Even before Jonathan Seibold took ownership of Family Bike Shop, he was taking steps to ensure its success. A long-time manager of the shop, he was instrumental in relocating the business to his hometown of Crofton, Maryland—partially because of two armed robberies that had occurred at the former Capitol Heights location, and partially because he knew the cycling crowd in Crofton. Seibold hoped to leverage this familiarity to reinvent and revitalize the business. The big question was how Under previous ownership, Family Bike Shop had no web presence and did no advertising beyond appearing in a local coupon booklet. Having a better location and customer referrals helped, but Seibold and his wife and store manager, Sarah Seibold, wanted to grow…show more content… To establish theirs, Jonathan and Sarah Seibold thought long and hard about the identity of their business. First, they decided to drop the word “skates” (the original shop was called “Family Bikes and Skates”) from both their name and their business, focusing exclusively on cycling—Jonathan’s passion. After a lot of discussion, they decided to keep the “family” focus. They knew that the family focus could be a potential turn-off for serious racers and mountain bikers, but they hoped to increase their number of customers by pulling more of the Crofton community into recreational cycling. The Seibolds also began carrying more inventory and remodeling the store to include more display space—as well as providing comfortable counter space where visitors could enjoy a cup of…show more content… This effort included: • A website and blog: Family Bike Shop’s SEO-savvy site has plenty for potential customers to peruse, from store inventory and details about brands they carry, to coupons and events held or sponsored by the shop. It also links to multiple blogs—the primary one fed by their tumblr account, featuring photos and details about store events and specials, as well as informal accounts of cycling trips the Seibolds have taken.• Social media: Family Bike Shop uses social media to increase engagement with the community, promoting itself through multiple platforms: Instagram®, Tumblr®, Twitter®, and Facebook®. For the Seibolds, their business and personal lives overlap on social media—a strategy that some retailers shy away from. “But it works well for us,” says Sarah. “Our friends are our customers and our customers are our friends.” • Online marketing: In addition to social networking and SEO, the Seibolds also use Google® Adwords to drive customers their
