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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 46 of the be a marketer podcast, you'll hear from an owner that's found her calling, and I'm sharing why the help you need may just be in your own backyard. This is to be a marketer podcast. 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.
Dave Charest: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. The good news, you don't have to be a marketer alone. 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.
Dave Charest: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. And at Constant Contact, we are here to help. Well, hello, friend, and welcome to another episode of the Be A Marketer podcast. In the conversation you are about to hear today, I was reminded of the fact that the resources business owners need are often really not that far away.
Dave Charest:Of course, when it comes to marketing and marketing with Constant Contact, we have tons of resources available to you online. This podcast, webinars, a knowledge base, guides, videos, and a community where you can connect with other Constant Contact users. But what about when you wanna meet in person with seasoned business professionals and entrepreneurs ready to share their knowledge with you so you can achieve your business goals? Or find out about government programs available to help you get your business to the next level. Well, that's when you can turn to local resources like SCORE or your local Chamber of Commerce.
Dave Charest:So, really, this is just a reminder to you to take advantage of the things happening for you in your local community. And just like today's guest, you'll find those resources can be a big help to you. Well, friend, today's guest is Gail Bernardo, owner of Invisilace Hair Spa in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she specializes in nonsurgical full hair replacement services. Now since 2010, Gail has been helping people with hair loss or thinning due to life changing health issues. Now for Gail, it's more than just a business.
Dave Charest:It's part of her calling, and she doesn't take it lightly. After personal struggles with hair loss due to cancer, she knows what it means to her clients to feel good about themselves. I asked Gayle what it feels like to build her client's self esteem and confidence to get them to that place where they no longer feel any different due to losing their hair. Let's pick up the conversation there.
Gail Bernardo:I have wrote about this in a few magazines about every day, you know, that I'm able to provide this service for someone that I go home just feeling so great about myself, and the customer is overwhelmed. I mean, I always have tissues in my room. Everything is done in privacy. Nobody can come in and see anyone exposed, and I service the unit. So they can come back once a month, like, they're going to the hairdresser and have it taken off and cleaned and shampooed.
Gail Bernardo:And also they can change styles with it. They don't have to be committed to wearing it the same way. They could have it a color to they wanna change the color to it. The unit lasts anywhere from 6 to 8 months, sometime up to a year, depending on the individual person's lifestyle.
Dave Charest:So I'm curious as to with starting a business, was that even something you you thought like, is that something you always wanted to do or you ever thought you were gonna do?
Gail Bernardo:No. I had no idea this is what I'd be doing at the age of 48, starting a business. And I am now 62, And it was just something that I've just actually stepped out on faith. I used to be a a legal assistant for a judge, and I was trying to do it part time. I started out with just a very small room, and I realized just, you know, word-of-mouth that I had so many clients that would, you know, wear the hair piece and tell other people and family members that I resigned from my job.
Gail Bernardo:And I really got involved in doing some homework to find out the demographics of people and who my competitors were and outreaching to some dermatologists to find out what were they doing with their clients that had alopecia. And when you know that you can tell them there's nothing else I could do, your hair is gone, I would ask them, could I leave my brochures there and have them come in, and I always offered a free consultation. And I took off from there. I mean, after 3 or 4 months of being in one room, I moved to a huge building where I have a staff of, like, 3 people, and I have, like, 3 private rooms. And to this day, we still do free consultations.
Dave Charest:So the growth that it seems like you had rather quickly, were you expecting that at all? Like, what were you learning through this process of kinda getting the business off the ground?
Gail Bernardo:I was not expecting the growth. I wasn't because it was only me. I was doing everything. I was working 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, trying to set the business up so that I could have some procedures in place. And, you know, if I got someone to come in, I could give them some procedures to follow along with me training them hands on.
Gail Bernardo:They could always have something to refer back to because I wanted every customer that came in to be treated the same way and get the same type of service. And with that, I was just overwhelmed with the amount of people that was, like, calling me, and I was trying to figure out, okay. So what do I do? I hire people, and sometime it was difficult because you find that people are not gonna be in love with your business the way you are in love with your business.
Dave Charest:Yeah. Yeah. Sure.
