It cannot thank you all enough for coming today and I’m thrilled that we’re Able to have this gathering under these circumstances today we’re going to be Talking about your business alive during Coe bid 19 and we’re going to talk about Different ways in which, in which you guys can sort of cope with this Difficult moment and different tips and tools and resources that are available, To you for helping to deal with this kind of unprecedented crisis, I wanted to Just talk a little bit about what you can expect from today’s session, really Appreciate it, if you can stay till the end, I know this hour of time is Incredibly valuable to you and I’m going to make sure to give you as much as I can.
During this hour, um we’re going to talk with three different businesses to get Some tips from the trenches of what’s working and not for some of these other Companies in town – these are all three of them – are retail or storefront businesses? These are businesses that actually run physical operations. Um not too, unlike Biz hack Academy, which has been traditionally an in-person training, Academy we’ve now converted completely online and you’ll, see some really Creative ways in which these businesses are doing the same, I’m going to share with You three, you know, really simple, but I think important marketing principles.
That, I hope, will help you adapt to this sudden shift in consumer behavior and I’Ll talk a little bit about what that shift is and then what those principles That I would recommend you keep in mind as you’re thinking about what the heck To do with your yourself in your business and then finally um we have Collected a tremendous number of resources to help small businesses Weather the storm we’re going to have a representative from miami-dade County on The call who’s going to share some of the general small business resources.
That the local state and federal government is making available and then We’Ve actually curated a list of digital marketing resources, a lot of Software companies, Google, Facebook, are making available resources and funding To help small businesses – and this is a great opportunity for you to take Advantage of that, for those of you who don’t know me already, my name is Dan Gretch and I’m the founder of busy AK Academy, my background is actually as a Journalist and I was for many years on public radio – I was the news director at Wlr n Miami Herald News, I hosted a show on public radio called under the Sun.
I Was also in marketplace, the national business show. So for me, this kind of Setting is very reminiscent of a hour-long call-in radio show and so in Many ways that structured this in a similar way, We’Ve already solicited through a survey that many of you filled out and thank You for filling that out some of your input on what’s going on and then we Have lined up several special guests: three different businesses, an accounting Representative who we’re going to be hearing from during this hour, so it’s Kind of like a little radio show I was part of a Pulitzer Prize winning team When I was back at the Miami Herald kind of one of the, I call it the award for Being in the right place at the right time, but a highlight of my journalism, Career and then I transitioned more recently into communication and Marketing for businesses, where I’ve worked both at two software startups and A billion-dollar energy company and I’m a proud for instant and FIU graduate go Panthers, so I’ve been in this community for more than two decades and my attempt Here is to give back.
This community has been incredibly good to me to my family To my business – and my hope is that you will get as much out of this next hour. As possible, that won’t be helpful to you, as you guys are figuring out how to Weather this storm, so a little bit more about biz hack business hack, was named a Start-Up of the Year in 2019 by the Miami Herald – and we were part 10,000 small business accelerator program, we’ve partnered with the major Educational institutions in South Florida, including the idea Center at Miami-Dade College start-up FIU and the innovation hub, a Broward College.
We have Dozens and dozens of community partners in the nonprofit foundation and business Space and I think really our signature achievement and what makes me so proud. Of what biz has accomplished, and also the impact that we’re having in this Community is we run a 12-week program, that’s about helping businesses generate Leads and sales online and last year we had more than 100 businesses run through The program they spend $ 17,000 in advertising online and they made more Than half a million dollars for the local economy, this is something that it Drives everything we do.
We are basically here to help you learn how to market Yourself and communicate about yourself online and make more money by doing so. Well and the folks that we’re going to have here, starting with Rafael Sabino of the Sun Dance Studios are all folks who’ve gone through our program and then taken What they learned and used it for their businesses, Rafael Sabino, is from one of Our earliest cohorts of biz hack, he runs a dance studio called a Sun Dance Studios in Doral Florida in Doral and they’ve really been very aggressive.
And creative in turning ascendance, which has always been you, know an in person Dance studio into a virtual one, I’m actually happy to say that my Seven-Year-Old daughter, whose own dance studio here where I live in Surfside Wasn’T offering online classes got a chance to enjoy a jazz class last night. And she was just beaming afterwards, so um, you know here are examples of some of The posts that they’re putting on social media as they communicate about this Change um, one of the things that I think is really cool about.
Rafael, he’s, very Tech savvy is a former Amazon employee and their communications are almost Exclusively text message and through an app and so We’Re going to invite him now to chat and one of the things that he’ll talk about. Is how he’s communicating with his parents so Rafael, Sabina, welcome. Thank You so much for joining us dad. How are you guys doing today? Good Good good so raft: let’s talk about how you have Changed your products and services as a result of Corona 19 Copa dad so so for Us it’s kind of a difficult transition right, we depend on being in person and Massive gatherings to run our business right, Oh, since Miami Papa shut down, there are school programs.
You know we, we kind of Have to the simple thing for us to do was to follow that’s right and at that Point you know you have to way to to to continue delivering. You know, classics. Right and that’s when, when, when we figure well, we will have to move to Digital, it’s going to be a little odd at the beginning, but but if we get people To we did like a little NBP, I caught it right through Instagram live classes.
