Member Story: Lauri Turner, CEO of Hatbox in Austin, Texas
Note: For the next few weeks we’ll be featuring businesses in Austin, Texas, leading up to the Austin Independent Business Alliance’s Armadillo Awards ceremony where Alignable will be honoring the most recommend business with the Alignable Local All-Stars award. Read more here.
Lauri Turner, owner of Hatbox, moved to Austin from Houston 35 years ago “for love.” The love didn’t last, but her love for the city of Austin has only grown in the many years since opening her very first location on 6th St. She now owns and operates her “modern haberdashery,” Hatbox, in 4 different locations in and around Austin, is the “official hatter” for both the state of Texas and city itself, and regularly sells hats to well-known clients like Bonnie Raitt and Willie Nelson.
One of a group of pioneering business owners who banded together in the mid-1980’s to turn downtrodden downtown Austin into a destination, Lauri and her neighbors succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. She recalls the time 30 years ago when she was approached by organizers of a new event coming to town who wanted to tap her as the festival’s “official hatter” with an anticipated attendance of about 800 people. “We were freaking out!” she laughs. The event ended up drawing only about half that, but has since grown quite a bit. We’re talking of course about Austin’s iconic South-by-Southwest (SXSW) festival which now brings upwards of 400,000 visitors to the area annually.
Despite the phenomenal growth of Austin, Lauri is still very active in a wide variety of local business organizations--this time fighting a different battle. With so many people coming to Austin to shop at and eat in the areas’ funky shops and unique restaurants, large chains have seen the opportunity and started to move in. Often these chains engage in what Lauri calls “local washing,” where chain businesses try to adopt the look-and-feel of an authentic local institution. This has led to consumer confusion and rising rents, which last year hit Lauri at her flagship location, forcing her to up and move on short notice.
Experiences like these are what make networking with other local business owners so valuable. When Lauri had to find a new location, she turned to Alignable to ask other business owners about an available space she was considering. “What I like about Alignable is that it feels like old Austin--it’s all about grass-roots and people trying to help each other,” she says. “It feels like a close-knit community where integrity is key, similar to what collectives were back in the day.”
Happily, Hatbox reopened a (temporary) downtown location on 2nd and San Antonio just in time for this year’s SXSW festival. And as much as she loves providing hats for the visiting musical acts, what she loves even more is the spirit of old Austin that persists long after the crowds have left town. “We support the local Austin music and film scene all year,” she says. Like Esther’s Follies, a local musical comedy troupe that wears her hats. “Their hats define them, just the way the hats we wear here define what’s unique about Austin--a bunch of modern day hippies in a conservative state.”
Posting interesting discussions on Alignable, both at the community and national levels, are a great way to introduce yourself to new businesses and teach them about your business. Great posts build awareness for your business AND strengthen your brand. Not surprisingly, Bad posts have the opposite impact on your business. So here’s how to write Great posts!
Here’s some tips for crafting a great discussion post:
-- Posting promotional content is fine... just NOT as a discussion. Post it using the Promote My Business block (at the top of your home feed).
-- Keep your posts short, engaging, and informative. If you share something that helps others succeed, they will continue to turn to you for advice.
-- ALL CAPS DOES NOT GENERATE GOOD AWARENESS... IT MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE YOU’RE SHOUTING!
-- Tale of 2 Insurance Agents - Who would you turn to for advice?
“Do your employees deliver your products or services using their personal automobile? If so, be sure to ask your agent if you have the right coverage for this."
OR
“I’m the BEST Insurance agent in "Downtown Whoville" If You’re not my Client You SHOULD BE!!”
I know which one I would choose...
Do you have any other tips for posting great discussions?
Hey Austin! Introducing “The Locals’ All-Star” at this year’s AIBA Armadillo Awards!
Which business or organization is most recommended among Austin business owners? Find out at this year’s Austin Independent Business Alliance Armadillo Awards ceremony, where Alignable will be honoring the locally-owned and operated business or organization with the most recommendations on the site.
How to participate
It’s easy to vote for your favorites!
Recommend your favorite 3 (or more) Austin businesses or organizations. Visit the Businesses tab in Alignable and click the star!
Would you like to be in the running? That’s easy too.
1) Make sure your profile looks great!
2) Let other business owners know what you do by adding some promotions and products/services.
3) Make sure your business buddies recommend you and vice versa. If they aren’t on Alignable yet, invite them!
What does the winner get?
