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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 49, you'll hear from a founder whose passion became her purpose. This is the be a marketer podcast.
Intro Voice:Be a marketer.
Dave Charest: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. Remember, friend, you can be a marketer. In a constant contact, we're here to help.
Dave Charest:Well, friend, today's guest is Aisha James, founder and creator of the Taste of Black Saint Louis in, well, you guessed it, Saint Louis, Missouri. Now the taste of Black St. Louis is a multisensory food experience created to bring local communities and visitors together for a full weekend of culture, tasting, and shopping while simultaneously bringing awareness to the city's black culinary talents by shining a light on black owned businesses within the region. Now I just wanna give you a sense of the growth of this festival. Now in 2018, the festival started with 45 vendors and 7,000 attendees.
Dave Charest:In 2019, 60 vendors and 16,000 attendees. 2020, well, pandemic, no festival. But when 2021 rolls in, it becomes a 3 day festival with 100 vendors and 83,000 attendees, generating 100 of 1,000 of dollars for the city of St. Louis. In 2022, Ayesha did something, well, many entrepreneurs wouldn't think of doing.
Dave Charest:She hit pause on the festival. Why? Let's pick up the conversation there.
Aisha James:Well, the situation that we have with that is that we actually grew fairly quickly. And what I historically was doing was everything that those vendors paid me, I put back into the taste of Black St. Louis. But when we grew as fast as we did from, you can see, going from 16,000 people to 83,000 people, your budget gets a lot bigger. And, honestly, we just weren't ready to be able to handle that.
Aisha James:So instead of watering down the product that we put out, or I don't wanna say put product, our platform, We decided to basically go back to the drawing board and say, hey. You know, let's take a pause this year and basically come back stronger, and that was what we did the next following year in 2023. All of our vendors and everybody supported us, so we were very much so happy that people understood that, hey. We just had to take a a moment and go back to the drawing board to be able to get this right. Right.
Dave Charest:So we're on track for 2024?
Aisha James:Yes, we are. We are on track for 2024. We're coming back. Still our 3 days, we will be back downtown, again, across from city hall in Soldier's Memorial. And those vendors, they're actually waiting for me to come back.
Aisha James:I've sent out a lot of the information now just letting them know the applications and things of that nature are open, and they're excited and they're ready.
Dave Charest:This is pretty exciting just in terms of at least from my perspective, but I'm sure it's gotta be from your perspective as well. Right? But, like, you started this thing, and if I'm remembering correctly from the last time we talked, this was kind of like, hey. I think you were inspired by seeing something similar in Chicago, if I'm not mistaken. And Yeah.
Dave Charest:You were like, hey. This looks like a cool idea. And then your friends were like, okay. Cool. But let us know when you do it.
Dave Charest:Yeah. Yeah. And so what does that then feel like to be at this place where I mean, this is like, it's huge now. I mean Yes. What is that feeling for you?
Aisha James:The feeling for me is surreal at times. I have friends. Actually, one of my very good friends, he celebrated his birthday yesterday, and I've seen him at dinner. Every time he sees me, he calls me Miss Taste of Black St. Louis.
Aisha James:Even though I'm one of his good friends, he just I'm like, tell me. But he's like, Miss Taste of Black St. Louis? I'm like, stop it. But he remembers when I was just talking about this.
Aisha James:That's what he always just keeps saying. I remember when you were just telling me about what you wanted to happen and to see you now and it being one of the largest black food festivals in the city of Saint Louis. And then we looked up, and it was part of Google that we're the largest black owned food festival within the Midwest. There are other food festivals, but we're black. We're solely black owned.
Aisha James:So to see that and to see us grow is just the same surreal feeling that I have when I see some of my first vendors that started off with me in a 10 by 10 tint, and then they send me messages or invitations to they're doing a grand opening for a brick and mortar, or they're coming back with a food truck. So to see these visions come to play, these dreams come to fruition, is very much so surreal.