Right product: yes, yes and quick, quick for those of you don’t know the idea of A minimally Viable Product is spending as little time and money as possible to Test the concept to see if it works go ahead right exactly so so the idea Was to kind of test the concept of online through Instagram live classes; Right and then eventually, if we get with reception, moves some of our classes, Fully online and and obviously it’s not going to be, as you know, as profit, was it Might be to run our in-person classes, but in this time you just have to find a Way to kind of mitigate your losses right, so that was kind of a deployment What has worked and what has not in terms of the new products and services That you’re offering so in general, I think our so we have two different Programs right we have our company, Kitt’s and, and those have been you know, In general, they’re like seven and up I’ll, say seven years old enough and that Has been really successful like since day one you know the kids know the Platforms, they’re very you, know, they’re on Instagram all day, so for them it was An easy transition right now with the when we run into a little bit of an Issue is with the little ones right, because we we did pin on the mom to be Able to manage the technology, so we can deliver the class right now.
So you know We had questions like oh hi. What is Instagram life? You know like what I do. I Have to download to see that right. So so there has been some, even though Instagram is fairly popular. You know some people simply don’t use it as much Right and they’re not as familiar right so so that has been definitely a Challenge and then on the second phase right, where we kind of our Instagram Classes were open for the community, so anyone could join on the second phase of The test we we kind of open our own classes, but only to our customers right So we offer more than a hundred classes every week.
So how do I get people to be In the right, Simca or Chad, row or virtual classroom, you know what, while We’Re running through before classes at the same time, so you know people joining Into the wrong classroom – and you know not showing up on time, not using their Their microphones so a couple questions you know I use so when viz hack, Transitioned online we used zoom, which is what we’re using right now for this Gathering you, who actually were featured by Google in a national ad campaign for Your skilled use of Google AdWords to grow your business.
You guys have chosen To use a different tool, a tool that I wasn’t aware until you told me about it: Called Google meat, which is part of the hangout offering that they have but Specifically geared for like webinars and and online classes, you want to talk About Google meat and as well as the other technology tools that you’re using Like, for instance, your text messaging software, I’d love to hear more About what you’re, using to stay in touch with your your and communicate with your Your customers right so so I think it and you know nowadays are pretty much Two options right: you either go with zoom or you know: there’s Google Meads That it’s not as famous but for us it make more sense because behind Google me There’S an entire product called Google classroom.
Okay and Google classroom is Google’S effort to you know be able to share lessons from any teacher around The world right, so it doesn’t matter if you’re in the US or in the UK, you can Join a class on someone: that’s teaching online right um. So so, since we decided To use Google classrooms right that default, you know, meeting tool will be Google, meat, right and, and then what we do is we we’re hosting all of our Content right, so you know we, we ask our teachers to record themselves and do Their choreography right now, whatever we’re preparing for a recital right, we Have specific articles that we uploaded to Google classrooms right for the little Ones we upload and materials like you know something for them to draw.
Then mom Can print at home and they you know they can. You know, paint you know, be drawing Our butter in our painting, you know those kind of things right and also we We have, you know like messages for them right, like don’t don’t be sad, you know, We’Ll be back like at the end of the day, we wanted to keep the kids asses engage. As possible, right and Google classrooms set up help us out organize all the Content that we have by ages on by different classes – okay right, so your Classroom Google meet for the action, so Google classroom is the learning Management system to manage all the materials Google meet is how you’re Actually doing the live, chats and tell us about how you’re staying in touch via Text message right, so so the other thing you know, basically, we have everyone’s Email, right and and we can just send an email with the link of it to the Classroom from right, but honestly you know email, it’s 5050 right like it.
They May go into their spam box. They might give me their Spam email – because I don’t want to you – know – get emails from us. Whatever you Know like there’s like a Cillian things, I can go wrong with II right However, text messages is more direct. People usually only have one phone Number right and text messages are just you know, very personal right. So what we Do is every day around this time we send them a text message with the link to Their classroom, okay, so all they have to do, is just press on that right and and Open up their classroom and join the class, you know we’re just trying to make It as friction frictionless as possible, such a day.
They joined our online Classes, yeah, and I mean this is not a small task, because if you have a hundred Classes – and I would imagine hundreds and hundreds of parents that are to get them – The right link just in time is not a simple technical challenge, but you have That infrastructure built so that it’s yeah we had it so so every single class That we we have, we teach we group them. You know every student by class right And then we have the ability to message that class.
You know in a heartbeat, so What we do is we in in the backend of our of our software, we assign a link to The virtual classroom for each class and then you know three four hours before The classes system will automatically message them. You know with the location, Of their virtual meeting, on top of that, we we build in our website. We have a Schedule where people can just go in and and click on, you know they can just Filter by program, h or teacher – and they can find now the link to so we have a Couple of ways for them to kind of find that out perfect um lilia there was a Question about what phone number to dial in using! If you could put that into the Group chat that would be great and Andrea.
Richard was asking which text Messaging platform, are you using, so we use Twilio in our back-end to handle all Of our text messages and then we also are Our automation is powered by autopilot HQ Great so autopilot HQ is where the this is just for the for the folks on the Line is is the is where the automation is in the flows and the database of Customers is captain and Twilio is the the technology that actually enables the Text message, and then you also mentioned Google classroom for as an LMS and you Also mentioned Google Hangouts meet RAF, we’re going to move on, but please stay stay.
