How Foursquare Can Bring You Customers
Foursquare is a social networking application available on the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and webOS mobile phone operating systems. According to Dennis Crowley, the company co-founder, “Foursquare is a little bit of everything – a friend-finder, a local city guide, and an interactive mobile game.” When a patron visits your brick and mortar business, the GPS capabilities of the phone allow the user to tell their friends where they are. As patrons “check-in” at your business through the application, they are awarded points and badges which are displayed on their profile, sent to all their friends, and posted on the front-page of Foursquare. But, it's more than just a GPS. It's also a competitive game, with players vying to be the most regular of your customers. For this reason, Foursquare can encourage repeat visitors. The patron who visits your store the most often in a two month period becomes “Mayor” of your business in the Foursquare universe. For some, these badges, titles, and achievements become addictive incentives to return to your venue. If you want to learn how to use this powerful marketing system to draw business, read on!
Why Foursquare Works
Foursquare encourages people to explore their neighborhoods and visit your business by rewarding them for doing so. As the owner of a business, you can use Foursquare by offering discounts or free items to loyal customers or first-time visitors. Essentially, this offers businesses a free-to-implement loyalty program. Additionally, when visitors using Foursquare enter your business, you will get demographic information about them.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Foursquare had over 750,000 users in March of 2010. By the first of May, they hit the million user mark. On the first of April, Foursquare had 22 million checkins. By the first of May, Foresquare had over 50 million checkins. That's right, Foursquare seems to have doubled its checkin rate in a month.
“We built this light game on top of the service and people are really responding to it,” Crowley said. “We’re learning from that and we will continue to add features.”
According to Crowley, Foursquare is primarily engaged in attracting customers and encouraging venues to participate in the game. Currently, over 1,500 venues offer Special promotions for first-time or repeat customers via the Foursquare app. From the WSJ article,
“Brooklyn photographer Kristina Hill, for example, checks in at her local coffee shop Roots Café every morning. And nearly every morning she spies Roots Café’s Foursquare mayor, currently New York University graduate student Travis Helwig, also grabbing his caffeine fix. Hill said she now finds herself stopping for coffee just so she can check in. She vehemently wants that mayorship, and she intends to get it no matter the coffee-cost.”
What local business could ignore a marketing tool that gets this kind of devoted attention?
AJBombers, a burger joint in Milwaukee, surely didn't. Using Foursquare, and by promising the coveted Swarm badge (requires 50 people to be checked in to the venue at the same time), the manager organized a big Sunday rush, increasing his sales by 110%.
Immediately, of course, all these users began tweeting that they had earned the Swarm badge. For the next three hours, anyone who checked in to the restaurant also earned the badge. Over fifty people who had never used Foursquare before checked in just to get the badge.
To be listed on Foursquare, start by creating an account for yourself (not for your business!). Fill out your profile page, including adding a picture and a biography. When people visit your business, they will see your biography listed as the manager of the venue.
- Use the Manager's link to edit your venue's information
- Next, search for your business to see if it's already been listed. One of your patrons may have beat you to the punch. If your business has not yet been listed, use the “Add Things” link on Foursquare. From here, you can select “Add a Venue.”
Step 2: Create your Specials
Next, consider adding some Specials for Foursquare users. You'll be surprised how much business a little competition between users will bring you. There are currently four types of Specials you can add for your users.
Example Specials
Mayor Specials – Unlocked only by the Mayor of your establishment. The Mayor is your single most loyal customer in the past 60 days. Try “You're the Mayor! The Mayor gets extra-special treatment. All your drinks are free!”
Check-in Specials – These are unlocked once when a user checks in a set number of times. Try, “You've checked in ten times. You've earned a free ice cream cone!”
Frequency-based Specials – These are unlocked every x check-ins. Try, “Come in for a free coffee every six check-ins.”
Wildcard Specials – These can be anything you want, and they are always active. Try, “Come in and order a 'Foursquare' for a free soft drink.”
