Is Word Of Mouth Nature, or Nurture?

Many, many salespeople, and anyone that could benefit from referrals believes that word of mouth is something that comes with just doing a great job at what you do. Being bad at what you do, or even mediocre certainly isn't going to give you good word of mouth business, but you aren't exactly going to be turning customers away at the door if you just rely on your work being what brings people in the door.

That is why there is a need to nurture the paths that lead referrals to your door. Waiting for them to come to you rarely works. You need a plan to get that business with referrals, or someone else that makes the effort to nurture the referral angle is going to steal them away from you. After all, you probably aren't the only one in your industry that does an above average job with the work you do. You need to inject a little hgh into the system.

A good reminder on why word of mouth is not just important, but why it must be worked on by YOU can be read here.

What Color Are Your Products, and Does It Matter?

Everything matters when it comes to the impressions you want to make with your products. Labels, packaging, and even the color of the product itself. How much does it matter? It all depends.

Ten years ago, Heinz unveiled a new type of ketchup that became an immediate success. It sold seven million bottles in its first seven months and gained international attention. It became so popular that when it sold out of some supermarkets, people actually auctioned it off on eBay.

On the flip side, Crystal Pepsi was a colossal failure. Why? Even though it tasted exactly like Pepsi, consumers didn't like the idea of drinking a clear colored cola. The sales were atrocious, and it was discontinued.

So I would guess that some ugly brown, or green color for something that would be used to show how to lose weight quick wouldn't exactly work. Well..maybe it would...

So...Learn how to choose your color and make millions.

Gift Card Sales to Exceed $90 Billion This Year; Double Your Gift Card Sales and Win Big

I don't think anyone would be surprised to know that a few people never use a gift card that comes into their possession. Especially those small $5-10 ones that sit there and won't exactly pay the entire bill for whatever store the user would use it at. OF course it may not be as high as one would expect. It is projected that it will be about 3.1% this year, but that is still $2.5 Billion of the entire market. This is lower in part due to increased consumer protection under Title IV of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009, which severely restricts expiration and nuisance fees for gift cards, a subset of prepaid debit cards.

While unused cards seem like they would be a good thing for most businesses as it is literally "free money" the unused cards probably cost them money overall due to what was described above. Those cards of very little cost like $5 typically forces consumers to spend their own money to cover the rest, but they probably wouldn't even be at the shop if they didn't have the card.

With all that said Gift Cards are a huge boon for most businesses. Spending almost $24 Billion last year on cards just during the holiday season alone, and it is only going up this year. Annual projections for gift cards are in the $90 Billion range. That's a lot of cleanse colon.

How do you get a bigger piece of this pie with your business? There are lots of ideas out there, but this article claims they can help you DOUBLE your gift card sales. Take a look.

Some New and Old Cheap and Tested Marketing Ideas

The technology age changed marketing a bit. While a lot of the principles remain unchanged, and many of the old techniques still work, there are a lot of new ideas out there. A lot of ideas that cost very little, and take very little effort. Things that you can do to give yourself a boost with just a couple minutes of thought.

Marketing is one of my favorite subjects because it allows us to think constructively and creatively. Marketing ideas are really only limited by our own imaginations. For me bouncing ideas around is fun. Testing them not so much, but if you like your idea enough it isn't quite as hard to test as most other projects. Especially now with so much instant gratification tech to play with. No down and dirty scrubs uniforms for most of it. Just a little tinkering.

Small changes to your marketing mix can have a big impact -- especially if you tap the wealth of low-cost tools available to you online.

Here are seven small marketing changes that you can make now to boost your sales in 2011.

Test-Drive Your Dream Business

Starting a business is pretty scary. Having an idea and then going through EVERYTHING you need to decide you can even do what it takes to succeed with it are a big job. There are all kinds of idea men. Anyone can have an idea, but very few of them can take that idea and make it into a reality. Many try. Many fail. They fail because they have no idea what they are getting into, their idea stinks, or any other excuse you can come up with.

What about working paycheck to paycheck and taking out payday advance loans just to get by wondering if your idea works, or the business you want to run could actually be right for you? Maybe you need to take a test-drive....

Here's an interesting idea. VocationVacations, a company that exposes people to alternative careers in one-, two- and three-day getaways. Brian Kurth founded the service in 2004 and has steadily expanded his network of vocational mentors to 30 states. The mentors -- all working professionals -- offer one-on-one training in 185 careers, from archeology to sports play-by-play announcing. Clients learn directly from brewmasters, make-up artists and television script writers -- a few of the most popular choices, Kurth says. The more adventurous step far beyond the 9-to-5 world to try bison ranching and guiding white-water rafting tours.

"You can be a total novice in whatever it is," says Kurth, who took a circuitous route to forming the company. He left his Chicago marketing job, got laid off from a dotcom, and traveled by car for six months, mainly in Colorado and on the West Coast, asking people about their careers. After finally settling in Portland, Ore., he went into marketing for the wine industry. He also launched VocationVacations, a moonlighting business based online. The concept proved so popular and rewarding that after a year he gave up the wine job.