/U/Marketing;/U/Blog;

• It takes time to build an audience and establish an emotional connection to that audience
• It also takes time and a good bit of skill to create content that can contribute to SEO benefits or establish authority in a niche that results in customer action.

I’m not saying to NOT do it because nearly every business should have an effective social media presence. But it’s unlikely startups will get the quick jolt in sales they need through social media/content alone.

That’s why when I work with startups I almost always suggest influencer marketing as an option.

An influencer doesn’t have to be Kim Kardashian or a famous sports star. It just has to be a person who 1) already has an established, passionate audience and 2) has some natural affinity to your business and what you produce.

I have had good success with this small business strategy and I wanted to pass along a great case study today.

The Blade Runner

I’ve had fun helping out with the Maker Movement in my hometown of Knoxville, TN. In fact, Knoxville is known as The Maker City because of the large number of successful craftspersons and small businesses building the economy here.

At our Maker City Summit last year, I met John Phillips and had a little coaching session with him. John is the founder of Phillips Forged, a most unusual business. John reclaims steel from old structures, plows, and saw mill blades to make heirloom quality, hand-crafted knives.

I suppose you could say his business is on the cutting edge.

Sure, that could probably be categorized as a “Dad Joke.” So be it.

Point is (ha ha) … every piece John produces has a treasured story behind it. And people love buying stories.

Influencer connections

A year after I first met John he told me about a business breakthrough.

John had been a fan of Sean Brock, a James Beard Award-winning chef who resides in Nashville and had been trying to make a connection with him over social media.

Through a friend and a little luck, John got to meet Sean at a Nashville craft fair. When the chef heard about the story behind the hand-crafted knives, he wanted to make that story part of the heritage of his own Husk restaurants and bought every steak knife John had at his booth

This authentic advocacy from a respected thought leader turned out to be better than any ad John could have ever paid for. It gave him access to an entirely new audience who loved this chef and the craft of cooking.

“In a day, my email box was full of inquiries for new orders,” John said. “That photo had an immediate impact on my business.”

Within a week, John had thousands of new followers on Instagram and $40,000 in new orders. And all of those new customers will have Phillips Forged stories to tell.

Influencer marketing for small businesses

Although there was an element of luck and good timing involved with this story, building connections to relevant influencers is attainable for any business with some work and perseverance.

My definition of a social media influencer is anybody who posts content that gets shared. It is a person who can move ideas to their own audience and beyond.

In this case Sean Brock would not be considered a social superstar. But he has more than 163,000 followers, and all of them would be fans of the artisanal food movement. When the man speaks, people listen. He moves content.

There are a number of software programs to help you detect potential influencers by topic but it’s unlikely any of them would have put Sean Brock on the radar because 1) most software is Twitter-centric, and 2) the programs don’t do a good job of finding influencers in a city or geographic region.

So keep it simple. If you’re active in a niche and you’re passionate about what you do, you probably already know the go-to people in your category. If not, ask around.

Building the connection

After you’ve identified a resource who might be able to help you, DO NOT “PITCH” THEM. Another name for an unsolicited pitch is “spam.”

Instead, befriend them by doing things that friends do.

One of my favorite examples of this is Sean Van Dyke, an entrepreneur who wanted to build a business as a construction industry consultant. He developed a business management solution and gave it away to the top thought leaders in his field. One influencer was so moved by his generosity that he started mentioning Sean in his blogs posts as “his guru.” This had an immediate and transformational impact on Sean’s fledgling business.

Sean had a great quote in my book KNOWN: “You can’t approach influencers with hands outstretched asking for favors. You have to approach them with arms wide open, offering help and support.”

Eventually, some live meeting is usually the catalyst for business benefits. Is there an opportunity for you to meet your favorite influencer at a conference or regional event? Social media connections are normally weak relational links. Meeting in real life can make these connections more actionable.

