5 Tips for Making Small Business Saturday a Soaring Success
Are you like many businesses and taking the wrong approach to Small Business Saturday? This special day for local businesses has become increasingly popular in recent years and that’s a good thing. However, if you’re judging your success merely by scanning your end-of-day cash register totals, you’re making a big mistake. Don’t view Small Business Saturday as just an opportunity to boost sales as you head into the holiday season. That would be taking a very narrow view of what this day has to offer and failing to capitalize on the event’s potential. Look at it this way: Is there any other single promotion that gets the extraordinary financial backing of American Express, all kinds of local groups as well as a phalanx of local business owners? In other words, millions of dollars are being invested across the country aimed at benefiting smaller local businesses. If all you do is end up with a pretty good Saturday in terms of sales, you haven’t done your best at leveraging all of that good will. Your real goal on Small Business Saturday should be to introduce your business to prospects and put them on the path to becoming repeat customers – that would make your Small Business Saturday a soaring success. This starts with changing your perspective. Yes, you still need to offer good prices – I’m not denying that – but the overriding message you need to be sending is less about prices and more about “value.” What value can you offer local shoppers that will keep them coming back? Let’s look at some things you need to communicate to the prospects who walk into your business on Small Business Saturday. 1. Highlight your unique goods and services. In a comScore survey of why people buy from smaller local shops, the top two responses were that local stores offered unique products (61 percent) and they couldn’t find what they needed at traditional stores (49 percent). Be certain that you offer items and services that are not easily acquired elsewhere. Display them prominently and train sales associates to discuss their uniqueness. Items that are easily found elsewhere become commodities and that makes shoppers focus solely on price. 2. Be versatile in ordering, delivery, and returns. That same survey revealed that by a 60-40 ratio shoppers prefer to return items to stores rather than pack them up and reship them. Let shoppers know that no matter how they purchased items from you, they can bring them back to your location. By the way, most shoppers end up making another purchase when they go to a store to return an item. Versatility is also appreciated in shopping. Buyers are becoming heavily dependent on their smartphones. If you have the unique items I’ve already urged you to stock, you don’t need to be afraid of “web rooming” – when shoppers go into stores, find items and then comparison shop on their mobile devices. In fact, make it easy for them. Provide in-store wi-fi. It’s a convenience shoppers appreciate and it’s one more reason they’ll love – and remember – your store. 3. Wow customers with extraordinary service. If you, and others in your area, have done a good job promoting Small Business Saturday, be certain that you’re properly staffed – and stocked – to meet demand....
read moreWhat the Great Google Cheeseburger emoji faux pas means for your online marketing
Before we pursue this relationship any further, I have to know one thing: Where do you stand in the Great Google Cheeseburger Controversy? Yes, the dust has settled a bit since the emoji hit the fan recently, but it’s worth revisiting the cyberspace kerfuffle for a few moments because I think it will help us get the pulse of the digital citizenry. This knowledge should help you with your online marketing efforts. In case you’ve been living in a cave – or have better things to do – the online world had a cybercow the other day when Google released a set of emojis and it included a cheeseburger emoji with – gasp – the cheese on the bottom between the burger patty and the bun! It seems that Thomas Baekdal may have ignited the controversy with this tweet: I think we need to have a discussion about how Google’s burger emoji is placing the cheese underneath the burger, while Apple puts it on top pic.twitter.com/PgXmCkY3Yc — Thomas Baekdal (@baekdal) October 28, 2017 It got the attention of Google CEO Sundar Pichai who tweeted: Will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday:) if folks can agree on the correct way to do this! You have to enjoy this kind of Internet hijinks, but at the same time realize that there are a couple of lessons to be learned, namely: Nothing is too small to rile people on the Internet, and Emojis are extraordinarily popular communication tools. Tread carefully The fact that “The Internet” has a thin skin and can get emotionally wound up by the smallest grievances is important to understand. If you want to engage and nurture prospects online, you need to know who you’re talking to and what their sensitivities are. When you’re casting a wide net, you must understand that anything hinting at controversy may anger half your audience. The young man behind the silly and feel-good Twitter account WeRateDogs got into trouble when it looked like he wanted to make a few bucks by cashing in on President Trump’s “covfefe” typo tweet. People objected to the mix of politics and commercialism coming from such a benign Twitter account. Consider this when you’re defining your customer personas. This also highlights another advantage of segmenting your lists. You might have customers who are less sensitive to some issues while others are more sensitive. Communication styles I think the most practical lesson you can learn from the Cheeseburger emoji matter is how important these little icons have become to us. Not only is this illustrated by the ill-designed Google emoji, the release of Apple’s iPhone X also makes this case. As I read reviews and look at promotional materials for the iPhone X, the ability to animate emojis seems to be the most important new function on the thousand-dollar phone. As cool as that is, it’s not going to change anyone’s life in a material way. However, it does reflect in a very important way how we communicate today. In other words, you should be using emojis in your communications. I discussed this once before in light of email marketing. Using emojis in subject lines boosts open rates. A friend of mine has begun developing Facebook Messenger chat bots and one of the lessons he...
