Are you flushing marketing dollars down the toilet? The biggest mistake in small business marketing is forgetting the phrase “lifetime value of a client.” Understanding this strategy can leave your cheaper competition in the dust.

Most small business owners see ad and marketing spends as a make it or break it the first time proposition. That is a big miscalculation.

“If this were dating it would be like asking for marriage on the first date,” says author Jim Kaspari. “We’re throwing thousands of dollars down the toilet with this mistake.”

The goal of ads and marketing used to be to get paying clients and to make sales right away. That makes perfect sense, but it simply doesn’t work anymore. Marketers need to be thinking about the long-term.

“Many of us are using our marketing time, energy, creativity and brilliant brains doing pay per click online advertising and trying to get over 100% return on investment with the first transaction,” says Kaspari. “That’s just crazy.”

Kaspari is a long-term thinker. He worked at Genentech, Inc. for 20 years as a chemical engineer, automation and systems analyst, and training manager. By investing well and helping start businesses as a moonlighting side hustle while working, he was able to retire a millionaire at age 44.

​“We all know that much of marketing has gone online, but why is it so challenging and time consuming these days and what can you do about it?” asks Kaspari.

That is a driving question for Kaspari when he works with clients. Kaspari has been a business coach and consultant with entrepreneurial business owners and startups since 2005 and has coached over 500 clients in nine countries.

Kaspari, CEO of PEAK Business Coaching, is the author of PEAK Profits, 47 Latest SEO Secrets to Get More Traffic from Google, PEAK Profits Business Journal and Olympic Gold Medalist Quotes. He has spoken on stages across the US and in Australia on small business marketing.

Kaspari advises his audiences to think about and quickly calculate the lifetime valuation of your average client.

“Don’t get hung up on the details,” says Kaspari. “For example, a hairstylist might have an average client spend of $75 per day, they come in every month and last two years. That comes out to $1,800.”

This knowledge can lead to different behavior. “Instead of maxing out at $5 per lead (20% conversion, 300% ROI to cover other costs), you can easily spend $10-$15 per lead or more and make out like a bandit,” says Kaspari. “This strategy leaves your cheaper competition in the dust.”

The other key is realizing that we aren’t looking for a sale with our ads. People don’t want to be sold to anymore. So, what’s our new goal? To make friends. Get to know each other…draw them in with an irresistible gift and then help them solve problems and make their life better. This allows them to get to know, like and trust us.

“Interview your clients until you know what is irresistible to them,” says Kaspari. “Create an opt-in for your website or lead page. Set up an autoresponder email series that gives tremendous, relevant value, help, and great ideas and resources. After five to seven of these emails, you’re safe to ask if you can be of further help to them (sell something). Then it’s lather, rinse and repeat.”

By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG

NEW YORK (AP) — Marketing and advertising on the internet are an integral part of running a small business, one many owners handle themselves.

It does require some knowledge and skill. Owners may need to take short courses in digital marketing — in particular, online searches and advertising — at local colleges. Or, they may be self-taught, says Cathy Petersen, director of search engine marketing at Surefire Local, a digital marketing company based in Vienna, Virginia.

“There are a lot of good resources for people who are just getting started,” Petersen says.

It might make more sense for this task, like keeping the company books, to be outsourced to a consultant if owners need to devote themselves to working with customers or developing their products and services. Or, if they have employees, owners might make sure that one of their staffers has the time and know-how to do the work.

At its simplest, getting good visibility in an online search requires a company to use what’s known as search engine optimization, the use of keywords in a website that are frequently searched. Which words to use will differ from company to company.

Google’s algorithms that rank companies in search results also take into consideration how relevant a company’s website and individual pages are to people who are searching. Businesses that get publicity or are on review websites can improve their rankings.

Advertising on Google involves bidding for specific keywords. But small businesses may not be able to pay for keywords that are extremely popular and that larger companies want. But they may have advantages, for example, location. Google can place a local business on its maps that are often part of its search results, Petersen notes.

Online advertising needs to be an ongoing commitment if it’s going to be effective. Companies must monitor how well their search listings and ads are leading to visits to their websites. Some businesses hire digital marketing consultants to handle this task, while others rely on analytics programs including Google Analytics.

If owners aren’t satisfied with the traffic to their websites, they need to consider changes in the site or advertising and/or they need to find ways to get publicity that help Google algorithms give them a better ranking in search results.

by Beth Negus Viveiros​

​For B2B marketers, social media no longer necessarily just means having an up-to-date LinkedIn page. Today, savvy B2B marketers are expanding their social circles to connect with audiences where they want to engage.

Budgets are backing up that need for increased engagement: 50 percent of respondents to Chief Marketer’s recent 2019 Martech Outlook survey said they would be investing in social media management software within the next 12 months.

For Constant Contact, having a mix of social channels is important, says Hannah Budreski, vice president of marketing. “People jump from social channels—our social director calls it ‘fleeing audiences’—so we can’t be too invested in any one channel to keep them engaged.”

How people interact with the brand on social has evolved, she notes. Where in the past, conversations might have occurred directly on the social channels, now, people are instead direct messaging with questions or comments.

“We’re seeing a lot more lurkers and people searching for content,” Budreski notes. “They might not be inclined to engage publicly via social, but they might send a message via Facebook Messenger, so we’re having a conversation there. It’s just getting taken out of the public eye.”

Thoughtbot has built a social audience by sharing ideas and thought leadership both through LinkedIn and Quora, where it can target interests by topic, notes CMO Lindsey Christensen. Social content helps with lead nurturing, and can help increase engagement at live events, where someone from the company might be speaking.

​The design consultancy—which helps technology innovators and start-ups design and deploy applications—also builds social momentum with podcasts, such as “Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Robots,” which talks about the design and development of software, or “Build Phase,” a weekly discussion on iOS development.

“We interview founders and technology leaders, and talk to them about their stories, themselves, and the challenges they face,” she says. “It’s a great mechanism for nurturing our audience, particularly with people we want to reach out to—we can invite them to be on the podcast.”

B2B social engagement is a little different for Boston-based restaurant management platform Toast.

“Restauranteurs are not sitting at a desk in front of a computer all day, they’re out on the restaurant floor,” says Kelly Esten, senior director of product marketing at Toast. This means unlike many B2B pros, LinkedIn is not the natural place to find them.

“We’re reaching restauranteurs wherever they are, whether it is on Faceboook, Instagram or via text messages,” she says.

On Facebook, the company recently launched an online community, called Food for Thought. The goal is to give restaurant professionals a place to communicate with each other. While a benefit is, of course, brand building, the intent is not to promote Toast in the community. “We try and stay out of the way—it’s more about our customers,” she says.

B2B Social ROI
For Constant Contact, how the success of a campaign is gauged depends on the goal. “It depends on what we want to accomplish. We’re putting a lot of content out there, but the ROI is different than, say, with email [offering a] free trial,” Budreski says. ‘It’s more of an impression, rather than getting them to take an action right at that moment.”

Toast looks at social ROI through the lens of engagement. Existing customers are the company’s number one source of referrals, says Esten, so using social to connect with them and encourage them to talk about the brand is important.

Christensen says Thoughtbot primarily considers paid social when gauging ROI, which can be a bit more straightforward to track than organic efforts.

“Organic social is trickier,” she says. “If we can track it, great. If not, we continue to share and follow best practices because we can ‘feel’ the results, even if they’re less tangible.”

​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.