The warm glow that comes from being the most recommended business of course! Also a cool award and banner to hang to let the world know your peers think you’re tops. We’ll also give you placement in the Alignable Neighborhood Feed as “the most recommended local” right below the AIBA’s Local Leader spot, giving you exposure to the over 1000 local businesses on Alignable.
Any recommendations made on the site up until April 20th count towards the award. We’ll send out a weekly leaderboard update via email.
Let me know if you have any questions, and happy recommending!
Guest Post: Should you invest in shipping software?
This is a guest post from our partner Shipstation, the leading provider of shipping fulfillment software for small businesses.
When you're a busy small business owner, it's easy to get lost in the weeds of just running your business. There are countless things to do from managing your inventory, responding to customer inquiries, ordering supplies, marketing your products and services, and much much more. If you sell online or ship your products to your customer, then you also have to fulfill your orders. If you want to regain part of your day from at least the shipping portion, it may be time to look for software that can help.
Shipping software is built to help you create shipping labels for your packages without having to physically go to the UPS store, post office, or other shipping location. Generally, the software will aggregate your orders from your chosen selling platforms like Amazon and eBay, as well as your shopping cart software. Most will also let you import any orders via CSV files from platforms the app may not support out-of-the-box.
So first, let's talk about connections. If you sell on multiple channels: an online marketplace, your own website, at a trade show, or even at a brick-and-mortar location, chances are you have a tough time collecting those orders into an easy pile when it comes time to fulfilling them. This is one of the main advantages of using a shipping software. Since they're built to help you ship *all* your orders, the majority of them have multiple connections to wherever you sell and will import those orders automatically.
When you're actually going through your orders and processing them, it's important for your chosen shipping software to let you work in the manner you want. It should give you the tools so that you see exactly the orders you want to see through filtering or searching. Then you can choose the appropriate settings and prepare your orders for shipment in a way that makes sense to your situation and business. Those settings then should be saved in some manner so you can apply them en masse to your orders. Even better, they could be applied automatically for you by rules that you set up in the software.
The entire point of a shipping platform is to make your life easier when it comes to shipping. So it only makes sense that it should reduce the time it takes you to ship. Look for batching features that will process hundreds of labels at a time without a care to how those orders are being sent. Being able to simply click “print” and have all your labels stream from your printer is so much nicer than handwriting the addresses or having to copy and paste them one by one into a carrier's website.
Next, make sure your shipping software sends back your tracking information to both your marketplace and your customer. It should be sending this information back automatically, as well as letting you customize the e-mail it sends out. The super sophisticated ones will even change the e-mail you send out to different customized templates based on rules you set up in their software. Some will even let you delay the shipment notification to allow for the time it usually takes you from printing the label to your packages actually hitting the mail stream.
In order to save the most amount of time, make sure that the system works for you. Check out a software's free trial, if they have one, and then connect your stores and create a few labels. Most software will let you connect your existing carrier accounts or will set you up with free ones that are part of the subscription or purchase price. The best part about the USPS accounts that come with a shipping software? Most will give you discounted rates so you can save lots of money on your postage over what you might be using today.
Why Airline CEOs should have to run a small business first
A recent travel nightmare with American Airlines left me wondering how different the experience would be if the CEO of American Airlines had spent his formative years running a small business.
Let me set the stage. My daughter flew home from college for a couple of days and two days before her return date a major storm was forecast impacting both the departing and arriving cities of her travel. She was flying on USAir (now American) on a smaller turbo-prop plane and, based on past experience, it was easy to figure out her flight was never going to happen. Silly me, I reached out to American’s customer support to see if I could get her out ahead of the storm into one of the many empty seats shown online.
We all know how this story ends. American Airlines (who apparently doesn’t have access to The Weather Channel) wasn’t willing to recognize the snowstorm in time to help its customers out. Rather, they waited until 4 hours before the storm hit, declared a snowstorm alert, cancelled the flight, and left it’s customer stranded.
While waiting for a “supervisor” on hold, I wondered how this experience might be different if Doug Parker had been tasked with running a small local business for a year before taking over as CEO.
Here’s how things would be different:
Recognize that customers Matter
Relationships of trust are built through real-life interactions with actual customers. So here’s how a small business owner would get to know their customers. They would:
Sit themselves in the middle seat in the last row on cross country flights
Board last to get the full “on-boarding with bags” experience
Personally try to reschedule a cancelled flight and get to your destination within 24 hours on a non-refundable ticket
Anticipate Customer Needs
Small business owners have to keep their eyes wide open and provide a level of service that’s extraordinary to keep your business. They would have looked at The Weather Channel, figured out this flight was never going to happen, and called me in advance to rebook and get my daughter to her destination in advance of the storm.
