I try to go to the local farmer’s market as often as possible during the summer, and in my visits I’m always blown away at how many vendors are still cash-only businesses. I’ve witnessed the same thing at street festivals, art shows, craft fairs, and food trucks. No matter where you run into a mobile vendor not accepting credit cards, the reasoning is always the same “I can’t afford it.” But the reality is that these days I don’t think you can afford NOT to accept forms of electronic payment. These are the top three reasons why your business needs to use Square:
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Michigan is filled with great local farms that offer everything from fresh produce and honey to baked goods and rustic home décor. Finding these local gems sometimes requires simply stumbling upon them though because farms are notoriously bad at marketing themselves. Typically, family-owned farms rely on word of mouth, roadside signs, and advertising in local flyers to draw visitors in, but this isn’t the most effective way to market your local farm. Having a well-optimized website is the best way to make sure people can find your farm and entice them to come visit.
So how can you use your website to market your farm? These 4 tips are sure to increase visitors all summer long! Expectations are a funny thing because they can vary so much from one situation to the next and change so drastically over time. For example, the other morning I was up much earlier than usual and decided to watch some TV. As anyone who has ever watched late night/early morning TV knows, it’s slim pickings! Your expectations are way lower than they would be when you turn on the TV during primetime because the supply of quality programs is scarce. You look through the guide for something that you can tolerate versus something you actually want to watch because your situation necessitates a shift in expectations. When it comes to consumers’ purchase decisions, the same is true – situation dictates expectations.
I once heard a speaker at a marketing conference tell a story about changing travel expectations. He explained that as a kid he would travel with his family and whenever they checked into a hotel, his mother would go into the bathroom to ensure that a strip of adhesive paper had been put over the toilet seat indicating that it had been cleaned prior to their arrival. That was how she determined the quality of a hotel. He went on to say that these days room cleanliness is just assumed as a standard and the things that set hotels apart are the special amenities like free breakfast, wifi, hot tubs, spacious gyms, concierge services, etc. These features are what makes a hotel’s reputation and brings in business. In this case more supply has led to a need for greater differentiation, causing hotels to go to great lengths to top one another. But this is certainly not the only example of changing consumer expectations – in every industry expectations continue to evolve over time. So what does this mean for your business? Halloween is just around the corner, but instead of concocting a witch’s brew in the hopes of casting a spell on your competition, why not get your SEO efforts in order? Mastering the bones of local SEO will get your business ready for the holidays and continue to pay off all year long! If you run a business with a local presence, these are absolute essentials to ensure that potential customers will be able to find your business online when they search for the products/services that you sell:
At Local First, we support locally owned businesses through various events, programming, and promotions. We educate consumers in West Michigan and drive the demand for local businesses. We also provide a network of support to over 800 business owners, and encourage them to become better, more responsible businesses. But why do we do this?
We wholeheartedly believe that local business is the key to transforming and sustaining our local economy and community. Here are a few reasons why: |
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