In the Loupe
In the Loupe
The Art of the Campaign ft. Buzz Advertising Agency
Michael speaks with Bri Black from Buzz Advertising Agency and Hope Bellair, Digital Marketing Manager at Punchmark, for a discussion on the art of creating effective marketing campaigns.
Learn how to conceptualize a campaign, set goals and metrics, and execute on marketing for your next effort!
Learn more about Buzz Advertisement Agency: https://buzzadvertisingagency.com/
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Inquire about sponsoring In the Loupe and showcase your business on our next episode: podcast@punchmark.com
Welcome to In the Loop. What is up everybody? My name is Michael Burfo. Thanks again for listening to In the Loop this week. More of a traditional In the Loop episode. I'm joined by Brie Black from Buzz Advertisement Agency and Hope Belair, the Digital Marketing Manager at Punchmark, and we're talking about campaigns, and campaigns are really interesting because they are one of those dynamic ways that you can both further your branding and also increase and drive traffic to your physical location as well as your digital location. It's a really cool talk. We talk about some successful campaigns that these women have been involved with, as well as some ways that you can think more abstractly about your campaigns and talk about what you can do to build one for yourself. If that's something you're interested in, it's a cool conversation, I hope you enjoy.
Speaker 2:This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the jewelry industry's favorite website platform and digital growth agency. Our mission reaches way beyond technology. With decades of experience and long-lasting industry relationships, punchmark enables jewelry businesses to flourish in any marketplace. We consider our clients our friends, as many of them have been friends way before becoming clients. Punchmark's own success comes from the fact that we have a much deeper need and obligation to help our friends succeed. Whether you're looking for better e-commerce performance, business growth or campaigns that drive traffic and sales, punchmark's website and marketing services were made just for you. It's never too late to transform your business and stitch together your digital and physical worlds in a way that achieves tremendous growth and results. Schedule a guided demo today at punchmarkcom. Slash go.
Speaker 1:And now back to the show. What is up everybody? I'm joined by Hope Belair, Digital Marketing Manager at Punchmark, and Brie Black with Buzz Ad Agency. How's everybody doing?
Speaker 3:Good morning, doing good. How are you?
Speaker 1:So well and hope you're coming back after a whirlwind RJO into IJO combination. I'm sure that you're probably ready for a little bit of time to kind of relax. How were the shows for you?
Speaker 4:Oh, they were amazing, they were really great. It's always good to network and see our clients and make some sales and stuff like that, so it definitely was a whirlwind and but so fun.
Speaker 1:And Bree, you were at RJO Phoenix with with Buzz. How was that show for you?
Speaker 3:Was. I was in Phoenix, you know, I think every time we're in some place that's warm, the show goes really well. So it was like a big family reunion this time. It was really fun and I also think everyone was just in a great mood, which is always nice to see and interact with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, and can you give an idea just for the people that are home? I've had hope on a bunch of times before. Can you give me an idea what the Buzz Ad Agency does as well?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so Buzz Advertising Agency is a full service agency. So we kind of put our plan into five different buckets we do strategy, then we do the planning, then we do the creative, then we buy the media, place the media and then we execute everything that we've planned. So there's not much that we say no to.
Speaker 1:That's super cool, and are you specific to the jewelry industry?
Speaker 3:We are. You know, my boss has roots in the upper peninsula of Michigan, so we have a handful of clients that are not jewelry, but I'd say about 80 to 85% of our clients are jewelry.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's fascinating. It's kind of like a punch mark. Weirdly, we do one restaurant, we do just a single pizza restaurant. So shout out to Joey's Pizza in Las Vegas. It's just so random he's been with us for it's like one of their friends. So but to get into what I wanted to discuss, I have two digital marketing experts on and I kind of wanted to talk in a more flexible manner about the idea of campaigns, so to set it up for listeners.
Speaker 1:Campaigns I don't want to just talk about here's how to do a Valentine's Day campaign and everybody knows kind of how that works.
