c/business-marketing

12

aaronsullivan•1h ago

Heard a marketing VP say brand loyalty is dead at a networking breakfast in Dearborn

I was grabbing a coffee before my first delivery and overheard this guy talking to someone. He said nobody under 40 cares about a brand name anymore, they just buy whatever has the best reviews on Amazon or TikTok that week. Made me think about all the flyers and mailers I still see companies sending out. Are we all just throwing money at something that stopped working 5 years ago? Has anyone else noticed this shift in how their customers decide what to buy?

23

claire_davis31•16h ago

My old boss told me influencer marketing was a waste of money for our B2B company

Back in 2021, I worked at a small software firm in Austin, and my boss was dead set against paying influencers. He said nobody in business buys stuff from a TikTok personality. I pushed back and convinced him to let me try a $500 trial with a niche industry YouTuber. That single video got us 12 qualified leads and a $8,000 deal in the first month. After that, he let me run a full campaign with three more creators, and we hit a 5x return in 90 days. Has anyone else had to fight their leadership to try something new like this?

12

park.miles•1d ago

Dropped $200 on a Facebook ad that got me 3 clicks

I put together a quick ad for my lawn care side gig targeting homeowners in Denver. Spent $200 over two weeks and only got 3 clicks and zero leads. Anyone else feel like Facebook ads are just a money pit for small local businesses?

2

keith_bennett•5d ago

That google maps trick for local seo blew my mind

I was trying to figure out why my coffee shop near Austin wasnt showing up in the map pack for 'best espresso'. Spent 3 weeks just messing with keywords on the website. Then a buddy told me to check the Google Business profile categories and add like 5 specific ones instead of just 'coffee shop'. Swear I jumped from page 5 to page 2 in 10 days. Any of you found a weird category that boosted your ranking?

3

shanef34•5d ago

Rant: Cold emails vs warm intros - which actually works better?

I spent 6 months sending cold emails to local shops in Denver, got maybe a 2% reply rate. Then I asked a buddy to introduce me to one owner, and that single meeting turned into a $3k deal. Am I wasting my time with cold outreach or just doing it wrong?

11

leo_black76•8d ago

Small win: Fixed my landing page CTA after a week of tinkering

I spent 7 days rewriting one button copy on my SaaS landing page because the signup rate was flat at 2.3%. Turned out the old 'Start Free Trial' was too vague, and changing it to 'Get My Custom Report' bumped conversions to 4.1% in three days. Anyone else spend way too long on a single text tweak that actually paid off?

25

juliarodriguez•8d ago

I used to blast generic emails to everyone in my database, now I send 5 personalized ones

Back in 2021, I was sending 500 emails a week to my list for my landscaping business in Austin. One day my open rate was 8% and I realized I was just shouting into the void. Now I spend an hour each Monday picking 5 people from my list who actually need my services and writing custom notes for each. Has anyone else found that less volume but more targeting works way better for local service marketing?

2

claire872•8d ago

Spent 3 months manually tracking email opens before realizing Mailchimp does it for free

So I run a small online store selling handmade candles in Austin and I thought I was being clever by tracking every email open with a spreadsheet and timestamps. I was copying links from my personal Gmail into a doc just to see who clicked. Took me about 3 months of doing this for every newsletter I sent out. Then a friend who does marketing for a bigger brand saw my setup and laughed for a solid minute. She showed me how Mailchimp already tracks opens and clicks automatically with the free tier. I felt like an idiot but also relieved because I was wasting about 4 hours every week on something that takes 10 seconds. Has anyone else found a simple tool that replaced a bunch of manual work you were doing?

6

karencampbell•9d ago

Spent 2 years writing 200-page marketing proposals. A client finally told me nobody reads past page 3.

I used to pride myself on these thick proposals with market research, buyer personas, full campaign timelines, budget breakdowns, the works. Took me 3 full days per big client. Then at a networking event in Columbus last month, a guy who runs a local HVAC company flat out said 'I stop reading after the first 2 pages. If you can't sell me on the idea quick, I move on.' It hit me that all those hours I spent on details were for nothing. Now I'm trying to trim everything down to a 3-page max. But part of me worries that without the depth, I'll come across as unprepared. Anyone else struggle with knowing how much detail is actually needed versus what we think is needed?

14

christopherh79•10d ago

Still seeing small businesses waste money on print ads in 2024

I deliver to a lot of local shops and I keep seeing coupons and flyers stuck in my bundles for the same places month after month. One coffee shop near me spends $400 a month on a local paper ad and I asked the owner if they ever tracked the response. He said he just assumes it works because his dad always did it that way. That money would go way further on a simple Google ad or even a neighborhood Facebook group. Has anyone else talked a shop owner out of throwing cash at dead print media?

17

murray.cora•10d ago

A client told me our emails sounded like robot spam

She said 'I almost deleted this before reading it' so I swapped our corporate tone for plain conversational English and open rates jumped 18% in a month. Has anyone else had to ditch their brand voice to actually get replies?

6

the_piper•10d ago

Finally switched my landing page copy after 6 months of bad results

Spent half a year getting 2% conversion rates on a landing page I was sure was perfect. A guy in the Houston marketers meetup ran a quick heatmap test and showed me 90% of visitors never scrolled past the second paragraph. How do you decide when to kill a page that you've put a lot of work into?

