On Target Marketing

10/05/2026

While organizing my office today, found some old Jerry’s Casuals mailings and the Holy Grail of our stores success….The 500 Club book, a binder with a page dedicated to each regular customer’s sizes, favorite brands and items, and more info. Looks ancient now, but many of the same lessons are true today.

Our 500 Club was women who spent at least $500 a year on regular priced clothing. We tracked their purchases manually, and for every $500 they spent, they got a $50 Gift Certificate. Very early Customer Reward Program, but our business grew more profitable each year as we made sure to prioritize these ladies and give them an amazing shopping experience.

Our 500 Club members got a direct mail piece usually the first week of every month, but it varied for holidays. These mailings were usually handwritten by me, and had a special offer. Every time a customer returned with that offer, we tracked the total sales to make sure it was a good promotion. The “Columbus” mailing brought in $6539 in 4 days in one store, and we only sent 58 pieces. The “Christmas” one was not tracked specifically because there wasn’t a coupon, but it did bring them in! We also had special giftwrapping only for 500 Club members, exclusive invitation only season premieres, and nearly every one of their husbands or significant others came in to shop for them at Christmas. We were basically personal shoppers for our customers, and it was very rewarding for all of us.

Bottom line: When we started this archaic version of a CRM program, our sales and profits increased dramatically, double digit increases every year. (The previous 20 years, we had 2-6% sales increases.)

We spent a lot of time on manually tracking everything because we didn’t have a computer. Chances are, you already have a CRM built into your Shopify, Square, or other sales tracking program. Are you using it?

09/23/2026

Every day after school, Dad would ask me "What did you learn today?" He instilled in his kids the importance of always continuing to learn new things, and today I wrote a blog post about this as I found a great resource for small businessess for bite size learning.
www.ontargetmarketing.net/blog-1-copy-1-1/learn-something-new-every-day

08/29/2026

Many marketing professionals will say that all marketing is done online. Yes, online marketing is crucial for your business...but you do need to mix that with some tactile pieces now and then. Everyone has a business card, but sometimes you need more than that to get customers to take action.

Here are two printed projects that I did this week to help small businesses find more customers. Both of these are actually going to other businesses who have a similar customer base. When I met with Karen Kirkpatrick from Innergize on Wednesday for an Aroma Alignment, I brought her cards with me. Literally within a minute of her opening the bag to see her new cards, a couple ladies stopped in and one asked "Do you have anything that kinda tells what it is you do?" We laughed and said yes, and gave them a copy of this two sided card, an alternative to a trifold brochure.

Carolyn from Sandtown Florist has had me do postcards for her seasonal open houses for many years. Now that most of her customers are also Facebook fans, she doesn't need to mail many of them out. However, she has several businesses in Port Sanilac that are happy to hand them out to visitors looking for things to do, and this has really helped increase her store business since moving her business from Sandusky to her home near Port Sanilac.

Flyers, posters, folded greeting cards, banners, yard signs, magnets, postcards, promotional products...there are dozens of ways to help boost your business with tactile items, and I would love to help you create exactly what you need to appeal to your target customers.

08/14/2026

Looking for the next community that wants to have an absolutely fabulous Small Business Saturday this year! For the last 7 years, I have organized events for a single small town shopping district, and each time, the majority of the business owners with restaurants or stores say it was one of their BEST SALES DAYS of all time!

Usually the event is sponsored by a Chamber or DDA, and this covers the cost of a multimedia marketing package for 10 or more stores and restaurants. There are several key pieces that work together to bring loads of shoppers into town the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Social media is part of the equation, but we also use traditional media like local radio ads Thursday-Saturday morning, banners, yard signs in front of participating businesses, printed shopping passports handed out at banks a week before the event, press releases from the sponsoring group to local media in the weeks beforehand, offical AMEX Shop Small Cloth Tote bags and swag for stores to hand out.

