BarBIO.com Frequenty Asked Questions

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BarBIO FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Why is BarBIO.com better than its competitors?
A. Here are just a few of the features that differentiate us from our competitors. And by the way - we consider our competitors to be traditional advertising media like newspapers, direct mailers, and radio in addition to other websites that offer business listing and web design services.

BarBIO.com gives you complete control of how your business is represented in your BarBIO.com listing. Update information using our administration pages at your convenience (no need to wait for someone else to get around to it). No space or time restrictions in presenting the marketing message you want to present. No worrying about how critics will describe and rank you.
BarBIO.com gives you the ability to market your business in real-time. With Broadcast Email and Referral Programs you can reach out to your customers at any time of the day. No need to meet a press deadline and then wait a few days for your advertisement to be distributed. Have an idea for a coupon or promotion? Create it yourself and broadcast it to your customers IMMEDIATELY.
Other sites offer only passive advertising while BarBIO.com gives you the marketing tools to actively advertise your business and communicate with customers.
Traditional advertising media simply can not compete with BarBIO.com in terms of the amount of space provided to communicate with customers and the speed in which you can create promotions or coupons, distribute them, and get feedback from customers.

Q. I have a very limited marketing budget for my business. I pretty much rely on word-of-mouth advertising. Why spend anything on BarBIO.com?
A. Dependency on word-of-mouth advertising means you are relying on your existing customer base for the continued growth of your business. BarBIO.com marketing tools such as Broadcast Email, Referral Programs, and the ability to create targeted coupons help you foster loyalty with existing customers while giving them an incentive to tell friends about you. BarBIO.com is designed to be an affordable and effective way to enhance word-of-mouth advertising by putting you on the minds of customers and giving them a reason to tell their friends about you. Traditional marketing tools don't let you communicate directly with your customers after they have left your establishment and invite them to come back.

Q. Is Internet access required to participate in BarBIO.com?
A. BarBIO.com offers a variety of services to help you get the most out of your subscription to BarBIO.com even if you aren't 'connected'. We can either help you get set up with access to the Internet, or manage your listing and marketing campaigns for you. It's up to you.

Q. I don't have much time and I'm not a computer expert. How much time and expertise is required to use BarBIO.com?
A. BarBIO.com was designed to be used by people without special computer skills. Creating information about your business to list on BarBIO.com is as easy as filling out a form. You provide the information for your menus, coupons, events, etc. and we take care of the formatting. Creating your listing and menu should take about 2 hours, and you spend as much or as little time maintaining your menus, calendars, coupons, promotions, and customer contact database as you desire after that. You choose when and how to use the BarBIO.com features to best meet your business needs. Alternatively, BarBIO.com offers Managed Services to administer your listing and marketing campaigns for you.

Q. My business already has a website. Why should I be listed on BarBIO.com?
A. Listing your business on BarBIO.com makes you part of a community. People use BarBIO.com to find information about restaurants, bars, coffee shops, clubs, events, menus, coupons, and special offers and may not even have a specific business in mind. If your business meets their search criteria, they will find you. Once they find you on BarBIO.com, they can read or listing and choose to link to your existing web site from your BarBIO.com listing.

Driving traffic to a website requires a continuous marketing effort and people must already be familiar with your business before they look for your website. In addition, there are hosting and maintenance costs. BarBIO.com takes responsibility for marketing our website and driving traffic for the benefit of our subscribers.

With BarBIO.com, you control the information about your business without having to become a website developer. We will take care of continuously maintaining the site as a whole and will add new features for the benefit of our subscribers and visitors.

If you are interested in having us connect up your existing website to our self-maintenance listing administration tools, let us know by emailing info@BarBIO.com.

Q. Will anyone else have access to my customer contact database?
A. As the primary user responsible for a subscription, you have control over who else has access to your Broadcast Email and Referral Program lists. BarBIO.com will not copy, use, sell, or otherwise distribute your customer contact lists without your express written consent. In addition, Email sent using BarBIO.com Broadcast Email and Referral Program services have the distribution lists hidden. Recipients of your Broadcast Email and Referral Program messages cannot see or copy any of the other email addresses the message has been sent to.

Q. I already have a customer contact list with email addresses. Do I have to enter them all again into BarBIO.com?
A. Currently, we do not have an automated online tool available to allow you to import your existing customer list into BarBIO.com. However, if you do have an extensive customer list please contact us at info@barbio.com. We do have methods of loading existing email lists that will save you a lot of time.

Q. Aren't Broadcast Email and Referral Programs SPAM?
A. SPAM is generally defined as unwanted, unsolicited email. The email addresses you will be using should be given to you by customers thereby implying a desire to receive email from you. While we can't guarantee that individual recipients or systems won't try to block your messages as SPAM, we ask our subscribers using Broadcast Email and Referral Programs to follow some guidelines that will decrease the likelihood of messages being blocked.
1) When collecting business cards and email addresses clearly indicate that you will be using the email addresses to send them information and promotional offers via email.
2) If a customer requests that their email address be removed from your distribution list, please honor their request by turning the 'Broadcast Email Status' for their name to 'OFF'.
3) Use discretion in how often you send Broadcast Email. Once or twice a week with good information or a good coupon offer may be acceptable to your customers. A constant barrage of poorly written email with equally poor offers may negatively impact customer's opinion about your business.
4) Email addresses collected from Referral Programs will only be available for your use a limited number of times unless the recipient agrees to receive additional emails from you by clicking a link provided to them.

Other questions, comments, or concerns? Please don't hesitate to contact us at info@barbio.com or visit our 'Contact Us' page.

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Sign up by 02/15/03 and get a full year subscription for only $600.
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Use BarBIO To:
•	Increase revenue
•	Communicate with customers
•	Advertise promotions

PLEASE NOTE: We are constantly upgrading our appearance and adding new features. Keep an eye on us.