Are Consumers Ready to Go Cashless?

Are Consumers Ready to Go Cashless?

Author: By Rimma Kats

January 21, 2018

The idea of going cashless isn't too far off, especially with giants like Starbucks and Amazon already taking the leap.

But are consumers keen on such a shift? According to new data from online polling company CivicScience, the answer isn't so straightforward. 

On one hand, a few consumers (10%) said they would actually go to their favorite restaurant more often if it went cashless—mostly because they rarely carry any cash with them. On the other hand, almost as many respondents (11%) said they would go less because they prefer to pay with cash. And another 15% indicated they would stop going to the restaurant altogether if it no longer accepted cash. 

By and large, a significant share of internet users surveyed seemed indifferent toward the idea of a cashless restaurant. Roughly two-thirds (64%) said their visit frequency wouldn't change. 

Breaking it down by restaurant type, CivicScience found that nearly three in 10 respondents (29%) who frequent fast-food restaurants, like McDonald's and KFC, said they would increase their visits if those places went cashless. However, over two-fifths (42%) of fast-food restaurant customers said they would go less, or halt trips entirely. 

The responses were similar across the various restaurant types mentioned, including casual restaurants, such as Olive Garden and Applebee's, as well as independently or locally owned ones. 

A separate survey from Gallup, conducted in 2016, found that US adults were a bit more enthusiastic about a cashless society. In fact, roughly 62% of those polled said the US becoming a country where all purchases are made with credit cards, debit cards or other forms of electronic payment is at least somewhat likely.

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Ralph Paglia

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18th Century Dogon Tribe Granary Door (North Africa) ($1,000)

I am selling an 18th Century Dogon Tribe Granary Door (North Africa) for $1,000 on OfferUp. Check it out.

You will never see one of these available ever again. The Dogon Tribe has lived in Sub Sahara Northern Africa for thousands of years. Their knowledge transcends that of modern man and has confounded anthropologists for over 100 years. This granary Door was in use during the 18th century and has carved pictographs telling the story of when the Nommi came to earth and gave the Dogon their knowledge of celestial systems, mathematics, science, agriculture, the rule of law and more. I received this granary Door as an anonymous gift for Christmas 2007 after I had given a presentation about the Dogon Tribes knowledge of the star Sirius which was more accurate than modern science and only became evident after Hubble was launched. This item belongs in a museum and is actually priceless in documenting contact between an alien species and humans. I am embarrassed to be offering it for $1,000 but my situation is dire and I have run out of options.
more details...

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Ralph Paglia

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Holiday Sales Surprisingly Strong

Holiday Data Shows Surprisingly Strong Finish to the Year... 

Strong Economy, consumer confidence and easing discount pressure

Author: Rimma Kats

New data from the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) shows 2017 holiday spending rose dramatically over the previous year, a surprisingly positive conclusion to a year marked by widespread store closings and retail bankruptcies.

The ICSC reported that consumers spent an average of $841.50 on holiday items this past season—a whopping increase from the $711 spent in 2016.

The survey was released on the heels of a rash of early reports of solid holiday sales results from retailers including Target, Nordstrom and Kohl's. Target's comparable sales, for example, grew 3.4% in the November/December period, driven in large part by digital. And Kohl's—which has posted profit declines in 18 of the past 24 quarters—revealed that during the holidays, same-stores sales increased 7% vs. the year prior. 

One worry dogging retailers through much of the year was that consumers have been conditioned to demand aggressive discounts before they part with cash. But the pressure for discounts seemed to ease a bit this year. As previously reported in eMarketer Retail, pricing firm Market Track found lower overall promotional levels as of late November. 

"In previous years, holiday sales rose overall despite heavy discounting—not because of it," said eMarketer retail analyst Yory Wurmser. "Consumers adapted to competitive discounts and waited for prices to come down, which if anything lowered revenues for the industry, if perhaps helping some individual retailers."

"This year, consumer confidence was strong enough to boost spending strongly," he added. "In a virtuous cycle, retailers also felt less need to increase their discounts. The increased spending reflects overall economic conditions more than retailer discounts."

Still, plenty of shoppers were looking for deals. ICSC found that roughly four in 10 holiday shoppers were influenced by deals when deciding whether to make a holiday purchase. 

The study also found roughly two-thirds of respondents shopped for gifts at discount stores like Target or Walmart, while another 47% preferred to shop at traditional department stores such as Macy's or Nordstrom. 

Separately, First Data reported that US consumer spending over the holiday season (measured as October 28 to January 1) increased 6.2% year over year. 

