Help Us Choose The Next Few Webinar Topics!

We have had so much fun conducting Webinars for you that we are in the planning stages of scheduling more dates in the series and we need YOUR help!  Let us know which topics you would like to see covered.  

Review the list below, and take the survey by Clicking the Link Below!

CLICK HERE TO TAKE OUR SURVEY! 

Possible Webinar Topics:

Website Design and SEO if Not SmartEtailing

 

How to Make $100,000 a year with a $800,000 shop

 

Customer Service Drives Profit 

 

Working On Your Shop Instead of Working In Your Shop

 

Open Forum - Bring Your Topics and We'll Discuss

 

FaceBook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest

 

Mobile Websites and Mobile Apps

How to Put on a Great Grand Opening or Shop Event

Managing Managers   

 

or What Would You Suggest as a  Webinar Topic?

NBDA Adds "Principles of Bicycle Retailing for the Internet Age" to Member Resources

 A big thank you to the NBDA for providing Principles of Bicycle Retailing for the Internet Age to its member offerings.  If you are an NBDA member and you have not yet purchased your copy, they are offering a 20% discount/

http://nbda.com/product/bikeshopowner.com-principles-of-bicycle-retailing-for-the-internet-age-465.htm

Videos for Bike Shops - Huge ROI for Bike Shop YouTube Videos

Roughly 50% of my business comes from the over 50 videos that I have of my amazing self on YouTube.  :  )  But the secret for almost all clients is to have those 50 videos.  47 of those 50 do almost nothing for me.  Three of them are consistent producers.  Now if you or my clients were paying $300 or more each for those videos, (the going rate) it would still probably be worth it to have $15,000 in online presence through videos.  However, we include 5 videos a month in our basic plan, so the videos cost more like $100 each.  Two bike sales from those videos would give you a solid ROI on that investment. 

And the cool thing about the videos.  They will still be bringing in business three years from now.  So, if you spend $5000 on videos and they bring in $1000 per month in profits, then over three years were talking about $36,000 for the $5000.  I'll take all of those I can get. 





My goal for 2012.  Put up at least 50 more videos and try not to scare too many little kids with those.  Your goal should be to put up 50 videos, too.  I'm willing to bet that it will be the best advertising you've ever done.

Google Plus for Bike Shops - Add Google+ Page and Google+ to All Online Resources

 Add Google Plus Page and Google+ to all online resources

Ahhh Social Media.  The elusive world.  Most of us are still waiting for our first confirmed order off of Facebook, much less Twitter or Linked In.  However, what counts as social media.  I consider blogs and YouTube to be social media and I can point to huge amounts of business from YouTube and solid results from blogs. 

So, where does Google+ fit into all of this.  We are studying it almost constantly and don't really know yet.  However, there are some very cool functions such as hang outs that have some real potential.  For now, we are recommending that you sign up for Google+ and fully fill out the profile and other info for a Google+ page.  Then you'll be ready for the next step.  And we will keep you filled in on what that is.

We will have tons of new information on this subject within December 2011 on the http://www.bikeshopowner.com portal. 

BIke Shops Are Uniquely Suited for Mobile Apps

We have been digging deeply into the Mobile Website vs Mobile App debate.  We have come to various conclusions.  For some clients, the mobile website is all they need right now.  For some clients there is a crying need and benefit to an app.  And as with all things, the early adopters will have an advantage over the Johnny-come- latelies.  For bike shops, the app makes total sense.

For instance, some of my clients who jumped on email collections early, now have 4000 and more names in their list.  Those who came later have under 1000.  With Apps, you can send out notices to those who download your App.  Imagine that you had 1000 or 4000 folks getting notices from you on their iPhone App.  WOW!

Apps commonly cost $3000 and up.  But I have purchased a system which will allow me to create apps for around $750.  There are ongoing costs for hosting and the servers and changes and such.  So this one has an ongoing cost of $70 per month. 

You can include lots of great elements for your bike shop app.

1.  Event calendar - Your store events and area events
2.  Special Coupon section for app users
3.  Local trails.  These can be interactive.  Add great stops for lunch and views.
4.  Add eCommerce.  Show products and online checkout.
5.  Easy road side repair texts or videos in App size.
6.  One click phone call to your store
7.  Send out Push Notifications
8.  Use QR codes for in store specials

If you would be interested in a quote for your shop, just call Randy at 310-910-1848.  Approximate cost is $750 depending on content.

Mobile Website a Must for Bicycle Retailers in 2012

Here is the top of the list for things bicycle retailers (and every other business for that matter) need to do in 2012 to keep up with the competition.  As a bicycle shop owner you need to convert your website to mobile. 

Go ahead.  Check yourself out.  Use your Iphone or Android phone and see what your website looks like on the phone.  Probably not that great or usable, and the navigation is probably impossible to use.  Google is now providing device information in the analytics.  We checked on one of our restaurant clients and 25% of all traffic to their website was coming from mobile devices.  We checked a bike shop and 15% was mobile.  Mostly iPad and iPhone, but plenty of Android, too.

So, you and I need to make our websites look pretty and useful on this fast growing way to communicate and advertise.  And there are things about the reasons for using a phone that need to be updated as well.  For instance, having an autodial feature on page one. 





I am a big fan of SmartEtailing, and I know that many of you use their websites.  As best I can tell, their mobile offering is not adequate at this time.  You may want to bug them to come up with something way more robust. 

The cost of creating or converting your existing website to mobile will vary depending on who does the work and how complex the work turns out to be, but we should be able to deliver a conversion for under $1000 in most cases.

Bike Shop Marketing To Do List for 2012

2012 To Do List for SEO, SEM, and Traditional Marketing of Independent Bicycle Retailers

It is a normal human condition to wait until the last minute to do things.  I certainly fall into the normal range in that regard.  But, at least for 2011 I am turning over a new leaf in that department.  Here is a list of goals for 2012 that I will apply to my business, and that very likely apply to every one of your businesses.  Over the next 30 days, these will be fully detailed out at in the http://www.BikeShopOwner.com portal.  In this spot, I will provide a short post on each of at least 15 strategies for 2012.

While my bike shop marketing consulting business does not generally take on project based work we are going to make an exception for two types of products over the next 90 days.  It is so critical for most of you that you have Mobile Websites and Mobile Apps, that we are going to take those projects.  The balance of the items on the list are all things that we do, but are only offered as part of an ongoing retainer.

Of course, we can only take on a limited number of new clients each year.  That is why I wrote the new book "Principles of Bicycle Retailing for the Internet Age," and created the portal at http://www.bikeshopowners.com to support and expand upon the information in the book.  At only $49.95 for the book and six months access to the portal, you can have a massive amount of invaluable information to help you do the items on the to do list yourself.

Check back every other day for more ideas for 2012.