Local festivals and events tend to draw good crowds filled with people looking for adventure and fun. Many times, they present excellent marketing opportunities for small local businesses to attract new customers and put their brand on display. Attending local festivals is a smart business strategy that can be accomplished at little expense.

Find an Event

The first step is to find a suitable event. Usually, municipalities advertise their special occasions well in advance, and many will also openly court the participation of local businesses. One of the keys is to know who your target audience is and determine if it coincides with that of the event. While some businesses have more universal appeal, others attract specific niches of consumer demographics that may not overlap with the expected attendees of the festival. It’s also worth checking historical trends. If events are planned closely together, choose the one with the best draw and broadest appeal to your target audience.

Plan Your Attraction

You’ve found an appropriate festival and gained permission to have a booth or display. Now, you just need to plan the right way to get people to check out what you have to offer. Of course, you’ll want to be friendly and engaging, but there’s more to it than that. Put some thought into your presentation. There are so many unique attraction ideas that can draw all sorts of people to your area—the possibilities are endless! Your space should be clean and well organized, but it is helpful to have items that customers can interact with or that generate movement, which is an eye-catcher. Things like spinner wheels or other games interest people. Having branded freebies like mugs, pens or hats can enlist people to become brand ambassadors. Lastly, don’t forget the logistics. At an outdoor event, you’ll need a cover in case of rain. Determine if you require power or water hookups, and how far you will have to transport items from your vehicle.

Collect Information

These events aren’t just for giving things out; they’re also for acquiring important information, customer email addresses in particular. Smart email use can give you additional marketing opportunities far beyond the festival itself. Email is fast and cheap, and it allows for direct communication. Try incentivizing people to sign up by using giveaways or contests in exchange for their information.

If you are trying to sell locally, then it makes all the sense in the world to market locally. Festivals and events give you a large, ready-made audience. As long as you do the research and get the details right, your vendor booth could be a big potential boost for your business.

For more help with your business, schedule a coaching session today!

The power of the internet is proven. It offers several solutions for those who are trying to develop a personal brand, grow a business, or receive attention for another endeavor. Additionally, there is a good mix of free solutions as well as paid solutions. Here are four simple online strategies that can help your business reach more potential customers that are worth trying out.

Google Maps

If your business has a location, whether it is a storefront or office, it should be listed on Google Maps. Approximately 154 million people use Google Maps each month, making Google Maps a phenomenal tool for business owners to reach a huge potential audience. This is a free service that only takes a few minutes to set up. When a user is searching for a mall, restaurant, or movie theater, they may accidentally discover your company when scrolling around the map. If they are searching for a specific address, Google Maps shows what else is next to it if those companies are listed.

Advertise on Social Media

When your company’s budget allows, consider advertising on social media. You can always test the waters and decide whether to continue or not based on the results that you receive. You can also pick the best social media platform to advertise on based on the market you are trying to reach. Ads on Twitter are great for those who can write witty banter with a limited amount of characters. Instagram is great for the beautiful photos and visual ads, while Facebook has served as a good catchall. You can pick from display advertising, pay per click, and remarketing campaigns as well as affiliate advertising and video ads. If you speak with professionals in the digital marketing sector, they can go over your options. Based on your goals, budget, and preferences, they can offer you a number of suggestions.

SEO

Search engine optimization, or SEO, used to be an afterthought and an add-on service for digital marketing firms. Today, everything that has to do with online marketing and advertising begins with SEO. When professionals build a new website or revamp an existing site, they will deliver the final product optimized for the search engines. It is very important to ensure all your digital assets are optimized for the search engines because it allows them to be indexed. Indexing leads to exposure, and if your SEO strategy is well-executed, it will rank your website in the top three results. Optimized websites are architecturally sound, contain no broken links, and are full of relevant content. The search engines feel it is their duty to protect their users from those trying to game the ranks, so their algorithms weed out the bad websites as well as potential scammers.

Subscriptions

To reach more people online, consider starting an email list. Subscriptions to a blog feed, email list, or social media account updates help your followers remember that your company exists. Ideally, you are going to email relevant content that they will share with their friends and family. When that email list begins to grow and you have solid open rates, you can become confident that your online reach is growing too. 

