The headlines in the local daily newspaper come too frequently these days: Local business closing, or thinking about closing, or reducing hours or…take your pick.

I’ve worked as a communications and marketing professional for more than 30 years, and while I am the first to admit that I do not have a lot of experience working in retail marketing, there are some marketing concepts that are universal to all businesses, retail or otherwise, that might be helpful to anyone currently in a retail environment, or any other business that is trying to attract attention and dollars from consumers.

Plus, I’ve now owned a successful small business for 24 years. (Happy 24th Anniversary Month — February — to me!) Some of the marketing advice I share with my clients is based on my own experience as a small business owner.

Start Smart: Create a Plan

So, what’s a small business owner to do? Check out these suggestions, below:

* Create a business plan and budget. Even if you are an existing business, you can create a business plan. It can help you take a look at your business operations and can help you take stock of everything from your accounting practices to identifying your targeted audience. Don’t know where to get started? There are all kinds of free sources available online. SCORE.org, a partner of the Small Business Administration, has a really detailed business plan template available online for free. Or contact the Economic Development Alliance of St. Clair County. They have staff on hand who can provide guidance to small businesses.

And as you move forward with growing your business, keep this in mind: every decision you make should support the goals and objectives written in this business plan. You CAN and SHOULD update and change this plan periodically, but this plan should be your business compass and it should guide you into the future.

* Create a marketing plan and budget. The SCORE business plan template noted, above, includes a really comprehensive marketing plan outline as part of the business planning process. After having consulted with numerous business owners over the years, I’ve learned that too many – most, in fact, do not plan for, nor budget for, marketing their business.

I know advertising and marketing are expensive line items in any budget. Every day, I help businesses spend thousands of dollars on advertising.

Whether a business is located in the heart of a busy downtown or in a remote location, it must spend money in order to attract customers.

Too often, when I sit down with a small business and ask about the marketing budget, I’m told, “There isn’t one,” or, worse yet, “Well, we have a Facebook page.” Social media can be a marketing tool, but it is not a marketing budget.

And: your marketing plan should be written to support your business plan. That will help you determine how to best spend your marketing budget without throwing you off track, willy-nilly purchasing every advertising opportunity that some sales rep tries to sell you. Stick to your plan and that will help you stick to your budget.

You Are the Key to the Success of Your Small Business

* Do not rely on anyone other than you making your business a success. No business owner – and I mean NO business owner – should look at any government entity, city council, city or township administration, or business-focused nonprofit organization such as a chamber of commerce, and expect those entities to make their business successful.

Certainly, those institutions can provide services and infrastructure that can make a community’s downtown business environment attractive, such as providing networking opportunities, planting trees and flowers, hanging pretty lights, and placing park benches and café tables and chairs on the sidewalk to create an inviting area for pedestrians to visit, but it is the responsibility of the business owner to get those pedestrians in the door, and once they are in the door, it is a business owner’s responsibility to offer a product or service that entices them to open their wallet.

How Do I Market My Small Business?

My small business has almost always been based out of my home. I’m not a retail store and I don’t need pedestrian traffic. However, I still need to let people know I’m here, open for business, offering services that might benefit my target audience.

How do I do that?

Well, sure, it helps that I have spent almost my entire career working in communications and marketing, so sure, certain tasks cost me less because I can do them myself. However, I still need to pay for various aspects of my marketing plan:

* A newsletter. I started my business in 2000, before that internet thing had really taken off. Email addresses were still fairly new. Websites in 2000 looked like they were produced with a manual typewriter and many businesses did not have them. Social media did not exist.

So, I created a two-page newsletter that was simply an 8.5” x 11” sheet of paper. I wrote a couple of marketing-related stories, laid it out in my Aldus Pagemaker design program, printed it on both sides, folded it like a letter getting stuffed into an envelope, sealed the folds shut with a sticker, then stuck a mailing label and a stamp on it. (Note: I did not stuff it into an envelope in order to cut costs).

I cultivated my very first mailing list simply by going through my Rolodex (remember those Behemoths?). My first list was 100 names. Yes, I had the ability to write the stories and lay them out attractively, but that was also the product I was trying to sell. That was part of my marketing plan. The expense was in printing/photocopying 100 newsletters and postage for 100 stamps.

