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In some circles, the title of this article could be a leading statement into a description, or it could be a question. In reality, as far as I'm concerned, What Makes Authority Marketing Work is both.

The mayor of a small town once wrote to Benjamin Franklin asking for a donation so the town could buy a bell for its town square. Franklin sent money with a note suggesting they forego the bell in favor of buying books for the town library. It is at the library we might find an answer to why so few succeed and why most fail - at anything, at everything.

What is the unlikely negative outcome of the infamous 2020? You will never guess - It is business cybersecurity. Not a lot of people realize that there were whole industries that had to switch from office work to remote working positions. The number of folks learning technology and installing home offices was shocking and that is bringing up a whole load of concerns for privacy and security. 

I am not talking about someone forgetting to shut off their webcam on the zoom call and flashing their underwear - I am speaking about corporate blackmail, ransomware, stealing of sensitive information and other cybersecurity-related risks. 

Help! -I can't Get Out 0f The Box I Put Myself In!"

The fast food industry got the idea for drive-in windows from banks. I guess there was a McDonald's executive sitting at the bank drive-through one day who thought, "I don't think we can fit the milkshakes in these tubes, but..." Netjets, the leader in fractional jet ownership, now owned by Warren Buffet, owes its birth to the vacation timeshare industry. The microwave in your kitchen was not originally intended to go there; its original manufacturer, Litton, believed no consumer would buy it and built them only for restaurants. When was the last time you heard of Litton? What does this tell you?

That successful businesses live or die by cross-industry 'borrowing' of ideas, that inspiration more often comes from outside the box than from within. Ordinary businesses stay ordinary, their owners eking out only ordinary incomes - and working too hard for them - as long as those owners foolishly and stubbornly, mentally stay in their own tiny backyard. Breakthroughs come from bringing fresh ideas, found outside one's own business, in and applying them in new ways. You choose to limit or expand your income by the way you reject or embrace ideas found far afield from your present modus operandi and industry norms.

In my relentless search for I don't know what, I found an article in the December 1, 2008 edition of Nation's Restaurant News, the trade journal of the restaurant industry, headlined: "Operators Bank On Profit And Loss Scrutiny To Stay Afloat." It made me laugh out loud. The article states that "maximizing the profit and loss statement has become a mantra for restaurant operators during the current economic downturn."

This is then presented as some sort of horrific torture imposed on the owners by a vicious economy. What is not said, but should be, is that maximizing profit shouldn't be paid attention to only after dire economic conditions occur, to be given temporary priority, only until 'things get better.' It's supposed to be what anybody responsible for operating a business does everyday. Including what's then described in the article: ferreting out and cutting wasteful spending, controlling labor and administrative costs; creating products, offers and price propositions customers really want. Any business owner complaining about having to attend to these priorities because of a recession is a moron, and any trade-journal writer taking them seriously is dumber than a sandbox.

Odds are, your business lost a lot of customers last year. There are holes in your bucket. And odds are, you can't say for sure how many you lost, who you lost, why you lost them or where they went and are now. If you do nothing different, I can send you this same fax next year too. A great way to make more money is to stop losing customers, beginning with the next one you are about to lose.

Twitter has gained popularity with 330+ million monthly users by offering them an outlet to share their thoughts, pictures and web links. Despite not being as massively popular as Facebook or Instagram, Twitter is gaining popularity among more casual crowds recently and must be taken seriously as a marketing instrument.

It is impossible to deny that Facebook is the most popular and relevant social network in the world. Over its years, Facebook created businesses, innovated internet advertising, and caused a lot (and I mean A LOT) of controversy over private data management.

Instagram is an excellent tool for businesses of all sizes to advertise products and services. Instagram offers a diverse audience to advertise to so it can definitely be worth the investment, especially for a small business! Here’s some tips on how to use Instagram for advertising.

Have you ever wanted to take your marketing to the next level?  You've already done the mailing lists, website creation, and social media marketing? Looking for a little marketing excitement? There are plenty of other things you can do to promote your business that are a little outside of the box.