New Northbrook Text Program Delivers Local Shopping & Dining Deals
Northbrook residents and visitors can now take advantage of a community texting program that promotes shopping and dining in the Village. The new Live Shop Dine Northbrook opt-in mobile text service connects shoppers to highly targeted offers and incentives at local businesses. The innovative community-wide program is free of charge to users and produced through a partnership between the Northbrook Chamber of Commerce and the Village of Northbrook.
The user-friendly service makes it easy for new subscribers to sign up with a single text or a scan of a QR code. Details are available at http://bit.ly/JoinNBK. Individuals who register in June are automatically entered to win a $500 shopping spree at Northbrook businesses.
The Northbrook Live Shop Dine mobile program takes advantage of the powerful relationship between consumers and their phones. A 2018 Pew Institute survey revealed that 77% of Americans now use some kind of smartphone, and text marketing is an immediate and direct way to reach that vast audience.
"Text is a very effective channel to connect with customers," explains Ron Goldblatt of NorthShore Loyalty, the company that is administering the program. "Text messages have a 98% open rate within the first three minutes of being sent, so we know our messages are seen and then acted on."
Subscribers to the community text program will receive one or two text messages per month with access to categorized offers from Northbrook stores and restaurants. The texts will also be a source of information about community events.
Creating a successful program is a two-sided proposition: attracting consumers to sign up and enlisting businesses to participate. The Chamber will publicize the initiative and facilitate registrations at major Northbrook events this summer, including the opening of the Farmers Market on June 19 and the 4th of July Parade. Residents and business owners are encouraged to sign up as users, and to share Live Shop Dine Goes Mobile information with customers and friends on social media, e-mail, and websites.
On the business side, the program has begun developing a network of retail and community partners. Participation is free of charge to all restaurants and stores, which can add their free trials, special discounts, events and other promotions by contacting Ron at ron@northshoreloyalty.com. An automated system will enable merchants to add their own offers, terms, logos and images.
The Live Shop Dine text service is just one of several marketing programs managed by the Chamber on behalf of the entire Northbrook business community. Other initiatives include the Northbrook Shopping Elf Facebook page, the liveshopdinenorthbrook.com website, the pull-out Shopping & Dining Guide in the Northbrook Community Resource Guide, and a holiday shopping guide published in the Northbrook Tower. The Village helps support these efforts with funding directed to the Chamber from hotel tax collections.
The goal is to maintain a healthy sales tax base, which typically constitutes 35% of the Village's annual revenue to support local schools, services and infrastructure and reduces the Village's dependence on property taxes. As Ron Goldblatt points out, "When we all shop local, our community thrives."