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As a small business owner, you need to be a lot of things to make your business go—but you don't have to be a marketer alone. Join host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, and Kelsi Carter, Brand Production Coordinator, as they explore what it really takes to market your business. Even if marketing's not your thing! You'll hear from small business leaders just like you along with industry experts as they share their stories, challenges, and best advice to get real results. This is the Be a Marketer podcast! New episodes every Thursday!
Today on episode 41 of the Be A Marketer podcast, you'll hear from a man with a plan for that extra day we'll get in 2024, and I'm sharing what you can expect from this year's episodes. This is the Be A Marketer podcast.
Dave:When you started your business, you probably didn't realize how many hats you'd actually have to wear. All of a sudden, you have to be an owner. You have to be a boss. You have to be the person making sure all the things go, all while making sure you're getting new customers to keep things going. And that means you also have to be a marketer.
Dave:Listen. We get it. Marketing is not your thing. You're a business owner first, a marketer by necessity. The good news, you don't have to be a marketer alone.
Dave:I'm your host, Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact. And I help small business owners like you make sense of online marketing. And on this podcast, we'll explore how to find the time to be a marketer. No jargon, no hype, just real stories to inspire you and practical advice you can act on. So remember, friend, you can be a marketer.
Dave:And at Constant Contact, we're here to help. Well, hello, friend, and welcome to the first episode of 2024. I speak for all of us at Constant Contact when I say I hope you had a successful 2023. I also hope, of course, you had a chance to spend some time with friends and family and get a bit of rest as well. I'm sure you're already back into the swing of things and working toward your 2024 goals.
Dave:And it's my goal to make the Be A Marker podcast your go to resource for inspiration and practical advice. Now to that end, this year, you'll notice a new type of episode mixed in with our regular interviews. These new Ask Dave episodes will feature my deep dive answers to your burning marketing questions. Now no question is too small. So if you're a constant contact customer with a marketing dilemma that's been tripping you up, you can head on over to the constant contact community and submit your question for the opportunity to have it featured and answered on the show.
Dave:I'll include a link in the show notes for you. Now I'm looking forward to your questions and sharing those ask Dave episodes with you. But today, we have an interview about something that only comes along every 4 years. That's right. More time in the form of an extra day, thanks to a leap year.
Dave:Now you may leap to thinking about what you may do with some extra time, but before you do, today's guests already have a plan for you and I can't wait to share it with you. So let's get to it. Well, friend, today's guests are Todd Schimpkus and Maggie Franck. Todd is the president, CEO of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce located in New York state. Maggie is the CEO of Wellspring, the domestic violence and sexual assault services agency for Saratoga County.
Dave:Wellspring is just one of the organizations to benefit from Todd's creation, leap of kindness day. Now in its 3rd anniversary, Leap of Kindness Day poses the question, what should you do with an extra day? For Todd, the answer is easy. Use that day to do something kind for someone else. If you're anything like me, I'm sure you'll agree that this is a simple yet fantastic idea.
Dave:I asked Todd to elaborate. Let's pick up the conversation there.
Todd Shimkus:We only get a February 29th every 4 years, leap year. And so what we're trying to do is to get everybody to use that extra day to do something kind for someone else. And it could be anything from working with a nonprofit organization to fulfill a need that they have, to serving food, lunch, breakfast to the local first responders, to thanking a teacher, writing a thank you note to a bus driver. That's what we found over the years. Everybody figures out who they would like to thank and how they would like to thank them using that extra day.
Todd Shimkus:And there's a whole host of different things for different people in different parts of the country in the world.
Dave:Maggie, I'm curious from you. How did you find out about leap of kindness day?
Maggie Fronk:Well, I think Todd told everybody about it. And I think one of the great things is there was buying in everywhere, our impact sector organizations, our community, our businesses, and it went nationwide and even beyond the US right away because it was such a great idea.
Dave:It really is a great idea. Yeah. So why did you wanna get involved then, Maggie?
Maggie Fronk:So I think one thing is not only did we get time, talent, and treasure from people in our community helping many of our impact sector nonprofit organizations, but it also gave us a chance to let people know about the work we do. So someone who might not have known about Captain's Youth Shelter or the community health center or Wellspring, as they read about leap of kindness day, they said, oh, I didn't know there was a place here that domestic violence survivors could get help. It was a great way to do community education and to invite people to show that they care about some of these issues, whether it is about food insecurity. Many of our community members did food drives. Other ones did things to help kids or things to help elders by the Wesley community.