You know what? It totally paid off. Clients started calling.

Today, my primary marketing tool is very similar. In fact, you likely got here by looking at it. I use the Constant Contact email marketing platform. Businesses can use this or Mail Chimp or any other email blasting platform.

Email blast marketing doesn’t have to include long stories like this. They just need to feature photos of products or services, with a few words that remind the target audience why they need or want to have that product or service in their life. What benefit will it bring to them? What problem will that product or service solve?

And yes…business owners need to build an email data base. Go through your phone or email contacts. If you sell widgets to women, add every woman you know to your email list. Find ways to ask for email addresses from existing or new customers when they are in the store (maybe offer a small gift or discount on their next visit if they provide an email address).

The bottom line is this: You cannot sit in your storefront and wait for the foot traffic to come to you. You need to reach out and connect with your known customers and give people a reason to make a point of stopping into your store.

You need to make your business a destination that they are willing to take the time from their busy day to visit.

* Website. Yes, businesses in 2024 need one. No, it doesn’t have to be overwhelmingly large, but then again, maybe it needs to help sell your product or service. See “pivot” below.

* Social media…to a point. Businesses in 2024 need to have a social media presence, but don’t get overwhelmed trying to manage multiple platforms. Determine if Facebook or Instagram or Tik Tok best reaches your target audience and stick with just one platform.

However: unless you are spending significant dollars (meaning hundreds or thousands) on social media advertising, social media is not always a significant marketing tool for small businesses (yes, I really just said that) because, as we have all heard and experienced, social media algorithms do not show every post from business accounts to all followers. Facebook will not share data, but it is suspected that less than 10 percent, and probably far south of that, of business page followers ever see business posts in their newsfeed. They can see them if they visit a specific business page, but we all know “scrolling” is the way most of us view social media.

For my business, I certainly use social media, but more as a support. I really rely on my emailed newsletter as my primary form of marketing. I know the list has been cultivated. Those who receive it, read it (my “open rate” for my emails is at 50 percent, which is considered exceptionally good in the email blasting world).

* Branding, branding and more branding. Certainly, branding begins with a business logo and visual identity. But branding is so much more. In a small business, it can involve branding the business owner, or it can mean creating a “brand personality” if the business owner is a dud (lol) or if it would behoove the business to create a personality separate from the owner.

(Examples: Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s, used himself as a brand ambassador, serving in many commercials over the years; Kentucky Fried Chicken used founder Colonel Sanders for many years; and McDonald’s and Burger King created Ronald McDonald and a cast of characters befitting Sesame Street to be part of their brand personalities).

When I started Blue Water Woman magazine in 2011, I did so for two reasons: 1) to provide an additional revenue stream and 2) to increase the visibility of Patti Samar and her advertising agency, The Write Company, in the community.

The magazine accomplished both goals. If I am recognized by anyone, it is because of the magazine, and that high visibility has also increased the business of the advertising agency.

In fact, when my business sponsors events or needs to be front facing in the public, I almost always lead with, “I’m Patti Samar from Blue Water Woman,” even though it brings in a fraction of my income. However, it is what I am most known for doing in the community. I don’t do much — if anything — to market or promote the name of my advertising agency, The Write Company. And yet, it plods on and has paid my bills for 24 years now.

We’re Friends, Right? Then Pivot! Pivot! Pivot!

This is a piece of business advice and a piece of marketing advice:

* Be prepared to pivot. Long before the pandemic, when everyone was “pivoting” and changing the way they did business, many smart businesses were pivoting.

A quick scan of the list of invoices I sent out in 2007 (the farthest back I could quickly look up) shows that, even then, a majority of the work I was completing for clients was print-based: printed newsletters, printed annual reports, printed magazines, printed catalogs, printed brochures, and newspaper advertisement copywriting and design.

I do, indeed, still do a lot of print work. But a quick scan of my 2023 invoices shows a lot more strategic marketing work that involves a wide range of both online work (creating digital ads) and “traditional” media marketing (ie: billboard design, print newspaper design, etc.).