Dave Charest:So running an event is no easy task. And Right. And yeah. I don't have to tell you that. And you typically I mean, these things are like as soon as you kinda have one kickoff, you're already planning the next one.
Dave Charest:And so Yeah. What is that process like? Because you're doing this in in addition to your day job. Right? And so
Aisha James:Correct. Yes.
Dave Charest:How do you find the time to kinda make this happen?
Aisha James:Through having an amazing team. We are always keeping, as we call this train, rolling. Once we are actually stopping with having that event for this year, like when we finish with the Taste of Life and List for 2024, we'll probably take a couple of weeks off and then October, we're sending out the concept. We're sending out our blast to let them know, hey. The vendor application for 2025 will be open.
Aisha James:At the same time, then we're sending out an exit survey for them to see how what we did well and what can we do different for them, areas of opportunity. So all of those things are coming out simultaneously. If people wanna take the opportunity to be able to sign up at that time or, you know, that's really just what we're doing. We keep a lot of communication out to those vendors.
Dave Charest:Is there a world where this becomes the thing that you are doing full time?
Aisha James:In a perfect world, yes. I I am slowly merging them together outside of me being what I do with I'm a mortgage operations manager for one of the largest banks, and I am slowly moving away from that and moving into the project management role, which is ideally what the Taste of Black St. Louis actually is. In corporate America, I now have other financial institutions or actual Fortune 500 companies who want me to bring little versions of the taste to them culturally. So we call them a taste of culture.
Aisha James:Oh, wow. And it's becoming more of a thing for me, just as opposed as a taste being a hobby or on the side of business, but now becoming a part of my career that I'm actually watching develop now, and it's almost like watching the taste develop.
Dave Charest:So, again, here's another situation where I feel like, okay. Wow. Like, did you ever think that moving from, okay. I guess I'm gonna do this now because my friends have made me the person who has to do it. And then Mhmm.
Dave Charest:To get to this point where again, no background in running events, right, like, other than your family gathering. So
Aisha James:Mhmm.
Dave Charest:Just walk me through, like, what's going through your mind now that it's like, okay, like, to be in this place where you're saying, like, yeah, I might be moving towards where this is the thing that I'm doing and it's even bigger than that.
Aisha James:Well, I knew that I wanted to go back to school. I had a lot of my background within nursing and things of that nature. That was a lot of my part of my degree was, but I did not. I couldn't stop working and then go and be an RN or go to have clinicals, so I wanted to flip my degree into something that was useful in what I was doing now, And being is that I'm doing all this stuff with entrepreneurs, I wanted to decide I would get a bachelor's degree in business administration, and then it had a certificate a certification with project management. I'm like, okay.
Aisha James:So that's actually last year when we postponed the taste that I had, my moment, because that was where I was getting my capstone for my project management. It was just looking like this is all the stuff that I needed to know for the taste the previous year or 6 months before, and now I'm learning it now and implementing it now into it, which I feel was that moment where God said you had to take that pause so that I can give you time to learn this stuff, so now next year you'll be better, and watching all of this unfold is, I can't say any other word but surreal. It's the best thing that I could have ever Yeah, sometimes I really take a breath and just be like, David, is this my life? Is this my life? Watching you move from your passion into your purpose is definitely a moment, and, yeah, I thank God every day that I'm able to slowly move into that and not in a rush.
Aisha James:His patience is everything.
Dave Charest:So where you are now, what are you kinda running into, or what are you seeing as your challenges as you try to execute for this year?
Aisha James:Sponsorship. Even though the taste is as big as it is, it's still funded by the vendors. We still have other entities that are, I don't wanna say competition, I just say other events or options that people have that are on that same day with me, and they have major sponsorship, whereas mine's is still considered, I guess you can say, the little guy that makes big numbers is what someone just told me. We I mean, it's the sponsorship and the funding. So I just make sure that my budget skills are on point and because every dollar counts.
