Creating a warm welcome to your business can include sharing simple videos online. Here are some simple ways to get started. Photo by Chris Brogan.

By Chris Brogan

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but sometimes, it might be worth a thousand dollars, too. Over the last ten years, restaurants and bars who post their best dishes or drinks as photos on sites like Instagram have learned that people love seeing examples of what they’ll get if they drop by for a drink or a bite. As great as a photograph might be, I thought I’d talk a moment about why you should consider video as part of your selling toolkit, even if that feels a little scary to think about at first.

Video Shows People Your Business in Special Ways

No matter what you sell, a video goes a long way to giving your prospects and customers new opportunities to experience your business. If you have a service business, like plumbing or landscaping, spend time interviewing the team and give people a sense of the folks who work there. If you sell a product, show off that product, the making of, the behind the scenes. All that.

There are a few ways to do this. You can shoot videos that are somewhat generic to the business at large, which are great. But you might even consider putting together a few “for special customer” videos. Instead of a product video, it can be “Claire, I know you love when we get in new fabrics. You’re going to love this batch we just got from South Dakota.” My friend Mick sends kids that collect various comic books photos and videos of their specific Wednesday deliveries and that ups his sales a lot!

Is Video Hard to Make?

No. (Boy, I wish I could end this section right there.) You use a smartphone. There’s a video camera in there. If you practice even a little bit and learn to hold the phone sideways (landscape, they call it), you can probably shoot a video. There are free editor apps for iOS or Android aplenty. And you can upload it for free to YouTube (which is also free).

If you want to edit on your computer, Microsoft Photos has editing tools on a PC and iMovie works easily on a Mac. When I say “edit,” realize that most of the time, I don’t mean much more than learning how to cut and paste a little bit. That’s all. (You can search YouTube for “how to edit movies using ____” and you’ll see tons of free tutorials.)

Small Town Business Runs Better on Video

When I was a kid, my grandfather lived out on a farm in rural Maine. There was an old timey general store about two miles from the house, but any full-line stores were about 45 minutes away. “Going into town” was something of a pilgrimage. Sometimes, we’d be smart and call ahead to a store if we wanted something specific, like when we needed rock salt to make a hand churned ice cream turn out just right. Other times, we’d forget and drive all the way into town to find they didn’t have what we needed.

The world searches online before they go anywhere these days. And that means big companies try to take your customers at every turn. One way to compete is to get video of your products and of the people in your company up online so that people develop a relationship with you. If it’s a choice between some faceless corporation and “Old Alva’s Garden Supply,” there’s a chance you can win over buyers who will trust your advice over some faceless competition.

Let’s Run This Down Really Quick

Pretend I’ve convinced you. Here’s what to do:

1. Get a free YouTube account (name it after your business or yourself – either way.)
2. Practice shooting brief videos (1-3 minutes tops usually goes best)
3. OPTIONAL – If you’re you’re feeling clever, learn to edit a little, and turn a series of clips into one video.
4. Upload your videos to YouTube
5. Promote them by posting on your website where it makes sense, and/or by pointing to the videos through your email marketing efforts.

And that’s it. If you ever get stuck or have a question, you know you can always ask me. My email is chris@chrisbrogan.com . Feel free to drop me a line. And hey, show me your videos!

The Blue Yeti USB Microphone is highly popular, but its sensitivity can overwhelm you. Photo (CC) by LTD Team

The drawback to Yeti Blue USB Microphones for podcasting

Yeti Blue microphones are widely popular for podcasting and home sound recording. They do have a big drawback of being overly sensitive. They pick up too much background noise even when the gain is turned way down. I know because I bought one for my own podcasting and video streaming and had a hard time getting good sound with it.

The Wrong Advice

Most of the advice I found online says to turn the gain knob on the Yeti down to the absolute minimum. That avoids picking up too much background sound, but then the audio is really quiet and almost unusable. The wrong advice says to amplify that sound at the computer or in your software.

The resulting sound I got using this advice was what I would describe as hollow.

The Contrarian Advice that Works Better

A few contrarians online say to turn the gain knob higher and turn down input level at the computer or software. That worked for me. The sound was much richer, and without picking up all the background noise.

