Meeting with a business owner this Tuesday. . Looking for some ideas?

10 replies
Hello everybody.

So this morning I went out for breakfast and to check out a few local establishments in my area to meet some business owners.

I walked into this cafe/gift-shop/restaurant type business about 3 miles from my house. I've never been there before.

This was a very nice place with small tables scattered throughout, wi-fi, dim lighting, and smooth jazz playing in the background. Just my kind of place. They have live music every Friday night and it's BYOB. Freakin cool.

I purchased some newspapers and asked the woman at the cash register (the owners wife) if i could hang a flyer up at the bullet board. She said sure, what do you do? I told her what I do and her eyes got real big. She then yells in the back for her husband (the owner) to come out and talk to me.

He said, can you make me a website and get us up in Google? I told him I sure can. So, he asked me to come by Tuesday afternoon so we can work something out. He seemed very eager to do business and kept reminding me as I walked throughout his store, "Tuesday at 4:00 then right?"

So when I get there, I'm going to give him some website ideas and talk about what colors he wants and all that fun stuff about traffic and conversions. I'll offer a maps listing etc. and some general info about how all this equates in more sales.

My question is, I would like to gather some ideas from all of you guys (non-internet related) that I can share with the business owner that will generate more interest from customers. Most of the work I do is web,seo,maps,social-media, etc.

After he signs up for the internet type stuff, are there any other suggestions that I can make while I'm there to show this man that I really care about his wonderful establishment and help him generate more sales or get repeat business? Kind of like "real offline marketing techniques" with no internet involved.

I would love to go in there and make a few suggestions that are non-internet related and knock this man's socks off because he seeing the results. He's an old timer and seems pretty old school about things, but also understands the importance of proper positioning online.

Any suggestions?
#business #ideas #meeting #owner #tuesday
  • Profile picture of the author bphoto
    You could use a QR Code to drive customers to a webpage that has some kind of special offer on it. Once a month you could update this page with a new offer and still be using the same QR Code.

    Good Luck,
    Rick
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  • Profile picture of the author Doran Peck
    Direct mail offers to all residents in relevant area. Postage is only 14 cents. List only 1.5 cents per name. FOOD is direct mails best friend, people love getting offers on food.

    3 for 1 cards. These things will recycle individuals and families back through the door very quickly simply because achieving just three meals is easy quick and realistically doable. When people have to wait through a 10for1 or 5for1 card there is no motivation for them to get going on it. Takes months. Card gets lots anyway. 3 is the magic number to create volume sales in timeframes that they wouldn't have
    Happend naturally.

    Talk to them about allowing other non food busineses to print up discounts on their own promo stuff. (giving those busineses parameters to work within of course)...but this way that other traffic becomes their traffic as well.

    Surveys on the tables....but I'm not talking about typical stuff....you want to find out specific marketable info from the patron. What is there favorite thing on the menu, is there something they've never tried before? Birthday? Anniversary?...things that give you a reason to invite them back in and with customized discount.

    There are limitless creative things you can do with direct mail and establishing leads for email offers. Direct mail will get people in the door, very very quickly. From there the opportunities open up as all your marketing mediums strengthen their ability to keep a greater flow of traffic year round.

    I am offering deeply discounted direct mail services to warriors. I will be happy to break down costs so that you have an understanding of the direct mail world when you head into your meeting.

    My phone number is in the contact area of my site which is in my sig.

    As is my email.
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    • Profile picture of the author myob
      Hit them up for mobile web design and some SMS/texting campaigns.
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      • Profile picture of the author David Stewart
        Originally Posted by myob View Post

        Hit them up for mobile web design and some SMS/texting campaigns.

        This is a fantastic idea. Allowing them to send out menu specials/updates every week or even every day.

        Every Friday there is a new band as well so this would work out perfectly.

        I'm going to stress to them the importance of building a customer database for just this purpose. He mentioned setting up a system which allows them to send out their newsletter so I think he'll be on board for what I'll offer him.
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  • Profile picture of the author cbest
    In my area we have a 'independent' newspaper that lists things to do Pittsburgh City Paper - News, Music, Restaurants, Events, Arts and Entertainment Newspaper, or Pittsburgh News, Sports, and Events - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review should allow him to list the bands on Fridays. Do they have a separate area that could be used for meeting groups? I will be doing a posting on this, ck out peoplestringcommunity.info there's a special on till Mon Feb 7 for an app that allows you to send out coupons via Facebook, email or text messaging instantly kind of like deal of the day sites, but you or the biz owner has control of when it goes out and has a one-time cost if purchased by Mon $300 after which it goes to $250 with a monthly $34.95. Look out for my post I'm giving bonus material for those who upgrade.
    Signature

    Offline/Online Coupon App free coupon for your clients coming soon.

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  • Profile picture of the author joshimo
    This sounds like it would be a perfect place to set up a foursquare.com account for. Foursquare.com isn't perfect for everything but this place (the way you described it) screams for it. If you want me to send you a decent little report on how to set it up, pm me. What's cool about foursquare for a place like this is that it's mobile, it creates incentive for customers to return frequently, and it encourages patrons to easily let their friends know where they are hanging out. I think this could be a great fit for your client and he'll be thinking your a genius for plugging him into it.

    Joshua
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    • Profile picture of the author David Stewart
      Originally Posted by joshimo View Post

      This sounds like it would be a perfect place to set up a foursquare.com account for. Foursquare.com isn't perfect for everything but this place (the way you described it) screams for it. If you want me to send you a decent little report on how to set it up, pm me. What's cool about foursquare for a place like this is that it's mobile, it creates incentive for customers to return frequently, and it encourages patrons to easily let their friends know where they are hanging out. I think this could be a great fit for your client and he'll be thinking your a genius for plugging him into it.

      Joshua
      It's funny that you mentioned this because there is another location about 5 miles away that does this. It was actually the first time I've ever heard of Foursquare. I was sitting at the bar and I saw some signage like "check us out on Foursquare" or something similar. I asked the manager what that was all about and they really had no idea.

      Funny how some management don't even know what kind of marketing they have out there working for them. This wasn't a chain either.
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  • Profile picture of the author Creativegirl
    Help them build a customer database for email, sms/texting and minimal direct mail. Get them on Facebook. In fact you could offer a bonus Customized Facebook Fan Page to match the design theme of the website you create.
    Signature
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    • Profile picture of the author David Stewart
      Originally Posted by Creativegirl View Post

      Help them build a customer database for email, sms/texting and minimal direct mail. Get them on Facebook. In fact you could offer a bonus Customized Facebook Fan Page to match the design theme of the website you create.

      Oh yeah, this is definitely going to be part of the "package". As we where talking, I had this in the back of my head . This is going to work out great for his establishment.

      Thanks for the input.
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  • Profile picture of the author johninmn
    MYOB hit it on the head! Get them going on mobile. With SMS, they can send coupons, let their customers know what the dinner special is or let them know what band is playing. Nothing against direct mail, but SMS is opt-in, has an incredibly high open rate,and is very timely i.e. send out the text for the lunch special at 11am. You can also text them a URL (to, say, a video of the featured band) and then track the click through rate. The URL would need to be mobile optimized, another opportunity. You can essentially do all the same things with a qr code. Just my 2 cents.
    Signature

    mobile mobile mobile mobile etc....

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