Aisha James:Everything that the vendors pay to me, we put into it, and we try our best to make sure as pushing the marketing to have a certain number of vendors so that we're able to pay for everything to support the platform. And that's just been the biggest hurdle. People come. The attendees are there. The participants are there.
Aisha James:It's just to getting the funding, which is why they're the major reason why I haven't been able to step away from my, I guess, you can say regular job.
Dave Charest:Sure. Sure.
Aisha James:Because the taste is not supporting itself, I guess you could say.
Dave Charest:Gotcha. You mentioned your team earlier. Mhmm. What does that look like today versus when you started?
Aisha James:Well, it it has grown. It went from me and another young lady to then me by myself for about 3 years, and then now it has grown to about 10 people, and they're still my they're my friends, and they just have the same they see the actual vision that I have, and they have the same passion that I have as well for the taste and love for it. Their volunteerism and help for me is like no other, and I definitely wouldn't be where I am at this point with The Taste without those people that I have, my circle that I have around me.
Dave Charest:What do you love most about running the event?
Aisha James:Well, there are 2 things. 1, I love seeing people come back in different spaces. I do have one vendor. She started off with me in 2018. She was a 10 by 10 10 to watch her grow into a food truck.
Aisha James:She's now a food truck when she comes back each year, and then she just actually sent me an invitation to her having now the food truck and a brick and mortar. So but watching them, you know, develop. And then the other side of that is watching the vendors sell out each day. We have a, like, a almost unspoken ceremony. When the vendors begin to sell out, you'll see their tent floor.
Aisha James:So each one of those tents, they start going down or they'll come up and let the DJ know, you know, I'm sold out for the day, and and it's it's a celebration as opposed to it being something bad. So to watch these people completely come back and say, Ayesha, you know, I made x amount of dollars. You know, I'm able to have a great Christmas, or I'm going on vacation after this, or I'm able to move out of town, or not even move out of town, but Yeah. But to set my family up for the 3rd or 4th quarter, that's the most fulfilling part of it.
Dave Charest:Do you get together with, you know, the people that are helping you out with this and or do you sit in a room by yourself? Do you set up, like, goals for the event each year or how do you approach that?
Aisha James:What we do is we actually wanna see what how we can community outreach because we wanna make sure that not only are we creating this platform for these small Black owned businesses, but we also wanna make sure that we're keeping in touch with the community and what the community needs. Last year was our 1st year that we were actually in open space, if that makes sense. Previous years, we were in a private public park. It's a public park owned by the city, but it's privately ran. So that was a controlled area, and then we were at City Foundry, which is private property, and that was a controlled area.
Aisha James:Well, last year, we were right across the street from city hall, and that area had a lot of homelessness within it. So we wanted to make sure we went down a couple of weeks before, we fed the homeless prior to that, us actually having our festival, and then that week before, we asked for permission because we wanted to make sure that they knew that we weren't just gonna be another festival that was just gonna come down, be in this area, tell you you were going to be get basically uprooted Yeah. From where you were and then leave, not leaving them with anything. So we make sure that we have community outreach. We sit in a room, and we say, what does this area need, and what does the city of Saint Louis need?
Aisha James:So we try our best to make sure that we have those programs encompassed with the platform. Because when you get that many people together, you wanna make sure that you're having a call of action to it in this and that you're saying something purposeful ly. I guess you that's not a word, but you're you're making a point. You're not just gathering just for those 3 days, but you're getting the ear. We have voter registration.
Aisha James:Now we do a lot of things that are intentional that are affecting the black and brown people within that community because we know that you only really only get one shot at it. So my team, we are very much so intentional with the planning of the Taste of Black Saint Louis. And then we also wanna see what those vendors have needed from the feedback that they provide back to us in those exit surveys. What are you needing? What did you like?
Aisha James:What do you need? Are you needing start up classes, entrepreneurial classes? Do you need help with starting your business? We've seen that a lot of the businesses did not have insurance, so we want to make sure within our actual packet that we get them a broker, and she's getting them affordable insurance, needing help with the permits, making sure not only are they able to be permitted for the Taste of Black Saint Louis, but any other festival that they want to to be prepared. We listen to what the vendors actually want.
