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Tuesday, June 20, 2017




Localvantia Pre-Launch!

Localvantia_logo
We are very excited today to unveil a powerful and groundbreaking new program for SFI affiliates.
For years, we’ve been working towards a way to allow our affiliates to earn unlimited VersaPoints by simply shopping at their favorite local merchants.
Imagine earning all your rank-qualifying VersaPoints each month by simply buying your groceries, fueling up your car, or dining at your favorite restaurants!
Better yet, imagine earning earn all these VersaPoints with no additional expense whatsoever; just buy what you already buy!
Yes, that’s exactly what our new program, “Localvantia,” aims to do!
But Localvantia won’t be just grocery stores, gas stations, and places to eat.  On the contrary, Localvantia is designed to cover essentially ALL merchants with products and services consumed locally.
Here are some of the categories planned:
  • Accountants/Tax Professionals
  • Appliance Installation & Repair
  • Attorneys
  • Automotive
  • Bakery
  • Bars/Pubs
  • Beauty/Hair Salons
  • Books
  • Carpentry
  • Carpet Cleaning
  • Childcare
  • Clothes
  • Coffee
  • Computer, Phone, & Electronics Repair
  • Dry Cleaning
  • Electrical Installation & Repair
  • Flowers
  • Fun & Entertainment
  • Gasoline/Fuel
  • General Contracting
  • General Home Repair
  • Groceries
  • Health & Wellness
  • Heat & Air Conditioning
  • Home Security
  • House Cleaning
  • Interior Design
  • Landscaping
  • Locksmith
  • Movers
  • Music
  • Notaries
  • Painting Services
  • Pest Control
  • Pet Care & Grooming
  • Photographers
  • Plumbing
  • Pool Specialists
  • Printing Services
  • Roofing & Siding
  • Restaurants
  • Self Storage
  • Sewing & Alterations
  • Snow Removal
  • Sports
  • Theaters/Shows
  • Trash & Junk Removal
  • Tree Trimming

How you’ll earn & receive VersaPoints

  1. Simply make a purchase at a participating merchant…and get a receipt for your purchase.
  2. Go to localvantia.com and fill out a simple Points Claim Form and attach (upload) a photo of your receipt as proof of your purchase.
  3. We’ll invoice the merchant for the cost of your points.
  4. Once the points have been paid for by the merchant, they will be added to your account.
That’s it!  Simple and easy for you…and simple and easy for the participating merchants!

LocalvantiaPR_Opp
While the opportunity in the near future to earn unlimited VersaPoints just by shopping at your favorite merchants is BIG, the biggest news today is the Localvantia pre-registration program.
Starting today, all SFI affiliates with the minimum rank of Executive Affiliate (EA), can start pre-registering their local merchants.
It’s this simple:
  1. Visit your favorite merchant(s).
  2. Take a good picture of their storefront.
  3. Go to https://www.sfimg.com/MyAccount/lv_prereg and complete the pre-registration form for the merchant and upload the photo you took.
  4. Monitor your list of registered merchants and results at: https://www.sfimg.com/MyAccount/lv_mymerchants
Then, this fall, when the Localvantia website/search engine goes live, the merchants will be contacted directly to confirm their registration and formally opt in to the program.
Note: Follow-up contact with the merchant may involve SFI and/or you—the affiliate who pre-registered them—so do not pre-register any merchants you’re not willing to follow up on later.  What form will the follow-up take?  It could take many forms, including mailing literature, leaving a brochure for the owner, phone calls, or meetings.

LocalvantiaPR_Reward

For your accounts (the merchants for which you are the Account Manager), your reward is the opportunity to earn unlimited Bonus VP (each worth one share of the TripleClicks Executive Pool)!
That is, for each VersaPoint dispensed by your merchants, you’ll earn one Bonus VP!
Imagine you’ve signed up a popular restaurant or grocery store that SFI affiliates shop at, who earn themselves 50,000 VP a month from their purchases there.  That’s 50,000 Bonus VP (shares of the TripleClicks Executive Pool) for you each month, just for introducing the merchant to the Localvantia program.  And that’s just for ONE merchant; you could have dozens or even hundreds of merchants!
LocalvantiaPR_Testimonial
Note: For quality control reasons, you will be limited to a nominal number of pre-registrations per day to start (just one per day to start).  We will review all submissions daily.  Once you’ve demonstrated that your pre-registrations are accurate, error-free, and include a quality photo, your limit will be raised…and we’ll keep raising your limit so long as a high level of quality is maintained.