Maggie Fronk:I love that people bought stuffed animals for the elders who were living in their community. Youth got involved for captain. They did a food drive for their food pantry and oh, I'm sorry. That was for the community health center. A food drive for their food pantry and also came and stocked it and cleaned it and got it organized.
Maggie Fronk:The local library, they did a drive to let people know about captain services So what
Dave:So what would you say then? How has Wellspring benefited from participating?
Maggie Fronk:One thing that is very important for us, we have people come with a myriad of needs, and many businesses would give us gift cards that we give to our clients for direct emergency assistance. So that might be to buy over the counter meds for your kids, to buy diapers, to buy that outfit that you need to get your new job, or you just got a new job, but you've gotta get to work for 2 weeks. So to go to Stewart's and buy a gas card so somebody can get to work, it helped us in that way. And in the years that we've done it, we've also given back. I know, the last time what we did is each of my staff, we went and said, who in the community are you so thankful for for being our partner?
Maggie Fronk:And we went around that day and gave awards. So every one of my advocates, every one of my staff chose somebody in the community that they see as a champion for our work, that they do something very unique to help us, and they got to go and recognize them on that day. So it was two way for us.
Dave:I love this that there's I mean, there's obviously some immediate benefit and impact in terms of just what you receive from us. I just love this idea too of just we probably need more of these days, Todd. See if you can work up for us, but it's just a way of people to be kind to each other during this time. Right? Which is really amazing.
Dave:Now, Todd, I'm curious. This started as, like, somewhat of a a chamber activation. Right? But, like, what can you tell me about how that has grown? And and maybe, like, who can participate?
Dave:How do people participate? What can you tell me there?
Todd Shimkus:In 2016, when we launched it, we were just doing it in Saratoga. Right? But quickly, it spread and other chambers heard we were doing it, and we decided, you can have everything we got. Here's our logo. Here's the posters.
Todd Shimkus:Here's the language we're using in media releases and all that. Here's the here's the emails we're sending out to our members and to the community. And we had, I think, 53 chambers in 30 states in 2016. So in 2020, we partnered with a whole host of different organizations, the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, ChamberMaster, Constant Contact, and helped spread it out. And we had over 200 chambers in the US, Canada.
Todd Shimkus:We even made it over to Ireland, In Nana, Ireland, they ran their own leap of kindness day activities. When we looked at posts, both in 2016 and 2020, We had posts in India, in Africa, and South America, all over the place. So that was pretty special when you look at that. Because all we asked from people was, use the hashtag leap of kindness day so we can pay some attention to where it's going on that day. As we're driving around doing things in our community, We're checking on social media to see where the posts are coming in from, and it's it's a special day for me.
Todd Shimkus:I I'm I'm not gonna lie. It's one of those days where you start looking at all these posts and you're thinking, oh my god. This one little idea really has spread. So but it's got a long way to go. There's a big world out there.
Todd Shimkus:5,000,000,000 people or something like that. So let's figure out how we get it even more.
Maggie Fronk:I think so many people, we hear about all the bad in the world, all the social issues are, all the challenges, all the things that are wrong every day. But if you just give people some guidance on what you can do to make the world better, folks just jump on that because that makes us feel good. And the more we hear that that's going on, the more we do good in this world, and we feel better about it. And that's, I think, that's why it went viral so immediately, Todd, is because we all wanna make the world better. We just don't know how to do it.
Todd Shimkus:Well, the other thing we figured out the first time around, and we explored even more to enhance it in 2020, and we're doing that again for 2024. And that's that we we do put out a list of recommendations of what just any family or individual or person in a community anywhere can do. It can be as simple as writing a thank you note to made up to somebody that made a huge difference. It can be bringing a a dozen donuts to the first responders in their community. It can be giving an apple to a teacher.
Todd Shimkus:Right? It doesn't have to be a multimillion dollar donation. It doesn't have to be you spend the whole day painting a room. You can. It can be those simple things for individuals anywhere.
