From time to time, I update the readers of this blog on the goings on of the blog and our other business interests. It’s been quite some time since I’ve made such a post, so here goes…

This morning I was considering that next year (2012) will be the 10-year anniversary of my blogging on this URL (some of the original content has long-ago been eaten by the interwebs as a result of my learning curve back near the beginning in doing things such as this…). That seems noteworthy to me in a world of often changing technologies, the blog has held its own and continues to drive an immense amount of business our way – and also to our clients who blog on their own domains. It’s a powerful tool, and one worthy of more attention in the coming months.

One-Year Ago

In March of 2010, we introduced the new logo on this blog, and what ensued was the most successful year of this blog’s history in terms of traffic, reader engagement, and social sharing. At the same time, we launched an effort to get small business owners to connect with one another in more of a community format, free of charge. We provided a free business directory listing exclusively for locally owned and operated small businesses (the sorts that don’t get marketing assistance from an outside power and really make 100% of their decisions at the local level). That part of the experiment didn’t go as well. We learned, as I think some other major bloggers and business people are learning as we speak… small business owners don’t have time for extracurricular networking online. I was reminded that this happens on a local level – where they are pressured more to participate in Chambers and business development groups – and so they do. Over the year, we’ve backed off of wishing business owners would spend more time using us as a networking center and have been happy that they’ve increasingly relied on us for information and ideas.

Promotional Ideas via Email

As such, we’re pursuing more ways to get more information and ideas out to small business owners in a way that they can digest it. Saving you steps saves you time, so just two months ago, we launched Promo Ideas that Work in This Economy – a weekly e-letter delivered directly to your Inbox. For only $27 a month, you don’t have to think about what sales or promotions you’re going to have, we cover it for you and make the ideas easy to implement. And we do NOT focus on discounting: four out of every five-promo ideas is for selling in a way other than discounting. If you haven’t yet signed up for this, may I recommend that you do – it’s a long, beefy letter every single week, delivered to your Inbox.

Some Things Always Stay the Same

I have been reminded that in more than a decade of being self-employed, technology and marketing tools have changed a LOT, but the lifestyle of a local small business owner has NOT changed much at all. The obstacles of limited time, limited know-how when it comes to technology, and limited ability to maintain consistent, effective marketing are all still in place. And these are the challenges that we must help you overcome.

What the Future Holds

As such, the future holds more “on the ground” services that will be bundled and made ridiculously affordable for small business owners AND save you time, save you having to know about technology at all, and save you from the emotional and financial roller coaster that results from inconsistent marketing. The blog will carry on, and it will be a supplement to new business models that will bring services to your door (yes, with a real live person). It will bring expertise to your community. And it will bring even more ideas and information to your Inbox and to this blog. I’m not ready to make any formal announcements yet, but suffice it to say, we’re very excited about the iteration of our relationship with you. I hope you’ll stay in touch and continue to help us learn how to help you better as we go along this path together.

If you don’t get our blog posts delivered to your Inbox, now might be a great time to subscribe, so you don’t miss any opportunities for you or your community as we announce them in the coming months. I welcome your feedback. Our passion is to help you succeed.

Image by: By ▌ÇP▐

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

I just sent an e-mail to my team requesting that all “Tweet” buttons on all of our media sites be changed to Twitter’s official button… Prior to this, I have used the Tweetmeme button and liked it a lot. It provided a little built-in measurement and worked really well.

Type in this URL to setup your very own Official Tweet button for your web site or blog.

Following Isn’t Guaranteed

Last week, Andy commented to me that he has super fan on one of his sites that tweets with them all the time. The day came that this particular person was going to be surprised with a random gift certificate given through the media site, but when he went to direct message this supposed super fan – they weren’t following, so he couldn’t message her the good news!

This struck me as a possible scenario that may be happening more than is widely recognized… and from where I’m sitting, it’s a problem.

Twitter’s Very Own Tweet Button

So, today, I had an experience that I really liked with Twitter’s official button. In particular, I like that after I clicked the button to tweet a blog post it then gave me another pop-up that recommended that I follow the account related with that blog.

