The iconic St. Helena winery is known for being Napa Valley's oldest wine estate, their grand estate, and some BIG bold Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. When the “experience” of being at the winery was not allowed during the SIP (Shelter in Place) order for California, the Charles Krug team figured out how to bring that experience online with virtual wine tastings and Facebook Lives.

The brick & mortar hair and skin salon has continued to focus on the connections that they have with their customers, and that can be seen as soon as you walk into the salon through smiling faces and repeat customers. When the SIP order went into place for Sonoma County, they had to shut down their salon and turn to online delivery orders, as well as a new Facebook group

California Governor, Gavin Newsom shared some of his plans to open California back up after the COVID-19 pandemic slows (still no official date until we see trends in hospitalization numbers flattening). The plan will be lifting SIP in stages. California Small businesses that rely on customers may need to rethink this business plan for life after the SIP orders are lifted - and get creative.

For some, when we are put in situations where we have to adapt quickly -- we find a way to pivot our small business strategy. For other business owners or marketers, it isn't so easy to change how you do business, but there are things you can do to make small steps to pivot your marketing.

With the shelter-in-place order, wineries and restaurants all over California are having to rethink their traditional model of people coming to them. Creativity tends to flourish during times of crisis, so I wanted to give a few shoutouts to brands that I think are doing a great job of embracing the horrible reality that we're dealing with right now.

For many of us in the hospitality industry, all of our marketing efforts were directed at getting people into the tasting room, restaurant or hotel, and letting our tasting room staff sell wine club memberships/wine/food, etc. And even though this crisis is temporary, the brands that adapt will be able to move forward stronger, and the brands that simply want to revert to the status quo will be left behind.

Having a landing page on your own website helps with digital retargeting ads, SEO, and general branding (since the free version of Linktree doesn’t have many choices for changing up the style, fonts, or layout).  But what happens when marketers don’t have easy access to create new landing pages on your website? 

I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur—maybe because I never had employees under me. I guess when I think of entrepreneurs, I think of traditional “small business owners” like my dad, who has employees. I realized that my mindset—thinking of my work in such a small way—was holding me back from spending money on myself and on my social media marketing business.