Todd Shimkus:And so the logo we created, everything we've got is there's no community in it. There's no chamber logo on it. There's nothing like that. It is a standalone all on its own program and easily replicated by any organization, any family, any church, any community that wants to do it.
Maggie Fronk:And multimillion dollar donations are encouraged and accepted, though, too, my god.
Dave:If you're out there, we will be accepting those as well. So, please, What is the website that people can go to to find the information on how they can participate in all of that?
Todd Shimkus:This is the 1st year where we've done a stand alone website. So it's sleep of kindness day.org, and that has pretty much everything you need. It's got some past history. It's got some recommendations. It's got a sign up form where you can let us know what you're doing, what community you're in, what organization you're with.
Todd Shimkus:We're not gonna solicit anybody that does that. We just wanna know. We want that information. We're creating a Google map and we're we're putting dots in at every location where somebody says they're going to do something. Last time around, it was a pretty full map, but we want it to be even bigger this time.
Dave:I got to imagine obviously, you need to get the word out, which is one of the reasons why we're doing this, but, there's so many things involved. And so how far in advance do you actually start planning for this event?
Todd Shimkus:It's funny. I I think I want organizations and people to know the first time around, we pulled this all together pretty quickly. It was maybe a 5, 6 week sprint for us, and that was in order to do it across the whole county. They hit and communicate with so many different people. But in a smaller community, a small chamber, a small organization, your church, you could probably do it within a couple of weeks because you simply gotta figure out what people need and or want in your community, who can make that happen.
Todd Shimkus:And then, like Maggie said, you run a clothing drive or you're running a drive for slippers or for stuffed animals or whatever whatever the request might be. So it can be done in a couple weeks. Ours, we kicked it off just a couple weeks ago in mid December. And we started by simply asking our impact sector organizations, what do you need? What do you want?
Todd Shimkus:And starting to post that on our own website with the chamber for Lipa Kindness Day.
Dave:Maggie, I'm wondering from you, is there anything special that you have to do from a planning perspective to highlight your participation in Lipa Kindness Day?
Maggie Fronk:We just tell the chamber and our community who we are and what the needs are and why the needs are there, And then we leave it to them to to care. And it is astounding, the caring that the community gives back.
Dave:Todd, one of the things you've been talking about and mentioning here, and I think this is obviously to Maggie's benefit as well, is that the examples and the things and the ways that people can get involved. And, like, how important is that to, I guess, to demonstrate or even just show or give people ideas so that they I feel like like I could even say for myself. Right? Like, oh, okay. Yeah.
Dave:Lipocaine is day. Okay. What do we do? Like, I don't know. How do you right?
Dave:And so it's, how important is that to make it simple for people to participate?
Todd Shimkus:Yeah. The other thing we do as we get closer to that day, as an example, the easiest thing for somebody to do for a lot of people to do that day is to make a donation. So we put together a page on the Chamber's website with all of with the links to all of our impact sector organizations that have online donation capabilities. So if you have done no preplanning at all, you wake up on February 29th and you hear leave a kindness day, and you go, jeez. I wish I had known about this.
Todd Shimkus:You can still make a donation. You can still do something. And, oh, by the way, if you think about it being as simple as a card, you can pick up a card anywhere, write a note, and hand it to a coworker to thank them or whoever it might be in your life that is making a difference in a way that you think is positive. So what can you tell
Dave:me about? So obviously, you have the website now. What other marketing tools are you using to kinda get the word out about this?
Todd Shimkus:Yeah. I mean, the the number one, as you know, is Constant Contact. That has been from day 1 the most significant vehicle that we've used to communicate with our our members, our impact sector, our community, our elected officials. You know, we have a database of some 10,000 people in our contact list based on our our membership size and we're able to communicate with them and to stay in touch with them. So as we get the needs, we continue to use Constant Contact, email that out.
Todd Shimkus:Honestly, we do some curating ourselves on the staff. One of the things that I think chambers, the best chambers out there are really good connectors. They hear about an issue, a need, a challenge, and they figure out who they can bring to the table to take advantage of that opportunity or to maybe fix an issue that's going on. So here with leave of kindness day, as we see the requests come in, we try to cultivate and say, alright. Is there somebody in the community that is uniquely qualified to service that need?
