Use the “fishbowl” method to collect an e-mail address from every single customer or prospect that you encounter in your local business this week. This simple method is something you can implement in your brick-and-mortar business by the end of the day today, and it will lead to the collection of pure gold (aka e-mail addresses) for your business – gold that can be leveraged to move the needle again and again for your small business! Here’s how it works:

1. Procure a large bowl that will fit in a prominent location either to the right (as one exits) of the front door of your store at eye level and/or at each your point of sale/cash-wrap stations.

2. Create a sign to affix to the bowl that has a big, bold headline that says something like “Join Our E-Mail List for a Chance to Win!”

3. Add subtext under the sign’s headline, create an irresistible offer that fits your business that follows this basic idea: “Once a month, one entry from that month will be awarded a $250 gift certificate to our store!”

4. Watch the e-mail addresses pile up.

5. Enter the e-mail addresses into your e-mail system at least monthly BEFORE the award notification is made.

6. On a monthly basis, choose an e-mail address and make the award. E-mail them the award notification with an inquiry for their mailing address, so that they’ll come into the store. Also include in that e-mail a suggestion such as the following: “We value you as a customer, and we’re thrilled that you’ve won this prize. You are definitely deserving! We’d love it if you’d share some ideas of what you’ll be buying with your gift certificate with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. You can connect with us there at facebook.com/business name and on Twitter @businessname. I hope you won’t mind that we’ll be letting everyone know who won this month in our e-mail newsletter and through our social media channels as a way to encourage folks to enter this month’s new contest! Thanks again for being such a fantastic customer! We really appreciate your business!”

7. Post who won and what they won and how folks can enter the next contest on Facebook. Tag the person who won if possible.

8. Post who won and what they won on Twitter and @ reply the winner, if possible.

9. Include the winner’s name and a call for new entries in your next e-mail newsletter.

Happy fishbowling! You’re going to love the results you get from this great marketing tip!

Maybe you just made the newspaper or a local magazine – or better – you just got interviewed for a major trade publication, the Wall Street Journal or a mainstream lifestyle slick. Maybe a prominent blogger is going to blog about you – or feature you in an upcoming e-newsletter. Maybe you think you’ve thought of something so smart that an influential person tweets about your article, stuff or activities…

These days, publicity comes in all shapes and sizes – but one thing is the same. It will give you a boom. The boom will be short-lived if you’re not prepared to leverage it into long-term sales for your small business. Here are a couple of tips that will help you leverage publicity into long-term growth for your local business.

Get ready for the traffic on your web site.

This seems obvious, but you really should actively prepare to capture customers as a result of the publicity, especially on your small business web site.

1. Make sure an e-mail list signup form (that is short and simple) is strategically located at the top right hand side of all of your web site pages or posts. This will help you grow your e-mail list.

2. Make sure your social media profiles are apparent at the top and bottom of each page or post on your web site, so that folks can connect with you there.

3. Make sure there is fresh and relevant content and that all contact information, forms, store hours, and directions are up to date.

4. Make sure that your web site has the ability to be SHARED so that when people get to your site, they can – with a single click – share your business with 1300 of their closest *cough* *ahem* Facebook friends…. or Twitter followers or other social media connections. We recommend the ShareThis button at the top and bottom of each page or post on your web site.

5. Similarly, install the Facebook LIKE button at the top of each page or post on your web site, so that with a single click and half a thought, your web content or article can be posted to their Facebook Wall and their friends’ newsfeeds. This exposes you to their friends.

6. Finally, install the TweetMeme’s Retweet button at the top of each page or post on your web site. This button not only allows the sharing feature on Twitter, but it allows YOU the measurement to see who shared your content – so you can thank them and otherwise engage them via Twitter.

Prepare to leverage the publicity on social media.

Social media is where you will turn the publicity into a boom for yourself. Often media in and of themselves are not a direct connector. But the power of your network mixing with theirs can really work magic. Here are a few things you can do to stir that pot:

1. Tweet with the news writers and folks in the media on a regular basis (that means, ideally, BEFORE the story hits). When they post a story about your business or referencing you or your business in any way, use all available methods to THANK them for their kind words. Tag them on Facebook, and tweet out a thanks to them.

2. Do the equivalent of the “reprint.” Re-publish the news at least twice – maybe three times after it happens. Facebook and Twitter news cycles are short these days, so posting an article Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon are likely to expose your story to a different group of folks. If you have over 1500 fans or followers, you should also post the story again later at night (between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.) as well.

