​By Pooja S. Nair, Jessica Kraus

​The California legislature passed AB 5, a sweeping overhaul of California’s independent contractor requirements, which Governor Gavin Newsom is expected to sign into law.  The bill narrows the definition of an independent contractor, meaning that most workers will be classified as employees.  If signed, the bill will go into effect on January 1, 2020.

In April 2018, the California Supreme Court issued the landmark Dynamex ruling, in which it adopted a new legal standard for determining whether workers should be classified as employees or as independent contractors for purposes of California wage orders. The court adopted the “ABC test.”  Employers may only classify a worker as an independent contractor if the hiring entity satisfies all three conditions of the test: (A) that the worker is free from the control and direction of the hirer in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact; (B) that the worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and (C) that the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed. 

To the extent that restaurants use independent contractors for any part of their business, ranging from the bar program to delivery services to marketing, they must carefully consider the ABC test and grapple with consequences of misclassification. 

Dynamex and the ABC test operate from a presumption that a worker hired and paid to perform labor or services is an employee for wage and benefits claims purposes. That presumption may only be overcome by the three-part ABC test.  The aftermath of Dynamex has been significant confusion, as business and independent contractors struggled to understand the reach of the ruling.  

AB 5 is intended to codify and clarify the Dynamex decision.  The bill provides that certain occupations are exempt from following the Dynamex rule, including doctors, psychologists, lawyers, architects, engineers, accountants, insurance agents, realtors, hairstylists, freelance journalists and financial brokers.  Independent contractors in these occupations would be governed by the status quo prior to Dynamex, which made it easier to establish an independent contractor relationship. While Dynamex only applied to minimum wage rules, overtime, meal and rest breaks, AB 5 extends the benefits to employees to include worker’s compensation, unemployment and disability insurance and paid family leave and sick days. 

The bill has stirred up fierce arguments on both sides.  Proponents advocate that the bill would protect workers and provide them more security and benefits while at the same time benefit the State by shifting the cost of safety-net benefits onto employers.  Opponents of the bill stressed that forcing certain industries to reclassify their workers will stifle innovation and entrepreneurship and hinder small businesses.  Additionally, the Southwest California Legislative Council argued that the ability to work as independent contractors has provided income to millions of workers and enabled some workers to contract their services to multiple businesses and thus receive multiple streams of income.

Governor Newsom has stated his intent to placate both labor unions and tech companies.  Newsom characterized AB 5 as operating within a “framework of compromise.” While the Governor is expected to sign the bill, he has indicated that he may support a proposal put forth by app-based driving companies such as Uber, Lyft and Doordash to create a special category for app-based drivers. 

Restaurants relying on app-based delivery platforms utilizing independent contractors are likely to find themselves caught up in the blowback of AB 85.  Delivery companies that use independent contractors as drivers will need to pay minimum wage and are likely to pass on increased costs to consumers. Given that delivery has been a growing percentage of business for restaurants, increased consumer costs may decrease demand for delivery.

To the extent that restaurants use independent contractors for any part of their business, ranging from the bar program to delivery services to marketing, they must carefully consider the ABC test and grapple with consequences of misclassification. 

The application of AB 5 to franchise relationships is also an open question that may affect restaurant operators.  The International Franchise Association lobbied for an exemption for franchising to be included in the bill, but one was not included.  In, May 2019, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that franchise relationships could be subject to the ABC test.  The Court found that the ABC test provide the appropriate standard for determining whether franchise workers were properly classified as independent contractors or instead were employees of a national master franchisor (as distinct from the regional franchisees with which they contracted) for purposes of state wage and hour law.  That decision was ultimately withdrawn, but there are many open questions as to whether franchisees could be swept into the scope of AB 5.

Passage of AB 5 will precipitate a longer-term fight on the issue of independent contractors.  For example, Uber has stated that it will not automatically be reclassifying its drivers as employees, even after the law goes into effect in January of next year and expects to continue to deal with claims of misclassification.  Uber, Lyft, and Doordash have announced that they will bankroll a $90 million campaign for a 2020 California ballot initiative to create an alternate classification for delivery drivers.  

​With fewer customers eating at restaurants, operators are eyeing more compact locations with dedicated areas for takeout orders.

AUTHOR
Julie Littman
@julie_littman

Restaurants are shrinking. Even though more people are eating out than before, fewer are sticking around to eat their meal in store. With this shift, brands from Firehouse Subs to McDonald's and Dunkin' to Pizza Hut are rethinking design for both front- and back-of-house to better accommodate delivery and takeout — a strategy that often includes smaller formats.

When considering design, restaurants traditionally focused on minimum guest count and maximizing seats in a dining room, but these conversations are changing, Big Red Rooster Senior Vice President and Managing Director Josh Broehl told Restaurant Dive. Big Red Rooster is a JLL company that works with retailers and restaurants on experience design, brand marketing, design management and strategy consulting.

"It's now about throughput. It's now about how many customers can we serve," he said.

​With multiple avenues to reach customers from delivery to mobile order pickups, there's less need for a dining room, he said. There's also financial incentive to reduce — or forgo — the physical dining space. Broehl estimates that dine-in now accounts for about 15% of a typical restaurant's sales compared to several years ago, when it was roughly 40%. 

Restaurants are also analyzing customer traffic flow more closely to accommodate those that want to dash inside for pickup as well as others who want to mull over a menu and then decide onsite, Broehl said.

"We need to make sure those pathways are intuitive and easy, avoiding the bottlenecks," he said.

Restaurant design is starting to incorporate different zones where third-party deliveries can do pickups or wait for fulfillment of orders, he said. 

"Delivery is a must-have these days," Pamela Flora, director of Americas retail research at Cushman & Wakefield,  told Restaurant Dive. "How are [restaurants] balancing delivery prep space versus dining space? Do they have easy access for third-party pickups?"