Speaker 1:But it's more of like the archetype or the principle behind it that I want to discuss. For example, type or the principle behind it that I want to discuss. For example, in my mind at least, from, you know, an amateur's point of view, I see campaigns as this you have an end goal that you're trying to set out and convert on and it's usually tied to a by now reasoning, because you can't just have like, hey, we're awesome all the time, come sign up with us, because it doesn't really prompt anybody to or spur them on unless they are just hearing about you for the first time and Punchmark is doing a bunch of campaigns recently and hope I'm sure you'll probably get into it later on. But I'm more interested in kind of talking about what you think the main components of a campaign are and maybe we can start with, you know, sort of reading in the listeners on that and then we'll get into like some real examples. But, brie, can you talk to me a little bit about what you think like the components of a campaign include?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I would say. Number one we're lucky enough to have a lot of long-term partners, so we can kind of play with this a little bit. But your timeframe when your campaign is, does it? Does it make sense for who your end consumer is Like? For example, if you're doing a bridal campaign, you need to do some work in the spring in order to get what you want out of the summer. So that's usually our number one question that we ask when we're thinking about our campaigns.
Speaker 3:Number two is your frequency of message. That's nothing groundbreaking but, like I mentioned before, we're full service, so really we know that one touch point is enough. Two touch points aren't enough. So our frequency of message is really huge for us. We're trying to reach them while they're watching Netflix and while they're scrolling, and also maybe even something at their door. So that's a big, big part of a successful campaign.
Speaker 3:And then, what makes it special? You know a lot of people make the mistake of doing a sale just for the sake of having a sale, but that's not always the correct thing. Most of the time it's not the correct thing. Are you actually adding value? Is this something that is special for your customers? Is it special for your VIP customers. That's a huge thing for us because a lot of our clients the majority of their business comes from a very small number of consumers. Not everybody's into jewelry and you can't make them be into jewelry. We sure would like to, but you can't always do that. You got to make sure you're taking care of people that take care of you.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and just to really drive that home, in the end I've said it a million times jewelry is considered a luxury good and that is defined by it being a want and not a need, and you can't force or trick someone into wanting or needing your jewelry. It has to be a want. So if we start there, then I think we're at a foundational principle. But Hope, when you are thinking about it, from setting up these campaigns and you're having these conversations with our clients, timeframe obviously big, but are you approaching it from like a, trying to put your own spin on it? Is that what it is, to stand out, or how are you kind of concocting these campaigns so that they actually stand out in the crowd?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so definitely with Google. We set up our campaigns a little bit differently to definitely optimize CPCs and cost per clicks, click through rates and getting them to the website for sure. And same thing with meta. I mean, the thing that I see from our clients that benefit them the most is the most authentic messaging that they can do. So that's what we try to do in setting up every campaign.
Speaker 4:What do you guys stand for? What is it that makes you guys unique? And let's move forward with that, especially with video platforms such as meta and YouTube. With that, especially with video platforms such as Meta and YouTube, that's huge right. Because, again, why should I want jewelry from you, specifically when I can go, you know, to a box store or you know something like that? So I also tell a lot of my Meta ads clients, you know, even if they don't have, you know, a ton of video resources. What about your iPhone? Right, take a few screenshots and videos around the room. What's the experience in the store? Who's behind the desk? Stuff like that Everybody wants to know and especially now with AI and all that stuff, authenticity really stands out.
Speaker 1:Definitely agree. I also think that you said authenticity, and I think that sometimes we're almost kind of reaching peak peak polish Wow, what a great term. I'm going to use that again, peak polish in that sometimes there's all these accounts on all the social media platforms that are just so refined that it almost comes off as inauthentic, and whether that's because they are using whether it's a Gemini or you know all these different AI platforms to, you know, really push their stuff into the next kind of bracket. I almost am kind of yearning for, like, if it's a mom and pop store, I kind of want it to feel like a mom and pop store. I don't want, you know, my local jeweler always to feel like a mega, you know blockbuster event space, but to kind of walk it back just a second more.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about like, where are you trying to go? So converting, and I sometimes I have a hard time kind of wrapping my head around. Like you said, having display ads is great because you're driving brand awareness. How are you having this conversation, bri, that, yes, it is valuable for potential customers to have these touch points. If they're not clicking on your ad. What is that conversation like when you're trying to describe that it is still valuable, even if they're not clicking on it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we try our best to make sure that we're explaining where and why they're seeing the message, so that it's not a freak out moment if their clicks aren't doing anything for them. If people aren't being driven to their landing page hey, they're still seeing your name. People aren't being driven to their landing page hey, they're still seeing your name. It's still being delivered to the right person. That's the biggest thing, is you want to make sure that you've narrowed in your targeting and that your message is getting delivered Now. Maybe they're not looking to get engaged right now, or maybe they don't have a significant other to buy jewelry for. That's not something that you can control, but what you can control is what's being delivered, what that creative is. You guys both touched on something that I'm pretty passionate about and I try to explain with my clients the authenticity part Did a presentation not too long ago and I was explaining how Gen Z and even millennials Gen Z is coming in hot and like. I think it's about the next 10 years they're going to have 30% of our buying power the whole US. So you need to make sure that you're doing something for them and they are going to sift through those ads. They're going to skip, they're going to block you.
