“Buy Local” Isn’t Enough: How to Adapt Delish’s Customer-Attracting Method to Your Local Business

“Buy local and keep the money in our community” cry many local retailers and restaurateurs. Yet guilt is not the top motivator to inspire spending - unless you’re a nearby farmer.

Saving money is top-of-mind for us as consumers. Instead, offer greater value and convenience. Also generate more local visibility without spending more.

That’s what the online food site, Delish is doing, in partnership with Hearst. It’s a method you can adapt to your business – whether you operate a consumer-serving outlet or an online-only business. (Here I’ll describe how brick and mortar businesses can benefit.)

Delish is placing a Hearst-provided Coupons & Deals section on their home page. Consumers print out coupons to take to local stores. They can find new coupons each week and opt-in with their email to get coupons delivered directly to their computer.

What if you:

Ask your neighborhood merchant association to organize a similar offering. If not the merchant association, approach your chamber’s small business section - or recruit owners of nearby consumer-serving businesses that have a good reputation - like you.

Post the “Coupons and Special Offers” section on the association’s site and on the site of all participating members, with a link to a common landing place where the printable coupons are displayed.
Provide fresh offers regularly, if not weekly.

Include an opt-in place for site visitors to provide their email. (Acting collectively you’ll attract more site visitors and sign-ups and reduce the cost of providing this service).

Invite a local, online web designer to create and maintain this service for a reduced fee – shared by all – in exchange for prominent visibility on the site plus a link to the designer’s page that describes how she can offer this service to other groups. (Let that online expert be the up-to-date geek while you focus on making your business better.)

Announce this valuable new “Save Local” service to your neighborhood or local paper, radio stations, hyper-local sites (like Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighborhood, outside.in and Everyblock).

Encourage consumers to write their names on all coupons they turn in. Whoever uses the most coupons each month wins a free gift from a participating merchant. Merchants rotate in providing the gift (that the winner pick ups at their place.) If the gift is not a direct match for the winner’s needs, they are invited to give it to a friend.

Jointly promote special events like “Mondays for Locals” for which people can print out discount coupons or, better yet, a “free with…” offer to use at participating restaurants, hair salons, stores, bars etc. Then Tweet your customers each time a fresh offer is available - just as Poke, a British baker does.

A Real Reality Show (What Are You Checking Off Your List Before You Die?)

Four college-age Canadians’ bus broke down in here in Sausalito last year so they continued their campaign here – to inspire others to create their Top 100 things list: A part of their credo: For every item they complete on their list, they help a stranger achieve one of their dreams. These childhood friends’ camaraderie, plan and sense of purpose (three great Me2We traits) have pulled others into their slipstream including my friend Jan Coleman.

She became their den mother (aka manager/producer). Today, she gleefully announced that The Buried Life boys have checked another “to do” off their list. They wanted to launch a grass roots TV show to inspired others to create their life list, a show that sidestepped the fake-candid scripting of reality shows.

In the Interactive Age of Obama where authenticity is officially “in” MTV is finally recognizing the audience-attracting power of a real reality show for people of all ages. The four boys who started their road trip are the centerpiece of today’s story in the New York Times. Confession: I’ve only checked 14 off my 100 List yet this new chapter of the Buried Life story nudges me to see what one I’ll go after next. How about joining us by creating your list? Also, what group of close friends can you gather together for a life-changing single purpose that matters to all of you? I’m brainstorming on that myself.

Got a Loafer on Your Team or Committee?

Is someone not pulling their weight yet expecting to enjoy the fruits of your group’s hard work? Here are five tips to prevent freeloading. Avoid the unattractive, energy-sucking role of the nag. Instead increase the chances of bringing out the best talents and temperament in everyone. That makes work more productive and life more fun.

1. Meet in person at least once
Face-to-face meetings are more likely to build relationships than meeting virtually, by phone or online. After making a connection in person we are inclined to bond with the group and want to follow through.

2. Establish rules of engagement
As a group create ground rules that involve rewards and penalties. If, for example, someone doesn’t meet a deadline and doesn’t explain in advance, offering an alternative to make up for the loss, will the group drop that person?

3. Agree on a few vital commitments
As a group, prioritize top goals and tasks. Rather than agreeing to many assignments, settle on a few that are important to each member. Success begets more success – and group esprit de corps. Over-committing then missing goals makes one feel guilty and avoid teammates. It brings down the whole team.

4. Create a visible task tracking system
Create a way that all committee members must record their progress on a task and view others’ progress. Such transparency affects each member’s reputation with others on the team. The most successful self-managed teams have a specific top goal and a short, prioritized list of concretely-described tasks – each with a lead person and timetable. All these elements are easily viewable by all members.

5. Provide an automatic reminder system
Create a way that members receive reminders for key deadlines, perhaps by email. This system may also include notification when other team members have completed tasks or provided information that’s needed for a member to take the next step.

This is my lightly-adapted version of Ken Thompson’s tips for “stopping team freeriding.” As the author of Bioteams and an expert on team dynamics and virtual collaboration Thompson has a treasure trove of Me2We tips including two of my favorites, Five tips for a perfect meeting and The seven beliefs of high performing teams. Hear Ken’s interview and discover more about the power of self-organizing (Peer2Peer) groups.

See links here http://www.movingfrommetowe.com/2008/07/25/got-a-loafer-on-your-team-or-committee/