Mobile orders fulfilled onsite are being brought toward the front for quick pickups and are separate from onsite ordering and dining, Broehl said. Shelves and lockers are increasingly popular as well, with the likes of Chipotle, Blaze Pizza and Cava adding shelves. While there were originally concerns about theft or tampering of food left on shelves, that has yet to emerge as a problem, Broehl said. 

"Delivery is a must-have these days. How are [restaurants] balancing delivery prep space versus dining space? Do they have easy access for third-party pickups?"

Pamela Flora
Director of Americas retail research, Cushman & Wakefield

​Needing less dine-in space is opening up options for restaurants. They don't need to spend as much on real estate costs and can instead use inline spaces within a retail block instead of a standalone location, Broehl said.  

"You'll continue to see that trend where restaurants can take advantage of these more flexible spaces, which will definitely help their operating costs," he said. 

While dining rooms are decreasing in size, kitchens are growing due to the addition of digital orders, he said. That often means having multiple makelines. Previously, there may have been a makeline for dine-in and drive-thru orders, but now some QSRs with drive-thrus are even adding a third makeline to accommodate mobile orders, Broehl said. 

For an independent restaurant like fast casual Bamboo Asia in San Francisco, many of these design concepts, including a small footprint, were part of the plan from the beginning. The restaurant uses a commissary kitchen to prepare much of the Vietnamese, Japanese and Indian dishes that make up its menu offsite, and a sous vide to heat onsite. This allows for a smaller kitchen without heavy equipment, TRI Commercial Restaurant Specialist Erik Reese told Restaurant Dive. He has helped conceptualize restaurants, including Bamboo Asia, throughout his 20-year career in the industry. 

The 1,800-square-foot restaurant only has 30 seats inside and eight outside, and most of its business is off-premise, he said. The restaurant serves about 550 customers between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

With less real estate needs, the restaurant was able to relocate in a prime area of downtown San Francisco, where retail rents are $450 per square feet, according to Cushman & Wakefield data. 

"It really reduces our labor demands and allows us to get spaces that other companies can't take," he said. 

Its location on a popular downtown intersection also serves as a marketing tool for the thousands of drivers who pass by, he said. 

"The whole restaurant is an advertisement," he said. 

The company is adding 12 more locations by the end of 2020 and plans to open another commissary kitchen, all of which will be built around the idea that around 25% of the business going toward delivery, he said.

A new QSR model 
Major QSRs are taking cues from delivery and carryout trends as well. Fast casuals including Cava, Blaze Pizza and Chipotle are testing out drive-thrus for mobile pickup orders. Others, like Firehouse Subs, Subway, Dunkin', McDonald's and Caribou Coffee, are eyeing complete remodels and smaller store formats.

Firehouse Subs is testing a prototype that would be a dramatic design shift for the brand. It uses 25% less kitchen space and holds 28 seats compared to a traditional design of 50 seats.

​The design also moves the kitchen from the front to back of the restaurant to better accommodate pickups, which have its own designated area. A stackable sandwich steamer, new to the prototype, helps reduce heating time by a minute, and CEO Don Fox told Restaurant Business the new prototype could result in one less person needed each shift.  

Firehouse Subs has plenty of motivation to move toward this model. Its off-premise business now makes up more than half of its sales, according to Restaurant Business. 

While McDonald's is in the midst of a major renovation across its U.S. system that will add self-order kiosks, it is also testing a McDonald's To Go format in London. Customers order using kiosks, staff is mainly back of house and there is no seating. The concept is meant to accommodate only diners on the go. 

​Pizza Hut is piloting cubbies for pickup orders in California and plans to expand the test into additional West Coast cities next year. These cubbies, aimed to complement its dine-in experience, are placed toward the front of the store and are meant to appeal to customers on-the-go who don't want to interact with restaurant staff. These moves seem to align with the company's recently announced strategy of closing 500 units and reopening them with its delivery and carryout-focused format that offers less dine-in seating.

Caribou Coffee is rolling out a small-format concept in Minnesota called Caribou Cabins. These 600-square-foot stores don't have any dine-in seating, but offer outdoor seating, a drive-thru and a walk-up window. The Cabin stores will offer an expanded beverage menu and a selection of breakfast sandwiches and baked goods. Caribou Coffee is looking to add more locations within the next 24 months, with five opening up in Minnesota initially. The chain will also explore additional store formats in urban and suburban areas. 

​There could be even more design changes ahead for the dining experience as diner demand shifts.

"Restaurants are working to bring the dining experience to customers when and where they are," Broehl said. 

Instead of being tied to a set kitchen, restaurants could potentially serve up meals in a local park or food hall or other community experience, he said. Several chains like Auntie Anne's and Shake Shack have already done so by launching fleets of food trucks and opening locations at airports and travel plazas. 

For consumers, it will only become easier to order out — exactly what restaurants need.

Jim Sullivan is a popular keynote speaker at leadership, franchisee and GM conferences worldwide. This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of Nation’s Restaurant News. 

Over the last decade our company has focused on researching the best demonstrated leadership practices in the foodservice industry. And in the last three years I’ve had the privilege to share those 21st-century leadership skills in presentations for brands like Panera, McDonald’s, Texas Roadhouse, Dunkin’, Olive Garden, Five Guys, Portillo’s, Chipotle and many others. In the course of this journey I’ve learned a few core truths about leadership that stand out. I think you may benefit from knowing them as well.

Related: 21 questions that will improve your business

Leadership can’t really be “taught”; it must be learned.  Effective leadership development in your company should be focused on doing, not merely knowing, because doing is where learning actually occurs. What you know doesn’t matter, what you do with what you know is what matters. Emphasize skill application and learning from experience with your teams.

