Good Marketing Cents

A local business made headlines for doing something small - eliminating pennies from their cash register. The store rounds all transactions to the nearest nickel - in their customer's favor. They computed that the cost of the the lost income was balanced by the lost employee time of counting out pennies as change.

How can this help your own business marketing ? Do something unexpected with your business to attract attention (and it doesn't hurt to mention it to local media after you've been doing it for awhile - you never know when they're having a slow news day). Here are a list of ideas to inspire your own unexpected business actions:

• Instead of shipping a package locally, hand-deliver it to your customer yourself.
• Support 1% For the Planet
• Give everyone a free cut flower on their birthday
• Have your customers each month vote for a local non-profit to support
• Pay for their parking meter
• If you're a repair facility - return the product cleaner than when your customer brought it in (shine their jewelry, wash their car, polish their knives, etc.)
• Hire a concierge to welcome everyone to your store, offer coffee, keep on eye on the meter for them, or even bring water and treats for their dog that's tied up outside. Even better - hire local homeless people to act as a concierge - it'll improve their skill set as well.
• Make your business pet-friendly - encourage your customers to bring their pets into your office.

When marketing your business, instead of only focusing on your unique benefits to people, also consider the human experience of working with you. A great customer experience is often more remarked upon than a simple great business transaction.