read more6 management mistakes that will kill employee motivation
I was talking to an elementary school teacher the other day who works for a major school district. While there are many things she likes about her job, her list of complaints was pretty long. It made me wonder how many small business owners are making these same type of management mistakes. She told me that a couple of years ago, the leaders of her district said they wanted to put power back into the hands of local principals. That sounds like a great idea, but it didn’t really seem to make any difference in the major aspects of her job duties or how situations are managed. Many of her complaints centered around overly strict rules or the lack of flexibility. See if you would have to plead guilty to any of these 6 management mistakes that will kill employee motivation. A simply silly dress code. Teachers can only wear jeans on Fridays. This is probably related to a student dress code of some kind. I remember a time when girls were required to wear dresses to school. That started to change when they were allowed to wear pants on Friday. Here’s the problem: Once you say jeans are okay on Friday, you’ve said that jeans are okay, period. There is nothing magic about Friday. It’s a fact today that dress and grooming norms have changed. For example, I often see major television hosts with no tie and having gone a day or two without shaving. That would have been unheard of five years ago. Don’t ask for more than is truly required. Too many mandatory tasks that no one pays attention to. You probably know that public school students today are subjected to all kinds of mandatory tests. I’m told that many serve no educational purpose; the results don’t get back to teachers so they can use them to help students. They are just used as a hammer to hold over the heads of districts and principals. Do you require your employees to do things that don’t make your business better? Are there required forms being filled out that never get looked at or followed up on? Too many approvals required. Committees and principals are required to sign off on a wide range of rather ordinary activities teachers would like to do with their students. When an employee has to go to others to get approval, it slows down the process, creates frustration, and leads to lost opportunities. Employees stop asking to do innovative things when there are too many hoops to jump through. Too many strings attached. Education funding comes from a variety of sources. Most of the money is local or state money, but there is federal money as well. Sadly, strings are attached to the money that put very narrow limits on how it can be spent; it’s a symptom of government’s myopic vision. I see a similar problem in many small businesses where the owner or manager will have an idea, begin to implement it, then refuse to adapt and change as others make suggestions. Too many unproductive employees. In education, bureaucrats will often “throw money” at a problem in unproductive ways. For example, if a school seems to be struggling they will fund “coaches” to supposedly work with the teachers. By strict rules,...
