Posts by Larry

Nowadays to don’t even have to finish that phrase, but I’ll say it anyway, shop local in the age of COVID-19. Or more specifically, getting customers to shop local in the age of COVID-19. With the holidays just a few weeks over the horizon, this is the time when blogs and business networking sites light up with the topic of getting people to buy local. The trend toward online shopping has been flummoxing small businesses for years, and the challenge has grown exponentially with the advent of the novel coronavirus that has people looking for ways not to shop physically.  But as the song goes, surrender, surrender, but don’t give yourself away. There are still some simple things you can do to give yourself a fighting chance, so let me share with you some ideas I posted to a local business networking site: Build a strong local search presence — This one is the most obvious and is kind of what we do here. This involves having an effective Google My Business listing, accurate listings in local directories, a mobile-friendly website that is optimized for local search, reviews, reviews and more Google reviews. Have some e-commerce capability. It’s so turnkey now that it’s easier to do than ever. Also, explore ways to leverage delivery service and options. Team up with other local businesses in y0ur area who are hopefully doing the above. Create some cross-synergy between the businesses in your group (related business types or nearby businesses could create offers for shopping at each others locations for example). Share customer bases for cross promotions, email marketing and direct mail. Build a simple loyalty or rewards program for shopping at businesses within the group. Not all of this will necessarily move mountains, but it beats sitting behind the counter doing the crossword puzzle. If you have any questions call me 904-744-8877. I’m not going anywhere....

This is an update of a post I wrote on my corporate blog last year and it dovetails perfectly with my last post on back-to-school. No, the title is not a typo. I did mean “hollowed” rather than “hallowed”. It seems that as more years go by, these three-day summer holiday weekends (Memorial Day, the Fourth when it falls right and Labor Day) are further and further removed from the origins and intent of the events that spawned them, so they have been sort of hollowed out. Now they seem to be uniformly about beer (nothing wrong with that) barbecues and much-needed time off for the beleaguered American worker, who works longer and harder than anyone in the industrialized world (if they get any time off at all in this service economy). And mattress sales. I don’t know what it is about three-day weekends and mattress sales, but you could realistically change Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day to Mattress Sale Day One, Two and Three to avoid confusion. Labor Day in particular has been hollowed out by the fog of time. It was originally proposed by an American machinist in 1882 to celebrate workers and promoted by the American union movement. It was formally adopted as a Federal holiday in 1894. International Workers Day, celebrated pretty much by the rest of the world on May 1, actually has is its origins in an American event — the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago in 1886, when police fired on workers protesting for an eight hour workday, killing four. Still most Americans are unaware of the union and socialist origins of Labor Day, and a Republican lawmaker even went so far as to say that Labor Day is a chance to express appreciation for all those business owners that create jobs. Now I’m a business owner but even I went — huh? So what does all this mean to your communications? Well, usually people in business feel compelled to say something about a holiday that sounds wholesome and appropriate, like one client who on Memorial Day insisted on using that occasion to thank the brave men and women around the world who are protecting our freedom. Well Memorial Day...

The Payment Protection Program — part of the US Government’s economic rescue efforts — was sort of like a massive truck looking to leap a deep ravine in a stunt. You hope the truck makes it, but you close your eyes because you can’t bear to look. The SBA loan program is similar in that you hoped it would turn out OK and we would all make it to the other side, but you could just imagine the breathtaking falls along the way. The initial rollout of the program was marked by confusion as to qualification requirements, Web portal glitches, difficulty in getting applications through the bank process and the banks themselves having difficulty in getting answers and loans approved. The initial $395 billion allocated went by in a flash with just 1.6 million loans, and if you were like a lot of businesses who got no money and wondered how that could be when this was supposed to be a small business lending program, you were not alone. Adding to the wonder was that some major companies got funding, including hotels, restaurant chains and the Los Angeles Lakers. Yes, the Los Angeles Lakers. Maybe Lebron could’ve just cut them a check instead. After that debacle the government did what it does best, throw more money at the problem to the tune of another $310 billion. Applications started being accepted again on Monday and of course the Web portal crashed within hours. Plus there’s the matter of the thousands of loans that were processed but never funded in the first round. But if you’re dogged and determined, you can still get your hands on some much-needed capital if you hurry (like today), even if you don’t have a team of investment bankers working for you:   Paycheck Protection Program   You can find the most recent application posted on the Treasury Department’s Cares Act resource page, although you still need to go through an SBA approved lender, and it’s probably best to go through your bank (they will have applications available as well). Any business that has employees qualifies and the loan can be used for payroll, rent, utilities and other operating expenses. Much of the loan can be...

This article first appeared in my Everyday Marketing Advice blog: This post was initially inspired in part by the passing by of #HurricaneDorian (passing by Florida; our thoughts and concerns are now focused on the Carolinas and other states up the coast, I hope they pull through fine). When a major disruption like a hurricane arrives, or even seasonal interruptions like vacations and back-to-school, many of my clients lament the ebb in their business flow, as if they were helpless observers of the business cycle. That perspective is indeed the problem. Like the proverbial squirrel storing nuts away for the winter, there are plenty of things you can do to counteract the effects of the business cycle, seasonality and unexpected events like the approach of a major tropical storm. They include: Work your customer base. This is the most important tactic. It’s always much easier to get repeat business out of an existing customer than acquiring a new one. Think of the approach of the real estate industry, that encourages several touches of a prospect a year. Keep in touch with your past customers, offer them updates and specials. Actively encourage them to do business with you again and regularly. Budget for the slow times. When times are good, you may feel no urgency to spend money on marketing, and those funds may wind up spent elsewhere. But just like the proverbial squirrel, you should be stocking up for those lean times, so you can bring marketing and promotional firepower to bear when times get tough. Cut against the grain. What I mean here is to run promotions when no one else is. Everybody tends to promote during the obvious times like the Holidays and back-to-school. Try running your promotions during those seemingly slow times when no one else is. Advertise and market consistently. Too many of my clients scramble during a slump to get out there and they’re essentially playing catch-up. Budget to get your message out consistently throughout the year so people are always aware of what you have to offer. If you need help with any of the above, give us a call at...

Well obviously parents care for a variety of reasons and kids care for the obvious reasons and people in neither one of those categories care because of the inevitable extra congestion on the roads once school starts. But what I’m referring to in caring is how much attention people pay to business promotions with a back-to-school theme. Or any seasonal or holiday theme for that matter. A recent study revealed that holiday-themed promotional emails had less engagement than promotional emails that did not try to tie into a holiday theme. These results may not be all that surprising. Too often, every local business will try to jump on a seasonal or holiday theme no matter what products or promotions they have to offer. So it essentially becomes a flimsy temporary outer coat on what they do that may not always be a good fit. And it can become like white noise. Take Labor Day for instance which is not that far away. A host of businesses will run Labor Day specials and unless you’re selling mattresses (and one can make the reasonable argument that Labor Day should be renamed Mattress Day) you’re more than likely to get lost in the static. So the takeaway? Tie your promotion into something specific related to the season in question. If it’s back-to-school and you’re a spa, give the Moms a chance to relax from the getting ready for school stress. If you’re a restaurant, offer a special for a lunch break from that back-to-school shopping. And if you sell clothing, well that’s obvious. If you need help with any local business promotion, give us a call. The advice is...