Marketing Best Practices to Drive Foot Traffic to Your Business

COVID-19 has left its mark on likely every business nationwide. Still, restaurants and retail establishments have especially struggled to comply with the government-issued regulations, practice safety measures and keep their businesses profitable. Houston Community College (HCC) recently invited me to deliver a virtual presentation on "Marketing Best Practices to Drive Foot Traffic to Your Business" with a special focus on restaurants and retail businesses.  While this post isn't an exact replica of that presentation, it's a good recap and offers loads of marketing tips for businesses that are dependent on walk-in buyers. 1). First, double down on your marketing during [...]

By |2020-08-10T21:08:31-05:00August 10th, 2020|Categories: Blog, Marketing|0 Comments

5 Ways to Market Your Business While Showing Empathy

Four months into the COVID-19 pandemic and business owners nationwide are searching for ways to market  your business in creative ways that will produce more sales. It’s time to think differently… to no longer stand back hesitantly. It’s time to be bold with your marketing. So, let’s get started. 1). Break it down. Since so much is changing & changing quickly, you don’t want to use your 2020 marketing plan that was assembled before COVID-19 hit the United States. You also don’t want to plan now for the rest of the year because we expect – even hope -- the [...]

By |2020-06-29T12:47:44-05:00June 29th, 2020|Categories: Blog, Marketing|0 Comments

Marketing Smarter during COVID-19 Pandemic

With so many people distracted with new work and life scenarios due to COVID-19, we're finding marketers need to work smarter (& likely harder too) to engage with prospective buyers. I delivered a presentation recently to the Greater Heights Area Chamber of Commerce on "Marketing during the COVID-19 Pandemic", which in many ways translates to "Where can your marketing have the biggest impact with limited time and budget?" Here are the 7 steps that I shared with the Heights Chamber, plus a number of others. I hope you'll add your own feedback to #commentform, so I can see which marketing [...]

By |2020-05-19T21:08:10-05:00May 19th, 2020|Categories: Blog, Marketing|0 Comments

Online Reviews: Why You Should Care

The Power of Online Reviews Online reviews can be a powerful tool in helping you provide a better customer experience. I know of a small business owner who has a creative approach to using online reviews that helps give him fresh ideas on improving the customer experience. He focuses his energy on the competitors’ lowest reviews and works with his employees to ensure his business excels in the areas where the competition struggles. This business owner truly values his customers’ reviews, responds to each one, involves his team and differentiates his business with a strong focus on excellence in [...]

By |2019-08-29T11:10:41-05:00August 29th, 2019|Categories: Marketing, PR, SEO|Comments Off on Online Reviews: Why You Should Care

The Importance of Branding for Your Employees

Your brand... It's the complete package of what customers and prospects think of when they hear your company name. Your brand also differentiates you from your competition. A lot of attention is paid to branding a business in order to stand out and remain memorable with customers. However, many overlook the fact that your branding is also an important aspect for your own staff. Let's explore the impact of branding on your team. Our marketing agency works with, among others, companies that win work if they're the lowest bidder. Common with government work, the theory is that the company [...]

By |2019-04-30T10:57:43-05:00March 18th, 2019|Categories: Marketing, PR|Comments Off on The Importance of Branding for Your Employees

How To Prepare for a Successful Trade Show

Strategic Trade Show Planning Ensures Strong ROI  Trade shows can be a hit or miss depending on your preparedness, so it is important that you start planning early. To give you a rough estimate, start planning about 90 days in advance. In this post, we’ll walk through the critical steps on how to prepare for a successful trade show or conference to ensure good visibility and strong return on investment (ROI). The Planning Stage: First things first. You need to ask yourself, what type of trade show is this? This will lead you to thinking about the types of attendees [...]

By |2018-11-27T08:53:24-06:00January 3rd, 2018|Categories: Marketing|Tags: , |Comments Off on How To Prepare for a Successful Trade Show

10 Marketing Tips for Opening a Retail Store

Whether you're opening your first retail store or adding an additional location, marketing the grand opening is critical to letting local consumers know about your shop and enticing buyers to visit early and often. Here are 10 marketing tips for opening a retail store with consumers ready to buy. First, define your ideal customer. Pinpoint characteristics such as their gender, age, work status, family make-up (married with kids versus single, etc.), preferences on how they enjoy spending free time, annual salary and likely disposable income. This information will guide your marketing decisions so you can invest in marketing that [...]

By |2018-11-27T08:48:27-06:00January 28th, 2018|Categories: Marketing|Tags: |Comments Off on 10 Marketing Tips for Opening a Retail Store

Common Questions from Business Owners: Why Hire a Marketing Agency Instead of Hiring Your Own Employees?

I’m often asked why a business should hire a marketing agency like Tell Your Tale instead of hiring employees to handle marketing. The biggest reason is certainly cost. Hiring versus outsourcing is an age-old dilemma but one that often concludes with cost savings through outsourcing. When hiring marketing staff as employees, there are higher costs—both hard and soft—to remember that aren’t extended to the client/business owner who’s working with a marketing agency. Let’s explore. Recruiting candidates: Whether a business owner is paying HR personnel to recruit, running ads on Indeed.com or other recruitment portals or paying other employees to attend [...]

By |2018-09-26T12:55:49-05:00October 13th, 2016|Categories: Marketing|Tags: |Comments Off on Common Questions from Business Owners: Why Hire a Marketing Agency Instead of Hiring Your Own Employees?

5 Things Businesses Should Turn Up in a Downturn

Marketing in a Downturn: We've all heard about the struggling economy and it may be this way for some time. While the economic tightening first affected Houston's oil and gas market, the longer term impact has spread further across industries and even professional levels. We could jump on the political bandwagon to sling mud at the culprits but we've decided to take a different approach. Here are 5 things businesses can turn up in the downturn. 1. Networking: While some may feel more comfortable staying at the office, you've got to put yourself out there so more people can meet [...]

By |2018-08-09T10:39:43-05:00February 23rd, 2016|Categories: Marketing|Tags: , |Comments Off on 5 Things Businesses Should Turn Up in a Downturn
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