Gail Bernardo:Yeah. So that was one of the most difficult things is getting someone that had a passion and cared about people, understanding that when they came in the door, they were already coming in the door feeling some kind of way. So you had to be understanding, and everybody had different reasons. I had people that were in fires and lost their hair. I've had people that they had some type of allergy or some type of, you know, something with their immune system that was going on that caused them to lose their hair, and it just happened all of a sudden.
Gail Bernardo:And they if they were young, like in their twenties or thirties, they was concerned about dating and how would this person accept me knowing that I didn't have hair. And I said, this is one way that nobody would have to know about it but you and I.
Dave Charest:So as you're starting to you're thinking about doing this and you're getting to that path where you're, okay, you're figuring out what you need to figure out. I mean Mhmm.
Dave Charest:Do you have any
Dave Charest:doubts about kinda going off on your own and starting your own thing?
Gail Bernardo:No. I didn't, and that was because I saw after speaking with the dermatologist, going and looking at my competitors and the prices they were charging and things like that, I said, this is a well need service based on my homework, and it just worked out.
Dave Charest:Yeah. I'm curious. Is it a, insurance based business at all, or is it direct pay?
Gail Bernardo:Yes. It is. Okay. It's insurance based business, and I also, contracted with the VA
Dave Charest:Okay.
Gail Bernardo:I do cranials for the people that need hair. So I have been with them since 2016. Mine didn't get involved with that until about maybe 5 or 6 years after I opened the business. And I actually did that through a customer who came to me and said that she was a veteran and that this is something that the VA does offer them and asked me why I wasn't a part of it. And I said I I never knew anything about it.
Gail Bernardo:So I contact the VA, and I told them that I had this service and filled out my paperwork, and they approved me. And I do quite a, you know, few veterans. I mean, people from all over. I mean, I'm in North Carolina. I have people that will fly in from Philadelphia.
Gail Bernardo:I will have people that come from New Jersey. I had a young lady the other day. She came from Missouri only because she had a daughter that was here at UNC, and she wanted to find out what I could do to help her daughter because her daughter was in the first stage of alopecia. And
Gail Bernardo:she was in college, and she wanted to make sure that if she loses all her hair, where would she have to go in this area to get a prosthetic?
Dave Charest:Did you have any background at all or education in, marketing or business or anything like that? So what was your process then to figure out, okay. Like, here's what I need to do. Because I I some of the things that you're saying, I'm like, in terms of, like, checking out the competition and talking to like, how did you figure out that that that's what you were gonna do or how to do that?
Gail Bernardo:Well, they have a program here in North Carolina called SCORE.
Dave Charest:Okay. Yep.
Gail Bernardo:And SCORE is a program that will help businesses and give them the tools and things and of homework to say, you know, before you do this, let's make sure this is gonna work for you.
Dave Charest:Got it. Okay. That makes sense.
Gail Bernardo:Yeah. So I did that, and I realized that, yeah, this is gonna work for me. It's gonna require some hard work for me and some time because, you know, nothing is easy, especially when you're doing it by yourself and you don't have anybody else. But if you're willing to put in the work and the time, I didn't even have a life. Finan I really could not even afford it, but I made some sacrifices.
Gail Bernardo:I pulled some money out of my 401, and the rest, I just stepped out on faith.
Dave Charest:So how does that make you feel to be at this place where you've been doing this, what, over 13 years now, and you have 3 staff and people coming to you from outside of the state that you're working? Like, how does that make you feel?
Gail Bernardo:Wonderful. It makes me feel wonderful that I was able to achieve something I never even expect would happen, to be honest with you. And I think about retiring, and my clients is like, no. You're not.
Dave Charest:You cannot. You You are not allowed.
Gail Bernardo:But, no, you're not gonna retire. So what I've been doing slowly is, like, all of my new clients that are coming in, I'm not even working with them. Mhmm. Because once they work with me, then they're gonna always request that. So I let them move on to someone that is well trained, just as good as I am, but just to be able to service you.
Gail Bernardo:Because once they come in to get the hairpiece, they get on the schedule to book their appointment sometimes 6 months to a year out.
Dave Charest:What do you love most about being a business owner?
Gail Bernardo:Having control over my life.
Dave Charest:Explain that to me.
Gail Bernardo:When I was working for someone else, I had a hour lunch break. I had to be there at a certain time. When I needed to take vacation, I only got 2 weeks. I could only try to take those 10 days and spread them out with 365 days for a day off, limited sick time. And as I mentioned before, I had multiple myeloma.