Close by because we’ll probably bring you into the conversation, you know, I we Have a capacity of a hundred people and we’re up to 96 I’m starting to get a Little nervous because we never expected this many folks to to join us. But Hopefully, hopefully everybody will anyway, you guys are here and that’s what Matters most so here we go, I’m going to just share my screen again, so I wanted To give you guys some data about how marketing has changed during coab in Nineteen, you know I was thinking about this marketing is about meeting your Customers where they are, what do I mean by that if your customers are on Instagram you meet them on Instagram, you communicate with them on Instagram.
If Your customers, like rap, said, prefer text message over email. You text message them And you figure out the tools to do that in an efficient way in a scalable way. That, in its essence, is what communications and marketing and digital Marketing is all about at its core. What makes this challenging in general is That people’s behaviors change with time so tick tock is in the platform that Young people love that wasn’t around even five years ago.
Snapchat emerged and became popular, and that was a little less popular Instagram. Has boomed so the landscape of how you communicate just during normal times, his Con stantly shifting – and this is hard for Resource contains too constrained, not necessarily marketing savvy small Businesses to keep up with koban nineteen Blew up this whole framework. People now have completely changed their behavior Overnight this lockdown in home this quarantine, if you will, has changed how All of us are behaving online and offline, and your marketing must change.
With it, I wanted to give a couple of examples of the profound ways in which People are now shifting their behaviors and how marketing has had to adapt with It so, as we all know, working from home is now the norm. We’Ve actually created a Tools sheet that we’re going to be sharing with you at the end of the Webinar with a list of some great tools that you can use if you’re in the Process of converting to telework that’ll be in an email follow-up for Everybody who registered for this um, not surprisingly internet usage, has Skyrocketed, which is putting a strain an internet download times, are slowing down.
Because of it, Facebook has seen a 50 % increase in messaging across all of its Platforms now remember: Facebook includes facebook, Messenger, Instagram messaging And whatsapp they own all of those and they’ve seen a 50 % increase in Communicating across their messaging platforms, but interestingly their online Advertising has plunged – and I have another slide that will help understand. That email, open rates have spiked people are sitting in front of their computers.
And they’re more attentive to their email and overall worldwide we’re seeing A 5 plus percent spike in email, open rates, so if it was in 20 percent before It’S a 25 percent now, in other words, now is a very good time for you to be email. Marketing the ads spend by in commerce companies has doubled, and I would expect That will increase even faster, so an e-commerce company is simply a company That sells online and obviously, if you sell online and now is your moment, You’Re going to spend even more on advertising to get to that audience that Is stuck at home and can’t go out to buy things now, b2b or business-to-business Companies, companies that sell to other companies um have traditionally relied On things like trade shows in person, meetings and phone calls for their sales.
Process, they’re increasingly now looking to digital marketing to help with that They have not been early adopters by and large b2b companies in the digital Marketing space but they’re now looking to places like LinkedIn and you know, Email marketing phone calls, of course, to start driving more of their sales. Um This is just a tiny slice of the changes that we’re starting to see. Um one point: I just wanted to make is, as with Facebook, while you’re seeing more usage, Of the platform you’re seeing a decrease in advertising on the platform as many Businesses don’t have a product to sell right now or that they’re not Comfortable with selling, during a time when everybody’s in crisis, so you’re Seeing a lot of people putting on pause, there are traditional campaigns and Starting to really promote what community service or resources that They’Re offering to help during this time, Jennifer Hudson mentioned that it’s Really nice news on email, she’s, a marketing and communications specialist So yeah absolutely email marketing is really having its moment right now by The way email, marketing and search engine optimization or the two most Profitable forms of advertising of digital marketing, so those of you who Think that email is dead.
It’S not true at all. It’S actually along with search Engine optimization, which is driving people to your website, the most Profitable form of marketing – and it’s even more so right now it’s getting a Huge boost right now, other platforms that like aren’t doing as well, are Things like and I’m talking now about, traditional platforms. Um, you know radio Which is largely listened to in the car is probably going to see a decrease in Listenership TV he’s going to see a spike in listenership Other types of advertising online through because someone’s called Over-The-Top through things like Netflix and variety, we’re going to see more Advertising on TV is people read more TV because their home all the time, Billboards like physical billboards on the highways – this is not a great time to Have a billboard on the highway.
