BioZyme Online Dealer Center

Type in “effective marketing” or “exciting marketing” into your favorite online search browser and wait for the articles to start popping up with literally hundreds of suggestions from a simple business card to creating a blimp to fly over an event with your company name and logo on it. While these and others are all good suggestions, remember that if you put your customers as your focus, creating innovative, effective and exciting marketing strategies will become more simplified.

According to an article at www.entrepreneur.com, excited and engaged customers bring in 23 percent more profits. “Excitement is an emotion that fosters engagement. Positive experiences lead to increasing connections. Sports fans, for example, are so engaged they frequently describe their beloved team as part of their personality. This is the ultimate brand engagement,” the author writes.

What can you do to make your customers excited about the products and services you offer? Ashley Fitzsimmons, BioZyme® Inc. Regional Marketing Manager shares some of the initiatives she has helped Area Sales Managers and dealers create that have been successful.

Billboards. Many might think of billboards as “old school” however, Fitzsimmons said they are an affordable way to reach a big audience. She said that currently dealers in six states have placed billboards near the state’s largest livestock auction or buying facilities. And other dealers are embracing technology with digital billboards that are easy to change the message during specific seasons.

“The dealers are putting personal messages inviting their end-users in to learn more about a specific product that is in demand for the season or production cycle,” she said.

Fitzsimmons reminds dealers that BioZyme will provide full design work for your marketing materials, including billboards. Contact your ASM to learn more.

Radio advertising. Fitzsimmons said more dealers have been requesting scripts for radio advertising on their local stations. It’s widely accepted that most of our end-user audience spends a majority of their time in a pick-up or tractor, and therefore get their news from the radio instead of reading a newspaper. She has been pleasantly surprised at the amount of dealer requests for a radio script and has had positive feedback on the return on investment from those advertising on the local radio stations as a way to drive traffic into their dealership.

Local involvement. Although BioZyme has been supporting youth at livestock shows at the national level through its Sure Champ® line and involvement in junior nationals, majors and state fairs, more and more dealers have been promoting their businesses and giving time and support to the county fairs and shows.

“It is not a new concept that our dealers are supporting the local fairs, but it has been refreshed in recent years with creating nice awards, especially for showmanship, and providing some product for the winners. This is just another way to build brand awareness while creating excitement with a young, potential customer,” Fitzsimmons said.

PromoBoxx. PromoBoxx is the social media tool available to all dealers that contains ready-made content for them to share on their social channels. The content is aligned with BioZyme’s current marketing initiatives and is simple to post and share. Fitzsimmons says participation in PromoBoxx has nearly quadrupled since the company started offering it.

Other ideas. In addition to the four ideas that Fitzsimmons shared, you might consider a social media contest to engage your followers see the engagement on Sure Champ’s judging contests. If you have a new product, you might have a giveaway for some product or samples. Whatever you choose, keep your customers’ interests top of mind.

Getting customers engaged and excited doesn’t take a big bank account, a full-time marketing employee or a personalized blimp flying over your store. It does take some planning, collaboration with your ASM and some time to decide your strategy. The BioZyme marketing team is here to help!

All work and no play might make Jack a dull boy, but did you know that if your employees are engaged with some friendly entertainment with their colleagues, their morale is likely to increase, which means happier employees and ultimately better service passed onto the customers?

There are a number of things that can impact the mood of your employees, and not for the better: a down-turn in the economy, employee lay-offs, closed-door meetings, uncertainty and just a lack of engagement with the leadership and other employees. That decrease in morale can leave employees performing at a minimal level and providing less-than-ideal customer service.

That is why having some fun, employee engagement activities is important to boosting employee morale and keeping positive attitudes, which transmits to the customers. Customers can tell if employees are happy, and if the business treats its employees right, it will treat its customers right too.

Let’s look at some tips to put fun back into the workplace and derail any worries that your employees might have.

