LOCAL BUSINESSES MARKETING SURVEY

February 22, 2026 by

Local Businesses Marketing Survey
Local Businesses Marketing Survey

We frequently recommend running a survey to our small business clients—there’s always a surprise and information gems. We think the main reason they work is the way a client feels valuable when they are given a venue for expression.

Here’s some of the info from our recent marketing survey of members of the Los Altos and Campbell Chambers of Commerce.

(Are you a small business owner? We’d love your input—here’s the survey.) 

The struggle is real! The most difficult marketing challenges are search engine optimization (SEO), paid online advertising (Google, Meta, etc.), email marketing, and general branding and graphic design.

Frustration with marketing companies stems mostly from poor communication and slow response times.

Improvement is needed with creating better visual content and getting quality leads. Small business owners also hope to work with someone local.

The most important info when choosing a service provider is proven results.

———————

Marketing benefits of surveys:

• Identify what clients value and where improvements are needed.

• Uncover unmet needs, missing offerings, or friction points in the customer experience.

• Learn which channels, messages, or promotions resonate most.

• Show customers their opinions matter, strengthening loyalty and trust.

• Collect positive feedback that can be repurposed for marketing, such as testimonials

• Gauge perceived value and price sensitivity.

• Validate demand before investing time and resources.

• Track changes in satisfaction and brand perception.

• Create a two-way dialogue instead of one-way marketing.

• Identify why customers choose you over alternatives.

———————

We wanted to try Constant Contact’s survey. Overall, it was not great. The cost is low with a Constant Contact subscription and is a possible option for small businesses. While Constant Contact is convenient for basic surveys, it would be limiting for small businesses that need deeper insights or advanced customization. Survey design options are relatively basic, with no logic branching and advanced analytics features compared to dedicated survey platforms. Reporting is only rudimental, which can make segmentation and data analysis very time-consuming. Branding flexibility is also severely constrained, and integrations with CRMs or automation tools would require custom application programming. For these reasons we do not recommend it.

In the past, we’ve used Survey Monkey, but boy is it expensive. For example, having a submitted survey lead to a branded landing page with offer instead of a Survey Monkey marketing page requires a steep price upgrade. So while SurveyMonkey is widely used and easy to deploy, it can present drawbacks for small businesses. Costs escalate quickly once you need advanced features such as custom branding, logic branching, exports, or higher response limits. The platform’s branding on lower-tier plans can dilute a carefully built brand experience, which is especially important for boutique or design-driven businesses.

Want to chat? Schedule a call with John.

 


PANTONE COLOR OF THE YEAR 2026

January 2, 2026 by

 

pantone cloud dancer click-bait metapix
Cloud Dancer click-bait metapix

Pantone’s colour of the year is “Click Bait” and there’s nothing more 2026 than that.

For the love of a blank canvas!

Over the last few days, we’ve seen colour and design experts say our times are too grim for such a non-colour; that they look to Pantone for inspiration and to create an annual design revolution. Instead, disruption!

Things may be grim these days. A pale, grey time. But don’t we all love a new notebook? The chance to build upon a plain surface?

There’s no better time than now to step away from big business, AI, influencers, algorithms, shaping your choices. Use some individuality and  human intelligence and paint over your greige kitchen in a wild colour, have your designer shape your business’ brand around your target market rather than a trend, and dress in whatever shade makes you feel good. Yes, even “billowy, balanced white” if that’s what moves you, seems right.

Do we need to look to Pantone? Shouldn’t it be our own activism that adds colour to our futures?

The experts saying Pantone is out of touch, may be right with regards to the 2026 choice, but they’ve triggered something. They are getting more coverage than ever. Clever!

How are you going to run with “Cloud Dancer”?


PLAN AND ORDER NOW FOR HOLIDAY MARKETING

September 2, 2025 by

holiday marketing table scape

After twenty years of helping clients with last-minute holiday panic marketing, these are some of the things we often regret not addressing in September.

As autumn begins each year, we remind our clients to start prepping and ordering gift bags, greeting cards, holiday decor, gift certificates, gift tags, posters, etc, and plan online marketing: e-mail campaigns, seasonal website changes, and AdWords campaigns.

