So you’ve decided to host a holiday event at your locally owned, brick-and-mortar retail or restaurant business. You’ve got a night picked, a theme, and you’re busy planning decorations, entertainment, food… and, of course, plenty of holiday specials to boost those end-of-year sales. You’re on the right path, but the one thing you don’t want to forget is promotion. If you don’t put some time and planning into promoting your big date, you might have a very small turn-out. And after all the work you’re putting in, you want a great response. Here’s how to get one:

First: Identify the specific reasons people will want to come to your holiday event.
You think it’s going to be fun, and you know you want to boost sales. But you can hardly invite the general public – or even your favorite customers – to a special night just to “help boost my sales.” So you need to figure out the appeal for your customers. Is it the great food? The holiday atmosphere? The amazing deals and one-night-only specials? The entertainment? The raffle with over-the-top prizes? The chance to support a charity (here are some ideas in these posts), be part of the community, or get a coupon or freebie by bringing a friend?

Second: Think about all the ways you can communicate with your customers.
Do you have a business website? That’s one way.
How about a business blog? There’s another way. (Here are some business blogging ideas if you need them.)
A Facebook page?
A Twitter account?
An email list?
Those are your online options.
How about the local newspaper? Are there any community or trade magazines? Do you advertise on radio? Do you have a mailing list of customers? An ad in a local newspaper can be relatively inexpensive and can be a great way to promote your event. You might also look into community calendars, both online and in local print publications. Many will put your event on the calendar for free.
You can create a postcard or invitation and mail it out; you can create brochures and hand them out. You can hang signs in the windows of your store.

Don’t forget simple word-of-mouth as well. Have your employees invite every customer who walks in the door. It’s even better if you can hand each customer a paper invitation or flyer, so they can take the information home. Offering a “reward” (such as a special discount, coupon, or freebie) for every friend a customer brings to the event is a great way to increase word-of-mouth.

Third: Partner with other local business owners.
Think about the other businesses in your area. Some may not be set up to adequately host their own holiday event; would they be interested in becoming an event partner? They can help sponsor the event, cut some of your costs, advertise their own products or services, and promote the event to their own customers. Many professionals such as lawyers, CPAs, and consultants, may work from a small office or from their own homes; hosting an event may not be feasible for them, but partnering with you can be a great option. You both benefit from the increased exposure and from the new prospects you will bring to each other.

Fourth: Do something every day to promote the date.
Invest some money in traditional advertising, if you can. Post daily updates and news about your event online. And make a few phone calls, personally inviting people to the event. Five phone calls each day can add up to quite a lot of responses when the event rolls around.

A well-planned, well-promoted, and well-executed holiday event will not only boost your end-of-year sales, it will also leave your customers with a delightful impression of you and your business. You’ll get a chance to mingle with customers new and old, build new relationships, and re-establish old ones. And that kind of investment will carry over well into the year to come.

Image by Smart Destinations.

More and more brick-and-mortar business owners are starting to see that social networking helps business: it increases your public profile, helps you create a recognizable brand, and helps you reach people you might not otherwise reach.

But what about the benefits of social networking for reaching out locally? Can you use social networking not to “expand” into a new target market but to get more business from where you already are?

In short, absolutely. Social networking can become a huge boost and help you increase local business. Here’s how to go about it:

Create a Local Presence Online
Maybe you have a website or business blog, or you’re building up your Facebook business page and learning your way around Twitter. Use your time online to create more contact with other local folks. Here are a few ways to do that:

1. Get your profile on geo-social sites like Foursquare and Facebook Places.

These social sites are places that map local areas and then allow users to interact with those local places online. Create an account, and then claim your local business on the map; you’ll go through a brief confirmation procedure, and then you can start interacting with users on the social site. (Look for more on this in an upcoming post. We’ll walk you through it step-by-step.)

2. Find local groups and local business pages on Facebook and get involved with them.

Use Facebook’s search tool to find groups and pages from your area, then join the groups and become a fan of the pages. Interact; respond to posts, ask questions, answer questions, be friendly, and contribute. All you’re doing is expanding your local presence from the street front and physical community to the virtual street front and online community.

3. Connect with local news and review sites.

There are some national websites, such as Examiner.com, Citysearch.com, and Yelp.com, which have local branches. Browse through these and you’ll find reviews of area restaurants, articles on local events, and more. Get in touch with the news writers and offer an interview or story idea relating to your business; most of the time these folks are looking for good material, so they’ll jump on your offer. For the review sites, make sure your business is on the site, then respond to good reviews with thank you and any negative comments with an offer to help and resolve the problem. No feedback from you will come across as negative, so be proactive here.

