-to-use tools to participate, co-brand, and distribute the programs on their online channels (Facebook, Twitter, website, and e-mail).

Want to find out more about B2R marketing and how it can help amplify your brand’s marketing efforts? E-mail us today at sales@promoboxx.com.

As a national brands seek new ways to reach their customers with relevant and engaging content, they use the Promoboxx platform to launch co-branded campaigns with their network of local retailers. Engaging local retailers has proven to be an effective marketing tool for brands, but what exactly makes an effective co-branded campaign? We love helping brands get the most out of Promoboxx, and here are 4 ways that brands are using our platform to launch successful co-branded campaigns with their retailers:

1. Invitations: Invite ‘em to the Party

In most cases, one of the first times a retailer hears about a Promoboxx campaign is in the initial invite email, sent from the Promoboxx Invitation System. The message that brands send to their retailers should be optimized to give the retailer as much information about the campaign as possible: what the upcoming campaign is (the what), why they should participate (the why), and how they can participate (the how). An effective message is essential to high retailer engagement rates.

2. Share Options: Sharing is Caring

Many brands have special preferences for certain social media channels — perhaps consumers like to interact with Brand A primarily via Twitter, or perhaps Brand B finds Facebook to be the most effective way to distribute promotional content to consumers. Promoboxx works with brands to determine which social channels are best to create and share content on, and then helps them to optimize that content around the unique characteristics of those channels.

For example, Facebook content is most effective when it includes strong visual content – photos and videos. Consumers love viewing and sharing visual content on Facebook, so an effective way to optimize Facebook content is to include engaging video and photo content.

On the other hand, content shared on Twitter is “bite-sized”, fitting into the 140 character limit. Tweets encourage dialogue between consumers, brands, and retailers – it’s a conversation, so brands should use it as an opportunity to listen and share. Both retailers and consumers love sharing content via Twitter conversations. Twitter content should be clear and concise to really pack a punch — have your retailers promote your brand, use hashtags, get consumers engaged in current promotions and fit that all into 140 characters!

3. Share Reminders: Share Early, Share Often

So retailers have signed up for Promoboxx, your brand has created engaging content around your current campaign, but how does your brand get retailers interested in sharing that content? Promoboxx helps brands remind their retailers how, when, and what to share — all by sending out consistent share reminder messages specifically tailored to a campaign and the content it has to offer. Promoboxx encourages brands to send share reminders to their retailers regularly throughout the lifetime of the campaign, using the Email Notifications System. Continued sharing helps to keep marketing campaigns at the top of retailers’ Facebook and Twitter feeds.

4. Update Content: Keep it Fresh

Many brands will use the Promoboxx platform to run ongoing campaigns that continue for extended periods of time. In the case of these ‘evergreen’ campaigns, it’s important for brands to keep their content fresh. Promoboxx encourages brands to split their ongoing campaigns into several phases. From one phase to another, content should change. Brands may swap out new photos or videos, and refresh information about promotions – all in an effort to keep the content current and relevant to consumers. To keep your retailers and consumers engaged, you need to keep it fresh and exciting.

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!

As the Ravens claimed their victory Sunday night, viewers couldn’t help but notice that there seemed to be some other winners at Super Bowl XLVII; Beyonce, the Budweiser Clydesdales, and the guy who made out with Bar Refaeli all come to mind. However, it was clear there was a new player in town when it came to Super Bowl advertising: social media. While social media efforts previously played a role in advertisers’ master plans for the big game, Super Bowl XLVII was the first year where digital media was an essential tool in strengthening the impact of their commercials.

“This year, we’re really seeing it go to a totally new level where marketers are making social networking a core part of their Super Bowl efforts. There’s a recognition among big businesses that social media is the new marketplace that they’ve got to be part of the conversation,” said Glen Gilmore, a social media strategist and professor of digital marketing at Rutgers University.

A buzz-worthy commercial is key to inspire people to take their opinions online, sharing them through Facebook, Twitter and more. “The No. 1 benefit to something like this is that your consumers actually become your billboards,” says Ann Mukherjee, Sr. Vice-President, Frito-Lay North America. “They’re the ones who become the ambassadors, who talk about the integrity and authenticity of the brand.” Many companies like Doritos, Volkswagen and Coca-Cola invited their customers to vote on their commercials, download ringtones and enter to win competitions, all to engage their customers on a more personal level and generate as much hype as possible.

The benefits of using social media in advertising don’t stop there; with social media (and Twitter in particular), companies can immediately evaluate the efficacy of their efforts. “You’ll know immediately if your ad has any sort of success by whether or not it’s trending on Twitter. Twitter is a boon for advertisers in the respect that they can see in real time if that ad is working, what people are saying and of course Twitter’s top trending lists right to the right on the homepage of Twitter show you what’s working and what’s not,” says Peter Shankman, CEO of Geek Factory.

At Promoboxx, we couldn’t agree more that social media amplifies a brand’s national marketing campaign. That’s why we worked with one of our clients on their Super Bowl initiatives and engaged their individual retailers by encouraging them to share the campaign on all of their local online channels. By allowing retailers to co-brand the content, the Super Bowl campaign was able to touch down at a local level and generate even more views. Plus, the retailers were thrilled to be a part of such a big event like the Super Bowl… a win-win for everyone.

