It’s funny. It seems like the posts you (my readers) like the best are the ones where I give a more personal insight into the work I’m doing, or the thoughts I’m thinking as it relates to business. Not to take all the warm and fuzzies out of it, but I’ve got stats to prove this. The web analytics, Facebook insights and Twitter re-tweets – they all tell the story. My readers…my customers…they like knowing the real me and hearing that inside my brain, emotional, thoughtful type stuff.

Which got me thinking… maybe your customers would like the same thing.

Customers Are Humans, Too.

In general, humans are emotional beings, created to live in community with other humans and to interact with on a personal level. There’s way more to every business transaction than some logical need – there is an emotional connection that takes place – yes, even in the most shrewd business situations. So, how can you use this fact to connect on a deeper level (which creates immense customer loyalty, by the way) with your customers today?

Here are a few ideas I had… But I’d also love to hear your ideas, so fire away in the comments sections to help all of us do a better job at using our “humanness” as a marketing tactic to grow our businesses.

1. Use a picture of a human (you, the business owner, the manager, a key employee, an employee of the month, even a customer testimonial with photo) on your outgoing messages (that includes email, web site pages, traditional advertisements, posts on Facebook and your Twitter profile pic for your business).

2. Have all owners and employees name tags in your business, so that customers can connect with a name, not just a face.

3. Have all owners and employees introduce themselves personally and shake hands or hug customers when they enter (depending on the level of familiarity, of course). Physical contact in this professional way will deepen relationships and leave a more lasting positive impression.

4. Have your owner and employees become a source of valuable ideas instead of marketing gimmicks. For example, instead of greeting a customer with a sales gimmick when they walk in the store, have them demonstrate what to do with a certain item, how to use it, etc.

5. Place signs around the store with photos of employees or owners that provide personalized advice through signage. For example:

Mary’s Top 10 Graduation Gift Ideas Under $50

Mary’s Favorite Pair of Jeans for Summer – White Bootcut Delta Blues

Mary Recommends… Mixing your grandmother’s antique china with this Gail Pittman ivory pottery plate for a bright spring luncheon

6. Use your blog, email, Facebook and Twitter as a place to circulate more of these types of ideas, to reach out to others who are asking questions or making comments that you can engage in conversation about (i.e. be human and join conversations in a normal human way, but on behalf of your business).

7. Use your blog to explain more about the ideas you’ve shared on the signs in-store. For example, you can create a blog post “written by” the person who made the tip on the store sign, include their photo on the blog post as well, include some additional sample pictures of products (include price and official name of product in the caption), and explain in more detail what you presented on the store sign. For instance, if you were saying more about Mary’s favorite pair of summer jeans, you might show some outfit ideas, tell why they are her favorite from her perspective (does she have a certain body type that they fit well, are they lighter weight for hot Southern summers, is there an event that she looks forward to that she plans to wear the jeans to?), and even share a bit of the story behind the brand (a brand created in the South to fit Southern women, etc.). This extends the customer’s in-store experience, and it gives you a lot of content to post on social media, which will in turn also create new sales. And it’s all done from a human, personal perspective, which will lead to tighter emotional connections, higher per-ticket sales averages, and a more loyal customer base.

Trust me… we all really do like it when people are more human in how they do business. The numbers prove it.

Image by: brewbooks

In his book “Free,” Chris Anderson (Twitter link) talks about the power of the digital economy to minimize the cost of producing and distributing a product to the public. We’ve all seen and participated in examples of this, whether it’s from using a free e-mail service like Google to downloading free e-books or getting free apps for our phones. Free is nice.

For retailers dealing in tangible items, though, how does the low cost, and ensuing “freeness” of many digital products matter? You’ve still working in terms of concrete stuff: food, clothes, gift items, raw materials to be transformed or tangible lines to be distributed. The good news is that you can still take advantage of free, using it in terms of your own business to attract new customers, retain loyal customers, build sales, and build your business – all with digital content that costs you next to nothing to create and distribute.

A blog is one of the easiest ways to create and give free digital content. It doesn’t have to cost you anything to set up a blog; you can invest in a professional design and hosting service, and at some point you might need to, but getting started can be as simple as setting up a free blog on one of the many web services. After the initial set-up, the cost for you is in terms of time. You need to put the time in to create 1 – 3 posts every week, on a regular basis. These posts are your freebie; they’re informative, valuable, helpful, and, of course, somehow related to your business.

One step up from blog posts are digital products such as e-books and e-newsletters. Both, again, can be produced for only the cost of your time. You can easily create an e-newsletter weekly or monthly and mail it out to your email list of customers who want to hear from you. Make sure the articles you include in your e-newsletter are informative, valuable, helpful, and somehow related to your business. Even though you’re giving this content away free, if it becomes irrelevant, then it moves into the “spam” category.