Aisha James:So a lot of that feedback we utilize from the previous year and then just see where our areas of opportunity that we missed the previous year.
Dave Charest:Is there anything that has surprised you or maybe something you didn't expect that you've learned through that outreach and getting that feedback?
Aisha James:Well, because it's exhausting doing this.
Dave Charest:Sure.
Aisha James:And like I said, the taste is not paying for itself. Well, it does. It breaks even. So getting that, I guess you can say strength to do it again, when you see those surveys that come back to say thank you and I can't wait to see you next year or those vendors, they reach out to you, that's what makes me to keep going, and that's the thing that I keep seeing over and over again, that it's still needed. I keep thinking that possibly that it's not, but every year, we're being told that it's needed, and we can't wait for you to come back.
Aisha James:And not only by the vendors, but there's people that say, I was in town and I oh, I was out of town and I missed it, or I was in town and I'm coming back in town again for it. So, yeah, the need is what surprises me the most.
Dave Charest:What would you say then does, as you mentioned, it's exhausting doing this, so what does a typical day look like for you as you're planning in getting this event off the floor?
Aisha James:Well, a typical day for me is usually, if it's Monday through Friday, I'm working my regular job, but that's from 6 to 3 30. But then the Taste of Black St. Louis, I usually cut out for us. They will go from 5 to 8 each day, and we're making sure we're answering back emails from the vendors. During our peak time, like now, we're getting responses in.
Aisha James:People are paying. People are signing up. We're getting DocuSigns out to them, we're getting their vendor applications and things out to them, payment links. So it's nonstop, and we try to set a time frame so that we're keeping business hours from 5 to 8. Our vendors, they sometimes I don't wanna say needy, but they have a lot of questions.
Aisha James:A lot of them are scared. They know the lines and the number of attendees that come, and they wanna step out on faith, but then they don't feel like they may be capable of doing it. So it's a lot of encouragement that we do, that you can do this and that we'll walk you through it and that we're here for you. And sometimes, that can go until 9, 10 o'clock and we'll wake up to emails again because people are still having questions, even we go to bed or we get applications overnight, so we try to make sure that we have that time for ourselves and that we have to cut it off. But sometimes my friends will call me in the middle of the night and just like, I've been answering questions all night.
Aisha James:I gotta go to bed. I'm just like, you're getting ready to go to work. So it's the dedication. It definitely is, and we try and have those time frames, but the closer that it gets, it's a lot of street planning, street closures, and just basically letting everything fall into place that we planned out.
Dave Charest:So I wanna jump into some specifics here just in terms of how you think about communicating with all of these balls in the air that you really do have to get keep going and and do all that. But before I get there, what do you do for fun in all of this?
Aisha James:You should ask my husband. He's like, dude, we haven't had any fun. What do I do for fun? Honestly, I go to a lot of pop up shops to see the vendors. When they're sending me flyers to say, hey, Ayesha, I'm participating here, I go out and I shop with them.
Aisha James:They have grand openings. I try my best to go out and shop with those. Networking events, coffee talks. Just a lot of different things I do for fun. I also will go bowl.
Aisha James:I hang out with my family and my friends. Oh, and the biggest thing is we do Sunday dinner. Every Sunday, we have family and friends over with me and my my husband is a caterer, so he cooks no matter what on Sundays. And if you wanna stop by, you can come by and get something to eat. If you want us to tell, you know, hey.
Aisha James:I don't wanna talk to anybody. I want just a plate. We bring food out to you. But it's that time for you to unwind with your family and friends and just kinda let your hair down and get ready for the rest of the week, kinda recharge you for the rest of the week. That's my fun thing.
Dave Charest:When you think about the years you've been doing this and even, you know, prior in your regular day to day life, what would you say is the biggest thing that you've learned over the years that really helps you with executing this today?
