This weekend I took the family over to a friends house across the state on the east coast. We hung out for the weekend and headed back home on Tuesday. As we stopped to get a bite to eat before heading back, we almost made the assumption that the place we wanted to eat was out of business.

That is exactly what your potential customers might be thinking if you are not in the maps. There are over 100 Million people using Google Maps from their phone to find businesses. How many of those customers are you losing by not being there?

Google Maps

If you are not familiar with Google Maps or Google Places as it is now referred to, I will briefly explain it. Google Maps is the map that shows up when you do a local search for a business in the top left of the results. They will usually show up to 10 results and this is referred to as the “10 Pack”.

That means that the top businesses in that list are above everything else on the page. Google maps are also used as an app in mobile phones. This is where many are searching for a local business. I do it all the time when I am looking for the closest retail store or a certain type of business.

So just imagine if you owned a sports store and someone searched “sports store” from the Google Maps app in their phone. What do you think happens when you do not show up? They move on to the next store. You are losing business every day by not being in there.

Are You Open for Business?

So as mentioned we wanted to stop and eat before the long drive home and almost did not end up eating where we did. In this case we actually saw the place before looking for it on the maps. We happened to drive by a Pizza Hut and I had recently been wanting to eat at a Pizza Hut Buffet.

So naturally my wife pulls out her iPhone to search for “Pizza Hut” and get the number to verify that they had a buffet. What she found was not a Pizza Hut but a few other Pizza shops instead. The Pizza Hut we just drove past was not in the Maps.

My first thought was that maybe they went out of business. Luckily for them and my craving I went to PizzaHut.com and checked for locations near where we were and found it. When I called I had to verify that it was the one we were looking for. Still thinking maybe the one we were looking for moved or closed.

I was able to verify that they had a buffet and we ended up eating there. But if I had not seen it there, I would not have looked further for the phone number. If I was just craving Pizza I may have gone to the other shops that showed up in the Maps. It was literally like putting a closed sign on that location and sending me to a competitor.

This is not the first time this has happened to me. I have had it happen plenty of times where I know that there is a store at a certain location but they are not in the Maps. Chances are that owner is still blaming the economy for business being so slow. But most likely business is so slow because his market is looking for him where he does not exist.

So, are you open for business? If so, you better be in the Maps.

One of the greatest things that I have learned in Martial Arts is focus and determination to achieve my goals. I have enhanced my skills in self discipline as well, to make sure that I stay on task and do what it takes to be successful.

Yesterday I stopped by the Tae Kwon-Do school that I work with as well as train at and was asked to speak to the kids for a bit. I talked with them about focus and goal setting.

Primarily the goal in Martial Arts, is getting to Black Belt. That is the goal in any Martial Art and really it is just the beginning of your training. But so few who start training will get there. Maybe 1 out of every 10 students will actually get to Black Belt.

While talking with the kids, I mentioned how it is no coincidence that many of my mentors are Black Belts in some form of Martial Arts. Two off the top of my head would be Chet Holmes and Brian Tracy. I am never surprised when talking with successful people to hear that they are a Black Belt.

The amount of focus and determination, goal setting, hard work etc. that goes into achieving a Black Belt can do wonders in a business. It would certainly not be an easy task to find a Black Belt working at McDonald’s. Well, unless he is the owner.

Setting Goals

Setting goals is not just about writing some stuff down and hoping you get to it someday. It is about creating a plan to get them done. Whenever I talk with my son about setting goals, we create tasks for each goal and a plan to get them done.

With Martial Arts you have several goals and achievements along the way. You have to put in the training and focus on those in order to obtain them. Each one is just a stepping stone to the bigger goal.

What stepping stone goals can you set in your business that will help you achieve a greater goal?

Leverage

One thing you learn in Martial Arts is how leverage can help win battles. Often times you can take someone down simply by using their body weight against them. Many times just certain points on the body can allow you to control an opponent.

Often times in business you can find ways to use leverage to tackle certain problems or tasks. The right pressure points can remove obstacles. You can bet that the Black Belts you find running successful companies have found ways to do this in their business.

Leverage allows you to work smarter not harder. Leverage is how even the smallest person can take down someone twice their size.

How can you gain some leverage in your business and work smarter?

We’ve all heard the phrase “It’s business, it’s not personal”. One of the greatest things that Social Media has done for the world is made business very personal. So much so that if a business does not figure it out soon, they could be out of business.

The game has changed and now more than ever the power is in the hands of the costumer. Social Media can make or break a business.

Behind the Mask

For as long as advertising has been available, a business could pretty much tell the customer whatever they wanted them to know. They hire actors as testimonials, shoot commercials with the perfect looking person, having the greatest time at their store or with their product.

They could be the worst business in the world but put on the greatest show. They had all the power to put on a mask and not let you see behind it, until they had your money.

Social Media Changes the Game

Social Media has changed everything! The customer now has a bigger voice than ever! It does not take long for the news about a business that did something bad or good to spread with sites like Twitter and Facebook.

With review sites like Yelp, Google local reviews etc… Businesses have to be on top of their game and as personal as ever. Social Media has allowed us to see who a business really is. To see which businesses care about you the costumer and which do not.

