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

What’s the plan?

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

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

What Types of Ideas?

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

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

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

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

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

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

You Can’t Please All the People

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

The Trade Off

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

Finding Your Enthusiastic Fans

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

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

Places to Look for your Niche Customers

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

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

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

Image by Rachel Voorhees.

Note: I got an e-mail a while back that challenged me on my inclusion of an Amazon link in one of my e-mail campaigns. This and the following post (and probably a few more beyond that into the future) will be my long-considered answer to the seeming “crisis” presenting itself to local brick-and-mortars… the invasion of big boxes and big-box style on-line competition. Here’s my first stab at how small businesses can beat Goliath.

Small businesses face a double challenge in the new economy; not only are we in the midst of recession like times, with everybody tightening belts and spending less, we’re also transitioning from store-front shopping on Main Street to isolated shopping via the Internet. Location is not the factor it used to be in shopping choices; anyone with Internet access (which seems to be practically everyone) can shop at any store online. The options have opened up, and for the most part, consumers seem to love the choices.

Locally owned small businesses can thrive in the new economy – and love it – but it requires a different approach. When your competition expands from being the other small retail shop two streets over to being the biggest national box stores plus the on-line retailers… it’s time to think of a new angle.

Independent bookstores are a good example, because the ones that have survived and thrive despite competition from Amazon.com have learned to work the new economic angle successfully.

The angle is this: you must create your own niche position and dominate it in order to compete with huge brands and online options.

It’s not enough to be an average bookstore, or an average retail shop, or an average restaurant. When customers have limitless options, average is not going to bring them back.

But you can bring them back.

Niche Examples from Independent Bookstores

An article in the New York Times highlighted how the niche angle has helped independent bookstores to survive. “Being a specialty store gave us something that would distinguish us,” said Alan Beatts, owner of Borderlands, which focuses on science fiction. “We are serving a special demographic, and we receive customer loyalty in return” For a locally owned bookstore, a niche could include

• Selling signed first edition books (and holding regular author events)
• Selling, trading, and assisting customers in rare books
• Covering niche topics (stocking and special-ordering specialized books, magazines, newspapers, and trade journals)
• Establishing expert status in book-related topics or specialized topics
• Engaging an active online community and having stellar e-commerce options

So, if you’re a bookstore, a retail store, a service-oriented business, or a restaurant, how can you find your niche, establish yourself in it, and thrive in this new economy?

“It’s entirely possible that you will choose a niche that’s too small. It’s much more likely you’ll shoot for something too big and become overwhelmed. When in doubt, overwhelm a small niche.” -Seth Godin, business & marketing expert.

Want more ideas from the local book store angle? Here’s a post from USA Today on a similar subject showcasing ways that small local brick and mortar bookstores are competing with the Kindle, Nook and similar book technology…

Image by ReneS.

One easy way locally owned business can get themselves on the map (literally) is by soliciting customer reviews for your business on geographically based review sites. Review sites are usually very large conglomerates with individual mini-sites for each geographic location. Often they’re divided by state or region, and then subdivided by city or township within that region. The bottom line in this uber-web-based world in which we live is simply this: If your business can’t be found through a quick web search – you’re business is going to die.

Use Geo-Based Review Sites to Grow Your Business

What’s great about these websites is that they allow brand-new customers to find you – and want to try your business out – when they may have known nothing about you before. These new customers are online searching for your type of business in your area; if you’ve set up your profile and garnered some reviews on any of these sites, they’re likely to run across your business. Suddenly they not only know you exist, what you do, and where you’re located, they also get to find out what your customers think about you by reading the reviews.

So how do you get into this action? It’s pretty simple.

Step 1: Focus on the major review sites.

The most important local review site is the home of the “red pin” – Google Places, formerly known as Google Local. Other review sites include the following:

• Yelp.com
• Local.Yahoo.com
• CitySearch.com
• InsiderPages.com
• CitysBest.com

There are more, but if you get set up on at least a few of these major websites, your information will get picked up by the other sites as well.

Step 2: “Claim” your business and/or set up your profile.