Understand their Inventory
Small business owners understand their available inventory and how to optimize it. They would know the most frequently cancelled flights due to storms, the empty seats the day prior, and would have been prepared.
Be accessible
I had the opportunity to watch a television story on how Doug Parker at American was focused on becoming more approachable at work. He had torn down a wall in his corner office, removed the security officer protecting the executive suite, and was no longer wearing a tie around the office. But really what does this add up to other than the illusion of approachability? He wasn’t personally helping customers re-book a cancelled flight.
Small business owners wouldn’t just make themselves appear to be accessible to customers. They would already be on the frontlines, personally communicating with customers every day and making sure all their needs are satisfactorily met. Even if they were wearing a tie.
Share your travel stories and a small business owner would have handled the situation a little differently.
We’re pleased to announce a few new features that make it easier than ever to build your business network!
More businesses to connect with
We’ve expanded your Business Directory to include businesses up to 10 miles away. Go see who’s new!
Unlimited local connections
You can connect with as many businesses as you’d like within your 5-mile radius. Connecting is the first step in building relationships that help you gain more local visibility!
Connect with businesses anywhere with Connect Plus
You can have up to 10 outstanding connection requests outside of your 5 mile radius. Want more? Earn them by simply inviting your business contacts to Alignable. They’ll be automatically connected with you and will earn you more Connect Plus requests--one for each person who joins based on your invitation.
Now you can connect with other businesses, message your contacts, and participate in discussions right from your phone with our new mobile-optimized website. Go to Alignable on your phone’s web browser and check it out!
Browse your neighborhood feed
Keep in touch with your contacts
Browse new businesses
Check out new Discussions
Alignable emails are also now easy to read and respond to on your phone.
Go to Alignable on your mobile phone and check it out!
Small business owners say their local politicians are failing them
We recently polled our Alignable members asking “Do you feel your political figures stand up for local business in your community?” With almost 80% replying “No,” it appears local politicians may have some work to do connecting with the businesses in their neighborhoods.
So why are small business owners feeling underrepresented?
Many business owners commented that their representatives don’t make much of an effort to get to know the businesses in their towns. In fact, several members called out the fact that many local politicians don’t have much direct contact with individual local businesses. Dan, a bookstore owner in Stoneham, MA mentioned “I don't think a single one has ever stepped foot in our bookstore!” Deb, a taxi owner in Richmond, VA, echoed this sentiment, stating “I have lived in my neighborhood for 10 years now and have never seen or heard from our district person! Truthfully, I don't really know who he/she is!”
It’s important for local politicians to be present and make themselves accessible to small businesses. In too many communities, the small business owners who fuel the local economy don’t feel like their politicians are in touch with their needs.
So what can politicians do to change this? Craig, an auto shop owner in North Richland Hills, TX, suggested local politicians spend time at small businesses to learn about the owners and how they run their shops. “Spend a little more time talking to the owners of small businesses - paying particular attention to the businesses that are NOT in their particular area of knowledge… It would be real easy for me to represent small shop owners if I were to be elected to some position, but what works for shop owners would not work at all for a florist.” This is a huge opportunity for local politicians to show their support and better understand the needs of local businesses.
Another complaint shared by business owners was that local politicians are more concerned with big business. As liquor store owner Greg, in Colorado Springs, CO, put it, “Politicians here in the US follow the money. As a result small businesses are losing out versus large corporations who are directing politics via their deep pockets.” He added that “local business is helping the local economy grow as more of the money spent at small businesses is staying within the community and the country, while money spent with large companies is, for the most part, leaving the community.”
What can business owners do to change this? Acton, MA, martial arts studio owner Randy wants to see a better dialogue opened up between local politicians and business owners. Randy’s idea: “Perhaps hosting an open forum with local business owners and politicians or create a web portal where local business owners can submit feedback directly to the politicians.”
We think Randy is on to something. Alignable is a great starting point to rally your fellow local businesses around the issues that matter in your town. Start a discussion in your town on Alignable so businesses can band together and voice their concerns. It may be hard for one business owner to get a politician to take notice, but hundreds of local businesses joined together might have a greater influence on local politics.