(via Ralph's iPhone 7+)

Ralph Paglia

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Lead Nurturing: What #AutoMarketing Needs!

If your experience working with sales leads sent to a dealership has involved too many"Poor Quality Leads", then maybe Lead Nurturing is a viable and important digital marketing component that you need to better understand. Lead nurturing is to build relationships with potential customers even if they are not currently looking to buy a new or used car, even if they aren't ready to use your service department.  If you have ever tried to download an online "eBook" or "White Paper" then you most likely were required to fill out a form with at least your name and email address. Surely you have provided your personal data to download SEO or #Automotive marketing whitepapers, ebooks or participate in free webinars... Then, shortly afterwards you have received some emails from that supplier or company with certain information. This kind of process is known as Lead Nurturing.

So, Lead Nurturing is a marketing automation technique with three purposes:

• Identify which customers in your database are ready to make a purchase, or service their vehicle.
• Ensure that #Automotive consumers who are not yet ready could receive valuable information to help, in order to prepare them for the purchase.
• Users who you have given up for lost, recover them and start the process

Lead Nurturing promotes more personalized and flexible relationship with our prospects. This is an opportunity to increase revenue and share market.

To get the most of your potential customers, first of all you must to understand exactly what they are looking for and where in the buying process they are.  A good lead nurturing process is based on monitoring profiles, classification and segmentation of your potential customers. In addition you can customize the process. That will increase the chance of conversion.

How efficient process Lead Nurturing is achieved?

1) Define your ideal potential customers. They may be leads that spoke with a salesperson but not closed sales, leads "sleepers", etc.

2) Decide how many communications you want to receive your leads. It is important to know the sales cycle of your leads to determine the number of communications.

3) Establish a multi-channel communication strategy. Although traditionally the lead nurturing process was based on email, current technology allows you to include SMS and phone calls.

4) Customize the maximum. Make sure that each lead receives the necessary contacts, according with their reaction of received communications.

5) Test different actions. Flow automation will allow you to easily test more than one way to get your leads.Different creativities, messages, contact media.

6) Use metrics. A good lead nurturing process allows you to analyze many metrics. You need to know what contact strategies make better conversions.

When a user completes a lead nurturing process, showing interest in received emails and downloaded content you offer, you can estimate that the user is ready to be contacted, and offer your services or products.

In short, Lead Nurturing allows you to optimize your commercial capabilities.

Sent from Ralph Paglia's iPhone

SEO: Search Engine Optimization Basics for Business Owners

SEO: Search Engine Optimization Basics for Business Owners

Being up to date on marketing your business online is essential to your success. There are different methods to use such as social media, pay per click, linkedin and many others. This post is about the basics of SEO and how it can help business owners

Whenever I do workshops on marketing one of the top questions I get asked is "how do I get to the top page of Google!".  This can be very complicated task since it takes time and effort to accomplish. If you have a marketing budget you can hire a SEO specialist to do this for you. The good thing about online marketing is  are many strategies that can be done for free if you have the time. Here are three key tips that will help you understand SEO better.

 

1. Keywords

You need to make sure you know the main keywords associated with searching for your type of business.  I would suggests choosing 3-5 keywords that can relate well with your business. Here are examples of keywords that a Ford dealer in Austin could use.

Some of your keywords can include

• "Austin Ford Dealer"

• "Austin Truck Dealer"

• "New Ford Trucks in Austin"

Once  these keywords are chosen you can then start using them more often when you are writing about your business in a blog or product descriptions.  This  technique will help Google determine the purpose of your site.

Below is a tool to help you choose the top searched keywords

2. Title Tags

Title Tags are one of the top things the Google looks at when they want to rank your site.  As you can see in the image below the highlighted words are called the "Title Tag". It is very important that you put keywords here so you can rank. One way to get this done is to ​put the most important keywords first.

As you can see "Ford Trucks"  is among the first keywords followed by "Trucks", "F-150" and the others. This can also be called Page Titles. Contact your web master to implement this if you do not know how yourself. 

3.  Description Tags

Description tags are another place to place your keywords you choose. The description tag is where potential visitors can  find out what your site is about before they visit. Below is an example of using keyword phrases within descriptions. This Ford dealer was sure to list more than one phrase in her description.

​

3. Links

Linking your website is also important. This means that you  should  to post your website url  link on other notable websites. This lets Google know that your site is being shared with others. It also helps more visitors come to your website.  For example putting your link on sites like yellow pages or Superpages will help you site tremendously. Most of the time it is free to post your link on these directory sites which yield good traffic.

 

 

Ralph Paglia

President

ADM Consulting, LLC

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