actionable marketing guide

Dear ,

Greetings from a cold, snowy New York City!

Fortunately the snow crept in during the early hours of Saturday morning.

Wind blown, commuter-free streets were grey and frosted with snow.

Shop owners were slow to clear their sidewalk expecting more slush and snow.

It was a good weekend to stay inside and binge watch television and movies.

Despite this, I trekked to the subway and headed uptown to my favorite knitting store, Knitty City, to celebrate their eleventh anniversary. 

While the subway cars were almost empty, the cozy shop was packed.

The front table was crowded with more knitters than usual. There was no room for stragglers.

By contrast, the back table overflowed with cakes. My favorite was in the shape of one of the employees’ dog.

Knitty City is a destination. Knitters and crocheters come not just from the surrounding Upper West Side vicinity but also from other boroughs and suburbs.

The store is welcoming regardless of how well you knit or how expensive your yarn.

Knitty City provides a respite from the hectic blur of its patrons’ lives. It provides a homey space for New Yorkers who want to get out of their cramped apartments.  I’ve spent many Saturday afternoons there with friends.

The employees are friends. They know the regulars by name.

Knitty City is a great example of how a retail store can build a community and contribute to the local neighborhood. But more than that, Pearl Chin, the owner, has a vision for how a store should treat its customers and community.

Retailers take note: Chin opened Knitty City walking distance from an established yarn store. (Read: Competition.) I’m not talking about Michael’s, a hobby store that sells cheap yarn. (BTW—Michael’s has since opened New York City locations.)

Knitty City holds regular events. In the store, there’s an on-going book club that meets once a month and Wednesday evenings are men’s night. (Yes—men knit!)

Knitty City participates in yarn-related activities like Vogue Knitting, WWKIP (World Wide Knit In Public) Day, New York City Yarn Crawls (where yarnies go from store-to-store on a scavenger hunt), and Small Business Saturday.

For example, Knitty City is supporting the Pussy Hat Project. It’s focused on knitting pink caps for people marching for women’s issues in Washington, DC on January 21, 2017. Chin corralled all of the pink yarn in the store into a huge clear plastic bag in front of the cash register. Even better, it’s 10% off.

What can you do as a retailer to become a part of your customers’ lives?

• Be open and welcoming. Have tables where customers can meet and talk. If appropriate, be pet-friendly. Knitty City celebrates small dogs and children.
• Hold local events like Knitty City, they don’t have to be major extravaganzas. They need to get people to come to your store on a regular basis.
• Help customers use your products better. At Knitty City, employees are always ready to help knitters and crocheters figure out how to fix their projects.
• Support community. Knitty City is a place where local knitters and crocheters stop by and out-of-towners make a special trip when they’re in New York City. Additionally, they host charity knitting.
• Give shoppers a reason to visit. Chin continually adds new yarn-related product. For the store’s 11^th anniversary, a number of small dyers created special colors to celebrate. There's a sale every month.

Even if you don’t have a retail location, think about how you can build or contribute to a related community. Meet people in real time, face-to-face. Remember people do business with people.

This is a major reason I attend marketing events. I like meeting and building relationships with other marketers.

This spring, I’m attending Social Media Marketing World. Please join me. Get your ticket by Friday, January 13th and save $430.

Happy Marketing
Heidi.

Heidi Cohen
Actionable Marketing Guide

PS: If you can’t join me at Social Media Marketing World, why not invest in a virtual pass. It saves you on the travel expense. Yet it provides the full meal of social media content.

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• Heidi Cohen was cited on the Marketo blog for the definition of brand.  My biggest learning from the piece: How many of my friends and colleagues saw it on LinkedIn. Lesson: Don’t underestimate who’s watching you on social media.
  
  
• Roger Parker cited this Actionable Marketing Guide newsletter in his Content Marketing Institute piece: 7 Changes Forward-Thinking Marketers Need to Consider in 2017. Lesson:  Examine trends you see in the wild.
  
  
• Heidi Cohen was referenced in Jason Miller’s fun blog post on Christmas songs. Lesson: Use a fun question that’s not necessarily business-oriented but rather just seasonal as the basis of a blog post.

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