Small Business UnMarketing

Buca di Beppo In Valencia - Food And Customer Service To Die For

I had vistors this past week and wanted to take them to a local restaurant, right here in Valencia, that they would remember. The answer was to visit our local Buca di Beppo, one of a chain of restaurants serving southern Italian food.

When we first arrived a young man introduced himself to our group and asked us if we had ever been there before. When my friends answered no, we were immediately invited to take a "behind the scenes" tour of the restaurant. We walked through the kitchen, the food preparation area, and the section where they were making some pizza dough. Several people introduced themselves to our group, and the manager finally joined us and showed us around the different sections of the dining room. Each area has a theme, and the walls are filled with pictures.

By the time we reached our

Rinse and Repeat

Shampoo. Rinse and repeat. Those few words doubled the sales of Proctor and Gamble's hair care products overnight during the 1960's. The truth is that you don't actually need to wash your hair two times for it to be clean, healthy and shiny. If you do shampoo two times it only does one thing - uses up your shampoo twice as fast.

What could you do in your own business to double sales overnight? Think about this and see what you can come up with. If it worked for shampoo, the same concept will work for other types of businesses, regardless of the product or service.

Branding Your Business With Your Domain Name

Should you choose a domain name that is keyword rich or one that brands your business? That is the question addressed by Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger. Even though my business name is Greenhouse, a play on the fact that my name is Connie Ragen Green, I tend to choose keyword rich domain names. My current project that I am so passionate about is called Ebook Writing and Marketing Secrets. I justify this by the fact that the overwhelming majority of my clients find me through keyword searches of one kind or another.

There is also something to be said of branding yourself and your business. Ruth Klein, a branding and productivity expert, teaches her clients how to brand themselves to stand out from the crowd. You can sign up for her mini-course and then decide for yourself.

Why Can't We Mass Delete Email On Our Phones?

Jackie Huba, over at Church of the Customer, makes an interesting marketing point. She loves her iPhone but it won't let her mass delete email. I have a Blackberry and it's the same story. I have given up the idea of deleting any emails. I just keep scrolling down until I find the ones I want to read. My question is this: Why doesn't someone come up with a solution to this dilemma?

UnMarketing means listening to your market and what they need. If many people don't like a feature of your product or want something that makes sense, give it to them. If we can all agree that receiving email on our phones is an important feature for both business and pleasure, shouldn't we all be able to manipulate that email in an efficient way? I think so. Are you listening, Apple and Blackberry?

2008- The Year of the Customer

I hearby proclaim 2008 to be The Year Of The Customer. Whether you call them customers, clients, visitors or some other name, these are the people who allow you to be an entrepreneur or small business owner. In 2008 they will have a louder voice than ever before. We must listen to them or we will be out of business.

Ask your customers what they want and expect from you and then give it to them. If they can't put into words exactly what they want, ask them which of your competitors is giving it to them and then conduct your own research. We are here solely to serve the needs of the people who keep us in business. If they don't like what we do they will be blogging about it, writing articles about it, and yelling it from the rooftops. On the other hand, if they are pleased with what we do and how we do it, they will also share that with the world.

What I've Learned About Marketing

I have been writing here since August of 2006. I have learned quite a bit about marketing and I have attempted to share that with all of you. This is what I have learned that can help you and your small business significantly in 2008:

• Marketing on the internet is definitely unmarketing. What this means is that you must take your own unique approach to marketing online if you want to get noticed.
• You are not an island. Blogging about marketing is more about having a conversation with other bloggers and my readers. I now read about 20 blogs regularly, comment on them, and write about my own take on these other blogger's ideas.
• There is no such thing as bad publicity. Once I learned how to properly send press releases and get the media to come to me as an expert, my business increased significantly. Joan Stewart, the Publicity Hound, has a free ebook you can download about this.
• You must blog and write and talk about what you do every day. If you keep your knowledge a secret, nobody wins.
• Working online is a great way to live. I truly have what Pat O'Bryan wrote about in Your Portable Empire. This is a great read, as I said in a previous post.
• Develop products that teach people how to do what you do best. I teach people how to write and market ebooks. This is what I am passionate about, so why wouldn't I share it with the world?

Do what you do best and in a unique way in 2008 and it will be a great year for you.

Marketing vs. Promotion

Marketing can be defined as changing someone's mind. Promotion goes one step further by changing people's behavior. Which one would you rather do for your business? You can get people to change  their mind and agree with you all day long - but getting them to change their behavior will make you sales. Work on promotion and your marketing will fall into place naturally.

Marketing Your Small Business - What day of the week do you do it?

Owning a small business can be lucrative and allow you to be more creative. However, you must still think about the business side of things or you won't be in business for long. A huge part of all of this is marketing yourself and your business. When do you set time aside for marketing? You don't - marketing is what you do whenever you are awake.

Marketing can be as easy as telling your neighbor about something you are doing in your business or giving someone your business card if they want to send you an email. You are always marketing when you own a business because, hopefully, you enjoy many aspects of your business. Share this with anyone you talk to and they will be more likely to ask more about how your business can help them.

Entrepreneurs Are Changing The World

"Entrpreneurs are people who start businesses that change the world and make the world a better place." ~Robert Allen

Robert Allen got started in real estate back in the early 1970's, and wrote a book called Nothing Down around 1981. I read that book soon after, and it changed my life. I began buying small, single family homes in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles and the rest is history. Allen was the entrepreneur who helped change my life.  I was able to meet him and tell him this at an event in December of 2006 in Indian Wells, California.

I just heard him speaking with Ken Foster, of Shared Vision Network, and he spoke about the importance of using systems in your business. He broke it down this way:

S Save

Y your

S self

T time

E energy                                                                                                                                

M money

The system that I use for my business, both online and offline, is a shopping cart that handles everything from my database of names to accepting credit cards for products and services, to managing my email. This system is called Kickstart Cart and you can get a 30 day free trial before signing up for a $29/month package.

Thinking Outside the Business Card

I saw a great marketing idea while I was out walking early this morning. One of my neighbors has a plumbing business. When I walked by his truck I saw that he had placed about twenty small magnets of his business card all over the side door panels. naturally, I took one, and now have all of his contact info close by. Anywhere he parks his truck people can peel off a magnet and refer him or call him later when they need his services. Brilliant! 

I will be giving a free teleseminar tomorrow, Monday at 11 PST. If you want to be on the call go to this site to get the call in information. The topic will be "Using Writing to Promote Your Small Business". If you can't make it there will be a replay available.