By Cecilia Nasmith
Advertising people actually go looking for is a new concept – one that GetintheLoop Northumberland provides in an easy-to-use app for the benefit of advertisers, consumers and even the community beyond.
Local businessman Steve Wilkes launched this franchise a year ago March. Then he expanded in September, partnering with the owner of the Prince Edward County franchise to serve the Bay of Quinte area.
The app is free to download at your favourite app store.
Users will receive information about local businesses sharing their own unique offers and experiences via app, push-note notifications and e-mail.
Wilkes is also trying to get local businesses on board by offering a platform whose users actually want to know more about them - as opposed to the traditional social-media advertising, where users tolerate the advertising but don't much like it.
This attitude has been true consistently since the earliest newspapers, through the advent of radio and television, right into social media. Wilkes compared it to visiting with friends in your yard, enjoying a glass of wine, talking about what's happening in your lives, and then having someone charge in with a sign urging you to buy a new car at a certain dealership.
People began reacting by subscribing to Netflix and Spotify to get the content they wanted without the ads. Now mobile devices offer the fastest-growing ad platform, according to GetintheLoop chief executive officer Matt Crowell, and the app provides product information when users want to get it.
This is what GetintheLoop can offer its businesses for a $75 monthly fee. GetintheLoop users open the app when they are hungry, when they want to go shopping, when they want their hair and nails done – when they look for your business, they truly want to know all about you. They want to know what specials you have and what deals you can offer.
GetintheLoop offers member businesses an analytics dashboard to show what happens when a customer hits the business on the app – whether it resulted in a call or a visit or a recommendation to a friend, or perhaps taking advantage of an offer the user put in his GetintheLoop wallet for later. And it's easy to create a punch card structure to track and reward patronage.
They can also help businesses create more compelling offers by compiling information on what promotions worked and what didn't. They can hold promotions in reserve for a business to activate on Easter, on Mother's Day, on Canada Day or even on a certain day of the week.
That fee structure is a simple one, as GetintheLoop does not take a commission. And that fee supports Wilkes's local business and has helped him hire two staffers – with hopes to hire more in the future.
There are a lot of ways to support local businesses, and Wilkes thinks this is the most practical one. Liking a business on-line is nice, but businesses cannot survive on likes alone. Writing a rave review is also a good thing, but people have come to look at reviews with a great deal of skepticism.
Ultimately, satisfied customers are what matters. If GetintheLoop can connect a business with a new customer – who will become a satisfied repeat customer who tells all his friends – that is the kind of practical support Wilkes strives to offer.
“When there's compelling content, people download the app and build it. The businesses come on board, and the more organic the growth is.”
GetintheLoop began in 2013 in Kelowna, BC, as an outgrowth of Groupon. While the deep discounts were attractive, the offers were too heavily slashed to help businesses that much and the customers too seldom became repeat customers.
Today, GetintheLoop is in 90 centres coast to coast, with 300,000 users and 10,000 businesses. If you travel to another province and want to support the small local businesses there, GetintheLoop makes it possible.
GetintheLoop in Northumberland and Bay of Quinte can boast more than 2,000 local members and more than 100 businesses.
“Our clients use GetintheLoop in the effort to grow their customer base and drive more customer loyalty, while increasing spend in their business,” Wilkes said.
He was delighted to hear recently that GetintheLoop has the endorsement of Canadian television and netcasting personality Amber Mac (best-selling author, keynote speaker and former co-host of BNN's App Central and Bloomberg Brink) when she named it one of four apps for a health 2021.
“It’s like having your local main street or favourite shopping neighbourhood in the palm of your hand,” she stated.
While this model offers a good match-up between business and customer, with benefits for both, Wilkes also likes the potential for give-back offers for the community at large – setting aside a portion of sales for one day to help sponsor a soccer team, giving away a free coffee to a homeless person for every 10 coffees purchased, donating a coat to a women's shelter for every coat sold.
Giving back has been a way of life for Wilkes, head coach of the local Breast Cancer Survivor Thrivers dragon-boat team. Part of their practice sessions was to paddle out at sunset and take a moment to be grateful – for living in such a great community, for overcoming health challenges.
Though the team has had to forego practices during the pandemic, Wilkes is involved in other projects. He was recently part of a group that set up a trailer in Victoria Park before Christmas to offer kids a scavenger hunt.
The potential for supporting the wider community is obviously something he likes about GetintheLoop.
“We are local too and want to see all of our local businesses continuing to thrive.,” he said.
“At the end of the day, when a community is economically healthy, there's so much more positivity, so much positive energy. When we are not, and we see things boarded up, the negativity hits. Our belief is supporting the economic success of small businesses in Northumberland and connecting them with like-minded consumers.
“That is my fundamental belief. My partners and staff share that belief with me, and we are looking for more people that share that belief.”
