Four States Small Business Blog

For brick-and-mortar businesses, local marketing is an effective way to increase brand awareness and reach new customers in your local community. It’s also one of the best ways for local businesses to capture market share from larger competitors located in other areas. And it’s gaining momentum among marketers, as 58% of senior marketers consider local marketing an essential factor for a business’s profitability and growth.

Think social media is just for teenagers? Think again. Social media usage continues to grow across all demographics. In fact, a staggering 3.1 billion people are active social media users in 2018 - that’s nearly half of the world’s total population! Not only that, but 11 new people start using social media every second, with the average American spending more than two hours per day on social media. Given these statistics, it should not come as a surprise that more companies are prioritizing social media as part of their marketing strategy.

According to TalentNow, nearly 73% of employers struggle to find qualified candidates for their open job positions. This is partly due to low unemployment rates, as the national average is 4%. If you can relate, you may have already tried all the usual avenues for finding your next employees, including online job boards like Monster, Indeed and CareerBuilder. And although these boards are popular among job searchers, their one-click applications and lack of vetting can leave you sifting through an unending list of applications from unqualified candidates.

Zimmer Radio recently partnered with Honor Flight of the Ozarks to help them raise awareness and funds to fly veterans to see their war memorials in Washington, D.C. For the second year in a row, Zimmer hosted the Honor Flight Radiothon fundraiser, which has raised more than $43,000 over the past two years. Management, staff and radio personalities from several Zimmer radio stations helped with the fundraiser.

Marketers use a number of acronyms everyday, but KPI might be one of the most important, right behind ROI. A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric - typically expressed as a numeric value - that indicates the growth, success, or failure of an advertising campaign or individual channel or component.

Earlier this year, we partnered with branding expert Chuck Mefford to teach Four-State businesses how to develop their brand through his revolutionary BrandsFormation workshop. The overwhelming feedback we received from attendees convinced us that we need to make this event available to more businesses in our community, so we're bringing Chuck back for an encore!

Digital advertising isn’t always as simple or straightforward as it may seem. For brands trying to integrate digital for the first time, there’s so many options that it can be overwhelming. And more experienced marketers may want to create an entirely new digital strategy because their current strategy isn’t working. 

There’s a good chance you already have a brand strategy for your farm. You know the types of products and services that you offer, how you differentiate yourself from competitors, and why your farm is uniquely suited to a specific type of consumer. Guess what? You're essentially "branding" your farm! Branding is simply telling a compelling story about your business in a way that interests your core audience.

There's an exciting event headed your way this fall - BrandsFormation 2018! After a successful event in March, we’re bringing the free educational workshop back to help even more Four State business owners develop their brand and improve their bottom lines. Scheduled for Wednesday, November 7 at 8:00 am., BrandsFormation 2018 is designed to help you transform your business from good to great.

If you’re used to relying on discounts to drum up business and customer interest, we’ve got good news — you don’t have to use discounts! While discounts can be useful, there are different tactics that you can build into your strategy that are effective at building sales and loyalty. Even better, these methods don’t force you to cut profit margins in order to make the sale.