3. When you post, drive the traffic to the story via your web site.

How does this all turn readers or viewers or listeners into sales? Again, as in the first edition of Leveraging the Boom: Turn Events into Sales the goal is to make new connections – to capture contacts that you can turn into relationships and then keep as customers for a long and profitable lifetime value of the customer. It’s about short-term tactics that lead to marathon relationships and long-term growth and profitability.

What say you? How have you turned publicity into sales?

Photo Credit: Eivind Z. Molvær

By design, you’ve got customers and lots of them – because they are attending an event that you are hosting or sponsoring. They are a captive audience. Now what?

How do you hold on, keep the edge, make the big event pay off? It’s all about “Leveraging the Boom.”

When you have a dense customer population in your small business – a.k.a. a boom – you MUST make the most out of the event attendees literally while it’s happening in order to grow your business for the long-term. This is the only way to truly get the most return on investment from your event.

To make the most of the bump, you must make smart use of marketing tools to do two things:

1. Capture new customers.
2. Educate them about the benefits of using your company.

There are a lot of ways to accomplish these things, but here are three easy ways to connect that are extremely easy and efficient to accomplish – and fast – ways to turn a short-term boom into long-term sales and business growth for your small business:

1. E-mail. Get that e-mail address! It might not be a hard fact, but it seems like at LEAST 50% of folks have an e-mail enabled smart phone. For example, here’s a fun way to gather a bunch of e-mail addresses at a large event venue: Ask attendees to send an e-mail to you during the event. Then, announce the winner of an immediate prize: move to the front row, get a chair at the chef’s table, win a free dessert, receive an upgrade to the super-duper best package. “Just e-mail us, and we’ll pick a winner… right now.” Taking the 3-5 minutes at an event venue may net you 15 to 100 email addresses – easy.

2. Facebook + TEXT (SMS). While there is a lot you can do with text messaging, here is one free way to gain a connection to your new prospects and customers so that you can sell them more stuff over and over again for a long time.

Start by looking at the number of Facebook “Likes” or Twitter followers you have before the event begins. During the event, post signage and also just ask folks to text “LIKE YOURPAGENAME” to FBOOK (36556). For us we’d say “text LIKE RESULTSREV” to FBOOK on your phone right now. Guess what — you just got a new like! Live events can produce huge bumps in the like numbers for a Facebook Page.

3. Twitter + TEXT (SMS). The same thing holds true on Twitter. Have attendees text FOLLOW RESULTSREV to Twitter (40404). Yep, that’s all it takes to start tweeting. They’ll get your tweets on their phone – even if they’ve NEVER signed up for Twitter before.

But at the end of the day, did that ring you more sales? Probably not today – but it did make sure that you made contact with the people who attended your event. Now, tomorrow, you can stay in touch with them and get to know them better and expose them to new elements of your business – and yes, increase your sales accordingly. It will blow your mind. I promise.

What about you? What is your best method to turn an event into long-term customer relationships (and sales)?

Photo Credit: mastermaq

For some reason, August is always like my second chance every year to course correct and get back on track with those New Year’s resolutions that fell to the wayside or to get my business’ marketing plan back on track after the lazy days of summer. It’s back to school – and with that fresh start for my kids seems to come a fresh start for me. And I know I’m not alone, because the phone is ringing off the hook with others just like me seeking help with their own fresh start.

This year has been an especially poignant one for me in the area of discipline, goal setting and goal achieving. I’ve always been a planner (I’m a recovering plan-a-holic). But this year, I’ve been learning a few things about achieving goals that I wanted to share with you:

It’s best to go towards a goal than to run away from a problem.

This year, I started running for the first time in my life. The problem was that I had gained some extra weight and had lost my father too young to a heart attack. The problem was that I was scared. But if I looked forward I could see a healthy me with lots of energy to do almost anything with my kids and who was able to live a long, happy, effective life. My goal is to live well and finish well. From a physical health perspective that meant not just losing some weight, but becoming more physically healthy. Andy and I started training for a marathon, and I’ve never run in my life. Now, that’s running towards a goal instead of away from a problem.

What about your small business? It’s probably easy to list all the problems, challenges and discouragements that you face each day. Your fears and anxieties can easily overshadow everything else, especially when it comes to the daily grind of owning a local business. But when you look into the future longingly – what do you want it to look like? Define the future – and then run towards it.

There is no time like the present to start making changes.

If you want to win, you can’t wait until next Monday to get started. Change doesn’t start next month or next year – it starts today. When you realize you aren’t doing what you should be doing, you need to set your sights on the future goal and run towards it – TODAY. It doesn’t matter how slow the pace or how short the stride – it just matters that you don’t wait – that you do something TODAY that moves you closer to your goals, whether it be in small business ownership or in life.

When you fail, focus that frustration on being better again. Not on guilt.