Speaker 3:You want to make sure that the content that you're putting out is a value add to them. It feels authentic. Like you said, if your page is all Gabriel content, they know nothing about you or your store. So you're driving that traffic, you're trying to get those clicks, but what are they clicking to? And you got to make sure that when you get those people who are interested in jewelry, that you're directing them to something that's of value to them, whether that be a guide on how to pick out an engagement ring or products that are specific to them. Let's say, easter's coming up, make sure you have your crosses out and ready for people looking for that type of thing. So I try to explain the big picture. You know you're going to take some losses. Not every channel is going to be successful for you, but when you plan it out properly, all of the channels in place are going to hook the people that you want to hook.
Speaker 1:I definitely agree and Hope you have these conversations all the time as well. Do people ever get spooked that they are not getting clicks on their ads, or do you find that they're starting to kind of see the big picture, that it's not just about them clicking on it and then going, adding a product to their cart and then checking out at the exact same flow that it's more of like this long-term play that eventually pays off?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's what I kind of like to. When I'm onboarding a client, I kind of like to tell them that right out of the gate, right, because at the end of the day you need to have a significant amount of touch points, kind of like Bree was saying before, for people to recognize your name and recognize your brand and then come in. I know Google ads are a little bit different. It's a little bit more search intent. So you're only showing up for, let's say, if they're actually searching for jewelry, that's fabulous because that's going to make your numbers infinitely better.
Speaker 4:Meta, on the other hand, you're kind of reaching for new people. You are not going for people that are necessarily they're not searching in the top bar hey, jewelry, you know what I mean? They are the people that are 28 and about to propose to their girlfriend. They are, you know, in their early 30s, working professional wanting to buy themselves something pretty. It's difficult for again those kinds of platforms to convert sincerely. But let's say again you're seeing that ad for the fifth time now and you're like I've been seeing this ad a lot, let me click on it. There you go, right, but it took maybe five to 10 impressions to get that one click. So again, it's all about that frequency, just pushing the message and the right message, kind of like what Bree was saying.
Speaker 1:Man really interesting. Just to give a really real life example before we we take a break here in a second. I just went back to Charlotte and I visited my old jujitsu gym that Hope is attending, and I met up with one of my friends that I hadn't talked with since I had left. And I was talking to him and he's like, oh, I'm engaged now. And I'm like, hey, no way, that's so cool. Where did you get your ring? And he did not know the name of the jewelry store, which I thought was fascinating. So I start prying. I'm like where was it? Well, he's like I had started looking and I found this ad. All right, like, I started looking at rings and this ad popped up in my Instagram and they it was basically like, hey, stop in, we're at at this address.
Speaker 1:And he still didn't know what the name of it. He went in, bought an engagement ring proposed and, uh, I was like, are you sure it wasn't? Uh, you know, uh, morris and Smith's jewelers. And he's like, oh, yeah, it's kind of like on a Ballantyne road. And I'm like that is the one. He's like, yeah, it's that one. I was like how crazy is it that he didn't know where he bought this major purchase from, but it was the awareness purely from an advertisement that I thought you know really hooked him. So, as a result, they're fighting for that sale. And did they get that sale online? No, he went in store but he didn't even know where a jewelry store was in Charlotte until he received that ad. So it's just something to kind of think about in like the grand scheme of campaigns. But, hope Brie, we're going to take a quick break and when we come back I want to talk about the differences between driving people from in-person to digital and digital to in-person. So everybody, stay with us.
