Page 162 - 597 Business Ideas You can Start from Home - doing what you LOVE! (Beginner Internet Marketing Series)

1 54 Your Idea, Inc.

those names to your company's database). As an incentive, you can
offer a promotional code for a 10 to 20 percent discount if they buy
something off your site. You need to be sure that your e-commerce
system is set up to handle such a promotion-usually buyers are
asked to enter a special code, which will activate the savings. If it
is not set up properly for that, offer another savings option. The
simple act of asking people to refer your company to their friends
and associates can have profitable results.

Word- of-M outh S uccess Stories

Nothing beats the marketing success of good, old-fashioned, posi­
tive word-of-mouth marketing. Many businesses have been built
from the foundation of referrals from friends. Here are two exam­
ples of companies that established themselves based on customers
spreading the word when they found a product they enjoyed.

Pinkberry

In 2005, Shelley Hwang and Young Lee opened a frozen yogurt
shop in Los Angeles called Pinkberry. Word spread so quickly about
the new, delicious frozen yogurt that people drove from all over
Los Angeles to the small, West Hollywood store to get their yogurt

fix. The Los Angeles Times article entitled, "The Taste that Launched

1 ,000 Parking Tickets" says it all. People didn't care that parking
was tough in this tiny neighborhood. They were willing to risk the
cost of a parking ticket to taste the tart, unique flavor of Pinkberry.
In 2007, Howard Schultz's (of Starbucks fame) venture capital firm
invested $27 million in Pinkberry.

Crocs

Another product that spread by word of mouth is Crocs. These
rubber clogs are comfortable and waterproof, but distinctly dif­
ferent looking. Crocs began when three friends went on a boat