“You don’t have to be big – you have to be remarkable.” Unknown
Sometimes there is money you save and sometimes there is money you are prevented from spending. I like both and that’s what happened today.
I attended a regional conference for our marina industry. We had several speakers and it was a refreshing way to learn from their expertise and then from the interchange with the other attendees.
One of the best ideas I heard will cost the price of pizza and could prevent spending tens of thousands of dollars in fines and clean up, wow. Here’s the idea… and remember we’re from the marina industry.
This idea is actually used by this marina. He has three events a season where he invites his current boating customers on a “sign up” basis to learn how to use the spill response kits at the marina. Spill response kits are used when a hazardous waste spill occurs. It could be if you had an oil spill on the river and you need to contain it.
What a great idea on several fronts. First, in an emergency you need help. People want to help. But often the situation is so stressful it’s difficult to control the help. So if you have a meeting like this you are not only educating your customers on where response kits are but you are also educating that bad things can happen.
Second, there is only one of you, but you have many customers. When you can multiply your knowledge by 10 or 50 why wait?! It’s no different from educating people on the airplane how to use emergency doors.
Finally, when you have special meetings like this you build a bond with your customers and have a special opportunity to interact that is not based on a money exchange. It’s a great outreach moment.
How can you use this? Look for ways to increase your power from 1 to 50+
When I worked at the University of Minnesota, employees were encouraged to wear Golden Gopher sweatshirts on Fridays. That’s a great way to get more people involved in your spirit. I’ve also seen this where area high schools wear their school’s sweatshirts, too. An expansion on this is when you see this type of event happen on Facebook. “Post a photo wearing _____” Use the power of this audience by creating a special sticker for a car or create a new bag as a shopping bag that can and will be used for other purposes. It gives your customer the ability to interact with your brand when you’re not there!
Any time you have a special event and you need more people to help, don’t be afraid to ask your customers, whether it’s helping with crowd control, or even planting flowers… often you have an amazing group of people that are ready to help.
Again, keeping your customers involved whether it’s an emergency response, special event, or spirit building opportunity can be a great way to expand your power from 1 to 50+ and create big money.
Big Money Small Change Success
Character + Content/Consistency + Goals/Motivation + Customers =
Infinity Marketing Machine
PS: thanks for reading! I really appreciate you being here. Make sure to “like” this post… and follow me! (and please do me a favor… if you want more great ideas like the one in this post, just fill out this form and I’ll send them to you… start here
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Action Steps
1- Find one creative way to use the multiplier effect of customers!
2- Install my free app! (SmallBusinessClubApp.com)
Podcast:
Listen to Episode #288 of the Two Minute Commute audio blog Podcast
Infinity Marketing Machine Daily Topics:
Monday – Character (Subject Matter Expert)
Tuesday – Content & Consistency
Wednesday – Midweek Motivation
Thursday – Infinity Customers
Friday – Big Money
Saturday – Try This!