Todd Shimkus:So and I'll give you an example with Maggie and Wellspring. This this year, As Maggie mentioned, they're looking for gift cards. In a couple cases, we have connections with the companies like Stewart's or Target are often the gift cards that they get donated to help the folks that they're they're serving. So we've reached out to Stewart's and to Target and asked, hey. Could you do a match program?
Todd Shimkus:So that if up to x amount of dollars, that if people donate gift cards to Stewart's, you'll match it up to 5000, 10000, whatever number they choose. Same with Target. And so we're working with them to try to double essentially what that donation ends up being. And in 2020, my favorite story is Habitat for Humanity. Their request was they wanted local people to donate 2 by fours for a local home build they were doing later that year.
Todd Shimkus:I remember seeing it going, who's gonna drive to a store, buy a 2 by 4, put it in their car, drive it to Habitat for Humanity, and drop it off? No. Probably. Maybe a couple of family friends of the organization board member's name. Right?
Todd Shimkus:And I ran into Doug Ford from Curtis Lumber. They have 8 stores in our local region, and they sell lumber. They sell 2 by fours. So a local family owned store and within 3 days, Doug had a leave of kindness day sign at every one of their cash registers. All of the others.
Todd Shimkus:They put out markers with them so you could all of the others. They put out markers with them so you could actually sign a note to the family whose house was gonna be built using the 2 by fours. And then the company decided at some point, you know what? We're gonna match it. And that was an unbelievable program.
Todd Shimkus:I think there were 2,002 by fours that were purchased. That means about 4,000 went into that house. And Curtis Lumber, interestingly enough, even though the next 3 years have not been leap year, every February, they set up a display at all their registers where you can buy a 2 by 4, and they donate them to Habitat for Humanity with a match. So it has continued even though there wasn't an actual leap of Kindness Day.
Maggie Fronk:Dave, you asked about marketing.
Dave:Yeah.
Maggie Fronk:I'm gonna add one more way that we use Constant Contact for marketing about this. Please. You mentioned there's 365 more days in every year. We tell those stories, and I've actually volunteered for Hat for Humanity Builds where my well wishes for that family are on a 2 by 4 that I helped to hammer up in the doorway. And the same with Wellspring.
Maggie Fronk:We put out those stories later of how somebody's generosity helped a family that was in need. So I think that's the way the leap of kindness spirit keeps going all year through our constant contact newsletter that we do for our agency.
Dave:So, Meggie, I wanna continue there and pick us up and and talk a little bit about that. Right? So when it comes to the marketing, how are you finding the time to get that stuff done? Like, what does your staff look like? Do you have people on staff that were responsible for that?
Dave:Are you responsible for that? Like, how does that all come together for you?
Maggie Fronk:Okay. So I've got a staff of 20, and we serve about a 1000 clients a year and answer 1700 hotline calls a year. Most of my staff are doing the work with survivors or doing the work with prevention education and social change. We have a very small administrative team, and we actually have one staff person primarily who works on kind of the social media, and then my director of philanthropy and myself also supplement that. And but that is kind of our community outreach team, so that's why we are so reliant on tools that help us to do that efficiently, just like Constant Contact.
Maggie Fronk:And that's the biggest thing is how can we get our message out to the community because there are so many people out there who might be in need someday, who might know someone in need. And to know what we do, more than just the domestic violence and rape crisis services, but, like, what does that mean? And how could I call? And how do I help somebody? That's where outreach and marketing is so important to us because that's how we help those that we that need it.
Dave:How does Constant Contact fit into the work that you do, but just overall? Tom, maybe I'll go to you first.
Todd Shimkus:I'll tell you a story from the pandemic. We recognized right away, and New York was in an interesting spot. We were the epicenter of the initial wave when nobody had any idea what what to do or what was really happening. And our governor, Cuomo, at the time became famous. He actually won an Emmy award for his daily briefings that that he was giving.
Todd Shimkus:And what we saw and heard in the first days was this desire for local information. We knew what our state was telling us we couldn't do. We had no idea what was happening at the local level and what our local officials and local leaders were telling us we could do. Where could we get help if we were suddenly unemployed? What programs were available through the Small Business Administration to local businesses who feared they'd be out of business without support.