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Speaker 1:And now back to the show. All right, everybody. We're still speaking with Brie Black with Buzz Advertisement Agency and Hope Belair, digital marketing manager at Punchmark. So I wanted to talk a little bit about the difference between driving from online to in-store versus in-store to online, kind of different hurdles to go on. I personally find taking people across these platforms to be extremely difficult, something I haven't yet figured out. I find digital to digital to be much more easy because you know people can click. I wanted to ask, brie, if you are trying to convert someone from a online campaign and you're trying to convert them to an in-store event, what would like a conversion look like? What is that actually? How do you consider that to be a success? Besides, them just like popping up at the at the store at the time of the event.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question. Honestly, when we're playing, when we're bringing people in, random people from online, that we don't know who they are yet, we're playing a long game with them. A lot of times this is a bridal specific for us. A lot of times the people that our clients don't know are those younger people who haven't started their jewelry journey yet. What we've been doing is actually like a leads campaign first and our leads campaign is a little bit different. It's fun, it's more like a survey form and then from there we follow them. We follow them with organic content from the store. We usually have meta ads set up so that they're in different brackets. So the first phase of our meta ads, the first one to be delivered, is usually an offer or value ad. So whether it's free design consultation or $500 off your purchase of X, that's the first set. That's usually for the people who are ready to make that purchase anyways. Now for those people that are a little bit harder to reach, our next set of like meta ads are usually a little bit about us, a quick, short form about the store or your engagement ring selection or what have you. Then we follow back up with carousel ads. Those have worked really well for us over the past year is something we're going to continue into 2025, because ease of browse, as I like to say, is key for people looking for jewelry, so we want to make sure whatever they're looking for shows up for them.
Speaker 3:Something that's fun that we're doing because of our leads ad is personalized marketing, so all of this is personalized to them. So if they have signified in their leads ad that they're looking for a yellow gold solitaire, all of those messages are now going to be catered towards yellow gold, a simpler ring, probably some solitaires in their carousel. So it's all personalized. We don't want to spam anybody, right? We get ads all day, every day, and I swipe, I block. If it's not something I'm looking for, I keep it out of my feed.
Speaker 3:That's the reason we want to make sure it is what they're looking for, because we're smart and we can spot an ad from 10 miles away. So we want to make sure whatever we're doing really resonates with them, and that's just on the meta side. If they're on the website browsing, we retarget them. If they are, have been to our site or our Facebook profile and are part of our audience, we're also broadcasting to them through OTT. So just trying to find out who those people are, making local like audiences and then giving them what they want, not necessarily all of your marketing messages. If you're doing an anniversary event, it might not matter to them because they're looking for engagement. So it just kind of depends on who that customer is. But we're following them until they're ready to make that decision.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just staying in their ear, it works on me. I mean, I talk about it a million times. I am like the perfect instance of if I get the same ad enough times. They catch me at a weak moment. It's 10 pm and I am, you know, laying in bed and I'm like I need a little dopamine rush. I'm going to buy that. I don't even care. Catch me at like the weakest moment. But what about you Hope when it comes to converting? Because we've done Punchmark, has run in-store event campaigns where it's like, hey, we're trying to get you to register and get into the store. But I feel like we've also had, you know, advertisements where it's about hey, we have an online sale going on, check out our website and having kind of messaging around that Is there. Does that change kind of how you're approaching a campaign? Whether, in that I guess it's a great term but direction, depending on that, are you changing your approach?
Speaker 4:So not necessarily, kind of like Bree had said, if we're, if we got a lead and we're following them, they're going to get served that same event ad because we want them to come into the store even if they haven't been there before, because they filled out that form. Now, the only thing I think that we do maybe slightly differently, because we do offer email marketing here is we're going to be clienteling and focusing most of the clienteling on the email marketing because we've got them on the list, facebook and meta. From there will go into acquisition, people that have never seen the store before. Again, if they're having a 60% off for six hours sale, like a flash sale on a Saturday, that's exciting. For some people, people that have never seen your ad before, it'll be like 60% off.
