Tip 1: Host a Super Bowl Widows Party
I’m on the road again and this time I have the privilege of speaking at the New York International Gift Fair in New York City today. I’m hosting a seminar on Guerilla Marketing Strategies for Expanding your Customer Base. I’ll be presenting a slew of innovative, inexpensive marketing tactics to kick-start your marketing and store sales this year.

Here’s a sneak peek of one of the ideas I’m presenting.

Consider hosting themed events in your store. Now is the perfect time to plan a Super Bowl Widows Party and invite all of your customers that do not plan to be glued to the television on Sunday, February 6, to join you at the store for a shopping party with special deals, food, drinks, games and prizes. You can send a press release or call your local newspapers (even radio and television outlets), which may get you some free advertising for your event. Market the event to your customer base with an email invitation. Have some fun and get the cash register ringing!

Stay tuned for more sneak peeks of my guerilla marketing strategies.

I was recently reading an interesting article in the Denver Post that Saks Fifth Avenue is closing its store in Denver’s posh Cherry Creek Mall. The article goes on to point out that department stores continue to lose favor with consumers (likely due to lack of customer service and store disorganization) and that an increasing number of malls are replacing them with lifestyle centers that include more specialty retailers in an open air shopping center that encourages shoppers to browse and linger. The author points out that large, vacant department stores are more frequently being remodeled into smaller retail spaces and lifestyle centers like the Rosedale Center in Minneapolis and at St. Louis’ West County Center.

In the case of the Cherry Creek Mall, they have already developed Cherry Creek North, a collection of upscale and independent retailers in a lifestyle center that has been quite successful. One option for the mall’s survival is to integrate the two more by adding additional outdoor shopping and specialty retail rather than replacing Saks with another department store. So, if you’re considering becoming part of a mall complex, this trend could open up more location options for your business this year as more storefronts and opportunities are being created for specialty retail!

The husband of a friend of mine will get the unique opportunity to work at the Super Bowl in Dallas this year for the company that makes the event happen. The company he’s working for has encouraged him to bring a camera and take as many pictures as he can to pictorially document his experience. As part of his contract, he has to compile those pictures and create a report documenting his thoughts and ideas about each part of the business and the event that he’s exposed to. What a great idea to see the workings of our businesses through the eyes of our employees!

Couldn’t we all take this idea and apply it to our businesses? For example, asking your staff (and even top customers) – from those lowest on the totem pole, all the way to the top management – to take pictures, videos or just make notes on their experiences and ideas regarding your business. What a great way to learn how others see and experience the way you do business and glean any ideas on how to improve or change it. Perhaps it could even be set up as a contest with prizes and awards for those that make submissions!

A colleague of mine was travelling in Rochester, New York, last week and spied this sign for a flower retailer in the Rochester airport. We thought it was such a catchy, creative message.

Also, the retailer had placed the sign near the exit from the terminal rather than in front of the flower shop so that every passenger exiting the terminal saw the sign. Brilliant!

As you may have heard, recent news reports stated that according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, which tracks retail spending, retail sales grew 5.5 percent in the 50 days before Christmas, beating forecasts and beating last year’s sales. The report said that apparel, jewelry and luxury goods were the biggest winners, but gains were seen in just about every category.

From what I’ve been hearing and reading from independent retailers, although most had a good Christmas season, they did not experience the best sales since 2007 as MasterCard’s report touts. Some of this may be due to bad weather on the coasts, but if you did not experience the best holiday season in years, you’re not alone. It will be interesting to see what subsequent reports on retail sales numbers will say in the coming weeks. I’d be also interested in hearing about your holiday sales trends.

I’m not quite ready to say we’re out of the woods yet in terms of the economic and retail recovery. I predict that 2011 will be a year that retailers remain cautious, as do consumers and until more people get back to work and have more disposable income to spend. Although the news sounds encouraging, it also serves as a good reminder to keep using all the great lessons we learned during the recession: to value each customer, hire great people, pinch every penny and creatively promote our stores.

Next week I’m speaking at the Las Vegas Market and will be presenting 60 Creative Store Promotions in 60 Minutes. I know coming up with new store promotions can be a challenge so I’m excited to share some of the latest and greatest ideas I’ve found. One new idea that I will be covering in my presentation is Groupon.

Yes, we’re all on Facebook and Twitter, but social buying is the next step in social media marketing and Groupon is the perfect way to get started. With Groupon you offer a smokin’ deal, such as a $100 gift card for $50, and if you get – via Groupon – a minimum number of takers (that you determine), then the deal is on. Groupon has 25 million subscribers and those in your locale will get email alerts about the deal you’re offering. Then they forward your deal to their friends to help get enough takers. It’s brilliant! Plus, it’s no money out of your pocket because Groupon takes a small percentage of each sale so they don’t make money if you don’t. It’s a great way to reach out to your local community and draw in new customers.