LV_LaunchGoal

When Localvantia is launched in the fall, we’d like to have a minimum of 10,000 merchants pre-registered.  With approximately 125 days until launch, that means we need to average 80 pre-registrations a day.  We’re counting on everyone to help us reach our goal.  Let’s get started!

Question and answer

Q: When will Localvantia go live and be available to customers?
We hope to launch Localvantia no later than the end of October.
Q: Why do a “pre-launch,” why not just launch Localvantia now?
Because for Localvantia to succeed, we need our army of affiliates around the world to get to work NOW…pre-registering thousands of local merchants, so that when Localvantia is ready to go live to the public it can have thousands of merchants confirmed and participating.
Q: Won’t taking a picture of the purchase receipt and uploading the picture to receive points be hard to do?
No.  Simply take a quick picture of the receipt with your phone’s camera.  Then, at the Points Claim Form, you’ll be able to quickly and easily click a button and choose the picture you took and upload it.  That’s it.  Very simple and easy.
Q: Will merchants be able to see the photo of the receipt?
Yes, that’s the primary reason for uploading the photo, so that merchants can confirm your purchase and pay the points due.
Q: Is Localvantia only for SFI affiliates?
No.  For TripleClicks members, MRP (Member Rewards Points) can be earned.  So VersaPoints for SFI affiliates, and MRP for TC members.
Q: Will there be a Localvantia app for my smart phone?
Localvantia will be fully mobile-friendly and should work great on your smart phone.
Q: Why will merchants want to participate in the Localvantia program?
Because it will be one of the easiest ways to increase their sales.  Think about it:  Are YOU more likely to shop at the local merchants in your area that reward you with free VersaPoints?  Of course.  And what about the dozens, hundreds, or thousands of other affiliates and members in the area?  They too will have a great incentive to buy from “Localvantians.”
Q: Is Localvantia expensive for merchants to participate in?
Definitely not.  In fact, for most merchants, the sales they’ll get from being in the Localvantia network, will cost them but a few cents.  Compared to the cost of advertising in newspapers, on radio, etc., Localvantia may be THE best bargain in advertising and customer retainment they will EVER see.
Q: If merchants have to be invoiced for points, does that mean it will take a long time to get my VersaPoints?
For merchants brand new to the Localvantia network, it may not be real speedy at first, but we plan to streamline the process so it’s very quick and easy for the merchants to pay their invoices.  And we hope to get as many merchants as possible on a prepaid plan where they’ll actually deposit funds into an account and we’ll draw from that account immediately when a points claim is submitted.  That is, for merchants on the prepaid plan (which will be less expensive for them too), you’ll be able to receive your VersaPoints within hours or even minutes.
Q: I’m an SFI affiliate.  Can I get MRP instead of VersaPoints?
VersaPoints will be the default for SFI affiliates but, yes, we will likely make it so you can choose to receive MRP instead.  There may other options available in the future too.
Q: Will Localvantia make it easier to recruit new affiliates and keep them active?
We sure think so!  Your PSAs can now qualify as Executive Affiliates each month just by buying what they normally buy around town.  That’s huge!  Add to that that they can be earning shares of the TripleClicks Executive Pool doing this, and earn even more money by just letting others know about it, too.  Yes, Localvantia could very well be a game-changer!
Q: Can I pre-register merchants outside of my area?
No.  We want all merchants to have a LOCAL contact.  Therefore, you are limited to merchants in your area.
Q: How will merchants be convinced to opt in to the Localvantia program?
For starters, Localvantia will clearly be seen as one of the easiest, most affordable methods available for them to create new customers and sales.  Being a Localvantia merchant will also give them access to great free tools to help them increase their sales.  And then there’s this:  All prospective Localvantia merchants will be advised of the number of current SFI affiliates and TC members in their area.  Imagine being a merchant and being able to sign up for Localvantia and immediately tap into dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of area affiliates and TC members hungry for free VersaPoints and MRP!  And we’ll make sure all those affiliates and members are aware of every Localvantia merchant in their area.  That is, we’ll prominently and directly promote Localvantia merchants to all our affiliates and members!
Q: Can my PSAs earn 1500 VP (for Executive Affiliate status) just by shopping at Localvantia merchants?
Yes!  And not only that, but as an Executive Affiliate they’ll earn one share of the TripleClicks Executive Pool for each VP.  In other words, not only can your PSAs earn EA status each month without adding anything to their budget, but they’ll also earn income from SFI…meaning they can get all their groceries, gas, etc. at a discount price!
Q: Will there be a way for affiliates, TC members, and the general public to easily discover the Localvantia merchants in their area?
