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▐

Why a Valentine’s Day Special?

Once we make it beyond the great buying and gifting extravaganza that is the Christmas season, local retail stores tend to hit a low point in retail sales. It can be a very low point, and even if you’ve pulled in a great amount of business over the holidays, you still have to keep paying bills and, well, making money. So, local business owners, don’t forget that the other holidays coming up on the calendar – even the minor ones – can be an excellent way to promote sales and increase slow winter business.

Options for a Valentine’s Day Special

1. Get a partner.
Valentine’s Day is all about romance, remember? So emulate the love by starting up a business partnership with another local business. Business affiliation for particular events and special deals can help you pull in a new crowd of customers, and give your current customers another reminder of why they want to give you more business. Contact local business managers and owners and start a conversation about promoting a Valentine’s Day event together, putting together a special Valentine’s Day package, or promoting each other’s businesses in some other way revolving around the Valentine’s Day holiday. If things go well, you can extend and work that partnership for other events and specials.

2. Promote what you need to sell in a Valentine’s package or deal.
Unwrap and repackage that older inventory you need to move by including it in part of a Valentine’s special deal or package offer. Not everything sold as part of a Valentine’s Day special has to be heart-shaped. And if you need to move inventory, you can use it to add value to the specials you do offer for this heart-shaped holiday.

3. Host or participate in a Valentine’s Day event.
This option is perfect for local restaurant and retail shop owners. These type of brick-and-mortar small businesses lend themselves readily to a Valentine’s Day theme. Restaurant owners can host a special Valentine’s banquet, offer special meals, desserts, and wine tastings. Retail shop owners can showcase their Valentine’s merchandise, have special shopping hours, and offer gift wrapping and delivery. Don’t forget the option of partnering with another business for a Valentine’s event, as well.

4. Offer 2-for-1 Deals and Couple’s Packages.
Play up the romance of Valentine’s Day by offering tailor-made discounts and packages for the holiday, and the days leading up to it. Restaurants, event venues, specialty shops: come up with 2-for-1 offers (2 appetizers for the price of 1, 2 tickets for the price of 1, or buy one item, get one free..) and packages for couples along the same lines. Make them exclusive, time-limited offers and promote them with all your online and offline advertising options.

Put your heart into it, and you’ll be able to see a boost in those slow winter sales.

Image by clevercupcakes.

Twitter, basically, is a “microblogging” service. You create an account and then send out short messages (140 characters or less) as often as you’d like, keeping people up to date on your business, your life, of whatever you happen to be “tweeting” about. Twitter is hugely popular for personal use, but it’s also a powerful and easy-to-use marketing tool that local businesses can and should be learning and using. If you’re still in the “I don’t get it” phase with Twitter, I hope this article will help you view it as a huge opportunity and not a silly and useless social network – because it’s certainly NOT that. (A few more Twitter article for small business marketing purposes.)

Here are the basic guidelines you need as you get started with your small business on Twitter.

1. Be personable, but don’t put your personal life into your Twitter business account.

Remember that your Twitter account for small business is supposed to be about your business; it’s great to share personal things that relate, and to be friendly and approachable, but it’s not great to use your business Twitter to talk about your personal pet peeves, your mood swings, your family issues, or how you can’t decide what to wear today. Keep yourself on topic and remember that the topic is your business.

2. Follow everyone back.

(Unless they look totally off color). As with anything Internet-based, there will be spammers who follow you on Twitter. They’re pretty easy to identify – strange names or obviously spammy tweets or direct messages sent out. Ignore them, but whenever a real person becomes your follower on Twitter, follow them back.

3. If anyone tweets to you, reply if possible and reply as soon as possible.

These could include both tweets sent to you or in which you are mentioned and direct messages sent to you from another Twitter user. It’s much easier to do lots of these on the computer a couple of times a day than on a smartphone. Try to set aside a few times a day to check your Twitter account and make replies. Try and thank people who say something to you. It’s a cocktail party, and you would at least speak to everyone who said hey to you. Twitter is the same.