Influence and the startup

Groove, a company that provides help desk software, is a perfect example of executing an influencer strategy with precision. They were a start-up company with literally no audience—and no time to build an audience—so they relied on borrowing the audiences of others. The result? 5,000 new blog subscribers in five weeks. Here’s how they did it:

1. Build the influencer list. The company carefully considered which potential influencers connected to their target audience (web start-ups and small businesses) and which of those leaders would be able to get true value from their content and service. This is a critical step. Most influencers are deluged with spammy requests for their help, so doing careful research up front gives you the best shot at success.
2. Forge relationships. Influencers may hold the keys to the audience kingdom, but simply making a cold pitch doesn’t work. Groove embarked on a plan to use the social networks to connect with them and move beyond the relational weak link. Their plan included tweets, blog comments, blog post shares, and emails. Here are other ways to engage with influencers:
   • Ask for a quote you’ll use in your article.
   • Re-tweet them consistently.
   • Provide them with a recommendation on LinkedIn.
   • Interview them for a video or podcast.
   • Ask them for feedback on an idea.
   • Link to something they wrote about (they will generally see this “pingback”).
3. The Ask (part 1). By this time, the people from Groove were on the radar of their target influencers and it was time to make a move. But they didn’t ask for a favor. They asked for help—a subtle yet important difference. Most people have a hard time saying “no” to an honest request for help. This plea included a link to their site, a request for feedback, and emphasis on potential mutual benefits. Using this technique, Groove earned an 83 percent positive response rate from the influencers. “Help” is a more benign ask, and more importantly, it helped Groove start real back-and-forth conversations with industry experts.
4. The Ask (part 2). Now that the company was ready to launch their blog, they needed a push from their new influencer friends. Since this group had been involved in providing feedback to the Groove team, they had a built-in stake in the company’s success. Groove sent these new advocates a link to the first blog post with a request for help promoting it.
5. Results! Not only did most influencers promote the post, but almost all of them also commented on the new blog. This level of response provided proof to new visitors that the blog (and company) had traction. In 24 hours Groove had acquired 1,000 blog subscribers, and by following up with consistent, high-quality content, they attracted more than 5,000 subscribers and 535 trial sign-ups through five weeks of blogging efforts.

In this case, Groove methodically built relationships with influencers that led to measurable success. But there was another force at work here, too—the powerful, magnetic attraction of involving key audience members in your content creation and transmission.

Influencer marketing is not normally considered in the small business marketing toolkit. But if done right, there is no better way to ignite a new business.

Email is a notoriously fickle channel. Something as simple as tweaking the subject line can be the difference between an 8 percent or an 80 percent open rate.

Companies that get it right earn an average of $38 per dollar spent, the most of any marketing channel. But for every success story, there are half a dozen marketers wondering why their campaigns fell flat.

Although email campaigns fail for all sorts of reasons, most boil down to a single sin: irrelevance. In the attention economy, one-size-fits-all messaging simply doesn’t work. According to a study conducted by personalization provider Monetate last year, four out of five marketers who met their revenue goals had a documented personalization strategy; just 8 percent of those who missed their revenue targets had one.

Make Them Feel Heard

With email volumes rising by double digits each year, however, crafting effective campaigns is no longer as simple as slapping on a personalized greeting. Consumers want brands to make them feel individually appreciated and understood.

How can you do that for thousands of email subscribers? Try the following tactics:

1. Ask their opinion.

What better way to get personal with recipients than to give them a voice? After its subscribers tuned out one sales email after another, Ticketmaster tried something new. Three days prior to the Video Music Awards, it sent out a live poll asking readers to vote for winners in each of the event’s main categories. The results were unlike anything Ticketmaster had ever seen: an open rate 182 percent above its average, a 0 percent unsubscribe rate, and 80 percent of readers returning to the email to cast a second vote.

Although tools like SurveyMonkey let marketers create their own polls, these methods require readers to click through to a third-party website to cast their vote, reducing engagement. Email customization services like Mixmax enable brands to embed polls and call-to-action buttons, including multiple-choice questions and Q&A surveys, within the body of their emails. This makes it easier for recipients to respond and also helps start a relationship with prospects. Personalized matchmaking service Three Day Rule discovered that sequences including in-body calls to action freed up staff time, allowing their matchmakers to work with 50 percent more clients.

2. Tell them a story about themselves.

Brands are all too happy to tell customers their story, but they tend to leave out the most important character: the customer himself. Consider how EasyJet wrapped its “How 20 Years Have Flown Campaign,” sent for the brand’s 20th anniversary, around the customer’s own experience. The storyboard email includes each customer’s first EasyJet flight, total distance traveled, number of countries visited, frequency of window seating, a trip suggestion, and more. According to EasyJet, the campaign’s open rate was twice that of its typical newsletters.

