Local Businesses Go Back to School

It's that time of year again…kids are sulking and parents are rejoicing – September means Back to School. Whether or not you have school-aged kids, take classes of your own, or need to make a trip to Staples for high-priced binders in every imaginable color, this nation-wide event is relevant to you. “Back to School” is the second largest shopping season in the country, only behind the enormous holiday season in the upcoming months. According to MarketingTechBlog, “17.2% of the entire year's retail sales happen during back-to-school shopping”. So, how can you take advantage of this? Here are a few ways that small and local businesses can school the competition this Back to School season:

Topical Social Content

This will likely be my first recommendation no matter the occasion. It's easiest to get found by potential new customers online when you're posting, tweeting, and sharing content that is “trending”. Trending, if you aren't familiar with the social-foward lingo, means that platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) have noticed that more people are talking about some topics than others. Often this is how people get their news; trending topics and hashtags are displayed on a site's home page so that every user knows right away what's hot at that given time.

If your content is funny, insightful, or totally original, it is way more likely to be shared. If you're lucky, maybe it will even go viral. Photos like the one below (my favorite kind of back to school pics) are easy to recreate. Maybe you sell backpacks that will thrill moms in your town!

Add to their Shopping List

Some things make almost everyone's back-to-school shopping list: new sneakers, new notebooks, cool, new backpack. If you have a retail store or online shop that sells these types of things, now is your time to shine. If you're like the rest of us who don't, you may need to be just a little bit creative. Remind everyone that a fresh haircut is great for the beginning of the school year (maybe offer teachers a discount?). If you handywork or home improvement, tell your customers that now is the perfect time to get some housework done with the kids finally out of the house. Back to School often means fresh starts and new projects. Don't wait until New Year's for a resolution to prompt joining a gym.

Pledge Your Allegiance (#schoolspirit)

You're the boss, you can pick favorites if you want to. Consider a discount for students or alumni of your alma mater or a neighboring school (you can ask to see a school ID for verification). Discounts influence many purchases, especially when consumers are already in a shopping state-of-mind. Promote these discounts online or with traditional advertising – wherever your customers will see it.

College Kids Need the Most Stuff

The Back to School shopping season often forgets the huge college market in the US (unless, of course, you're Bed, Bath & Beyond or Urban Outfitters). Let's not forget how many new things these students need when they're living on their own for the first time. Kitchenware, home decor, cleaning supplies, furniture, the list goes on and on. Millennials may not usually be your target market, but when they're “adulting” for the first time, you may have exactly what they need.

Seasons Change

A lot of things are just different in the summer. Work hours vary, travel spikes, normal things get put on hold. Back to School also means that it's the time of year that routines start to become more regulated than they were during the vacation months. If you have a product or service that can help people get back into this routine, they will likely embrace it.

Separately, now is the time for seasonal products to be put on full display. If you have a storefront, a new, seasonal look could draw in some new passersby or existing customers who were enticed by your new look. As more and more people are walking down the street looking for pumpkin-spiced-everything, it's important to keep your place of business looking current and fresh.

Don't let the kids have all the fun during these exciting first few weeks of the school year. Business is booming! Let us know if you've had any success with Back-to-School promotions, traditional or otherwise.

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Emotional Technology: Key for Understanding Potential Customers

Emotional Technology is a highly advanced, innovative approach to the digital real estate of retail space on the internet. It provides retailers personal data about their potential buyers and customers. It's a way to detect the psychological aspects of a buyer and analyzes what influences a purchase based on mood, feelings and emotional responses.

Color theory, product design, brand packaging, product descriptions and even video content plays an important role on how a product is presented in the marketplace. Potential customers are interested in how a company interacts with customers and how they respond to customer's needs, issues and conflicts which reveals the quality and performance of a product and the overall DNA of a brand.

With the high increase and use of mobile devices, consumers are shopping online in droves. The benefits of online shopping provides a reduction of frustration from waiting in long lines, searching for an store associate for help or wandering throughout the store trying to find out if the product is in stock. With convenience at your fingertips, a consumer can scroll menus in specific categories, search images or read the product description, specs and customer reviews prior to purchasing an item.

The rise of online activity and social media influence provides a wealth of personal information for digital marketers to research the interest and buying habits of consumers. Digital cookies tracks all data from internet activities which assists brands with their marketing campaigns.

