StuffStuff, Testing hunting products for FREE

Through the North American Hunting club I am a member of StuffStuff.  

 
Through StuffStuff I sign up for products I want to test and then get chosen and the products are sent to me.  Companies use StuffStuff to create Buzz Marketing from consumers by giving away free products to test.  Companies also get a variety of opinions on how to improve their products.  When you get the product or campaign you are to use it and share your opinion with other consumers through word of mouth face-to-face conversations as well as online media.  I am required to use the product and write the review in order to be eligible for another product.  StuffStuff members can get rewarded with more campaigns (free products) through sharing photos, videos, and updating your friends on the current campaign.  This creates incentives for people to market the product more.  

 StuffStuff uses a point system to determine what value of products you are entitled to try.  You can earn points through completing tests and posting pictures, or videos to your review.  These reviews are then posted in the North American Hunter monthly magazine and online for other hunters and outdoors men and women to use.   

The best of Guide & Outfitters rating sites, Outfitters Rating. Plan your next hunting trip right

There are many online websites that people can get an overview of all similar sites like Travelocity, Expedia or Kayak.  These sites allow people to compare different sites for the best reviews and even the best prices.  These cover anything from travel, flights, and hotels while other not so prominent sites like Angie's List cover local babysitting services.  These sites give the consumers the opportunity to explore product of service alternatives before they purchase the product.  There are actually several hunting related websites that do the same things.  These websites range from reviewing guides and outfitters to testing and reviewing hunting products.  While there are several websites that review guides and outfitters I have found the one that will best help you plan your next hunting trip.                                                 

 https://www.outfittersrating.com/ 

Outfitters Rating is a great place to start searching for information on your next hunting trip.  If you’re an outfitter or guide service, Outfitters Rating wants your information as they can enter you in their list of guides to benefit both parties.  Outfitters Rating has several different ways to start your planning process.  You can select by location, species, or by guide and outfitters names. 

When selecting location you get to choose a continental region, which lights up when you select it.  

  

 Once the region is selected you can then go to choose a state or smaller country depending on where you choose.  Once a smaller area is chosen you choose an animal that you would like to hunt, or a guide service that you would like to hunt with.  The picture below is the results of selecting Nebraska. 

When selecting a species under this option it will take you to a page showing the guides services and their overall rating listed on the right that offer hunts for the species.   

When clicking on the guide service on either page they will take you to the guide page with reviews and content of previous hunts that past hunters have shared.   The guide's page listed the detailed description of the overall rating and the ratings of each part, such as food, lodging, and game animals seen. (below)

  
When clicking on the Outfitters, Guides, Charters box link from the homepage (1st top photo) it will take you to a page similar to the one above with the guides and outfitters and their rating listed under each animal starting with Alligator all the way to Zebra.  Then once you click on a guide service under the animal it will also take you the guides page shown below.

 The species link gives you a page listing every game animal species listed on the site.  You can either choose a description of the animal or search for guides and outfitters in different areas that offer hunts for that animal.  

 This is just one example of many online sites that categorize and rate hunting and guide services to benefit consumers.  This site also has ads on the bottom or sponsors such as Ziess Optics and Europtics as mostly hunters and outdoors men & women visit the site.  With all the information available on the internet this is an excellent way to take advantage of it by helping you make educated decisions with your hunting trips.       

In App Ads, An E-Marketers Advantage

 While brainstorming on ways that e-marketers have a competitive advantage over other marketers that use traditional marketing and maybe some electronic marketing as an attempt to find a subject to write this blog about the power went off.  Of course I was immediately done doing homework as the Internet was unavailable without the Wi-Fi running.  So I immediately went to my phone to pass time while I waited for what I hoped to be a short outage to pass.  I was immersed in playing a hunting game on my phone when an advertisement popped up.  Using the 3G and 4G data ads were still able to pop up on my cell phone even though there was no power and the house was dark.  

I realized in a TaDa moment that even though I was shut out from the outside world during the blackout I was still being targeted by advertisements.  E-marketers can reach consumers anytime they have their cell phone on and during blackouts that is how many people pass time making them prime targets for in app ads, until the battery dies.  Even when the power is one people are always on their cell phones and using them has become daily routine.  This caused me to do some research and I found that researchers predict that marketers will spend 17 billion dollars for in app advertisements. 

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/16926.html 

The Sportsman's Guide, The online hunting disount store

The Sportsman’s Guide is another company that does a great job of E-marketing, as that is where most of their sales come from. The Sportsman Guide is based out of St. Paul, Minnesota and has over 8 million people that shop from their computer or via catalog. The Sportsman’s Guide is an online and catalog discount store for hunting and outdoor gear.

The Sportsman’s Guide is very active in social media as they utilize Facebook and Twitter as well as some YouTube as promotional tools to generate interest and increase their customer base.  They use YouTube to show demonstrational videos as well as informational videos on many of their products. 

One thing that The Sportsman’s Guide does an excellent job at is their customer relationship management.  The Sportsman’s Guide does an excellent job of connecting to the customer and focusing on them. Once in The Sportsman’s Guide database all purchase are recorded and you can choose to get on their email list that gives you weekly, or monthly deals relevant to you based on your prior purchases.  A personal experience I have with their customer service was recieving a $15 giftcard after I purchased a set of two 5mp trail cameras for under $150 (Yes, quite a deal) but they were already sold out, so to apologize they sent me a coupon code worth $15.   