4. Keep it PG.

Don’t alienate people by being crass; it’s not professional, and it won’t gain you any points with your followers. It’s great to be witty and trendy, but it’s not great to tweet inappropriate jokes, innuendos, or profanity. Along with that point, remember: don’t tweet under the influence!

5. Use pictures.

Pictures are the hot button thing. People love them. There are several different Twitter services and Twitter photo services. Check out Twitpic.com for starters. And remember that the text with a picture is as important as a picture. Make your “caption” short, sweet, and intriguing so that people want to click and see that photo.

6. Be yourself.

Don’t try and be anyone else. Get that personality out there. No one can compete with you being you.

7. Be personable.

Talk about your daily work, your perspective, what’s new and interesting to you in your industry. Share about what is exciting to you in this season in your business. Ask for opinions. Ask for insight. Answer questions when you know the answer. Respond to people quickly, and be courteous and friendly. Treat your Twitter interactions like real interactions.

8. Stay focused.

Use your Twitter business account to entertain, to education, and to engage with your target market. Provide content, in those bite-sized bits, that is new, interesting, relevant, helpful, and makes people want to find out more about you and your business. Don’t be afraid to share what you know. It’s your expertise in your business that makes you able to reach out to others, so share your knowledge.

What do you think about Twitter? Have you used it to help your business?

Photo By: Search Engine People Blog

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to do a series on local business marketing planning for local or small enterprises. This is the sort of planning that you should be thinking about right now as the year winds down and another gets ready to launch:

1. What will you do differently in 2011?
2. What are your goals for 2011?
3. What is your unique strategy to connect with customers in 2011?
4. What media will you use to communicate with customers, vendors, prospects, employees, etc. in 2011?
5. What products/services, etc. will you offer in 2011? What will be different or the same from 2010?

And many more questions just like these? How do you answer those questions strategically – and literally – for your business, so that you get your new year off to a blazing start? It all boils down to your local business marketing plan for 2011. That’s what we’ll be unpacking in the next few weeks.

Why is this important?

A local business marketing plan is important because many of you would otherwise march into 2011 without a single strategic weapon in place. Things happen just like you plan them – and if you don’t plan or you plan to fail – you’ll get just that. Local business must PLAN for success – create a road map that will win – not unlike a military going into battle. Yes, sometimes things don’t work out precisely as planned – but at least you have the order of the plan that you can change and aren’t just marching blindly into battle. Your chances of success are increased exponentially with the careful attention to planning that you give – and the success will be sweet at the end when you win – and win big for your local business!

Here’s how this will work:

Some of the content will be available here on the blog. A LOT of it will be in written “lesson” format via our e-mail newsletter. Let’s just say that 2/3 of the content will arrive in your inbox. Once I’ve finished the series, I’ll compile it all into an e-book and teach a webinar on the topic of local business marketing plans around the first week of the year.

The first e-mail lesson will go out next Tuesday, so go ahead and sign-up for the e-mail newsletter now, so you don’t miss a thing. (Motivating hint: the first lesson is something you can accomplish in ten minutes even in the midst of the holiday bustle to position yourself for a successful planning session later when things slow down a bit.)

Sign up in the box on the top right side of the page… just click here… and happy 2011 planning!

Photo Credit: West Point Public Affairs

I’m always on the lookout for a great new local business marketing partnership idea. Local business marketing is tricky, and I’m convinced that the number one tactic has a lot more to do with working together in business partnerships than working against one another in a competitive stance. With this in mind – and a few other things – I return to the Bathroom Blogfest.

In my first post for this year’s Bathroom Blogfest, I explored an idea for using signage in public bathrooms as a customer experience tool.

There are two items in play in my mind today.

1. I spend a lot of time helping LOCAL businesses connect with customers – I do local business marketing. And ultimately, I want to convince the public to be like me: to choose locally owned businesses – no matter where they are.  For example, if I’m traveling through Mobile, Alabama – I’d rather choose a locally owned place to eat, shop, get my car serviced, etc. Of course, when I’m at home in Jackson, MS, I stick to the locally owned places nearly exclusively.
2. In helping local businesses with their marketing, I spend a lot of time connecting local businesses so they can enjoy the benefits of business partnerships – some folks call them business alliances.