1. Set some ground rules. Make sure that your employee engagement doesn’t offend anyone, and make sure that your people know it is voluntary. There is nothing worse than being “forced to have fun.”
2. Have a healthy attitude. Your employees will be able to tell if the leadership is not positive about the engagement activity. Make sure you have scheduled time for it so you can be focused and present in the moment.
3. Make it a team effort. Survey your employees and find out what they are interested in. They might have an original idea that you would have never thought of. Even if you aren’t totally sold on their idea of “fun,” remember this is about them, not you, so go along with them, and try something new.
4. Do an office makeover. A splash of color and some green plants can help brighten moods, especially in areas that employees spend a lot of time in. Or maybe you can skip the donuts one Friday and offer yogurt and granola parfait bar with fresh fruit instead. Subtle changes make a big difference.
5. Celebrate. Don’t overlook an employee’s birthday or work anniversary. BioZyme works hard to recognize employee’s birthdays on its internal website for the entire staff to see as well as providing a card. Little things make a big difference.
6. Have a contest. At BioZyme, contests are conducted throughout the year when it’s appropriate – celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day and Independence Day – you’ve never seen so much green or red, white and blue! A contest doesn’t always mean prizes, but it is fun to engage with one another in the friendly spirit of competition.
7. Get together after hours. Do you really know your employees? In most small companies you likely do. But do you know their families, what they like to talk about, what their hobbies are? Why not host a family-friendly company picnic or a night at the movies (if you have a conference room big enough)? Invite the families and get to know each other. Remember the ground rules though, nothing offensive, and don’t talk work.
8. Get involved. Perhaps you could choose one community organization to help with as a company. Maybe it’s serving at the soup kitchen one day a month or sponsoring a food drive at the holidays. At BioZyme, we made a food drive into a friendly competition of teams and had a great time providing to others in St. Joseph, and even in other communities where remote employees live and work.
9. Get active. Another fun group activity that some of the BioZyme employees participated in this spring is a sand volleyball tournament. Some employees played, while others cheered, and all were anxiously awaiting photos on Monday.
10. Change the scenery. You always have your meetings in the conference room. Perhaps it is time to move smaller group meetings to a local coffee shop, the diner or even a museum just for a change of scenery. If nothing else, the fresh air while getting to the alternate destination will be welcome.

Employee fun shouldn’t be work, and it should not distract from what your employees are doing. However, it is a great way to build morale, engage with one another and build deeper relationships with one another. Happy employees lead to happy customers, and a happy customer is hard to replace.

There is nothing more powerful in sales and marketing than the customer testimonial. Yes, sales reps can share all the key benefits of a good or service with a potential customer, but do they know how the product in question really works? BioZyme understands the importance of these customer advocates and uses them to share their stories and target specific demographics and brands.

Sure Champ® Ring Leaders

In an effort to further support the next generation and promote the Sure Champ line of products, seven Sure Champ Ring Leaders were selected this spring. The young people who represent various regions of the U.S. and show various species received product and social media training in St. Joseph over Memorial Day Weekend.

“We really wanted to come up with an ambassador for Sure Champ, and we thought what better way than to target the demographic we want to support through the Sure Champ brand. If we can stay top of mind and create that brand loyalty with the young people who use Sure Champ, as they get older and get more involved with the livestock industry they will think of Sure Champ in a positive light and return to the Brand or start using other brands like VitaFerm® or Vita Charge®,” said Jessica Judge, Marketing Brand Manager.

The goal of the Ring Leader program is for these seven ambassadors to support the Sure Champ brand and advocate for youth education and outreach. According to Judge, the results have been beneficial. She’s tracked more organic interaction on the Sure Champ social media platforms and answered more questions from potential customers. Each Ring Leader was also given a code to share with others interested in ordering product. In the first six weeks, those codes generated more than $1,500 in additional sales.

“Our Sure Champ Ring Leaders are all very different, but they share one commonality; they share a passion for agriculture and livestock,” Judge said.

Progressive Cattlemen In an effort to recognize seedstock and commercial cattle producers who are progressive in their animal health and nutrition programs, the Marketing Team created the “Progressive Cattlemen” marketing and advertising campaign earlier this year. These producers own and operate all sizes of operations but have one thing in common – they use the VitaFerm line of products successfully. Blog posts have been written and shared on social media and sent to news sources. Several stories of Hereford and Angus breeders have been converted to one-page testimonial ads for the Hereford World and Angus Journal.

“Celebrating the success of our customers creates opportunities for shared learning through customer experiences. That is the best way we know to both recognize and educate our audience,” Judge said.

Vitalize® Ambassadors The Vitalize Ambassador program is in its second year of existence, and currently has 22 equine enthusiasts who use the product and are promoting it to their peers. The Vitalize Ambassadors represent a variety of disciplines from jumping to eventing, barrel racing, roping and ranch horse use, just to name a few. They promote the brand on social media, through product signage on trailers and at shows and through educational clinics they conduct.

There’s no doubt that customer testimonials are effective. As a dealer, you might find that having a loyal customer that is well-respected in the community will pay dividends. Consider a banner in your store that celebrates a familiar face with a testimonial or run a local radio ad to tout the product benefits from a respected customer.