Given that 3.7 billion people have set up at least one social media account and that at least 80% of consumers conduct online research before purchasing a product or service, capturing clients online is to your advantage. There are several simple strategies that can be used to help you gain traction among potential customers including Google Maps, online advertising, and SEO.

Interested in learning more marketing strategies? Check out this article next!

Cell phone use in the workplace is a hot topic. Some experts claim that cell phones in the workplace can improve productivity. Others, however, say that it reduces focus among employees. Here are some things to consider.

Wasting Company Time

Companies and individual employers want to create and maintain a workplace that values efficiency and output. Allowing employees to use their cell phones while working can have unintended consequences. Depending on the type of work your employees are engaging in, it might be acceptable to allow the use of cell phones during designated times and in designated areas. However, permitting workers to have their cell phones out while on the floor can result in wasted company time, which is a risk you definitely want to weigh before permitting employees to use their mobile devices at work.

Improving Internal Communications

With regard to internal communication, however, the intentional use of cellular mobile devices in a work environment can have a positive impact. Allowing cell phones at work can increase access to information that is relevant to the task at hand, which, in turn, can increase productivity. Apps can be designed to facilitate internal communication with employees, which can lead to greater employee engagement. This potential for increased engagement and an enhanced work ethic should be considered when you’re making a decision about whether to welcome cell phones in your workplace.

Striking a Balance

Just as no two businesses are exactly the same, cell phone policies are often unique and depend on the type of work being carried out. For businesses that rely on internal communication advances, a cell phone policy that allows for certain apps to run while others are blocked is a strong compromise. On the other hand, if the work carried out requires complete concentration and could be potentially hazardous otherwise, a stricter cell phone policy will probably make more sense for that specific business. There is no one-size-fits-all cell phone policy, just as there is no right or wrong answer as to what a cell phone policy should look like. Knowing what your workers need to be safe and productive is key.

When all is said and done, ensuring workers remain on task and in good spirits is what matters the most. Having a strong knowledge of your employees’ work ethic and individual needs will help you best determine what cell phone policy is appropriate for your workplace.

Develop a more focused, productive team with coaching by Shannon! Sign up today.

If you have decided that you want to build a scalable business, you’ll need to quickly learn how to lay down the proper foundations to support it. Not all profitable businesses are able to climb up the business ladder quickly. To build up a business, you need a business model that can quickly multiply revenue at a minimal incremental cost. For example, a piece of software takes a lot of labor to develop, but once developed, it can be copied repeatedly with the same minimum cost. However, a family restaurant is vastly different. Labor and fresh ingredients are costly, and while a family business can grow well and be profitable, it would be a poor business model. Here are some ideas on how to lay the proper foundation for a rising enterprise.

Set Your Business Plan

One of the most crucial mistakes when building a scalable business model is not starting with a business plan. Eventually, businesses will need to begin searching for investors and having meetings with bankers. Your business plan should be ready to go. However, a business plan is more than just a description of your product. Your business plan should contain information about the problem you’re solving for your target market, your solution, how your solution will benefit your target market, and the financials and forecasts to back it up.

Automate Wherever Possible

One of the key requirements of a scalable business model is that there is a set system for accomplishing tasks, and everybody follows the same system. Automating as much of your mundane tasks, such as data entry, is one of the first things you should set up so that you can save on hiring additional employees. You can also automate email responses and appointment reminders. At instances where automating is not possible, consider hiring a virtual assistant instead of a full-time employee to manage routine tasks. This will save you time and resources so that you and your key team members can focus your attention on the clients, product development, and potential investors.

Intelligent Sales Software

Many software solutions such as CRM and POS can help generate more sales, improve customer experience, and scale your business. When searching for software solutions, try to search for those that have integration functions so that you can integrate as many applications as you need into an application suite. Not only are application bundles usually less expensive, but software from the same family are also usually more powerful when synced together. In addition, adequate training and education on existing software can help your retail stores save time and money at the point of sale.

The Corporate Shield

Setting up your business as the right business entity can save you a lot of hassle and headache. While there are many business entities types available to register as LLCs and LLPs are the main business types that can help protect your business assets in the event of legal proceedings.

Building a scalable business model is a hefty enterprise that requires a lot of preparation beforehand. If you are thinking of building a business or is interested in making your current business profitable, make sure you follow these tips to build with a solid starting foundation.

If you need help setting up your business, I can help! Contact me to learn more about my coaching services!