Anita Perry’s first experience with yoga wasn’t exactly the transformative one she expected it to be. “I hated it!” she says, “It was too slow – I sat there thinking about all the things I had to do.” It wasn’t until several years later that an injury would inspire her to pick yoga back up and become the experienced yogi she is today.
She now owns her own yoga business, YogaAnita, based out of Leominster, Massachusetts. She’s the sole-proprietor of the successful studio that she started in 2011.
Anita is also a full-time elementary school teacher, a job she says is very rewarding but can be equally stressful. While rediscovering yoga after her injury, Anita enjoyed the physical benefits but also relished the mental clarity it provided. Yoga became the perfect outlet to relieve her stress. Looking for something to “make her mind feel good,” she realized, “This is for me. This is what I needed.” So Anita completed the 200–hour certification course and began teaching yoga.
At first, she taught a free class in her church basement. Locals quickly began streaming into her evening class. It became so popular she had to hold class two nights a week, and then finally she realized she needed to branch out into her own space. It was time to start her own business.
The idea of being a business owner excited Anita. “I like to be my own boss, I like to set my own schedules, and I like to charge what I think is reasonable and fair.” Now she had a goal, she just needed to work out all the details.
Starting her business didn’t come without its challenges… The first studio she rented was only a few blocks from the church. While many people from her church classes followed her, she did lose a few patrons in the move. Then when the seasons began to change, Anita encountered her next obstacle – the studio didn’t have heat! “The landlord went out and bought these little space heaters, which were fine in September, but by October and November it was too cold and we were out of there.”
So, Anita moved to her second studio less than a year after starting her own business. She ran into further difficulties here when the landlord wouldn’t allow her to properly advertise her business in the space. Anita moved once more to her third studio location and then things got better from there. Today, she still teaches in this space and is proud to say she still has many customers from when she first opened up in the church basement.
Anita now has a deep understanding for the struggles new yoga teachers face when they open their own studio. “You come out of certification with all these wonderful things you study – anatomy, philosophy, Sanskrit – but they never tell you what to do next!” she says. Too many people go out and optimistically “put up a flyer, rent out a room and nobody comes… it’s heartbreaking.” Anita luckily had some practical knowledge about how to get insured and how to market a business from her days working as an aerobics instructor. But she knows many new teachers in the yoga community are in need of guidance from other who have already been there.
This is where Alignable comes in. As a member of Alignable’s national Yoga group, Anita sees a great opportunity here for fellow yogis to come together and learn from one another about the business side of teaching Yoga. “It’s often hard to find answers to questions like: How to I know what to charge? What’s the best way to advertise? How can I stand out from everyone else? Where should I go for supplies? Alignable makes it easy to get business advice from other Yoga instructors around the country who’ve already figured out the answers to those questions.”
By the way, Anita is such an expert she has even written her own book on the subject, Yogaminute, which encourages people to find time for yoga no matter where they are or how much time they have. So, if you have a question or two don’t hesitate to reach out to Anita on Alignable – she’s a fantastic resource!
A couple more facts about Anita:
Favorite thing about teaching yoga: “Seeing the transformation in people. A lot of people come to me saying ‘I’m so stressed out, I can’t sleep, I’m injured, I need something.’ I love knowing that I can really do something to help them.”
Favorite yoga pose: “Savasana… or Child’s Pose… it depends on my mood and the day. And that is what I teach people too!”
What she wants other yogis to know: “If I can do it, anyone can do it. A lot of what I learned about running my business was self-taught, but I also learned that others can really teach you a lot if you are willing to accept.”
Countdown to Valentine’s Day: Last Minute Promotions
With Valentine’s Day coming up this Saturday, you may think it’s too late to offer promotions and deals, right? False – there is still time! As the 45-Day Rule shows, Valentine’s Day actually has the shortest lead time compared to other national holidays. That suggests that people start shopping for gifts just a week or so before the holiday. It also means people are actively searching for last-minute Valentine’s gifts right now and they will keep searching right up until Saturday.
Why not take advantage of the peak demand and put together a last minute Valentine’s Day promotion?
Here’s 4 ideas that are fun for your customers and easy for you to execute:
1. Offer a couple’s special. Advertising a special for couples is a great way to drum up last minute business. Why not offer 10% off a couples massage or free engraving on any 2 items bought together? Or if you don’t want to do couples-only, offer a “We Love Our Customers” coupon available to everyone. You can easily promote these types of deals using social media to alert your customers all the way up until Valentine’s Day.