Speaker 4:Okay, like I'm not doing anything this Saturday, let me go check it out. Who knows, maybe I'll make a purchase, maybe I won't, but at least you know now I'm in the store and they can work their magic from there. Um, but again, it kind of just depends on what the event is. If it's appointment driven, we're definitely trying to retarget those who are, um, you know, getting engaged. If it's a, if it's a bridal show or, um, some older folks, maybe for an estate sale type of thing. It really just depends. And from there, um yeah, email marketing, we send out at least three emails, at least two weeks before.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I think that the emails staying in their inbox it's still. It's so crazy. I, I have these. Uh, I get these emails, these marketing emails that I haven't bought from in years and they still are sending me emails and I am still opening them. And it's so wild to me because it's just like they're staying in my brain way longer than a company that I bought from two months ago and they haven't sent me anything and it's like, and they're doing it in the downtime I mean, we're in the middle of March and I think that the air is a little bit more clear right now, as opposed to like everyone's trying to make their money in December because of you know, all the buying season stuff.
Speaker 1:But at the same time, it's like you're fighting a much easier battle, in my opinion, if you're battling through the year, as opposed to just when everybody else is out there. Bri, do you kind of have like a perspective like, hey, when should you be running these kind of campaigns? Is it better to go when no one else is going or is it tried and true Might as well go November, december, sort of thing?
Speaker 3:I was going to agree with you with the email thing. I think I get like two emails a day from Fabletics and I have been. I've made a couple accounts just because they keep their frequency up. But for us, I guess we are always working on our messaging. We always have some sort of campaign going for awareness of the store. That's not something we ever lose sight on and bridal is not something we ever lose sight on.
Speaker 3:Christmas, holidays, december, november are obviously the time that we ramp up. I would say for emails. We send way more in Q4 than we do in Q1. But then once they've kind of got a break, we go right back into it in Q2, making sure that it's all relevant and like inspirational for those clients, whether it be like spring jewelry or an event happening. We want to make sure it's not just sending to send. We give them a little buffer and then we come right back in because email is maybe one of the most cost effective ways to advertise. So why not, absolutely, why not? We do send birthday and anniversaries all year round, so just for those special occasions, we're always in their ear. But yeah, I don't. I wouldn't say we ever ease up. We might put less money behind things, but we're always continuing that frequency because you never know when someone's ready to buy a nice piece or get engaged. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And correct me if I'm wrong, hope. Yeah, and correct me if I'm wrong, hope. I think that the competition pricing on the different platforms is lower in off-peak season. Is that right? I know that's true for YouTube ad payouts, where that's why all the creators make tons of videos during November. December is because Google is incentivizing you, because they want to run more ads on your content. But I think it's less competition, right, during the rest of the season.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it is. I mean. So let's just say, cost per click on like a Google ad campaign for bridal is always going to be a little bit high because those are bigger keywords and we're competing for them. The difference between, you know, quarter four let's just say as a whole in comparison to the rest of the year, is that so many other people are then increasing their budgets to get that first ad ad space. So that's where you know if you're consistent throughout the year and you've got that messaging out, maybe you're already doing okay to where you don't need to make a humongous leap from, let's say, august to September and onward. But yeah, I mean definitely costs more in quarter four. I, you know I've seen budgets go from 10,000 a month to 20. Just as easy, because it's it's crazy.
Speaker 1:Wow, and maybe this is a great time to kind of talk about successful campaigns. I don't think that it's about saying what is successful for one store, because, like we've always discussed on InLoop is that there are stores that are competing with you know, that are in towns of, you know, 4000 people like the town I'm in, know 4,000 people like the town I'm in, and then there's people in Charlotte and you're competing for, like you know, several million people and their eyeballs there. So what is successful to you is completely different. But I'd like to talk about, like, what has been a successful event I guess I can even start with talking about for Punchmark.
Speaker 1:I recently worked with Hope and Ross and we talked about this thing called the why Punchmark campaign and this was really fascinating because we ran it like what I was alluding to earlier. We ran it in an off-season. Normally we do all of our marketing around trade shows, around Cyber Week, leading up to JCK, things like that, but what we really wanted to do is let's hit them when no one else is out there, and what we tried to do is set up an awareness campaign that was centered around just some nice brand positioning for us and we had never done something. Oh, at least I could remember we hadn't done anything like that before, and it was just about using some assets we had collected throughout the year and making them look the way that we were trying to present ourselves, you know, kind of like one of those.
