Hey guys - pretty practical one this week.

Things have been a little slow lately, but I would say that window is closing fast.

We are right on the edge of the busy season now, and the theme of this week’s Monday Town Notes is basically: how to be ready for that and hopefully capitalize on it a little.

Hope this helps.

Almost forgot - Napa Lowdown Trivia: What is the oldest operating winery in Napa Valley?

For the business owners, operators, and anyone with a storefront.

Napa is about to head into that stretch of the year where things start picking up fast. Here’s the upcoming lineup:

This pace is only going in one direction.

Now, I know you do not need a press release to tell you what is coming if you have been in the game here for a while.

You already know the pattern. There is going to be a tick up. More people. More foot traffic. More out-of-towners. More people wandering around looking for somewhere to eat, drink, shop, or kill time before the next thing.

So the bigger question is not whether that happens. It is how to best capitalize on it.

Last year, the city said BottleRock and La Onda brought in 185,500 attendees, generated $61.7 million in local economic impact, drove 179,000 out-of-market visitors into the area, and translated into an estimated $7 million in earnings for local workers.

That is a lot of people and a lot of money moving through town. The opportunity now is figuring out how much of that movement ends up touching your business.

Now, I know what you might be saying…

Callie, what are you selling me here - some online marketing agency services?

Well…I do happen to know of if you click the link in my…-no, just kidding.

But I do have a little experience in this world, and I thought it would be useful to pull out some of the city’s suggestions here before adding a little commentary of my own.

Here’s the "suggestions checklist” from the city of Napa:

Partner with neighboring storefronts to create your own little passport-style promotion. The city’s example was a boutique, a cafe, and a gallery teaming up on a “Shop & Sip Crawl” where visitors get a stamp at each location to unlock some kind of gift or perk. The idea is to keep foot traffic circulating nearby and get people into businesses they might have otherwise walked right past.

Callie says: This is probably my favorite one. If you have not already started chatting with your business neighbors and getting that conversation going, this is not a bad place to start.

The city suggests running small, targeted ad campaigns on Instagram or TikTok that only trigger for people within about a one-mile radius of your business. One suggested CTA was something like “mention this ad for a treat.”

Callie says: An obvious one, but very difficult in practice. Social media agencies can be expensive, and if you do not know what you are doing yourself, it can be a world of trouble trying to navigate Meta Business Manager.

Also worth remembering: Meta and TikTok are lower-intent platforms. People are usually browsing, not actively searching. That makes them much more impulse-driven than something like Google Ads, where people are already looking for a specific thing.

So if you are going to spend money here, think carefully about the type of business you are. Are you a restaurant, bar, selling knick-knacks? Sure might work out. A local contractor or HVAC technician? Very different story. Someone scrolling past cute puppy videos is probably not turning into that customer.

Another suggestion was to treat these events as built-in content opportunities. That could mean posting event-related content, using official hashtags, running giveaways tied to attendance, sharing behind-the-scenes or user-generated content, and encouraging people to tag your business while they are in town.

Callie says: This one is a little trickier than it sounds. The newer algorithms are a lot less tied to hashtags than they used to be, and a lot more tied to whether something is actually interesting enough to spread. User-generated content is great, sure, but it is still kind of a coin flip whether it gets shown to your followers - let alone new people.

Virality is the new meta - no pun intended - but virality does not always translate to local relevance. So yes, post, and yes, encourage tags, but just know it is not as simple as “post more and people will come.”

The city also suggested offering a small discount or free add-on - like a sticker, sample, or perk - for anyone wearing the official festival wristband or lanyard.

Callie says: Sure - go for it. Easy, clear, low-friction. Probably one of the simpler ones to test.

If permits allow, the city says businesses might consider staying open an hour later to catch the post-event exit surge. They also note that if you want to do special features like that, you may need to work with the City’s Planning Division on a Temporary Use Permit.

Callie says: Easier said than done. I salute all of you business owners who are essentially working 24/7 already.

And finally, the city says businesses should not forget locals during these bigger event weekends. Their suggestion was to offer things like local specials, micro-events, or small workshops so locals still feel like they can participate in the fun even when town gets crowded.

Callie says: Of course. Zero downside, all the upside.

First off, sorry for talking about myself in the third person.

Second, and more importantly, feel free to reach out to me too for any help getting the word out.

We are still relatively small at this point, so I am not going to charge you some sort of advertising retainer for banner placement - and I am not actually doing banner ads anyway.

But if your thing looks cool, serves locals, and feels like a good fit for the people reading this, I am always happy to throw a little love your way.

Phew - that was a longer one. But if you know a local business owner who could use this, feel free to pass it along, or have them reach out to me directly at [email protected] for any newsletter shoutouts.

A few more things to keep on your radar this week:

The county is putting more money toward mental health care, addiction treatment, and local support services. So if you or someone you know has ever struggled to find help, get into treatment, or navigate those systems, this is the kind of funding that is supposed to make access a little more real and a little less impossible.

This is the one by the Kenny’s property at the end of DCR on the way to Wall Road. The county says the new bridge is open to two-way traffic using one lane, with full two-lane access expected in early May, weather permitting.

What that means for you: if someone tries to do something sketchy involving your property records, you may get a heads-up sooner instead of finding out way too late. Given all the recent check-fraud and mail-fraud stuff, that feels worth knowing.

The answer to this week’s Napa Lowdown Trivia: Charles Krug Winery.

Shoutout to you for making it all the way to the end.

Let me know if you like the longer deep dives like we did today - and what topics you’d want to see if not something more business-oriented.

Regardless - hope this gave you a few useful things to work with - especially if you run a business, know someone who does, or just like having a better sense of what is coming before Napa starts to get a whole lot busier.

See you Friday.

Callie