For more than a year, my family and I have been traveling the country, visiting communities and Main Streets – by my estimation, we’ve seen more than 250 so far. My wife chronicles our adventures on Instagram, and our family is constantly on the hunt for a great local ice cream shop. 

Communities thrive, offer a welcoming first impression, and provide a unique experience thanks to their small businesses - not the number of big-box stores they have to offer.

Clearly, convenience is a major factor driving consumer decisions today, as is price, however, small businesses tend to offer unique products and services not readily available through larger chain stores. These are the areas small businesses should focus their marketing efforts and the areas local consumers should seek out something special.

A business is an important part of the community and there are countless relationships that they participate in. Modern commerce has become increasingly transactional and the relationship piece is often forgotten but the future of community is built around relationships where everyone has a role and responsibility.

I run Locable, our tagline is “Main Street for the 21st Century” so visiting communities is definitely on-brand for us while the impetus of the trip was our Marketing 3-4-5™ workshops which I primarily conduct with local Main Streets for their merchants. 

I stress that businesses have a responsibility to deliver unique value while effectively marketing themselves so people who can benefit from their products or services find them. 

Marketing 3-4-5™ begins with the 3 reasons a business does marketing:

• attracting more of their ideal customers
• improve hiring & retention (team building)
• and positively impacting their community

With this way of thinking, a small business provides far more than a product or service but they also offer jobs to locals looking to build schools, participate in their community, or grow a career.

Likewise, they engage as active participants through sponsorships, partnerships, referrals, and more. 

With all of this in mind, hold business accountable to offer something worthy of your time and attention in a way that is important to you. In return, patronize their business, share your feedback, leave reviews and make referrals fitting of the experience you received.

When you support a local business that shares your values, you're doing your part to help #TakeBackLocal and that's something you can be proud of.

“Marketing 3-4-5™: The Business Owner’s Guide to Effective Local Marketing in 15-Minutes or Less” is available in Paperback and Kindle versions – an audiobook version is coming soon. You can buy a copy online or by request through your favorite local bookstore.

Our guest blogger, Brian Ostrovsky, is the founder and CEO of Locable and the author of “Marketing 3-4-5™: The Business Owner’s Guide to Effective Local Marketing in 15-Minutes or Less. He has taught Marketing 3-4-5™ to thousands of small businesses with dozens of local workshops with Main Streets and state programs around the U.S. – the Tour continues in 2022.