I think this is actually going to be an Incredible moment for Direct Mail, you know just talking about traditional Marketing now you know people are at home, they’re, probably checking their Mail more closely, I think Direct Mail is going to be a great opportunity and Direct mail believe it or not, has seen a increase in its effectiveness in in the Last few years, because fewer people are using it so you’re in your mail boxes, Are less crowded your physical mail boxes, so Direct Mail is actually a Really great opportunity, by the way I wanted to also mention that you’re going to Be getting a link to this presentation in an email follow-up to everybody who Registered so you can take notes, of course, but you don’t need to you’ll, be Getting these slides shortly now there was a survey of almost 16,000 businesses, And this is a list of those businesses that have been most impacted by Cova That 19 nonprofits and charities, health and medical business management finance Beauty and personal care, on-demand media – that’s like Netflix, also social media, Readings, gifts and flowers, those are the ones that are seeing a boom in their Business there these are, these are industries that are right now, busier Than ever and enjoying a lot more business, the bad is real estate as a lot Of people hold off on big purchases, home improvement, same idea, home furniture, Same idea, so people right now are holding onto cash and avoiding big Purchases, just because we don’t know how long this is going to last Same thing with cars and automotive retail, a lot of these businesses are Shut some of the ideas that we’re going to be Talking about are ways that retailers can move into e-commerce, which we saw Are is having its moment, jobs and education and legal services with legal Services, you know, unfortunately bankrupt ajikko bankruptcy.
Attorneys are going to Have a field day um, my guess, is: divorce. Attorneys are going to probably have a lot. Of business coming up is we’re all stuck with our wives and husbands uh. We might Not have liked that much, you know there’s there, but other types of law: a Transactional law, for instance, litigation which involves having to be In a courtroom, that’s shut down, you know, they’re there different parts of them, What legal practice that are going to be struggling The the ugly travel and tourism they say that Florida is going to be the Most impacted by Koba 19 of any state in the country, and it’s because our travel Tourism industry is such a huge part of our local economy bars and restaurants.
Are shut down, we do have a restaurant owner anna robbins of two to two taco Who’S going to be presenting who’s actually seen a steady, steady flow of Business through her takeout offerings we’ll have her tell us about that. Momentarily, you know, live at entertainment, conferences, events, trade, Shows anything that involves in person is going to be struggling for a good While you know sports its kind of shocking to think about, you know major Sports teams shut down, you know the NBA canceled its season and so forth.
Fitness Um, I think, is going to be more of a mixed bag. You know, I think you know, for those Of us who have kids at home, who love dancing? You know Raphael hopefully, will be able to reach an audience that maybe doesn’t Live in Doral, but is thirsty for those kinds of classes that is now offering Building and construction and industrial and manufacturing so the point here is a Couple things number one: there is not one impact of kovat nineteen, it depends.
Based on the industry and even within industries like we talked about legal Services, it depends on which aspect you’re offering so you know if you’re in The fitness area, you know, as Michael pace, brought up pellet owned the online Platform and the at-home bikes, spin, bikes and other equipment is doing Well, Willie brought up that beauty and personal care or shut down indefinitely. Because we service the public, so beauty and personal care, that’s sold like Products based is going to do well, so if you have products that you’re selling They’Re doing very very well, but if you are like a nail salon, you’re in real Trouble so that’s another example of you know: And they, you know an area where, in the how in the beauty and personal There are some folks doing better than others.
Direct Mail area all brought up a point that it’s work. It works as long as we’re. Still delivering the mail and in some places in Europe, they’ve shut down mail. Delivery, so that is a risk that you might take if you do decide to go to the Direct mail route, but at least for now mail is still being delivered and I Think Direct Mail is definitely a marketing blog. You should be thinking About so I want to bring now Anna Robins from taco and if you could go ahead, And unmute yourself, um taco Anna Robbins, was part of our cohort 12.
The Most current cohort, she runs, and she was one of the she was behind the founding Of Koyo, taco and now her newest concept is a Cali Mexican. Restaurant called Taco it’s in North Bay Village, which is in basically in the north of Miami Beach. But along the barrier, islands and anna has been doing really well. With her takeout service they’re doing curbside takeout in boxes that are Actually, coronavirus safe and one of my favorite things, as I saw on her social Media, oh wait: you’re still you’re delivering margaritas.
Is there a maximum Quantity order so they’re now delivering margaritas to go something they weren’t Allowed to do before and they have a margarita bar and trust me. I think a lot Of people are taking advantage of that. So Anna welcome. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me no problem, so talk to us a little bit about the new Products and services that you’re offering to your customers around Takeout and delivery to help meet the demand for your.
You know: Mexican food Well, basically, we had to switch everything over to takeout and delivery. We decided to do an extra level of packaging. Those are the cardboard boxes. You’Re, seeing before we used to just use them for catering and big bigger orders, Now every order that’s placed in house whether it’s through the phone or Whether someone comes in comes in a box right, Oh sealed, with the box, and then we Put it inside the cardboard boxes, so people are feeling secure that their Food is safe, another switch to all to take out in delivery and kind of change.
Up our menu a little bit so items that don’t travel as well. We took off, we made A more consolidated menu to take pressure off the kitchen, because right Now we can only work with one cook at a time because of Labor issues and we are Still in the process of putting together a new menu with all of our larger Offerings with big boxes, big family-style, which we were doing in the Past so we weren’t promoting as much where you can order a box with a pound.
Of chicken and a dozen tortillas and all your sides and kind of build everything At home also working on combo boxes that will begin rolling out, so we can have Special of the week where you get maybe a quesadillas guac and chips and some Rice and beans trying to make it fun and, of course, very visual. What we’ve been Doing photo shoots and shooting articles and trying to get we’re getting ready to Launch all of our online campaigns and then we’ll start running digital ads for All that and also needing to launch online ordering, so all of these things Are kind of in the works with somebody maybe done by today, but it’s kind of a Lot when you have to change everything overnight, So once the online ordering is set up, we’ll run the odds when people see it They’Ll be targeted to our local community and they’ll, be able to click Go straight to our website and from there order their boxes for either Takeout and delivery, and trying to do all this to steer them away from Ordering with ubereats and post means, while we love our delivery partner, they Do take 30 % so right now it’s not the time for that.
