If it ain't broke, improve it!!

If you think you have perfected a product or service, it won't take long for your customers to identify a flaw or another way to utilise it. The key in maintaining your advantage over your competition is to continuously improve what you're offering so that it becomes irresistible to your clientèle. Do you think Apple stopped improving the iPod? or iPhone? Do you think Ferrari stopped improving the Ferrari? or Emirates Airlines stopped improving its services? No they didn't. The reason why, is that there will always be ways to improve your products and services to keep your customers happy.


To continuously improve requires outside of the box thinking to reach WOW status in the minds of your customers. If you aim to blow your customers away each and every time they experience your product/service, you will likely increase the probabilities of repeat business and referred business. Even watermelons can be square.

Can you imagine the possibilities of saving space in a department store of your product? this means you can sell more product. Can you imagine the space savings in your fridge or pantry with a square watermelon? this means you can fit a large watermelon quite comfortably in your pantry without it rolling around.

Sometimes, thinking of a square can help improve your bottom line.

I got scoops on how to market your blog.

If you are just starting out in the world of blogging, then save yourself time and learn from the best on how to market your blog. Here are some HOT tips for you from Darren Rowse.

Why blinding your customers is bad for business.

So how do you get somewhere without being lost anywhere? You look at a map! With the advent of mapping applications online like those below, it is amazing how many businesses don't list their address and contact details. Your customers and potential customers might as well be blind. Help them see and find your location of business and increase the chances of a sale.

I recommend every business inform people on how to find their place(s) of business. Take a leaf out of the larger companies around you. The chances are they are doing it. The more information you provide, the better. It is not that hard to do and doesn't take that long to work out.

In a lot of these mapping services, you can add photos of your storefront and your street. Anything to help your customers find you is a good thing. If they can't, they will go to someone who will and you don't want that to happen.

1. maps.google.com

2. www.wayfaring.com

3. www.frappr.com
   

4. www.rrove.com
   

5. www.gympost.com
   

6. maps.live.com
   

7. maps.yahoo.com/index.php
   

8. maps.ask.com/maps

I recommend you go to these websites, add as much information as you can about your business (address, contact details, photos etc) , download the 'embedding code' from the mapping service and add to your website. Just choose one of these mapping services to use for your site (like Google Maps) and use the others to compliment your marketing efforts. This effort should help you be somewhere as opposed to being no where or you might as well be a billboard in the middle of the Sahara ;-)

Freezing Grand Central

Now from time to time, a new buzz marketing effort spreads like wildfire throughout cyberspace and one cannot ignore how COOL the idea is...or more poignantly, how intriguing it would be to actually see it happen with your own eyes or to be a part of such a campaign.

The "freezing of Grand Central" in New York City is one of those ideas. Basically, you round up ten to several hundred people to meet at one place, organise them, tell them the plan and execute. This is flash-mobbing at its best.

By using the internet as a tool of organisation and communication through social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, or Bebo, organising rallies of this size can be done quickly and inexpensively by recruiting your friends/family and like-minded individuals to set your idea into action. In a market-place that's full of marketing noise, companies small and large need to take note and understand how to use the applications on the internet as a conduit to pushing their marketing messages out there. Not only is the market-place noisy, it's getting crowded and people are switching off. Just look at the proliferation of TiVo like systems in homes.

So how do you stand out? You develop and record your idea that's going to create some serious buzz. Then you shout and tell every Tom, Dick and Sarah to spread the word for you. Welcome to the world of the networked community. Small businesses with innovative ideas can now spend much much less than their larger competitors on advertising and gain a greater scope in the spread of their message. Scale is no problem because Youtube, DailyMotion, Revver etc take care of that for you.

Take a look at this video. Do you think if you saw several hundred people frozen in your major transport hub make you wonder...what the!?!?

Frozen Grand Central
by abdessao