Make a Referral Week is an entrepreneurial approach to stimulating the small business economy one referred business at a time. The goal for the week is to generate 1000 referred leads to 1000 deserving small businesses in an effort to highlight the impact of how this simple action can blossom into millions of dollars in new business.

The weeklong virtual event will also feature daily education programs focused on teaching small business owners and other marketers how to tap the power of referral marketing.

I just posted a referral (See #86 in the comments.)

Find out more about Make a Referral Week here

A client of mine, Jeff McCauley tipped me off to this recent Seth Godin post (Jeff and I are both big Seth fans.)

Seth Godin writes:

If you want to grow, you need new customers. And if you want new customers, you need three things:

1. A group of possible customers you can identify and reach.
2. A group with a problem they want to solve using your solution.
3. A group with the desire and ability to spend money to solve that problem.

You’d be amazed at how often new businesses or new ventures have none of these.

Wow… End of class!

For all you entrepreneur’s out there:

“Don’t wish it was easier; wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems; wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges; wish for more wisdom.”

- Jim Rohn

My wife and I both went to school over in West Michigan. I went to Western Michigan - she went to Calvin College…yeah, she’s smarter than me - I can admit it!

A few months back we traveled back to West Michigan for a day trip and ate at the wonderful Rose’s Restaurant in East Grand Rapids. Being the marketing nerd I am, I signed up for their e-mail newsletter.

Last night I received an e-mail from them and thought it was a great example of smart marketing. Everyone is going to be buckled down in Michigan today as we are getting quite a snow storm (6 inches where I am and it’s not close to being done…)

Rose’s and their sister restaurants knew lunch traffic would be down on a day like today and tossed a great 50% OFF offer to their e-mail list (see image below.) I’m certain this offer will draw some folks out who otherwise would have been staying warm and toasty at home…

A topic I recently covered with my Your Marketing Academy members is Local Keyword Research.

I wanted them to generate a list of keywords that people would be typing into google (and the other search engines…) to find their website…

Today I came across a blog post that offers some great resources to get this job done.

Check out the post from SubmitYourArticle.com here

I’ve been checking out a Social Media platform called Twitter for a little while now (you can follow me on Twitter here) - I’ll save some thoughts on the Twitter platform for another post…

Today, I wanted to share this little nugget that I read on Twitter (it was posted by matthomann):

Never assume your current clients understand all you can do for them, or believe your former clients remember all you did for them.

Reach out to both in these hard times and new business will follow.

Great Advice. Great wisdom. How can you apply it in your business?

Read this the other day in a marketing publication I subscribe to:

The dealership blames the bad economy for their demise. But I doubt that was the problem. In the time I bought my 4 trucks from them, I never once received a thank you note. Never once received a call to see how I was doing with my vehicle. Never once received an invitation to come in and try one of the new models (my history was to buy a new one every 4 years — would have made sense to start sending me notes at year 3). Never once received an invitation to a VIP reception. Never once received a birthday or anniversary (wedding or purchased date) card. And the list goes on and on.

All the items this gentleman listed are practical marketing and sales strategies.

Instead of your salespeople sitting around twiddling their thumbs and feeling sorry for themselves - why not write a handwritten note? Why not make a call to the client - not to sell them anything, but to simply ensure they are satisfied with their purchase?

A little time spent on these activities will go a long way and help offset the economy we find ourselves in.