Why Customer Retention Should be a Higher Priority than Customer Acquisition

In-Location Marketing vs. External Advertising

Customer retention is key. Most marketing budgets center around getting a company’s message out to the masses. TV commercials, print ads, billboards, sponsorships, direct mail, are all forms of external advertising that are commonly used to attract new customers to businesses. But once you bring someone in, what are you doing to get them to come back?

Companies that have to advertise all of the time in order to stay in business are likely not doing enough to keep their customers happy.

Many business owners focus most of their efforts on attracting new customers in order to make more money. But you don’t only need new customers! If your goal this year was to grow your revenues by 10%, would you care if that increase came from new business, or increasing the average spend from your current customers? Of course not! More revenue is more revenue.

Money earned from new customer vs. existing

They look the same, don’t they? Because they are! An added dollar earned from an existing customer is just as good as a dollar form a new one. But it’s proven to earn that extra dollar from an existing customer than to get it from a new one.

“Research shows that it can cost up to 30 times as much to get a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. It pays to stay very close to your customers, so you know their exact needs, today and tomorrow. Your aim is to be irreplaceable as their supplier.”
–Mike Johnston, The Chartered Institute of Marketing

An Inexpensive Solution

It’s Relevant TV has come up with an easy way to increase customer retention (getting customers to come back more often). Each custom TV network IRTV creates is unique to each business that displays it. Short-form TV programs grab the attention of visitors while the integrated real-time social media and promotional tools help get the business’ message across.

If you own or manage a business and have a TV, It’s Relevant TV offers a free consultation. You can explore various types of programming with an expert and start to craft something that will do much more for your business.

For more information check out It’s Relevant TV’s official site: http://www.itsrelevant.com or call their U.S. Headquarters at: (203) 588-1689

Controlling Multiple TVs Across Your Business or Organization

Easy to Manage One or Multiple Business TV Screens

Do you have a business or practice with more than one location? Many managers, franchise owners, and practice managers have found it to be increasingly difficult to get a consistent message out to multiple locations.

Printing and distributing fliers or emailing announcements often get overlooked, and are hard to police. We’ve found that being able to put the messaging up directly is the best way. But how can you control all of your TVs from one place? It’s Relevant TV makes it easy.

iPhone X (iPhone 10) - Home Screen — iPhone X (Apple iPhone 10)

It’s as easy as accessing logging in to the website or free iPhone/iPad app and selecting what you want to have shown on your screens. The settings can be updated 24/7 from anywhere.

You can control one or multiple screens at once. This gives national brands dual level control. You can design ads, mix in images, change your social media preferences, and upload videos of your own. And best of all, the messages you distribute get seen! They garner more attention by being mixed with TV programs your customers want to watch.

It’s your TV, make it work for you!

It’s Relevant features more than just TV content. Custom messaging and weather from each location’s zip code are easily added and managed. The service gives you the ability to reach out to visitors in ways you can’t with basic cable. IRTV can be linked to your social media feeds, showcasing your most recent posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

It’s Relevant TV’s platform boasts a number of features that make the digital signage/video service an invaluable tool for businesses. Its library of 500,000+ short-form content licensed for public display is the largest of its kind, with the videos are spread across 40+ categories – allowing you to customize your waiting room TVs in ways that just aren’t possible with basic cable. One might expect a system as innovative as IRTV to be complicated, or run the risk of being too confusing to operate – but it’s easy!

You’re Always in Control

One of It’s Relevant’s most handy features, is Competetive Ad Block®. Competetive Ad Block® does what it says, it blocks competitive ads from showing up on your TV. With it in place, you never run the risk of people in your business seeing an ad for a “better” or more enticing deal across the street. Businesses that settle for basic cable have no control over outside messaging.

The most valued feature of It’s Relevant TV is the free ad space which allows you to expose visitors to your brand and promotions. Between, and during videos, you have the option to showcase your brand on the side of the screen and inform visitors of any services or specials you want them to see. New products and services, catering, limited-time offers, members rewards, or even staff highlights, are just a few of the things you can promote.

It’s Relevant TV is found in restaurants, medical offices, malls, retailers, sports arenas, car dealerships, pharmacies, salons, spas, and more.

Are Your Employees Watching TV At Work? A Better TV For Your Business

Employees watching TV at work is frustrating if you’re a business owner, or you’re in charge of managing a business. If you have TVs in your business, you probably put them there for the benefit of your customers. But have your employees become the primary audience instead? If you fear that this is the case, follow this link and check out the solution we recommend.

Today, TVs are a utility that fewer and fewer businesses are without. A growing number of locations with sit-downs or long expected waits have a TV somewhere within sight. With all of the TVs in businesses, an important question comes to mind; who chooses what’s on?