Speaker 1:It felt very much like, you know, maybe you're in a rut, you're not feeling great about yourself, you're a little down. It's like a weird part of the year maybe you just, you know, recently became single. It's like, oh, I'm gonna go get a haircut, haircut and I'm going to dress up and I'm going to treat myself to a dinner. That's kind of what I felt like Punchmark was doing was let's, you know, see what we can do in a weird part of the year, and we ran it during, I think it was August until October, and what happened was it ended and then we went into a real converting campaign and I thought it was just a really interesting one. I thought it was very successful because it just positioned us the way that we've always talked about positioning ourselves and that made it a success for me. Bree, any campaigns that you're particularly proud of, or anything you can share for any clients that you've worked with.
Speaker 3:Yeah, two that kind of stick out to me as we're talking about successful ones. I have plenty that weren't extremely successful, and you know that's the name of the game, but one in particular I mentioned earlier. You really want something that's going to be unique and a real offer. And we have a store that does a once a year sale and you know that sounds a little bit basic. It really does, but for them it works because they don't discount throughout the year. So of course people are going to come and we pull people from three hours away. It's wonderful. It's a three-day event. It's all about that timing and the sense of urgency and I think this in 2024, I think they did like seven or 8% of their yearly volume in three days it was. They staff up, they bring in some extra people, like they really make it special. That's also because they're known in their community. People trust and respect them.
Speaker 1:So what time of the year was that campaign? If you don't mind me asking.
Speaker 3:August. So honestly, that's not usually a month that we would recommend doing any specific sale, but because they've been doing it for so long and because it's becoming known that that is the time that there are discounts, people come and they mark their calendars and they know it's going to happen every year. So I think that's pretty important. Sometimes we have clients that just want to try. They just want to try an event just to see. But I really think that when you continue to do an event and people start to look forward and you have that community buy-in, that's just going to help you that much more.
Speaker 3:I will say we do direct mail for that. Usually we save like a lot of our direct mail for the holidays, but for special things like this, we suggest direct mail and that's done really well for us, I think, like for our clients. Our printer just gave us some stats. She's always trying to get us to do more print, but she was saying in this past year it was a $42 return for every dollar spent. So it does work when used correctly. I know I know I did not expect her to say that.
Speaker 1:That's a great statistic. I love that. I think direct mail is something we're trying to get into a little bit more, mainly because it's like it takes a little bit of effort. You got to think ahead of time and it's like I know personally speaking. I get a lot of junk mail and I just throw it right in the trash, but it does seem like it is a direct value back. It sounds great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, direct mail has been fantastic for us. Honestly, a lot of people are visual people. We spend most of our time scrolling and looking online anyways, so why not put that right in front of them as well? We have some clients that do quarterly direct mail, but it's not event specific, it's just gorgeous and it relates to their customers and they bring it in. They bring things in and it's circled and they're like I want this, so it was working, so we kept doing it. But, yeah, that event always does well for us. We're always trying to beat ourselves every year. One that has also done really well and I think a big part of all of our successful events is the community tie-in, and that doesn't necessarily mean it's philanthropic, but it means that you're involving different parts of your community that have their own audiences as well.
Speaker 3:A lot of people do gemstone events. We have one client in particular that just goes all out for his gemstone events. He does dairy events. So before the dairies even come into the store this past year he had a red carpet event where they played the dairy movie and invited his VIP customers, and they felt very special.