An e-book can be a collection of the blog posts and e-newsletters you’ve produced, or it can be new content entirely. You can format an e-book in an office program, convert it to a .pdf file, and offer it as a free download on your website, blog, and Facebook page. Here are a few examples:

A restaurant owner could offer an e-book that contained any or all of the following:

• A recipe collection
• Ideas for entertaining
• Cooking tips
• A “day in the life of a restaurant” story
• Ideas for creating restaurant-worthy menus
• Ideas for cooking at home
• Tips on using fresh, seasonal food
• Essays about cooking/eating green
• Essays about food/eating in general
• Tips on any food-related specialty topic (spices, herbs, growing your own veggies, ethnic cooking, desserts, etc.)

A retail storeowner could offer an e-book that related to its products in some way, as the following:

• A style manual for spring/summer/fall/winter
• An up-to-the-minute clothing & fashion trend tip list
• Advice on putting a great wardrobe together
• Help on dressing for your body/personal style
• Tips for wearing accessories
• Profiles of fashionable people
• Great gift ideas for men
• Great gift ideas for women
• Tips on hosting a great party
• Ideas for fun dinner parties
• Ideas for family activities

The list is endless, and limited only in how much time you can give to producing the content. Of course, if you’re thinking “I am not a writer,” then look to your staff for someone who is. You can often find a willing volunteer, someone who can dedicate some portion of their working hours to helping create and promote these digital products.

As you create the digital freebies, of course, you want to let your customers know about them. Facebook and Twitter, flyers in your store, e-mail sign-up sheets at the counter, and some simple training so that all of your employees promote your digital freebies by word-of-mouth. Every customer who walks into your store should know about the great e-book they can get (free!) or e-newsletter they can sign up to receive (free!) or regularly updated blog they can follow (free!).

Every digital freebie you distribute builds your reputation and strengthens your connection with your customers; and, since digital is so easy to share, it gets passed along from one network to another, extending your reach well past where you can go with a print mailing or newspaper ad. It’s cheap for you and free for them, so everybody wins.
Image by Ken Hawkins

In last week’s Promo Ideas e-letter, I made a garden analogy when talking about bad habits that sneak into our business… I correlated those bad habits with weeds in our garden. Spring is wonderful in a lot of ways, but one of it’s shortcomings is the emergence of a fresh crop of weeds in the garden and flowerbeds. In order for our gardens to produce at peak, those weeds must go. And the same holds true in business.

I challenged my readers to identify those weeds in their own business, and here I’d like to walk through some of the ways that I’ve found work for me when I need to banish bad habits from my business life. You’ll have others I imagine, and I hope you’ll share them in the comments section.

1. Focus on cultivating healthy habits.

I’m a farmer’s daughter, so I’ve learned a few life lessons that way growing up. One is that bad weeds have a hard time flourishing in the midst of a lot of other healthy plants. Now, some will, and they will need to purposefully be eliminated. However, at the same time that you are removing weeds, you must replace them with healthy plants. Or the weeds just grow back.

The same is true in business. At the same time that you purpose to quit doing things wrong; you have to start doing things right. You need to determine what the correct and healthy habit is—then start doing that—and stop doing the bad one. Focus on how consistent you are with doing the right thing—and celebrate your wins—rather than focusing on not doing a bad thing and beating yourself up over missteps.

2. Write down your plan, goals or resolve.

Decide what needs to change – then write it down. Maybe you write it on a napkin or a post-it note. Maybe you e-mail it to yourself or set an alarm on your phone to remind you every day. It doesn’t matter how low-tech or high-tech… stats show that when you write something down, it has an exponentially greater chance of actually happening. That chance gets better and better as you refer to your plan daily and challenge yourself daily as you develop those new habits.

3. Attack the process in bite-sized pieces.

You didn’t develop those bad habits overnight, and they won’t quit happening overnight. When I gain a little weight, it takes time and a lot of bad eating habits to put on the pounds. And as such, I can’t lose that weight overnight, no matter how much I wish I could. Instead, divide up your goals into smaller, even daily, incremental steps. Then attack those bite-sized pieces one bite at a time.

4. Each day is a new day.

Without a doubt, none of us are perfect. As such, our path to better habits and achieving our goals will be riddled with backsliding or missteps or just not getting things done. Free yourself from the slavery of perfection and clean the slate everyday when you end your day. Wake up refreshed and re-energized to pick up on the right track wherever you left off. Every day is a new day, and there is no sense in beating yourself up over what you did or did not accomplish the day before. If you’re always looking backwards, you’ll never go forward. Purpose each day to start fresh no matter what successes or failures happened yesterday. The success of yesterday doesn’t guarantee success today, and just as much, the failures of yesterday don’t mean you’ll fail today. Chin up. Feel free to succeed. Review your written goals. Go do something good. Even revolutionary!

Photo Credit: kusine

Jason Falls makes it easy with this challenge to make your web site more prominent as a means to more web traffic, and ultimately sales. Local businesses must pay attention – or they will lose thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of missed local searches (people ready and looking to buy) each year.

Please let me know if you need advice on how to accomplish local search results for your local business. We can help.