You haven’t taught it if they haven’t caught it. Instead of trying to overcome resistance to what people are not ready to do, find out what they are ready to do, and harness and direct that motivation and momentum toward your targeted goals. Often a team’s perceived resistance is due to the leader’s failure to communicate the goals. The truth is, you don’t communicate as much or as clearly as you think you do.  


Related: Wendy’s top general manager shares leadership advice

Foster collaboration. Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a family, call it a culture, call it a tribe. Whatever you call it, you need one in your workplace. And one of the best ways to build that family is to know your “why.” Instead of telling people what to do and how to do it, lead with why you’re doing it. Leaders know the way, show the way and go the way.

Trust is a must. Everything rises or falls with leadership. It’s rare to read business success stories credited to great “manager-ship.” And integrity is the foundation of a leader’s ability to inspire a team. As author Warren Bemis says: “Managers are people who do things right. Leaders are people who do the right things.”

Get water to the end of every row. Author Stephen Covey used a farming analogy to illustrate the importance of shared knowledge: “Be certain that the water gets to the end of the rows,” he said, “and that once it does, have the people at the end of the row come forward and teach you so you’re certain that the translation — and learning — occurred.” Learning has not taken place unless behavior has changed. The best leaders focus on seeing and measuring that change so it can be taught and replicated downstream to next-gen learners.

School is never out for the pro. Collaborate with talented people outside your area of expertise. When we study or associate with people who know more than we do, our horizons always expand.  Research has confirmed that whom you associate with is crucial to who you become.  If you spend time with successful people, you’re more likely to become successful yourself. The best leaders don’t just seek a mentor, they seek multiple mentors, one or more for each of their major professional pursuits (or shortcomings).  This group of mentors can form a sort of personal “board of advisors” for the brand called you.

Challenge the process.  In Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, author Anders Ericsson suggests that every leader should assess their team and ask: "What is the best way to improve performance among people who are already trained and on the job?" His answer is that deliberate practice — paired with coaching and feedback — of skills you’re not yet good at is the starting point, and continuous improvement is the never-ending point.


Vitality drives leadership. Energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performers. The number of hours is fixed in a leader’s day, but the quantity and quality of energy available to them is not. Always leave every restaurant better than you found it, and leave every team member better. Seek out challenges.

Light the fire within.  The best managers today are less focused on being in charge and more focused on helping employees be charged up. “You’ll never get the best from employees by trying to build a fire under them,” says author Bob Nelson. “You’ve got to build a fire within them. There’s a big difference between getting employees to come to work and getting them to do their best work.  Get the best work from employees by expecting it from them, telling them you expect it and helping them attain it in any way they can.”

Be smart with heart. Leadership is an affair of the heart, not just the head. Getting things done is not the same as getting the right things done. Brains, like hearts, will go where they are appreciated, so don’t forget to recognize the performer as well as the performance. “The highest achievable level of service comes from the heart,” says Hal Rosenbluth, CEO of travel management company Rosenbluth International. “So the company that reaches its people’s heart will provide the very best service.” Judge team members on their best days not worst days and be both supportive and protective of your team. To get ahead, put others first. If you provide loyalty down, you get loyalty up.  

Jim Sullivan is the author of Fundamentals and Multunit Leadership, two books that have sold more than 335,000 copies. Jim has over 400,000 social media followers. You can follow him daily on LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter or download his leadership insight at Sullivision.com.

White Claw said it's working to keep up with demand. White Claw

White Claw is flying off shelves so quickly that its manufacturer is struggling to keep it in stock.
"We are working around the clock to increase supply given the rapid growth in consumer demand," Sanjiv Gajiwala, the senior vice president of marketing at White Claw, told Business Insider. "Despite reported shortages, we are excited to report that market share has continued to rise from 55% to 61% in just the past eight weeks."
Complaints are piling up on social media from customers who say they can't find White Claw at many stores. The hard-seltzer brand is also facing some complaints from customers who said they bought cases of White Claw containing empty cans.
"It doesn't matter how much White Claw we get in — just about any amount of the cases we bring in will be gone in the next couple days," said Josh Giboney, a beer manager in Fort Worth, Texas.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
White Claw's surging popularity has led to shortages, and in some cases full sellouts, at stores across the US over the past month, according to interviews with beer and liquor stores and customers.

"In a weekend we go through over 100 cases of White Claw's variety pack," Olivia Atkinson, the owner of Montauk Beer and Soda in Montauk, New York, at the eastern tip of Long Island, told Business Insider. "Since we don't have it, that's 100 cases we didn't sell."

White Claw, which has seen triple-digit sales growth in the past year, confirmed to Business Insider that it was behind on production.White Claw said it's working to keep up with demand. White Claw

White Claw is flying off shelves so quickly that its manufacturer is struggling to keep it in stock.

"We are working around the clock to increase supply given the rapid growth in consumer demand," Sanjiv Gajiwala, the senior vice president of marketing at White Claw, told Business Insider. "Despite reported shortages, we are excited to report that market share has continued to rise from 55% to 61% in just the past eight weeks."

Complaints are piling up on social media from customers who say they can't find White Claw at many stores. The hard-seltzer brand is also facing some complaints from customers who said they bought cases of White Claw containing empty cans.
"It doesn't matter how much White Claw we get in — just about any amount of the cases we bring in will be gone in the next couple days," said Josh Giboney, a beer manager in Fort Worth, Texas.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
White Claw's surging popularity has led to shortages, and in some cases full sellouts, at stores across the US over the past month, according to interviews with beer and liquor stores and customers.

"In a weekend we go through over 100 cases of White Claw's variety pack," Olivia Atkinson, the owner of Montauk Beer and Soda in Montauk, New York, at the eastern tip of Long Island, told Business Insider. "Since we don't have it, that's 100 cases we didn't sell."

White Claw, which has seen triple-digit sales growth in the past year, confirmed to Business Insider that it was behind on production.