Each business is highlighted in the two weeks leading up to the event on a huge social media cross promotion Shop Local campaign. I visit each store, take photos of the owner and displays, get their event details, and feature them in a multiple photo post with copy. For two weeks before, we unveil 1 or 2 participating businesses, and each of them share each others for a whopping organic reach and love of community. Having an organic reach for the total promotion of 250,000 or more with 9-10% engagement (comments, likes, emojis, shares) is quite amazing in a town with only 2500 people!

Business that want to participate but aren't traditional gift locations (like an insurance agency) can get in on it too...by purchasing and donating gift cards to the participating businesses that are handed out by secret shoppers who "catch" people shopping small! Each one is in a Thank You card with the sponsors message, and lucky participants draw a card from the bag of many. The goodwill you get from donating is a wonderful way to start the holiday season!

I worked out the formula for a really successful day and big boost for your shopping district, and am happy to come present at your September DDA or Chamber meeting. If a Chamber is sponsoring, you can use that as a recruiting tool...the business part is FREE for Chamber members or a fee for non-members. Usually the business joins the Chamber to get included for free!

I will present this with two different options:
One that I handle the whole event for your Chamber so you don't burn out the volunteers... or I will teach your crew how to do the same thing.

Here are some of last year's photos from an event the businesses themselves paid for themselves. We threw this together just 2 1/2 weeks beforehand after the Chamber decided to do something different.

08/09/2026

Just finished a post for Sandtown Florist showing off these lovely custom floral arrangements that Carolyn designed. Every few months, we have a giveaway to help get more interaction on the page, and this one is to showcase her master level design and custom arrangements.

Her work is so stunningly perfect, Facebook tagged this as AI, when it’s actually just four actual closeup photos with a headline! I’d say that is a level of expertise few humans ever achieve! Congratulations Carolyn!

Enter to win a $100 Custom Floral Arrangement made just for you…go to the Sandtown Florist page and enter by Saturday, August 15.

Contests like this are a great way to get more people seeing your posts and increaseinteraction (likes, ❤️, comments, follows) and this is key to making sure the rest of your posts are being seen.

Boss Babes of The Thumb

07/04/2026

Our freedom should never be taken for granted…as we celebrate today, be sure to explain to younger generations what this fuss is really all about.

06/18/2026

One of the best ways to get more people seeing your Social Media posts and learning about your business is to have a contest! Today was really fun, I had the pleasure of writing down 199 names for a drawing for one of my clients, Great Lakes Counseling and Wellness Center.

199 people entered to win a 3 hour, 6 person private wellness party worth $300. They each tagged 5 friends they would bring with them, and we had a lot of new people knowing about this wonderful business. Just in that we reached 1200 people who were target customers. The best part was we ran this in May and June, and had a record May!

As you see in the video, they were so happy with the results they ended up giving away 2 parties for a total of 12 people to experience all the amenities.

Without giving away all the private deets, their reach was the highest ever, the engagement (shares, tags, comments, likes, loves, emojis) made it so more people are seeing the Wellness Center posts.

06/11/2026

Frankenmuth goes Broadway!!!

What a cool video to show the hospitality of the Bavarian Inn group of businesses! Of course we don’t all have the funds to do such a production, but an important marketing lesson here can be simply replicated.

When you saw this, you smiled, right? You saw familiar scenery you love, the music made you feel upbeat and the dancing and man in lederhosen doing cartwheels was awesome! (I mean, how do you do that in suede shorts?)

They evoked feelings in us:
Joy
Nostalgia
Happiness
Being welcomed & appreciated

The best marketing always connects with the customer in an emotional level. It invites and welcomes you, makes you smile or laugh, or connects with you on a deeper level…like “wow, they really know what I am dealing with”. It offers a solution or invitation that prompts you to act.

Here are some easy ways you can evoke emotion and connect with your marketing without having to do a song & dance:

Tell your story. Why did you decide to start your business? What is your favorite part of your role? Who do you want to help & how?

Show off the best features of your product or service in a way that makes people feel something. A video or photos of blissful people hugging a mini highland cow, enjoying a scrumptious meal together with family, or a stunning natural scene you spotted while going about your day. Connect emotionally.

