Successful Blog

How Real-Life Local David Turned Tables on Large Chain Goliath

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By Nimish Thakkar

New York could easily be one of the most competitive marketplaces for restaurants. From small operations to large franchises, the food industry is clamoring for a share of the pie in what appears to be a “war for consumer appetites.” A large food franchise recently established its presence near our office. When the chain made a splash in the local media many business pundits were under the impression that a local Italian restaurant could soon be working on its exit strategy.

Their predictions were on the mark for a few months but were subsequently falsified. Since the past few months, lines at the local restaurant have been much longer than the franchise and their phone order pipeline appears to be expanding exponentially.

I have always been a netpreneur and the restaurant business is as alien to me as space exploration but when one keeps the knowledge radar tuned to the “sponge dimension,” surprising strategy lessons can be uncovered from the least expected sources. As an entrepreneur, I was naturally curious to understand how this real-life David overpowered a much larger and formidable Goliath.

My research provided some insights that are equally applicable to any business operation (online or offline):

Relationships are still the best marketing investment

When I visited the larger franchise, I was greeted by college students who were only too eager to ring the register as opposed to understanding my preferences or winning my long-term repeat business. At the restaurant, the scenario was just the opposite. The staff was keen on accommodating my needs and providing me with the best service and the most memorable experience possible.

On my second visit, the owner instantly recognized me and followed-up on a conversation from our previous meeting. What happened next surprised me even further. After the order, I gave him my credit card. Unfortunately, their credit card terminal was not working that evening. I offered to drive to the local ATM and pay cash but the owner graciously smiled and asked me not to bother. “You can come and pay me tomorrow. It is raining outside,” he said. I thanked him and returned the following day.

I shared the story with friends on my social network and won him some word-of-mouth publicity. Almost every customer that walks into that restaurant has something positive to say. Passionate customer orientation has enabled this mom-and-pop operation to transform customers into “walking PR machines,” a task that even the largest ad budget cannot replicate.

Lesson #1: Build a customer-centric business, focus on providing value, and go as far as you possibly can to build long-term relationships.

Showcase clear “differentiators”

During my first MBA class, one of my favorite marketing professors taught me a great mantra: “To be successful, be different.” I still implement his advice in all my personal and professional branding campaigns. It works.

Are you the best at delivering widgets within a 24-hour timeframe? Do your widgets offer something your competitors don’t? Are you at the cutting-edge of technology in a way your competition does not touch? Don’t keep this knowledge to yourself. Let your customers know how you stand out from the competition.

Reverting to the protagonist case study, the local restaurant had posters all over the place explaining how their food choices were different. They identified how their ingredients were healthier and sans any form of harmful chemical additives or preservatives. As a client, I would have never known this fact had it not been brought to my attention. Perhaps the franchise doesn’t use these ingredients either but their marketing literature doesn’t promote this information.

Lesson #2: Clients may not often be able to differentiate you from the competition. Instead of allowing them to draw negative conclusions, make the task easier by clearly demonstrating how your business is “different.”

Focus on generating positive reviews

“As millions of customers check online reviews before purchasing from any business, having a strong group of fervent customer advocates can go a long way toward building your business reputation and revenues,” says Vijay Kakkar, Small Business Owner and CEO of SaiTravel.com, a company that specializes in providing discounted travel fares.

The converse can be true as well. Dissatisfied clients can wreak havoc by writing vengeful reviews, posting bad experiences, and tarnishing your business image on social media.

Lesson #3: Turning your customers into “viral advocates” can do wonders for a small business.

Many local businesses host events, develop special contests, and leverage a myriad of viral marketing strategies to push their business success to the next level. A local non-profit organization hosts an annual charity event. In addition to the routine paraphernalia associated with these events, they have a sweepstakes contest where the first winner could claim an enviable portfolio of prizes. From blogs to social media, the prize descriptions invariably go viral.