Read the article, The Most Important Reason Social Media Is Good For Your Local Business, here:
www.socialmediaexplorer.com/search-engine-marketing/the-most-important-reason-social-media-is-good-for-your-local-business/

This Copyblogger post by life coach Joy Tanksley struck me as the absolute perfect “stick with it” inspiration for small businesses seeking to break out of the status quo and pursue a niche business model in terms of service, product selection or target audience. Brilliant tie-in with the Oscar-winning movie, “The King’s Speech”. If you need a daily reminder to stick with it no matter what the naysayers throw your way, print out this post and tack it to the wall in your office as a daily reminder to stay the course.

By the way – the title is deceptive… this article is motivation regardless of business type – it’s certainly not just for online business types.

Read the article, How Can the King’s Speech Help You Build an Extraordinary Online Business, here:
www.copyblogger.com/kings-speech

Lately, we’ve pinpointed that our search traffic to this blog is heavily weighted towards posts like this holiday-focused one that hands out retail promotion ideas with retail window display ideas coming in a close second. A quick Google search – followed by disbelief and more digging – showed that there simply isn’t a wealth of retail promotion and window display ideas floating around on the web. So, while we’ve got lots of resources in store for you in this new year, I am boldly stealing both inspiration and format from Chris Brogan’s newly launched weekly blog topics program. You’ve got a small business – and you’d like to keep the customers buying. Want some new ideas?

What’s the plan?

I’ll send weekly e-mails with FIVE OR MORE PROMOTION IDEAS for you to implement in your small business or store. In addition, I’ll be including quite a few visual and window display ideas each month as well as some general marketing strategy and sales advice.

Click to learn more about how to get an endless supply of promotional ideas for your small business!

What Types of Ideas?

The ideas will be widely flexible to work in a variety of scenarios – flower shops, coffee shops, clothes boutiques, grocery, restaurants and gift stores. And everything in between. We’ll be doing seasonal ideas a few weeks ahead of the season or date to allow for advanced planning. The ideas will go far beyond discounting and include many ideas to sell at full price, to inspire repeat purchases and to catch new customers. Your creative juices will get a weekly fix – and your store will never look more inspiring to customers!

It’s not free. It’s $27 a month. Think of it as a magazine subscription. Is it for everyone? Definitely not. Is it for someone who wants to keep their business booming and looking fresh and interesting year-round? Is it for someone who could use the creative encouragement and steady dose of fresh ideas? Yep, that’s who this will serve best.

Each mail comes with a lot more than FIVE OR MORE RETAIL PROMOTION IDEAS. It comes with ideas about how to improve your business, ideas on sales, marketing and customer service in general, retail window display and merchandise display ideas as well as lots and lots of modification ideas as well. The first message was just over 900 words long. The second message is nearly 1000. They’ll stay pretty meaty, because that’s what I’m known for – and I always want you to feel like you got far more than value than you paid and always leave with something you feel you can accomplish immediately.

Want to learn more? Check out the weekly Revolutionary Promotion Ideas email.

As we explained in a previous article , the key to locally owned businesses surviving and thriving in a competitive, online marketplace and tight economy is to find and dominate a niche of their own.

Small businesses can’t compete with the advertising dollars and inventory numbers of huge national chains; they can establish themselves by finding a specialty and being the best in it.

You Can’t Please All the People

The toughest part of becoming a successful niche business is realizing that you simply won’t be able to make everybody happy. If you choose to specialize your small business in science fiction, for example, then you won’t gain a following of classic literature lovers. But you will gain science fiction fans. If you choose to specialize your locally owned restaurant in a specific type of cuisine, perhaps Italian, then you’ll lose the people who don’t like pasta. But you’ll have fervent and loyal customers in the pasta lovers.

The Trade Off

For a business to succeed in a specialty or niche, it has to make a trade-off. You trade the complacent, so-so, average customers for the fervent, dedicated, enthusiastic ones. Sounds like a good trade, right? It is, because a few enthusiastic customers will give you more in lifetime value and passionate referrals to their peers than many average customers.

Finding Your Enthusiastic Fans

The first step to identifying those customers you want to find and keep for the life of your business is to clearly define your specialty. What are you offering that’s different, better, or more unique than your competitors? Once you’ve identified your own niche – your special offering – you’re in the right position to find the people who will be interested in what you have to offer.

The second step is just a bit of simple brainstorming: who is going to be the most interested and the most enthusiastic about your specialty, your niche? Don’t focus on the people who might be interested. Focus on the people who will love what you offer. If you’re selling science fiction books, you need to be at the sci-fi gatherings, clubs, and conferences, and partnering up with the local theater when the next sci-fi movie opens. Market yourself to the most passionate people in the particular niche; they, in turn, will market you to the people they know. When you find and convert enthusiastic customers, they do the advertising for you.

Places to Look for your Niche Customers

• Specialized online communities and groups
• Local clubs and meetings
• Conferences
• Meet-up groups
• Fan clubs
• Organizations and associations
• Trade shows

Note: If your “niche” is too big to define and go find in groups like these… then your “niche” isn’t a niche at all – and you need to work harder to find your small business’ niche – a truly narrow scope or specialty that will create a winning formula for your business in a difficult economic time.

Where would your ideal customers hang out? Where do they gather? That’s where you need to be.

Image by Rachel Voorhees.