Gail Bernardo:I was out of my business for almost 3 months. And it's just like you are on someone else's, like, sorta controls you for 8 hours out of your day, and you spend most of your time at someone else's job then you will spend with your family or doing anything else. Your workspace is where you're gonna spend most of your life. If you work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, most of the time you come home, you eat dinner, you spend a little bit of time watch TV, and you go to bed. But most of your time of your life is spent at a job.
Gail Bernardo:And I always wanted to be I remember myself as a little girl saying to myself, I just wanted to be the boss, but I couldn't see that far. And then when I saw that I was able to accomplish of being the boss, I realized that it gives you a lot of freedom in your life.
Dave Charest:So talk to me about the difference between because I I love this. Right? But, like, what is the difference then between, let's say, the 8 hours that you're working for someone else at 5 days a week versus the 12 hours, 7 days a week you're working for yourself.
Gail Bernardo:Okay. So I did those 7 days a week, 12 hours, and I did that for about 3 years. But I put in a hard work, and now I'm at a point in my life where I only work 4 days a week, and I only work maybe 5 hours out the day. And I can schedule my clients to come in when I'm available. So if I you know, today is Monday.
Gail Bernardo:Today is my day off. I spend time on Monday doing things, looking for different types of products for my clients and do some marketing, seeing what's out there, keeping up my website and my reviews, replying back to my clients on my reviews, and things like that, and handling my personal things, my doctor's appointments and things like that. I have that freedom of doing that or saying I'm gonna go in a half a day today because I got this to do or that to do.
Dave Charest:What have you found to be the most challenging thing about running the business?
Gail Bernardo:Dependable help. That is the most challenging. I have went through so many people, and I think what happens is people will come into a business and they will see that it's a great business, and they wanna be where I'm at within 6 months or a year.
Dave Charest:Yeah. So how do you try to solve for that? Like, how do you find good people? Or what have you learned through that process of kind of weeding out people that you don't think are gonna be the right fit?
Gail Bernardo:Yeah. Basically, I find people through word-of-mouth. I always speak to my clients about if you know anyone that is a licensed cosmetologist and is interested in coming in and learning a business, let me know. And a lot of times, they'll be looking harder than I do because they know that I need somebody, and they would always come back and say, hey. I got grandson's girlfriend fresh out of school.
Gail Bernardo:She's looking for something, and I find that a lot of times, if they're a lot younger, they're only gonna stay there for a short period of time because they're gonna wanna move on and do something different or something that they really like. It might be temporary just for now, but I had no idea either that hairpieces and prosthetics, wigs would be so popular today because everyone, I mean, wears them. I do a large selection of men, like I said, children, veterans. I don't do a lot of people that have hair. If they wanna do something for former fashion, I always refer them out to someone else because I know that they're not gonna stick with it.
Gail Bernardo:You know? It's nothing that they're gonna do on a regular basis, so I don't do that.
Dave Charest:When you start thinking about just marketing and getting the word out about the business
Gail Bernardo:Mhmm.
Dave Charest:Where would you say that ranks on your list of priorities?
Gail Bernardo:In the beginning, it was my number one priority because I always said, how can people come to you when they don't know about you? You can go out to people and you can hand out cards and brochures or whatever. And when I first started the business in 2000 and 10, we didn't have a whole lot of social media. You also have to have people's information because I offered the free consultation. And if I had no way to contact that person, I would not be able to let them know what was going on with the business.
Gail Bernardo:So with the free consultation, the first thing I would do is gather their phone number and their email address. And maybe they didn't buy then, but once they would get my constant contact newsletter that I would send out, they would be like, oh my goodness. I got your letter, and I I'm so excited because I almost forgot about you, and I couldn't think of the name or the place. And now I got this information, and I wanna schedule an appointment. I think I'm ready now.
Gail Bernardo:So, I mean, being in contact with people that at the time that they came in that maybe wasn't interested, but I had their information to constantly keep flashing up on them, brought back a whole lot of business.
Dave Charest:Tell me a little bit about what has that experience been like for you then as a Constant Contact customer.
Gail Bernardo:Wonderful. I mean, it was to the point where I didn't know how to do anything with it. And I would always have so I would have the eight hundred number available. I would call them up. I would say, look.