It shouldn’t be your employees!

Where’s the Remote, and Who is in Control?

This varies from business to business. Example: in a setting like a bar or restaurant, the remote might not be available to customers- whereas in a waiting room, the remote might be there for any visitors to control. However in some cases, an employee is the one in charge of the remote. When an employee decides what to put on the TV, he or she might very well put something on the that they want to watch, instead of something that the customers, or visitors, would rather have on.

The TV is a wonderful distraction for visitors. Unfortunately, it can be just as distracting for employees.

One thing is true; the fact that people want to change the channel at all illustrates that even with thousands of channels out there, it is nearly impossible to pick one that everyone will enjoy.

What’s the Perfect Channel?

People and personality types are as diverse as a bag of M&Ms; you won’t be able to please everyone by putting on a channel that only caters to one or two colors. In order to appeal to the interests of all of your visitors, you need an all-inclusive channel that changes between content types. The greater the diversity in content, the more eyes you can attract to your TV.

What Brings it all Together?

A custom TV channel from It’s Relevant TV. IRTV runs diverse short-form programming designed with businesses in mind. In addition to its vast library of licensed content, the platform features space for businesses to promote additional services or specials that otherwise might go unnoticed.

It’s Relevant is focused on customer retention. The service prioritizes the people who are in your business with the intention of getting them to come back more, and spend more. Unlike cable bills that are flat expenses and give nothing back, IRTV is designed to generate revenue through its engaging features and put money into your pockets.

Are your employees watching TV when they should be working? If they’re in control of the television and you’re not around, there’s a good chance that they are. Allowing it to continue is doing a disservice to your business, and your visitors who want to watch the TV. It’s Relevant TV can help you put meaningful programming on the TV to keep customers engaged, and make you more money.

Car Dealership TV Systems – The Top 5 Most Important Elements

What do you need to consider when putting a TV service into your car dealership sales department or service department? Car dealership marketing extends beyond billboards and TV commercials. Using the dealership TV is one of the cheapest ways to get your ads seen, while bringing life to your waiting room.

Here are the top 5 elements to a quality TV system for car dealership waiting areas and lobbies:

1. Interesting TV Programming

Customers could be waiting minutes or hours. Regardless of how long they are waiting, you want to provide them with something entertaining or informative to watch. Just having videos about serving their vehicle or commercials about your dealership aren’t going to cut it.

2. Block Out Ads from Your Competitors

The time your customers are waiting for their vehicles to be serviced is the absolute worst moment for them to see an attractive message from a competing dealership. Block out the competition with Competitive Ad Block®. The service automatically blocks any outside car commercials from appearing on the TV. Instead, you get more quality programming and your own promotions for your customers to engage with.

3. Ability to Share Custom Messages

The time your customers spend waiting is an opportunity for you to tell them you care about them. Educate them about your inventory, policies and what sets your dealership apart. They are going to be watching the TVs for at least a portion of the time they wait so it’s a great opportunity to put your own messaging in front of them.

4. Real-Time Social Media

If customers leave without buying you need a gentle way to bring them back. Social media is a great way to connect with repeat customers and prospects alike. Get them interested in your dealership. Showcase your most recent posts on the TV and gently entice them to follow your accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Showcasing multiple accounts is great because it allows them to follow on the platform they use the most.

5. Showcase your Dealership’s Videos and Commercials

You’ve spent time and money making videos, why not get more mileage out of them? So many dealerships produce videos that just end up on YouTube or for a limited time on local cable. You can use these same videos inside your dealership to increase customer awareness of your promotions, inventory, and specials.

What are you using in your dealership today? If it’s Cable or satellite, you are missing a great opportunity to both spread your own messaging and to block out messages from your competition. If it’s a custom solution you may not be showing enough interesting content, and/or might be paying too much for it. See what It’s Relevant TV for Car Dealerships has to offer. For less than most dealerships pay for a basic cable service, It’s Relevant is able to achieve all 5 goals above, with a unique non-looping platform.

You can speak to a TV consultant about dealer TV options by calling toll free: 855-ITS-RELE or by emailing: sales@itsrelevant.com.

Medical Office TV – Where Waiting Presents an Opportunity

It’s Relevant has been working with urgent cares, dentists, and medical offices across the country in order to improve patient experience by doing more with the TVs in their waiting rooms. When it comes to medical offices there aren’t a lot of television options for waiting rooms, and any practice that strives to put patients first will often invest in a waiting area TV service of some kind.

Choosing the Right Service.