Here are the exact steps I followed

The gain knob is the top one on the back of the Yeti. Most advice says turn it as far down as you can. That advice is wrong. Photo (CC) by LTD Team

1. I plugged my best set of headphones directly into the Yeti so I could monitor the sound while I made adjustments.
2. I turned the gain knob on the back of the Yeti all the way up. I could hear EVERYTHING.
3. I opened the Windows Sound Settings by typing “sound settings” into the Windows search box.
4. In the Sound Settings, I scrolled down to the Input devices.
5. I made sure the Yeti mic was selected, then clicked Device Properties.
6. I adjusted the volume down to around 50.

Much better!

I adjusted the two settings a little bit each way, until my voice sounded the best I could get and I couldn’t hear my wall clock ticking.

I ended up with the Yeti gain knob down about a quarter of the way and the Windows volume set at 75.

You don’t have to do it every time

I made these changes one time in Sound Settings, and now Windows seems to remember for me. Whenever I hook or plug in my Yeti, it’s ready to go. I don’t have to do anything extra.

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If you’re interested in small town small business, feel free to check out some of our best stuff: 

• What businesses would work in a small town? Filling empty buildings
• How to set retail prices and markups
• The 7 Most Common Weaknesses of Local Shops And what we’re all going to do about them

101 Ways to Start More Tiny Businesses

If you need more business ideas, 101 Ways to Start More Tiny Businesses is a short ebook detailing ways to spread economic opportunity as well as why tiny businesses matter. Sign up here to download it and you’ll also get our weekly newsletters where Deb Brown and I share practical steps you can put into action right away to shape the future of your town. Download 101 Ways here.
I will never sell or rent your email address to anyone else because I wouldn’t like that either.

Easy summer business for teens: helping seniors with their cell phones.

Looking for the perfect instant summer business idea for young entrepreneurs? Try phone clinics.

I saw this idea pop-up in a meeting that involved a cross section of the town of Cathlamet, Washington. People of all ages were there: students from the high school, county commissioners, chamber of commerce members. One of the adults was lamenting that they didn’t know how to fix a certain annoying problem with their phone.

“That’s easy,” one of the students said. “I’ll help you after this is over.”

Immediately other adults spoke up. They had phone issues, too! Could they get help?

That’s a business idea! With just a sign and a couple of chairs, any tech savvy person could set up a booth at an event. Set a price by the job or by time.

There’s plenty of demand from older adults who are online and need some tech support. Maybe not a full time class, just a quick solution.

Especially in small towns, there aren’t a lot of established alternatives, so there’s not too much competition.

More help with Youth Engagement

Deb Brown and I are sharing what we’ve learned from working with students and youth in small towns. Learn more about our Connecting with Kids video here.

When customers talk instead of type, will they use different words? Photo by Andres Urena on Unsplash

For years, we’ve all worked on SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, to get our names out there and associated with specific words and phrases we knew our customers would type into a search engine to find us. Now that customers are saying their searches out loud, how does that change things?

Today’s voice searches happen via smartphone tools like Siri and Google Search, and via home assistants like Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod.

What words do customers type?

It still matters because many searches still happen on tablets, laptops and even by typing searches on phones. To pick the right keywords, you have to know what people search for. What is your customer thinking when they type a search for the solution you offer? They don’t know your name or your business yet. All they know is their own problem.

For my liquor store, we saw a lot of search phrases like “liquor store” and our town name.

What words do customers say?

It’s a little different when you speak a search instead of typing it. They may be shorter and more to the point.

Think of starting with this phrase, “Siri, find me…” and what would they say next? They still don’t know your business name, but they know what they’re looking for.

For my liquor store, we saw searches in our analytics that looked like they were probably done via voice. Searchers asked for phrases like “liquor store near me” and specific products like “tequila.” (I can just imagine people saying to their phone, “Find me tequila!”) Customers weren’t just searching for the type of business but also the specific thing they wanted.

Especially as small town stores diversify their product lines, customers aren’t sure which particular store they need. They search for the item. 

My local sewing machine center carries adult coloring books and handcrafted gift items. Customers aren’t going to guess that from the name of the business.

Small town stores have to write a lot more online about all the unusual and unexpected product lines they carry so they show up in terse voice searches for specific products. 

You can do this on your own website, your social channels and on search profiles like Google My Business.

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Rural people may be the remote workforce urban employers are looking for. Photo via picnoi 

Brother released their small business trends for 2019, and two struck me as particularly good for small towns and rural businesses.