My magazines are a good example. I print them and I publish them digitally.

I’m a sailor and just like the saying goes, there came a point when I recognized that I needed to adjust the sails on my good ship Marketing Consultant or else I’d be left in the doldrums, floating, but going nowhere. In the early to mid-2000s, websites, social media and internet marketing were quickly overtaking anything in print, so it was definitely time to tack the boat and learn new skills. I studied and took online classes. I subscribed to important industry publications that shared with me the internet strategies being implemented by larger corporations.

I also found myself being asked to do new projects that I hadn’t previously considered marketing, such as event planning. Right now, I am working on three different significant events that will take place in our community this spring. Corporate event planning was on my menu of services in 2000 when I started my business, but no one hired me to do it. However, once I started putting on the big Blue Water Woman of the Year Awards Ceremony, clients started asking me, “Can you put on our corporate party for us?” So, once clients saw my work in action, they inquired. Lesson learned? Find a way to visibly showcase your products or services to your target market.

I learned, along the way, that I needed to continue trimming my sails and occasionally tacking the boat and changing direction in order to stay relevant. I’ve needed to expand in some areas and trim in others in order to provide up-to-date marketing and advertising services in which my clients are willing to invest.

Change, Then Change Again

The one constant in owning a business is change. The business is constantly changing in some way, either in the product or service being sold, or things are changing behind the scenes in the way it is being sold, accounted for, or produced.

In my case, since 2000, I’ve been a self-employed marketing consultant. However, the tools I use to help my clients market their businesses have changed dramatically.

With regard to Main Street and downtown businesses in any community: I feel your struggles because my own business has certainly had its ups and downs over the years. Feast or famine, as they say.

I know you pour your heart and soul into your businesses. I know I certainly did in the beginning, and I do so today in order to keep the boat afloat. Think about this: take a good long hard look at your business model. If it is no longer working the way it once did (or maybe it was never that great in the first place), retool and then retool again.

And by “retool” I don’t mean just change your hours of operation to try and attract consumers who are not showing up.

Like it or not, customers have moved online. Some downtown businesses sell their wares online using scheduled Facebook Lives. Selling goods “live” on camera is not a new concept. Long before social media allowed anyone to do it, the Home Shopping Network and QVC figured out that people – mostly women – enjoyed watching a chatty, informed host or hostess share information about the products they were selling. Back in the day, all you had to do was call a 1-800 number and place your order. Now, it’s easier yet: just post to let the Facebook Live host or hostess know you wish to purchase the item they are sharing and an order will be created and you can either pick up your item in person or you can have it shipped to your home.

If you are a retail business owner who is ignoring the opportunity to increase sales with the creation of a website or app or, at the very least by way of Facebook Live sessions, you are missing the boat.

And think about this: If you are doing all of the above and no one is walking through your doors, no one is tuning into your Facebook Lives and no one is ordering your products in your online storefront, maybe something else needs to change. Maybe it is price. Maybe it is the product itself.

I know it is hard to hear, but maybe your product or service is not marketable in this community or, at the very least, it is not attracting the people you do need to reach.

So pivot and either identify new products that your customers want, or pivot and find the audience that does want what you already have to sell.

Is Your Business Location and Model Still Working for Your Business?

Just like many other people, I DO enjoy visiting fun downtown shopping districts and meandering through interesting shops, selecting fun items for myself, or as gifts for others. But, to be perfectly honest, I do not often take the time to do that here. In the course of my day to day life, I am, frankly, too busy to do much shopping for fun. I do it when I’m on vacation or out of town for a weekend in a lakeside resort town.

Is Port Huron a lakeside resort town? We definitely have lots of things going for us in that regard. We have transient boaters staying at our downtown docks in the summertime. Our waterfront or near- waterfront bars and restaurants certainly fill up, so we definitely attract tourists during our most popular season.

I do not think it is realistic to expect chambers of commerce or downtown business organizations or local government to generate business for individual shops. As stated above, those entities can certainly provide infrastructure and a climate and an atmosphere that is attractive to foot traffic. I believe Port Huron has done that. More improvements are made downtown every year. This summer, a half a million dollar renovation on the Military Street Pocket Park will be completed on the southside of the Black River. Free wifi will be available throughout the downtown area later this year.