Besides setting yourself up for a less stressful fourth quarter, preparation in September means free or economy shipping prices instead of ridiculously marked-up rush shipping for last-minute orders. (Reminder of our rush project policy.) You’ll also have more time to jump on the inevitable last-minute holiday opportunity or crisis.

SEPTEMBER TO-DO

Start a Halloween through mid-January calendar showing holidays, planned marketing campaigns, events, team meetings/training, and drop-dead dates.

  • Why into January? Because there’s often a drop-off in business in the new year. September’s the time to check into your previous January’s’ numbers (what worked, what did not) and also what your competition previously did for Q1 marketing.
  • Note drop-dead dates by working backwards from when you need assets finalized and in-hand. Remember that free or economy shipping may take longer over the holidays and plan accordingly.* For example, if you want a printed bring-back card to include with Halloween treats, note placing the order with the printer by October 17th, and working back from that, calendar planning and developing the asset starting a few weeks before that.
  • Calendar reminders to update your holiday hours over all platforms (especially Google Business Listings).

Research community calendars for events and reach out to potential partners and charities early. When you move forward be sure to plan offers that are trackable and unique to each event/partnership/charity so you have data for informed decisions next year.

Holiday Marketing

Prep a stash of beautiful, printed hand-outs with a generic offer so you have a stash ready and can jump on last-minute partnering opportunities without needing to rush a design and print order.

Check your gift card inventory now! (Gift card companies may have five week lead-times—and possibly longer October through January.)

Start penning your Thanksgiving gratitude message to customers, your holiday greetings, and your Happy New Year wishes so they are ready for social media and email campaigns. During the holiday rush, you won’t have as much bandwidth for sincere message scripting.

Are you sending cards, party invitations, and/or gifts to your clients and partners this year? Let’s get on that too!

Selling gifts? Check your inventory and the lead times of items you wish to stock. From October onwards, order fulfillment and shipping from your vendors may take additional time. Also, be sure you stock plenty of festive packaging and shipping supplies if you plan on mailing items.

Sadly, if you are hosting a holiday party and have not booked your caterer, entertainment, and venue, September may be too late. Skipping the printed invites and going online is a good option to save a few weeks.

Don’t forget your team! The holidays may be extra stressful for them too, so set them up for success and a bit of joy with prepared customer service scripts, holiday season incentives, and share with them your holiday marketing how-tos and goals. Start gathering their holiday plans for your shift schedule.

Plan software updates or IT work in advance.

No stress, added costs, and drama this year — let’s get started on marketing’s silly season work now! We’ve plenty of ideas and sources for product.

MenloVille Shoppe decorated for the holidaysHere’s some key events to keep in mind…

OCTOBER

Halloween

NOVEMBER

Daylight Saving

Veterans’ Day

Thanksgiving

Black Friday

Cyber Monday

DECEMBER

Pearl Harbor Remembrance

Green Monday

Festivus

Hanukkah

Christmas Day

Boxing Day

Kwanzza

New Year’s Eve

*This often trips up our clients—planning two weeks for free or economy shipping saves so much money and stress. Ideally, aim for three weeks for shipping so you have time to react if an exchange or reprint is needed.

E-MAIL CAMPAIGN DESIGN , MANAGEMENT, AND COST

July 11, 2025 by

(Updated 2025.)

The bottom line: there’s lots of detail in this article, but we know you are mostly interested in the cost, so an up to date price quote is at the end of this page, and here’s a link to our e-mail campaign portfolio where you can see samples of some launched campaigns.

The initial set up and design takes some time and thought, but once up and running, e–mail campaigns are a great way to keep your brand in front of your customers, drive people to your web site, promote your business and events, and as well as attract new customers.

E–mail campaign designs should:

  • be designed and coded in such as way as to not get caught in spam filters,
  • be coded so they render cleanly in any e–mail client, on any system, including tablets and smartphones,
  • be concise,
  • drive people to your web site, on-line store, or appointment forms with links,
  • use graphics intelligently so they don’t hinder load time, readability on all devices, and deliverability,
  • carry your branding throughout,
  • contain calls to action, and
  • be designed so you may use the same template for each launch, making simple edits to text, colors, and photos without re-coding each time.

The initial steps in the process are:

  • deciding upon your e-mailer design,
  • how to manage your e–mail list,
  • designing and coding your email template (this same template will be used from e–mail to e–mail, making updates easy and providing your recipients with consistency),
  • collection of e–mail addresses, and
  • the account set up.