"We are working around the clock to increase supply given the rapid growth in consumer demand," Sanjiv Gajiwala, the senior vice president of marketing at White Claw, said in an emailed statement. "In the meantime, we have been allocating product to our distributor partners to keep all markets in stock the best we can and will continue to do so until we get back to our normal safety stock position."

The company, which is owned by Mark Anthony Brands, the maker of Mike's Hard Lemonade, declined to provide a timeline for when production was expected to meet demand and inventory levels would normalize.

Some stores face White Claw shortages and order limits
In Fort Worth, Texas, Goody Goody Liquor can't keep White Claw in stock for more than a couple of days at a time, according to Josh Giboney, the store's beer manager.

"It doesn't matter how much White Claw we get in — just about any amount of the cases we bring in will be gone in the next couple days," he said in an interview. "The people buying it are getting in early and getting a lot, knowing it will sell out."

The store's distributor has been out of stock of several White Claw flavors recently, he said.

"They don't have enough at their warehouse to sell to us," he said. "We're putting in orders and they have to write off half of them."

He chalked up the shortages to the drink's wide appeal, saying men and women of all ages were coming into the store and asking for White Claw.

"It's reaching a market of just about everyone," he said.

Ken Wieler, the owner of Richboro Beer and Soda in Richboro, Pennsylvania, said the distributor that supplied his store with White Claw had placed limits on order quantities of the hard seltzer as shortages persisted.

"They are limiting us to 39 cases per order, when we probably sell 65 cases per week," Wieler said. "It hasn't been complete outages, but we're not getting what we want."

The lack of supply is upsetting some customers.

"The people want answers," Atkinson said. "They want their White Claw."

Read more: 'Claw is the law': Why American 'bros' suddenly can't get enough of White Claw hard seltzer

Kelsey Felix of Fayettville, Arkansas, told Business Insider she visited three stores Wednesday before she found a variety pack of the hard seltzer.

"I tried a local liquor store first and then I tried a Walmart Neighborhood Market," she said. "I finally found it at a second local liquor store."

Dozens of people have vented their frustration and concern about the shortages on social media, as well, with some calling it a "crisis" and begging local stores to restock White Claw.

White Claw faces some complaints of liquid missing from cans
Separately, the hard-seltzer brand is facing some complaints from customers who said they bought cases of White Claw containing empty cans.

​Emi Driscoll is one of those customers. She told Business Insider that she bought a six-pack of White Claw on August 22 and that two of the six cans were empty.

"Their Twitter account replied to me and said to fill out a contact-us form about it," she said. "I did but never heard back."

Watch Video Here

​The company declined to comment on complaints about the empty cans.

Amid these issues, however, White Claw continues to dominate the fast-growing hard-seltzer market.

"Despite reported shortages, we are excited to report that market share has continued to rise from 55% to 61% in just the past eight weeks," Gajiwala said, citing data from the research firm IRI.

"This is a really exhilarating time for the White Claw brand," he said. "White Claw has accelerated faster than anyone could have predicted and we are thrilled with the immense brand love we've received from a wide range of consumers."

Here's what people are saying on social media about the shortages.

​What if I told you that you could send ads to customers in the direct vicinity of your store? What’s more, what if I told you that those customers actually want and favor those kinds of ads?

What exactly is geofencing, and can your business profit from investing in it? What advantages do geofencing companies offer? Keep reading to get all the answers and more.

Mobile Geofencing as a Marketing Strategy
To recognize the importance of geofencing companies, you need to know what they do. What exactly is geofencing, and how does it work as a marketing tool?

In short, it means using technology to advertise to your customers in a specific location. Here’s how it works:

* Customers download your mobile app

* They provide the app with their location data

* You set up a virtual boundary for a specific location (a geofence)

* When customers enter the geofence, an ad will pop up on their device

Location-based marketing has already proved effective for many businesses. Now, smartphones, apps, and GPS systems provide an easier way to pull off this marketing tactic.

While simple in concept, geofencing is difficult to pull off. We’ll get into more details about how geofencing companies can help below.

What Businesses Benefit From Geofencing?
Hundreds of businesses are already enjoying the advantages of geofence marketing. Are you one of them? If not, then you’re likely wondering if your company should invest.

Here are the most famous types of businesses that are seeing profits from geofencing:

* Uber

* Apple Maps

* Walgreens

* JetBlue

* BMW

* Ibotta

Taco Bell, the national Mexican fast-food chain, boosted their annual sales by 6%. They made a simple app, created a geofence, and then targeted people who were close to a restaurant.

This isn’t the only pro-active approach you can take, though. You could also send ads or discounts to customers in competing stores.

Even if your business doesn’t have a physical location, you can still use geofencing. Take Ibotta, a couponing app, for example. It reminds users to scan their receipts when they’re near a grocery store.

Advantages of Hiring Geofencing Companies
What types of advantages can you expect to see after implementing geofencing? Here are a few:

* Boost in profits

* Better customer retention rates

* Greater engagement with your app

* Optimized customer experience

Geofencing marketing companies help you achieve these goals in a cost-effective way. They’ll help you develop a strategy, set up the technology, and understand the data you receive.

Ready to Boost Your Marketing Strategy?
These advantages and benefits encourage new businesses to start geofencing every day. Is geofencing the marketing strategy of the future? We’ll have to wait and find out!

Now that you have the facts, would you consider using geofencing as a marketing strategy? What types of benefits do you see geofencing companies providing for your business?

If you found the information in this article helpful, then you’d love our other marketing tips. Head over to our website to read our latest content.

​64% of consumers believe that businesses should use SMS messages to interact with customers more often than they currently do.

Mobile marketing is a red hot topic and text messaging is a very effective way to communicate with your tribe. Adding text messaging is easy and there are a lot of fun ways to use it.