Aisha James:Time management. To have the time management and getting the communication out as soon as possible, that is what has helped me to be able to execute this. Because I have so many things that I do throughout the day and my team says that I keep throwing another project on them, I have to make sure that I keep up with a digital planner so that I'm not overlapping things and that I'm getting things out in a timely manner, and then scheduling the communication out to them within a timely manner, so that they have time to be able to prepare. I know a lot of these vendors, they kinda started scheduling their things. There are festivals now, so knowing that they have my date early, they already know, okay, I'm doing a Taste of Black Skin, Louis, September 13th, 14th, 15th of this year.
Aisha James:That's it. But just having that communication and and time management is what helps me to execute.
Dave Charest:So talk to me a little bit about that. Right? Because one of the most difficult things that I think you find from a small business perspective because at at the end of the day, this is what it is. Right? Do you go through that process of do you actually schedule marketing pieces in?
Dave Charest:And I say marketing because, like, I think really when I'm thinking about the work that you do is a portion of it is, like, broadcast messaging, but a lot of it seems to be messaging just back and forth, right, just in terms of communication. But Yeah. Would you go as far as saying, like, okay, these are the communications we need to get out in terms of, like, these are the dates our vendors need to know. These are the dates that, you know, sponsorship stuff. Like, we have to communicate with them.
Dave Charest:Because I would imagine you have vendors, you have sponsors, internal vendors as well. You have volunteers attend like, you have all of these people that you really do need to communicate with just to make this thing happen. And so are you scheduling are you creating a timeline? Like, what does that look like to make sure that you're hitting all of these right things in terms of the time management?
Aisha James:Well, the first communication, it's a timeline that we have to get out. So the first communication we are normally going to get out is to the sponsors because they are the ones that we've, their budget actually begins to go out in October, for the next previous year. So we wanna get in communication with them as soon as the end of the taste is actually happening to say, hey. This is what our 2024 sponsorship package looks like. We hate that you missed for 2023.
Aisha James:And, just come on board, see which if we can schedule a meeting the top of the year, because some of them are kinda not doing it at that time. But then we also wanna let the vendors know what the date for 2024 is gonna be, what the next following year is gonna be so that they can start thinking, hey. Are you ready to sign up now? If not, just keeping that communication with them. Our internal partners or internal vendors that we've used as far like, porta potties and staging and things of that nature, just at that time wanting to say, hey.
Aisha James:We thank you for the services this year. If they were great, we wanna go ahead and move and see if we're able to set something up with you at the early 1st part of the year because we're gonna be doing it off again. Just keeping the communication open with them to let them know, Hey, I would like to book with you next year. And they're already excited once you're there pulling off as far as with taking things down. That next following Monday is really busy for me because I'm cleaning up loose ends and just basically thanking people and saying, Hey, we would like to go ahead and work with you the next following year.
Aisha James:So it's just, I guess, a beautiful song and dance that you have to do with people, with communicating, and then following up on those communications. So now everything has been followed up on and we're now saying, Hey, we're set, we're ready to go, what are you looking like for this year? And we've already laid the foundation of letting them know we would like to work with them, but following up now. Yeah. So it's a timeline that we basically follow to try and make sure that we get everything out within a timely manner.
Dave Charest:So within Constant Contact, specifically, when you're thinking about your communications and things like are you creating lists for each of these groups that you have to communicate with? Okay. You are doing that. Yes. Okay.
Dave Charest:Cool.
Aisha James:Yeah. So all of my my vendors, we have, complete list of vendors. So it's a complete Taste of Black St. Louis vendors. Then we have them categorized each by year.
Aisha James:We also then have the entertainers. So entertainment, we may have had host, We have chefs that we have used as far as with demos. We also have our sponsorship list. I'm trying to think about the list. We have our volunteer list, and then we actually have a huge list that when we we do free tickets on Eventbrite.