Small businesses thrive on personal relationships and creativity. Transforming customers into passionate fans is the key to surviving in a hyper-competitive economic landscape.

Author’s Bio: Nimish Thakkar is the CEO of DontSpendMore.com, a site that helps consumers save hundreds of dollars every month. He is also the owner of ResumeCorner.com and SaiCareers.com.

How to Make It Stupidly Easy for Readers to Love You

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Adam Costa

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The #1 Mistake Bloggers Make Which Kills Results and Slashes Productivity

I’m afraid this message might upset you.

Why? Because it exposes the number one mistake content marketer are making right now, and will continue to do so for years to come.

But I don’t want to alarm you. This problem can be solved.

Better still, understanding this problem will force you to rethink your whole content strategy. In a good way. You’ll view your content in a radically new framework, one that even the largest publishers haven’t caught on to… yet.

The following story will illustrate what I mean…

It began with an argument.

Over a bottle of Veuve Clique, my beautiful strong-willed wife and I discussed what our new travel site should be.

My point of view went something like this:

“We should build a large, content-driven site about exciting destinations around the world. Then we can include traveler reviews, maps and even a forum where they can share their best tips! What do you think, huh, baby?

Darcie, swirling her champagne, coolly asked:

“So you wanna be Lonely Planet?”

“Um… no. Well… maybe like Lonely Planet but… you know, better.”

“So how will we be better?”

“Well… our content will be better.”

“How?”

“Ummm…”

“And what about size? How will we compete with a site that has hundreds of thousands of pages?

“Well…”

The conversation declined from there.

And let me tell you…

It was one of the hardest discussions of my life.

My wife Darcie always asks the hard questions. I’m glad she does… because I never do. I’d rather just charge through an idea, without asking how and why it will be different, better, etc.

Sure, we could compete on quality (and I truly think we do) but we could never compete on quantity… the big boys operate at a scale we can’t even imagine.

And the sad fact is, a quality site with 1,000 pages is not as valuable as another site with 100,000 pages of equally valuable content.

It was time to change the conversation…

… from “how can we match the competition’s content in terms of quantity and quality” to “how can we organize our content to make it more valuable to our users?”

This is a subtle difference.

The first question concerns the content itself… while the second adds the delivery of that content into the conversation.

In other words, we realized “quality content” was just the beginning.

We had to package it differently.

Quantity x Quality x Organization = Value

Quality is still the most important factor here. But the quantity and organization of valuable content is more important than ever.

Let’s use two sites as an example.

Site A has fifty pages of quality content.

Site B has five thousand pages of equally valuable content.

Which is more valuable?

The answer is… it depends.

If those five thousand pages are buried deep into the site, with no discernible way to access it, their value plummets.

In fact, if no one can find it, their value disappears.

Now let’s look at the fifty page site. If there are ten categories – each with five pages of content – then every single page is easily found.

Let me say that again. Every page is valuable.

Relying Solely On New Content Is A Fool’s Errand

It’s short-sighted, and fails to take full advantage of your existing content.

How to Make It Stupidly Easy for Readers to Love You

Blogs are excellent at displaying new content… but they’re notoriously bad at showcasing old content.

Remember that gem you wrote three months ago? Gone. Buried deep into your archives, where only a lucky few will stumble on it ever again. Or what about that post you wrote last year or (gasp!) back in 2006? It’s still valuable today, but who will ever find it?

Therefore, you need to make your existing content as accessible as your new content.

How to Better Organize Your Content (and Boost Revenue)


Use Taxonomies. Taxonomy is a fancy word for “organization.” It’s also what separates your average website with a truly great one.

Let’s use a simple example.

Let’s say you’ve got a website that reviews food and restaurants in San Francisco. Sushi, vegetarian, tapas… whatever.

Now you could organize the site by types of food: Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, etc.

Good. But what about location? Maybe I want Chinese food in specific neighborhood (Castro or Chinatown).