Gail Bernardo:I'm trying to do this text. I'm trying to do this, and they would take their time and sit and walk me through the whole thing or either say, well, hold on. Let me fix this for you, and then I'll go back and show you how I did it. Because I would get frustrated trying to do it without having help. We're very good about that, and they always had new things to help you with your marketing.
Gail Bernardo:It was always something new. Like, the whole AI thing is just awesome. I love it. Love it. Love it.
Gail Bernardo:It saved my time in writing information to my clients where it might take me about 30 minutes to do a newsletter. It might take me 10 now.
Dave Charest:Love that. So did you embrace that right away? I know some people are a little wary of, oh, AI. I don't know. But
Gail Bernardo:I used it right away and loved it, and my clients loved it. And, yeah, it actually increased a lot of ways that I could get information out to them quick.
Dave Charest:Are you using any other like, what are the main feature? Are you just currently using it for email and newsletters, or are you using any other features within Constant Contact at all?
Gail Bernardo:No. I wasn't really that familiar. Probably saw other ways that you could use it, but I just use it for my newsletter, and I do it, like, maybe twice, maybe 3 times a month. And even with that, it pays for itself because if I send out one newsletter, I will automatically get at least one person that will come in and buy. So the one newsletter is worth it for me to take 15 minutes or 20 minutes to do it, where because I have the AI now, I'm almost doing, like, 2 or 3 a month.
Dave Charest:What would you say then you'd like most about Constant Contact?
Gail Bernardo:It's very easy now to do a newsletter. They give you so many choices of templates that you can use so you don't have to try to figure out how you're gonna lay it out. And you do have the support team there to help you when you do have a problem or you're experiencing something that is not working for you. And I like the idea that whatever you do, you can put it right on social media. Your newsletter can go right out just by hitting a button.
Gail Bernardo:You don't have to try to post anything.
Dave Charest:So I wanna get a sense of how you approach and think about your marketing and where that kind of fits in your, like, your day to day. And so maybe I'll start with what does a typical day look like for you, if there is one?
Gail Bernardo:A typical day looks like for me, my first client usually starts at 10. When I am working on clients, they're usually back to back, so I don't really have a lot of time to sit down at the computer or do anything. Most of that is done when I'm done with my clients for the day. And then I take about maybe a good hour or 2 after I'm done and spend some time on checking my messages, replying back to people, going to my email, and saying, hey. Maybe I need to send out a constant contact because this is going on or that's going on.
Gail Bernardo:I just got a new stock of hair pieces. Let my clients know.
Dave Charest:Do you think of marketing or, like, do you have, like, a calendar? Do you set, like, a specific time you're gonna do things, or is it all kind of, like you know, it kinda comes up as it comes up?
Gail Bernardo:It just comes up as it comes up. If something new come in my idea in my head and if I get a new item in and I want my clients to know about it, I'm gonna do it that night.
Dave Charest:I'm wondering, are you the type of person, like particularly when you were getting started and even now because I'm sure they change. Right? But are you, like, are you a goal setter? Like, are you someone who says, okay. Here's what I'm trying to achieve?
Dave Charest:Are you that type of person, or you just kinda go with it?
Gail Bernardo:I just kinda go with it again. Every time I try to be really organized and set things up, Trust me. When you're in business, it's impossible to keep that up because if you got something that comes up that need your attention right away, whatever you have planned, it's gotta go to the side because I am a big person on customer service. I always want my clients to be informed and told if I have a delay with their hair piece or if I need to change an appointment in advance or if anything like that needs to happen. That is my priority to make sure that my customers are aware of things.
Gail Bernardo:And if I have a day planned where I just wanna sit down and do some admin work, and then all of a sudden, I get a message from my vendors saying, hey. Look. This is backed up. The admin work closes down, and I'm on the phone with my clients, letting them know what's going on.
Dave Charest:Mhmm. So how would you describe then your approach to marketing or your marketing strategy?
Gail Bernardo:You have to have it. You can't not have a business without people knowing you're there. There are so many people that they wanna get by with it because they don't wanna pay for it, but then you realize the small amount of money that I've invested with Constant Contact is priceless to what I've gotten in return. And it's the hit of a key, and I could send out 5 newsletters, 500 newsletters. And out of those 500 newsletters, so what if only 250 reads it?
