Localbase - Blog

We are finishing another set of new features for our Leads Groups Application.  Some of these are already live and the rest are being added in the coming days.

For Users:

• Live chat support
• Valuing leads and ROI tracking.  Upon accepting a lead, you can enter a $ value and then upon a conversion the value is added to the ROI tracking reported in the header of the Leads Group App.
• Users can request an invite to an Invite-Only Group
• Email notice sent when a group member comments/responses to your wall post
• Group admins can now email message the entire group

For Chamber Admins:

• Chamber admins can now email message the entire group
• We are adding a discussion forum so chamber staff members can discuss best practices regarding leads group management and interact with our support team.

Dear Chamber Executives,

Does your chamber manage one or more leads groups (or referral groups, networking luncheons, etc)?

As you know, traditional leads groups often have low attendance or take too much time out of everyone’s busy work schedules.  Also chambers are now competing with networking organizations like BNI for membership.  Now local chamber organizations are teaming up with Localbase, a social web marketing firm, to offer chamber members the ability to join chamber leads groups and exchange business referrals online.

Our online Leads Group Application gives chamber members a simple dashboard for sending and receiving business referrals, tracking lead conversions, real-time leads group communication, Facebook integration, and both group and individual performance analytics.  For Chamber Administrators, we offer an admin dashboard for leads group management, group promotional/invite tools, and revenue reports.  Our application works well with existing leads groups or as a new chamber service. 

We can help your chamber build and grow its leads groups while earning recurring revenues for your chamber.  We reward partner chambers a generous residual commission for each member who signs up. 

For more information or to self-enroll, please visit http://ChamberLeadsGroups.com.  You can also watch a short video tour of our program.

Sincerely,

Tobias Teeter

Today we released our Leads Groups application.  You can now take your leads group online or form a new leads group using our lead group management application.  Here’s a short video introduction video.  To start your free 30-day trial of Leads Groups app, please visit our Business Solutions page. 

We also released a short introduction video to our Social Rewards application.  View the Social Rewards intro video here to learn how to enlist and empower friends, clients, and employees into your business referral network.

As always, feel free to contact me directly with questions or feedback.

Tobias A. Teeter
tobias.teeter@localbase.com
http://www.localbase.com

We just released a set of new features on Localbase:

For Businesses:

• We have updated our business dashboard to offer THREE ways to generate leads: Social Rewards, Leads Groups, and our Ad Network.
• Social Rewards (in Beta) enlist and empower friends to send business referrals using our simple, intuitive reward system.  We have also upgraded several Social Reward promotion tools, including the “enlist Friends” campaign promotion app.
• Leads Groups (coming soon) will allow you to organize local businesses to exchange business leads.  You can join/create groups, track referral activity, and manage the leads produced.
• Ad Network (coming soon) will allow you to receive real-time lead purchase opportunities from partner lead generation sites and pay-per-lead ad networks.

For Consumers:

• Users can invite friends and earn one Reward Point for each invited friend who signs up. 
• You can now view top local reward offers in your city.  But remember, you can earn points by referring friends to ANY local business.
• We now automatically ship you a gift card once you earn enough points.  Simply set your default gift card reward.

If your business would like to generate more leads, please view our new plans page. We have reduced our Social Rewards price to $12/month (was $20/month).  When we launch Leads Groups, the app will be priced at $12/month, regardless of how many groups your start or join.  Both products can soon be purchased as a combo package for $20/month.  Ad Network participation is FREE and is included in both Social Reward and Lead Group plans.

As always, feel free to contact me directly with questions or feedback.

Tobias A. Teeter
Localbase, Inc.
tobias.teeter@localbase.com
http://www.localbase.com

Localbase is a local lead exchange.  We help businesses generate leads with:

1.  Social Rewards (in Beta) – Enlist and empower friends, clients, and employees to send business referrals using our simple, intuitive rewards system.  Our tools turn the chore of business referral generation into a fun game.

In Summer 2011, we will launch two more web applications:

2.  Leads Groups – Organize local businesses to exchange business leads.

3.  Syndication Network – Receive real-time lead purchase opportunities from partner lead generation sites and pay-per-lead ad networks.

We just launched Localbase.  I would really appreciate it if you signed up at http://localbase.com.  It’s free to join and you can earn gift cards to Target, Starbucks, Macy’s, Home Depot, and iTunes.  Check it out and submit feedback (and bugs) to support@localbase.com. 

When considering return on your advertising investment, think about how much of your sales come from business referrals as compared to coming from your advertising spend.  Now contrast that against how much money you spend on advertising as compared to investing in your business referral process.  Most small businesses would acknowledge that a vast majority of their sales come from business referrals.    So it is usually shocking for small business owners when they realize the thousands of dollars invested in yellow page, newspaper, billboard, and radio advertisements generate only a small percentage of new sales.  The simple truth is that it’s a more efficient use of marketing dollars to invest in a business referral process that extends your referral reach beyond close friends.

Welcome to the Localbase company blog.    This is where we will preview upcoming product releases, discuss product features, and share news and tips on how to enlist and empower friends, customers, and employees to talk about your brand and recommend your business.

But first our back story…

In 2009 we assembled a six-person team with one goal:  to help small businesses leverage the social web to grow their businesses.    At the time we did not anticipate building a referral rewards platform.  Actually, we started with the simple concept of integrating “social” into a yellow page directory and then evolved into a gigantic “platform-as-a-service” (PaaS) that would allow distribution partners to offer Localbase-powered social media and social commerce capabilities on business websites; employee intranet and marketing campaign dashboards; social search functionality on local news sites; private social networks on member based organizational websites; and client branded mobile applications.

So instead of building simple business tools for the social web, we actually created a social web.  A two-minute video summary of this monumental achievement can be viewed  here.  After more than a year of development, we decided we bit off more than we could chew.  The company did not have the resources to support and market these services.

So we did what is called a “pivot.”   The team decided to shelve everything it built and focus on a simple, scalable service that helps small businesses leverage the social web to grow their business.   Oh wait, that’s what we set out to do in the first place.

The Localbase team is now on the verge of launching a referral marketing* system.  Our April 2011 product release will allow businesses to establish and promote referral rewards used to motivate clients, friends, and employees to advocate their products and services.  These advocates earn reward points for business referrals and the points are redeemed for gift cards at national retailers.

The team would like to thank our families, friends, and beta requesters who have been patiently awaiting the release of our platform.   Soon the wait will be over.

* Referral Marketing is also known as viral marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, network marketing, social marketing, buzz marketing, and unmarketing.