Promote Your Social Networking Offline
Once you’ve got a Facebook page, website, blog, or other networking method in place, start telling people about it! Put a link on your business cards. Create and print a simple flyer telling people to find you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter. Put a sign in the window, a sign on your bulletin board, a link on your email signature, and a reference on any other material that goes out of your business.Local folks will not just automatically find you online; you have to tell them. And sometimes you have to tell them a few times so, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Use Social Networking to Promote Your Local Community
Now that you’ve established a local presence online and started getting local people to connect with you online, it’s time to leverage all that work into more local business. Do this by using your social network and online storefront to promote local events and provide special locally based offers. Sponsor the next charity 5K run and talk about it online. Put a local community calendar on your website. Put an events tab on your Facebook page and highlight local events as well as events as your own business.

What you’re doing is becoming a local resource, both online and offline. Expand your local value by offering special discounts, deals, and coupons to local folks but do it online. Send a special message to your Facebook followers, an email to your subscribers, or tweet out a message offering 1/2 off an item for the next 24 hours. Make your discounts significant and time-limited and offer them frequently; this motivates your local fans to follow you online so they don’t miss a special deal, and it also motivates them to share your great deal with other local folks.

The key in this strategy is to keep the focus on the local folks. What gets them excited and makes them want to come back? Figure out what that is, translate it into something you can offer or talk about online, and you’ve found the key to leverage social networking for more local business.

Photo Credit: philcampbell

I teach a small business marketing seminar for locally owned businesses that’s called “EIGHT Ways to Make Your Cash Register Ring in Any Economy.” In this seminar, one of the eight strategies that we outline is what we call “Pursuing Partnerships & Alliances.”

There are several different types of partnerships or alliances that work really well and should all be used liberally in local businesses and restaurants.

1.  There is the alliance or strength gained from “riding the coattails of an industry elephant.” This happens when you carry a major national brand in your store that is doing national advertising – and you mimic elements of that advertising campaign in your own marketing messages or images. This same strategy can be accomplished when you ride the coattails of a major trend (such as the green or environmentally friendly movement) or a major cause or organization (such as a political, religious, or industry promotional campaign).

2. There are the partnerships that participate in cooperative marketing programs generated or promoted by local or regional organizations. This strategy is implemented when local businesses join together under the banner of a common cause or organization. This would be the case when a Main Street or Chamber pools your money or even fronts the money for a promotional campaign for all of the businesses involved or to promote a certain shopping district or event.

3. Finally, there are those alliance that businesses make directly with one another. These are created with the purpose of co-promoting one another’s business. This is best configured when two or more businesses are targeting the same demographic or target audience, but they do not have a competing product. (This works regardless of geographic area – it works if you’re close geographically – it works when you’re not.)

Think about it. Are you using all three of these Partnership/Alliance strategies to grow your small business? You might be blown away by the results. I know I have been in my own business and in the businesses of our clients. Think about how you can work with others and get started today!

Photo Credit: exfordy

Introducing my very old fashioned (using e-mail technology) “thank & recommend” strategy for building customer loyalty, customer visit frequency and improving retail or restaurant sales.

This system will help you lock in customers for life and earn business in the short term.

Before we get much further, please know that I get that life is busy and that there are lots of technical system (called trigger e-mail marketing) that do this in a more systematic way. But I want to encourage you that if things are at all sluggish in your business that you dedicate to working this system until things get better. Then, once they are better, set the calendar on autopilot naming days or weeks on a regular basis when you do it again for a short period to keep things flowing and extend your attitude of gratitude back to your customers (for example, once things are great again, pick the slowest night of the week for your restaurant or retail store – or choose to do this on the 2nd week of every month for five days, etc.). Customer loyalty, visit frequency and sales volume will improve.

Here’s the three step “thank and recommend” customer loyalty builder system:

1. Post lots of current products or menu items in an online photo album that is public. Post them on blog posts on your blog, Facebook photo albums, Flickr, or even Picasa.

2. Dedicate that every day for one week employees are required to take note (either using the technology tools of the point of sale system or old fashioned note-taking) of each customers e-mail address and what they bought.

3. At the end of each day, you, your employee or wait staff, should pen a short customized e-mail based on a standard system that will make it quick and easy… Here’s a template that you can follow to make the e-mails quick and easy to write.

Dear (insert first name of customer or Mr/Mrs/Ms Last name) -

I wanted to personally thank you for visiting us today at (insert name of business). Your support of our locally owned business really means a lot to us.

As I recall, you (choose purchased/enjoyed/ordered/took home) the (insert name of what they purchased).

Since you left, I’ve been thinking that you might also really like (insert name of three other potential products that are linked to their photo online). I included links to them here, but you can also check them out the next time you come in – which I hope is soon!

If you see something you’d like immediately, just hit reply, and I can answer any questions you might have or take care of your order over the phone tomorrow.

But don’t be a stranger – we always enjoy seeing you!

Thanks again for your business,

(insert your name)

P.S. In case you haven’t already, you can connect with us on Facebook at (insert direct link) and follow us on Twitter (insert direct link) for more ideas just like these. Thanks again!

Now – go get some sales and share your feedback in our comments below!

Photo Credit: a.drian

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