Here is where I confess my failures. We started training for a marathon. I could run five solid miles, and I spent Spring Break this year riding bikes and kayaking with my kids. Then we moved to a new home.

Andy and I have exercised (either swim or walk) no more than two days a week since April. We have eaten too many desserts, and I’ve been drinking soft drinks way too much. We quit spending time stretching everyday. We’ve put on a few pounds and our bodies ache again. We miss the health, and we’re going to get it back. We woke up yesterday disgusted with ourselves for letting this happen. And yesterday we started doing something about it. Soft drinks are out and healthy, life giving water is in. I stretched this morning and am looking forward to an evening walk with my hubby. We’re turning our disgust into positive, life-changing, goal-achieving energy. I’m not going to sit around and mope about my failure. I’m going to do something to make it better again.

How about your business? Have you been complacent about your marketing, customer service, store displays, community involvement, social media messages, employee training, e-mail campaigns, or web site updates? Have you let bad habits creep into your business life? Have you let your passion slide? Have you taken your eyes off of your sales goals, marketing goals, business goals, life goals? Don’t focus on the pain and consequences of your complacency and bad habits – instead focus all of your energy on achieving your goals, sharing your passion, and finding your future success.

The cliché is true: you really do eat an elephant one bite at a time.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that this all sounds well and good but your circumstance is WAY more complicated than this. You’ve got layers and layers of problems and failures and scary obstacles to overcome. I wish I could tell you but I can’t – but my health is the least of my worries. But I can also promise you this: doing nothing but throwing a pity party will not get you any closer to freedom. Don’t be overwhelmed by the big picture. It is what it is, and there’s nothing you can do to change the past. But you can change your future. You make choices every moment about how to spend your time – and what you do next will affect your future one way or another. So, with your eyes on the goals ahead, find a tiny little bite-sized piece of a task that you can do right now that will move you one tiny step closer to your goal, to your full potential for success. As you train, you’ll be able to take bigger bites and the momentum will grow and you’ll get more accomplished and the race will get easier. But today, just take a small bite. That’s all you have to do. And tomorrow, take another small bite. Keep taking bites. Until you eat the entire elephant – or achieve your small business goals…

Want some encouragement along the way? What are your goals? Share them, and we’ll stay in touch as you walk towards the future.

Photo Credit: One-Fat-Man

The Doherty Hotel - a historic, independently owned hotel in Clare, Michigan with a catering department that actually cooks yummy food and truly caters to the specific needs of their conference customers.

I was delighted to wake up today to find Chris Brogan’s new post on Detroit in my RSS reader. From where I’m sitting, I don’t think enough ‘atta boys’ can be sent Michigan’s way. Despite all the publicity scars they’ve endured from national media, national politicians and even their neighbor Canada, Michigan’s passionate citizens have persevered and are under the radar turning lemons into lemonade at a mind-numbing rate.

A local taco joint in Almont City, Michigan – a really small town where more than 100 folks came out to learn how to do small business better. That’s passion to succeed.

Two years ago next month, I had the privilege to keynote the Michigan Downtown Conference. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of visiting community after community and meeting business owner after business owner and to work with state and development agencies across the state – and all the time, I was learning firsthand what passion and perseverance really looks like. In Michigan, more than any other place we’ve worked, they “get” social media, and they’re using the power of human relationships to change their world and transform their image from the inside out.

If your small business is in a rut – just look to the passionate folks in Michigan for some inspiration. Is your local community or state in need of a boost of energy or even a complete image overhaul? Connect with some passionate folks in Michigan – they’ll show you how it’s done.

Need some places to start?

My first recommendation and go to person in general is my friend Joe Borgstrom (@JoeBorgstrom), a guy that didn’t wait for permission and created enormous buzz that reaped big dividends for Michigan’s downtowns among media, politicians and local shoppers alike by personally taking Michigan’s Main Street initiative into the social media world – and keeping it human and real every step of the way. He’s the guy that made the “OPEN” video happen – a video that went viral all over the U.S. last year, and he’s the commander of the simply brilliant Pure Michigan Living initiative. You should also know his wife, Kirsten, because now her PR genius unveiled at Travel Michigan is now available to the world (Congrats, Kirsten, on being another cool Michigan entrepreneur!).

Catching Fireflies is in a rehabbed train depot in downtown Rochester, Michigan.

Check out the passion at Getz’s (@getzs, Getz on Facebook) – the third largest Carhartt dealer in the nation – at home in an old building in downtown Marquette, Michigan – and running what can only be described as a Santa’s workshop on the top floor.

I’m also in love with Sandy at the Howell’s Mainstreet Winery (Howell’s Mainstreet Winery on Facebook) – where a great couple, both former auto industry folks, combined some passion with savings to start a wildly successful micro-winery, classes, and wine shop in a great downtown building in Howell, Michigan.