With a traditional category system, you can’t simultaneously search for two different categories (“Chinese” AND “Chinatown”) which makes it harder for the reader to find the content they want.

That’s where taxonomies come in. By creating two different taxonomies (e.g. “Neighborhood” and “Cuisine”) your readers can easily find the best Chinese restaurants in Chinatown.

Great. But let’s take this further.

Instead of two taxonomies, let’s add a third one for time of day (e.g. “breakfast, lunch or dinner”). Now your reader can find the best Chinese restaurant in Chinatown for lunch.

Pretty cool, right?

Can you see how much more valuable this site is? How changing one aspect of the site drastically improves the user experience? Just think how you could use this simple method to help readers find your content which is most valuable to them… why wouldn’t you want to do this?

Create “Resource” pages. Note: Here’s an excellent example to start with.

Chances are, your readers don’t care about all of your content. Sure, they may be in love with some of it… but the rest?

Meh.

Now instead of creating mere “category” pages which list all your articles (who actually reads those, anyways?) you create valuable “resource” pages which target your reader’s specific interest.

For example, someone visits your website about San Francisco food. At the top of the blog you list the major resources people would be interested in: let’s use neighborhoods. So when someone clicks on “North Beach” they go to a resource page which says something like this:

“The Ultimate Guide to North Beach Dining!”

North Beach is well known for Italian cuisine: family-owned delis serve cured meats and stuffed olives alongside gelato stores and bakeries, while the smell of roasted garlic wafts down Columbus Ave.

Here are 5 – 10 in-depth resources which highlight the best North Beach has to offer:

LINKS #1 – 5

Want to learn more about North Beach? Then grab our free eBook on North Beach’s best restaurants.

You’ll learn:

5 “to-die-for” restaurants no one knows about (yet).
A simple trick to save 20% on your next dinner.
7 delicious deserts… and the perfect wine for each.

There’s even a complete walking tour for “foodies” which showcases top restaurants in North Beach – along with a history of the neighborhood – and personal menu recommendations for each. You can grab this report by filling out the form below…

NAME

EMAIL

See What We Just Did?

We made it stupidly easy for readers to find what they’re looking for. They didn’t have to wade through your archives, or (god forbid) use your search bar. They found a lot of useful information, and all they need to do is subscribe to get your best stuff.

Readers get what they need. You get more subscribers. Win/win.

Life or Death

People are catching on to this whole “content marketing” thing. And while everyone else is competing on the quality/quantity angle, do the smart thing and organize your content in a better way.

Trust me, it makes all the difference.

What unique ways could you organize your content? Share your ideas below!

Author’s Bio:
Adam Costa is the co-founder of Trekity.com and Travel Blogger Academy which shows how bloggers can grow their travel blogs traffic.

Thank you for adding to the conversation!

Beach Notes: Nostalgia at the Ocean View

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

As backdrop to the beaches where we walk and swim most days looks increasingly like Tourist Beach, Anywhere, The World, we like the fact that here and there some traces of a simpler past remain.

Such as the 19 room Ocean View motel right at the beachfront of famed Coolangatta Beach.

Framed by multi-storey, lookalike apartment buildings, and with its fringe of palm trees, and seriously dated pink and white exterior, it is a lovely reminder of times past.

The only negative aspect is that too few such reminders remain.

Even from a “strictly business” point of view, there is money in nostalgia. The annual “Coolie Rocks On”, 50s and 60s nostalgia festival here, with its rock-n-roll bands and dance events, Elvis impersonator competition, vintage car parades and surfing events, is a great boon to the local community, with visitors to this laid back town estimated to be 100,000 this year and an estimated $29 million plus injected into the community last year for just one week of nostalgia.

What reminders are of the past fuel you now?

Thank you.

– Des Walsh & Suzie Cheel

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Everything Counts When Building a Professional Brand

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Deb Bixler

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Branding As A Professional

There is a lot of talk about branding. Branding online and off needs to be consistent. That goes without saying!