So it’s also educating our Clients through messaging that in the most PC way to sway them to order Directly in house, and not order through the delivery partners, you know that That’S actually a really good point, because it brings up something that Marcelo Salib asked, which is: how is this impacting your margins, so you’re selling The piece you broke that protect okay, um. How is this impacting your margins? Your Selling the the same, you know the same price for the food, but You have now the box that you need to deliver it in sometimes post mates to Share the fee with how is this for your margins, so we right now we’re including A service charge that we were, including for table service, that was going mostly To the servers now the service charges being included, some of that is going Back to the house to cover things like extra packaging and just the expenses of Staying open without having the dining room open, I mean this is we’re only on The second weeks, accountant, still in the process of analyzing, all of that yeah It’S going to do you expect the margins to be lower or with the fee you’re going to Basically make the same amount per order.
I think that’d be walk. Well, I’ve said it Right, how much is the fee per order for years or based on is like a percentage Of the price, it’s a percentage of the price yeah to 18 %. Some of that goes Towards the server or towards the team whoever’s working that day and some Because some people come in and they don’t I’ll leave a tip when they get a Takeout order and they’re not realizing right now that my staff, that is actually Coming to work – and you know taking that risk being out in the public when they Are coming to work that they deserve? You know to get tipped like they’re, their Hourly is only as a minimum wage tipped employee hourly at 5:50.
So if people, if People don’t leave a tip for them, then they’re really not making anything that I have to subsidize that again, that’s hitting the margins, so the service Charge is also ensuring that the staff is being taken care of, and there I Haven’T had any complaints, I mean all all take it off. If a customer, it doesn’t Agree to it, but from what I’m seeing they agree, and then they also tip extra And they’re very they’re very grateful that we’re open that were there feeding Them that we have stepped up our packaging, they love the boxes, they feel Secure with this, so I haven’t had any pushback there and if anything, people Are trying to support they’ll come and they’ll order, a shot of tequila or Margarita, while they’re waiting for their for their box, we’re also now Selling the margaritas by the leader, the margaritas we have set up in a draft Machine so they come and they’ll take a leader home and put In the fridge, that’s awesome, you know they Harbor Islands, where you’re based Has been supportive of you know if a village, I’m sorry North Bay, Village, Sorry, North Bay Village, where you’re based is he’s, been very supportive of You could you talk a little bit about the local town is, is being helpful and In turn, because you’re obviously going to be servicing for take-out and pick up The local, exactly I mean from the beginning, the first day when we got the Announcement that we had to close the dining room, the mayor showed up to order.
Food for his family – and I actually mentioned to him that we Actually he he came two days before the whole shutdown happened and said: yeah I’Ll be in your commercial, so if you see the little clip that you would pose it That you showed at the beginning, that’s on Facebook, in a ton Instagram in the First, clip the second, the second scene for bringing food out to an SUV. That’S Actually, the mayor of North Bay, Village, Brad Latham who’s been very, very Supportive yeah: it’s when he’s going to be reposting it that all of North Bay Village has we have a Facebook group for Northland residents, so there’s a Facebook group, the town hall and the mayor, supportive of you, you had also Mentioned that are they making available to you, email addresses as well.
Yes, they Are they’re in angel me that well they I mean this was even before this epidemic. They said that it was just public information if I want the email Addresses of all the residents of North Bay Village so I’ll be getting that so That we can start targeting and now that that’s you know the point here – sometimes Is again no problem? Well, what we’re going to move on, just as we Have a lot to cover, but Anna stick around.
Thank you very much one other Thing I just wanted to mention is that a lot of towns and municipalities are Looking for ways to support their local small businesses, especially ones that do Geographically, based off retail and storefront, and so if you had you can’t Get it if you don’t ask, and so and I was bringing up the fact that they have an Email list, which we know now is much more effective than ever before.
That they’re willing to share that she can then use for her email, marketing, um She also can leverage that for Facebook advertising Google advertising targeted Ads for folks in the local community, Marcelo Salif also asked about geo Fencing so geo fencing just means carding targeting a geographic area, so That only people in that geography who live in that geography would actually See the ad and that’s also another thing – that’s done through Facebook and Instagram advertising, as well as Google, Adwords I sing so you have a tremendous number of tools at your fingertips.
We focus our 12-Week program on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram advertising and the geofencing Is a big part of that, so we show businesses how they can do it, but you Can do it in a lot of other places as well, so wanted to now take a minute. You Know I’ve been reflecting I’ve been speaking to a lot of business owners and I wanted to reflect a little bit on some marketing tips and marketing principles.
That, I feel, could be very helpful in terms of thinking about what you’re Doing in this moment, so the first one is, as we discussed earlier, customer Behavior has changed. Fundamentally, people are teleworking, student students, Are home from school and what I’ve heard a lot is people say things like Why, and by the way Chiara, I realize I forgot to get to your question about the Margarita delivery, so I hopefully Ana Robbins, if you could answer in the chat, Chiara was asking: did you have to get any special licensing to be able to Actually do your margaritas for delivery, if you could just put that in the chat That would be great and and angel Gonzalez asked earlier.