Remote workforces will continue to rise

Brother says: “2018 was a pivotal year for remote working and as we head into 2019 that is not going to slow down. Good talent is becoming increasingly difficult to find and sometimes business owners are not able to find the right people for the job where they are. Hiring remote workers that are the best fit for the business will not only improve your business, but also significantly cut down costs on things like office space.”

Small town implications: We are the remote workforce! 

To be ready, we need more and better training for modern technology talents. LinkedIn points to 2019 needs in AI, machine learning, blockchain, and data science, but also emphasizes the need for soft skills like time management.

The other big factor: BROADBAND. You can’t be the remote workforce unless you can work over broadband.

Side-hustles will become the main-hustle and there will be a surge in self-employment

Brother says: “With millennials making up much of today’s workforce, the modern workplace is shifting drastically. The millennial workforce places a heavy emphasis on personal satisfaction, so striking out on their own is rewarding. Self-employment brings a sense of increased control over your work-life balance, the work you are doing and overall happiness. This year, we will see a spike in the number of home offices and self-employed workers.”

Small town implications: Entrepreneur development is rural economic development

Old school rural economic developers may still cling to recruiting businesses or chasing after chain stores, but modern rural economic developers are entrepreneur developers. Rural areas have long had higher self-employment, and we can expect that to continue. If you want your small town to prosper, help your local entrepreneurs to prosper. 

What trends are you watching in rural business?

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The infrastructure for the future will be built in rural places first. Photo by viya via Pixabay.

Necessity breeds innovation, and rural people have always been innovative. Working with limited resources makes us more creative thinkers. That’s just one of the reasons that small towns and rural places are the perfect testing grounds for the future. The infrastructure of future technology will be the result of rural testing.

Drones and UAVs – perfect for rural

I just read an article where an urban expert said we’ll never have drone deliveries because the skies above cities are just too crowded.

Then I saw articles on rural areas doing drone deliveries right now. Medical supplies like blood and perishable drugs are delivered by drone to remote locations in Africa, and a remote First Nation island community in Canada is getting supplies and mail by drone starting in the spring.

Wide open rural spaces are the smartest place to test all kinds of Unmanned Aerial Systems. Agriculture already dominates the early practical uses of drones and UASs.

Tests in rural places give companies a chance to learn, experiment, and figure out the rules that make wider implementation possible.

Self-driving cars make sense in small towns

Urban experts are writing about driverless cars and how they’re a mess, and people hate them because they tie up city traffic.

Rural people have been using autonomous vehicles in mining and farming for years now. In Australia, elders in regional towns are excited about driverless shuttles being tested to help them get around after they’ve given up driving themselves. Imagine all the ways autonomous vehicles could fit into small towns, much less disruptively than big cities.

Building out the infrastructure to support autonomous vehicles will be easier in compact small towns. There’s less ground to cover, and local governments and leaders are easier to access for approvals.

Again, small town tests are easier to manage and provide real-world information that can shape more successful and less disruptive implementation. This is yet another convincing reason to fund and speed up rural broadband and cell service modernization projects. 

Smart cities are taking forever, smart villages are much easier

Another recent article talked about how the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities are taking forever to get here. It reminded me of this quote from Ashok Das, who returned to India with a decade of experience in the US semiconductor industry.

“Changing consumer behavior in a big city is a major problem,” he says. “It will take decades to build smart cities, but I can get thousands of smart villages done in that time.”

Smart villages have already been established as legitimate field of academic research, and Finland is launching the first European Smart Villages Network.

What researchers and companies learn in smart villages will shape smarter strategies for smart cities.

Seeing the Small Town Future

These are just a few highlights. All kinds of technology trials are going on in rural places right now. We are helping establish the infrastructure, techniques and rules that make broader adoption possible.

Are you interested in seeing how small towns play important roles in the future? Join SaveYour.Town for a 30 minute video, Seeing the Small Town Future.

Township Supervisor Whitney Hoffman is building bridges and bridging communication gaps in Pennsylvannia.

Note: This is the second guest post by Whitney Hoffman. She’s sharing some thoughts about being ready for and recovering from disasters. -Becky

Guest Post by Whitney Hoffman, Township Supervisor in Kennett Township PA

Small towns across the Country are facing a Communications Crisis.

We’re seeing contracting media markets, where hometown newspapers fold or go digital. TV and radio stations also face intense competition for advertising dollars, and as a result, there are fewer and fewer media outlets that have the time or the interest to report on what’s happening on Main Street or at the local planning commission meeting.