2. Run a social media contest. Speaking of social media… you could run a Valentine’s Day themed contest on Facebook and Twitter and award the winner with a discount or coupon. Make it fun, like a photo or recipe contest. Short Stack offers some great Valentine’s contest ideas here.
3. Assemble unique gift bundles. Make things simple for last minute shoppers and put together bundled gift deals. Pair together popular products everyone loves, or if there is something new you are trying to push in your store introduce customers to it by bundling it with another popular item.
4. Team up with other businesses and Love Local. If you don’t want to discount your products and services for Valentine’s Day, you can still play with the “love” theme to promote your business. Team up with other local shops in your area and create a “Local Places We Love” poster to hang in your store. This way you can promote local, refer new business to shops you love, and acquire new customers from fellow local business’ recommendations.
No matter what, there is still time to capitalize on the holiday this week. Have another great idea? Share it in the comments below.
Minimum wage increases a matter of age? Alignable users weigh in
Minimum wage is increasing in 23 states this year. Alignable polled small business owners to see how they felt about the changes. Out of 655 respondents, 51% said they were not worried about the rising minimum wage. Meanwhile, 45% said they were concerned about the increases, and the remaining 4% were unsure. See full results here.
Of those who supported the rising wages, many agreed that increased wages were good for everyone. As Shirley Hunsberger from Magnolia House Custom Picture Framing put it, “More money in the consumer’s pocket is more in mine.”
On the other side of the debate, many business owners argued that higher minimum wages led to rising production and operation costs. Realtor Marty Patrizi commented, “When the minimum wage goes up, so will costs to all of us… the minimum wage earner is no better off. If wages go up 10% and costs go up too, then the minimum wage earner is going to see his purchase power further eroded.”
Increase minimum wage only for those over 18?
One argument that stood out on both sides of the debate was that minimum wage should not be raised for workers under 18. As Moe’s Place II owner Jeffrey Wortham wrote, “I'm for it, but not for children under 18. I think an exception should be made due to the fact they aren't trying to support a household like adults do.”
Jim Buck of Umigo Indoor Kart Racing also offered, “I employ a number of older teenagers who really do not need a living wage because they live at home. We will have to raise prices to meet this significant increase in wages, payroll tax and most importantly workers comp insurance.”
It’s an interesting argument to consider– wages based on age rather than skill or tenure.
In response to this argument, Andrew Weiner from Spaightwood Galleries, Inc. countered that “people under 18 trying to save money for going off to college certainly need to raise money, given how much college costs these days. People under 18 who need to buy tools for a job or a car for transportation are helping the economy as well.”
Charles Hickey from Short Pump Animal Hospital added “age really has little to do with it. The real issue is skill and work ethic. If a new hire has the skill, education and desire to produce, they should be paid a competitive wage.”
What do you think? Would you support a separate wage tier for people under 18?
If you want your business to reach as many consumers as possible, it is essential to establish a strong web presence.
According to the SBA, 97% of consumers look online for local products and services. But only 53% of small businesses actually have an active website. So, about half of all small businesses are missing out on consumer search interest that could easily bring them more customers and increased profits.
Luckily, if your small business still needs a website, building and maintaining a site is easier than ever! Numerous website building tools exist online that allow small businesses to build a user-friendly site easily and affordably.
Follow these simple steps for website success:
Look good. Many site building tools like Wix make it easy to create an eye-catching site in no time using customizable templates.
Be mobile & social. Having a mobile-friendly site that people can easily share on social media has become increasingly important. Over half of online traffic is now driven through mobile devices. Make sure customers can find you no matter what device they are using.
Keep it up to date. Regularly updating your website keeps it interesting for your customers. Search engines also pay close attention to how often a site refreshes it’s content so make sure to add new stuff at least once a month.
Make it a destination. Add links to other businesses you recommend and local events happening in your community so people think of your website as a destination.
For more help, here’s a great guide on How to Launch a New Website Like a Pro. Check it out to see just how easy it is to create a customized website which will professionally showcase your brand.
One more tip: Use the Alignable website app to easily have your events and promotions, as well as those of businesses you recommend, automatically added to your website. Learn how.
Do you have an updated website for your local business? If so, do you use any website building tools? Share in the comments below.
New Year, New Budget. Tips for small business financial success in 2015
One of the most important (not to mention essential!) components of running a small business is working out your finances.
In a recent Alignable poll, 10% of small business owners mentioned that getting their finances in line was a major goal for 2015. Suzi Zefting-Kuhn from Suzi Zefting-Kuhn Artworks commented she “would like to find a better way to organize and track my finances so that I spend less time doing that and more time creating the artwork I so love to do.”