About which crm that Raphael used and the CRM he used is called autopilot HQ So we know that customer behavior is changed fundamentally and I put and Maybe forever the reason: why is, for instance, even though you it seems like a Lot of people buy online Walmart is much larger in terms of its retail sales, then Amazon is but what’s going to happen, is more people are going to try Amazon out Online purchasing out for the first time because they have to, and I believe that That’S going to cause a permanent shift from retail to e-commerce because once They’Re on the platform, many that will probably become Prime members they’re Now, locked into that way of buying that many of us quote early adopters have Already done same thing with telework, I don’t think everyone’s going to rush back.
Home rush rush back to the office when this all ends. You know, Teleworking, I think, is now going to become a much more standard practice. Across businesses of all size, it’s more convenient in some cases, if it doesn’t Impact productivity or businesses see ways to have people spend two or three Days at the office and the rest of the time working from home, they’re building Right now, all the infrastructure that will allow for that and they’re building The processes to allow for that, I just don’t see how that that’s going to change.
When, suddenly, you know everyone’s going back to work and rush, I just don’t see. That happening learning online is another one. Many of Us are taking an opportunity now to learn online. Even those of us like me, Who grew up in in-person education, so learning online and the business that I Run which is online education? I think people who are in my target demographic Which is 30 and above but people who do not grow up with digital.
I think they’re Going to become more and more comfortable with digital marketing, with learning Online and learning digital marketing online so because we’re seeing this Fundamental shift that may or may not be a forever shift in customer behavior. You Must change your marketing, so you must look at how you’re communicating with Your customers and make sure that you’re communicating with them to where they Are I would also add that now is not the time for the hard sell? You know most People are still kind of getting used to this new normal, really thinking more in Terms of how can you help and how can you communicate in a way? That’S helpful.
To them, rather than the hard sell tip number two is start with your audience. What your audiences need right now, so, if you’re trying to think about what the Heck, can I talk about online? What how the heck can I avoid just going dark and By the way, no business should go dark, even if you’re not able to do work right. Now, if you’re a you know a retail store that doesn’t have an e-commerce Component, you know when there’s a business in our program right now that Runs malls right, yeah, there’s not a heck of a lot for a mall to do right now that Doesn’T mean that you should not be communicating with your target customer So, for instance, if you’re a mall and you have hundreds of businesses that are Working with you, you could talk to them about tools to move from retail, to E-Commerce or you could talk to them about some resources for retailers that Are available so there’s a lot that you can do to communicate with your Customers that goes beyond just the direct product or service that you sell.
So really think about what is your audience or What are your audience’s need and there are different audiences and then try to Serve those audiences, and one big recommendation I would make – is do not Forget about communication with your employees, even if your folks are working From home, or not working at all, if you want them to come back to you after this You must be communicating with them and a near-daily basis, and for most of you, Everyday, you want them to know that you’re there that you’re thinking about Them and that you’re keeping them abreast of how this larger situation is.
Impacting their individual lives and then finally, you know Ana Robbins Doesn’T right now have a way to take orders online? She had been relying on Post maids and other options because she was primarily a in person. You know sit Down fast casual restaurant now is the moment that Ana can pick up that project. That was probably sitting on the shelf and get a really good online. Her online Ordering system up and running get an app going, get a process and a system to Do it efficiently? This is the moment for those of you who need to revise your Website who want us get started with your social media.
Now is the moment to Do it dust off those plans and get started communicating through these Digital tools, many many small businesses – have tended to be really slow to doing. This kind of thing – and now is the moment to do it, so I wanted to bring Andre inna From post, our Pilates on a hundred, you know was part of cohort seven. She is the Ceo of a international organization called pole star that not only runs four Or five studio hosts Pilates studios in the Miami area, but also is the number One educator worldwide of Pilates instructors and they provide a Certification, so she is kind of two sides of the business.
She has one side: Of the business which is offering classes – and you can see that they’re Offering now Virtual mat classes, but they also are an educator kind of like Biz hack, the does online and in-person education, and so you can see here that They’Re now giving a 50 percent discount on almost all of their Online courses, Andre inna, welcome hi Dan hi guys thanks for having me how Are you good to see you? You know, we’ve talked a lot about you.
Know the how you know a restaurant is transitioning, you know how Rafael is Transitioning to online classes, um, let’s talk about your post, our educational Component, you’ve graduated more than 10,000 Pilates instructors worldwide. How Are you guys shifting more aggressively into online Education well um. Thankfully we have a learning management. System that we’ve had for a couple of years now, and what most of so just to Give a little background on our courses: they’re Pilates teacher training courses, So most of our teacher trainings were used to being on on-site.
We would meet Every month for a weekend a month and have the labs and all of that and what We’Ve done with our current cohorts we’re running around, I want to say 25 Courses of people right now across the USA, what we’ve done is, depending on what Module they’re in right now we meet online to cover the theory, part of the Training and we’ve postponed all the labbing exercises until we can all meet In sight to test out the equipment and work on each other as it as a group, yeah And then what we’ve been doing is we’ve been focusing on our grants, the ten Thousand people worldwide and trying to see types of offering we can give them That’S considered continuing education for them to apply with their client base.