What about your brand as a professional?

A recent experience drove home to me the importance of my brand as a professional.

I had my business brochures reprinted. An order of a thousand brochures lasts about a year.

When I picked them up and took one out of the box it jumped out at me….

They were folded wrong. A small error of alignment left a white line along the edge of the trifold brochure. The office boy giving me the order could not even see the error when I said that they were folded wrong.

He told me to take a few and then the supervisor would call me with some options. I left feeling like I was being too picky. Over the course of a week or so, I showed the poorly folded brochure to dozens of people.

When I asked “Can you see anything wrong with this brochure?” most would study it with intense scrutiny and then point out something stupid like the color of my shirt or the position of my fingers. After I pointed out the white line, they would say, “That’s no big deal.”

Professionalism in BusinessOnly 1:10 even saw the error without me pointing it out.

After a week or so the printing company called with a settlement offer. Take $70 off the order and keep them as is or do a total reprint free. The order was $250. I was really torn as to what to do.

The printing error really bugged me but no one noticed. I decided to change my terminology in getting opinions.

“This brochure has a printing error. Can you see it?”

My hope was that they would look at the bigger picture and not the details. Same thing… only about 1:10 could actually see it! Everyone I told about the money compensation offer said the same thing: “Take the discount and keep them!”

The Artistic Eye Sees More

I realized that anyone who noticed the fold error was either artistic or in a technology-based business that utilizes graphics on a daily basis.

So I took the brochures to school. I teach culinary school. Chefs are artists!

The first half-dozen aspiring young chefs immediately saw the error. Ahhh…. validation, finally!

One young lady said, “If it bothers you, you should definitely get them reprinted!”

An astute student from my menu design class said: “Isn’t this what you tell us about branding? You always brand yourself as a professional, why would you even consider keeping them!?”

Brand As A Home Business Professional

I provide training for home business consultants. I teach them how to treat their business like a profession. That is the trademark that I operate under.

No matter how small your business when you apply the strategies used by professionals in corporate jobs you will get the same results working from home.

At culinary school I stress maintaining professionalism in the restaurant kitchen…. I briefly forgot to treat my own brand as a professional.

Professionalism is a brand that is carried through out your business, whether it be brochures or online graphics. Never sacrifice your professionalism for money!

I got the reprint and put the rejects in the recycling barrel!

Author’s Bio:
Deb Bixler retired from the corporate world using the proven business systems that made her a success working for others by incorporated them into her home business. In only 9 months Deb replaced her full time income with the sales and commissions from her home party plan business. Find her on Twitter at: http://www.Twitter.com/debbixler

Thank you, Deb!
I would have made the same choice you did.

— ME “Liz” Strauss

Ask People What They’re Thinking

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I Can’t Read Your Mind

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When I was younger, maybe ten or eleven, I used to wonder about what other people were thinking. I’d sit in my desk at school and imagine I was another person, sitting in that person’s desk, thinking what that person was thinking. At times, I’d wonder whether that person ever did the same thing — sat in his or her desk wondering what I was thinking.

As I got older, maybe 15 or 16, I began to ask people what they were thinking. Some people answer that they had been thinking the most amazing things.Some people would say they had been thinking absolutely nothing. Seemed a strange thing that a person could think nothing.

I didn’t realize until I was older still that people often answered that question with something they might have decided I was expecting or something that they devised on the spot because what they were thinking didn’t seem worthy or relevant.

What Are You Thinking?

Over a quiet moment at a romantic first-date dinner, a young man asked “What are you thinking?” and my answer was, “I was thinking about the bread.” Not exactly the most charming response to my date. It was a long complicated set of thoughts that had brought from thoughts of meals shared with people I cared about to how it’s called “breaking bread.”

He was affronted that my thoughts seemed less than romantic and not at all about the moment … with him.

I tried to explain how the bread related. The more I said the more irrelevant my words sounded even to me.

