Breakfast with Brandy

This weekend, one of my clients and I decided to spend the day shopping in Corinth.

We wanted to get out of our normal routine, visit some different stores, eat somewhere new, and have a new experience.

Then I found out the Slugburger Festival was happening the same weekend.

I immediately thought Corinth would be packed.

We arrived around 11 a.m., right around lunchtime, and it was dead.

Not a little slow.

Dead.

I was honestly disappointed for the town, the merchants, and everyone who had spent months planning the event.

I have been on the Milan Dawg Daze committee, so I know what goes into putting on a community festival.

You spend most of the year planning.

There are vendors, volunteers, entertainment, permits, schedules, sponsors, promotion, and a hundred small details that most people never see.

Then the day finally gets here, and it is so hot people cannot stand to be outside, or the crowd does not show up the way you hoped.

Even when it is completely outside your control, it still feels like you let the whole town down.

To be fair to the Slugburger Festival, it looked like the carnival and nighttime activities were much busier. We may have simply been there during a slower part of the day.

While we were shopping, I talked with one of the local merchants.

She said the festival used to bring in bigger entertainment acts, but it does not anymore.

She was not sure whether it was the cost, the crowd, or something else. Now, most of the entertainment is local.

There is nothing wrong with local entertainment. Supporting local talent matters.

But from the customer’s point of view, the question becomes:

What makes this event different from something I can see any other weekend?

That is not just an event question.

It is a marketing question.

We also talked about how much COVID changed things.

People gather differently now.

They shop differently.

They make plans differently.

They are more selective about where they spend their time and money.

On top of that, every town has festivals, concerts, markets, food trucks, sports, and weekend events competing for the same families.

Of course, I looked at the festival’s online presence.

I am a marketer. I cannot help myself.

The online presence was decent.

There were posts. There was information. The event was being promoted.

But decent does not always create excitement.

People need a clear reason to leave the house.

They need to know what is special, what they will experience, who the event is for, and why they should choose it over everything else competing for their weekend.

Marketing cannot control the weather.

It cannot guarantee a crowd.

It cannot fix every budget issue.

But good marketing can build anticipation earlier.

It can tell better stories.

It can involve local merchants.

It can highlight traditions.

It can create reasons to attend during the slower parts of the day.

It can make an event feel like an experience instead of just a schedule of activities.

The same thing is true for small businesses.

Showing up online matters, but simply announcing that you are open is not enough.

People need a reason to care.

They need a reason to choose you.

And sometimes, the better question is not:

“Did we promote it?”

The better question is:

“Did we make it worth showing up for?”

The Marketing Bite

Being open is not the same as being worth showing up for.

The businesses and events that pull people out of the house give them a clear reason to come.

It may be the experience.

It may be the people.

It may be the atmosphere, the entertainment, the tradition, or something they cannot get anywhere else.

Your marketing should answer three questions quickly:

Why should people care?

Why should they choose this instead of something else?

Why should they do it now instead of someday?

Posting more will not fix an offer that feels ordinary.

Before you worry about reach, ads, or the algorithm, make sure the experience itself gives people something worth talking about.

Take Home the Bacon

Meet with a successful business owner or a business coach and ask them to help you look at your business from the outside.

Do not just ask, “What do you think?”

Ask better questions.

What would make someone leave the house to visit my business?

What part of the experience is memorable?

What feels ordinary or easy to ignore?

What could I offer, change, or improve that would give people a stronger reason to choose me?

Then choose one idea and test it.

You do not need to rebuild your entire business.

You need one clear reason for people to show up, tell someone else, and want to come back.