Page 28 - 101 Ways to Market Your Business

GETTING STARTED

they all hang on hooks on an enormous wall. There are
hundreds of them. Regulars walk into the coffee shop,
grab their mug, take it to the counter and place their
order—their preferred style of coffee is computerised and
comes up as soon as the customer’s name is entered. Mug
holders are offered a variety of regular specials. In other
words, they are made to feel very special. This is a very
successful coffee shop. Many of the ideas recommended in
this book focus on customer service. The extra revenue
you’re seeking may be closer than you think.

Do you have ‘small business syndrome’?

I often meet small business operators who say that they
can’t do the type of marketing that big corporations do
because they don’t have anywhere near the same large
budgets. I say why not? I call this the small business
syndrome and I hear it all the time.

Big business spends a lot of money on advertising and
marketing. Large corporations have to invest millions of
dollars on market research and high profile advertising on
television, radio and in newspapers just to maintain their
share of the market. Competition is always strong and at
the end of the day, the companies with the best marketing,
backed up with good products and good service, tend to
be the most successful.

How different is this for a small business? I believe that
there is really no difference except for the number of zeros
attached to the size of the budget. If an advertising or
marketing idea works for a large company, why can’t you,
the small business operator, adopt the same idea?

A prime example of this is the customer loyalty program
used by many large corporations. The most well known
loyalty programs are the frequent flyer campaigns offered

13