Storied Lane Marketing: Helping Small Businesses Tell Their Stories
June is well underway, and this month we are focusing on the power of building community for small business marketing and growth! Here are some tips, trends, and inspiration to help you build relationships with your customers and local business community.
Historic Former Chamber of Commerce Building in Old Pasadena
Tips & Tricks for Your Small Business
The Power of Building Community
Whether your small business is located in a storefront or you work from home, you are part of your local business community and economy. Building community with both other local businesses and your customers is one of the most powerful ways you can market your product or services. But, how can you do it?
Building Relationships with Your Business Community
Being a small business owner is challenging, and building relationships with other local businesses can both provide support to you when you need it and help you grow. One of the best ways to meet other businesses, especially those outside of your network, is to get involved with your local Chamber of Commerce, professional groups, and business districts. These groups often meet regularly, and showing up in a consistent way can help you grow a strong support network that you may not have found otherwise. This can lead to new partnerships and business growth, and it can also lead to wonderful friends.
Building Relationships with your Customers
As a small business, the relationship you have with your customers is personal. You likely know your regular customers very well, and you may be part of the same community as them. The more you can tailor their experience, recognize them, and show that you understand their community, the more your relationship will strengthen. This will help you become or stay a local staple, and it will help you grow.
Industry Trends
Making User-Generated Content (UGC) Part of Your Marketing Strategy
As a small business owner, you likely have limited time in your schedule to constantly create new image or video content promoting your business. And, you know the power that word-of-mouth and endorsements from your customers can have. Because of this, many businesses are making great use of user-generated content, also called UGC. It can help promote your business and build community with your customers at the same time.
So, what is UGC and how can it help you? UGC can be photos, videos, posts, testimonials, or anything else another person may be creating about your business and tagging you in on social media. One of the easiest things you can do is to make sure you are sharing that content, especially in places like your Instagram stories. By doing so, you ensure you have an active social media account while also building relationships with your customers and showing the popularity of your business. Take a look at some of the social media accounts of your favorite local coffee shops, and you can likely see this put into action.
Important Considerations
While sharing someone's story or post in your stories is great, it is important that credit is given to the creator. And if you want to share it as a more permanent post, it's important that you ask permission first and give credit as well. If you are compensating someone for the content that they are posting about you (like an influencer), then that partnership also needs to be disclosed according to terms on the platform.
Marketing Inspiration
Old Pasadena
The Old Pasadena business district is a special place, not only for its charming historic architecture and wonderful businesses, but also for the ways in which it builds community.
Colorado Blvd in Old Pasadena
Old Pasadena is a wonderful example of the ways in which businesses can come together to both support each other and the Pasadena community. Through community events complemented with services from local businesses, to publishing profiles featuring small business owners, Old Pasadena creates a thriving district that is full of support and opportunities for collaboration and growth.
This district strikes a great balance between building relationships amongst business owners and the public, and it shows the power that a strong community can have. Take a stroll through Old Pasadena and check out upcoming events this summer to experience it for yourself!
Until Next Month
Stay tuned for next month's post in July. Until then, learn more about Storied Lane Marketing by exploring our website, and booking a free one-hour consultation with Katelyn.
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