The top five reasons why consumers opt in to a brand’s text messages are:

- coupons or deals (77%)

- personal alerts (50%)

- being in the loop (48%)

- more meaningful content (33%)

- no need to visit a physical location/website/app for information (31%)

Here are 9 ways to add text messaging to your business:

1. Slides From Your Presentation. 
​
Giving a presentation or holding a seminar is an excellent way to grow your audience and find potential new customers. Have them text a keyword to your number so you can email the slides. This can be an automated process if your email marketing software integrates text messaging. Set it up ahead of time so that it's all ready to go at the end of your presentation - instant gratification is a good thing for your attendees!

2. Sign Up For Your Communications

Opting in to your communications has never been easier. Getting their mobile number makes it easy for your customers to engage with you. Text messages have a 98% open rate, while email has only a 20% open rate. With open rates so high - you might want to only text!

74% of respondents report an improved overall impression of businesses that interact with them via text messaging.

3. Appointment Reminders

If you have a service based business, using text messaging to confirm and remind people of appointments is key. Not only is it convenient for your customers, but it also keeps cancellation rates low. 70% of respondents agree that using SMS text messaging is a good way for an organization to get their attention.

4. Follow Up To Your Website Opt-In

When someone opts-in to your website lead magnet, capture their mobile number so you can make a thoughtful follow up. It's a great way to get communication going, as well. Ask how they are doing, did they enjoy the opt-in, do they have questions, etc. As many as 45% of people reply to branded text messages they receive.

It takes the average person 90 minutes to respond to email, but only 90 seconds to respond to a text message.

5. Coupon Distribution

Text messaging is great for coupon distribution and flash sales. 90% of people open and read a text within 3 minutes of receiving it. Meaning, texting about a flash sale or a coupon can create a sense of urgency for your product or service.

Over 80% of people use text messaging for business, and 15% said that more than half their messages are for business purposes.

6. Launching Products

Piggy-backing on couponing and flash sales, using text messaging during a product launch can further your efforts. Sales prospects who are sent text messages convert at a rate 40% higher.

Sales prospects who are sent text messages convert at a rate 40% higher than those who are not sent any text messages.

7. Limited Time Promotions

Use text messaging to let your customers or audience know of a limited time promotion. You can text a URL to a landing page that gives the details.

89% of marketers employing SMS marketing find it more effective than corporate websites (64%) and display/banner ads (59%)

8. Customer Service

68% of consumers would like to use mobile messaging to contact a company with billing questions or concerns. Implementing a way for customers to text with your customer service team would be great news for over half of your customers.

9. Integrated Marketing

Finally, try adding text messaging in to your overall marketing plan. Like any medium, no one channel is a silver bullet. Using text messaging with your email marketing, event marketing, seminars, sales, etc., makes a big difference. Add text messaging to your marketing arsenal and see the impact it can have

​By Thomas Griffin

​Influencers help bridge the gap between your brand and your target audience.
Marketers spend money on advertising through various platforms to generate more leads and website traffic. Despite the amount of money spent on marketing material, 63% of businesses say that generating leads is their biggest struggle.

Influencer marketing bridges the gap between businesses and their audience. Essentially, influencers are social media personalities with a large number of followers. Businesses are connecting with influencers to reach their target audience, which translates to more traffic and potential customers. 

In this article, I address:

What the advantages are of influencer marketing
When your business should invest in microinfluencers
How you can look for social media personalities
Additional tips about contacting and working with influencers
​
Advantages of influencers 
There are several advantages to incorporating influencers within your marketing strategy. One of the first and most important benefits is a greater ability to reach a broader audience than if you use email marketing or social media ads alone.

Influencers advocate for businesses by telling their followers about your products or services. If someone has never heard of your brand, they may find out about you solely because their favorite YouTuber mentions your company in one of their videos. 

It's possible to gain valuable feedback through influencers. Listen to what the influencer (and his or her followers) tells you about your product or service. Next, check the comments section of the video where you're mentioned to gauge how others feel about your product or service. If you notice trends regarding your user experience, the buying process, content, your products, etc., it might be time to step back and reevaluate how you can improve your website or products. 

Influencers also build trust between prospects and your company. If someone has been undecided about buying something from your website, the opinion of an influencer they follow could sway their decision and cause them to become a new customer. 

When to use microinfluencers
Microinfluencers are a specific type of influencer that has a low to medium number of subscribers or followers. There are no absolute numbers, but, generally, personalities with 10,000 to 500,000 followers are considered microinfluencers. 

The most notable difference when working with microinfluencers compared to influencers is that microinfluencers' promotion tactics have a longer tail than those of high-subscriber influencers. Instead of creating several videos about a wide range of topics, microinfluencers make videos that are niche. Because the topic is so specific, their audience tends to have a closer connection with the microinfluencer, and they are more likely to trust their recommendations.

It's also important to keep in mind that since the audience is so niche, consumers are more likely to go to your website if it relates to the topics the microinfluencer covers. Pet supply companies, for instance, want to partner with microinfluencers who talk about animals or their pets. The logic is simple: Most people who view pet videos have pets of their own. Consumers who own animals need food and supplies to keep their pets happy and healthy. It makes perfect sense to look for people who cover animal-related topics when you want to find someone to represent your brand. 

However, if you want to promote something time-sensitive, like an online contest or limited time deal, you're going to want to work with an influencer with a large following so you can get a short burst of new traffic and leads. 

Now, let’s examine how you find influencers for your business.

Research your audience 
Before you start looking for an influencer, you must understand your target audience. Internet personalities have specific audience profiles, and you need to ensure that your target audience and the audience the influencer has align.

Before you think about contacting influencers, dive deep into your website analytics and social media stats for audience insights. You'll want to create customer personas that cover the interests, goals, age and income of consumers who come to your website. 

