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Hello everyone and welcome to the My Local Marketer podcast. I'm Maria and this is the last episode of 2025. So this week I'm going to highlight for you three key takeaways from this year's interviews that I think will help set any business up for success in 2026. With all the amazing people I've been fortunate enough to interview this year, this has been a really hard decision. However, I'm going to focus on three key takeaways.

that I think may get overlooked sometimes. So let's jump straight in with Takeaway 1 from episode 29, Fun in Boxes at Eclectic Games with Becky Ottery. There are actually two extracts that I'd like to share with you from my interview with Becky. In this first extract, Becky explains how they keep track of what's going on in the board games industry.

This is Daryl's subject. He is the one who absolutely has the encyclopedic knowledge of nearly everything, and he does it by reading designer blogs from board game designers, talking with other retailers, talking with publishers that we've developed a relationship with over the nearly twenty years we've been doing this. We do attend trade shows, we do…

keep an eye on the trade press such as it is, there is a lot of just generally being aware of information and what people are working on and a lot of it builds on what it's done. So if we know that a studio has produced these four games already and they were all sort of like this, we can make a reasonable guess that the fifth one is probably going to be...

similar in these ways, it'll be different based on that. The other thing we do is listen to our customers a lot, because whilst we know lots of things about lots of things, they tend to be focused on specifically the thing they are interested in, and they will know everything about that thing. So I do a lot of crowd sourcing of the what should I be interested in and go and read for myself.

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based on the enthusiasm of my customers, because they're going to tell me what they want to buy, because they will have gone, ooh, this has just been announced, this is coming in, when can I pre-order it for you? And I'm going, okay, I have just learned about this, I will go and find which distributor has it, when it's coming out, what the thing is, all that kind of thing. The board game crowdfunding side of things is huge.

games are Kickstarter's second largest category, and it is important for us to keep an eye on what is going on there, but we very rarely back anything on Kickstarter ourselves, and we usually have a filter that goes either, this is going to turn up through distribution in good time and be readily available, or

This is going to satisfy all of the demand for it through Kickstarter and therefore we do not need to pay attention to it because it's the kind of product that should be a direct-to-consumer via Kickstarter sort of product.

It's great how Becky and Darryl have tapped into all these different sources of information, which helps them to stay on top of developments and news in the board games industry. This is one commonality that I've actually found amongst those who operate at such a high level. They have a good knowledge of what's going on, both in the wider industry and their specific niche, how this has the potential to affect them and any actions that they need to take from these insights to add value to their audiences.

So, my question for you is this. What systems do you have in place to help you to keep up to date with what's going on in your industry, local area, and with your audience? If you don't have anything in place at the moment, or you're looking to streamline your existing information channels, then I recommend that you start out by using an AI assistant like Gemini or ChatGBT to help you. Your prompt could be something like...

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I'm an ex, so for example, marketer. I specialize in ex, so for me this is processes and communicating expertise. I'm based in ex. For me, I want to say reading as a local area, but this could be a specific industry or anything like that. I would like to keep track of ex. So for example, what's going on in the industry, how you could help a specific audience.

Can you help me by listing what sources, people and companies I should follow? So that is, I'm an X, I specialize in X, I'm based in X. I would like to keep track of X. Can you help me by listing what sources, people and companies I should follow? You could even take this a step further and refine it by saying, I have 30 minutes a day. How would you recommend I use this time effectively?

Always remember that an AI tool is just that. It's just a tool to help guide you. Don't follow it verbatim. Remember to amend and adjust it according to what fits in with your schedule, time and commitments. The second clip that I want to share with you for my chat with Becky discusses how eclectic games complements Amazon.

