How to Set Up Your Own Survey Incentives

A cost effective way to show gratitude. Surveys attempting to generalize a population often suffer from a lack of data. With abysmal response rates for optional surveys, its hard to distinguish if participants truly represent the ideals of the larger group, or if they are just a vocal minority. Luckily, research has repeatedly shown how post-paid incentives can increase user response rates. With a small token of gratitude, such as a $5.00 Amazon gift card, survey responsiveness can be boosted 36% as shown in a paper published in the Social Science Computer Review. Cash incentives are also...

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3 Simple Ways to Improve Volunteer Retention

This article was originally shared on Energize Inc's A-Z Volunteer Management Library of Retention Resources (under "Tips from colleagues.")  Recruiting new volunteers is critical, but it’s vitally important to consider how to retain current volunteers. With a new year upon us, now is the time to think about how to make improvements to help your volunteer base thrive in 2016. Here are some tips to help improve your retention efforts in 2016. Understand Goals Do you know what your volunteers want to get out of the experience? If not, find out! From there, you can help your volunteers...

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Thanking Mentors During National Mentoring Month

“Throughout our Nation's history, Americans of every background have worked…in common purpose to serve as mentors and lift up our country's youth. During National Mentoring Month, we honor all those who continuously strive to provide young people with the resources and support they need and deserve, and we recommit to building a society in which all mentors and mentees can thrive in mutual learning relationships.” – Proclamation by the President of the United States of America, December 31, 2015. National Mentoring Month is upon us. It’s a time to reflect upon those who serve as mentors—providing...

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Repost: Thanking your Blog Audience & Social Media Fans

This article was originally posted in November 2014.  The topic and content are both still very relevant. The holiday season is the perfect time for bloggers and marketers to reflect on their online audience engagement strategy. It's generally accepted that thanking your blog visitors and social media fans is the key to building an active online community which can add valuable content and credibility to your marketing efforts. In her blog post When Should You Thank Your Social Media Fans? Julie Neidlinger of Todaymade writes: "Without letting your fans know you’re thankful...

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txtMovies is Saying 'Thank You' to Volunteers Through Twitter Campaign

txtMovies works with many organizations who rely on the support of volunteers, so we understand the power of volunteerism. This holiday season, we’re thanking those who are serving others this holiday season by rewarding them with free Redbox movies. In the upcoming weeks, txtMovies will be scanning Twitter for opportunities to reward individuals who are sharing their volunteer experiences. To make sure we can find out about your volunteer experience, use the hashtag #givingback with a tweet about your volunteer experience. txtMovies will randomly choose individuals to reward with a free...

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How to Give Amazon Instant Videos as Gifts

It’s a well-known fact that Amazon is the undisputed leader in online shopping with over 1 million products available via 1 day shipping. Less well known is that Amazon is quickly becoming the go to source for streaming of the newest movie releases and current TV shows all available on demand via its Amazon Instant Video service. "For most movies, you'll see two prices: rent or buy (own).  Rentals start at $2.99. If you rent, you'll have 30 days from when you rent to start watching, and once you start watching, most movies have a 24-hour window to finish watching. Once the rental...

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Redbox Price Changes

After 12 years and for the first time, Redbox has announced that it will increase the price of its Blu-ray movie rentals. Effective December 1st, 2014 purchases of Blu-ray gift codes via txtMovies will be $2.49 per delivered gift code. Hurry, Lock in the Old Price! You still have time to purchase gift codes at the old price of $1.99 per delivered gift code as long as the purchase is completed via the txtMovies website by midnight November 30th. Don't wait! Once the Redbox increase takes place the old pricing is gone...forever. Click here to create your accoun...

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Thanking Your Blog Audience & Social Media Fans

The holiday season is the perfect time for bloggers and marketers to reflect on their online audience engagement strategy. It's generally accepted that thanking your blog visitors and social media fans is the key to building an active online community which can add valuable content and credibility to your marketing efforts. In her blog post When Should You Thank Your Social Media Fans? Julie Neidlinger of Todaymade writes: "Without letting your fans know you’re thankful for their participation and for even being an audience, it’s easy for you to be forgotten without another thought."  Julie...

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Client Spotlight: City of San Antonio Animal Care Services

When the City of San Antonio Animal Care Services wanted to increase volunteer engagement, they knew they had to find a way to connect with their volunteers on a personal level. With limited resources both financially and from a staffing perspective, they decided to use txtMovies' free Volunteer "Get To Know You" survey tool to quickly collect data from all of their volunteers.  Here's an snippet of our conversation with Jeanne R. Saadi, Volunteer Coordinator for City of San Antonio Animal Care Services. +txtMovies: Please tell us about San Antonio Animal Care Services. Jeanne:...