So these people are people who already know their body are know how to Use the equipment know enough about the basic Pilates theory that we can just Through virtual classes and workshops continue to educate them on new new ways, Of working with a population or how to work online or what things they should How do new ways or things that they can apply to this new virtual delivery of Courses, so are you seeing an uptick in the purchase of these courses? What are You seeing more people buying online courses from you.
Yes, so we’ve seen a Little spike on our courses right now we have around 20 virtual courses currently On in stock and what we did, what we’ve been doing is going back to the basics. Of our core curriculum and trying to dissect that and convert those into Virtual training courses to offer them to either new Pilates students or people Who wan na you know have been have had haven’t, had any training in a little While and are now that they have spare time, they can go in and read some Courses online, that’s great.
Another question I had for you is you’ve. Also Moved your student, you, you run one of the studios and you’ve moved your Pilates Reformer classes, reformer is a piece of equipment that you use to do. Pilates to mat classes. How is that going? How is that transition? It’S good. We have Five studios in the US and all our clients have been really really thankful. For our offerings, we are offering two Classes in the mornings and took classes in the evenings, mostly mat classes and Then, for those clients who have a have the equipment at home, we meet depending On it’s a small group, it’s a group of seven people we meet depending on on Their schedule we host a class with equipment online as well, and are these Classes you pay for a la carte, or these are for your members.
We most of our Members have kept their memberships, so we haven’t had to do much there that Were just there they’re happy to continue with their membership and as Long as we hold classes for them every day, another thing that we’ve been doing Is we created a new pricing offering for those people who were currently on a Groupon package, so that they can continue once their wants, their Groupon Is over, they can continue to purchase something that’s more.
It’S a lower cost. And what a regular membership would be right and unlimited for ninety five Dollars a month, so I wanted to take a second thank you. So much under you know. For for that insight, I want to take a second and just make a plug for our Three small businesses, if each of you guys could please in the chat, put your Website and so that people know where to go if they want to do business with you, Um one thing to think about is you know for Andrei Nina and for Raphael um.
They Are right now in a place where they can serve? You, no matter where you are in the County so, like I’ve always wanted to send my seven-year-old daughter to Raphael’S dance classes, and now I can so please support them and everybody else. Who runs a small business in town? Please feel free to put that in the chat as Well, um now is the moment guys to supports our small businesses. This is Going to be brutal, you know for Raps business for Andrea in This business, it looks like you and Robbins might be able to kind of Make it work as long as she’s allowed to continue to deliver, but this is the Moment now to support small businesses to try to do direct business, even if It’S a little less convenient to call versus using post mates.
You know please Do everything you can guys to support these small businesses, because I can Tell you as a small business owner in South Florida. This is a really hard and Scary time and your support is just incredibly important to us um I wanted To now welcome Rachel Cohen, she works with miami-dade, Commissioner Aileen Higgins, from district 5 Eileen was actually a graduate of the biz hack Program she then used what she learned to become an instructor in the biz hack, Program my first lead instructor and then because she’s, a digital marketing, Whiz leveraged that to become elected as a miami-dade County Commissioner, so she Was so generous to send Rachel Cohen and she’s created Rachael has a resource List for small businesses – all of you guys, are going to receive a copy of that As part of the email, a link to it and that list is constantly being updated, I’M Rachel Cohen, if we’re a small business, what message would you want to Send to us about what’s available hello, everybody.
Thank you so much for having Me so what we usually do in our district and district five, if you don’t know, Includes Miami Beach Little Havana downtown Brickell core away a lot of Really small local businesses, we send out a monthly resource, every single Month through email, I’m called strictly business where we put together a list of Classes going on mostly free programming grants loan applications, things like That, because the situation is changing so rapidly and more organizations are Coming forward with resources, we decided that this Google Doc that you’re all Going to be receiving was the best way to consistently update all of our Business owners, what I would say is that our local organizations are doing a Really good job by providing free consultations and assistance.
With loan applications in the resource guide, it’s it’s organized by local state. And federal for our office, specifically, we work a lot with Prospera to help our Hispanic business owners they do a lot of free work, a lot of free consultations, And sessions with people and they’re still open for business Most of our organizations have like most of your businesses adapted and realized. Ways that they can do consultations through webinars or phone or FaceTime They’Re there for you, I have most of their links in the guide and I would Just encourage you, if you’re struggling, if you can’t figure out what to do next, Please reach out to them because their that’s! What they’re there for Other things that we’re working on in our office is just working with the sea.
And federal representatives of this area so working a lot with Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez and congresswoman Donna shillelagh to provide more programs, so I Know on April, first Donna shillelagh is is hosting a town. Hall, where she’ll be discussing the loan applications with a representative from The SBA so we’re going to be promoting different things on all levels of Government that are going on to help you in this in this resource guide, I will Post my email in the chat – and I can add any of you to our normal newsletter list – That will be sending out, but this hold up and you’ll receive after this is Going to be constantly changing and constantly being updated, so please feel Free to send me any suggestions, if you know of any resources that are included, On it, please send them my way and I will update it as I get it.