Yep, this applies to bathrooms…

Folks who use public bathrooms don’t usually live around the corner. If they did, they’d just use their own bathroom. The folks using public bathrooms are outsiders to the local area. They are either trade area shoppers or they’re passing through for business or pleasure. Regardless, they’re an opportunity waiting to happen for the local economy.

I say it’s time for local businesses to identify those public restrooms – in convenience stores, hotels, service stations, welcome centers, and the like – and the owners of the same. Then, band together a group of businesses and create a simple way to educate and welcome these passersby – and get them to drop some of their change in your business before they leave.

Maybe it means getting permission to post signage in a bathroom with a Twitter account or text message shortcode that will lead to local offers and invitations. Maybe it’s simply a link to a mobile friendly web site that lists several things that are “can’t miss” before they leave town. Ideally, the information would be fresh, relevant to the time of day, month and current local events. But regardless, I’d like to see local businesses seeking to offer their hospitality in that short moment of private pause. It’s local business marketing that I think might just work magic.

Tricks to success:

1. Simple message – SIMPLE.
2. Multiple simple offers compiled in one place.
3. Technology tie-in that makes it easy to engage.

How to Earn Cooperation for this Business Partnership

In case you’re wondering how to gain cooperation from your newly identified partners-to-be? Well, it’s easy – turn them into customers and partners at the same time. Offer a sampling or regular portion of your goods or services to them in exchange for the advertising space in their bathroom…

Closing Comments

So, I guess this is yet another bathroom signage idea, but if I were the customer, I’d definitely count it as an improved customer experience that the bathroom owner though it was valuable to show me hospitality in his/her community in this way. Of course, the sentiment will fall short if the bathroom is dirty.

Moral of this story: Choose your bathroom business alliances as carefully as you should all the other business partnerships you make.

Editor’s Note

Yes, I’m participating in a blogfest with some other bathroom experience junkies around the country. It’s one week only – but hopefully it’ll get you thinking – and doing something – to improve that all-important potty space in your own business. And even thinking about how you can benefit from such spaces in OTHER businesses. As you ponder these things, be sure to check out what some of the others are writing about, too!

Valerie Fritz from The AwarepointBlog writes about Hospitals, Bathrooms and RTLS: Bathroom Blogfest 2010. Did you know that RTLS prevents hospital patient falls and keeps track of critical equipment – all relating to bathrooms?  Very cool stuff.

Bill Buyok from the Avente Tile Talk Blog came up with nostalgic images capturing Stuck in the 60s? Trends & Changes in Bath Design while also putting the times into perspective.

Becky Carroll from Customers Rock! showcases beautiful bathroom examples she has uncovered in Las Vegas. Her contrasting example makes the point of Bathroom Blogfest 2010 – Stuck in the 60s?

Susan Abbott from Customer Experience Crossroads elevates the bathroom discussion in Bathroom Blogfest 2010: Bathrooms are aspirational.

Nora DePalma from Professor Toilet unearths preposterous advertising and promotional materials in American Standard: The Groovy Years. OMG!

Arpi Nalbandian in the TILE Magazine Editor Blog offers An ode to bathrooms blue and pink, or, real ‘Mad Men’ like pink tile too!

Shannon Bilby for Dolphin Carpet and Tile writes about Creating an Attractive Universal Design Bath.

C.B. Whittemore addresses Toilet Paper, Advertising & Bathroom Blogfest 2010 on Flooring The Consumer and Real-Time Marketing & Bathroom Blogfest 2010 on the Simple Marketing Blog.

In lieu of reminiscing on the best and worst bathroom experiences, bathroom marketing experiences, that is, of my past year (as I have in the past), I thought I would contemplate some recommendations for small enterprises and local businesses who truly want to cover all their bases, so to speak, when it comes to customer experiences.

