Now that you’ve launched your ecommerce site, it’s time to get noticed. To most online stores, brand advertising is the best way to attract more visitors and customers. However, between communicating with brands and finding relevant content for your store, it can be harder than it looks. That’s where Promoboxx comes in.
Promoboxx is a company that streamlines the online marketing process by connecting retailers with customizable content approved by big brands. To go into further detail about their services and mission, we sat down with Sonciary Honnoll, Co-Founder and VP of Customer Experience, to get the inside scoop.
Sonciary Honnoll is Co-Founder and VP of Customer Experience at Promoboxx. In her role, she and her team focus on creating better, more impactful ways to align brands and speciality retailers that drive sales. When she’s not at Promoboxx HQ, she’s relaxing with family in New Hampshire or out running the streets of Boston. Her motto? Gratitude changes everything.
Endless Aisles: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today.
We are particularly excited to conduct this interview because there has been a lot curiosity and positive feedback from our retailers about your services and mission!
For those who don’t know, can you tell us a little about Promoboxx?
Sonciary Honnoll: We’re excited to be here as well. Of course!
Promoboxx is the only retail marketing platform, powered by brands, that connects and aligns national manufacturing brands with independent, specialty retailers to increase sales. We believe in the power of retailers and in supporting them. We are proud to partner with brands like ADM, CANIDAE, Cargill, Cavalor, Standlee Forage, and Kalmbach to transform the way brands and retailers market together at a local level.
My two co-founders, Ben Carcio and Dan Koziak, and I met working at a previous company and eventually, once we left, we started Promoboxx.
Promoboxx was really based on our realization that we’re all storytellers at heart and we loved working with independent small business owners to help market their products. However, we realized there wasn’t a tool that allowed brands to give their retailers the content that they needed to grow their businesses. So we decided to build it.
Endless Aisles: That’s incredible! What brands do you currently work with right now?
Sonciary Honnoll: There are more than 55 brands on Promoboxx at the moment across over a dozen verticals. A lot of people in the animal nutrition industry have expressed interest in us, and we are readily responding to them based on the feedback we hear from their retailers — they want them on Promoboxx!
Endless Aisles: How can interested retailers get started on Promoboxx?
Sonciary Honnoll: Brands invite retailers to join Promoboxx and access their branded, campaign related marketing and advertising content. Once the retailer is invited, they receive an email invitation from the brand, and from there, they start receiving marketing campaigns and content right away! Brands can even enable automation for campaigns, which will allows retailers to have a hands-off approach and have the content post automatically to their social channels. If retailers would like to request a brand, they can go to Promoboxx.com to do so.
Endless Aisles: Automation is a key feature. A lot of our retailers are extremely busy, so the ability to plan these postings in advance would be amazing for them.
I know that one problem with regular brand advertising is the lack of customization. Is there any opportunity to customize the message from these brands with Promoboxx?
Sonciary Honnoll: That is definitely something that retailers can do. When a brand sends them campaign notifications, they can preview the content and customize the message to their store. Retailers can choose which content is applicable to them and rewrite the messaging as needed based on their unique customers and community. Retailers can also “set it and forget it” — meaning enable our automation tools to have content direct streamed to their digital channels.
Endless Aisles: That sounds very easy! Is there a cost for retailers?
Sonciary Honnoll: Not at all! The Promoboxx platform is free for retailers to use, sponsored by the brands they carry. The brand can also provide them with Local Ads opportunities, which gives retailers the ability to spend digital funds and run locally geo-targeted ads across social media and mobile displays. This way, retailers can target their local audience and persuade more customers to visit the store. They can simply select from content they’ve already shared, choose the location(s) for their ads to target, choose the dollar amount, and Promoboxx runs the ad.
Endless Aisles: That’s great! I know that many people forget to consider social media advertisements when planning their marketing strategy. The fact that Promoboxx makes this a bit easier is a great feature!
Sonciary Honnoll: Definitely. A strong digital presence is essential for small businesses to succeed. Promoboxx helps local consumers know what to buy and where to buy it. We wanted to do whatever we could to give smaller retailers the opportunity to compete!
Endless Aisles: I think that goal was achieved! Promoboxx really sounds like a game-changer for small business marketing. Thank you so much for speaking with us!
Sonciary Honnoll: You’re welcome! It was a pleasure!
For more information on how to market your ecommerce business, check out our article on Building a Social Media Presence.