Todd Shimkus:And what we started doing on March 13th, we did a daily email, and we expanded it to everybody in our database. I actually, on March 13th, the email simply ended with, if there is anything we can do, my cell phone is and I put my cell phone in the email and said, call me, text me anytime. And I gotta tell you, there were days where I felt like 10,000 people called or texted me. But for that first 100 days, we sent out an email through Constant Contact to 10,000 people every day, 7 days a week with what we felt was the most important thing they needed to know in Saratoga County. And I gotta tell you, I still get thanked for the level of communication that we showed.
Todd Shimkus:The number of people in our database exploded because we allowed people, to join and to sign on to get these updates. I think we sent out 1,500,000 emails in the 1st 90 days or some ridiculous number like that. So what we learned from that experience is that information matters. If you send out emails with good content, people open them, and it transformed the way we communicate with our members and community. So we one of the things we were emailing at the time was COVID data.
Todd Shimkus:The county put up a nice website with the data, but you couldn't track it. So we would look at numbers over the course of the week or months and show you charts. And we did the same thing with vaccinations. As the vaccination rate went up, we wanted people to see with a bar chart that how much progress we were making towards getting our community vaccinated. And so when we came out of the pandemic, we decide, alright.
Todd Shimkus:What other data do we have? So our most popular email right now is we do an insider's report, which every month has the latest economic data for Saratoga County. We can't get it anywhere else. It's got 4 different sets of data. We've added to it recently with a 5th.
Todd Shimkus:It's the most opened email we have and we send out a lot. We send out ribbon cutting emails, we do a program with a local TV station called the Upstate of Business. We send out an email about who's featured in the Upstate of Business. We send out an email about who's featured in the Up state of business. We send out a an events email, you know, shameless self promotion of chamber events.
Todd Shimkus:But these are all regular communications that we're doing. And without Constant Contact, we'd have no way to deliver that in the in the way that we do. And our open rates are still sky high. It's amazing to me. But that's what we learn.
Todd Shimkus:We send out good content through Constant Contact, and people actually open it and read it.
Dave:How about you, Maggie? How what are you finding or how do you
Todd Shimkus:using Constant Contact in your regular activities? I
Dave:think for a lot of things that we in Constant Contact in your regular activities?
Maggie Fronk:I think for a lot of things that we do, one is we have a monthly newsletter that kinda covers everything the agency is doing, kinda issue, awareness, events, things that people wanna know about the agency. So that's something that they can count on getting every month, and it goes out to thousands of people at once, which is phenomenal. But we can also customize. So if you're interested in knowing about fundraisers, if you're interested in knowing about social change programs, we have different groups, and that allows us to not load people's inboxes with things they aren't interested in, but really to send them targeted information that they want to open. Because let's face it, all of our inboxes just sometimes feel like an avalanche.
Maggie Fronk:But to know that when I go there, it's gonna be something I signed up for that I wanna hear about just really that makes that open happen. And and it makes people really appreciate that you're giving them the information they wanna hear.
Dave:Is there something you like most about Constant Contact?
Maggie Fronk:I like to say that I'm a digital dinosaur, and I've been using Constant Contact for so long, and it is just so user friendly that even digital dinosaurs can feel very, very comfortable using it.
Dave:How how about you, Todd?
Todd Shimkus:I love Maggie's answer. That's it. As I mentioned, the pandemic emails and granted we had a communications team that could help, but we were all separated. We were all remote at that point. Communication between us was a little challenged at times.
Todd Shimkus:So I found myself often I felt like I was also in the best position to know what was the information that day that had to go out. And it was easier for me versus having to tell the story 3 times. Let me just sit down and and do it myself. And then once it was done, I could say to alright. Somebody else send this out so I don't mess that up.
Todd Shimkus:I love the AI tools that you're adding now. I know our staff is using them to make sure we're using subjects that get attention and help generate opens and that's super helpful because we were always guessing at that. And now we've got a little more analytics to help us drive open rates. So that's also been super helpful.
Dave:Obviously, one of the things, one of the challenges with doing this is you have to obviously have and maintain a list of people to send to. Is there anything either of you have found that is working well for you in terms of building that
Todd Shimkus:list? I'll give you one one example, and I know Maggie talked about segmenting. Here's a great story from us. We have a restaurant week. I know a lot of Chambers do restaurant weeks in their community.
