No Marketing Required

A few years ago I lived in a tourist community. During the peak season nearly 120,000 people were crowded on my little island on the Atlantic coastline. There were literally 150+ restaurants but only one that I knew of never, never advertised – anywhere.

It was not large or overly elegant in décor. And because town laws forbid neon lighting, that was not the attraction either. Even the parking lot was minimal often overflowing into neighboring businesses.

Yes, the chef was talented and the menu selection was the best. Charley didn’t offer the popular “early-bird” specials every weekday and drinks were never discounted for “happy hour”. His doors opened at six every evening and the dining rooms were full an hour later. They were all early – and his customers were all happy!

But consider this – shouldn’t all businesses, even restaurants, advertise on a continuing basis to keep up with competition? Offer incentives and menu specials? Why would Charley’s be the exception? Is it possible to have supply and demand in perfect balance? Would marketing therefore increase demand, thus causing his service to suffer?

As restaurants go, this is the point where most of them up and move to larger, more lavish quarters, hire more staff only to find out that business-as-usual just isn’t what it used to be. Charley never fell for that mistake. He still operates a tight business – no marketing required.

Sadly, we cannot apply this to our Online Business. Even the dotcom millionaires who made their bucks in the 90s when competition was minimal, produce a constant flow of eBooks and Reports. The bigger their name, the bigger their price tag however, and that tells me you will pay if you have been properly indoctrinated. Much is poorly written and most is merely regurgitated garbage.

You can certainly automate 90% of your marketing, and bring your efforts as close to zero as possible.

*run your own FFA page with an automatic message to every person who posts

*design a template for your Ezine, and spot-fill it each week with new material

*start writing Articles and forward them to an article submission service

*set up your own website with your own domain name

*put a Resource page on your website offering all of your programs

*submit your website to a Search Engine submission service

Once in place, this strategy should allow you days away from your computer if needed or desired. It’s always a good practice to spend some of your “away” time reading Internet updates. New technology can leave you behind unless you stay in the know. The best sources for this are free (or fee) subscriptions to factual Newsletters that come right to your desk.

© 2004 Esther Smith