These above steps are discussed in our initial meeting and are not repeated after the first e–mail campaign.

Costs

One time set-up costs:

  • Design drafts, half an hour to two hours depending upon type of e-mailer.
  • E–mail template coding, one hour to three hours depending upon type of e-mailer. The simpler the template design, the faster the code is written.
  • Set up of e-mail campaign service provider account, half an hour including collection of your contact information.
  • Cost of initial e–mail address list set up depends upon how much training is needed. A good estimate is one hour for someone computer savvy, but needing a little support with their e–mail client and with Excel.

Here are the steps which are repeated with each following campaign:

  • Entering content to the template, half to one hour. This assumes a few graphics and several paragraphs of text copy, and also that the content provided is publish-ready and fits to the e–mail template already coded.
  • Entering html to e-mail campaign platform and sending you a test e–mail, half an hour.
  • Formatting the address list and uploading to e-mail campaign platform, fifteen minutes.
  • Launching e-mailer, fifteen minutes.
  • Reporting, FREE! A few days after the e-mail is sent to your address list, we will e–mail you a report with information which can be helpful to your future marketing. Report will include how many clicks the e–mail generated to a linked web pages, who has opted off of your mailing list, your open rate, which e–mail addresses are not valid, and if any of your e–mails were forwarded and if these recipients added their address to your mailing list.
  • Also no charge, lot of tips along the way on how to produce an effective e–mail campaign, and how e–mail campaigns can help your web site’s search engine optimization.

The final summary is that the first campaign will take 4.5 to 8.5 hours to produce, and that following e–mails will take 1.5 to 2 hours of work. Our rate is $155/hour. The charge from the e-mail campaign platform will depend upon the size of your mailing list. Please contact John with any questions.


OUT TO PASTURE

June 16, 2025 by

Our Non-responsive Websites

We love the websites we have worked on and maintained through the years. And we are grateful for all our clients who trust us with their website projects. But, as there’s no need for a portfolio to contain non-responsive sites anymore, and even although these sites are still working for our clients, we are moving non-responsive sites from our website portfolio to this post for posterity. So even though these websites are still working for our clients (some for over a decade, wow!), we need our portfolio to show sites which work on mobile devices.

Here they are, our final non-responsive website projects:

hubbardgodfrey.com

Built in 2007. We love that when we visit AT&T Park, we see their work.

donnadesmond.com

We started working with Donna in 2013. We still love the look of this site.

earnosethroat-sanramon.com

Made in 2011.

hpdpublicrelations.com

Running since 2012.


Save

Save


MAIL LIST MANAGEMENT FAQ

February 21, 2025 by

Mail List Management FAQs

2025 – update. Very little of this info has changed since we first published this in 2017, so with a few edits, here’s updated info.

The answers below assume you are using one of the main email service providers. (Other than MailChimp as their list management is a struggle and contrary to the way our clients work.)

Q.
If the same e-mail address is on several lists in my account, will that person receive the e-mail campaign more than once?

A.
Short answer, no.

The service provider catches duplications and only sends the campaign to each address once. For example, say you have three lists in your account: Peninsula Clients, Marin Clients, and South Bay Clients. And Maggie Jones with address mj@gmail.com has visited your locations in San Jose and Palo Alto and so is on two lists. If you select all three of your lists to which to send an e-mail, the service provider will catch this and send only one to mj@gmail.com.

Q.
How do I get addresses to you to add to my account?

A.
You’ll need to export them from your internal system or database and send to us, usually as an Excel or .csv file attached to an e-mail. All databases, whether MicroSoft Outlook, gmail contacts, your POS system, etc, have a feature to export. Occasionally John visits a client to train them on how to export, but usually a few minutes Googling “export + your database type” gives adequate direction.

We prefer to work with an Excel doc. But we have also received email lists as pdfs, hand-written addresses, and Word docs.

It is important to name the file to send to us uniquely and logically. For example, if the list is all clients, be sure to name it so – “acme-co-all-clients-022117.xls”, or if it’s just your VIP clients, “acme-co-vip-022117”. Including the date is also a good way to track the file in case we need to troubleshoot in the future.

Even more important, if you have more than one list in your account, be sure to communicate clearly to which list we are adding these new addresses.

