Ocean Beach MainStreet Association’s annual marketing breakfast on Feb. 29 offered local merchants tips on ways to promote their businesses better and more effectively evaluate their success.

The guest speaker was Joon Han (above), founder of Better San Diego, a nonprofit in Liberty Station. He talked to OBMA members about how to “engage with customers authentically” discussing ways to build on word-of-mouth referrals. Afterward, he answered questions.

Han extolled the virtues of small businesses noting: “I have probably 13 friends who became multi-millionaires, and two people who somehow lucked into becoming billionaires, and every single one of them started as a small business.”

Han asked how many members’ primary method of marketing was word of mouth, which applied to at least half the audience. He then explored a marketing concept known as a “Net Promoter Score,” a customer survey focused on customer loyalty and not just satisfaction. On a scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest), NPS asks customers how likely they are to recommend an individual business’s product/service/store.

Introducing another concept known as “Moment of Truths,” Han explained those are aspects of a business operation, such as storefronts, socials, texting, displays, staff, service, signage, etc. that either “wins or loses” more customer loyalty, in word-of-mouth advertising.

“Most of us, when we say word of mouth, that means we’re not actively marketing,” noted Han adding, “Word of mouth happens to be the best way to get sales because there is a lot of trust built into that. But, it’s a real passive way of marketing.”

Han went on to explain that only the higher end of the NPS scale, 9’s and 10’s, indicate that that customer would most likely recommend your business to others. “A nine is telling people you’re awesome,” he said while adding any lesser score reflects that the customer wasn’t entirely satisfied. “At any point in time in your business, there’s 80 or 90 moments of truth,” Han concluded pointing out, “If you ask five whys, you’ll get to the root cause of why a moment of truth is not working for you.”

OBMA executive director Denny Knox noted OB currently has a major marketing challenge in that OB Pier is closed long-term for repairs. She pointed out the pier is a major attraction drawing customers to local businesses.

Josh Utley of Intrepid Network,  Inc., which handles OBMA’s website, replied that the No. 1 pull of traffic into Ocean Beach revolves around Sunset Cliffs and fishing. “Nobody has that,” he said adding, “And then you have the tidepools to bring them a little bit closer (to town). We also not only have a sandy beach, but a soft sandy beach. That sets you apart from everywhere else.”

Kristen Keltner, OBMA event and program manager, spoke of the marketing opportunities available through the business improvement district. “As a member, when you sign up with us, we put you into our online business directory that reaches about 60,000 people a year,” she said. “Eighty-two percent are new site visitors and 18 percent are returning visitors. And we get most of our visitors from California, Arizona, Texas, Washington, and Nevada. That’s outstanding data to have when you’re marketing.”

Keltner also referenced regular sundowner marketing events, the OBMA calendar and local news announcements, cooperative advertising, and the OB Holiday Gift Guide distributed by the Peninsula Beacon as all being great ways for local small businesses to network and market themselves.