It doesn’t all have to be shiny and happy. Think of the tree crews that are working to clean up the massive tree that split during a storm and the homeowners who are relieved; the sadness of loneliness and depression, relieved by the kind hand of a home health caregiver; and the iconic Budweiser commercials that tell a story from a horse or dogs point of view. Show how your business solves a problem and makes people feel better. Safer. Cared for.

Try this today. Whether its a beautiful photo, a 90 second story you tell on video, a written message of appreciation, or something else…connect with your audience emotionally. See what happens.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18kofG6jTU/?mibextid=wwXIfr

06/07/2026

Look what our friends at Elk Street Brewery & Tap Room and Michele Ellis of My Cup Of Media put together! Awesome work!!!

📢🚨NEW B**R ALERT🚨📢

ON TAP TOMORROW, JUNE 7TH!

📚✏️ Brewing for local education! 🖍🍏

​Elk Street Brewery & Tap Room is incredibly excited to be a part of a nationwide collaboration with Craft B**r Professionals and No Label Brewing Co. to support local education, with the release of 6-7 IPA!

​We sharpened our pencils on the numbers for this one:
📅 It releases on 6/7!
🍺 Comes in at 6.7% ABV!
🤤 Packs 67 IBUs!

​It’s a crisp and refreshing American IPA that tastes great and does good.

​We are keeping the impact local! For the entire month of June, a portion of the sales from every pour of 6-7 IPA will be donated directly to the Sandusky PACK Alliance 🐺 to support local kids, schools, and programs!

​Drinking great craft b**r while supporting local education? That’s an A+ in our book! 💯

​See you on 6-7! 🍻

​ **rProfessionals **r **rItForward **rCollab

06/07/2026

When your business wants to support the community and bring people in, doing a fundraiser for a local cause is a win-win-win!

This is a great example of how to do just that. Elk Street Brewery & Tap Room is a perfect example of “Cause Marketing”…partnering with the Sandusky Junior/Senior High School Sandusky PACK Alliance by creating an exclusive microbrew and donating the profits back to them this June.

The brewery is owned by 3 local firemen from the Sandusky Firefighters Association, who have been a huge supporter of our community for decades. Not only do they help with both of the big Sandusky Chamber Of Commerce and City of Sandusky, MI events every year by donating countless hours of time to help with parades, fireworks, festivals, and more, they serve as volunteer firefighters and keep us all safe. For all of this, we are sincerely grateful.

For local businesses: See how this post told a heartwarming story that tagged multiple community groups that benefit from this cause? That increases your organic reach by sharing this information with their followers too.

What local cause can your business help out? Think of something that is important to you and that resonates with your clientele. Then reach out and offer to host a fundraiser. For a day, a week, sales of a specific product, or everything for a limited time. The partnership of private businesses and public causes is what makes our communities and businesses both thrive.

Kudos to my friends Michele Ellis from My Cup Of Media marketing agency and the team at Elk Street Brewery for making this community better every single day. You hit a homerun with this promotion!!!

Boss Babes of The Thumb
Heart of the Thumb "Businesses, Great Events, Hidden Gems and More"

📢🚨NEW B**R ALERT🚨📢

ON TAP TOMORROW, JUNE 7TH!

📚✏️ Brewing for local education! 🖍🍏

​Elk Street Brewery & Tap Room is incredibly excited to be a part of a nationwide collaboration with Craft B**r Professionals and No Label Brewing Co. to support local education, with the release of 6-7 IPA!

​We sharpened our pencils on the numbers for this one:
📅 It releases on 6/7!
🍺 Comes in at 6.7% ABV!
🤤 Packs 67 IBUs!

​It’s a crisp and refreshing American IPA that tastes great and does good.

​We are keeping the impact local! For the entire month of June, a portion of the sales from every pour of 6-7 IPA will be donated directly to the Sandusky PACK Alliance 🐺 to support local kids, schools, and programs!

​Drinking great craft b**r while supporting local education? That’s an A+ in our book! 💯

​See you on 6-7! 🍻

​ **rProfessionals **r **rItForward **rCollab