Aisha James:And those are just email addresses that we want to be able to blast back out to them to say, hey. Come back out and shop with these vendors. And that's just a separate list from the actual vendors that we would send out to let them know the Taste of Black Saint Louis is coming the next following year. We hope to see you. And we also may have some VIP things or that nature, what they can sign up for.
Aisha James:So we have a lot of list of Constant Con I think I have over 10,000 email addresses on a Constant Contact.
Dave Charest:That's amazing. What would you say then are your most important as you're thinking about getting this off the ground and and making this work and having a great event come showtime, right, so to speak Mhmm. What would you say are your most important marketing tools and channels? Like, what are you using to kinda get the word out about this?
Aisha James:Constant Contact a lot. Getting the word out with those email addresses that we've had from previous people that have signed up that we've captured, we utilize that a lot to just say, it's a save the date to send out. For me, I know that that drives a lot of attendees into the taste of Black St. Louis each year, and then we try to capture more. Even though we're using Eventbrite, it's just us capturing that.
Aisha James:And then we have it to where, I know we haven't merged with Constant Contact, so where we can send them out together. Mhmm. So cross functioning those platforms has been amazing. Also, utilizing the text metric side of it as well. We also use social media where we can integrate it with Constant Contact with Facebook.
Aisha James:Also, we have an Instagram page, and then we do have a Facebook group that has over 5,000 people in it as well. So we utilize as much free social media that we can be able to use to gather all of those actual email addresses together and then pumping them out, dumping them in to Constant Contact and then sending that blast out to them for just another round to get the word out. And we also run ads too on Facebook and Instagram.
Dave Charest:Excellent. I'm curious, do you run any of those ads through Constant Contact or you're just doing it proper on the site?
Aisha James:No. We build a lot of the ads. I have a technology person. Oh, she's one of my friends, Talia. She actually built a lot of the ads through constant contact Oh, cool.
Aisha James:And then sent them out. She built out a newsletter through Constant Contact as well. She utilized a lot of the space and just a lot of the functionalities with Constant Contact and then setting them on a timer. There were things that she was building, and she was like, it's not ready to go out. Like now, we have the scheduling for to say that the applications and things that are ready, just being able to just hit that button.
Aisha James:And then different flyers that come out each time of the year is Black History Month, and we have the it's a women's celebration of women. I think that's for next month. You know, Black Music Month was in June. So just basically making sure we're keeping each month that they're celebrating ethnicity or something like that. We can basically coincide that with an actual Taste of Black Stainless flyer and then schedule it once it's already built in the beginning of the year.
Dave Charest:Got it. You mentioned groups.
Aisha James:Mhmm.
Dave Charest:Your Facebook group. What have you been finding with that? I think that's probably one of those things that people don't talk a lot about, but I'm wondering if how valuable you're finding that because I think those can actually be a really great resource for people. So tell me a little bit about your experience with the group.
Aisha James:I like the Facebook group, but what I found is that letting the Facebook group itself do the automation as far as those letting people, I guess you can say the admission of letting people in. Okay. I find it better that I have more control over that as opposed to just letting an actual system do it. And the reason why I'm saying that is a lot of Facebook groups will grow. You get up to a 100, 200,000 people in there and all of a sudden, now the group doesn't exist anymore because you had a hacker or whatever come in, and now the hard work of everything you had is gone.
Aisha James:Yeah. We've been able to maintain the group as long as we've had it because I have moderators that are live people, and they are Sure. Admitting and approving and disagreeing with people. So we're able to keep the content of that group as what it is. It's based for entrepreneurs.
Aisha James:It's not meant for anyone to come in with any other contact outside of that. So we do screen a lot of it and just make sure that it stays pure to the content that we want in there as opposed to just letting the automation system take over and you're getting in a lot of bad stuff. So
Dave Charest:Yeah. So you brought up an interesting point just in terms of, like, you know, somebody hacks the group and then you of lose all that work that you've done. It's one of the reasons why we're very adamant about making sure that people don't rely solely on social media.
Aisha James:Mhmm.