Todd Shimkus:And when we first started, we took it over from a radio station. Now we couldn't provide any of the restaurants with radio ads. We don't own a radio station. So we were like, alright. Well, how do what do we do here?
Todd Shimkus:So instead of charging them that year, we asked them for gift cards. You had to give us at least a $50 gift card, and we did an online sweepstakes. So one person was gonna win. It turned out to be $25100 in gift cards to the roughly 50 restaurants that were participating, but you had to give us an email because that's how we were gonna notify you. We now do that with our program called love our locals, which is a way to drive people to use local products and services in November December and to shop local and dine out local and all of that.
Todd Shimkus:And, again, we're collecting emails so that the next year when we run Love Our Locals, we have another 1,000, 2,000 emails. In Restaurant Week, we're up to, like, 18,000 people that have participated in our 4 or 5 annual restaurant weeks because people have heard you might win $3,000 worth of gift cards if you're entered to this thing. You won't have to make a meal for the rest of the year if you win one of these things. And so that way, we're also able to email those groups when Chowderfest happens, when International Flavor Feast happens. We know they wanna dine out here.
Todd Shimkus:So we email that list with our love our locals when we have a ribbon cutting email that we send out. We're sending it to them because we know they wanna support local businesses. So why not support the new local business that just opened and just invested here? So those are the types of ways we've segmented our groups and helped promote some of the programs that we have to the community.
Dave:Maggie, anything on your side in terms of what you've learned in terms of just getting more people on your list to be able to spread the word?
Maggie Fronk:Sure. I wish I had $3,000 worth of gift cards to entice them with. I don't. But I think very often when I'm talking with people, it's something that's, oh, I didn't know about that program, or I wish I knew more about things to, like, be aware of what my teen might be experiencing like. That's a time that I could say, hey.
Maggie Fronk:We put out information like that. If you'd like to share your email, I can make sure that kind of thing gets sent to you. And so for us, I think it really comes from the 1 on 1 kinda contact. Or when we go and talk to a group, we say, were you interested in this? Do you wanna hear more?
Maggie Fronk:And we just say, if you'd like to sign up, we can send this to you. And, again, I think people say because they are signing up, it's not something that came from somewhere they don't know. We don't put anybody on our list unless they say, I want to be on the list. And so people trust. And so, Todd, you do it with $3,000 worth of gift cards.
Maggie Fronk:I do it 1 on 1 person to person as I talk to them, but they both work.
Todd Shimkus:And, Dave, to come back to leap of kindness day, so we have a database of some 600 chambers across the world that have at varying times 2016, 2020, or even in the last couple of months that have indicated an interest in being involved in leap of kindness. And so we're using that list to try to draw attention, and we're sending that list the updates. So as we develop content that they can use and share, we are using Constant Contact to reach out to those 600 plus chambers. So I love this, a lot
Dave:of what you're both talking about. I mean, I think the raffles are are, of course, a great way to get people on the list. The 1 on 1, I think, is really important because oftentimes, I think marketing, when you start thinking about it, sometimes becomes such an abstract thing. They're like, I'm gonna do marketing now. And and, really, it is just communicating with people and letting them know about something that they may be interested in.
Dave:So I'd love to hear the the differing strategies here or tactics. And, Todd, I wanna ask you, what would you say has been your biggest accomplishment with Leap of Kindness Day so far?
Todd Shimkus:I think it's the stories that I hear. It's I try on leave a kindness day I did in 16 and 20 to get to as many of the events that are happening that day as I can't get to all of them around here. There's a lot. So Saratoga Bridges, which is a local organization that supports the differently abled adults in our community, to see the chair of the chamber's board walking through their offices, delivering flowers to workers that do god's work, really, every day, and to be thanked by somebody they've never met, right, who's just doing it on behalf of the community to sit, and Maggie mentioned this, to sit in the lobby of the Westlake surrounded by, I don't know, 200 stuffed animals that were donated that were about to be delivered to residents of that nursing home. Stuffed animals, I can vouch personally for how valuable they become in terms of friends and somebody companions to seniors, particularly those with dementia and Alzheimer's.