Medical lobby TVs should never settle for basic cable. Between the dwell time of patients, and the amount of people that come in and out of the office on any given day, there’s a lot of opportunities to expose them to your brand, services, and reasons for them to come back – none of which is taken advantage of when cable is in the picture. Digital sinage software like It’s Relevant TV gives you the freedom to customize the TV in your waiting room, and is the ideal service when trying to make your waiting room more inviting.

Why the TV?

TVs are a great way to engage with people because you don’t have to tell someone to look at the screen for them to notice what’s on. With TVs being as prevalent as they are, people are used to watching them. Televisions are familiar and catch the eye better than posters, banners, or signs ever could.

Patients wait in waiting rooms. Hence the namesake. They wait to be seen and the wait can be a long one. During that time, if there is a TV present in the room then it’s fair game to assume that someone is going to look at it at some point. This is your prime opportunity. As they watch and you have their attention, you can be messaging to them.

What’s on the TV?

In the case of waiting rooms, the TVs we have seen are most often tuned to the news or some light programming with the patients’ comfort in mind. In practice this is a good gesture. However, in an age of rising technology, there exists an alternative. You can still offer patients comfort, but bring more for your practice at the same time.

It’s Relevant TV offers more than cable.

Cable is great for use at home. The programming that airs on television is intended for the comfort of living rooms where people sit down with the vested interest of watching TV. With the exception of the news, the average runtime of content on TV ranges from 30-60 minutes with an engaging plot or storyline. People in waiting rooms aren’t there to watch these shows. It doesn’t fit with the structure of a waiting room, whereas It’s Relevant’s TV’s short-form content is designed with the brief waiting period of patients in mind. IRTV provides short-form shows that are engaging and informative. They are the sort of thing you can walk away from with something interesting to talk about.

Free TV Services: What’s the Real Cost to a Medical Office or Business?

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch,”
and there’s no such thing as a free TV service.

Nothing is Free, Including TV

If you’re using a TV service or platform that’s free, sooner or later you’re going to feel the cost of it; even if you didn’t put a single cent down. Even a homemade slideshow, or video that only cost the time it took to make it can bring detriment in the long run. The structure of such a video or slideshow may stand out as unprofessional and tacky; doing more harm than good.

What’s the Cost of TV?

Cost runs a little deeper than money. The initial cost of cable, for example, might be a some-hundred dollar subscription for an inclusive package – but that’s not all there is to it. There are many hidden costs of running cable in your business. The lack of program control, contributing to visitor anxiety or showing competitor ads all can harm your business.

Everything has a cost, but not everything has a strong level of return. Cable is an expense that gives nothing back. Industry-specific TV providers, like the ones often seen in medical offices, benefit pharmaceutical companies while showcasing drug ads and medical information that tends to raise anxiety among patients.

What’s the Alternative?

You can do better than free. Business owners are moving away from paying for TV as a utility, and are instead putting It’s Relevant TV in place to generate revenue from their TVs.

It’s Relevant is an alternative to cable that is less expensive, gives you control over what appears on your TV, and is comprised of short-form content that’s family-friendly and structured with business settings in mind. The service gives you access to a living TV network, not a loop or slideshow, that pulls videos from a vast library of licensed TV programs. It’s interesting and fun.

The IRTV platform generates new revenue by promoting additional services, specials, and events that people might not have been aware of. The service represents a significant return on investment (ROI), and is focused on customer retention – getting customers to spend more, and come back more often. So while there is a monthly subscription cost, the value and benefits far outweigh it.

For a personal look into how It’s Relevant can draw in more business for your business, check out our ROI Calculator and see for yourself how much of a return you can expect from our service.

The “Set It and Forget It” of Business Television

“SET IT AND FORGET IT!”

-A 90’s Studio Audience

Who could ever forget that line? If you watched any infomercials during the 90’s, then chances are you’ve heard of the inventor, salespersona, and founder of Ronco; Ron Popeil. Now if you haven’t watched the video and left to get a mouth-watering rotisserie chicken by this point, let’s take a closer look at that famous slogan.

Set It and Forget It.

The idea of “Set it and Forget it” was a major selling point of the Showtime Rotisserie. We’re all busy people, and the less effort we have to put in to get things done the better. Plain and simple; why would someone slave over the hassle of making a chicken when you had a tool to manage the hard parts for you? Especially when you need to focus other things.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with managing something yourself. If you enjoy doing the hard work, power to you; however if you’re a business owner, time is money.

It’s Relevant TV provides a “set it and forget it” service for your business TV. The custom channel runs on its own and pulls tailored content from a vast media library for viewers to enjoy. It lets you be busy elsewhere doing the things you need to get done. No more paying for cable and worrying about what to put on; the quick segments and broad categories are catered to appeal to a wide audience, and ensures that fewer people are disappointed by what they’re seeing.