Starting out the New Year, it is important to establish better financial habits that will meet the needs and goals of your business in 2015. Here are some easy tips that will help you get organized so you can stop thinking about money so much and focus on the work you enjoy.
Learn from last year, prepare for this year. Look at the big picture for your businesses performance from 2014. How were you tracking your finances? What worked, what didn’t? Did you meet your sales goals? Will you be expanding your business this year? Will you be hiring more employees? All of these questions are important to take into account when planning for a new year.
Schedule regular time to manage your finances. It is important to keep up with your finances throughout the year. Get into the habit of scheduling a little time each day where you can organize your bills, statements, invoices, expenses etc. Carving out this time is essential in understanding where your business stands financially at all times. It also makes things a lot easier when it comes time to file taxes.
Utilize timesaving accounting software. Accounting software can do wonders to help you organize your finances and save time. Features such as email invoicing, online payment, expense reporting, and automatic time tracking make it simple to take charge of your finances. Using accounting software not only makes your life easier, it also gives you more time to focus on the work you love to do. Check out FreshBooks blog post for more insight on these time-saving tools.
Rely on your Alignable community. Thousands of other small businesses on Alignable are dealing with the same issues as your business everyday. Reach out to other local business owners and ask how they are attacking financial organization for their small business.
What’s your best tip for small business financial success in 2015?
Breaking it down. Word: what people know about you that they'll want to share with others. Mouth: the number of people that you have relationships with that are willing to share your “Word" with others. Getting more word-of-mouth for your business comes from investing in building relationships with the people that matter most and making it easier for them to share your word.
Mouths that Matter. VIP customers you have a strong personal relationships with and local business owners you're well aligned with. Alignable local businesses include those sharing common interests (regularly recommend each other customers) and those sharing an affinity (other local businesses nearby you talk to).
Who are your VIP Customers? Customers you've built enough trust with that they gave you the ability to stay in contact. If you asked them for their email address “to stay in contact” would they provide it to you? If yes, then they have VIP potential.
Building Trust with Customers. Trust is built through positive interactions with you and your business. When you do a great job of engaging a prospective customer, understanding their needs, and using your knowledge to help them to the best solution you build trust. Now’s the time to ask for permission to stay in touch.
The Other Mouths that Matter. Building relationships with other local business owners unlocks access to a wealth of word-of-mouth opportunities. But just like with your customers these relationships take time to build and need to be nurtured to benefit you most. Alignable makes it easy to forge connections with the business owners you want to work with and recommend those you're willing to refer your customers to.
Part Two - Do You Own Access to Your Relationships?
2014 - The Failure of the Follow. Facebook announced that starting in January 2015, posts from local businesses would no longer be displayed in the feeds of the people that liked the business without payment. You can rent your “likes" back for a price, but you don’t own them.
Like, Follow, Recommend Me On. Social media has made it easy for customers to give you a vote of confidence. These are not your mouths rather the mouths of the social media platform. You do not own these relationships. They’re more like acquaintances that with the blessing of the social media provider you can engage. They are owned by the company who’s name follows “On…” Follow me on Facebook.
Owning Your Mouths. There is no substitution for owning the path to your customer. Email marketing applications like Constant Contact make it easy and affordable to not only build your customer relationship asset, but also to maintain regular contact that generate repeat sales and word-of-mouth referrals.
Join My VIP Mailing List. Proliferate where your customers can join your email list. At your place of business, on your website, Facebook page, and wherever else you interact with customers. Showing customers what they will receive (copy of a past email) and setting expectations on frequency (monthly, weekly) increase joins.
Part Three - Feed and Nurture with Words to be Shared
Word Worth Sharing. You need to regularly feed Mouths your Word for them to have something to share with others. By sharing the services you provide, products offered, events you are hosting, and the promotions you are running in an easily sharable format you set up your Word to be Spread by the Mouths that matter. That’s Word-of-Mouth.
What Would You Share. I share stuff that makes me look smart and informed. I will share special promotions if they are in some way “exclusive” to friends of your business and their friends. My favorite Word to Share is when my wine store guy tips me off to a great wine my friends don’t know about. He tells me the history of the wine maker. It’s one thing to walk into a get together with a bottle of wine, but it's something totally different to do so with a story that goes with the bottle.
