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About ten years ago I took a road trip from Los Angeles to visit my parents in Montana. After a couple of weeks, I drove back via my sister’s place in Nebraska. When leaving Christy’s place, I thought I’d try something. What if I made it all the way home to Southern California without touching an interstate highway or spending a cent at a national chain company. It’s too easy to default to the same … get on the highway, get off and eat McDonalds – and get back on the highway, and on and on. But isn’t there more?
My first stop was in Oklahoma. It was noon … lunch time, on two lane State Road 14. Out of nowhere was a little grocery store … and next to it was this huge black gentleman laboring over a barbecue barrel. This was lunch! After three dollars, great conversation – and the best pulled pork barbecue sandwich I have ever had, I drove on.
Now I could go on about the next two days. I could talk about Pie Town (the pumpkin pie is to die for!) … but I think you know how it’ll turn out. Every stop was memorable.
Little I did know, that trip home from Nebraska would be the genesis of a life purpose you’re reading about right now. We too often think that experiences are separate from when we “buy stuff.” After all, it’s hard seeing a trip to WalMart or MacDonald’s having memory value. Those are purely sustenance. But a trip to the local bookstore, or coffee shop where they write the specials on a blackboard – that’s an experience. That’s a memory, like the barbecue in Oklahoma or the cafe at Pie Town.
Finding these places that create memories is becoming harder though. Homogenized retail conglomerates are making it difficult for the “small guy” to survive. Too often, it’s so tiring you just go through the motions rather than running a business that creates memories for your customers.
Community 3.0 was created to help the small business owner create these experiences so they can compete against the Goliaths. We’re all Davids – but it’s just that we don’t have the stones, the ammunition. But when you turn your business into a Front Porch that serves up memory making experiences along with community building volunteer projects … your imagination is the only thing holding you back. … and a place big enough to store all your ammunition.
The bleedingEDGE Experience Platform is the conduit connecting the Merchant or Front Porch, the customer and the community. It is Community 3.0’s vehicle to help you create the customer experiences and memories that will give you the advantage over any of your competition no matter they are.
The platform features an automated array of twenty templated 1 to 1 communication and loyalty programs designed to raise the experience of patronizing your business beyond that of “buying stuff.” The technical backbone behind the platform allows complete flexibility. With our assistance you can market whatever campaign you can think of – including co-op experiences with other small businesses.
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Well-being Engagement
Each campaign is also flagged according to whether it’s strictly marketing related, or it has a larger purpose – say to nudge a Member to walk more; or get out and meet new people. This “well-being purpose” will be then be aligned will what areas of improvement each individual Member has determined most important during their Well-being Assessment (see Engagement for a Purpose).
Your business creates “experience campaigns” that can be triggered by any one or number of the sixteen programs described below. What you choose to offer is triggered by whatever event or activity you program ahead of time. Every morning and every evening, each Member will receive an email synopsis of six engagement nudges that are most relevant to them. These emails are your conduit to activities in the community, as well as personal tasks you can undertake, that will directly will help you elevate your person human condition and well-being. These messages could be advice from your doctor, special deals from your neighborhood small businesses or even alerts of volunteer opportunities sponsored by a community non-profit. The nudges each Member received are limited so not to over-saturate inboxes. The more positive a Member’s experience is with the Community 3.0 network on the whole, the more they’re likely to participate with individual Merchants.
- 16 templated 1 to 1 loyalty marketing programs
- already set up and pre-programmed
- customized to your business
- personalized to each current customer and sent via email or text
- timed to maximize response and effectiveness
- once set up … automatically works on its own
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The 3.0 Loyalty Program
The 3.0 Loyalty Program provides the technical backbone and data-gathering mechanism that fuels the bleedingEDGE Platform.
Points are earned according to how much a Member of the Community 3.0 network spends at your business. Only purchases at your business apply to loyalty rewards. These purchases are then converted into loyalty points according to the conversion rate you set in the interface. We suggest a conversion rate of 10/1. Putting it another way – for every $10 a Member of the 3.0 network spends at your establishment, they receive $1 in complementary services or product.
The 3.0 Loyalty Program allows you to build off your existing cus- tomer base and market to them using the bleedingEDGE Platform. Copious amount of studies have shown marketing to existing customers produces a return seven+ times more than just advertising to prospects. Yet very few businesses do it – especially small businesses. The problem is normally obtaining and working with data. This is a significant benefit of being part of the Community 3.0 network. Every transaction can be part of an integrated marketing effort designed to strengthen your relationship with your customers.
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