Welcome to the newest post in our blog series, Darren’s Great Ideas! for Independent Operators. The author, Darren Schulte, NATSO’s vice president of membership, brings to NATSO a wealth of knowledge about our industry.
Join Darren here every other Thursday for his biweekly retail column.
{Great Ideas} One-A-Day Truckstop Marketing
Most truckstops and travel plazas are open 365 days a year. While I know many of you work the majority of those days, if you perform just one simple marketing item on the 200 business working days of the year, at the end of the year you will have done a lot of marketing.
Here are some suggestions you might try:
- Walk through your location and write down three ideas on how to improve it.
- Introduce one colleague to another in a significant way that benefits both of them.
- Visit a retailer in your area that excels in marketing. Walk their store with an open mind.
- Have lunch with an owner operator. Find out why they stop, fuel, shop or do not shop with you.
- Read the first three chapters of a business or other how-to book.
- Walk out to the fuel islands, jot down some fleet/company names and call those owners to say thank you.
- Register for The NATSO Show. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
- Reset a retail display.
- Find out something you didn’t know about one of your employees or customers or co-workers.
- Enter the door as though you were a new customer; remove one piece of merchandise or fixture that is creating a bad first impression.
- Submit an employee for a Truckstop Superhero award.
- Walk your store and find three items that are covered in dust. Put them in a discount bin and move on.
- Send a handwritten and personal thank you note to a customer.
There are many more you could list. Together these actionable ideas when placed in concert with an annual marketing plan will have significant financial and social impact for your operation
/// Read more Darren's Great Ideas for Independent Operators posts here.
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