It's People
Personality is important. Don't just fire off mass e-mails to acquaintances and hope they respond. Put some humanity in those correspondences. Send personal letters or e-mails and include a brief paragraph to catch up on personal matters. That kind of human interaction will make an impression. And be sincere. People can smell a phony a mile away, so don't obsess about stockpiling networking contacts. Instead cultivate some honest relationships.

Free Publicity
The local news media is an excellent source of free publicity. There's the TV news, the newspaper, and even those less-than-weekly community papers. The best time to get coverage is an event, like a grand opening. Make sure your event is newsworthy, and then simply let the press know. Obnoxious self-promotion won't help, though creativity can't hurt. If a personality drives your organization, skip the press release and send a personal letter. If it's the 25th anniversary of your framing shop, send the local newspaper a framed copy of their own paper.

Customer Evangelism
When your customers talk about what you do, it's cheap and effective advertising. People do it all the time with products they love, whether it's a new movie, an amazing pizza shop, or their favorite techno-gadget. The best customer evangelism happens spontaneously, based on the strengths of your organization. Highlight these strengths and make it easy for your customers to tell their mom about what you do. Creating Customer Evangelists by Ben McConnell can tell you more.

The Purple Cow
There are so many businesses that sell baked goods, and they all look the same, like brown or black and white cows. But if you suddenly stand out from the crowd, say offering an incredibly tasty, unashamedly fatty donut served up piping hot with the glaze still dripping (pardon my drool), you just might form lines around the block like your local Krispy Kreme. Those delicious donuts are a purple cow, a concept Seth Godin explained in his book, (you guessed it) Purple Cow. The idea is to offer something so new and different it grabs people's attention. You might need rethink or even scrap your current approach, but the goal is to reinvent yourself so you stand out from the crowd.

Be Remarkable
One of the best ways to be a purple cow, to turn customers into salespeople, to make just about any marketing successful, is be remarkable. You can be the average auto shop in town, or you can be the one that has good coffee, short waits, and free loaners. You can be just another homeless shelter, or you can be the place that makes transients feel like people again, giving them a real second chance. There's simply doing your job, and then there's going the extra mile. One is business as usual, the other scores 30 percent tips.

Be More in 2004
We can help you get there. Personality offers consulting and public relations services to refine your marketing. Get in touch with us and be more.