Speaker 3:Like I said, a lot of our clients most of their revenue comes from a very small pool of people and you want to make sure you're taking care of them, so he brought them in, he rolled out the red carpet, literally, and they did that a week before and then invited them all back in for a VIP day and he crushed his sales goals for that. He's one that's always trying to outperform his gem events as well, and that was just a really important element. That will be continuing. We're going to put a spin on it every year, but it worked really well for him. People like to feel special. You know you're investing a lot in this company, so we'll invest a lot in you as well. So I think it kind of goes both ways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's right on, especially, just like you know, by now reasoning. We're always talking about that A lot of the times. We think of, oh, it's 10% off, or it's 15% off. And the thing about percentages, I mean they could just always approach closer and closer to a hundred percent. But if you have a buy, now reasoning that's like, oh, we're going to treat you really well and it's a red carpet event, Suddenly it's like, oh, that's different, that's kind of stands out. So I love that and Hope. What about you? You've done a bunch of campaigns for different clients and it sounds like you've done a bunch of campaigns for different clients and it sounds like, yeah, like you said, some, some are hits, Some definitely are some misses, and I think that's just kind of the nature of the game, seeing what sticks Any of that stand out to you that were successful. That that you want to do again.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we actually have a client in the Midwest and they do every spring and fall actually they do a restyle event. That's one day only and you get to come in and revamp your old jewelry, get a custom design consultation, the whole nine. So that one does really really well. I remember I think it was last spring she told me a week out to to pause the ads and stop them because they were fully booked. It was great Wow.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's crazy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but one thing I would say. Like you know, it's funny, there's another store of mine in the Northeast and she for years had a summer sale, always had a summer sale. It was like one week in July in-store only, et cetera. Last year was the first year that they did not do it and you know they were feeling a little bit of the pinch over the summer because clients had been trained for about 10 years right To wait for that week of the sale but they still ended up about 10 to 12% up year over year, you know, without that sale.
Speaker 4:So it's just yeah, it was really, it was really good talking to her. It's just yeah, it was really, it was really good talking to her a few weeks ago. It was, it was really good to hear. So I mean, it really just depends on, of course, the multitude of things, society as a whole and all that fun stuff, right, but getting exclusive events and feeling like a VIP, having you know kind of keeping that surprise element and you know kind of changing the game up every once in a while, also does really really good things, as well as having you know your run of the mill every year restyle event.
Speaker 1:And one of the things I noticed between what you both have just kind of alluded to when you're talking about working with these clients is oh, they want to beat it the next year. And I guess that brings up what my final point is talking about like goal setting and talking about, I guess, metrics and things like that. I'm like a real metric nerd. When it comes to working with Punchmark, I do a lot of the reporting and I think that it's kind of like trying to piece together this like hidden puzzle and seeing if you can gain some type of insight or the fast track or like a shortcut, and I think that the difficult factor with these campaigns sometimes is deciding what is success. And because it's like oh yeah, like what Hope was just saying, hey, you know, they are going to discount things 40% off and they always do it, and then people were missing it, but then just in passive sales because they didn't discount it, suddenly they were up and talking about those kinds of measurements and things like that is something that needs to be analyzed.
Speaker 1:Bree, how are you deciding what is like a pass fail? Are you looking at past years? What are you doing for new campaigns as well? Are you kind of picking a arbitrary number. That's like all right, we need to get $10,000 in sales from this campaign directly related to it. Or is it more of like um, kind of a feel sort of thing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question. You know, it kind of depends on the client. Some of our clients are very competitive with themselves and so their goal is to beat themselves every year. Um, but what we really like to do is, at the beginning of every year, take a big picture, look at everything, see which months maybe not necessarily which sales really work for you, but what months work for you, what we did during those months, what months didn't do well for you and what can we do to kind of supplement that for the next year. So we kind of look, we have three-year averages and then we look at the end of every year, at your year end, and that's kind of how we look at things in the beginning.
Speaker 3:In the planning stage, when we get to individual campaigns, we always ask to make sure we, you, the salespeople, at the end of a sale where did you hear about us? How many times did you like the message? Obviously not grilling people, but we like to track that too, because that's a lot of our successes. Are we using the right channels? Did the dollars that we spend actually work? Did the direct mail that we sent? Did anyone bring that in the social media ads? Did anyone click on those. So we kind of look at a more holistic approach. Obviously we ask how the event went at the end of every event and we hope that it was a success. But if, at the end of the day, it still generated you a ton of awareness, that's going to pay off in the end. If, at the end of the day, you did a community event and maybe no one came in to sales, but people are leaving that event feeling so good about you as the owner and you as a store, that's a win for us as well.
