Think about why you marketing effort. Are you bringing more customers into the store now or are you looking to build your customer base for tomorrow? Both are worthy goals and both should be on your mind as you develop your marketing plan. What happens though is most often marketing focuses on today and we…
One of the towns I visited recently has a dirty sidewalk problem. It looks like every time it rained, dirt and leaves and stuff wash out of the streets and onto the sidewalks. Pretty messy. “We did a cleanup project once,” someone said. But dirt, like life, keeps happening. You’ll have a cleaner town…
“I enjoy local foods.” I say and I hear that statement more and more. And as we are right in the middle of another season, this seems like a good time to think about the good tastes among other reasons for supporting local food. We know that agriculture is a big part of our economy….
“We just don’t have as many businesses as we used to.” It’s one of those rural myths that I hear variations of all the time. “Our downtown is all boarded up. All the businesses are gone.” “Census numbers show fewer employers.” “We did a business count, and the number of businesses is way down.” But…
The Brag Basket is open! This one is for July 7-9, 2017. Bring your good news, big or small, to share with everyone. What can you share in the Brag Basket? introduce yourself share some great news from this week celebrate progress, even baby steps congratulate a friend applaud for each other confess your undying…
Read anything offering marketing tips and you will be encouraged to learn who your customers are. You want to understand the demographic make-up as well as their likes and dislikes and, of course, what they buy. Yet, so often that is the end of the effort. Getting the data can be done with registration information,…
In an era when we’re encouraging every rural business to look further outside their local market, it’s interesting to see a business go the other direction. Most rural auction companies use the internet to promote the items at their sales and to accept bids from far-flung customers. But one auction service I heard…
The Brag Basket is open! This one is for June 30-July 2, 2017. Bring your good news, big or small, to share with everyone. What can you share in the Brag Basket? introduce yourself share some great news from this week celebrate progress, even baby steps congratulate a friend applaud for each other confess…
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