read more6 key areas for improvement if you want to be the industry leader
Are you a sprinter or a marathoner? It’s one of the most important questions you can ask yourself, because becoming a local or industry leader – and maintaining that position – is like running a marathon. via GIPHY You may sometimes feel that you’re on a treadmill and not making any progress, but that’s simply […]
read more21 lead magnet ideas to pull in your top prospects
If you aren’t optimizing your lead magnets, consider yourself guilty of gross mismanagement! But before we toss out 20-plus lead magnet ideas for you to test out, let’s quickly define what we mean by the term “lead magnet.” A lead magnet is an offer you make to prospects in exchange for their contact information. Before the Internet took over our lives, these would often be contest entry blanks or sample offer signup forms you snipped from the bottom of a magazine or newspaper ad. Today they are more often online offers given in exchange for your email address…and maybe other contact information. At the top I suggested that you need to optimize your lead magnets. As you will see from our list, they come in a variety of forms, so there’s always a chance that the next one you test will outperform the one you’re currently using. Template libraries, including spreadsheets. Graphic art templates and templates for all the Microsoft Office apps make good lead magnets. They can be used in both B2B and B2C settings. Checklist. A simple checklist can work well and they are not difficult to create. Also, they prove that your lead magnet doesn’t have to be as big as the Gutenberg Bible. Swipe file or cheat sheet. A step away from a template, these are files/plans/graphics that have been created by others and proven to work. A swipe file is usually a collection of these, while a cheat sheet is shorter and more of a guide than complete examples you can use. Web app. These are fantastic if you can find one that works for your industry. A real estate broker might create one that calculates home mortgage payments. An online marketing professional might create one that gives you all the keywords on a competitor’s website. Calendar, planner. One of the big retail organizations puts out a planner each year that clues users about special dates throughout the year. You can probably think of one that would be handy in your industry. This could be an Excel file that helps someone work through a common financial scenario. However, in some situations, it could be a document the user prints out. Freebies and discounts. Everyone likes to save money and money-saving offers can be shaped in many ways: discounts, free shipping, free sample, free consultation, free introductory lesson or session, or discount coupons, just to name some of the most popular freebies. Written content. This? can be white papers like case studies, reports, and guides. You may already have this content created. However, you might want to dress it up with better graphics to be sure that prospects think it is valuable. Private Facebook group. There can be many benefits to creating a private Facebook group and offering membership as a lead magnet. The members themselves, if you do a good mob managing it, will create excellent content and value within the group. It might later serve as a springboard for other ventures. Trial membership. You’ll note that education is involved with many of these lead magnets, so membership is often in some kind of online course or service. But, you could also have a buyers’ club or some other scheme. Quiz. You’ve seen the quizzes where you have to give your email address to get...
read moreThis week in small business: Getting ready for the economic apocalypse and the holiday shopping season!
As rosy as most people think things are today, this week we have advice from 11 entrepreneurs on how they’re prepping for when the S#%! inevitably hits the proverbial fan. But, in the meantime, we have a lot of tips on branding, productivity, and even how to protect yourself from credit card chargebacks. Politics, government, and the economy The next economic collapse isn’t a question of “if,” but “when,” so you might want to know how these 11 entrepreneurs are hedging their bets for when the S#%! inevitably hits the proverbial fan. Leadership, management, and productivity Tech guru wages and fees can break a small business owner, that’s why I wrote this sponsored post for MasterCard Biz that helps you be your on CTO (chief technology officer). Trust is the foundation of long-term success online. Thammy Marcato lays out the critical fundamentals of understanding and establishing online trust. Everything in an upheaval? Then check out Beth Kowitt’s Fortune article: Top Tips from the Most Powerful Women in Business on Leading through Turmoil. Are you guilty of any of the seven ways managers degrade employee productivity as described by Varika Kashyap? Allie Briggs captures the wisdom of cancer survivor Angela Benton on the truth about work-life balance. Go through Janet Mesh’s list and see how many of these seven overlooked biases are creeping into your work and holding you back. You might be surprised by what Jay Kim says is the #1 productivity hack of high achievers. If you want some practical advice, check out Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead’s 10 Tips to Avoid Fraudulent Chargebacks from Online Sales. Marketing and sales I know that many of you are going to relate to this Forbes article written by Justin Christianson on three reasons your marketing is not getting the results you want. Alignable CMO Dan Slagen outlines three ways to get more word-of-mouth referrals and even gives us a four-week schedule of action items! Want some last-minute ideas to make the most out of the holiday shopping season? Read Michael Della Penn’s Marketing Land article on three ways to combine online and offline insights this holiday season. Brand signals. They are the unmeasurable but extremely important SEO metric, explains Tyler McConville. And, speaking of brands, Mike Kappel has solid advice on brand protection for small business owners. Not all innovation is purely digital. Andrew Fegley talks about how CMOs can innovate with direct mail. Entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation I love the title of Tim Denning’s piece, Get To The Point! What Does Your Business Do? He makes it clear that to be successful, you need to be succinct. To quote the song, “Money, money, money, money!” And considering the primacy of money to a startup, Adam Rowe’s article on questions to ask when monetizing your startup is a worthy read. Nina Zipkin talks to entrepreneur Tracy DiNunzio and shares the trick that helps Tracy discern the difference between being busy and being productive....
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