Nurturing Consumer Mouths. Email marketing is the most cost effective way to nurture your customer relationships on an ongoing basis. Content Credo: Be brief, bright, gone. Short content that shares your expertise with your customers has the greatest engagement and word-of-mouth impact. What can you say to your customers that will have them talking about you on Friday night when they are out with their friends?
Nurturing Local Business Mouths. Your local business relationships need to be nurtured too. You should actively communicate with your connections on ideas you have to promote your business, the products and services you are using that are working and not, and making introductions between connections where synergies exist. For recommendations, by staying abreast of what they are doing (their “mouth”) you’ll be able to actively share it with your customers. And they will be inclined to do the same for you.
Stronger Together. Along the way each local business owner gains experience and knowledge while building relationships with customers nearby. Operating alone and in isolation is terribly inefficient. By coming together local business owners dramatically increase their individual and collective strength. Who better to ask for advice than someone who recently solved the same challenge?
Locals I Recommend. Local business owners carry a lot of clout when it comes to recommending others nearby. You’re part consumer / part business owner and your customers look to you for advice on other local businesses they should support. Recommending these local businesses on Alignable creates a public endorsement that generates word-of-mouth for that business.
Ignore the Big Box. Big retail businesses don’t have word-of-mouth relationships with their customers. That’s why most of them revert to deep discounts to compete. Don’t follow their lead. Your strength comes from relationships that lead to word-of-mouth referrals. 10 local businesses working together have more marketing clout with local consumers than any big box retailer. Regardless of whether you sell to consumers or other businesses.
2015 New Year’s Resolutions for WOM Success. Build local relationships you own. Nurture customer relationships regularly (via email marketing - try Constant Contact). Connect with other local businesses (via Alignable) so you can build relationships that make you Stronger Together.
Set Up For 2015 Success? Small Business New Year’s Resolutions
The close of 2014 puts another year in the books. Now it’s time to look forward to 2015 and explore new ways to grow your small business.
Alignable polled small business owners and asked what their top business New Year’s resolution was for 2015. Of the 476 respondents, 35% said increasing their word-of-mouth was top priority. But close behind with 29% of votes was improving customer communications via email, social media and other outlets (click here to see full results).
Both tactics are very powerful tools on their own, but as several users pointed out, a comprehensive small business marketing strategy includes both.
“For small businesses... word of mouth and networking are always going to be number 1. But if you totally forget the website, social media, and search engine optimization, you will get eliminated from the conversation when those contacts want to do research on you and your company after meeting you,” commented Dan Hahn from Main Street Marketing. “For small businesses it's a waltz between online and offline marketing that will produce the greatest results.”
David Briscoe from All in One Vehicle Registration Service echoed this in his resolution, stating “I would like to increase my online presence by increasing my social media, therefore increasing the word of mouth.”
What are some creative ways to communicate with your customers and strengthen your online presence?
Several small business owners suggested engaging customers using YouTube videos. “Generic advertising is how we’re currently postured,” commented Andrew Summerville from Summerville-New England, LLC, “but we’ll be adding YouTube videos this year to our advertising portfolio.” Online video is a great way to creatively interact with your customers and help your brand stand out.
Another great suggestion for reaching out to clients came from Eryn Giuliano from Family Eyecare of Linden. In 2015, she is “planning to provide more community outreach initiatives to become more well known, and in turn earn potential patients’ trust.” We love this idea, as hosting events and educating community members not only positions your small business as a local thought leader, but encourages people to think of you when they need your product or service and then recommend your business to others.
What are the unique ways you communicate with your customers? Comment below with your suggestions!
Guest Post: 2015 SMB New Years Resolution: Grow your Customer Asset
This is a guest post from our partner Insightly. the leading provider of Online Customer Relationship Management for small businesses.
Customers are your most valuable asset. Unlike a brick of gold you can stick in a vault and retrieve at a later date, customer relationships need to be regularly nurtured over time in order for their value to be fully realized. The most important thing about these relationships we learned in 2014, was that only the true owner of the relationship has the ability to realize its value. Before we get into the lessons learned in 2014 lets first examine how relationships are formed:
The bond opens the door for the business owner to ask to continue the dialog and it’s up to the customer to determine whether or not they want to provide that privilege. Historically, this came in the form of the customers address, then email address, and most recently a “like” on Facebook.
Once the customer bestowed their contact information the business owner then possessed the ability to maintain the connection through regular sharing of interesting and helpful information.