Not only that, busy people are having their attention divided among almost every platform imaginable, and we’re even having people pay less attention to traditional notifications, like mail.

What kind of problems does this communications crisis cause?

Here in Chester County, PA, we sit outside Philadelphia and just north of the Delaware border.  The Philadelphia media market dominates, so much so that Delaware doesn’t even have its own TV station- just an hour on the PBS station, and a few local radio stations. The Delaware paper, the News Journal, used to cover a lot of the news in the local area, but since it was purchased by Gannett, it has become much smaller, thinner, and has substantially fewer resources to report the news than in years past.

When we enacted an emergency services tax increase in our Township last year, we had all the public meetings and the budget meetings covered by reporters. It was reported prominently in the local county newspaper. We sent out email notices of the meetings to everyone who has opted into our email notification list, and we have our agendas posted online. We put notices on our Facebook page. We also record and stream all of our Board of Supervisor meetings on Youtube. We even sent a postcard out to every household, letting them know about the tax increase. Yet it was only when the tax bill came in the mail that people started calling and showing up at public meetings, insisting this was the first they ever heard of it.

We had people taking to a new app called NextDoorNow, complaining about the tax increase and wondering why we didn’t post anything there. Some people wanted to know by text message. Others though a letter versus a postcard would have been better. What we took away from the experience was that there was not just one or two channels of communication now, but many. And for the sake of our staff and our sanity, we needed to make sure we had “official” channels of communication established, where people could get the facts rather than rumors started on numerous online forums.

Communications In a Crisis

When the recent severe storms hit this year, I began to think about how lucky we are to have a variety of communications channels that work, even if none of them seem to reach everybody effectively.  For towns without a Facebook page, community group, email list, or other communication channel, how are displaced people supposed to find out if it’s safe to return home? If the power is restored? What steps to take to secure property or even steps to take if you have to abandon it for a period of time? What is required to show if you need insurance or FEMA support, if all your records and maybe even those of others have been destroyed? Can people rely on the Town’s official webpage for information, or are there other communication channels that will get the word out more effectively?

Bringing Together a Diaspora

When a community is spread out over a large area due to a storm, communications get more difficult. The rumor mill will start to churn immediately, especially if reliable information from authorities is unavailable.

While I could go on at length about how to choose official communications channel(s) for your community, the important point to take away from our experience with the tax increase is that you need to establish official communication channels so people know where to go for reliable information. That will likely be a combination of channels, ranging from email, Facebook groups, Facebook pages, Twitter or other selected channels. You should have those channels and links displayed prominently on your website and social media profiles. And you should remind the public regularly that they can sign up for emails from local government- and then treat these assets like gold.  Don’t use them for advertising, but for important community wide communication. That way, people will gradually learn where they can to go for real, reliable information, even if they have moved away from the area entirely.

That will pay off in spades if there ever is a huge crisis like that facing so many communities devastated by this year’s storms.

Do What Works- even if it’s not “Right”

I went to a meeting of a local business group, and i asked them how they found out what was happening, and how we could communicate better.  Several people said they just followed the posts on my personal Facebook page, as I tend to post updates during storms or when we get word of unexpected road closures, etc. I was both shocked and gratified at the same time. Without my realizing it, people were following and sharing my Facebook posts about the community, and it had become a de facto portal besides our regular Facebook page for communication. Now while that means I have to be a bit careful because more people than I realize are “watching” what I post on Facebook, it also means that they are viewing me as a reliable source for information when they need it most. It’s not the official public communication channel I want to create, but it is one that works.

If you do have a crisis in your community, getting in touch with the local influencers- heads of organizations, groups and the like- and asking them to share important messages could be incredibly important during a crisis or emergency. Putting together a list of these people and updating their contact information yearly would be a great idea, in case it is ever needed.  Many towns already have an emergency preparedness plan, and a list of local organization heads and influencers might be a good addition to this plan.

Communications is Critical

It’s really easy to make assumptions that “everyone” knows something, or that you’ve done all you can to let them know. We found out that people listen to different “channels” depending on many factors- and you can’t count on only one channel to make sure your message is heard.

The truth of it is that there are very few central communication channels any more, and you need to make sure you build a variety of reliable channels so that they’re available when you really need them. Build them now, and you’ll be in a much better position to weather any storm, whether its economic or designed by Mother Nature.