When it comes to bathrooms… it stands repeating: we don’t give them enough attention. You would think after a few years of this Bathroom Blogfest-ing business, we’d have raised some awareness, but nonetheless, there’s still a LOT of improvement to be done in this area. My only fear is that, in this new age of Twitter, that folks will start tweeting from the potty that they need more TP. But I digress….

One this is certain: customers now have a very loud voice, and they can use it to talk about anything they want.

Here’s my “what-if” of the day:

BAD IDEA: Instead of having a gross bathroom and running the risk of an unfortunate social network outcry…

GOOD IDEA: Create a bathroom experience that is outstanding. Then hang signs in the bathroom that say “If our bathroom is in need of service, please text a request to xxx.xxx.xxxx or speak to any one of our staff. If our bathroom is sparkling, please feel free to compliment us by tweeting @acmebiztweets.” Then, take the opportunity to do something nice for those who connect. This technique may sound outlandish, but it would seem the sort of tactic that could lead to a lasting relationship with the super-connectors among your customer base.

What do you think of all this potty talk?

I’m participating in the Bathroom Blogfest 2010, and here are links to a few of my fellow bloggers this week. Check them out!

David Reich wrote on My 2 Cents Bathroom Blogfest: Some Pay for Captive Audience.

Renee LeCroy from Your Fifth Wall asked Are You Overdue for a Bathroom Redo?

Steve Tokar in Please Be Seated discussed Bathroom Blogfest 2010: back to the 60s.

Valerie Fritz in the AwarepointBlog highlighted Customer Experience in Hospitals: Why Bathrooms Matter!

Paul Anater in Kitchen and Residential Design Blog wrote Still stuck in the 60s? That may not be a bad thing…

Jeanne Byington in The Importance of Earnest Service offered bathroom perspective and advice in Service of Nostalgia.

Joseph Michelli wrote about Quality Toilet Paper on Dr. Joseph Michelli’s Blog.

Christine Whittemore contributed New Jersey’s Best Bathrooms: Bathroom Blogfest 2010 on the Smoke Rise & Kinnelon Blog, reminded us in Flooring The Consumer that Water Matters. Bathroom Blogfest 2010 and put forth a content plan for the week on Simple Marketing Blog in Bathroom Blogfest 2010 Begins.

What’s Your Excuse?

One of the most common complaints (excuses?) given for not engaging in online marketing and social media is that there are simply too many options and, to put it simply, business owners are afraid to pick one and go with it. They don’t always come out and say that – we don’t usually like admitting we’re overwhelmed and scared – but that’s the heart of it.

You might have said it yourself, maybe a line like one of these:

I’m too busy to figure this online thing out.

There are too many options and I don’t want to invest in the wrong one.

I’m too old for this stuff.

It’s too complicated.

There’s no way to measure ROI.

I’m just going to focus on offline marketing for now.

Maybe next year, when things calm down…

Any of those sound familiar?

The Great Big Secret of Online Success

Well, if any of those ring a bell, this post is for you. We’re here with the one secret you need for online success. Are you ready?

Do something.

Yes, that’s it. Really. Sorry, we know, it’s kind of disappointing that it’s so simple. But the secret is simple; doing nothing will get you nowhere. Pick one online option and go for it. Really put some effort into it, whether it’s your business website or a business blog or a Facebook page. Work at it for 15 to 30 minutes daily and you will see an enormous impact. And while you’re working at it – even just for 15 minutes at a time – you’ll learn everything you need to know. You’ll see that in the online world, just like the offline world, truly successful marketing is about connecting with people. Social media, blogs, and websites are just new ways to connect, and for many local businesses, they are less expensive and easier to manage.

You just have to put your fears aside, jump in, and take action.

Remember, the longer you hesitate, the more time you waste. Get your feet wet. Take a step. Take another step. Start moving forward. Making progress is not as difficult as you think; you just have to pick a direction and start moving forward.

Ready? Let’s go.

Photo credit: andreskrey