My thoughts had been soft yet suddenly I was feeling small and wrong for moment’s mental connection that happened without intention … the way connections between ideas happen for me.

We never became a couple. We showed no signs of an ability to communicate on the simplest things.

He wanted me to be thinking what he was thinking at that moment and I wasn’t. Had he not asked he might have assumed I was … I expect that eventually would have had equally bad results.

Ask People What They’re Thinking

I’m thinking on that story now because I realized this morning, how often I see people take a wrong turn by deciding what someone else is thinking. Misled by their silence or a nondescript comment we invent their world view by putting our thoughts into their mind. You can only imagine what scenarios we’ve been able to conjure out of what people were nowhere near thinking at all.

Eventually I’ve learned it’s easier, faster, and less worrisome to ask people what they are thinking and then leave room for asking them why. And what my friends are thinking is always interesting, valuable, and worth hearing — much more than I might have imagined — and when I’m listening often the source of new thoughts of my own.

Thank you for all of the thinking that you do. The world needs it and I do too. Want a smarter, higher performing team? Want better relationships?
Keep thinking.
Keep asking people what their thinking.
Keep listening when they tell you.
It’s irresistible when you do.

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Mobile Payments vs. Credit Card Processing: Which One Will Work You?

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Trip Ochenski

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Accepting and processing credit cards from your customers is much easier today than it was in the past. Having a customer use a credit card within a business often means that a business owner can expect that customer to spend up to twenty percent more in that store than they otherwise would have. Furthermore, many businesses today operate a retail website. Since the vast majority of people prefer to use their credit card when shopping online, being set up for processing credit cards is practically a necessity for any business.

For years, businesses that wanted their customers to use their credit cards inside their business had to purchase a credit card reading terminal. Today, however, businesses have the option to accept credit cards through mobile payment processing. This technology allows a business to accept credit card through a smartphone or tablet computer.

Mobile payment processing offers a way to process customer credit cards no matter where a business sets up its operation. Without mobile payment processing, a business will need to purchase or rent a credit card reading terminal. This terminal will need to be connected to either a landline phone or a high-speed internet connection. Every time a customer uses his or her credit card, it will be swiped through this terminal.

Today, however, there are a number of credit card merchant services that provide small card readers that work over an internet connection. Because they are not required to be tied to a landline phone, these readers can be used anywhere that a staff person can access the internet. Some of these devices plug directly into a smartphone or tablet computer and use the device’s wireless network to transmit credit card data to the service that is processing credit cards.

To get set up to accept mobile payments, a business must first buy one of these card readers. After receiving the reader, the business must then connect it to their mobile device and download the app that goes along with it. This app will store customer data, transmit it to the processing company, and provide both the business and the customer with a receipt of the transaction.

Any business that does work and/or makes sales in multiple locations can benefit from mobile credit card processing. For example, businesses that operate out of traveling craft fairs and farmer’s markets are able to use this technology to accept customer credit cards for the first time.

Other businesses, such as landscapers and plumbers that have a central office but do most of their work away from it are now able to accept customer payment at the time of service. Instead of waiting for a customer to be invoiced before being able to accept payment, then dealing with the possibility of bounced checks, a mobile business can now count on immediate, reliable payments.

Of course, traditional businesses such as restaurants, or brick and mortar retailers may find that they have very little use for this new technology. Businesses that do not work in the field often will probably find that they can continue to rely on their traditional credit card terminals.

The new technology available in the field of credit card processing will open up a lot of possibilities for some businesses. Being able to accept customer payments from practically anywhere will mean that some businesses will be able to rapidly expand their customer base. Other businesses, however, will not see a lot of benefit from using the new technologies.

Author’s Bio:
Trip Ochenski writes about merchant services and mobile payments at Switch Commerce. He is also author of the SwitchTalk Blog. You can find him on Twitter as @SwitchCommerce.

Thank you for adding to the conversation!