So, thank you yeah. Thank you so much for the time and obviously for the work that You guys are doing. I wanted to share um, you know, biz hack. Does digital marketing Training, and so I wanted to share a couple of resources that are specific to Digital marketing that could be helpful to you guys so Facebook has launched a Hundred million dollar a small business grant program, I’m Assuming that most of this money they haven’t given a ton of detail around it, Yet, but I’m assuming most of that money is going to be advertising credits, but Facebook is getting a bump in usage, so if you have something to advertise this Small business grants program can help you.
Of course, you do need to know how to Advertise that’s what we teach Facebook also has created a business resource hub Which is a full list of all their resources for small businesses? Google Has done something similar, they call it the resource hub. They have a tremendous Amount of tip sheets and resources for you, I’ve been waiting to see if Google Was going to announce something similar like a small business fund or small Business grants and I haven’t seen it yet so I would expect that that will Come out shortly, it seems like you know.
Google does rely so much on businesses. Like yours for their advertising, I’d be surprised if they didn’t do something. Too um, but it’s not just Google in Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp, HootSuite, Shopify, Moz we transfer box and more have been offering free reduced-price services in Some cases, funds for small businesses, we’ve been collecting a list of all of Those at Tribeca comm slash Cove at 19, similar to the list of resources that Rachel is doing for state, federal and and local resources for small businesses.
We’Re collecting digital marketing resources – and this is leads to my bonus – Tip of the day, which is if you’re using a software, ask them about their koban 19 Program, though, like if you’re, using a CRM or if you’re using you, know a Technology platform, if you say that then look I’m a small business, I’m struggling Right now, what can you do for me? I almost guarantee that they’re going to come.
Up with something maybe forgiving your fee for a few months, it’s worth the call It’S worth the Google search to see what they’re doing, because just about every Software company is offering something right now and just don’t be Shy to ask it now is the moment I wanted to you know: III, I am just inundated and Overwhelmed with an enormous amount of amazing responses, thank you all of you, Who filled out our survey so many insights and ideas and questions that we Definitely can address in this first webinar, but our plan is to do more.
I did Want to share one thing from Michelle Benesh. I think that that’s the way you Pronounce it from menu men, she wrote hoping I’m the last menu company Standing so we will gain market share. So the point there is that this is a moment. Obviously, of a challenge, but also of opportunity and we’re going to strike that Theme here in a minute as we wrap up so the first thing I wanted to do is I Wanted to announce that we’re going to be doing another community webinar next Week it’s Wednesday at 12:30 p.
M. Brewster Kahle has so generously agreed. He’S a branding expert, we’re calling it what now So, if you’re interested, please click that link and sign up, send it to friends. We actually hit capacity, which I never expected that we were going to do. We had More than a hundred people who wanted to join us and we’ll find a solution for That biz hack is also still in business. We’Ve moved all of our program offerings Online, we have traditionally done in-person classes, we’ll transition back To in-person, when the moment arrives, but we’re going to be continuing our online for Our 12-week program through online – I do not want to be selling right now, but I Do want to say that I am a small business.
I’M scared, like many of you, About what’s going to happen next, if you think, there’s someone that you Know who could benefit from learning how to market themselves online how to build Up their digital presence, that’s a link to our syllabus and our application and Then finally, I wanted to leave with a note our lead instructor for the current Business, a 12-week program which we’re offering online is Alex dr.
, bio, Of IBM and Constant Contact – and he intricate appointed me to this just Amazing quote in this amazing thing from Chinese in when written in Chinese, the Word crisis is composed of two characters: one represents danger and the Other represents opportunity, and I just want to leave by saying now is a moment: When we are all in danger – and we have unprecedented opportunity – and it’s Really a matter of frame of mind if you’re in a siege mentality and you’re Looking at just the erosion of your revenue and you’re, asking yourself how Am I going to survive this you’re, definitely feeling the danger? Part of crisis, but there is an opportunity part of crisis as well.
There’S an opportunity for you to reinvent your business to serve your Customers to think creatively about how to transition your business into an Online setting – and I just want to say that there is also a community of us who Are working on this with you? That’S what biz hack is all about is creating a Community of online marketers and businesses online to help you think, About how to deal with this incredible transition – and so I wanted to leave you With these words, which is focus as much as you can on the opportunity, when I say Thank you guys so much for being a part of this.
I am so grateful to all of you. For being here, thank you, 200 to Raphael and to Anna Robbins. I wish you guys the Best of luck with your businesses and everyone’s business, it’s online there Were a lot of questions that you asked that we weren’t able to get to in this Really packed setting we’re going to look for ways to continue to answer those Whether it’s on social media, on our blog on our website or perhaps in future Webinars stay in touch.
We have your email, Addresses all of you should have in your inboxes now a copy of this presentation. A list of tips for remote work, a list of tips for digital marketing resources, the County resource list of all the different things that you can Do and they link to RSVP for next week’s webinar looking forward to Brewster Kahle next Wednesday, at 12:30, and with that, thank you guys. Please send your Best regards in chat and we’ll see you really shortly.
Thank you.
Jimmy's Internet Marketing Business Blog 