Q.
How do I prevent an unsubscribed person from receiving mail from me?

A.
That’s one of the great things about e-mail service providers. Once a person is marked as unsubscribed, there’s no way that account will send to that address. Even if that same address is added to the account manually or through an upload, it will be blocked.

Q.
Can I log onto my account and edit lists myself?

A.
Any time. We don’t own your account; you do. We’ll be happy to point you in the right direction to handle your own list management if you like. For example, some of our clients save by manually updating unsubscribes who have reached out to them directly instead of clicking the required unsubscribe button.

Q.
I have a question regarding mail list management which is not answered here.

A.
E-mail John!

POLICY ON RUSH ORDERS

January 6, 2025 by

(Originally posted September 2015. Reposted 2025.)

Due to a terrible few weeks when many rush orders placed with a third–party were bungled by the vendor or delivered late (or both!), and we calculated a significant loss of time and money as we worked with the vendor on our client’s behalf to get reprints, a corrected order, or a refund, we have decided to change our policy on providing free customer support on rush order failures by a third–party.

Customer service time spent with third–party vendors on rush order failures may be billed to our clients at our regular hourly rate.

We know that rush orders are unavoidable and will continue to do all we can to meet any deadline, without any additional rush charges.

However, we are finding that more and more we are losing time and money responding to the issues that so often occur with a rush order or rush shipping. These issues arise from errors completely beyond our control, either from a client who has put off addressing a project or deadline, or a vendor or shipping company which has not met their promised service. Our hope is to always provide the best service and product to our clients, so we generally step in to do all we can to fix any issue, although we are not at fault and although this customer service work can be time–consuming and costly to us. This cost to us in this lack of fault and high–risk situation has led to this new policy.

Of course, if it was an error or delay on our part that caused the need for a rush, you will get our full, un–billed support until the issue is resolved.

Addressing deadlines and projects well ahead of time will prevent the high–risk rush order. For example, order all your holiday season items such as decor, gift bags and wrap, and stocking stuffers in the fall. That way you are not putting pressure on a vendor to rush a job and they can do their best work, checking and proofing as they go, and packaging it in a quality manner to prevent shipping damage. If your item arrives early and is damaged or not as promised, you have plenty of time to get a replacement or refund without impacting your deadline.

To help prevent rush shipping up-charges, we keep to a fast turn–around time. We are happy to help our clients plan ahead and keep to a schedule. We can track down third party standard lead–times if requested, so a project management schedule can be prepared in advance.

The ultimate deterrent to procrastinating and ending up in rush-order-territory? The mark–ups for rush orders by third parties are astronomical.

SKINADE THREE MONTH TRIAL

April 22, 2019 by

skinade collagen drink

 

WEEK ONE – February 26 – March 4

Yum! And whew! Its four o’clock in the afternoon and my first box of skinade just arrived – of course I had to try it right away. Yum! Because it’s delicious, and Whew! Because I’m so glad it tastes good as I’m planning on having it daily for a three month trial.

So who am I, and why am I doing this? My name is Rachel and I’m always personally interested in health and nutrition. And professionally as a website and graphic designer, I like to stay up to date on high-end beauty treatments as many of my clients are in the lifestyle and/or beauty industry. I’m turning fifty next month, an age which I think is great for experiencing something like trying a collagen drink to help skin hydration – I have plenty of aging, sun-damage skin to test skinade upon.

I purchase all products mentioned below from clients. And, full disclosure, I learned about skinade from my client Hayes Valley Medical & Esthetics who carries it, and I did not pay for the first month’s samples I am taking during this trial.

I’m not changing my usual routine with the exception of a daily serving of skinade. Hair care from Halo Blow Dry Bar – Rene Furterer shampoo and conditioner. For my face, I wash with whatever is on hand and if in the shower, I use a Clarisonic. AM, I use SkinCeuticals C.E. Ferulic and PM, Revision Skincare Hydrating Serum. And morning and evening, I use Hayes Valley Medical Skincare Restorative Moisture. Once a month I get a facial with microcurrent from Olive Branch Spa.

 

Finally, I use a lot of sunscreen – year-round. Hayes Valley Medical Skincare BB Cream Perfection 6-in-1 Cream, SkinCeuticals Physical Fusion UV Defense, and ColoreScience Sunforgettable Brush-on Sunscreen – all from Hayes Valley Medical & Esthetics.