Maybe just maybe Twitter knows what we’re slow to pick up on around here: There is a lot of Twitter stalking going on without official following to go with it. And kindly enough, Twitter is helping us resolve that social slip by adding this recommendation screen to their button.

Make sure that you put in the Twitter account that you want to be recommended by your Twitter button when you set up your button!

Other “tweet buttons” may do the same, but I’m not aware of it. Furthermore, I liked what I saw and experienced. I think it’s a sound move. So, I’m making it.

Become a Tweeter with a New Twitter Button

Takeaway: Make sure you have a Twitter button on all the pages of your web site and/or blog. I’m recommending Twitter’s official button at the moment because it also recommends the account associated with your web site. However, if you don’t have a Twitter account that you use, this new function will not help your business.

One complaint many small business owners have, once they launch into building up an online presence, is how long it can take to build up a good fan/customer base online. Fortunately, there are several good answers for that complaint, and one of them is to get more exposure online from other sources. Credible sources, such as news sites and popular blogs, can publish one story and link to your business’s website and cause a huge increase in the online interaction you’re getting. So, the next question is, how do you get to these credible sources?

Here’s a little secret you might not know about writers: they’re always looking for something good to write about. Many major news sites, especially the hyper-local ones such as Examiner.com, are written almost exclusively by freelance writers who are out there finding the stories and doing the research themselves. If you have a story ready to go, and it’s related to their subject area, pitch them. The same goes for bloggers who write reviews or write about topics related to your business.

Step 1: Find the contacts.
Go to any local news website and find the writers who specialize in a topic that relates to your business. Read several of their articles to get a feel for the kind of story or information they prefer to write about. Then think about how your business can fit into their writing.

Search for related blogs. Find review blogs, if you’re looking for product reviews. Or find topical blogs, if you’re looking for a news piece or a story to be written about your business. Most likely you can go to the blogs you’d be interested in reading from a professional standpoint. Read them and get a feel for the kind of posts they produce.

Step 2: Write a pitch.
Get the individual contact information for each writer you want to contact; this information is usually readily available on the site. All you really need is the writer’s name and email address.

Put together a brief pitch for each individual writer. Make it short, snappy, friendly, and related to what that writer writes about.

For example, a pitch for a local news writer who specializes in fashion and style:

Dear Sally Mae Writer,
I’m Ruth Johnson, the owner of the local business The Hattery. I noticed you recently wrote a series about new trends in local fashion, and I wanted to tell you about our spring event that highlights local fashions in a unique way. Each spring, we put together a fashion show with local models; other boutiques contribute the outfits, and The Hattery provides custom-designed hats and/or head wear for each outfit.

It’s a fun event that local women look forward too, and it really sets the trends in our local fashion arena for the season. I’d love to write a piece about this for you myself, or talk with you if you’re interested in an interview. Again, my name is Ruth Johnson; my contact info is…

Thanks so much for your time.
Sincerely,
Ruth Johnson

Step 3: Keep at it.
If you send out one pitch a week, you’ll soon have more online news and stories than you know what to do with (I bet that’s how the bloggers over at Young House Love got all the press shown at the bottom of this page??). Freelance writers and bloggers need relevant stories, interesting topics, and real people to interview. If you can offer any one of those elements, you’ve got a good chance of getting online exposure that can really increase your customer base in a hurry.

Image: Charlie Brewer.

Improve Your Holiday Sales by Promoting your Holiday Sales Online

In this day of increasing e-commerce importance, Black Friday is now only half of the post-Thanksgiving shopping megathon. Cyber Monday is the other half, just one more (strong) indication that the masses aren’t just shopping in-store anymore. They are, most definitely, shopping online. As we near the Christmas deadline, the shopping averse, busy mommy in me has once again found myself leaning on e-commerce… With that in mind, I send my annual encouragement to make this the year that you enjoy the increased profits possible from delving into the online world of e-commerce sales…

It’s easier than ever before: You can attract the online shopping crowd even if you’re not selling online by promoting your holiday specials via your website, blog, Facebook page, and/or Twitter account. Any presence you have online is a great opportunity to let the crowds – local and beyond – about your holiday specials.