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Amazon Gift Cards via txtMovies

We're excited to announce the availability of $5 Amazon Gift Card codes for txtMovies customers. Starting today, you can instantly send the gift of Amazon.com by text message or email directly from your txtMovies account. Your customers will love Amazon Gift Cards because they are an extremely flexible reward, giving them access to millions of items including streaming movies, fast and reliable shipping, all backed by the trust of the Amazon brand. Each $5 Amazon Gift Card code delivered is $5.95 ($5 code plus $0.95 delivery fee). If you are a current txtMovies user, its easy to add...

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VolunteerMatch & txtMovies Partner to Study Volunteer Appreciation

VolunteerMatch and txtMovies are partnering to learn more about volunteer appreciation practices, and we want your opinion! Please help us understand how your organization shows appreciation for its volunteers by taking this very brief survey. By sharing this information, you’ll help us provide better support and resources for nonprofits and your volunteer programs. We will definitely share the results with you when they’re ready! Thanks a million! About txtMovies txtMovies is a leader in delivering Redbox and other digital codes as a form of customer appreciation. Current clients...

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Creating Added Value in Your Practice

Darden Restaurants' Olive Garden chain is running a unique promotion where they're giving away a Redbox movie with a "to go" entree. Olive Garden's marketing experts will probably tell you that few people will specifically go into an Olive Garden just for the movie. However they will also probably tell you that they expect customers to perceive they are getting more value for their hard earned dollar and that this added value makes it easier to justify eating out. It's clear the goal of the promotion is to differentiate their restaurants and create added value. What...

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Restaurant Promotion: Dinner and a Movie (Redbox DVD Rental)

Darden Restaurant's Olive Garden unit is running a limited time only promotion where you "Buy One, Take One" entree To Go. What's unique is Olive Garden is also giving away a Redbox Movie Rental promo code good for a one day rental with each To Go entree. Restaurants that want to replicate this "dinner and a movie" strategy can utilize txtMovies to deliver Redbox Movie Rental codes. For only $1.99 per movie, txtMovies will deliver to your customers a Redbox Movie Rental code via text message, email or tweet. txtMovies is a leader in delivering Redbox codes. Current...

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Volunteer Engagement: Fun Game to Break the Ice

Motivating a group of volunteers can be a daunting task especially if all the volunteers don't know each other. Many Volunteer Coordinators use games or icebreakers to engage groups of volunteers. Ideally the icebreakers are simple where everyone can participate and have fun. One simple but fun icebreaker everyone can play is called 'MovieStar'.   To play MovieStar, volunteers are asked to re-create a famous quote from a movie. Everyone else needs to guess the name of the character and name of the movie. For example, "You can't handle the truth!" Answer...

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Patient Appreciation Events: MovieStar

When you're holding Patient Appreciation Day/Week/Month events, the goal your office should shoot for is fun. Fun typically starts by engaging patients in a way where everyone can participate.   Here's an simple but fun game everyone can play.  We call it 'MovieStar'.   To play MovieStar, individual participants are asked to re-create a famous quote from a movie. Everyone else needs to guess the name of the character and name of the movie. For example, "You can't handle the truth!" Answer would be: Col. Jessup in A Few Good Men.  Bonus...

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txtMovies featured on LaunchingNext

This week txtMovies was featured on LaunchingNext. Check out their website for more cool new start up companies...

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The Genius of Muttbombing & Other Guerrilla Marketing Tactics

Please check out our first Linkedin post discussing the benefits of using creative guerrilla marketing tactics to drive growth in your business. #muttbombing #guerrillamarketing ...

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Volunteer Engagement: "Behavior That Gets Rewarded, Gets Repeated"

As volunteer managers responsible for recruiting, training and motivating non-paid staff, it can be helpful to think like a marketing professional. Marketers have long known that by altering the shopping environment with background music they can influence purchase decisions.  For example, author Gus Lubin highlights 8 Amazing Effects That Background Music Has On Sales including: Classical music at a restaurant makes people buy more than does pop music or no music However, classical music makes people think of a store as expensive, and this isn't right in all contexts People...

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Teacher & Staff Appreciation Week May 5-9, 2014

It's Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week 2014!  Celebrate by treating teachers and staff to a Movie of their Choice. For only $1.99 you can send a Redbox Movie and custom message to hundreds of teachers in less than 3 minutes.  Try a free demo or create your account today. ...

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Patient Referrals: It's All About the "THANK YOU".

The goal of any growing practice is new patients.  It's commonly accepted that the least expensive way to acquire those new patients is through word of mouth referrals from existing patients. Generating more patient referrals doesn't have to be difficult. For starters, let's review what not to do.    Noted marketing expert Bob Burg, makes a great argument for why a practice should never offer a "bribe" for referrals.  The word "bribe" has a very negative connotation, and it applies to any incentive offered in advance in exchange for a referral. Mr. Burg cites two issues...

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