The explosion of emojis has been an indication of how we measure and interpret the emotions of others through social and digital media platforms.

Facial recognition software detects facial expressions, such as smiles, frowns or smirks which translates positive or negative emotions through different shapes, textures and patterns. For example, it analyzes such facial features related to the forehead, eyes, mouth or eyebrows in real time movement along with head gestures that analyze facial and body characteristics which identifies moods. There is also a cognitive layer which exposes beliefs and values of its subjects.

There are over 12 billion emotional data points that strings information to computers. Computer vision, machine learning and deep learning are some of the processes used in the progression of study. The computer tracks feature points and reviews patterns of emotional ques, reactions and facial expressions and maps data, algorithms, metrics and classifiers based on the internal layers of emotional behavior which provides a read out of the viewer's emotional journey.

A recent study on the PBS News Hour featured a researcher, Dan McDuff, based in Boston, MA who is implementing emotional technology in marketing, video games and therapy for children diagnosed with autism.

Psychology-based influences rooted in techniques, theories and research in social psychology provides insight on social cognition, attitudes, persuasive communication, conformity, obedience, interpersonal relationships, trust or distrust of information and psychological profiling.

These advancements may possibly intrude on sensitive data, information and the rights of individuals as technology influences society to become more transparent in nature. However, researchers believe that it will become a popular method to conduct business which will allow companies an internal approach on how they conduct their business, measure influence and how they communicate with their potential customers? Time will only tell.

As technology progresses, you may expect to find emotional chips implanted in digital devices that will be similar to GPS technology.

Emotional technology will open doorways on how consumers relates to products and why they prefer certain products compared to others. It's a sneak peek into the emotional influences and behaviors of consumers.

There is a level of truth on the advantages of using emotionally-focused data for brand marketing. Adapting and incorporating emotional psychology techniques into promotional advertisements has been the core or foundation of marketing, in general. With a new perspective, it will prove beneficial for the overall advancement of branding and promotion.

The assessment of emotional technology will be a major breakthrough and provide leads for brand marketers on how to target shoppers. It will also provide leveraging to empower the market on a new level with a unique perspective on economic consumption.

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Is Playing Games a Viable Way to Make Money Online?

Making money online is a dream for many. Working from home, or maybe in a location-independent fashion, sounds like a great career – and it can be, although it has its downsides. There are many options to consider, from freelancing to running your own webshop, but there is one (a bit different, so to say) that keeps popping up in “How to make money online” guides on several websites: playing casino games to make money. Is this indeed a viable option? Let's find out.

Online gambling is a form of entertainment

Online casinos are, first and foremost, entertainment venues. Just like the casinos in Vegas, you can play several types of games at the All Slots Online Casino, wagering real cash. The All Slots gives you the possibility to win, but doesn't guarantee anything – as it shouldn't. Most games at the All Slots Online Casino are games of chance, meaning that winning money depends on luck rather than skill or strategy. Its games are created to be fun to play, not to pay your bills.

Online casino games, just like their real life counterparts, are created to be entertaining and completely fair – meaning that neither the players, nor the operators should have any influence on their outcome. Which makes them a most entertaining pastime, but a highly unreliable source of income.

There are, of course, exceptions

Not all casino games rely exclusively on luck, though. There are some exceptions that, if played right, can be profitable for the player in the long run. Note that there is a “can” there – as usual, there are no guarantees. The theoretical profitability of casino games is expressed percentually by a number called “RTP” (Return to Player). This number shows how much players can expect to win (or lose) in the long run when they are playing a certain game.

Most video slot machines available online and in land-based gaming venues have an RTP between 95 and 97 percent. This means that, at least theoretically, players will lose between 5 and 7 percent of all the money they wager. If you play blackjack at All Slots online casino, you can expect an RTP of about 98%, which can be improved by applying a basic (or a more advanced) strategy. The best players can even grow this number to over 100%, meaning that the game is profitable in the long run. The same goes for some variants of video poker – playing with the right strategy can make the game profitable.

Are these games good long-term moneymakers? Well, they can be – but only if you are really good at them. And, of course, lucky – no matter how good your strategy might be, luck will always have a say in the outcome of any hand. Which makes these games an unreliable source of income – but a ton of fun to play. Or, in short – entertainment.

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