Gail Bernardo:That 250, 1 or 2 of those people are gonna call me or they're gonna tell somebody else that they might know, oh my goodness. I know this lady. I forgot all about her. She does this. And that's only the response because what they would tell me is I got your newsletter, and I realized that I need your service now.
Dave Charest:So how do you get people on your list then? Do you actively try to grow that list, and is it primarily customers? It sounds like you have prospects as well. So, like, how do you manage, like, getting new people on your list, I guess?
Gail Bernardo:Okay. So I do go to a lot of different type of events.
Dave Charest:Okay.
Gail Bernardo:Beauty and, you know, when I'm at those events, the first thing I do is I may wanna give away a little free something.
Dave Charest:Got it.
Gail Bernardo:And For that, I need your email. So your name and your email address, you don't even have to give me your phone number. And once I get that, you automatically go on my constant contact list. And I go to at least 4, 5 different events a year, and I collect that information. And a lot of times, people will come to me and say, oh my goodness.
Gail Bernardo:I never knew anything like this exist. I know there's other places, but financially, I could never afford to go there. So I've been wearing something that I, you know, have to take on and off every day.
Dave Charest:How did you figure out the places? So you mentioned events, of course, and I guess either even other places. Like, how did you decide beyond just, like, the inbox stuff? Right? But, like, how did you decide or figure out, like, okay.
Dave Charest:These are the places I need to be so that people know about me.
Gail Bernardo:Actually, because I have other people that are in constant contact, and they will send me a newsletter telling me that I'm having this event at this place. If you would like to join. And then I would tell other people that I know that are in business that may wanna participate, and I will forward that constant contact to that person. And then it's like that person now is on that person's list. It's like a sharing thing because I do have a lot of clients that are self employed and they have their own business.
Gail Bernardo:So a lot of times, we talk about different things, and I would share with them what I use for marketing, and they would be glad to, like, give it a try.
Dave Charest:What do you love most about marketing in general?
Gail Bernardo:I love most about marketing when it works. You can market things and it don't work, and you could be sitting there waiting forever for to get the type of clientele or the type of customer that you've been waiting for, the the volume of customers that you want.
Dave Charest:When you say it works, like, how are you measuring that? What is the thing that you're looking for?
Gail Bernardo:If I do something or I invest in something because I have done it before, did other marketing things, and spent quite a bit of money, and I may never get anyone that will come or not even anyone that is interested. And I think it's a lot of because of the email, the direct contact, and remembering that I looked at this person face to face, and now I remember who this is type of thing.
Dave Charest:What would you say is the most challenging thing about marketing for you?
Gail Bernardo:Being afraid or not knowing when to market. Because this is such a medical necessity, it's not something that a client will choose and say, well, I really don't need that right now. It's not about that. If you know that you have this hair loss issue and I have something that can fix it for you, it becomes a medical necessity. So, yeah, you may not want it right then and there, but eventually, you're gonna come back to me.
Gail Bernardo:So the thing that I like about marketing is that sometimes it's not always instant. It may take time for your customer to come, and some people just think, you know, oh, if I send out 500 brochures or I do this or do that, It's not working because in 30 days, no one called me. So sometime you have to be patient and you have to wait.
Dave Charest:Is that something you learned through the process of doing or something that you kind of understood from the beginning?
Gail Bernardo:No. It's something that I learned because I was one of those type of people that was saying I was doing everything. Back then, I was doing postcards, mailing out postcards, doing emails. I might even have, like, maybe 50 or 60 customers that I was emailing at the time. And I would say, oh my goodness.
Gail Bernardo:I'm doing this, and I was doing it more often, like, 3, 4 times a week, constantly, and then I realized that that could be getting on someone's nerve. And then, you know, you they're sending somebody something that they have to open up every day and see the same thing that I'm getting on their nerves, they're gonna delete me. They don't want anything else from me. So I realized that being consistent, doing it too much is sometimes can be annoying. So that's why I only do it, like, maybe 2, 3 times a month.
Gail Bernardo:That's it. And I try to do it at a time where I think that people have time to read their email in the evenings or even at lunchtime. The timing of when I send it out is important too.
Dave Charest:So through these years of kind of figuring out what works for you and what doesn't, like, what would you say are, like, what are the tools that you use now? Like, that you definitely like, these are this is my if I have to choose, these are the things I'm gonna do. What works for you?
