This past Sunday LSA completed its fifth LSA digital marketing bootcamp for small business in Austin, Texas. In many ways the show was the best one so far. It featured the largest attendance to date and the participation of the US Small Business Administration.
The exhibitors and speakers also gave us very positive feedback (this has been pretty consistent). At each of these events the local business owners, many of whom don’t know what to expect when they arrive, invariably ask at the end, “When are you coming back to [city name]?”
Nine out of ten attendees stay until the very end, which is a very long (Sun)day for them. This is because they genuinely need the help. If you’re a business owner and you don’t figure out this stuff or hire someone to help you, you’re going to lose.
It’s interesting that when some business owners initially hear about LSA Bootcamp — they don’t yet know the LSA — they think it’s some sort of pure sales environment or a scam. We’ve received several calls checking out its legitimacy. This is reflective of the sorry state of SMB marketing services, where people have been burned repeatedly. When I asked the room in Austin whether people were happy with their marketing providers or agencies very few of them said “yes.” Partly this is because they often don’t know how to evaluate success or what exactly to expect.
For years I dealt with “SMBs” in the abstract as a faceless aggregate, based on US government data or survey data. It has been powerful, therefore, for me to meet business owners and hear their stories, ambitions and concerns directly expressed. In some respects it has made all this marketing technology and these marketplace issues we talk about all the time very real and immediate.
As satisfying as these Bootcamp events are, our ability to do them more than quarterly is limited by everything else we’re trying to do at LSA. More on all that later.
While extremely helpful, LSA Bootcamps are limited in what they can accomplish. We can offer little more than an overview or some practical pieces of advice and tips. Beyond this, moving from city to city was a bit like — pardon the expression — a “one night stand.” Thus we started talking internally about how we could reach a broader audience and continue engaging and supporting the local businesses we met around the US.
The result is MarketingBitz.com. It’s intended to cater to busy SMBs who don’t have much time, hence the “bitz” concept. We’re bringing together content from LSA members and other sources (editorially curated). We’re also doing monthly SMB-only webinars. We want continue delivering solid and trustworthy information to business owners while making the site a way for our members to engage and have conversations with SMBs but in a more consultative way.
Our ambition is not to create the definitive online marketing resource for SMBs. Instead we want help orient business owners and point them toward valuable information and resources online. We want to operate as a filter to separate signal from noise. We will also create some original content (e.g., webinars, interviews) and other services. We’ve mapped out a phased approach and will add features and content over time.
Right now the site is fairly basic. But we’d love to hear your feedback and ideas. What’s good; what should we be doing; where can we specifically improve? If you’d like to get involved, please let us know. If you want to participate in any of the upcoming 2016 LSA Bootcamps as a speaker, sponsor or exhibitor (or some combination) please contact us or indicate in comments below.
At our annual conference LSA 16 we’re going to have a panel of SMBs addressing product, sales and churn questions, as well as video interviews of business owners from our most recent Austin Bootcamp. Immediately before LSA 16 we’ll also be hosting another Bootcamp at the conference hotel (Westin St. Francis). If that’s something you’re interested in contact us.