But Wait, There’s More!

It’s Relevant does more than put original content on your TV, there’s a whole list of other features that come with it. From sharing and deals you’re offering people, to promoting your social media for all to see; it works for you. You’re in control.

With IRTV, you literally set it and forget it.
Interested? You can call toll-free: 1-855-ITS-RELE
or visit: http://www.itsrelevant.com for more information.

Amazon Fire Stick: Don’t Risk Sticking Your Business

Technology is Changing TV

Amazon Fire Stick, Chromecast, and Smart TVs are steadily emerging over the horizon, more so now than ever. With access to services like Netflix, Hulu, or HBO Go and devices that allow you to stream those services on your TV, cable is on its way out.

TV has come a long way since the 1920’s, and as we get closer to 2020, looking back on the history of television during the last one hundred years and seeing how far we’ve come is pretty amazing. Today, televisions are just about everywhere you go. Everywhere. And they have been for a while. That’s because TVs are a staple of technology – we use them to reach out to one another, stay informed, and keep ourselves entertained.

If you’re a business owner who caters to crowds, or often has people waiting or sitting for lengthy periods of time, then chances are you’ve got a TV within sight for the exact reasons just listed above. Which is great, the comfort of your customers is key – but in this rapidly advancing world of technology, it’s easy to get carried away when trying to build an inviting waiting room experience.

Between all the technology available to business owners coupled with the drive to maintain customer satisfaction, the ease of putting something up like Netflix powered by an Amazon Fire Stick is second nature. So why wouldn’t you do it? The answer is simple. Because it’s illegal.

NETFLIX TERMS:

The Netflix service and any content viewed through our service are for your personal and non-commercial use only. During your Netflix membership, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, license to access the Netflix service and view Netflix content through the service. Except for the foregoing limited license, no right, title or interest shall be transferred to you. You agree not to use the service for public performances.

Using those services with a “set it and forget it” mentality without regard for the licensing terms and conditions can be dangerous for your business. The people who enforce the rules on media licenses take this very seriously. For more information regarding why you should think twice about setting up services like that in your business, check out this article on using Netflix in your business.

Personal Use is Different than Business Use

In the end, the licensing rights tied with those services only applies to personal use. Setting them up in your business is a no-go. But if you think about it, TVs and plug-ins like Fire Stick and Chromecast were designed with the home setting in mind, not business settings anyway.

So you can’t use a Fire Stick in Your business to deliver any real TV content. Up until recently, this left you with only one real choice: cable TV. And while it’s legal to run cable in a business setting, cable TV isn’t designed for the benefit of your customers and your business. It’s Relevant TV is.

Custom TV from It’s Relevant

It’s Relevant TV bridges the gaps between TV, customer satisfaction, and business messaging using unique digital sinage software – creating a more inviting place for visitors. The service provides businesses with content and control that makes for an all around better TV experience. IRTV creates a custom TV network for each business with access to a vast library of original content divided into a number of categories you can pick and choose from. On top of the TV content with more meaningful controls, your business also gets room to advertise additional services, reach out to customers, and share your latest social media posts. It’s Relevant TV turns your television into a tool for your business.

Using Netflix & DVDs in Your Business: Don’t Put Yourself at Risk

There it is – did you read it? You probably saw it, but did you really read what it says? Me neither. At least not after years and years of seeing it, or a similar message at the beginning of every movie I’ve ever watched.

Well, in case you still haven’t read it, it says:

“Federal law provides severe civil and criminal penalties for the unauthorized reproduction, distribution or exhibition of copyrighted motion pictures, video tapes, or video disc.”

So what does this mean exactly? In short, it means that if you own something like a DVD of a movie, or a CD, you can’t legally burn copies of that disc and sell them to people, or even hand them out for free. Nor are you allowed to show that movie or play that album for the general public without the expressed consent to do so. If you’re looking for a something you can play instead, take a look at It’s Relevant TV.

You might be wondering where the line is drawn, and it’s a fair question. Just like when you get a driver’s license that allows you to drive a car, when you buy anything like a DVD you’re buying the license to watch or listen to that media privately.

Now before you go taking a hammer to your home theater, it’s important to note that while those licenses are private, it doesn’t exclude friends and family from enjoying them as well – the means to actually traffic and enforce that would simply be ridiculous. So long as your viewing is limited to personal and non-commercial use, you’re not in violation of the Terms & Conditions.

Is it Legal for Me to Show Netflix in My Business?