Back to that first peachy sip of my first skinade . . . such a nice clean flavor. The other flavor is unique – mangosteen I have to presume as it’s a taste with which I’m not too familiar. I’ll look forward to each daily drink.

By day seven, my face feels like I just had a facial, with softer, suppler, and hydrated-feeling skin. And in general, my skin all over feels softer – elbows even!

I took a peek at http://us.skinade.com and read that most people felt there skin was more hydrated and soft by day 4 to 6. Yep! Me too! It says that by days 10 to 14, “skin is more smooth, radiant, glowing and more uniform.” Well I hope I continue upon this path!

WEEK TWO – March 5 – 11

I love that I’m getting an extra dose of Omegas 3 and 6 in this product as I’m a vegetarian. And yes, I know the collagen in skinade is sourced from fish scales – not vegetarian – but I figure by the time they are processed down to chains of amino acids, it’s just biological components.

Wednesday – 4am hot flash! Silver lining is that I had my skinade close and it was very refreshing and distracting. Plus, I figure, drinking it in the early hour’s means the best absorption as tummy empty and nice long time until my morning green tea caffeine which hinders Vitamin C efficacy. But no, I don’t plan to set alarms for daily pre-dawn wake-up for my collagen drink.

WEEK THREE – March 12 – 18

I’ve been getting compliments on my skin – overall healthy glow. I’m still enjoying taking skinade each day. The travel sachets are so convenient. I have a stash at home and also in my purse. Usually I take at home, in the evening with my iron pill. A few times, I’ve poured the sachet into a glass at a restaurant. And they are energizing when added to a water bottle during a hike.

I’m noticing the changes to the feel of my skin. Since my teens, I’ve had acne scars along the sides of my eyes and mouth. Usually I can feel little indents and roughness, but I can’t feel them anymore, just smooth skin.

WEEK FOUR – March 19 – 25

Five days in the Mohave Desert! Usually my skin instantly feels different in the dryness. Plus, I’m camping and did not even bother to bring my usual skin care products and am mostly just splashing water and applying sunscreen layer after layer. My skin felt great – hydrated in a way it never is in the desert.

Another pleasure is the feeling when applying sunscreen – my skin is smoother. Lotions seem to glide on.

WEEK FIVE – March 26 – April 1

It’s been one month. I believe my skin is more uniform. Here are a few before and after photos. The fine lines next to my eyes are less deep.



WEEK SIX – April 2 – 8

I met with my client, Hayes Valley Medical & Esthetics and it was fun when Linda saw my skin. She thought I’d been using topical products that were working, but actually the only change is the skinade. Her comment was glowing!

WEEK SEVEN – April 9 – 15

About this time, I noticed I had not been sick with a cold I always get around March. Maybe the added vitamins in skinade are helping?

WEEK EIGHT – April 16 – 22

I’ve been in the high desert of Utah since the 9th – including hiking around Moab and Arches National Park – and my skin feels great. It never does here. Every other visit, I’ve had unpleasant dry across my cheeks and lips. Also, when visiting here, I usually get breakouts, but none this visit. My skin is smooth and even.

Red Cliff Lodge and Arches NP

 

I’m also wondering if skinade is effecting my over-all hydration, as I usually get nose bleeds in the desert and at higher altitudes, but none on this trip.

My fiftieth birthday! Feeling good. Loving my skin right now. I’m going to be back in the Bay Area soon and will order more skinade to complete the three months try-out. Then I’ll take “after” photos.




SHARON HEIGHTS PHOTO SHOOT

March 27, 2019 by


We always love a call from MenloVille La Vita Verde for a photoshoot as we know it’s going to be something beautiful. This time, we were at at Sand Hill Business Park shooting the incredible gardens created by Lisa of MenloVille.


It’s a huge campus and it took a long time to work our way around to cover all the wide-angle vistas down to the thoughtful details in the gardens designs.


Lisa’s talent in landscaping is how she creates layers within each segment of the garden using details like succulents planted in rocks, crystals, and statuary. She’s done a beautiful job updating the 1970’s style of the campus gardens – making the overall vibe of the property more modern, interesting, and inviting to a visitor, and bringing places of rest, socialization, and inspiration to hard-working employees.


We also included some “artistic” filtering on some of the shots. Here’s the entire album…