Customer data is key for this type of campaign. Begin by augmenting your CRM with a customer data platform, which is a marketer-managed system that unifies customer data across multiple sources. Unlike most CRMs, CDPs update profiles in real time, ingest all kinds of data, and offer cross-company access.

3. Recognize their loyalty.

“Happy birthday” emails are fun, but they’re a dime a dozen. Take event emails a step further by rewarding longtime readers for their loyalty. To celebrate one user’s two-year subscription anniversary, news service TheSkimm asked her if she’d like to become a brand ambassador. To receive the title, she had to share a link with 10 friends — an easy, brand-building task that gave her the sense she’d earned it.

Not only do anniversary emails work for all subscribers, but they also work for all brands. Recipients don’t have to input any additional data, and companies can adjust the timeline according to their product cycle. All this tactic takes is creative copy and planning around the award.

4. Warn them about the weather.

When it comes down to it, the weather is just about the only report that’s relevant to everyone. Fortunately, it’s also relevant for plenty of companies. Poncho, the now-defunct weather cat, built an entire business model on customized weather emails.

Although daily weather updates wouldn’t make sense from most brands, companies ranging from REI to John Deere can deliver personalized value by warning subscribers when severe weather might threaten their outdoor adventures or harvests. Best of all, marketers can use Zapier to integrate weather and email marketing tools without writing a single line of code.

Dozens of factors influence an email campaign’s effectiveness, but most trace back to a single question: Do they make the reader feel valued? From the subject line to the greeting, effective campaigns are built around that principle. Those that don’t won’t convert — assuming they’re even opened — and no amount of clever copy or mobile optimization can change that.

So what is the cloud?

The cloud is where you put all your data, all your files and even your software so you can access it all from any computer or device, anywhere, at any time. See the difference the cloud can make in how you work, bank, communicate, sell and buy.

• Traditional banking vs internet banking
  It used to be the case that your financial data was only available to you when you were physically at the bank. With internet banking, your financial data is available online in the cloud. You can access it anytime, anywhere and on any device.
• Traditional mail vs web mail
  Traditionally, your correspondence was only available at the post office. Web mail means that your mail is available whenever you’re online. You can send an email anytime, from anywhere and on any device.
• Traditional filing vs cloud storage
  Your files used to only be accessible at the office. With online or cloud storage, your files are conveniently available for you whenever you’re online at anytime, from anywhere.
• Traditional shopping vs online shopping
  When your physical business is only open at limited times and places then customers have a limited time frame to view and buy your products. With online shopping, customers can enjoy the convenience of being able to view products and shop anytime, anywhere and on any device.
• Traditional accounting software vs cloud accounting software
  With traditional desktop software, your data lives on your computer or laptop. This means it’s only available at limited times and on limited devices – and often to a limited number of people. With cloud software, your data lives online, so it’s always accessible from anywhere at any time if you have an internet connection. Good cloud software will also let an unlimited number of people use it at the same time.

Cloud myth busting

The cloud isn’t all rainbows and sunshine, we’re tackling the tough questions about cloud computing so you can be prepared before moving your small business to the cloud.

• Isn’t cloud computing just the internet?
  You use the internet to connect your device to the cloud, but the internet is just the connection – the cloud is where your data lives.
• Isn’t it possible to lose your data in the cloud?
  Your data is actually much safer in the cloud than on your computer. Your computer can be stolen or corrupted quite easily, but cloud companies spend millions on systems and experts to protect your data.
• Isn’t the cloud an Apple product?
  Apple has a product called iCloud which uses cloud technology, but many other companies provide products in the cloud such as Google, Dropbox and Xero.
• Aren’t you stuck if the internet goes down?
  These days, the internet is like electricity – it’s very rare for it to go down and when it does you just have to wait a short time for it to be available again. In the meantime, all your data is safe in the cloud.
• Isn’t cloud computing just a fad?
  The cloud has been around for years and it’s only getting bigger. Internet banking started over 15 years ago. Now the technology is so fast and cheap that it’s being used for everything.
• Isn’t cloud computing expensive?
  It’s much cheaper because you only pay for what you use. You’re not paying for endless upgrades, system maintenance, support fees or additional hardware like backup systems.
• Don’t I lose control of my data?
  You actually have much more control of your data, since you can access, share and work with your info, anywhere, anytime, on any device. You also control who has access – which you can revoke in an instant.
• Isn’t the cloud only for tech people?
  The cloud is much easier for everyone – you just log in and it works. Imagine: you don’t have to install files, worry about versions, or deal with patches and upgrades. Just log in.