More about Whitney

I was sworn in as a Kennett Township Supervisor in January 2016, and now serve as Vice Chair of the Board as of January 3, 2017. I am the first elected female Supervisor in the history of the Township.

I am currently working as a social media manager for Mingl Marketing and its sister company, Comfort Media Group in Philadelphia, and I also consult as a digital marketing strategist for Epic Marketing in Delaware on a project by project basis.

My consulting business, Hoffman Digital Media, specializes in digital media strategy, content marketing, and management for the web. I work with businesses and organizations to help them hone and develop a social media and 360 degree marketing strategy, ensuring that they can target potential customers online as well as measure the return on investment of marketing dollars. I speak regularly to businesses and community organizations on social media, content strategy, business strategy, technology and digital citizenship issues to groups of all sizes.

Read Whitney’s first post, Planning lessons every small town can learn from disaster 

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Autonomous shuttle testing in Las Vegas 2017. Photo by Becky McCray

News flash: Rural areas already have autonomous vehicles

Surprised? Both farming and mining already use fully or partially autonomous technology. I bet you already know about GPS-guided tractors, and you might know that big mines have big self-driving trucks and equipment. Almost no one mentions these highly-rural industries when talking about autonomous vehicles (AVs) for consumers.

Automated trucks are already handling freight primarily along rural stretches of highways. Two of the first are hauling beer and refrigerators.

Check out the map of AV stories from Governing.com. Notice how many are not in Silicon Valley, but instead out in rural areas. Be sure to click through the several years of archives on that map.

Despite these early rural uses, most of the fervent discussion of the potential uses for self-driving cars for people seem to focus on urban needs. Let’s turn that around and imagine what’s possible for rural communities when we leave the driving to the vehicle.

Would rural people accept driverless cars?

I keep seeing headlines about how older people are unlikely to accept self-driving cars, and rural people are stereotyped as closed to new ideas. Those are both negative factors, but there are lots of positives.

Society as a whole has accepted cars:

• shifting gears on their own
• holding a constant speed
• pumping the brakes in an emergency stop
• maintaining a safe following distance
• navigating
• turning on and off the headlights when needed
• dimming the headlights with oncoming traffic
• adjusting the windshield wipers as needed
• even parking themselves

Plus we have farmers and miners used to auto-steer tractors and trucks. Once small town seniors can no longer drive themselves, they often rely on local call-to-ride van services. Even small towns may have a taxi or two catering to the senior and lower income markets. I think small town people may be more accepting of self-driving cars than you might guess, especially when they help seniors maintain independence.

How small towns are different for AVs

There are also some transportation factors that are different in small towns. With our compact town layouts, small towns have shorter distances between local destinations. That can make in-town needs easier to serve with autonomous vehicles.

The longer distances between towns can really rack up the miles, and our long-haul trips lead to more accidents due to driver fatigue than our urban counterparts. It’s a compelling reason to delegate the driving to the vehicle.

Our slower broadband and spotty cell service can be a barrier. Besides GPS, AVs rely on continuous communication with other vehicles, sensors on objects around the streets and remote data through mesh networks. Small town broadband is going to need a major upgrade. Maybe AVs will provide the corporate motivations to finally make a difference here.

A few other factors to consider. Congestion and parking usually aren’t big problems. Our population skews older, and scheduled public transportation may be non-existent. We don’t have Uber or Lyft most places.

What could self-driving vehicles do in small towns?

Let’s brainstorm some potential use cases for autonomous vehicles in small towns. I’ll start, then you add your ideas. Don’t feel like you have to limit yourself to the practical, feasible or profitable. Let’s stretch our imaginations!

• Take seniors to doctors appointments, grocery shopping, to the senior center and more
• Run fixed mini-bus routes between a group of neighboring towns and small cities
• Shuttle to the nearest commercial airport (this is a good use for automated drone taxis)
• Commute to and from residential neighborhoods and large employers
• Deliver meals, groceries, library books, prescriptions, medicines, anything. What if every business and organization in town could deliver using a little fleet of shared delivery mini-cars?
• Parade vehicles (think how much fun this one could be)
• Connect the senior living or assisted living places with downtown
• Shuttle pedestrians across highways and other obstacles to walking
• Ride through holiday light displays
• Shuttle access to recreation areas like hiking and fishing without clogging the scenic areas with private vehicles in parking lots
• Shuttle to special events from remote parking
• Park and ride transit for visitors in tourist towns
• Circulate around the town square, Main Street or business district
• Turn the downtown into a car-free zone limited to self-driving shuttles, freeing up space for pedestrians, bicycle lanes, and more placemaking
• Hauling feed or supplies to and from farms
• School bus routes in town and out in the country

Now it’s your turn. What uses can you dream up? Share yours in the comments, or hit reply if you’re reading this in your email.