Converting Your Current Patrons into Foursquare Users
You can convert your current customers (who own a smart phone) into Foursquare members by advertising for Foursquare inside your business. The benefits work both ways. You let existing Foursquare members know that they can get benefits by frequenting your establishment, and you can encourage patrons to become repeat customers by signing them up on Foursquare and then hooking them with the Foursquare Specials.
First, make sure your business's profile page is properly filled out. You want your business to look inviting to users. Foursquare makes it easy by allowing you to link your business info from other sites such as Yelp.
Use your Specials wisely. You want to make your Specials worth the trip for your customers. The race for Mayor between two or three regulars at your venue could bring you thousands of dollars that you would not have otherwise seen. Make the reward for Mayor worth it, and you'll make competition all the more fierce.
Optimize your visibility by properly tagging and categorizing your business. You want people looking to find you when they search for what you offer.
Organize a Swarm Party. In a Swarm, all of the Foursquare users in the area meet up at one venue and check in, hoping to get the Swarm badge, which requires 50 concurrent check-ins.
Use your existing social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, to introduce your patrons to Foursquare.
Keep it light. Patrons of your restaurant want to have a little fun. You don't have to be all business.
Guerilla customer service. Find out what your customers are saying about your business. And comment back. Let them know you care about the problem they're having, and that you're working to fix it.
Promote your Specials in-store. Contact Foursquare.com for official window decals. According to Foursquare.com, “We've seen venues promote their involvement with foursquare via Twitter, signs at cash registers and sidewalk blackboards. Go for it, and be creative! Also, we can help you market your Special to your customers by sending you official foursquare window clings.”
Foursquare was created by Naveen Selvadurai and Dennis Crowley after Google purchased Crowley's previous venture, Dodgeball, in 2005. After four years with Google, Dodgeball had made virtually no progress. Working within a mega-corporation, Crowley said, was just too much red tape for a startup company. Google dismantled the Dodgeball division in 2009, and Crowley was free to work on his next big idea. He would use all the things he learned from Dodgeball and the Google acquisition to make the next product better.
Currently, sources say the Foursquare project is worth between $60 and $70 million. Yahoo has been trying to acquire it for $125 million for some time. Rumors are that Crowley won't even sell the company at this price due to his experiences with Google.
If you have any doubts about the efficacy of their business model, according to the Wall Street Journal,
“Investors may also be enamored with the company because it’s not influencing, but possibly changing consumer behavior.”
Success Stories
AJBombers. A small burger joint in Milwaukee was the site of one of the first Swarm Flash Mobs. With a bit of creative marketing on the manager's part, the restaurant invited Foursquare users from across the Midwest to the establishment on a Sunday afternoon, and increased his sales by 110%.
Starbucks. According to a spokesperson from Starbucks, Foursquare enables Starbucks to “engage with our customers in unique ways by breaking down barriers of digital and physical worlds. Foursquare is another way for Starbucks to take the pulse of the experience in physical stores in real time and hear feedback from our customers.” Starbucks offers a custom “Barista” badge for users with more than five check-ins.
Wynn Las Vegas. The outgoing feeds of checked-in guests are monitored in order to cater to the wishes that guests might feel uncomfortable expressing to the hotel. If a guest has a bad experience at a restaurant, for example, it's possible to reach out to the restaurant manager, in real time, and fix the experience before the patron leaves. The Wynn is also utilizing high-end specials for its guests. For example, customers at the Blush Boutique nightclub can enjoy a free round of champagne.
If you don't register your business as a venue on Foursquare, you could be missing out on valuable new and repeat customers. Since it's so easy to do, why not register your venue now?
2 comments:
Any suggestions on how a service business without a brick and mortar location can utilize Foursquare?
I have been using it for my home inspection company, looking for other ways
Great question. I think that Foursquare works best for businesses that have high traffic needs such as a restaurant or bar. However, that's not to say that someone hasn't come up with something clever. I always post a question on LinkedIn when I need help. It's a great free resource and there almost always is someone who knows something or someone that can help. That's where I would start and I'd go from there...
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