You can research your audience further by conducting customer feedback surveys either on your website or through email. For example, health and wellness websites might ask their audience if they are interested in more content covering working out or maintaining a healthy diet. The first step to marketing your brand is understanding your customers. Once you've developed several customer personas, it's time to work out your influencer marketing strategy. 

Plan your strategy
Some businesses offer influencers the chance to write a guest post on their website as a way to build traction on their channel, which may benefit your business. Other arrangements involve the business owner paying the influencer cash for promoting their content or products. 

If you find influencers who are receptive to working with you, you could strike a deal by giving them free products or perhaps a free trial with your service, for example, in exchange for their feedback.

The key to building relationships and striking deals with influencers is finding online personalities who already cover your industry. Let's say you have a website that sells beauty supplies. You want a beauty influencer who will promote your website in exchange for free products. 

Before you reach out to an influencer, carefully consider what you're willing to offer an influencer. Consider, too, from the influencer's point of view, what is alluring about your company that would persuade the influencer to work with you versus your competitors. 

Research and contact influencers
Now that you understand your audience and you have an offer in mind, it's time to research potential influencers. One of the easiest ways to find people talking about your industry is by searching keywords specific to your industry on YouTube and hashtags on sites like Twitter. 

You'll see a list of people talking about your industry, with the most popular influencers appearing toward the top of the page. Browse through your options and look for someone who has a decent amount of followers. Contact them through direct message or email. 

Be sure to send your message through your official business page or email address. Your message shouldn't focus exclusively on how that influencer can help you. Build a rapport by telling the influencer that you've looked at their content and enjoy their work. When you present your offer to the influencer, don't just talk about how this deal will benefit you, focus on benefits for the influencer and their audience. 

Conclusion
It doesn't matter if you're marketing your blog or an e-commerce website, everyone can benefit from influencer marketing. The internet allows people with similar interests to connect on social media and forums.

Keep your eye on influencers who are rising within your field or industry, monitor your audience for persona changes, and you'll have no problem finding an influencer to promote your brand.

​ by Annie Pilon

Small businesses should always be looking for ways to improve. You can step up your marketing strategy, your productivity or even your tech tools. If you’re looking for opportunities for improvement in your own small business, check out these suggestions from members of the online small business community.

Recognize the Best B2SMB Brands

For businesses that provide products or services to small businesses, the B2SMB Awards, hosted by the B2SMB Institute, is there to recognize your accomplishments. Submissions are now open. So you can learn more about the process or submit a business for consideration.

Improve Productivity with Some Simple Hacks

Getting enough done on a day-to-day basis can be a constant struggle. So small businesses always need new ways to improve productivity. This Process Street post by Oliver Peterson includes 42 different strategies you can use to work better and faster throughout your organization.

Learn More About Keyword Research

Most small businesses with an online presence know that keywords are important for SEO. But do you actually do enough research to find the right keywords to move your business forward? In this Duct Tape Marketing post by John Jantsch, learn more about how to improve your keyword research going forward.

Get Started with Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing can be useful for businesses looking to grow their customer base as well as those looking to earn some extra income. If you’re thinking about getting started in this area, read this Pixel Productions post by Pratheeksha Mani for all the basics. Then see what members of the BizSugar community had to say here.

Execute Some Easy Marketing Tactics in an Hour or Less

Improving your marketing strategy doesn’t need to be incredibly time consuming. There are plenty of small tasks that you can complete in an hour or less, while still making a major impact for your business. Ashlee Brayfield shares some of them in this Crowdspring post.

Understand How to Use Location Data

Today’s mobile technology can make a major impact on how marketers work. However, many don’t understand exactly how to use the location data they’re able to collect. This Marketing Land post by Taylor Peterson includes a helpful guide.

Don’t Lose the Influencer Game

Influencer marketing is making a major impact on U.S. businesses. But it’s actually even more popular in other parts of the world. To make the most of this technique for your business, check out the lessons from international brands in this Social Media HQ post by Christian Zilles.

Make Use of Curiosity in Your Marketing

What’s the most powerful marketing tool you can use for your business? The answer may just be curiosity. If you’re looking to make use of this tactic in your marketing, read the tips in this Target Marketing post by Daniel Burstein.

Add Pizzazz to Your Content

Basic content marketing may not really make your business stand out online, since so many other brands are also creating content. If you want to make an impact, you need some pizzazz. In this TopRank Marketing post, Nick Nelson discusses how you can do this for your business.

Find the Best Ways to Market

Since there are so many different marketing tactics available, it can sometimes be helpful to narrow down the best strategies by seeing what the experts have to say. This Mostly Blogging post by Janice Wald includes 33 expert principles of marketing. And BizSugar members shared thoughts on the post here.

If you’d like to suggest your favorite small business content to be considered for an upcoming community roundup, please send your news tips to: sbtips@gmail.com.

Author: Jodi Harris

​Anyone who grasps the fundamentals of content marketing knows that the concept isn’t all that complicated – consistently provide something of relevant value to your target audience in the hope they ultimately will return the favor.


Serving the needs of your audience with valuable, high-quality content is an admirable goal for any company. But your efforts will amount to little if your content doesn’t trigger audience behaviors that help your company reach its business goals. And that, my friends, is where complications set in.

To give your content marketing program the best chance of driving desired results, you should know the answer to these questions:

Who should the content we produce be most relevant to?
What benefits does this audience receive from consuming our content?
What desirable and distinctive content experience can we consistently deliver?
You’ll uncover the answers to these questions – and plenty of others – through the process of developing your content marketing strategy.

Before we get started
If you’re new to content marketing – you may want to start your journey by reading our comprehensive Essentials of a Documented Content Marketing Strategy e-book and browsing our archive of strategy-related insights.

