Casual Sales Meet Social Commerce

Social Sales from Shopify

Casual Sales Meet Social Commerce. For many of the small business owners and managers that I meet, social media marketing and the idea of making money online is something alien. We have a store. On a street. People come in. People buy things FROM me. OK, I get it. But I try and remind my passionately positioned business owners that there is a lot of money online, and their business should benefit from that. So, to prove my own points, Shopify produced this lovely infographic which shows not only do people love to shop online, but that they choose where they buy and get driven to online sites, by social media.
I ask, can you afford to ignore your Facebook page? I see a business owner shake their head, but I can also see fear overcome their face. They get overwhelmed by the idea of ALL the options. There's no need to leverage all the social pages: Facebook, Pinterest, Polyvore (whatever the heck that is), LinkedIn, Twitter, and some others only my nephews are into.
My first online marketing tip, do not get overwhelmed. It seems too big but these social sites make it possible to make the world a very small space where your customers find you, buy from you, trust you, talk about you, and your business. So, you, in turn, can engage them, sell to them, inform them, earn more trust, and talk back.

Snow is Our Fertilizer

When Kelly Smallridge of the Palm Beach Economic Development Board said, "Snow is our fertilizer," in a recent presentation, it struck me as so obvious and so profound. If snow is our fertilizer, when do we sow the seeds to flourish? Palm Beach businesses, it's time to sow the seeds now. 

I have long struggled with the idea that businesses in South Florida and the Treasure Coast cut their marketing efforts and ad spending when our snow birds have flown the coop back to their city lives and Northern homes. 

What about the locals? Isn't their money green? Don't the people who live here half the year still pay attention to what's going on down here when they are up North? I ask these questions to myself but am always a little hesitant to say it to business owners. Well, after realizing that the snow brings our economy into bloom, I believe that we must sow the seeds in Summer for what we hope to turn green in Winter. 

Keeping it Casual, Sincere, then Measure

Sometimes the best marketing comes from serendipitous moments. I built friendships on casual meetings. I had casual moments after drinks. Marketing can be spontaneous this way. But, the business objective cannot be "I'm going to make a big sale and it's going to last forever." Much like a one-night-stand cannot be begun with the idea that you will end up retired in Florida together. I recommend Boca, by the way. Casual Sales is about finding methods to market your product or business by doing the things that come casually, naturally to you. For me, it's conversations. If I can have a conversation with someone, I can usually make them a business partner.

With online marketing, there's a sweet spot to find in order for things to seem very casual and still be very effective. The most difficult part I've seen is finding a way to be sincere, sound sincere, and stay sincere. Then, measure all your efforts systematically. Otherwise, potential customers flee from your online efforts just as they throw away the coupon flyers they used to love so dearly - and you have no idea how to fix it. To keep it casual, a little passion, a little experimentation and hopefully, you find a sweet spot in some serendipitous moment to help your business grow.