Do a Little Decorating

Customize your website, blog, or Facebook page with a little Christmas décor. Add a graphic or two, or simply put a big “Happy Holidays” or other seasonal greeting front and center where all the visitors will see it.

Tell Them Where to Go

Put up a graphic, tab, or link on the navigation bar to direct your online visitors to your holiday specials. If you’re using Facebook, you can add a special tab designated as “Holiday Deals” or anything along that line. You can even make that tab the default-landing page for the holiday shopping season.

Talk About It

Have a blog? Put up a post each day describing one of your holiday specials, your great product, your discounts, and why what you’re offering will be the perfect gift. Get customer testimonials and put them on your blog, website, and Facebook page.

Use Twitter

Be sure to promote your holiday specials with your Twitter account. Use Twitter hash tags like #holidayshopping, #holidaydeals, #cyberweek, #shopping, and #deals. Offer good deals and great products, and make sure people know about them.

Take notes and don’t let another year go by without having online shopping options for your business. These same ideas translate nicely to Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s & Father’s Day, etc. – so get out there and grow your business with online sales options!

Image by Medmoiselle T.

The more you venture into social media and online marketing for your local business, there more you’ll hear about two particular parts of this online/social world: 1) content and 2) relationships. But what do these two terms mean for you and your business online and locally, for your brick-and-mortar store experience? Well, as it turns out, they mean quite a bit.

What Content Means for Your Business
“Content is King” was the cry of the Internet for the first decade or so, and though other forms of interaction rise in the online world, content still holds top position. Content simply refers to any sort of valuable resource, usually information-based, which is produced and shared online. It’s information in a digital format; the posts on a blog are content. The sound files of a popular podcast are its content. A downloadable eBook is content. Frequent updates and notes on a business Facebook page are content.
For your local business, content is the way you get to prospects and turn them into fans, friends, and lifelong customers. When you provide – online – valuable, relevant content that your target market is interested in receiving, you provide the gateway for interaction, connection, and. wait for it… relationships.

What Relationships Mean for Your Business
Let’s step back and look at what relationships mean for your business in the offline world. You don’t need a marketing primer to know that building relationships – real, solid relationships – gives you a solid foundation for ongoing business. The more people like you, know you, and like your products and services, the more they want to do business with you. Relationships also have the positive effect of extending your business into a whole new circle of prospects with every relationship you make. If people really love what you do, they share it with their friends. You form more relationships, you build more business, and on it goes.

Relationships in online marketing and social media are no different. In fact, they have the added quality of spreading faster and further than “offline” relationships can. Because sharing information, reviews, and opinions is so easy online, people are more apt to do it; and more people can read about their information, reviews, and opinions through social media sites like Facebook. Friends can share with friends and the information keeps going.

What Education-Based Marketing Means for Your Business
Education-based marketing is simply a strategy for sharing content that leads to building relationships? You start by sharing information (content) that is educational; it should tie in to your business somehow. For example, if you run a winery, you could start a blog all about growing grapes, choosing wines, pairing wine and food, finding good wines on a budget, storing wine, etc. Anything that provides educational information about a topic closely related to your business becomes valuable content that can lead people back to your business.

Perhaps you have a great local boutique selling home goods, decor, and gift items; your customer’s love your taste and you often get into long conversations about color schemes and decor. The natural step is to take your expertise online. Start up a Facebook page and start writing notes, sharing little tips and ideas. With very little initial set-up, you can easily start producing videos online, leading anyone who views through simple decorating tutorials or sharing tip, hints, and ideas.

The main idea is that before you try to sell, you simply share valuable, educational information. Your target market will naturally be drawn toward that information and will see you as an expert and a resource. It’s not marketing as much as it is simply being useful and thus, building relationships, but the end result is that all that usefulness creates valuable relationships, which end up building your business.

Photo credit: velkr0