April at Catching Fireflies (@whimsicalgifts, Catching Fireflies on Facebook) in downtown Rochester, Michigan also has a store in Berkeley – and a fantastic wholesale line that is bringing money into the state every time she goes to market to sell. She’s creative and brilliant when it comes to making human connections using Facebook, Twitter, her blog and regular e-mails. I can never resist her passionate offers – or her fun notes stuffed in my packages when they arrive.

There’s Motorless Motion (Motorless Motion on Facebook, @motorlessmotion on Twitter), a little bicycle shop in Mt. Pleasant that loves people and educating customers – and now they can do it on Twitter and Facebook and reach the world with their information – and sell bike parts that way, too. There are the local cops who bought the floundering donut shop in downtown Clare, renamed it Cops & Donuts (Cops & Donuts on Facebook) – and made the national news in the process.

Marianna with the owner of Starring, a brilliant art gallery experience started by a former automotive exec.

And there are dozens and dozens more stories just like these – where pure passion is sprouting “green” for folks in Michigan.

Watch out world.

Michigan’s identity is transforming from the inside out. After spending some time there, I want to be more like those folks. Hardworking, passionate, friendly, helpful people they are…

How about you?

Editor’s Note: Thanks to Tom Beck, owner and commercial photographer extraordinaire, at Beck Photographic for sharing his thoughts with us… Tom is the best in the business, check out his web site or connect with him on Twitter to get to know him better.

Why would you want your brand (advertising) photography to not look professional?  What purpose does it serve, except to make your business look unprofessional.

A good portrait photographer is not necessarily a good commercial photographer, and vice versa.   Photographers tend to have specialties, and just because one shoots great portraits doesn’t mean they can shoot products, or food.  Research who you’re hiring, and notice what photos of theirs stand out.

What does a “good enough” photo mean to your business and your ad?  If it looks blah, then it’ll get lost and forgotten in all the other ads out there.  And even if you do see results, how much better would the results be if you actually had a GREAT photo in your advertising?

When you hire a pro photographer, you’re insuring that you’re going to get great results.  Does the person you hired for $100 off of Craigslist have pro equipment?  Backup equipment?  A certificate of insurance in case they break your merchandise?  Are they going to behave professionally on the shoot?  Do they know the technical specs of what you need delivered, and will they deliver in a timely manner?  These aren’t (usually) a concern when you hire a true professional.

If you (or your graphic designer) is purchasing microstock photography (iStockphoto, Shutterstock, etc.), then your competition can too.  How embarrassing will it be to see the image you’re using being used by your competitor (and yes, it HAS happened, more times than you know)?  Also, is that image “good enough”, or does it stand out?  If the image is just “OK”, even if you didn’t pay much for it, how much is it costing you in business you COULD have had? In other words, are you getting the biggest bang for your buck?

What say you? What is your experience with good enough vs. great photography?

Chatting with my BFF the other day about how best to convince small business owners and restaurateurs that online marketing was worth paying money for. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Well, I dunno… perhaps that over a year ago 63% of all American consumers across every demographic looked online first before making a brick and mortar buying decision. Most of the folks we’re talking to are targeting a higher end demographic, and it’s a year later, so that number has to be much higher………

BFF: I didn’t ask you why they should be online. I’m talking about how to convince them within their existing worldview why this is worth spending money on.

Me: The money is online.

BFF: But are they going to see value in spending money online?

Me: (insert scream of frustration)

It’s seriously this bad. In small businesses and restaurants and boutique hotels across America, folks have their heads stuck in the proverbial sand.

I hear things like the following:

“I know we’ve got to do it, but I just don’t have time.”

“I just don’t see the value in it.”

“Well, I just spent $90,000 on new merchandise, so that website upgrade to allow me to make my own frequent updates to my website…that sounds good, but it will have to wait until next year… I just don’t have the money for that right now.”

“Well, I’m in a contract with the local lifestyle magazine, and I’m running some cable advertisements and sales have been really down lately, so I just don’t have the money to invest in online. I know it would work, but I just can’t afford it right now.”

How about this, Mr. small business owner? What if you could spend half per month what you spend for an ad in the local lifestyle magazine, and you could track feedback, gain market intelligence – and oh yeah, sell more stuff and know that it was a direct result of this marketing effort? Would you do it?

Would you spend the same amount if you could get that kind of measurable results?

If you wouldn’t – then why are you in business? Because it seems like you’re only there to support the dinosaurs. As for me, I’m going to stay in business by selling more stuff. Online.

Photo Credit: blakeimeson