In short: No.
But this is an easy question to clarify by looking at Netflix’s terms of service:

“The Netflix service and any content viewed through our service are for your personal and non-commercial use only. During your Netflix membership, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, license to access the Netflix service and view Netflix content through the service. Except for the foregoing limited license, no right, title or interest shall be transferred to you. You agree not to use the service for public performances.”

This is a prime example of how companies lay out licensing agreements. Does this mean you can’t show Finding Nemo in your waiting room? Unfortunately, you can’t. The difference between throwing the movie into your DVD player at home, and the TV at your office – is that one is at home (personal), and the other is a business (public). It’s the same reason you can’t buy a Taylor Swift CD and play her songs outside your store to attract customers. You can try, but it’s illegal, and it’s not good when you get caught. Companies take this sort of thing very seriously.

But Were DVDs or Netflix a Good Idea in the First Place?

When your visitors are at your location do they really want to watch a movie? Not really. They’re there for a reason and don’t want to be around long. People want to watch the TV as a distraction while they wait, but can’t be invested in a long-form program or movie.

The average time spent in a waiting room varies from business to business. Dentist offices come in at 5 to 10 minutes, whereas you could be waiting up to 20 minutes at a doctor’s office. Even if you could play the movies you wanted, a typical feature-length flick usually runs over or just under two hours. So unless you’re waiting over an hour for your car to be serviced, you’d only catch 1/12th or 1/6th of the movie – starting from who-knows-where.

The sort of programming that runs in a lobby should compliment the length of time people are going to be waiting there, with the notion that they’re not going to be fully invested in whatever’s on the screen.

So What Can You Play Instead?

It’s Relevant TV features a network of original content spanning across a vast selection of categories. And unlike a DVD or Netflix, all of the content is licensed for public display. From kid’s entertainment to the national news, the programs are on average two and a half minutes long – long enough to hold someone’s attention in a waiting room and feel as though they left entertained or informed.

TV Advertising: Traditional Isn’t Cutting It Anymore

The Main Goals of TV Advertising

Branding has long been the First, Middle and Last reason to advertise on Television. If potential customers don’t know about you, why would they buy your products or use your services? Brand awareness creates trust, generates leads, and ultimately creates sales and the growth of your business.

For this reason businesses have used TV advertising to:
• Create brand recognition by reaching the greatest number of viewers.
• Attaining a frequency level that will promote memory retention.
• Demonstrate value through emotion and visuals

And TV ads are great at achieving all three. But TV ads have become more expensive and less effective in the last few years due to a number of changes. Let’s take a closer look at the current state of Traditional TV Advertising.

The Current Characteristics of Traditional TV Advertising

Broadcast TV ads are expensive.
Television advertising is broadly targeted and ad buys usually include a lot of “waste” (the ad reach you pay for that is not relevant to your message).
Clutter Ridden – Television is overflowing with advertising. 25% to 35% of the broadcast airtime is now being filled with commercials
Ads are purchased based on ratings. Ratings are based on a small sample of the population and cannot guarantee how many people actually tune into any particular program.
TV ads are sold on a cost per thousand (CPM) basis.
Audience delivery is impossible to measure, as ratings are estimations and it is impossible to track what percentage of viewers stay tuned during your ad’s playback.
Under-delivery is fairly common
Reporting is horrible and slow. Actual run time/placement is only available by requesting a program log. It is nearly impossible to receive a log in a timely fashion. Especially from a Cable Operator.
Return on investment is very hard to calculate. Direct marketing messages are the only surefire way of seeing true ROI and actual effect on purchases based on the ads

Modern Television Advertising from It’s Relevant TV

It’s Relevant TV allows advertisers to forge brand recognition with pin-point accuracy and benefits. Unlike cable TV that targets channels and times of day, IRTV goes deeper.

1. Reach screens that are located in businesses in specific categories.

2. Market through televisions in specific zip codes.

3. Your commercials are shown in single ad breaks. This means that your ad is the only ad in a break, so all attention is on it.

4. You can target location types that have screens near point-of-purchase, allowing product owners to push their products in areas that they can be immediately purchased.

5. Reliable and immediate reporting. You can see the exact screens and the minute and second your ads have played on them.

6. Affordable at just $0.30-$0.50 per play per screen.

7. Extremely scalable with 24/7 controls. You can concentrate your ads when it makes the most sense for you, and scale back when it doesn’t.

8. Multiple ad messages. You can run multiple video ads at the same time and It’s Relevant will automatically distribute the messages evenly.

9. Ads are associated with family-friendly programming displayed in prominent public places.

For more information on this new advertising platform please contact John Lunghi by emailing him at: john {at} itsrelevant.com or by dialing the main office at: 203-588-1689.