Once you’re at the website, search for your business. You may find it already listed; if so, you’ll see an option to claim the business or add updated information. Fill in all the information you can: physical address, phone number, email address, Internet information (email, website, blog, Facebook, Twitter), store hours, specialties, owner’s name, history. Some sites will give you more room than others. Some will also allow you to post pictures; I highly recommend that you post a few photos of the outside of the store, inside of the store and a sampling of available products.

If you don’t find your business, you’ll simply have to start the profile or information from scratch. Follow the same principle as above by including as much information as possible on each site. Remember, the more information you have, the more you will show up in search results and the easier it will be for people to find you.

Step 3: Ask for reviews.

The most important part of a business profile on one of these review sites is, of course, the customer reviews. So start asking for reviews. When your best customers come in to your business, make it a point to personally ask them to go online and submit a brief review to ONE of the review sites. Don’t ask them to submit reviews to more than one; that’s simply too much and too complicated, and most customers (even the ones who love you) won’t respond. All you have to do is say something like, “We’ve just set up our profile at CitySearch.com, and we’re trying to get some reviews up. If you have a moment when you get home, would you mind sharing about your experiences here? You’re one of our best customers, and we’d really appreciate new customers getting a chance to hear from you.”

Then hand each customer a card with the information printed on it, so they won’t forget when they get back home.

That’s it! The whole process is simple and can really make a huge difference in helping new customers find you, so get it started now and see what results you’re getting in a few months.

Image: dbking.

A customer loyalty program, sometimes known as a rewards program, gives your small business an easy way to reward your customers for doing what you want them to do: coming back and giving you repeat business. You already have a base of loyal customers, and creating a customer loyalty program helps you strengthen those relationships. For newer customers, or those who are still deciding how much they like you, a loyalty program can be just the right incentive to keep you front of mind and keep them coming back to your brick-and-mortar store.

Need convincing that customer loyalty is critical to your business? Try reading these posts on customer loyalty and the value of customer retention.

Elements of a Customer Loyalty Program

Implementing a customer loyalty program is a pretty simple matter. You need to make it easy for people to sign up, preferably in several ways: a short form to fill out when they’re shopping or checking out in the store, an easy form to fill out online via your Facebook page, blog, and/or website. (You can do it in conjunction with growing your e-mail list – we explain step by step how to do this here.) Once people sign up, you need to have a system for keeping track of those in your loyalty program; you want a single place with all the information on each customer who has opted in. That way, when you do special mailings or offers, you have your mailing list right there.

The third element of a successful customer loyalty program is the rewards that customers can “earn” by continuing to give you repeat business. Rewards programs can be simple, and are usually very low cost to the business, but they need to be measurable and tangible. Your customers need a tangible reason to opt in to the loyalty program, and you need a measurable way to see what you’re investing in the loyalty program and what kind of return you’re getting on it.

Types of Customer Loyalty Programs

Points system: this is what airlines and credit card companies use. In simplest terms, a point is awarded for every dollar spent, though the ratio may vary (1 point for every 1.50 dollars, for example). When a customer accrues a certain number of points, they can be redeemed for a product or service offered by the company or, often, by a partner company.

For small businesses: this system is simple in theory but can get a little complex to keep track of without an electronic system. Be sure you have an accurate way to track the points earned by your customers and to track when those points are used for rewards. You’ll also need to set up a rewards scale with specific prizes or options for certain amounts of points.

Discount system: many retail businesses use a discount system for loyalty programs. This works well for both retail shops and restaurants. For every purchase or for every dollar amount spent (could be $10 or $20 or whatever level you choose to set), the customer receives a credit. Once the customer has earned a certain number of credits, he gets a discount, perhaps a dollar amount or percent amount off on their next purchase.

For small businesses: this system is easy to implement and track. Generally, businesses use a punch card type system and customers simply show their card when it is full to receive their discount. Another bonus of this system is that the reward actually brings in even more business.

