Sell Local, Think Global

50 Innovative Ways to Make a Chunk of Change and Grow Your Business

Olga Mizrahi

• Publisher: Career Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781601633408
• eBook ISBN: 9781601634344
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

"From Nielsen to grilled cheese trucks, this is a hands-on, idea-packed book for business people in search of growth." —SETH GODIN, author of Linchpin

After years of sharing her small-business tips and marketing tricks with readers of her popular blog, ChunkOfChange.com, and column in the Long Beach Post, Olga Mizrahi has taken her message to the streets, urging business owners to focus in while reaching out.

You’ll be excited and motivated to clearly state your difference to the world—and your neighborhood—while confidently selling yourself and your business. Through 50 low-cost, do-it-yourself tips, Sell Local, Think Global will help you:

• Figure out what makes you and your business truly different.
• Discover the secrets of “SoLoMo” marketing, both online and off.
• Spruce up your Web and mobile presence by learning to love analytics.
• Walk boldly into the future by embracing social media and customer reviews.

Chapter 1

Change Your Message

Creating a UVP to Make Marketing Magic

“Why should I choose you?” This anxiety-inducing question is the single focus of this chapter.

Everyone knows that there’s a lot of “noise” out there in the market-place, and in order to overcome the clamor, you really have to stand out. But changing your message isn’t simply about altering what you portray to the outside world; it’s about pinpointing what it is that makes you different enough and then carrying that message around boldly, wherever you go.

All of the tips and tricks that follow are all about determining and disseminating this key differentiation. To get the change that you want and you need for your company, you must undertake the following steps:

1. Understand the points that make you truly unique.

2. Put those succinct ideas down on paper.

3. Make sure that your message is different enough to get through the noise.

4. Be able to communicate your unique value proposition (UVP)—loudly and proudly.

5. Enable the message to worm its way into conversation.

One Step at a Time: What Makes You Unique?

Right now, I’m talking about your message—not the delivery method for getting it out there. I’ll go into the countless forms of available media, advertising, marketing, and sales opportunities in later chapters. But, talking about delivery channels before the message will do you about as much good as choosing a shipping provider before deciding what exactly you plan to send. No matter what your ultimate medium of choice is or how you measure “success,” you need to make sure your unique value proposition is crystal clear—then keep stating it, again and again. What exactly is this magic UVP that I keep bringing up?

Why Choose You?

Successful marketing requires you to identify why your target market should choose you and effectively communicate that to your audience. Focus on two questions:

1. What makes you different from the crowd (i.e., your UVP)?

2. Is this different enough to provide some sort of irresistible pull to a large enough audience (i.e., your “–est”)?

A value proposition is an inherent promise of benefit that a company gives its customers, employees, or business partners. That value is usually measured in terms of “benefit minus cost.” A large part of determining value lies in comparing alternatives.

A unique value proposition (sometimes called unique selling proposition or USP) communicates the unique contribution your cause, company, products, and/or services are able to provide to the market in a way that is markedly different from your competitors’.

Once you’ve developed your unique value proposition (see Tip 2 for a free worksheet) and carried it throughout your company, it’s time to put it out there in the world, ideally to the right target market that is primed to take it in. In the golden days of advertising, you simply stuck to the essential “four Ps” of marketing: product, place, price, and promotion. In the ensuing decades, as the marketplace changed, that concept evolved: the four Ps became the four Cs (customer needs and wants, convenience, customer cost, and communication), and now there’s even an online course that offers the 14 Ps. Unfortunately, all of the acronyms in the world just won’t cut it anymore. In a crowded marketplace, what is enough to truly differentiate you from your competition?

Second Verse, Same as the First?

Almost everything that people need already exists—and, for the most part, it’s all working just fine. So what’s the point of bothering to bring anything new to the table, right? Well, even though the vacuum, the fan, and the hand dryer all existed before, Dyson still “reinvented” each one—and made that design innovation the cornerstone of the company’s marketing. With that in mind, what is it that’s so different about your product, service, or cause that it will capture the attention of the right people?

You no longer have a captive audience. You need to truly stand out in order to be noticed. It’s not about the “-ers”—“better” or “faster” or “stronger.” It’s about being markedly different, or what I call the “–est.” What are you best at? Friendliest? Most convenient? Cheapest? If you’re not stating your unique value proposition clearly and confidently, you get lost in the fray; you’ll be ignored. In people’s hectic lives, there’s no time to ask for clarification. If they don’t get your story or want you right now, they will subconsciously press that Google back button in their brain and move on.

The bottom line is, if you can communicate your difference, then there’ll be some sort of impression formed in the mind of the customer. If you can’t communicate a distinct difference, something worse happens; there’s no impression formed in the customer’s mind. You’re ignored; you’re an afterthought.

In the next five tips, I’ll shine a light on pinpointing your “–est,” guiding you in how to write out an effective UVP, then encouraging you to carry it around boldly, to the right people, and get you primed to have them bring your UVP into their conversations with word of mouth.

So, let’s get you out there, loud and proud.

Tip 1 Pinpoint Your Unique “–EST”-ness

Differentiate or die. It may sound overly dramatic but it is, in fact, that dire. You must be able to get across what makes you different. That is actually the absolute heart and soul of all business strategy. In fact, if you cannot define clearly what makes you different, then there’s no point in reading any further.

