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MARKETING WITHOUT ADVERTISING
• Have your local Tupperware distributor set up food storage containers and explain how they keep food fresh. • Invite a cookbook author to sign copies of his book in the store. Many of these things are done by stores that understand how to view their product
in domains other than price. By broadening their view of their business, they are able to broaden their marketing plan. Unfortunately, the great majority of businesses have yet to really take advantage of the concept. In other words, they define what they do too narrowly.
Boiling Down What You Do When we are approached by friends whose small service businesses are slow, we often suggest a very simple technique that draws on the principles discussed in this chapter. We ask the service provider to list four things she does on a 3x5 card and include her name, phone number, email address, hourly rate, and available hours. Their next step is to duplicate the card and give it to friends and acquaintances. Even this simple type of description always generates business. For example, a bookkeeper friend who needed more customers listed: • check reconciliation • preparation and filing of quarterly tax returns • general ledger posting, and • making budget projections.
A photographer’s card read as follows: • photograph valuables for insurance records • am very patient with babies and small children • frame photos, and • make home visits. Within two weeks after each of these people sent their cards to twenty friends, both were busy. One reason this simple card approach is effective is that it forces you to describe your business in terms that make sense to potential customers. Your description tends to fit the customers’ language and speak to their immediate needs better than a nondescriptive title like “bookkeeper,” “photographer,” or “therapist.”