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Pardon my boldness, but that is the title of one of my favorite books, authored by Dan S. Kennedy. When our Founder, Rory Fatt, was just a young, struggling entrepreneur he heard Dan speak at a marketing seminar about the power of direct response marketing for small businesses. That presentation changed the trajectory of Rory’s business at the time and eventually led to the creation of Royalty Rewards®, which is built on the same proven principles Dan shared all those years ago.
In this little book, Dan talks about the fact that life goes wrong. All the time. There are always obstacles to overcome, especially in business – rising prices, staff shortages, lack of customers, technology failures, power outages – the list is endless and it gets frustrating and overwhelming.
But what differentiates the “Business Owner” from the “Business Operator” is how they REACT to those challenges. Using Dan’s analogy for example, if you happen to be stuck sitting next to the farting cat, do you just sit there and take it? Or do you get up and move and find a better place to sit? Or, as Dan writes “You can divide the population into two big hunks. Those who search, hunt, go after the information they need to fix whatever is ailing them, and those who don’t.”
SO… when YOU end up sitting beside that
metaphorical farting cat, what will you do?
One of the incredible assets you have as an Independent Business Owner is your ability to act quickly, seek out solutions, and create your own path. The following case study highlights Royalty Rewards® Merchant (since 2021) James Loney, Sticky Fingers Delectables. His ‘farting cat’ came in the form of an unexpected six-month illness that shut down a large part of his business, impacting his livelihood and his entire team, and driving down revenues 46% from the previous year. As he looked forward to 2024, James was full of foreboding, but he knew he had his strong will, the power of effective marketing and Royalty Rewards® on his side. James turned immediately to the support of his Coach Amanda and fast forward to July, he reported that 2024 YTD was up 2.4% over 2023. In a recent email to Coach Amanda, James had this to say…
“This weekend all the wheels of the now finely-honed machine were firing; good, sunny, hot weather, a powerful Email on Demand, several catchy push notifications, Facebook, Google, and a local musician playing music under our Pavilion. It was an exciting, exhilarating, exhausting Saturday but we did it. I wanted to share some of the glow since you have been such a cheerleader for three years and a wordsmith helper in our continued success. What a dedicated Coach you have been!
2024 will be a banner year for this little seasonal business called Sticky Fingers Delectables, now considered a marketing juggernaut in Sullivan County, NY. Our stellar success is something both you and I should be proud of and shout out about to the rest of the world. We have worked together, Coach and Client, Amanda and James, to get us this far in the face of daunting counterwinds. Times are tough but they have also never been better.”
When you run your own business, there’s always the potential for an unexpected crisis, whether it’s illness, fires, natural disasters, construction barriers, staffing issues, and now pandemics. As a Royalty Rewards® client, when you find yourself sitting beside a farting cat, you’ll have the power of your customer database, automated & proven marketing campaigns delivered via multimedia, and an expert dedicated Coach ready to help you overcome, conquer and get to the other side. Awesome job James. We’re honored to work with you.
After an unexpected illness shut down a large part of his business for 6 months, impacting his livelihood and his entire team, James Loney, Owner of Sticky Fingers Delectables in Kauneonga Lake, NY, came back better than ever and is even UP 2.4% over 2023. How did he do it? Well, he certainly didn’t sit back and wait to see what happened. He dug his heels in and leveraged the support of Royalty Rewards® and his Coach Amanda.
What Caused The Dramatic Turnaround? Planning and consistent communication. When challenges like this impact your business, keeping Rewards Members updated is a gamechanger to keep them interested, engaged and returning in droves. James and Coach Amanda scheduled weekly calls to review the results of recent marketing efforts and consider their next steps. Here were 3 actions that had the biggest impact:
Core Program Campaigns
James relied heavily on the core program campaigns – welcome, birthday, lost reactivation, and anniversary.
He and his team are excellent at tracking Reward Member’s visits and campaign redemptions, and typically see very close to a 50% redemption rate. Marketing is Math. With historical results on hand, James knew he could rely on this same steady and reliable traffic from his most profitable Rewards Members each month.
Push Notifications
James and Amanda often used push notifications through the Member App to update his customers about the intermittent openings during his illness.
These push notifications were critical to get notices, timely offers, information, and updates DIRECTLY into all his customers hands when he needed to the most. And he still uses them regularly to promote flavor drops, special offers, events, and hours they are open.
Weekly Email on Demand
James does a great job sharing the personality and culture of Sticky Fingers using email. This strategy has created very strong customer relationships as well as increased engagement.
How can he tell that? Well, his average open rate is 39%.
With the current industry average somewhere around 19%, it’s clear when James emails his customers, they ACTUALLY pay attention.
Ready to Replicate This Success For Your Business?
Call Your Coach. We’ve just sent you your 2025 Cash Creator Calendar™. Successful merchants, like James, talk to their Coach REGULARLY. If you haven’t done so yet, book a call with your Coach and let’s work together to create a solid marketing plan for your business in 2025.
Test a Push Notification or Text Campaign. These are great tools to rely on when something needs to be communicated QUICKLY, like a snowstorm, or power outage, or if you need an immediate response like a limited time offer.
Send a FUN ENGAGING email. Challenge yourself to send weekly emails, sharing timely tips, new products, special offers, and include relatable stories. Don’t want to write emails yourself? We’ll do it for you.
Audit Reward Member visit tracking. Tracking transactions consistently not only means keeping your promise to your customers, but it also means you will have accurate results to make educated decisions with.
If your staff need more training, we can help.