For example, Gigi’s, a new cupcake shop in Louisville, KY, offered a deal of an $18 box of cupcakes for $9. In one day the new store sold 1,700 Groupons for the deal and increased their business by 22 percent! You can check out the Groupon website for examples of how other businesses have used the service. Give it a try and let me know how it’s worked for your business.

If you’re looking for some more exciting ideas, I hope you can make it to
my free seminar at the Las Vegas Market on January 25th at 1:00 pm, Building C, Floor 3. I look forward to seeing you there!

With a new year come new tax laws and even some new tax credits. Also, kicking off for 2011 are many new federal and state small business incentives and loan programs. Regarding any available tax credits, make sure to ask your accountant and/or tax preparer which ones your business may be eligible for. New aspects of President Obama’s Healthcare Reform Act have also taken effect for 2011. Take the time now to find out what incentive programs you might be eligible for. Here are a few online government resources to help you learn more:

SBA.gov – There is quite a bit of good available information on the Small Business Administration website. I recommend using the search feature as the website contains so much information.

Local SBA websites – Learn about new programs specific to your state by visiting the website of your local SBA office or your state government’s website.

IRS.gov/businesses – For information on small business jobs incentives, go to the source. The IRS website has a good outline of tax incentives for small businesses.

Of course, I always recommend talking to your CPA to help confirm which programs you may be eligible for this year.

It seems like 2010 was the year for experimentation for our industry in social media. I saw more and more independent retailers getting a Facebook page and Twitter page and trying it all out to see what worked. Now that most of us have some ideas as to what works best with our customers, 2011 can be the year we make all the time and effort spent on social media really pay off. Consider adopting these New Year’s resolutions for your social media marketing:

1. Systematize
Resolve this year to be consistent with writing social media posts. Make your posts something your followers can rely on. Offer advice, personal messages and post items of interest about your area of expertise. Consider using tools such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck – which are both free – to write and schedule posts ahead of time, if that works better for you. You’ll know you’re being consistent when you don’t post for awhile and people send you messages wondering what’s wrong!

2. Personalize
In this age of endless promotion and advertising, resolve this year to get personal with your customers and social media friends and followers. Avoid impersonal auto-reply messages whether by email or Twitter. Respond personally when you can to folks that post and message you via social media. As our social media networks have ballooned with friends that we haven’t spoken to since grade school, for many of us social media seems to be becoming more impersonal. I’ve read recently that 2011 will be the year that people begin to pare down their social networks. As a business you don’t want to get “unlike’d” or “unfollow’d” so strive this year to create a more intimate relationship with your customers, which will make your social media efforts more likely to pay off.

3. Try something new
Resolve this year to dip your toe into one new social media trend that will help grow your business. For example, get a page on Yelp.com, a free website that allows visitors to your store to rate it and write reviews. The site also helps potential customers more easily find your store and read reviews and basic information such as store hours and location. Yelp listings appear high in most search engines so if someone is searching online for a store like yours they are likely to see your Yelp page in search results. Also, check out location-based social networks like Foursquare and Facebook Places. With social media and social commerce changing so rapidly, it’s important to try new these new trends, you may just find one that really boosts your bottom line.

As always I’d love to hear what resolutions you are making for your business this year!

Recently I was looking back over some of the great comments you’ve written on my blog and came across a comment requesting more about employee motivation. So, here are three tips you can start using today to pump up your team’s excitement and motivation this year.

1. Energize each day
We all know this but it serves as a good reminder especially following the holidays that, as business owners, we all create the environment and energy that flows through our workplace each day. So whatever energy you bring to work is what your employees will adopt. Do what you need to, whether it be exercise, meditation, or a latte to bring your natural spirit of motivation and excitement to work. Your employees will be inspired and be more excited to be at work, which will affect how they treat your customers as well.

2. Know what motivates each person
See each employee as an individual and remember that different things motivate different people. You do not always have to reward with money. Learn what each wants to be when they grow up – even if they are 63, ask what motivates them, learn what their interests are, and what they’re saving their money for. Knowing this information can help you motivate each person individually. For example, one employee may be motivated by getting to attend a tradeshow or taking a training course, whereas another might prefer receiving merchandise or a gift card as a bonus. Taking a personal interest in your employees will build their loyalty to you and your customers.

3. Be a good communicator
Communication is key to building a motivated, cohesive team. Remember to communicate even the most basic things about your store like the story of how you got started and what your vision is for your store. Share everything from store-wide goals to individual sales goals and praise positive results often. Give recognition when earned by sharing successes with the entire team and even posting congratulations on social media and in-store.

What have you found effective in motivating your team?