Few things cost a local business goodwill faster than a customer who drives across town on Christmas Eve and finds the door locked, even though Google said you were open. It only takes a few minutes to set holiday hours on your Google Business Profile, and doing it before the season starts saves you from…
Most happy customers never leave a review on their own. They meant to, they liked you, and then life got in the way. Knowing how to ask for reviews is what closes that gap. The good news is that asking doesn’t have to feel awkward or pushy. With the right moment and a few simple…
Every December, someone in your town is trying to figure out what to get the person who has everything. If your business has a gift card program, the answer can be you. Gift cards bring in money before the work is done, put a new customer through your door when the card is used, and…
Let’s get something out of the way immediately: you do not need a big budget to generate real leads from Facebook lead ads. You need a correct setup. Those are two completely different things, and most local businesses that have tried Facebook ads and given up were not underspending. They were doing it wrong. $10…
Why isn’t my social media growing? It’s one of the questions I hear most from business owners, and it almost always comes with a feed full of posts. They show up on a regular schedule. They’re doing what they were told to do. And the follower count barely moves. When I look at their accounts,…
Halloween falls on Saturday, October 31 this year, and in a lot of towns that means downtown trick-or-treating: families walking Main Street from shop to shop in costume, collecting candy from the businesses along the way. If your town does it, or you’d like to start your own, it’s one of the easiest ways all…
From Thanksgiving to New Year’s, your customers are busier than at any other time of year. They are shopping, running errands, and going to parties, and they are not scrolling as much. These 25 holiday marketing ideas are built for that season. Most cost little or nothing, and every one of them is about getting…
Sooner or later, someone will offer to get your business “featured on hundreds of news sites” for a fee. Before you pay, it helps to know what a press release can and can’t do for a local business. This guide covers when it makes sense to send a press release, when it’s a waste of…
You explain your work out loud all day. You walk customers through options, answer the same questions on the phone, and tell new hires how things are done. Then you sit down to write a blog post or a long caption and the words stop coming. Voice typing fixes that. Instead of staring at a…
A mobile friendly website fits on a phone. A mobile first website is built around why someone picked up the phone in the first place. For years, “mobile friendly” was the standard businesses were told to meet. Make sure the site shrinks properly, use responsive design, and don’t make people pinch and zoom. Check the…