Sometimes smart marketing involves nothing more than keeping your eyes open and seizing an opportunity when it arrives. That’s what happened today in my hometown.

Here’s the story: Bounce Arena, a popular small business that hosts kids’ birthday parties and similar events recently shut down and left some parents in the lurch. Parties had already been scheduled and deposits were paid before the business shut down. This story was in today’s newspaper.

Within a matter of hours, another local business, Garland’s Gymnastics, stepped in to fill the void. They emailed our local newspaper and offered to host the birthday parties and honor the $50 deposits that parents thought they’d lost when Bounce Arena closed. They got exposure on the newspaper’s blog, and I’m sure it’ll be a story in tomorrow’s paper, too.

Seize the opportunity. Make a bunch of happy, new customers. It’s good business and good marketing.