Rome wasn’t built in a day!

WOW!  Jeff, great insight…I know, I know…everyone has known that for a long, long time, but it came to mind today when I was speaking to a friend today who brought up the point that so many small business owners believe there is a “magic bullet” to marketing and receiving instantaneous, immediate results!  Just like Rome, marketing systems and the results a small business owner experiences, are not built in a day!  BUT…like Rome, once the small business marketing system is built, it lasts for a very, very long time with outstanding results!  That’s what those employing the Duct Tape Marketing System for Small Businesses love about the system!  LONG-TERM, SUSTAINABLE RESULTS!!!

Specialization abounds in technology and…marketing!

I had the opportunity to present the “Seven Steps to Small Business Marketing Success” to the Hinsdale Area Networking Group yesterday!  WOW!  What a dynamic group!  They had over 30 business owners in attendance!  Fantastic!  A very vibrant, dynamic group with fantastic questions and some great success stories. 

As each member introduced his or herself, Thomas Piette, Midco Systems, introduced himself as a TELECOM SPECIALIST with some emphasis on security, and his guest, as a SECURITY SPECIALIST with less emphasis on Telecom…Great intro, Tom…like duct tape, that “stuck” for me and assisted me in clearly differentiating “what you do” and “what he does!” 

Tom is pictured with me receiving a copy of the Duct Tape Marketing Book!  Congrats, Tom!  AND…thanks again to the group for affording me the opportunity to discuss the value of building small business marketing systems for their businesses! 

Seth Godin, Specialization, Small Business Marketing

Seth Godin appeared recently on an interview with John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing, and offered, as usual, some very thought provoking ideas and “calls to actions” for Small Business Owners! 

At one point he said - “If people aren’t talking about you, there’s a reason. You’re boring - your products are boring, your services are boring, your message is boring, your marketing is boring . . .”

To quote John, “You get the point. And he’s right. There’s no excuse for being unremarkable - the bar is so dang low. Because most of your competition is even more boring.”

Seth, also, recommends HYPERSPECIALIZATION and BEING THE OVERWHELMINGLY OBVIOUS CHOICE!!!

If you’d like to listen to the entire Podcast, the link follows…great stuff by one of the great business minds of our time!

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2009/01/14/seth-godin-thinks-youre-boring/

If you no longer want to be boring, please “chat” with us as we are working with Chicagoland Small Business Owners to build marketing systems that work and that differentiate!

NFL Football Playoffs and Small Business Marketing

Now…how do we tie those together?  As I watched with intrigue this past weekend the NFL Playoffs, I thought about how the best teams “stick to their knitting” or put differently, they “do what they do best!”  Quite an upset, with the Arizona Cardinals defeating the Carolina Panthers…how and why?  To me, one of the simplest of reasons is they threw the football to their major strength–Larry Fitzgerald–who is showing himself to the rest of the NFL fandom as one of the best, if not, THE BEST receiver in the NFL!  As a matter of fact, his first “big catch” of the game was almost a duplicate of the previous playoff game…ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE GRAB!!! 

What’s the point? 

Do what you do best and continue to do what you do best!  GOT IT?  Don’t veer off course and do something that is “not you or your business!” 

This is what “we teach/coach” all of our small business owners in building a marketing system for their Chicagoland business!  GO LARRY FITZGERALD!!!

Hockey can teach us a lesson about small business marketing?

Last week, the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings, two of the NHL’s most storied franchises played the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field.  What is so unusual about that?  Well…Wrigley Field is home to the Chicago Cubs, major league baseball team, and formerly home to the Chicago Bears, NFL Team…How unusual for a hockey game to be played at such a venue…BUT, isn’t hockey always played outside!  Of course not at the professional level…SO…that is why Wrigley was sold out in the “dead of winter,” freezing cold, with not particularly great site lines to view the game!  What can we learn from the NHL about marketing?  It always “pays” to look at “things differently” and to break the paradigms of how we have always done it!  As a Duct Tape Marketing Coach, we work with Small Business Owners to assist them in doing the same!

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