Let the cloud set you free

As you can see, the big benefit of cloud computing is that it lets you get at your data anytime, anywhere. The cloud breaks the chain between your office computer and your business information.

Need access to your business bank account while you’re on the move? No problem with the cloud. Want to buy office supplies while you’re on the train? It’s easy. Need to update your accounts while you’re out of the office? Now you can.

With the cloud there’s no need to keep all your files and applications on a single computer – no need to worry about backups, theft, data loss, support and upgrades. It’s all taken care of by dedicated teams of technical people. You no longer have to worry about what’s happening behind the scenes.

The cloud takes the stress out of computing. It lets you use computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones and other devices to access all your business information – seamlessly, securely and in real time. Just log in and go, anytime and anywhere.

We no longer need studies to tell us: Smartphones are almost everywhere. Most of the customers coming through your doors have a mobile device with them. And these devices aren’t always shoved in pockets or bags — shoppers are using them while they’re in store too.

So how can small and medium-sized retailers optimize for mobile? We’re talking more than simply making a mobile-responsive website — we’re talking about getting mobile users into your physical retail store and making them spend more money.

Let’s look at some ways how you can do that:

Have a “local” digital presence

Optimize your local business listings so it’s easy for mobile users to find you. While optimizing for mobile means engaging in-store shoppers on their devices, it also means finding potential customers outside of your store.

Moz reports that there are about seven billion unique local searches on Google every month, and almost 60% of searches happen on mobile devices, according to Hitwise.

Here’s where to make sure you’ll surface for the relevant searches in your area:

• Google My Business (GMB)
• Bing Places for Business
• Yelp Business Page
• Yahoo Local Basic Listings
• TripAdvisor
• Local directories and sites

Remember to always include your location, store hours, contact information and photos of the interior and exterior of your store. This will make it more appealing for shoppers to pay you a visit, and easier for them to find you when they do.

If you have an advertising budget, consider investing in Google’s local inventory ads (LIA). LIA lets you list your local inventory information online, so they show up as ads whenever shoppers search for products that you’re selling.

Above is a screenshot of LIA in action. When users click on your listing, “they arrive on a Google-hosted page for your store, called the local storefront. Shoppers use the local storefront to view in-store inventory, get store hours, find directions, and more.”

Mobile checkout

Retailers should always be on the lookout for ways to improve the checkout experience. And one of those ways ties in perfectly with our theme of mobile optimization: mobile pay.

Business Insider predicts a 20% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for mobile pay through 2020. And the MasterCard Digital Payments Study found that mobile wallets were cited in three-quarters of social media conversations about new ways to pay.

Many of today’s point-of-sale (POS) systems can accommodate mobile pay. You can integrate existing mobile checkout methods, like Google Pay, Apple Pay and even Venmo. Some retailers have also created their own mobile apps to allow customers to pay for orders from their phones.

The U.K.’s Harris + Hoole, a chain of coffee shops, drove 20% of orders with the launch of their mobile app. Customers could place and pay for in-store purchases on their phone.

WiFi marketing

WiFi marketing is when retailers and other businesses provide free wireless internet access to shoppers in exchange for some information, like an email opt-in or social engagement. This is good for customers because they have access to free internet, and it benefits retailers through audience-building and data collection.

WiFi marketing is much more popular among consumers than you might think: 96% of them prefer to shop at and return to stores that offer free WiFi, according to Cisco. And almost 60% of shoppers demand in-store WiFi, per Oracle.

In Perth, Australia, Waterford Plaza (a shopping mall) embarked on a project to provide free WiFi to all shoppers. They were able to increase data collection and customer profiles by 450%, learning that the average shopper would spend $0.75 for every minute spent at the mall. They were able to use these insights to implement personalization and increase dwell time.

Augmented and virtual reality

While augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) may still sound pie-in-the-sky to you (nearly two-thirds of companies don’t use AR at all, per Tech Pro Research), consumers are expecting retailers to step up to the plate and implement these technologies into the brand experience. Almost 70% of consumers expect retailers to launch an AR app within the next six months, according to DigitalBridge.