You’ve probably heard the story. Growing up, our CEO Ben Carcio always looked forward to visits from the local alcohol distributors delivering the latest marketing materials to his parents’ liquor store. Equipped with neon Budweiser signs, Heineken coolers and Coors koozies, their visits represented a mutually beneficial marketing relationship between the big brands and the retailers who sold their product. These huge companies knew the value of sponsoring their retailers’ marketing efforts, and Ben’s parents relied on the support of the brands to promote their store.

These days it is clear that these in-store marketing materials don’t have the same draw as they once did; consumers are spending most of their time online talking to friends, sharing content, and of course, shopping. Therefore, it is imperative that independent retailers big and small promote their products in the digital media space.

However, that’s not always as easy as it sounds, and retailers no longer have that same support they once had when it comes to online marketing. While big brands have the time and resources to invest in digital media, the “little guys” are not so lucky. Sure, they’d love to take advantage of the exposure online, but who’s going to manage their online channels? Who knows how to do that, anyway? And who’s going to pay for it? These are questions that both the brands and retailers need answered in order to keep ahead of their competitors in the digital landscape that exists today.

Promoboxx aims to answer those questions by bringing that same symbiotic relationship that Ben’s parents experienced with local distributors to today’s online marketing. Check out our recent blog post that outlined how brands and retailers can use Promoboxx to strengthen their relationship and build their influence in the digital world.

Promoboxx helps manufacturing brands give their local independent retailers relevant online marketing materials for their online and social channels. We take pride in the ease in which a retailer can opt-in to a nationally sponsored brand campaign and have that page be significant to them (enter, co-branding anyone?!) It is our goal everyday for retailers to sign up for campaigns. However, once a retailer has signed up and their co-branded campaign has been created, the fun doesn’t have to stop there!

The most important part of any successful brand-to-retailer marketing campaign is retailer sharing. Why is sharing so important? By sharing the campaigns on Twitter pages, Facebook pages, website and e-mail, retailers stay front of mind with their consumers. Retailers are providing local, relevant content for their consumers to engage in.

Good thing for the retailers who use Promoboxx, we have made sharing extremely easy. Here is how you (the retailer) can share your customized campaigns via Promoboxx in three easy steps below.

Promoting Campaigns via Promoboxx

• 1. Login: Login to Promoboxx
• 2. Click: Click the black Share Campaign button within the retailer dashboard
• 3. Share: Share a campaign by clicking one of the main share options (Website, Email, Facebook, Twitter)

For additional step-by-step instructions on how to share your campaigns via each channel (website, email, Facebook, Twitter) see below:

Sharing on Facebook:

1. 1. Click the left grey Facebook bar
2. 2. Click the blue Login to Facebook button (only visible if you are not already logged into Facebook), login and Allow Promoboxx access
3. 3. To share on timeline: Choose your page in the drop down menu, add some custom share text, and click the blue Post to Facebook Page button
4. 4. To add the Tab: Choose your page in the drop down menu, and click the blue Add Tab To Facebook Page button

Sharing on Twitter:

1. 1. Click the left grey Twitter bar
2. 2. Click the blue Login to Twitter button, login and allow Promoboxx access
3. 3. Click the blue Tweet button

Sharing via E-Mail:

1. 1. Click the left grey e-mail bar
2. 2. Upload your contact list, or choose to send to your consumer leads already in Promoboxx
3. 3. Preview your e-mail
4. 4. Send to your contact list

Sharing via Website:

1. 1. Click the left grey Website bar
2. 2. Copy the code snippet provided
3. 3. Paste the code to your website

So, retailers out there everywhere, login to Promoboxx and start sharing! We can’t wait to see your shares online! If you have any further questions contact support@promoboxx.com or 1-800-380-7502.

If you read our blog post about how we helped Chevrolet launch their Year End Event, you know that they do more than sell cars. They interact with their local communities and try to connect with their consumers right where they are – their neighborhood.

We could not be more thrilled to help them take their local efforts a step further and launch their interactive map. A place where Chevrolet dealers across the country will be able to add their dealership’s events – from dates, to locations, and even photos.

Whether you’re looking for charity events or a local Chevy Youth Baseball program, this map covers it all! Currently, Chevrolet is promoting their Holiday Charity events. To  find out how you can get involved with any of their local charities, please visit the Meet Chevy Across America tab on Chevrolet’s Facebook page and find a participating dealer near you!

Over the past few days, I have had the pleasure of speaking with both brands and retailers regarding current and/or upcoming campaigns.

The consensus is overwhelmingly positive, both brands and retailers alike love Promoboxx! For brands, we help them distribute content on a continual basis down to the local retailer, making the brand more relevant to the retailer. More content = more relevant!

For retailers, by being able to co-brand the national content, Promoboxx turns the national brand content into relevant content that retailers WANT to share out. More localized = more relevant!

And what’s the kicker of it all? Continual, localized content becomes more relevant to the local consumer. However, in the Promoboxx scenario, BOTH the brand AND the retailer increase their relevance to their customers. Now that’s what I call a successful business plan!

It’s pretty awesome to know we have a product that makes everyone smile!