Speaker 1:Really cool and Hope. What about you? Are you setting up like a pass fail sort of metric, or is there, because I know very clearly that it can be difficult to always attribute in-store sales to an online campaign. Are you having that conversation with them? That's like hey, just so you know. It might not seem like a direct attribution, but if sales are going up, then it's still a win.
Speaker 4:Yeah, kind of the same deal. I mean, especially it depends on what kind of campaign we're running. But let's say, right, we've got a general branding campaign out on Google. I do like to see, you know, the get directions conversion. I love to look at that because it's like, well, maybe this campaign isn't, you know, generating me any money. I'm like, well, okay, let's look at a few things right. Campaign isn't, you know, generating me any money? I'm like, well, okay, let's look at a few things right. Do you have a door counter?
Speaker 4:How many people came into the store? How's the general feel of foot traffic in the showroom? Because I can see, you know, 25 people in the last two weeks got directions because of this ad. So, um, definitely just kind of trying to connect the dots from first ad, you know, impression to okay, they finally made a purchase. And again, you know, not everybody that comes into the store is going to make a purchase that day, but you're going to resonate with them and you're going to talk to them and maybe they're going to, you know, get to know your story. Like you say, hey, okay, I'm going to think about it. Maybe a week later they're going to come back all because of that first ad they saw three weeks ago, type of thing.
Speaker 4:Now, if it's for events, I definitely do look a little bit more at like okay, are the appointments being scheduled? How fast is their calendar filling up? What else can we pivot to to? You know, make sure that those conversions are happening, because obviously, at the end of the day, you know, make sure that those conversions are happening because obviously, at the end of the day, we can't make people fill out an appointment. It's not a, it's not a need, it's a want, it's just luxury. You know, um, goods here. So it's like, you know, trying to force a force, a form or force an appointment doesn't really work. But you know, you can edit the ad creatives, edit the messaging to be relationship focused or designer focused, or you know what have you to entice at least those people to come in and make appointments. So, um, yeah, I mean it's, it's just kind of a mixture of both, kind of like Brie had said, but um, definitely trying to bridge the gap between the two.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know what you don't have to commit to if something is kind of like a little bit of a stinker campaign. We've all had them. I've had them many times on In the Loop where it's like I think there's going to be a slam dunk. I run a campaign around a certain type of messaging. It's okay. Sometimes this is a lot of. It is trial and error. They actually have the term.
Speaker 1:Trial and error in user experience is just A-B testing. It's just a nicer way to say it. And A-B testing sometimes involves if something is not going the way you want try a different version of it and if it still isn't going well, guess what? You just kind of have a stinker on your hands and that's just how it is, unfortunately. But you can't take those things personally. As they say, shoot or shoot, and you gotta be out there to uh to be able to score. You gotta be taking shots. So, um, brie, I really appreciate your perspective on this, hope. Thanks for joining me again, brie. If people are interested in learning more about the uh buzz advertising agency and working with you on campaigns, uh, where can they go and where can they learn more?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can find us online Instagram, facebook or just our website. It's all Buzz Advertising Agency. We're black and yellow. I think there's one other buzz agency out there, but we're the black and yellow ones.
Speaker 1:Awesome and Hope. If people are interested with you, where should they go?
Speaker 4:Oh, they should go to punchmarkcom and book a little consultation with me and if you want to just reach out to me and email it's hope at punchmarkcom, Super easy.
Speaker 1:There you go. Thank you so much. I really appreciate hearing your perspective on this. I really love campaigns. I think they're fascinating. I think it's one of those active events that you can do. Everybody can have a beautiful website, everybody can make awesome jewelry in their store, but it's driving these people to places that you need them to that, I feel like, has a real art to it. So I really appreciate hearing your perspective on it. Thanks everybody. We'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Cheers Bye. All right, everybody. That's the show. Thanks so much for listening. My guests this week were Brie Black with Buzz Advertising Agency you can learn more about them in the show notes below and Hope Belair, digital Marketing Manager at Punchmark, and this episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me. Michael Burtho. This episode was edited by Paul Suarez with music by Ross Cockrum. Don't forget to rate the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave us feedback on punchmartcom slash loop. That's L-O-U-P-E. Thanks. We'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Cheers Bye.