Todd Shimkus:And I went and adopted a soldier. I went there and helped stuff bags that were being sent to soldiers serving overseas. Every brewery in 2020 in Saratoga County donated $1 from every pint on February 29th to their local charity. So that's how I ended my night at a couple of breweries tipping back a couple of pints and supporting local causes that were really important to the owners of those local businesses.
Dave:So let me just ask you this then. How does this this is off the ground few years well, You know what I mean? Few times running now. How does that make you feel?
Todd Shimkus:What I really love, I have a great time that day. Right? I have a lot of fun. It's amazing to see it spread. Here's how I will know it has made it.
Todd Shimkus:It's when other organizations and other communities start doing it without us having to remind them. So that to me is I don't know if it's this year or 4 years from now or 8 years from now, But at some point, this becomes what you do on February 29th. Every 4 years when we have it, it becomes a way to celebrate that extra day. We're not there yet. I still gotta push and prod and promote and market, right, and email and all that.
Todd Shimkus:So I'm hoping someday that it just naturally happens. I don't know how we get there, but I'm hoping at some point we do.
Dave:So I wanna ask one more marketing related question and then give you a chance to kind of end here with anything else that you wanted to add. But what would you say and, Maggie, I'll start with you just for the the folks with the marketing hat on here. What is your best piece of marketing advice?
Maggie Fronk:I think marketing, we hear it and we kind of brace a little bit. Oh, boy. This is about sales. It's about whatever. Marketing is about relationships and people, And leap of kindness day is about community.
Maggie Fronk:And when you hear the stories of what happens and who comes together and how it really weaves the fabric of a community of caring, that's what marketing is.
Dave:Todd, how about you?
Todd Shimkus:I think the number one thing is you have to be authentic. You gotta be yourself. However you communicate, whatever cause or mission you're trying to push out there, whether it's for profit or to make an impact, your heart and soul needs to be in it. And you've gotta be yourself as you talk about it. The stories you tell have to be real.
Todd Shimkus:And when you have real stories that are impactful like we do with Lipa Kindness Day, that helps market that program. Not as just something to do on February 29th, but it's something you want to do on February 29th.
Dave:Anything either of you would like to add or close with before we wrap up here?
Todd Shimkus:I really wanna invite everybody to think about somebody that's done something special for you in your life. And on February 29th, as part of leap of kindness day, Do something kind for them. Do something that makes you feel good and makes an impact in your community. The more people we can get to do that, the better this world will be.
Maggie Fronk:And I'm just gonna amplify that, Todd, because I think the more that we are given opportunities to help others to see the good, to do the good, to sometimes be recipients of somebody else's kindness we never expected, the more we make a great community and the more we feel better about this life.
Dave:Wellfriend, let's recap some items from that discussion. Number 1, make it easy to spread the word and participate. Sure. You have to start with a great idea. But beyond that, you have to give people the resources to make it easy for them to spread the word and participate.
Dave:Todd mentioned the leap of kindness day hashtag that people could use and resources such as the website that offers the logo, posters, language to use, and an email template along with ideas for how to get involved. These resources have allowed Leap of Kindness Day to grow internationally. Always think through what you need to provide to make it easier for people to get on board. Number 2. Match your ascending frequency to the need.
Dave:During the pandemic, Todd recognized the need for more localized information in his community. To meet that need, the chamber began sending daily emails to its list. When it comes to frequency, yes. At the very least, you should be consistent. But there are no hard and fast rules to how often you should send.
Dave:Don't be afraid to send more often when the information or offers are timely and relevant to the audience that you're reaching. And number 3, create smaller groups of contacts to send more relevant information. Maggie spoke about the importance of sending people information they're actually interested in. By creating interest lists or segments, you can be more targeted in your messaging and improve your overall results as people appreciate you taking their interest into account. So here's your action item for today.
Dave:Mark your calendar for a leap of kindness day, February 29, 2024. Visit the leap of kindness day website, leap of kindness day.org, to find out how you can participate in leap of kindness day by doing something kind for someone else. Whether you'd like to do something kind or need something kind done for your organization, start planning now so you can get your network involved on February 29th. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Be A Marketer podcast. If you have questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you.
Dave:You can email me directly at dave.charest@constantcontact.com. If you did enjoy today's episode, please take a moment to leave us a review. Your honest feedback will help other small business market like yourself find the show. Well, friend, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and continued success to you and your business.