AR and VR offer ways to connect with your mobile-savvy shoppers and enhance the in-store experience. Plus, it could mean that you can charge more for your merchandise: 40% of consumers would willingly pay higher prices if they can experience products through AR, reports Retail Perceptions.

Be active on social media

Facebook’s How Mobile-First Connections Drive Local Business report had a few key learnings about how mobile shoppers engage with local businesses on social media:

• More than 1.6 billion people are connected to a small business on Facebook.
• About 66% of connected Facebook users visit a local business or event page at least weekly.
• 80% of consumers use mobile devices to connect with local businesses, and 45% use them to learn more about a business.
• Two-thirds of shoppers use mobile devices to find out about and engage with local events.
• Shoppers who use mobile phones as their primary device are 1.37 times more likely to find out about pop-up shops and local events on Facebook.
• Nearly half of businesses have started to optimizing marketing for mobile, and 40% believe this will continue to be important in the future.

The takeaways:

• If you’re hosting an event, create a Facebook event page and use a geo-targeted paid ad campaign to drive interest.
• Make sure your profiles are optimized to share more information about your business.
• Add your retail store location to your Facebook page. If you have more than one store, use Facebook Locations to manage and promote all of them.

Proximity marketing

Proximity marketing is an in-store tactic that uses beacons and other Bluetooth-enabled devices to connect to and engage with customers’ on compatible mobile phones. It’s technology that’s been around for a fair amount of time, and it’s continuing to grow. It was estimated to be worth more than $170 million in 2016 with a compound annual growth rate of more than 80% through 2024, according to a Global Market Insights report.

Use beacons to send promotions to customers while they’re in your store, share important updates or even incorporate gamification to make the shopping experience more memorable.

Partner with shopping and ordering apps

One way to enter the mobile arena and gain access to built-in support is by partnering with a mobile app provider. Coupons, customer loyalty programs and online ordering are just a few features to consider that can help you capture mobile customers.

For example, RetailMeNot has a great mobile app that lets consumers easily find coupons. If you’re running an offer, you can tap into those mobile users (as well as those browsing online) by submitting your coupons or partnering with the RetailMeNot team.

There’s also a huge market when it comes to mobile ordering. If you’re looking to let your customers place orders using their smartphone, you can team up with apps such as Postmates, Curbside, and the like.

That’s what Grain & Vine, a boutique wine and spirits store does to drive more sales.  In addition to selling in-store and online, Grain & Vine also offers same-day delivery through apps such as Postmates, Minibar, and Drizly. They do this by tightly integrating their POS system (Vend), payments processor (Square), ecommerce store (Shopify), and mobile ordering services, so data flows smoothly from one platform to the next.

In other words, their systems can “talk” to each other and share data in real-time, so when orders come in, Grain & Vine’s inventory is synced across its physical and digital stores. As for the different delivery applications, Grain & Vine owner Michael Nagdimunov says they use an XML file to sync their inventory with the apps.

“We’ve created an XML file that constantly pings our Shopify platform for inventory updates. And because Shopify and Vend integrate almost natively, both inventories are always in sync. Those XML files are then being sent to our providers [i.e. delivery apps] and they, in turn, have constant access to updated inventory. That way, we’re never in a situation where they sell something we don’t carry.”

If you’re going to implement multi-channel ordering, take a leaf out of Grain & Vine’s playbook, and choose platforms with tight integrations. To make things easier, go for solutions with existing integrations, so you won’t have to develop one yourself.

Arm your business with the right mobile solution

Going mobile isn’t just about marketing and customer engagement. Part of having a winning mobile strategy is arming yourself and your team with the technology that can save time, maximize productivity, and enhance the customer experience.

Think about the following:

Point of sale – Would your business benefit from a mobile point of sale solution? Mobile POS systems are particularly helpful if you limited space in your shop. They’re highly portable and enable you to serve customers from anywhere in the store.

mPOS solutions during peak hours when you’re dealing with long lines and need to either quickly open new registers or have associates ring up sales while shoppers are still in line.

Retail management – Having a mobile-friendly retail management system will allow you to check — or even run — your store from anywhere. Imagine being able to view real-time sales, check stock levels, and place orders right from your device. Having such capabilities means you don’t have to be in your shop to know what’s going in your business — which is a godsend especially if you’re constantly on the go or are running multiple stores.