Starting this Friday (now Thursday), the biggest shopping days of the year begin and your clients, particularly your retail clients, are scared to death. It’s not J.C. Penny, Best Buy or Walmart that scares them. Today, it’s Amazon and the many thousands of other online minions that are trying to gobble up their customers and rain on their holiday shopping parade.

Is there anything you can do about it? Yes, in fact, there is!

First, DO NOT buy on-line yourself, unless you cannot buy it at a “brick and mortar” store. Lead by example and share this with your team. We should never tell our employees where to buy, but you can encourage them and show them the impact it can and will cause. In advertising sales, we rely on the “brick and mortar” stores to make our living. If we personally don’t “walk the talk” and support them, how can we honestly ask those clients to spend with us?

Secondly, one of the most powerful things I have ever heard came from my lifelong mentor, Don Jacobs. Don ran what he referred to as TOMA Branding Ads for his group of radio stations which covered topics on advertising, business, and life. The most powerful one he ever wrote was titled “Buy Local”, and he ran it during the holiday shopping period. In a nutshell, the ad asked the listeners of his stations to buy local instead of buying online. He outlined why it’s important to our community and our local businesses.

Do you think the local business owners appreciated him and his stations for this message? They didn’t just appreciate it…they absolutely LOVED it!  Finally, someone (this group of radio stations) was standing up for them and asking people NOT to buy online, but instead, support their local businesses.

It’s not too late to write and produce this powerful message and run it in your market. Like Don, you too will be a Hero!

Don has graciously offered to give you a free sample of one of his “Buy Local” ads. If you’d like to take advantage of this, click here and we’ll get you a copy ASAP.