Gail Bernardo:Right now, the only thing that I'm doing is advertising on Google, and I might do that maybe 2, 3 times a month and constant contact. Those are the only 2 marketing.
Dave Charest:So talk to me a little bit about then how you you mentioned earlier how you go through your day, and then kind of at the end of the day when you're done with clients, like, because how do you find the time for marketing? Right? And how do you approach getting things done when it comes to the marketing pieces?
Gail Bernardo:Sometimes I do them early in the morning before and I can do it right in my bed on my phone before I even, you know, get up. I could just go to my phone and maybe just add a couple new pictures because my service is about is visual, something that people need to see. Add a new pictures, maybe throw a few lines in there as to what's going on, you know, what new hairpieces I have in or if I have a $5 off your haircut or $10 off your coloring this month or something like that. It would take me less than 15 minutes to do something like that and just send it out.
Dave Charest:Are you using the Constant Contact mobile app at all for any of this? Yes. Tell me about your experience with that.
Gail Bernardo:Love love love it. Because like I said, I could be in my bed on my phone, and I could send out 500 emails with the just a message letting customers know what's going on. It is I have these different things like each season I have, like, at the fall, fall into something new or spring into something new or something like that. And I might just change the topic and leave the pictures to where they are. And that way, it takes me 5 minutes to go in and just change it and send it out.
Dave Charest:Your advice for a business similar to yours that is using Constant Contact, what would you tell them about using Constant Contact?
Gail Bernardo:I would tell them to organize their clients because that helps a lot. Because if you have your emails organized, there may be this group of client that don't need that newsletter, but another group that's just waiting on it. And that's something that I am gonna work on and that it works and it only requires a small amount of your time and that you have assistance to help you when you do get stopped trying to create 1, a campaign.
Dave Charest:Gail, you've been doing this for a while and congratulations to you on the success you've had thus far. What would be your best piece of business advice for someone else?
Gail Bernardo:Do your homework. Before you decide that you're going to open up a business, understand that it's gonna take some time, and it it's not gonna take a whole bunch of money. So some people are discouraged about opening business because they figure, oh, I can never do that. It's gonna take, you know, so much money or whatever. But when I opened up my, salon, I did a lot of thrifting.
Gail Bernardo:Going to shops and buying things, you know, chairs and shampoo bowls and everything that I could get. And be patient because, you know, it's not gonna happen right away. There will be times in my first, I would say, 3 to 4 years, I would say to myself, oh, this is not gonna work. I mean, I'm not making any money. All I'm doing is buying and buying and buying, but I wasn't making a great profit right away.
Gail Bernardo:But as I stuck with the business and maintained discipline with my finance and focus on just having a lot of my hair pieces on hand instead of waiting until someone come in and I had to order it for them. I would invest in having a lot of this, hairpieces available. So if they came in on Tuesday and I had something that could fit them, they would get it on Tuesday, and people love that. Sometimes people don't wanna wait. They want it now.
Dave Charest:Well, friend, let's recap some items from that discussion. Number 1, it's still all about word-of-mouth. Online marketing isn't about replacing the way you're building relations face to face in your local communities, but rather it's all about extending those activities to give you more opportunities to keep your business top of mind with online tools. The online tools allow you to turbocharge that word-of-mouth. Number 2, take advantage of local resources.
Dave Charest:Gail tapped into her local score chapter to find out what she needed to know about getting her business off the ground. Remember, you don't have to go it alone. The resources are out there for you. Find them and act on what you're learning. Number 3, collect customer contact information.
Dave Charest:When Gail goes to events, she meets people in her target market. She gives them a little something for free in exchange for their contact information. Then she's able to contact them directly to keep her business top of mind. This simple act spurs new business and referrals. So remember, friend, always be growing that list.
Dave Charest:Now here's your action item for today. Check out the constant contact mobile app. Gail loves that she's able to send out 500 emails on her phone before she even gets out of bed, and it takes her less than 15 minutes to do so. The Constant Contact mobile app makes it quick and easy to create, customize, send, and track email campaigns anywhere at any time. I'll include more details for you in the show notes.
Dave Charest: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. You can email me directly at dave.charest @constantcontact dot 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.
Dave Charest:Well, friend, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and continued success to you and your business.