If you’re looking for a refresher on the essentials or some help filling a knowledge gap, read on for a handy tutorial – and our best resources – on the subject.

Why you need a content marketing strategy
While your company should have a content strategy – a strategic plan for all its content usage across the enterprise, it also should have a dedicated content marketing strategy – a unified, strategic road map focused exclusively on how your business will use content to attract, acquire, and engage its prospects and customers.

Your company should have a #contentstrategy & a dedicated #contentmarketing strategy, says @joderama. #CMWorld

Why is it critical to develop (and document) a deliberate strategy? For starters, consider that CMI’s annual Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends research has consistently found that a documented content marketing strategy is a factor that separates successful content marketers from their less successful peers.

In fact, according to our latest B2B findings:

65% of the most successful content marketers have a documented strategy vs. 14% of the least successful.
73% say it keeps their teams focused on established content priorities.
68% say it helps their team allocate resources to optimize desired results.

73% of most-successful marketers use their #contentmarketing strategy for content priorities. @CMIContent #research

Furthermore, the insights from a documented content marketing strategy can make all your tactical decisions – including which types of content to develop – easier to plan and manage.

What goes in a content marketing strategy
Your strategy should define your key business and customer needs, as well as how your content efforts address them. Though no two strategies are alike, all should detail a few essential components:

Your preferred business model – the investment strategy your content initiatives fall under, the role content plays in your organization, and the way you structure your team to put your plans in motion successfully
Your purpose and goals – why your content exists, what you want your audience to do once it has consumed your content, and the value you expect its actions to provide for your business
Your audience personas and buyer’s journey – defining characteristics of the one audience that will benefit most from your content, its current user state, and an estimate of how its needs and goals may evolve
Your differentiated editorial mission – your company’s unique perspectives and approach to creating content and how they distinguish your content from your competitors

#Contentmarketing strategy: business model + purpose + audience persona + editorial mission. @joderama #CMWorld

Since these are complex considerations, I’ll unpack each one in more detail. 

Take a shortcut: To put a more strategic content marketing framework in place for your organization, get a head start with this streamlined, one-page content marketing plan.

Choosing your business model
As CMI Chief Strategy Advisor Robert Rose discusses, organizations structure their content programs based on one of four primary models. Which one works best depends on the business goals, your team resources, and the value you wish to provide to your audience:

Player (content as contributor): Under this model, content marketing is seen as a contributor meant to support and integrate with broader demand generation, product marketing, or other business communications initiatives.
Performer (content as a center of excellence): Content is viewed as a discrete and focused strategy fueled by the development of deep relationships with addressable audiences through owned media platforms.
Processor (content as a service): Content is viewed as a highly specialized function of the business. A direct team may take responsibility for some centralized content functions but not necessarily for the creation of content.
Platform (content as an integrated business): Content marketing is viewed as an integrated and often fully functional media business that operates within the confines of the brand. Under this approach, content is often treated as if it’s a distinct product created and marketed by the business.

Successful #contentmarketing integrates changes to make #content function as a business model. @Robert_Rose #CMWorld

Establishing the most effective model at the beginning of your strategic development process helps you clarify your content’s purpose and structure, allocate resources efficiently, and better understand the steps to scale and evolve your content program for long-term success.

Setting your purpose and goals
You’ll never reach your content marketing goals if you don’t know what you are looking to achieve. Since different types of content work better in pursuit of some goals rather than others, it’s important to clearly define success from your organization’s perspective first. You won’t end up wasting time on efforts that don’t line up with what you want to accomplish.

Find your purpose
One of the simplest ways to home in on a unique and worthwhile purpose is to examine the key area where your business has been struggling the most. For example:

Brand awareness: Are you struggling to penetrate a new market, launch a new product, or compete with a high-profile market leader? Learn more about brand awareness content.
Audience engagement: Do you need to raise your brand’s profile as a reputable source of information? Are you looking to attract social media influencers to evangelize your products? Learn more about using content to drive engagement.
Website traffic: Are your ad campaigns failing to drive traffic to your e-commerce website? Are visitors immediately bouncing from your site pages? Are they failing to find the information they need to drive their decision-making? Learn about steps you can take to optimize your website traffic.
Lead generation/nurture: Is your sales team having trouble finding or qualifying new leads? Are they getting pushback in one area when trying to move existing leads down the funnel? Learn more about improving your content for better lead generation.
Marketing ROI increase: Are you looking for ways to reduce your marketing costs, grow sales, or open up new revenue streams? Learn more about determining your content marketing ROI.
Customer retention and loyalty: Is customer support receiving high volumes of calls? Are you failing to secure repeat business from consumers or up-sell them on product options and add-ons? Learn more about driving customer retention/brand loyalty.
Set goals around that purpose
Once you’ve identified your primary purpose for creating content, outline the goals you expect your content to help achieve.

In CMI’s Content Marketing Framework, Robert explains that common content marketing goals typically fall into one of three main categories:

Sales goals – content that aims to support specific campaigns or product-driven goals
Cost-savings goals – content designed to increase the cost efficiency and performance of your other marketing activities
Business growth goals – content that serves in an entrepreneurial capacity such as creating new revenue streams or new product lines
While each category offers different benefits, each is built on a common foundation of value – subscribed audiences. Why focus your goals around subscribers? As Robert points out, the deeper level of ongoing engagement that characterizes the subscriber experience makes this audience more likely to exhibit desirable behaviors – like a greater willingness to share personal data, a greater interest in up-selling opportunities, or greater brand loyalty and evangelism – than non-subscribers. Learn more about setting the right content goals.

A subscribed audience is more likely to help #contentmarketing achieve its goals, says @Robert_Rose. #CMWorld

With your purpose and goals documented, you can move to the next step in your strategy – finding the right audience to consume the content you create.