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If only podcasting was simple and used the tool that is most often in your hands… Photo (CC0) by jeshoots on pixabay

Podcasting is a powerful way to build a connection with people. They hear your voice and feel like they get to know you.

The problem with podcasting is it seems like a big hassle. You’re going to need equipment like a good mic, software to record and edit your audio, and some way to host the files. Then you need to figure out this distribution problem.

Podcasting could be much easier

With Anchor, all you need is your phone, and you’re ready to start podcasting. You already have all the equipment you need (your phone), and they take care of the heaving lifting of hosting and distribution.

Read the “how to start a podcast” guide at Anchor.

I used to use a similar podcast-from-your-phone platform called Utterz that was around from 2007-2010. It was great at the time, and its demise is a good reminder that platforms come and go. Download and save copies of any important audio you create with them.

Need more podcast advice?

Read our podcasting basics here. I’ve added some notes on which steps you can skip if you use Anchor or a similar tool.

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Your customers are placing orders with voice assistants right now. They just aren’t ordering from you. Here’s what to do about that. Photo by Andres Urena on Unsplash

People are happily using smart voice assistants more than ever. You know their names: Alexa, Siri, Google, Cortana. It’s so easy (and fun!) to just say what you want, and your magical assistant orders it for you. Then it shows up at your doorstep, and you’re living in the future!

This isn’t great for small town and independent retailers. You just got cut out of the order process. Unless…

Unless we could find a way to get Alexa and friends to talk to your store. And it turns out there is. Here is the trick you need to know:

Your customers don’t ask Alexa to order. They ask her to send a message.

Alexa and Siri and the others will all send any message to anyone, as long as they have the necessary skills and contact info.

Here’s what that looks like. I’ll use Alexa in all these, but they could work with any of the voice assistants.

Send an email

• You don’t want your customer to say “Alexa, order lemon soap” because that will always default to ordering through Amazon
• You do want your customer to say “Alexa, email the The Copper Penny Store and say ‘Send me a bar of that lemon soap you know I love.”

Send a text

• Bad: “Alexa, order a pepperoni pizza,” which will go to their paid partners
• Good: “Alexa, text the Olive Pit Pizza Place and say ‘I want a large pepperoni delivered,'” which will go straight to the local store

Make a call

• Good: “Alexa, call the Olive Pit Pizza.”
• Good: “Alexa, call The Copper Penny Store.”

How to teach these new tricks to Alexa, Siri and friends

In order to make this work, your customers have to do a little setup work. Depending on how comfortable you are with the technical stuff, you can decide how much or how little you’ll help them.

If you have zero technical skills

Right now, some of your customers are early-adopter types. They not only have a voice assistant, but they use it all the time. They already know how to add a contact and send a message. You just have to prompt them with the idea that they can use it to reach you.

• Easy to-do: add “Ask Alexa email us at ________ to place an order” to all your ads and social channels

If you have medium technical skills

If you have any Alexa enabled device, you can call out and receive calls from any other Alexa device. So you could actually set up an Echo Dot in your store. It would be like another phone line, of sorts. Then you just let customers know they can call you via Alexa. Here’s a CNBC article walking you through the voice-calling setup process. (Of course, the exact process will change over time.)

• Medium to-do: get an Alexa device like an Echo Dot in your store and give out the contact info to customers who also have an Alexa-enabled device

If you have all the technical skillz

If you’re the technical sort and good at writing directions, then you can show customers how to do the setup, in an easy way. Even if you only know how to work with one of the assistants, then you can give instructions for that one. If you are super savvy with more than one, hey, go for it and write instructions for them all.

• Difficult to-do: write a one-page cheatsheet to walk customers through the setup
• Bonus round: set up a demo in your store and show customers how to do the setup

Testing, testing

Be sure you test your plan with your own voice assistant, then enlist friends and family to help you test. Once you’re sure you can do this, start inviting in your customers. Suddenly, you’re the coolest store in town.

“Siri, call the liquor store.” 

(Uh oh. Siri isn’t 21.)

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