When I was selling cars, they use to remind us that if you make a customer happy, they may tell 1 person. If you make a customer mad, they will tell 10.

With Social Media, if you make a customer happy, they have the ability to tell thousands. And you have the ability to it in front of thousands. And of course, if you make a customer mad, they can tell thousands, who then will tell thousands!

Small Town Rules

Gary Vaynerchuck posted a great video on Small Town Rules. He talked about how with Social Media, everyone knows your business. That means that more than ever we know which businesses actually care about the customer. It’s like living in a small town.

Services like FourSquare add even more to that, as you can now see where people are going most and what they like about that place. That sign on the window of every single coffee shop in town that says “World’s Best Coffee”, no longer matters.

Business is now more personal than ever!

Stay tuned for a post on how a business can effectively use Social Media.

Whether you are a Blogger, Internet Marketer or a Business, you need an autoresponder. Whenever I mention email autoresponders I always get that weird look from people and the question of why they would need it.

So I want to clear up what it is and why it is needed.

What is an Autoresponder?

First let me define what an autoreponder is. I use Aweber (affiliate link) to handle my autoresponder service. What this does is allows me to place a form on my site that asks a visitor to give me at least their name and email. This is done normally in exchange for something.

This can be a newsletter, a coupon, a free gift etc… Once they give you the name and email they automatically get sent their gift.

Then that person can start to receive emails that you setup automatically, as many as you want. These emails deliver a message that you feel that person should be receiving to either market or inform. Plus you can send emails to the entire email list that you build when you have announcements or specials etc..

So what can you do with it?

Auto Marketing

First, I like to look at an auto responder as “auto marketing”. For some of you I just said the “M” word! Marketing is not a dirty word! It is all around you, you do it every day!

I recently was told that I should not tell people that I am in marketing because it scares people. If you are scared by marketing, then I can’t help you. It is essential to the survival of any business, and the success of any individual. You have to market yourself throughout your entire life.

With an autoresponder you can set up small email messages that are automatically sent at intervals you determine. These can be used to market your product to the customer or your business.

This person has taken an interest in what you have to offer and now you have a chance to automatically market to them on a daily basis if you wish.

Auto Informing

You can also look at an autoresponder as “auto informing”. Sometimes marketing may not be the right term. Informing may fit better. An autoresponder is a great way to give someone more information about you, your products or your company.

Sometimes that little bit of extra information can go a long way in building trust. An autoresponder can do that for you. One of my business clients is an appliance service. We set up the auto responder to send out 3 initial emails that teach the customer tips on how to maintain their home appliances.

In this case he is not necessarily marketing but is informing the customer in order to build trust.

Auto Retaining

Another great way to use an auto responder is for “auto retaining”. This is the area that most businesses fail at. They spend so much of their efforts trying to bring in new customers. They forget that retaining the current customers is much cheaper.

You can send out short emails thanking them for their loyalty. Offer discounts to customers on the list. Ask for referrals. There are many ways to use an autoresponder to retain current customers.

Auto Communicating

The bottom line is that an autoresponder can “auto communicate” for you. That is the most important thing. It captures leads and communicates whatever message you want to them.

An autoresponder can be the difference between a shopper and a buyer. Once they have filled out that form they have told you that they are interested in a service or product you have.

They willingly gave you their information and if you use it wisely you can gain not just a customer but hopefully a lifetime customer.

The most important thing with the autoresponder is to make sure that you have a call to action at the end of each email. Whether it is to buy something, visit the site or even just to reply to the email.

An autoresponder can be huge for a business or even if you are just trying to get information out!

Say what you will about McDonald’s food but you have to admit the company does business well. They continue to get better and better at giving you what you want.

You want fast food! Not only are they getting faster but adding the variety that you want. Now they offer their Cafe line of coffees and Lattes. And I must say that their coffee has grown to be one of my favorites.

The Mcdonald’s by me has to be the fastest I have ever seen. They actually have a person out in the drive through with a tablet device taking orders. I talked with them about it and they explained that it frees up the 1st window to just take payments. This speeds up the process.

I went through there the other day and from the time I pulled up with 4 cars in front of me, to the time I had my food could not have been more than a minute and a half. May have even been a minute.

Give The Customer What They Want

They have a great business model of providing what you want. They stay up with what you the customer are into and want in a fast food chain. You wanted salads, you got salads.

You wanted better options for your kids, you got apple slices.

You wanted more desserts, you got McFlurry’s and sundaes, and pies.

You wanted more chicken items you got them.

Free wifi, they just keep adding more reasons to go there.

Even if you do not like the food, you can now go there for a cup of coffee and use the internet to get some work done.

Reaching The Customer

Their advertising is always unique and catches your attention. They keep upgrading their restaurants to be as modern as can be. They do a great job of getting in front of eyeballs and making you remember them.

They are often the trend setter and if they are not they are quick to adapt.

Upsells and Backend Offers

As any good marketing campaign has, they have the upsell of supersizing your meal (I know I know can’t say that anymore it’s Large size now). They have backend offers which are their variety of desserts. They have their act down and continue to adapt and give you what you want.

