How do you market your store in a digital world? At 2014 Summer NAMM, Peter Dods, owner of Easy Music Center, revealed tried-and-true ideas—and looked at how applying basic principles of marketing excellence will help you achieve healthy growth. His session delved into everything from email marketing to Yelp to Vines.

With so much competition for your customers’ attention, how do you stand out from other businesses? Be epic! In this dynamic Breakfast Session, Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, will show you how. He’ll reveal ways that epic marketers attract and keep customers by using compelling, relevant and consistent content.

Now's the time to assess your store’s readiness to compete for customers. From product knowledge to organization, here are some proven, easy-to-implement ideas that Gabriel O'Brien of Larry's Music has put into place. These will immediately improve the customer experience in your store. "It’s easy to walk past problem areas without noticing them," O'Brien says. "Your staff should spend time each day making sure products are well organized, clean, positioned correctly and shuffled regularly."

Today, musicians need to have videos in order to be discovered and build a following. Are you marketing and selling video equipment to these people? Many of them are already your customers. Perry Goldstein, director of sales for Marshall Electronics/MXL, offers tips for delving into this market.

Do you find yourself saying, "I have too many things to do"? The good news is managing your time is easier than you think. Donovan Bankhead of Springfield Music reveals how a few simple online tools, such as Gmail, Google Calendar and other apps, can help you stay more productive—and impact your bottom line.

At 2014 Summer NAMM, Gayle Beacock, co-owner of Beacock Music and NAMM’s 2013 Dealer of the Year, paid special homage to instructors in her lesson program. This high-energy session features tips and guidelines for building a successful lesson program—one that attracts and keeps great teachers. "We're nothing without our teachers," Beacock says.

At 2014 Summer NAMM, music lessons guru Pete Gamber distilled 35 years of retail and music lessons experience into a candid, tell-all session. It revealed his unique approach to building a successful lessons program—one with a staggering 2,000-plus students per week. Find out how he did it, and apply his best practices to your lesson program.

Blues Angel Music has built a successful eBay business by mastering the “ins and outs” of the online auction site. At 2014 Summer NAMM, Blues Angel co-owner Jim DeStafney and eBay Facilitator Sierra Williams revealed their 10 best ideas for getting more eBay sales and profits. They delivered proven strategies for selling used and new gear on the site, eBay store layout ideas, tips for photography and item descriptions, and customer service guidelines that can optimize your business.

At 2014 Summer NAMM, Sweetwater Vice President of Marketing Mike Ross took the mystery out of creating a powerful website. He delved into such topics as mobile responsive design, how Amazon.com and eBay play into a retailer’s website strategy, creating customer loyalty, how to optimize a site for local ISP searches, and SEO. Learn from Sweetwater's best practices.

Master retailers came together at the 2014 NAMM Show to share their views on what it takes to be successful in the music retail business. During this session, George Hines of George’s Music moderated a panel discussion with retailers from the Alliance of Independent Music Merchants (AIMM), including Skip Maggiora, Jon Haber, Ryan West, Leslie Faltin and Paul Decker. These leading retailers provided new perspectives and inspiration for building a strong music industry.