Absolutely!  Localvantia.com will feature a searchable directory of every Localvantia merchant.  Every merchant will have a “profile page” with extensive information, photos, ratings and reviews, and more.  Example: Looking for Localvantia restaurants?  You’ll be able to quickly pull up just these merchants in your area, view photos, read reviews, and more.
Q: What if one of my PSAs is looking for, say, gasoline stations in his area?
Your PSA can go to localvantia.com, do a search on the gasoline/fuel category.  Each found merchant will have a profile page so that your PSA can compare the stations, find the one closest to him/her (will include a Google map), and see how much VP they’ll earn by filling up their tank there!
Q: What should the storefront photo look like that we need to take and upload when pre-registering a merchant?
Here are a few examples:
Q: What if it’s a business that doesn’t have a storefront?
You should, as a general rule, target businesses with storefronts, but if there is no storefront for, say, a local photographer who operates from his or her home, we suggest photographing the owner of the business, perhaps posing with his or her camera.
Q: Once Localvantia launches, will there be literature, brochures, X-Cards, etc. available to give to prospective merchants or for following up?
Yes, there will be a nice array of marketing aids available, both of the printed and digital variety, but remember that pre-registering them is the first step—which you can start doing right now.
Q: What about brand new SFI affiliates?  How will they know about the merchants in their area that offer VersaPoints for shopping with them?
It will be part of the SFI system once Localvantia is launched.  When a new affiliate comes aboard, we’ll let them know about all the Localvantia merchants that they can shop at to earn easy VersaPoints.  As their sponsor, you can help make sure they know about Localvantia merchants, too.
Q: Are the merchants I pre-register permanently mine?
That depends on you.  All merchants you pre-register need to be thought of as accounts, accounts that must be maintained and cared for.  For most merchants, we expect them to opt in to the program without a lot of fuss…and there may be little, if any, ongoing care needed by you, their account manager.  However, there will absolutely be some merchants that will require follow-ups by you, which could include direct mail, phone calls, or personal meetings.  If you’re not willing to be active in this way, you should not pre-register Localvantia merchants.
Q: What is the point of following up on the merchants I pre-register?
First, and most importantly, a follow-up is the mechanism for getting the merchant to confirm the information you’ve pre-registered and formally opted in to the Localvantia program.  Without the merchant doing this, the pre-registration means nothing.  Beyond this, we of course want the merchant to be fully aware of ALL of the program’s potential  benefits so that they are active participants.  This benefits you, the account manager, of course, because it can mean a much higher volume of VersaPoints being dispensed by the merchant–which of course means more Bonus VP and commissions for you.
Q: Are there other aspects of Localvantia for merchants besides just gaining new customers because of SFI sending its affiliates their way?
Yes!  Localvantia merchants will have a slick and easy way to create special discounts and deals to bring in existing customers and attract new customers too.  And we’ll help them promote their special offers, too, such as by alerting every SFI affiliate and TC member in the area—at little or no cost to the merchant!  Other powerful free and inexpensive sales boosters are also planned for Localvantia merchants.
Q: How do I pre-register a merchant for Localvantia?
Here are the simple steps:
  1. Visit your favorite merchant(s).
  2. Take a good picture of their storefront.
  3. Go to https://www.sfimg.com/MyAccount/lv_prereg and complete the pre-registration form for the merchant and upload the photo you took.
  4. Monitor your list of registered merchants and results at: https://www.sfimg.com/MyAccount/lv_mymerchants
Q: Will the merchants that I pre-register have the opportunity to edit their listing, submit a new photo of their storefront, etc.
Yes. The idea is that by pre-registering them you make it easy for them to get started, but they’ll have the opportunity to replace the photo you took (and add more photos if they want to).  They’ll also be able to update/edit what you’ve entered as well as add much more information to “fill out” their store’s profile in our directory.
Q: What if I don’t do the follow-ups and/or don’t continue to manage my accounts?
If you’re negligent in these areas, your accounts will be eventually reassigned to another account manager in your area, typically one that has demonstrated prowess. The fact is, Localvantia will not be successful if merchants are simply pre-registered and then left to “wither on the vine.”  With the Localvantia program, proactiveness by those referring the merchants is key.  If we want results, if we want to create a truly powerful and beneficial network of merchants where all SFI affiliates can earn their VersaPoints at, we can’t be bashful or demure. If we want to build something truly great here, we need our merchant accounts in the hands of our most productive affiliates.  Ultimately, this is best for everyone.
Q: How do you pronounce Localvantia?
“Low-cull-VON-tee-uh”
Q: What does the name Localvantia mean?
Think of it as “local advantage.”