Hannibal is home to many small, local businesses, including Poole Communications. This month, we celebrate National Small Business Week and recognize the impact small businesses have on the community. These businesses build the character of our community and are a huge driving force in our local economies. Small businesses keep the American Dream alive as they withstand tough and smooth waters. They create innovation and often tend to have a lot of love and passion behind them.
We want to offer some insight to encourage the growth of small businesses by looking at external and internal ideas that can help make your small business even greater.
External Ideas for Growth:
Internal Ideas for Growth:
Two things we encourage small businesses to think about are how to be active in their local community and how to foster a culture of growth within their business. Your local community can be a driving force for your business's growth. In return, you can be a major contributor to making your community a better and more economically sound place.
Internal growth can often be traced back to the culture you foster, as well as the drive for innovation and growth you and your employees have. You will never stop learning, and neither will your employees. Embrace that. Use it to make your small business something great and worth investing in.
Need a little help getting started, or would you like us to train your people? Contact Poole Communications at 573-221-3635... or email us at info@poolecommunications.com.
©2025 Poole Communications
Viewing Your Company Like Your Customers provides insight into how best to market to them and meet their wants and needs. It is very important to garner trust and respect from your customers using good communication, as it helps to understand them well when marketing. A disconnect between customers and a business can lead to a waste of resources, more mistakes, and customers getting frustrated. Therefore, understanding your customers can be crucial to marketing well to them. This can also help ensure that you provide the best possible services and products your company can provide.
Put yourself in their shoes! Try to identify what your customer demographic might be interested in or what might resonate with them the most. Once you have some ideas of what might work, test them out and listen for honest feedback and data. Focus on what works best and improve on it. Furthermore, listen to what your customers are saying. Don't simply assume you always know what your customers want, but be ready to work with them to understand what they want better.
In addition to placing yourself in their shoes, you should always be ready to admit to mistakes and quickly fix them. In times of crisis, customers want to know that things will be fixed. A business that avoids or fails to respond quickly and efficiently is far more likely to frustrate customers. Communication is key in times of crisis and when developing your marketing plan.
To summarize, looking at things from a customer's perspective means:
Need a little help to get started or would you like use to train your people? Contact Poole Communications at 573-221-3635... or email us at info@poolecommunications.com.
©2025 Poole Communications
Networking is an useful tool for promoting your company. Hannibal has two great networking events coming up: the Chamber's Annual Meeting on Friday, February 7th and the Hannibal Chamber Women's Network on Thursday, February 27th. Using networking, you can seek out those who need what your business has to offer. Networking and relationship-building allows for clients to get to know you better and trust your business more.
When networking, it is important to go out of your way to meet new people! While stepping out of your comfort zone to connect to people can be tough, using icebreakers and being friendly can help get conversations started. Try not to be pushy in these conversations, but instead be an active listener and a service to the people you meet.
Some ideas for icebreakers might include:
Use and give referrals to expand your network. When building relationships with customers and clients, giving and receiving referrals can help strength your relationships. Customers with positive reviews and testimonials about your business or services can be essential to growing clientele. Referrals are a networking heavy approach to advertising, where your existing clients and customers positively recommend your company. You want your clients to refer you based on the experiences they have with your business, the reputation your business upholds, and the area your business specializes in.
A good place to network as well as give and get referrals are the Show Me Business Builders meetings. These meeting occur every Wednesday at 7am at Logues Restaurant in Hannibal, Missouri. We would be happy to see your business join!
Need a little help to get started or would you like use to train your people? Contact Poole Communications at 573-221-3635... or email us at info@poolecommunications.com.
©2025 Poole Communications
This morning, I received another email that had a WORD document attached. When I opened the WORD document it had a few sentences that could have easily been put in the body of the email.
It takes time to open attachments. Recipients might not have the program you sent the attachment in. I especially hate PowerPoint attachments because they take so long to open. Or worse yet, Publisher documents that cannot be opened on a Macintosh computer.
I’m encouraging everyone to think just a little bit before they send an email or an attachment. Here are five easy tips to get your emails read:
1. Use the subject line. Make it informative and change it if the email’s topic changes.
2. Keep your emails brief. Research has shown that six sentences is a maximum. Get to the point.
3. Be kind. An email can be easily misunderstood. Take extra effort to be kind and say something friendly.
4. Provide contact information. This enables the recipient to call, email or check out your website.
5. Use a pdf, png or jpeg attachment format. They can be quickly opened and read by almost anyone.
We’re all being asked to do more in less time. Let’s make the world a little easier and communicate clearly. What tips do you have?
The Huffington Post reported that a US Postal Service survey shows mail at an all time low.
Take heart. This is the perfect opportunity every business has been looking for. Write a note to your customer. Your small note (that you can send for a mere 46¢) will make an impact because no one receives letters anymore.
The post office reports that an average home received ONE personal letter roughly every seven weeks. That is absolutely amazing. But I have to admit, I opened my mail last night and threw away 90%. Most of it was junk and form letters. People don’t consider a letter “junk.” Especially if you have something nice to say or share – and you write it by hand. People keep letters because they leave a lasting impact that you can read again and again. it’s like sharing a little piece of yourself and your life.
Go write a note to someone you care about. Consider writing a thank you note to a customer and make a difference in your business.