Amazon exists because people want things that they can do their own research on and buy a generic widget as cheaply as possible. That is not actually a book or a board game or anything that requires specialist knowledge. I buy a whole bunch of stationery from Amazon, I buy a whole bunch of cleaning products from Amazon. If I want something like clothes,

I want to go into a shop and look at them and feel them and pick them up and try them on, and the same philosophy applies to board games. Anything I sell, you can get online cheap. At least assuming it's in stock in the supply chain and hasn't gone massively out of print or whatever else. What you can't do is try it out ahead of time at one of our events, you can't talk to a person about what

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this game plays like who it's good for, what are its good points, what are its bad points. I mean, there's a classic example from about a decade ago when Twilight Struggle was the number one game on board game geek, which is a giant database. Think like IMDB, but for board games. And people would come in and go, I want Twilight Struggle because it's the number one board game. And I would go, what have you played before?

how many people you're playing it with, because it's a two player only game. So if you want to play for four of you, don't get this one. If you've only played Scrabble, Monopoly, Catan and Brisk, you might find it a bit of a step up in complexity, because there's quite a lot going on with this one. And there was a lot of guiding people to the right game for them.

Now this is crucial for any business. You need to have your positioning nailed down. At Eclectic Games, they have a sweet spot where the games they stock are competitive with Amazon on pricing, especially when taking into account the extra value that the team provide in the form of advice. So, consider how you stand out and help audiences in a way that similar businesses don't or can't help them. This will really help you with your marketing and targeting.

The next clip that I want to share with you is from episode 48, Brewing Bigger Business with Becky Nallon from Double Barrelled Brewery. In this episode, Becky mentions a product book that they keep behind the bar to give the front of house staff all the information that they need to deliver great customer service.

So we've got a little book behind the bar now, which is brewer's notes, marketing notes, and then any extra information from Matt R. Head Brewer. And we get to read through that, learn from what we've got in the book, and then take on your own experience of the beer as well. There are some beers that have slightly more berry flavoured hocks or some beers that have slightly more citrus flavours. And I think when you first start, it can all be quite overwhelming. There's 10 taps behind the bar and then there's guest

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cans and then there's other cans that we've brewed. And it can be quite daunting, but I think once you get into the swing of it and once you've tasted a few beers and once you've done it for a little while, you start to realise what those flavours are and you go, I recognise that from this beer or this has got citra hops, which is very similar to Parker. And your learning grows just from being behind the bar and pouring stuff and tasting it.

If your business has different departments or team members responsible for different activities, then find a way to bring all this knowledge together and share it among your team members to help them enhance your audience's experience. Even if you don't have a team, you can still view your products or services with different hats on and put the details in a spreadsheet to help you communicate with your audiences, partners and contractors through different lenses as and when you need to do so.

Now the final clip I'd like to share with you today is from episode 52, Be Efficient and Stand Out with Pete Hefferon from Shed. Now Pete said something in passing at the very start of our episode together that really stuck with me about how to take something ordinary and make it stand out.

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Now it sounds obvious, but these thoughtful tweaks can not only help you to potentially sell more, but they can also provide talking points to give your company and brand more memorable and shareable experiences as people like to talk about unique experiences that they've had. Therefore, I recommend that you put some time aside to write down every audience touch point in your business and think about where and how you can add a little something extra.

If you're interested in doing this, then you may also be interested in the book, Fans First by Jesse Call, which tells the story of the Savannah Bananas, a baseball team in America, which has created a full Fans First experience and instilled the Bananas brand throughout every customer touch point. This has not only led to sell out games, but also helped them to cultivate a fiercely loyal following and shareable experiences that lead to a lot of word of mouth.

So in summary, to set yourself up for success, I recommend that you firstly, get your information channels in place to keep up to date with news and insights related to your industry, niche, area, et cetera. Secondly, be clear on how your business is positioned in relation to other offerings in your space. In other words, what is your USP? Thirdly, collate your and your team's knowledge to streamline communication

with your audience. Finally, consider how you can take something ordinary in your business and make it extraordinary, ideally instilling your brand throughout every part of your business. Well, that's it for this week. I hope that you found this useful. If you've had any of the key takeaways from the episodes recorded so far, then please do get in touch and let me know what your key takeaways have been. Also,

Let me know if you'd like me to expand on any of the points mentioned in this episode or any of the previous ones. For now, thank you as always for listening. Have a great week and I'll catch you next time on the My Local Marketing Podcast. Bye for now.

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You can't just say tomato soup because no one buys it, you have to have something else. You could just buy a load of aubergines and put them in the oven and then blend it up and it actually is really nice to add a different type of depth of flavour.