A few months ago, many local businesses made the smart move to shift their classes, camps, and other offerings online or to a delivery or to-go model.  But now many are wondering if they should shut those options down as their businesses reopen. 

We surveyed moms across the country to find out what they wanted and were a bit surprised by the results.

The majority of moms that took...

Are people tweeting about your business? Posting about it on Facebook? Giving you reviews on Yelp? 

You may not know unless you're tagged. It's hard to keep up when you've got so much else to manage in your business. But here are a few free tools to check out to make sure you don't miss a mention. 

1. GOOGLE ALERTS

A super simple way to make sure you know if your business is mentioned...

Most parents and educators are familiar with the "summer slide," that loss of academic progress over the summer months.  Well this year, everyone is worried about the "Covid slide" the loss of kids' progress since school let out in most communities back in March. 

The members in our community, The Members Club,  just for local businesses that market to parents and families,...

If you've ever been confused about the difference between a like and a follow on your Facebook page, you're not alone.  Most page owners keep track of likes, but don't necessarily understand how those differ from follows and which metric they should be keeping tabs on. 

FOLLOWS

When someone follows your Facebook page, it simply means they want to see your updates in their newsfeed and...

Do you know what one thing successful businesses have in common? 

They know their customers inside and out.  They know what they need, what they’re worried about, and what they want from businesses.  

When you know your customers, really know your customers, it makes reaching them with content they want to see, so much easier.

If you’re a local business that markets to...

When it's time to create a Facebook post or send an email or update your website, one of the first things to consider is what images you'll use. 

For local businesses, photos of actual customers in your location or using your products are often best.  But when that isn't a viable option, stock photos can be a great alternative. 

And the good news is that stock photos have...

THE ART OF BEING FOUND

This week's tip is understanding the resources moms use to find local, kid-friendly businesses like yours.

Once you understand that, there's a whole lot you can do to improve your chances of being the answer to their search.

So how do moms search for local, kid-friendly businesses? These top 5 tactics reigned supreme.

1. GOOGLE RULES

When moms are looking for an indoor...

Moms love social media, especially Facebook and Instagram.  Nothing new there. 

And as a smart marketer, you try to post regularly to Facebook and Instagram. 

But how many times have you thought about updating your Instagram page and then put it off because you had to do it from your phone? 

Or maybe you hop into Facebook to answer a new message and 30 minutes of wasted time...

When we’ve had our businesses for a while we often think we know exactly what we need to do and there’s no real reason to create a plan. That’s only for new businesses, right?

Although intuitively it may make sense, it couldn’t be further from the truth.

Going through the planning process and creating a plan that can be tracked and monitored is a practice that will help...

MINDSET TRANSITION: COMPETITOR TO COLLABORATOR

One way to build awareness that won’t cost you a dime is to partner with other local businesses. If they reach the same audience and are savvy marketers, you can both benefit tremendously.

Why partner? To get your name in front of your partners’ audience and vice versa. While doing this, you’ll both be building credibility and...