If you, indeed, have something that makes you different, it’s not that complicated to define what that is. There are a host of tools and techniques to help you get to the heart of the matter. I prefer to use “mind mapping” as a group brainstorming technique, but there are plenty of other ways to determine what it is, exactly, that makes your company unique. (For more information on “mind mapping,” see Tip 12 in Chapter 3.)

Basically, you need to brainstorm and ask yourself, “Who are we as a company?” It’s a big feat to be able to clearly and concisely answer the question. There are several ways to look at it, though. You can provide several kinds of definitions, including:

• A technical definition, which outlines the specific services or products you’re able to provide.

• A character definition that says something about the personality of your group of people.

• A market map definition, which identifies where you fall within your group of competitors.

Again, contrary to popular belief, it’s not about the “-ers”: better, faster, cheaper. Rather, it’s the “–est,” something big that needs to be memorable and specific. Take Wal-Mart: the giant retailer isn’t just cheaper—it’s cheaper on absolutely everything. That makes it the cheap–est.

What’s Your –Est?

Defining that special something that you are especially good at, the core quality that really captures why someone should choose you, depends on what you do exactly. Do you sell a product? Provide a service? Champion a cause? Here are a handful of ideas to help hone in on how you can zero in on an effective “–est.” Take special note of which items in the following lists resonate with you.

Product Power

You can distinguish your power through:

• High perceived value (i.e., the buyer is pleasantly surprised by the price of your product).

• Unique packaging.

• Standout design.

• Ease of use.

• Unique solution.

• Superior performance over competing products.

For instance, although there are countless donut shops in Portland, Oregon, a new donut maker may still be able to eke out a living. He is significantly more likely to succeed, though, if he can carve out a clear difference. Perhaps he has the cleanest shop in town or offers a special kind of donut that the others don’t. In the city that begs you to “keep it weird,” maybe it’s time to be the most out there! The bottom line is that having a truly unique value proposition determines whether you’ll simply exist or find a way to thrive.

UVP and –Est in Action

A few years back, the food truck craze seemed to hit overnight. But what really played out was the perfect dramatization of the importance of understanding your unique value proposition in order to survive.

At first, there were a couple of wildly successful trucks roaming about, updating their ravenous fans about their whereabouts via Twitter. These trucks had very specific, often-never-before-seen fusion menus that had fans following them around town daily. The proprietors of these trucks had nailed down their UVP and carried it out in force, making sure every offering on their limited menus was infused with their signature style.

Before you knew it, though, there seemed to be hordes of food trucks all over. Demand was still high—but so was supply. It wasn’t enough to simply have unusual sounding cuisine—every other truck offered fusion features.

At that point, survival depended on having a truly unique proposition that made the truck stand out from a very large crowd, often full of somewhat similar offerings. Yet, on the other hand, that UVP had to not be drawn so narrowly as to appeal only to a very small demographic.

Case in Point: The Grilled Cheese Truck

The original Grilled Cheese Truck (GCT) has undoubtedly proved one of the most successful stars to come out of the food truck craze.

With appearances on the Cooking Channel’s Unique Eats and Food Network’s Unwrapped among many, many other TV shows, the GCT has even become a tourist destination for L.A. visitors! After a wildly successful 2009 launch, the enterprise has expanded considerably, with five trucks operating throughout Southern California, three in Phoenix, and two in Austin/San Antonio.¹

Chef/owner Dave Danhi launched the first truck after entering his now-signature Cheesy Mac and Rib Melt in the 2009 Grilled Cheese Invitational, and seeing just how many hardcore grilled cheese fans existed. His timing was spot-on—the food truck scene was ascendant—and the GCT proved very popular right out of the gate.²

By 2011, however, the food truck market had become saturated and—to many critics—“watered down.”³ Instead of good food and solid business planning, every Tom, Dick, and Harry seemed to think of a food truck as easy money, clogging the marketplace and creating an unsustainable industry bubble.

This is where early timing and strength of message came into play for the GCT. Jumping into a growing scene early gave a high-demand/low supply advantage, but more importantly for long-term success, the breathing room to establish a strong brand identity with consumers. Key aspects of the GCT formula included excellent food, local food sourcing, and social interaction with customers.

But the GCT did survive—and, as the continuing expansion shows, thrive. Now, it seems that the biggest challenge facing the GCT team comes from dealing with the flip side of brand awareness. Customers new and returning have high expectations about both the food and the experience. To truly take the enterprise to the next level through national expansion, they will have to deliver consistently excellent food and customer service to keep the positive buzz alive—and customers coming back for more.

At Your Service: How to Distinguish Your Services

Services, of course, are a bit less defined in their offerings. Yet there are jus...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Suggestions for Use
• 1: Change Your Message
• 2: Change Your Offline Marketing
• 3: Change Your Website
• 4: Change Your Analytics
• 5: Change Your Online Marketing
• 6: Change Your Sales
• 7: Change Your Reviews
• 8: Change Your Social Media Value
• 9: Change Your Mobile Presence
• 10: Change Your Future
• Chapter Notes
• Index
• About the Author