​I wanted to put a quick blog post together because I hear some local businesses are having a hard time planning Valentine's Day promotions. Are you struggling with promotion ideas for Valentine’s Day? Maybe you offer services that you can’t provide a discount on. Or you’re not in a place financially to offer 20% off. Or you’re just not sure where to start. Hopefully this blog post will help! Choose one or choose all to implement. 

​What kind of gifts can you give? 
• White paper 
• Percent off a product/service in February
• Product samples 
• Freebie after a purchase of a certain value 
• Gift/value they can use in their business 

​Give gifts to the top 10% of your clients. Use it as a “reward” opportunity. You can even turn this into a referral opportunity by asking them to select 1 person to also get the same gift. What a great way for them to “pass it forward” and for you to gain new referrals to your business! 

Post an image … or better yet, use Facebook Live Video to post a message to your clients. Facebook Live Video has better reach and after the most recent changes made to Facebook’s algorithm, your regular image post might not even be seen. 
​
You can also start a social media campaign called “Things I love” and post every couple of days. You can post about: 
• Products
• Services
• Clients/Customers
• Vendors (i.e., friendly delivery guy)
• Family

Make sure you let your customers know what kind of Valentine’s Day gifts you have in your shop! Feature multiple products – post every day if you have enough inventory! Make sure you stay in front of those shoppers! 
​
Another promotional tactic is to let your audience know what products/services have been the most popular for men, women, kids, etc. so they where to start shopping on your site or in your store! 

Maybe your business sells B2B. That’s ok – you don’t need to have conventional gifts! You can still ask clients to “Share the love” by referring your services to a contact (make sure you throw in a special introductory offer!). 

Don’t forget about the singles out there! “Galentine’s Day” is a fun favorite – started from the popular TV show Parks and Rec, it’s a way for women to use those “couples” coupons with their gal pals instead. 

​Re-purpose popular romantic quotes into funny quotes that promote your business. How could you re-purpose these? 
• Love is in the air 
• You complete me 
• I’m just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her. 

​Dedicate some marketing dollars to digital advertising: 
• Facebook & Instagram Ads
• ​Twitter Ads
• Google Ads
• Groupon 

​Once you post on your social media pages or on your website, post a link in the comments so I can head over and “like” it! I can’t wait to see how creative you are! 

Feel free to use these on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and anywhere else!

Do you have a client who comes into your business often? Or has purchased products/services online more than once? A regular you know you can count on? Think of that client/customer and how you can feature them in your blog and on social media. If you don't feel like you have a "regular" yet, then choose someone who's tagged you on social media or a customer who's in your shop and seems chatty/open to having a photo taken of them. I promise it'll be easy to find someone!

There are a couple of ways to feature customers, depending on your time and resources. 

1. Social Media Post: Posting a quick photo on social media is a great way to get started. It's quick and easy. Just snap a photo of someone in your office/store or share photos they've tagged you in. 
2. Blog Post: Write a featured blog post about your customer/client. Introduce them, ask them why they love your products/services, explain how you've helped them, and get a few quotes from them. This one takes longer, but is worth the work! It helps you promote your business in the words of another person (which people trust more!) and is like a testimonial. Plus, super bonus - it will help you add keywords and long tail keywords to your website. Which helps with search engine optimization. 

Let's look at examples so you can get started! ​

If you're not ready to write blog posts or feel that route isn't for you, then let's just focus on social media. Make sure to share on all of your platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and any others! There are a few ways to feature customers on social media. Let's look at those so you can decide which is best for you ... maybe they all are! (I use all of these options with my clients!)

If you can grab a photo of your customer while they're in your store or office, that's great! Another good option is to share their photos. This is what social media is made for! Share their posts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Here's a perfect example of an online store sharing a photo from their customer. 

This is a great example because the image says "Customer Spotlight" on it which will help grab your audience's attention on social media. Designing a template dedicated to Customer Spotlights is a smart move!

I love this one. Not only is the owner in the picture with the customer, but he explains that this guy is his first repeat customer. How memorable! 

The most important thing isn't which option you use, it's that you get started right away. Make it a goal that you're going to take pictures with 2 customers a month, if you have foot traffic. If you don't have foot traffic, then your goal is to start asking every single customer to tag you in a photo on social media. This will help build your library of user-generated content. 

This is such a great idea for promoting customer satisfaction and providing social proof! Dedicate a blog post to featuring your customers. Some businesses use a Q&A outline where they ask their customers set questions and then they paste in the customer's answers. Others will use a more narrative approach, where they talk about the customer from their point of view, but then add in quotes from the customer about how they use the products/services or what they love about them. Here are a few examples to look over.

This example from Tea Spot shows you how quick and easy this can be. They ask their customer which tea is his favorite, where he's from, etc. That's it! Fast work to show your audience that you're interested and invested in your customer base! (Click on the image to see the full blog post.)

This example from Gym Source shows how you can control the story in the blog post by narrating it from your point of view. There are quotes from the customer, which is key. There are also links to other areas of site which is a great way to maximize your traffic! This keeps your audience on the site longer by giving them more content to read. (Click on the image to see the full blog post.)

If you already have a blog for your business then I think this is definitely something you should try! Put together a list of questions and start asking customers if you can feature them! Although you don't need a photo, I think it helps to have one! Especially when it's time to promote your blog post on social media!

If you're not sure where to start, then start with me! I will help you map out a plan ... and even better, I can just do it for you! Let's talk! Email me: ashley@akwerner.com. 

​How are your clients finding you? Do you know? Like REALLY know (not just guessing)? Many business owners don’t and it’s one of the most important things you should know.

​If you’re like … well, everyone else … you’re probably switching from print advertising to digital advertising to help people find your business. As you make that switch, you need to keep your eye on your bottom line, but you also need to make sure your clients are responding to new mediums. This is especially important for businesses in smaller towns where print might still be necessary to help you reach specific demographics. You may find yourself moving back to some forms of print advertising to hit a niche audience and then using more affordable digital advertising to hit the others.

Ask clients how they heard about you the first time they contact you. Some people have a survey form. Some people ask before getting off the phone. Do what works for your business. As you gather this feedback from clients, start sorting the responses into two categories: Free and Paid.

Free
Examples include …

• Word-of-mouth
• Networking
• Church
• Google organic search

Paid
Examples include …

• Facebook ads
• Phone book
• Google paid ads

Once you’ve started collecting responses and have categorized them, it’s time to start looking more closely at your list. How can you capitalize on each item in the list?

For example, do you have some customers coming by through word-of-mouth? Ask yourself …

• How can you get even more coming in through word-of-mouth?
• Should you look at asking for Facebook reviews and Google reviews?
• Should you start a reward points system for referrals? Hint: giving rewards points for referrals is MUCH less expensive than other forms of advertising!

While you’re looking at the paid category, ask yourself …

• Which is bringing in the most customers?
• Which is bringing in the BEST customers? (Sometimes you have to pay more for those, but it’s worth it.)
• Which is the most expensive?

Now that you’re collecting responses and observing results you can start making small tweaks and changes to how you advertise. First, see how you can capitalize on the items in the “Free” category. Then start moving your budget around so you’re spending more money on the most successful items in the “Paid” category and decreasing your spending on the least successful.

Good luck and have fun! As always, if you need help you can contact me any time at ashley@akwerner.com.