As a business owner or marketer, it is important to change with the times. The developments in the last few months have likely disrupted the marketing plans you had in place for the year. Now is a good time to re-evaluate your marketing efforts and create a strategic plan for moving forward under these new circumstances.

As we are all thinking about ways to adjust to our “new normal” and adapt our businesses so that they can continue to function while we do our part to work remotely, we have been impressed by some of the creative ways local businesses have embraced the challenge. Here are a few of the local places that have inspired us with their innovation by creating new offers, utilizing their social media platforms in new ways, and implementing new systems in order to be able to continue operating.

Things are rapidly changing for businesses as new health regulations are continually being issued from both the CDC and federal, state and local governments. Now, more than ever, it is important to have a proactive and flexible plan that your business can execute in the coming days and weeks.

As digital marketers, we often see people using online reviews solely for negative feedback. While constructive feedback can be useful in the correct context, the cases we usually see involve the negative minority drowning out the positive majority. To shift this mindset, we asked our followers to leave three positive reviews for local businesses as part of our #BeeThankful campaign.

Studies have shown that 90% of customers turn to Google, Yelp, or social media to find reviews before trying a new business. Additionally, about 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they would a personal recommendation from a friend, family, colleague, etc.

In March, we were hired by the Virginia tourism bureaus of Winchester-Frederick County, Shenandoah County, Rockingham County and Harrisonburg City for a destination marketing campaign to help brand a winery/brewery/cidery/distillery trail. Here's a case study outlining our work for this branding project.

We've conducted public relations and marketing campaigns for several franchises, and individual franchisees, over the years. With each experience and client, we've learned some general do's and don'ts when it comes to marketing a franchise to consumers. If you're a new franchise owner or manage a national franchise brand, this one's for you.

PR encompasses so many things. Sometimes it’s best to describe it as something it’s NOT, which is paid advertising, because everyone seems to be familiar with advertising. We don’t go out and buy TV spots or purchase print advertising space. But, we do pretty much everything else to help our clients meet their communications goals.