This above represents the customer engagement cycle resulting in repeat interactions between a business and customer. Through continued positive experiences throughout the cycle the customer relationship grows and becomes more valuable.
What Happened in 2014?
Continuing the discussion was thrown a curve ball when Facebook announced it was changing its algorithm to reduce or eliminate posts from small businesses to consumers that “liked” them. While small businesses had been influential in helping Facebook secure it’s place as the social network for consumers and had found Facebook a simple and cost-effective way to connect with customers, this move by Facebook drastically changed the game. Small businesses had started to drift away from building their own customer asset (building an email list) in favor of this simpler to message and execute form of connection.
The lesson learned is that customer assets are solely owned by the entity that possesses the means through which to engage the customer. In this case it’s Facebook alone. While the customer may have “Liked” the business they never actually gave the business their contact information.
So What Should Be in Your New Year’s Resolution?
I resolve to build my own customer asset by collecting contact information for my customers. Where should you collect it? Everywhere you engage your customers. At your business, on your website, and yes even on your Facebook page.
I resolve to explore new ways to store my customer asset that give me the greatest potential to build life-time customer relationships throughout the customer engagement cycle.
Here’s how Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) software works and how it will turn your customer relationships into customer assets in 2015 and beyond.
What is a CRM Application and Why is Everyone Using It?
A CRM is an application for managing a company's interactions with current customers and getting deals with prospective customers, partners or suppliers. CRMs organize, automate and synchronize the various aspects of a small business, including customer service, marketing, sales, or technical support.
This type of system helps establish a centralized database that consists of customer data, which is then used by various users in the company to efficiently and effectively deal with matters related to customer service, targeted marketing schemes and even a larger bottom line at the end of each quarter.
In other words, a CRM can generate metrics that can indicate the health of the business. With Insightly CRM, for example, a small business can tag contacts as prospects and assign related tasks to the sales team for outreach. With the available reporting and custom filtering, a sales manager can see how many calls were completed in the last month, which customers have been contacted, and if the sales numbers are on track. In addition, Insightly includes mobile apps -- an important consideration since many of your employees are using smartphones and tablets.
Why is It Successful?
Although most people tend to think of CRMs as a tool for large companies, incorporating CRM into a small business model can be just as important as hiring the right staff members, establishing an effective website, and finding the best location. In fact, according to data cited by Forbes magazine, CRM applications can boost sales by 29 percent, increase productivity by 34 percent, and amplify forecasting accuracy by 42 percent.
For those still in the midst of grasping the concept of CRM, it can be difficult to understand why this idea is proving to be so successful for many companies in today's marketplace. Here are four reasons why web CRM applications work so well and can help give your revenues a shot in the arm:
Soaring Conversion Rates: Armed with the details stored in a centralized database, salespeople have a simpler time converting contacts into sales. CRMs like Insightly allow businesses to build customer profiles, maintain notes on meetings, and quickly catch and recover from mistakes.
Customer Loyalty: CRMs assist businesses in continuing regular contact with clients, whether through scheduled emails, phone calls after a sale, or customer follow-ups. In addition, with detailed notes, professionals have a record of previous meetings at their fingertips.
Leveraged Relationships: Otherwise known as suggestion selling, you can generate higher add-on sales (purchasing related products or services) and garner greater cross-selling efforts (buying extra unrelated products or services) with CRM data to guide you.
Improves Office Collaboration: Online CRM software lets the entire office share crucial documents with other personnel, gives the sales staff details on how they're performing, helps sales teams collaborate with one another to solve problems and, perhaps most importantly, provides the business owner or sales manager with all of the major data, information, and statistics required to get the big picture.
CRMs are About Creating Opportunities.
CRMs allow businesses to save time, focus their resources on the customer, and review client behavior – including purchase history, consumer behaviors, and common characteristics they may have as they come back for return business. This is achieved through a central location for managing contacts and their related information. With Insightly’s unique linking feature, a contact’s communications, connections, and sales opportunities are all easily accessible and won’t be overlooked.
Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can benefit the most from CRM platforms because they provide them with an opportunity to seize potential deals and follow through on their promises, something that can often hinder the growth of a business with limited resources.
There is certainly no doubt that an SMB CRM is effective in helping companies succeed. Nobody seems to regret using CRM software. Don't get left behind, put customer relationship management software to work for your business. Sign up for a free Insightly account now, or check out a 14 Day Trial of our Premium Plan.
Andrew Moran is a full-time professional writer and journalist, who covers the areas of business, economics, and personal finance.