Dave Charest:I mean, I'm curious. Are you doing anything to make it known that, hey, we have this email list to get those interested parties over from those groups or just from social in general, just in terms of, like, kind of growing your contact list and making sure that you're able to kind of take ownership of that and have direct contact with these people. Are you are you doing any specific items in that sense?
Aisha James:Well, Facebook has made it very, very hard for you to be able to get the we request for we ask for actual email addresses when people sign up for the group, but Facebook has made it very much so hard to be able to get that contact list. I think I've seen little videos on YouTube to be able to try and extract that information, but we have not been successful as far as we're getting it yet. So we don't solely actually rely on that for the contact portion of it. We do with Eventbrite and a cross function of Constant Contact, holding all of those emails. We had just haven't been able to extract that yet from Facebook.
Aisha James:So it's just more so of us being able to post and network within the group is what we're doing, making sure that content stays to what the Taste of Black Saint Louis actual platform is meant for.
Dave Charest:What would it be like trying to run this event without Constant Contact?
Aisha James:You know what? It would honestly, it wouldn't be very good. It wouldn't be as effective. I will tell you, Constant Contact helped me out a lot last year. I had a lot of vendors who told me that they did not receive information that I know that we sent out to them, very pertinent information about vendor meetings, things that they needed to sign up for, and we sent out several emails.
Aisha James:So you guys are very much so instrumental in me being able to go back to this vendor and say, hey, we sent it to you. I can see when we sent it to you. And, a, you never opened it up because we get that data back, or, b, you opened it up and you never responded back. And a lot of the vendors as a vendor, but we were able to see that when you open up and when you don't open it up. So that actually helped me a lot.
Dave Charest:So if you had a business that was maybe similar or even just I think of the vendors that come to you and, you know, you just said recently that that would be something that would be helpful to you too. Right? So, like, what would be your number one tip for one of those businesses if they were going to use Constant Contact?
Aisha James:Well, we have some vendors that candle makers, retail vendors, they are at with pop up shops, we let them know that, hey, you can utilize this. Because those pop up shops are not always in the same space, or even with the vendors with food trucks. You can send out that text and say, hey, I'm gonna be at this. Come and shop with me here. Or the food trucks that are on the go, I'm going to be serving breakfast or dinner at this location, and you can come and support me in this way.
Aisha James:So we kinda let them know that the Constant Contact is real time for them. And those vendors who actually or within the retail space, you can set up your newsletters. You can set up, like, a customer appreciation, someone that's setting that's always coming to shop with you. We just let them know that it's so many different tools and facets that you can use with Constant Contact that is definitely beneficial for them to sign up for it.
Dave Charest:Is there something that you like most about Constant Contact?
Aisha James:I like the part the data that shows me when the people don't open up the emails. That's my favorite part. Honestly, though, and it's it's funny because every time I send something out, even I don't care if it's in the middle of the night, I just sit and watch, then watch the Dozo, how many people open it, how would it bounce back? I don't know what it is. I'm an analytical person, so seeing that actual hard data in real time is very is exciting to me.
Aisha James:I know it's almost like a nerd, but it's exciting to me to see it go out and to see people open it up. Yeah. And then it also gives me the information to be able to go back and if it's vendors with the email addresses that are bouncing back to possibly reach out onto a phone number and say, hey. You know, we sent some communication out to you and it bounced back. Do you have a better email address because we wanna get this information to you?
Aisha James:So I really like that part.
Dave Charest:Well, tell me a little bit about the management of things. Like, how often are you in there just in terms of just managing the database? What is your process for that?
Aisha James:Managing the database, we always wanna go back in and just check and make sure that everything is up to date. We're always importing more email addresses that we get. Because the good thing with Constant Contact, it'll weed out those duplicate email addresses if you already have them. So sometimes, we'll find an old email list and be like, oh, do we have these? And I'm like, well, you can just go ahead and, you know, import it in because if they're duplicates, it'll go ahead and weed it out.