Identifying and understanding your target audience
While every business hopes its content has universal appeal, content marketing typically works best targeted to serve one audience above all others. When you publish broad-reaching content, it never gets specific enough to provide much value to anybody.

When you publish broad-reaching #content, it never gets specific enough to provide much value to anybody. @joderama

Narrow your focus to a single niche audience
To uncover your primary audience, look for the type of customer you can help the most with your content. Ask yourself:

Are there relevant yet underserved audiences who aren’t getting the information they need from other sources?
What customer group is our business struggling the most to gain traction with? Can content help us bridge this gap?
Would anyone care or notice if we didn’t provide this content? Can we become the leading information resource for this customer base? Learn more about pinpointing your ideal audience.
Expert tip: For additional guidance on identifying and developing your ideal audience – and the benefits this process can provide – check out the example set by Intel iQ.

Craft your content marketing personas
Once you’ve identified your core customers, develop a clear picture of who they are so everyone on your team can know them as real people – with unique interests, goals, and challenges – and keep them top of mind when planning and creating content.

This is where your content marketing personas come in – composite character sketches of a type of customer based on validated commonalities. Personas help you understand how certain ideas, content formats, and approaches to the subject matter might make your audience more receptive to the content you share. Learn more about creating actionable content marketing personas.

Take a shortcut: There’s no one-size-fits-all method for developing content marketing personas. Customize the process to fit your goals with this guide to four of the most common approaches.

You should also consider how your audience’s needs and behaviors may shift as your content does its job. Creating a map of your buyer’s journey helps you better anticipate and adapt to your persona’s content needs as they evolve.

Use audience intent as your guide
Of course, the buyer’s journey is more like a labyrinth than a linear path. With competing messages, media channels, and stakeholders affecting the average decision-making process, it can be tough to anticipate what content will deliver the brand experience your target audience seeks.

That’s where doing a bit of research into content intent can come in handy. As LinkedIn’s Daniel Hochuli points out, audiences have two primary reasons for consuming content:

Informational intent – Audience members consume content as part of their research process or general interest in a particular topic.
Transactional intent – Audience members act with the purpose of completing a transaction. 

Misaligned audience and brand intent produces disastrous results, says @LogocracyCopy. #CMWorld

Understanding why your target audience might engage with your content (in addition to analyzing how it has engaged with your content) can bring sharper focus to your strategic decision-making and design a content experience that will deliver on audience expectations. Learn more about incorporating content intent in your strategic development process.

Identifying your mission
Once you know your audience, your purpose, and your goals, you have the information to develop the final component of your strategy: your content marketing mission statement. This brief declaration outlines your company’s unique content vision, the value that content provides, the audience it benefits, and the priorities and principles it upholds.

As you craft your mission, CMI founder Joe Pulizzi recommends that all content marketers ask themselves, “In what subject area can we become the leading informational provider?” If you don’t believe you can own the relevant conversations around the content niche you have chosen, narrow your focus to an area of content where you can have a bigger impact on the audience. Learn more about crafting your editorial mission statement.

For example, look at Content Marketing Institute’s mission statement, which focuses on helping a sub-segment of the broad content marketing audience:

Content Marketing Institute leads the industry in advancing the practice of content marketing for enterprise marketing professionals. We educate our audience through real-world and how-to advice through in-person events, online training, a print magazine, daily blog posts, and original research.

Your content marketing mission statement should help your entire organization better understand what distinguishes your brand’s content experience from all the other content competing for your audience’s attention. Defining the core features of your brand’s differentiated story also helps your content team make more informed content creation decisions. It is easier for them to see which ideas are well-aligned with your goals and which ones may not serve your unique purpose. Learn more about finding – and telling – a differentiated brand story.

Ready for next steps?
Once you have a firm handle on how to develop your strategy, you can move on to activating it through your editorial planning process, including deciding which roles and skills you need to account for and how to ensure that your team’s efforts will align with your strategy.

Don’t miss the next in-depth guide on planning, followed by creation, distribution, and measurement. And gain daily insight to help your content marketing become more mature (and more successful). Subscribe to the weekday e-newsletter. ​

08 January 2019, Hessen, Rüsselsheim: ILLUSTRATION - An email app can be seen on the screen of an iPhone. Photo: Silas Stein/dpa (Photo by Silas Stein/picture alliance via Getty Images)
​PICTURE ALLIANCE VIA GETTY IMAGES

One of my pet peeves is when I ask a company what their CRM application is and they say something like "Constant Contact."

With all due respect, Constant Contact is a great e-mail marketing platform. But it is not a CRM application. Your CRM application is a database. E-marketing platforms like Constant Contact are not. Your CRM system is where you store all of the information about your customers, prospects and community. You segregate and target that data. Then you send it over to your email service application.

You do all of this because when it comes to marketing, email still rules. Don’t believe me? Then just take a look at three recent studies.

The first, a just-released survey of more than 200 marketers at major North American brands in June 2019 from marketing agency Merkle found that 68 percent of marketers identified email addresses as their highest priority customer data type to acquire and 78 percent of respondents deliver personalized experiences in email using customer data. In addition, 52 percent of those same marketers said that email remains their most valuable marketing channel not only for gaining new customers but for retaining existing ones.

In another recent study, Ignite Visibility, a search engine marketing company, found that small businesses with revenues of $10 million to $20 million invested more on email than any other marketing tool. Why? Because according to its more than 300 respondents email is first in return on investment. Interestingly, about 44 percent of those in that category said they spend only between $5,000 to $15,000 on email annually.
Finally, it seems that email is also hit in the financial services industry. That's the conclusion from ad platform Dianomi. The company - and financial services marketing company Gramercy Institute - polled over a hundred senior financial marketers and found that more than a third planned to increase their spending on email marketing in 2020, putting that channel only second to paid search. Overall, financial brands will increase their marketing spend by about 10 percent next year.