   One unique thing about The Sportsman’s Guide is their buyers club.  With the buyers club you can pay an additional $30 a month to receive specials promotions as well as an additional discount on EVERY ITEM!!  Notice in the picture below the listed prices that are below the product picture.  They have a Buyer’s Club price listed (In the Red), and then below that a non member price listed.  You may notice it is only several dollars, but if you are a frequent shopper it will pay for itself with a few purchases. 

 

Here is the link for their website, please feel free to browse the sight as they have many useful products usually at a much cheaper price than other retailers.  http://www.sportsmansguide.com

Legendary Whitetails E-Marketing

One company that does a great job of utilizing E-marketing resources is Legendary Whitetails.  Legendary Whitetails is a catalog and Internet retailer of lifestyle apparel, gifts, and gear for hunters and their families.  Since they use Internet and Catalog only for selling products they must do a good job of creating an online presence in order to market themselves.   

Legendary Whitetails is involved in social media as they have a Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest account to connect with customers.  They use these accounts to advertise and interact with consumers.  On Facebook Legendary whitetails uses promotions where individuals can share the page and be entered for a chance to win a new rifle or bow.  This is a form of word of mouth promotion as consumers share the Legendary Whitetails page for all of their social media friends to see.  

Legendary Whitetails also has a strong Instagram account as they share pictures of products as well as outdoor memes that target hunters.  They use the same concept on their Pinterest account as well as sharing videos on the Legendary Whitetails YouTube account.   The Legendary Whitetails YouTube account has videos of legendary whitetails that have been shot throughout the years as well as videos on some of their products.  They also post informational videos to aid their consumers as they gain hunting insight. 

Using all of these different media channels Legendary Whitetails can reach their target market in numerous ways.  Legendary Whitetails also has a very strong E-mail program as they send individualized e-mails based on your purchases with them.  All of these channels lead back to their website where consumers can purchase Legendary Whitetail products.  These channels also give Legendary Whitetails consumer information so that they can send e-mails or catalogs to increase their sales.

  Legendary Whitetails has done a great job with their E-Marketing strategy as they were born online and have grown tremendously.  

Website Link:

http://www.deergear.com/

Companies Using SmartPhone apps to generate interest

Companies are creating apps that will help their consumers for free while creating a brand image.  I have two apps that do this on my phone, a Mossy Oak hunting app and a Field and Stream magazine app.  Both of these apps can be found on the apple app store.  These apps are offered to assist consumers with their hunting quests while promoting themselves.  

List of Hunting Apps on my IPhone

  Here is the Mossy Oak hunting app as it displays the temperature for my current location (Above Lower Right).  As well as my hunting locations on a satellite map indicated by either a deer head or a duck.  These are used to play the wind as it will show you how the wind will influence your hunting.  The deer "ScentCone" (Above Lower Left) shows where the wind will blow your scent or the area the deer will be able to smell you at.  The duck set zone (Above Right) tells you what direction the ducks or geese will fly into your decoys from.  This app can greatly increase your success rates in the field as it shows you how the wind will factor into your hunt.  This is a free app that the only benefits Mossy Oak by creating a stronger brand image with the customers who use the app, as they become more loyal to the brand that helps them.   

The field and stream reader app is another free hunting related app that I use to increase my knowledge about hunting and fishing.  This app shows some of the stores and articles that are released the in Field & Stream magazine.  With this app you can view the stories as they are posted the app and website.  This app offers articles from Hunting and Fishing to Gear and Blogs.  The article can be viewed for about a month.  This is an app that Field & Stream uses to generate interest in their magazine that I would want to order the magazine to get more stories and so that I could have them  indefinitely.  

Both of these apps are marketing scheme used by the companies to catch people when they are searching free hunting apps on the app store.  It generates interest and could lead to magazine sales for Field & Stream or lead to a consumer choosing a Mossy Oak camouflage pattern over a Real-Tree pattern in the hunting department of Walmart, Scheels, or Cabela's.  

Consumers hitting YouTube in the offseason

A hunter’s winter and early spring months often know the late as the offseason no many season are open for hunting and fishing isn’t very good yet.  So what do the hunters, fisherman/women, and outdoors people do to satisfy their urges of hunting and fishing.  Like any athlete would in the offseason they also prepare for the hunting seasons and one common way is to brush up on their skills.  YouTube offers thousand of informative videos on such as how to properly use hunting calls or different fishing strategies.  Outdoorsmen and women can pick up new tricks from these FREE videos that beat the alternative of buying the same informational DVDs from sporting good stores.  YouTube can also be used to preview and evaluate products that you may be thinking about purchasing for the next hunting season.  I have used YouTube in the past to get new ideas for making my coyote hunts more successful. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5LpHvsBPVk

This free knowledge beats buying a coyote hunting DVD or book and is faster than searching magazines. 

I also used this technique when deciding on a grunt call that I wanted to buy, and after finding the grunt call I found an information video on how to properly use the call. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5bRB3EAH20 

Companies can also use YouTube to advertise the features and success that their product offers.  In the link above the company Illusion Systems has a YouTube page where they take advantage of the free video service, which is very, beneficial to the customer as well as the company as if enough people become subscribers they could actually make money.  Companies using YouTube is an excellent example of a Win-Win situation for the company and the consumer.