Freebie system: similar to the discount system, the freebie system is often used by cafes and coffee shops. When a customer makes a sufficient number of purchases or spends X amount of dollars, she gets a freebie. A coffee shop might offer one free coffee drink for every ten cups of coffee purchased, or a free pound of coffee for every ten pounds of coffee purchased.

For small businesses: this system is also easy to implement and track using a punch card set-up, and customers love the idea of getting something for free. It’s also easy for small businesses to track the amount of money they’ll invest for each customer, and it’s usually minimal. Retail shops can always offer freebies too, and it’s a good way to get rid of excess inventory.

Image by Easa Shamih.

This week I have a very simple marketing tip of the week for you Make sure that in the rush of the holiday season and pushing out lots of marketing messages to meet those media deadlines that you make sure you match your marketing message with your call to action.

First off, why should the marketing message & call to action match? (And similarly, why is a call to action so critical to marketing?) Here are a few of the reasons:

1. You’ll get to your goal faster (and increase sales) by asking for what you want.

2. Your marketing will be more measurable – so if it’s not working you can quit wasting money and if it is, you’ll know where to focus.

3. Clear messages and action items are easier to share – which will expose your business virally to more new customers.

Case Study: Wrong Call to Action

We drove past a billboard last night that basically said “Losing Weight Can Start Online.”

And it displayed a phone number.

Marketing Tip of the Week: Match your marketing message with your call to action.

It’s a simple step-wise process to achieve this marketing tip:

1. Have a marketing strategy. (What is your goal? What do you want customers to do? How can you reach them and motivate them?)

2. Create a marketing message. (What marketing message will motivate folks to do what you want them to do? What can you say or offer that will inspire action?)

3. Insert a call to action. (Ask them to do what you want them to do. Don’t forget to actually HAVE a call to action – and make sure that the call to action makes sense with the message that you sent.)

Examples of Matching Messages & Calls to Actions

Marketing Message: Invitation to attend an event and RSVP for a chance to win!

Call to Action: RSVP online with an e-mail address (so even if they don’t show up, you have their contact information).

Marketing Message: Get updates on new merchandise & special offers

Call to Action: Link to sign-up for the e-mail list / URL for sign-up landing page

Marketing Message: Buy Gift Certificates for Christmas Gifts!

Call to Action: Buy Online or In-Store – include web site URL where gift certificates can be purchased and store physical address

Of course, what should have the billboard have done differently?

Of course, if weight loss starts online – then there should be a URL where I can start my weight loss. Not a phone number.

What marketing messages are you sending this holiday season? Do you have a strong and connected call to action in all of your marketing messages? What’s working well for you?

Photo By: SeeMidTN.com (aka Brent)

Are you ready to dive into the winning marketing strategy of partnering with other businesses? When you pursue these promotional or marketing partnerships, here are four critical steps to consider that will lead to long term success for both your business’ bottom line and your partnership with the other business:

1. Develop a list of businesses that sell related products or services but are not in direct competition with you selling the same item. Hint: Look inside your own customer list FIRST to develop such a list. These people have already formed a relationship with you.

2. Contact the business owners on that list to form strategic alliances. Propose ways to mutually benefit each others’ business – the goal is to promote added value to each others’ customers. At the end of the day it’s all about exposing YOUR customer list to their products or services – and them doing the same for you, in a way that’s equitable for both of you.

3. Agree to a plan. Write everything down and agree to the exact specifications of the agreement with the other business owner. It doesn’t matter how simple the partnership “plan” – WRITE IT DOWN and get the agreement sealed with a signature. This simple act will help maintain the integrity of your relationship with this other business long after any marketing partnership is dissolved.

4. Implement your plan while communicating frequently about how it’s working for each other. If a lopsided result occurs – work together to make the partnership more equitable for both parties. This is the secret to LONG TERM success!

Now – go make some strong partnerships – and sell more stuff! Grow your business using this proven marketing strategy PERFECT for local and small business owners!

Have you already used this strategy and experienced success? We’d love to hear from you and feature your business and case study in an upcoming blog post. Please comment below and share some of your story right now!

Photo Credit: Beneath_B1ue_Skies