2

brianm66•11d ago

Showerthought: I used to throw money at Google Ads without checking the search terms report

Honestly, for like the first year of running my own side hustle, I just set up a campaign and let Google do its thing. I figured their smart bidding and broad match keywords would just work. Then I looked at my search terms report last March and found my ad was showing for 'free dental cleaning how to do at home' which had nothing to do with my actual service. I was paying for clicks from people who wanted DIY tutorials not actual appointments. Now I run a negative keyword list every single week and it cut my wasted spend by about 40 percent. The thing that really got me was when a client told me 'I only clicked your ad by accident' and that's when I knew I had to change my whole approach. Has anyone else had a similar wake up call with their PPC campaigns?

4

charles_young92•12d ago

My Facebook ad budget blew up in 3 hours with no sales

Set a $500 daily cap for a new campaign targeting small business owners in Austin. Woke up to $1,200 spent and zero conversions because I forgot to exclude a lookalike audience from a bad source. Anyone else have a runaway budget disaster?

2

lily_torres31•12d ago

Pro tip: My Instagram ad budget disappeared in 3 days with zero sales

I set a $500 budget for a Facebook ad campaign targeting small business owners in Austin, but it got spent in 72 hours and all I got was 14 link clicks that bounced in 2 seconds. Has anyone else had their ad budget burn through way faster than expected without any real conversions?

17

beth276•13d ago

Just noticed a tiny grocery store in Portland gets 10x more foot traffic than the big chain next door by parking their samples cart right at the sidewalk edge

They literally just roll a cart of free mini muffins and coffee out to the curb during lunch rush and it pulls people in off the street like a magnet has anyone else seen a local spot do something this simple that actually works?

7

mianelson•13d ago

Spent $0 on Facebook ads but got 200 leads from a local Facebook group

I was stuck trying to get traction for my landscaping business without a budget for ads. So I joined a few neighborhood buy-sell-trade groups and just started answering people's questions about lawn care. Within 2 weeks, I had 200 people messaging me for quotes just from being helpful. Has anyone else had luck ditching paid ads for free community posts?

19

drew_jones31•14d ago

Compared influencer collabs vs. direct mail for our Nashville launch

Spent $3k on an Instagram influencer with 50k followers and got 12 leads. Dropped $500 on handwritten postcards to local businesses and closed 3 contracts in two weeks. Anyone else find the old school stuff just works better?

10

shanef34•14d ago

Threw $300 at Facebook ads with no targeting and crickets

I run a small local bakery in Austin and thought I'd try Facebook ads to boost weekend sales. I spent $300 over two weeks just boosting posts with zero audience targeting or pixel setup. Got like 12 clicks and maybe one extra customer. My buddy who does digital marketing laughed and showed me how to narrow by zip code and interest groups. That $300 felt like lighting cash on fire for nothing. Has anyone else burned money on ads before learning the basics?

11

gray_morgan•16d ago

Hit 300 followers on my niche blog and one comment made my month

I run a small blog about local bakery marketing tips. Last Thursday, a woman who owns a donut shop in Austin commented saying my advice on Google Maps listings got her 10 extra calls that week. She said 'your post saved my Saturday morning rush.' It felt way better than any big number. Has anyone else had a random comment from a stranger stick with you like that?

2

sethfoster•16d ago

Hit 500 email subscribers last week and it completely changed how I see list building

I always thought email lists were mostly for spammy sales stuff. But after I hit 500 subscribers from a single blog post about pricing strategies, I started actually reading what people asked me. It turned into real conversations that led to 3 paid consulting gigs in two weeks. Has anyone else found that a small list beats a big social media following for actual business?

18

jamie_webb67•1mo ago

Spent a morning at a small town chamber of commerce meeting and it rewired how I think about local ads

I was in Sandusky last month visiting family and tagged along to a chamber breakfast. An old guy who runs a hardware store got up and talked about how he stopped running Facebook ads and just started putting handwritten thank you notes in every order. He said his sales went up 15% in 3 months just from word of mouth. I had been spending $400 a month on Google Ads for my own shop and pulling my hair out over click rates. That one talk made me rethink everything. Has anyone else found that old school personal touches beat digital in local markets?

18

the_terry•1mo ago

I used to think influencer marketing was a total scam until a buddy spent $400 on a local food blogger and saw his BBQ joint's Saturday sales jump 30% in 3 weeks.

What finally convinced me was watching her single Instagram post about his brisket pull a line out the door at 11 AM on a Tuesday, so has anyone else seen real ROI from micro-influencers in their town?

5

gavin228•1mo ago

Overheard a vendor at a networking event say 'stop selling features'

Last month I was at a small business mixer in Austin and caught this guy in a suit telling someone to stop talking about what their product does. He said nobody cares about features unless you lead with the problem they solve first. I took that to heart and rewrote my landing page over the weekend. Has anyone else tried shifting their pitch to pure problem first?

14

logan658•1mo ago

My move from blasting emails to building a small list of real leads

A year ago I was sending 5000 cold emails a month through Mailchimp. Open rates tanked to like 8% after three months. Now I target maybe 50 businesses a week with personalized messages about their actual problems. I got 12 replies in the first week from a dried-out furniture store in Phoenix. Anyone else ditch the spray-and-pray method for something that actually works?