I always tell everyone that I have been blessed with two talents, snowboarding and small business marketing. A snowboarding blog will probably not help you but a blog that focuses on small business marketing I thought would come in handy during this economy. I’ve been a very entrepreneurial kind of guy ever since my first lemonade stand. I was voted my likely to succeed and recede(hair line) in high school, I was the rookie of the year back in 1997 when I first started clipper and in 2008 I was voted entrepreneur of the decade by the management of our company. We have over 500 people that do what I do so that was quite an honor. Hey I’m not telling you guys this to brag. I just want to give you some background so you have reason to read my blogs. I love small business marking. I have always found it very exciting to work with small businesses and help them come up with ideas to compete with the big box stores. Creative ideas are what keep businesses competitive. Twice a month I teach an eight hour class at our headquarters that teaches new hires at our company how to creatively and cost effectively market local businesses in their respective areas. I have been teaching this class for 10 years and I decided to write a blog to share some of these concepts with you. I assured the management of our company that I would speak in broad terms so as not to give away some of the secrets that make us extremely successful in this market. I guarantee that every time you read this blog you will learn something helpful. Also, at the end of every blog I will have a link to a video that you will definitely find inspiring. So you will be educated and inspired every time you read this blog. How many other blogs will do that for you?

This first blog is going to break down marketing to its least common denominator. Simply put, if you do not have something that makes you unique, then you do not need to waste money on marketing. You have to find out what your businesses hook is. Why should someone come to your business instead of your competitors? You need to invest time an effort into something that will make your business unique. Whether you have the best New England clam chowder, the best patio dining, the best selection of shoes, the best view of Albany, the friendliest staff, the best priced oil change, the best cheeseburger etc., you need to figure out a reason why they are going to come to your business. Only once you have determined that, can you start to create a marketing campaign. Some businesses, if they are fortunate, have a few things that they are the best at but at the very least you need one thing. If you have a thousand dollars to spend on marketing but nothing specific that separates you from the crowd then invest that money in your product or service. Invest until you can honestly say that you are special at something. Trust me, anyone in the advertising business will tell you that it is way easier to market a business that is respected for something than it is to market a business that has no story to tell. As the founder of Clipper magazine I will reveal one of my secrets now.

Every year I get copies of “Capital region Living-Best Of Issue” The Metroland readers Poll, The Times Union readers poll etc. This gives us a great idea of who in this town is special in the eyes of the consumer as well as what makes them unique.. All of the businesses in these issues we target heavily to be in our magazine. We feel it is so much easier to do a good job for these businesses. They are already known for something great and now all we have to do is create an ad that conveys that in an effective way. In my next blog I will talk about how to create an effective message. We call it the Boom Boom Boom theory- Boom- this is who we are, boom this is what we do, boom this is why we are special. Less is more when it comes to marketing and blogs so you will have to stay tuned for our next blog to learn more about creating an effective ad as well as how to get that ad in front of as many people as possible as cost effectively as possible. As promised earlier I will end this blog with a motivational video hope you enjoy

See you next blog.

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