To be politically correct I guess I should also say waiter. But even as a waitress or waiter you can upsell and profit from it. My sister used to be a waiter and I asked her once if she tried to convince them to get dessert. She said no she doesn’t even ask.

Leaving Money on The Table

You could literally be leaving money on the table if you do not have an upsell. In the case of a waiting, money on the table is a good thing and you can get more of it.

See most people will determine their tips based on a percentage. So the higher you can make the bill the better. If you can convince them to purchase a bigger portion or a specialty drink, dessert etc.. You can potentially add more money to your pocket.

Don’t Ask Don’t Receive

If you do not ask then you cannot receive. Ask about the dessert! And if you are the owner of a restaurant you should be explaining this to your employees.

If you are selling a product, tell them about your other products once they have purchased. The worst that could happen is that they say no. But even if only a small percentage said yes, it is still money in your pocket.

I recently read a post on Shoemoney about his trip to seaworld and all the marketing techniques that he took notice of. I loved it! I always take notice of those things when I am out at a store or theme park etc.. I just never thought to blog about them.

Yesterday I took the family over to Orlando and we ended up playing mini golf at the Congo River Mini Golf. They definitely had all of the proper marketing in place so I thought I would write about some of them. I also hope to do this more often.

Up Sells and Backend

As any good attraction should have they had all the upsell marketing in place. You had your basic game of $10.95 ($8.95 for Florida residence). Then you had the 2 round package of $4 more.

You could also pay an additional $7.00 and for unlimited play and feed the alligators. Not to mention all of the other products they offered like T-Shirts for $16.95

Any business or marketing campaign should have upsells that you can offer. Also backend items like shirts and novelty golf balls etc.. Chances are people, especially tourists will take you up on those offers.

A Special Prize

Besides feeding the alligators which I will cover next, the special prize that you can win was the most brilliant thing they had going.

Basically what they did was they tell you at the start that their are several artifacts throughout the course that you can look for. Things like a spear, mask, hat, totem pole and a canoe. When you see these items you mark down which hole they were at on the back of your score card. If you get them all right you get a prize.

This was great, it actually added one more fun adventure to the game. The kids loved looking for the items. It also caused us to focus more on the scenery than we would normally have.

Well, we got all the items except the mask. We even went back again and could not find that thing. So when we finished I showed the guy what we found and asked where the mask was. He told us and then said that since we were so close he would give us a prize anyway.

He brings out a basket filled with scratch off cards and tells us we can  each  pick 2, so we got 8 total (more fun!). As we scratched off to see what we won, we all got some sort of discount on something they offered. Like a $1 off a round of golf, $1 off of feeding the alligators etc..

I am not sure if any of the prizes could have been a free round or not but the idea is brilliant. We were about to leave and because we got a $1 off of feeding the alligators we decided to do it. So they were able to successfully sell us another service. We also kept the coupons and hope to go back.

How great of a campaign is that? They give us a “prize” that ends up making us a repeat customer and got us to spend more money that day.

Oh and the feed the alligators is brilliant as well. We paid $2 after the discount for less than half a hot dog that was cut up. We then get these fishing poles with clips on the end to attach the hot dog and the gator eats it. So we feed their pets for them and pay them to do so.

As Shoemoney said “that’s like me saying hey come to my office and I will charge you 50$ to buy me KFC.”

Whether you are an offline business like a mini golf or an online business there are lessons to be learned here.

So what are some great marketing campaigns that you have seen out there.

I was shopping the other day with the family and I walked passed something that caught my eye. It was Disney eggs. Disney takes a pack of eggs and stamps Disney characters on them and they have a hot product. A hot product they can charge more money for!

It’s just a pack of eggs with stamps on them! But as you can see from the picture they are charging $3.49 for them. That is quite a difference from just plain old eggs.

Just a simple stamp has added value to this product. And sure enough I see a mom walking by with her kid and the kid wanted those eggs. Mom looks at them, shrugs and puts them in the cart. Sold!

Bagged Lettuce

At one of the seminars I recently attended I was listening to Kevin Nations speak. He showed a slide of  a head of lettuce and asked how we could sell that for more money.

The answer? He then shows a slide of bagged lettuce. The bagged lettuce is sold for almost 3 times the price but has less lettuce! It’s just that the work of peeling off the lettuce is now done for you.

A simple process has added more value to the customer who now is willing to pay more money for less product.

We spend based on what we perceive the value to be.

Wants Matter as Much as Needs

Sometimes we do not need to make a product better to charge more for it. It just needs to meet a demand. A demand is not always a need though. People do not need Disney eggs, but they want them. People do not need bagged lettuce, but it’s easier.

So when you are out there looking for your next niche, you can definitely count on meeting needs to be a good market. But sometimes it can be just as good to find a want to market to.

Maybe you can just take something and make it easier for someone.

The bottom line is that when you are looking to sell or create a new product, there are many reasons why someone would want it. Don’t just focus on what people need, many times those markets are over crowded. But to take a need market and turn in into a want like Disney did, is brilliant.

So how much can you going to charge for your eggs?