Aisha James:But we're in the database a lot, especially around this time because we're sending out a lot of information to just say, hey. You know, everything is going on. This is kinda like laying the foundation for what's gonna happen in September. So, usually, things will cool down once we get that actual list of the vendors, then we send out communications to let them know, hey. Here's the newsletter, because we get everyone in another application called Band, and that's the housing of where we send out everything and keep them in constant, go constant contact with us.
Aisha James:Meetings that we may have, we schedule everything within there as well, so we're in there quite frequently now, and then it kinda dies down the remainder part of the year because we're not sending as much communication at that time. We're more so in meetings with them.
Dave Charest:Right. Right. So I wanna shift just to think specifically about just in terms of getting the word out about the event. What does that look like for you? And I think that probably expands beyond just email and the things that you do, but, like, how do you think about that, and how do you make sure that the community knows that this event is happening?
Aisha James:Well, every opportunity that I get, any platform I'm invited to, I try to go to different actual events. Like I said, we do coffee talks, anytime that I'm able to interact with entrepreneurs, I'm always speaking about this taste of Black St. Louis radio, I go on TV, Any way that I'm able to speak in in magazines, we have local newspapers here, any way that I am able to get that information out. And also, we'll utilize social media, the free platform
Dave Charest:Yeah. Sure.
Aisha James:To go live and just say, hey. You know, this is what's going on with the Taste of Black Saint Louis. This is where I'm at. Lately, we have been getting a lot of recognition from the city and well as myself. I just, last week, was nominated by the local radio station as one of the hot 28 for Black History Month.
Aisha James:They wanted to actually showcase natives, Saint Louis natives, that they felt made an impact within the city. So African Americans and I was nominated Hot 28, one of those Hot 28 influential natives of St. Louis. Thank you. On the list of Justin Tatum and Cedric the Entertainer, I think it was, I don't wanna say sexy red because yeah.
Aisha James:So, I mean, just sitting on that list with some great other people, it was astounding. And being able to go on a radio and talk about the taste of Black Saint Louis at any time, I'm always trying to utilize any platform to get the word out about the taste of Black Saint Louis.
Dave Charest:What would be your best piece of advice for, let's say, another Saint Louis native getting started in business and trying to make the impact again? I think, you know, you have made this amazing impact on the community. What would be your best piece of advice to them?
Aisha James:Remember why you started and understand that there's gonna be so many bumps in the road, but always remember why you started and stay true to that. I know that I'm doing this for St. Louis because I love St. Louis. This is a city that I was born and raised in, and and I know it's getting a lot of flack because we're going through our own little pain point right now, but I feel like it's no different than any other city, so stay faithful and just know it gets greater later, so you just have to keep pushing forward.
Dave Charest:Yeah. Well, friend, let's recap some items from that discussion. Number 1, collect feedback. Ayesha talks about how she sends out an exit survey to her vendors so she and her team can see what they did well and learn where there are areas of opportunity to do better. Get obsessive about your customer's experience.
Dave Charest:Use the survey block to collect feedback from within your constant contact emails. Number 2, get your communication timeline together. Everything is based around what you have to say when to make sure people know what they need to know when they need to know it. Don't just wing it. Use a calendar so you can plan your upcoming communications to get the word out.
Dave Charest:PS, you can even use the marketing calendar right within your Constant Contact account. Number 3, organize your contacts. Now Aisha has vendors, attendees, sponsors, and more to communicate with. And she's able to send pertinent information to each group versus sending everything to everyone. Now the better you organize your contacts, the more relevant information that you can send and the better your overall metrics become.
Dave Charest:So don't forget to use the list and segmentation tools within your Constant Contact account. Here's your action item for today. Did you know that you can manage and market events from within your constant contact account? Well, you can. And I'll include a link in the show notes so you can find out more about what's possible.
Dave Charest:I hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Be A Marketer podcast. If you have feedback contact me directly at dave (dot) charest (at) 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 marketers like yourself find the show. Well, friend, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and continued success to you and your business.