And most certainly, organizations like Downtown Port Huron and others have created a myriad of fun events and activities that consistently draw people downtown. Our downtown has never been more alive, in many ways. But, apparently, people are coming downtown for dining and entertainment, and not necessarily for shopping.

Why is that? I do not know the answer to that question, but it would be very interesting to learn more about what, exactly, the community needs and expects from a downtown district in 2024. Maybe the needs and expectations are dramatically different from what they were 30 or 40 years ago, pre-Big Box Stores on the north end of town, and pre-internet/online shopping.

Business owners need to re-evaluate their business and marketing plans and determine what they can do to interest customers in their wares. Maybe they will be able to draw them into an actual brick and mortar storefront. Maybe it will be through the fun and frivolity of a Facebook Live selling session. Maybe it will be through the convenience of an app for the store or an easy-to-use website with an online storefront.

Creating Your Own Foot Traffic

For those retail business owners who believe they belong downtown, selling their products in-person and not online, the key to success becomes creating their own foot traffic.

The first question a retail business owner should ask him or herself is this: “What is it that I’m selling?” And you are not just selling the “experience” of shopping in-person, where a customer can touch and maybe try on products. A store that has done a really good job of figuring this out is Elite Feet. This shoe store caters to runners and sells running shoes and related gear. But they are not just selling shoes. They are selling a community. The store sponsors running events and brings its customers together through a shared activity and passion.

And these are not one-off events. You can’t sponsor one running race and call it a day. You host a one night a week running event that is based at the store, so your customers get together regularly and bond with one another. That sense of community is so important. (I know at one time Elite Feet did host, loosely or otherwise, a once a week run. I’m not sure if that is done anymore, but regardless, that is a good example of bringing their customers together.)

With Blue Water Woman magazine, I am “selling” a sense of community and support among women in our area. The magazine is just that…a magazine. But I started the Blue Water Woman Recreation & Mischief Club, which is, as it sounds, a social/recreation club, to accomplish several things: a) help me schedule outdoorsy activities for myself and maybe make some new friends along the way, and b) help new women learn about my publication. A magazine doesn’t need just advertisers; it needs readers. My publication has been introduced to a lot of new women through the recreation club. Our group always has new members, but we also have a core group who frequently show up for hikes. Together, we are building friendships or friendly acquaintance-ships.

And the thing about any of these marketing adventures is this: they take time. You do not build community or a strong customer base overnight.

Once a retail establishment has figured out what it is really selling, a business owner should be able to dream up any number of creative ways to draw customers through the doors, excited about being a part of something bigger than themselves.

Buying into a running community full of friends is so much more fun than just buying a pair of running shoes on Amazon.

Keep in mind this saying: “The mountain range won’t come to you; you must go to the mountain range.” Business owners, retail or otherwise, need to keep this in mind. Determine where your targeted audience is located and meet them in their own space, on their terms.

Pick yourself up by the bootstraps and take the first step out of the comfort zone of your storefront and just do it. I believe in you. You should believe in you, too.

For a free one-hour marketing consultation, please contact Patti Samar at pjsamar@aol.com or call 810-300-2176.

Small Business Resources:

Find a Business Mentor:
www.score.org

Build a Business Plan and a Marketing Plan (Downloadable Template):
https://www.score.org/resource/template/business-plan-template-a-startup-business?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA29auBhBxEiwAnKcSqhRgLkbzPYNBwNKRcyIM5rf-i3GMXNh5lB1PTS-mVlp1m0-DOeqcOhoCo8sQAvD_BwE

Small Business Administration:
https://www.sba.gov/

Economic Development Alliance of St. Clair County:
https://edascc.com/

Economic Development Alliance of St. Clair County/Small Business Development Center: https://edascc.com/entrepreneurshp

Blue Water Area Chamber of Commerce:
www.BlueWaterChamber.com

St. Clair Chamber of Commerce:
https://www.stclairchambermi.com/

Marine City Chamber of Commerce:
https://www.visitmarinecity.com/