Case Studies
The Crowd Sale Experiment Concludes (What I Learned and Will This Work For You?)
Note: This post is Part 2 in the series. Read Part 1 here. How well did the Crowd Sale work for our Tarotic Story Prompts Deck? The results are in. In one week, we sold a total of 53 decks. (If you’d like to buy one now, you can do that here.) How did that...
We’re All Guinea Pigs Now: Life and Business as Continual Experiments
A guest post by Zeus Yiamouyiannis. What if, underneath it all, your carefully planned and wished-for life was nothing more than an adventurous experiment? Would that free you or strike terror into your heart? What if you were both the guinea pig and the dude in the...
Case Study: Create a Content Strategy to Support Your Launch
Last month in the Digital Dining Room, the group’s mission was to identify their main business goal for the final quarter of the year and then to develop a content strategy to support it. Here’s how we got them there: Step One: Brainstorm ideas using a...
Case Study: Using Email Marketing to Deepen Relationships
Last month in the Digital Dining Room, the group’s mission was to create a welcome email that would help them get to know their subscribers on a deeper level. Here’s how we got them there: Step One: Brainstorm three questions they could ask a new...
Boost Awareness by Piggybacking on a Bigger Brand
Earlier this week, I talked with Abe and Rick of Ruzuku.com — an online platform created to make it “ridiculously easy” to teach better classes on the web. Ruzuku first came onto my radar when Abe posted this question on my “It’s All...
Expressing Brand Values: 3 Case Studies
…Three French Hens! It’s Day 3 of the 12 Days of Branding. If you missed any of the series thus far, you can find them here. In today’s installment I give you three examples of small business brands with solid core values that know how to walk the...
When the Going Gets Rough, Best Have Something to Stand On
This is a guest post by Zeus Why don’t shortcuts work for the important things? Why are real friendships, productive professional relationships, well-run businesses, life callings, marriage, and parenting so inconveniently and persistently demanding? These things...
Has Your Brand Reached its Expiration Date?
(Or, does it just need a little freshening up?) When we start our ventures (if we do things right), we create branding that eventually accomplishes the goal of telling our story in a way that is unique, compelling and builds community. Both the visual and written...
How to shovel that hype-driven snow off your business (and reset your goals)
This is a guest post by Zeus. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough hot air. I’m ready to breathe deep that cool, invigorating air of reality, and shovel the “snow” off my business. Yes, the pun is intentional (and seasonal!). Anyone who tells you that you just...
To Heat Up Your Business, It Pays to Learn How to Cook
A guest post by Zeus Yiamouyiannis. Simply turning up the burner won’t do it. Heating up your business means learning how to cook. In fact, developing a successful online business is a lot like preparing a splendid eight-course dinner. To use Tea’s metaphors, if...
How I Grew Site Traffic by 60% in Three Months: A Peek into the Small Biz Branding Contest
As many of you noticed, we recently wrapped up the First Annual Tastiest Small Biz Brand Award campaign. The event/marketing efforts lasted nearly three months and worked to accomplish (or surpass!) several goals. These were: Help establish Word Chef authority in the...
From Struggling “Jill-of-all-Trades” to Master of One: A Case Study
This week, we take a close look at a Digital Dining Room member and learn what’s possible when you focus like a laser on “one thing.” Meet Colleen Conger of Think.Web.Go. In June 2012, she was a struggling freelance graphic designer who’d never even heard of a thing...
My Big Why: On Motives, Mentors, and Defining Moments
Every hero has one: an origin story. Bruce Wayne watched a mugger brutally kill his parents when he was just a child. Peter Parker found his inner hero after a radioactive spider bit him. Buffy discovered she was “The Chosen One” and learned to leverage her slayer...
Case Study: How to Conquer the Blank Page and Write Better Sales Copy
Writing copy for your website or other marketing materials isn’t always easy. And unless you’re a professional copy writer (and sometimes even when you are), the blank screen of your computer can feel like it’s taunting you: You’ve got no idea...
The Story of Our Pricing: My Experiment With the Gift Economy (and Your Invitation to Join Me)
What story does your pricing tell about you and your business? In the past, experts said if you wanted to position yourself as high quality or even luxury, you’d better price your product high. Why? Because higher prices tell your potential customers your stuff...
Closing the Deal: Building a Business that Generates Income
This is a guest post by Zeus Many of you, like me, are putting in a lot of time, energy, and money into developing an online business. And yet concrete outcomes (substantial business income, successful products, etc.) sometimes seem so far away. We’re taught to...
Welcome to the Zeus Experiment
If you’re following the evolution of Prosperity’s Kitchen, then you’ve already heard of The Johnny Project. But in case you’re new to these parts, or if you’ve missed any of the game-changing explosions of late, The Johnny Project was an...
Case Study: How the Jansens Regularly Fill Their Virtual, Local, and Global Workshops
Meet Holly and Mark Jansen. This husband and wife team owns and runs a photography business: Jansen Photo Expeditions. Specifically, they teach photo enthusiasts how to get just the right shot, with just the right equipment, no matter where in the world their cameras...
The Crowd Sale Experiment
What would you rather do: sell your thing one at a time to many people? Or sell your thing all at once to many people? Hmmm. I thought so. So why do we — so often — attempt to find new clients and customers one at a time? Group sales are not a new concept....
The Gamified Tribe: A Case Study
Just over 8 weeks ago, in preparation for our upcoming season of “Prosperity’s Kitchen,” I called for volunteers for a little experiment in gamification. You might think it’s just a buzzword, but “gamification” is one way to create...
Turbo-Boost Your Brand using Social Media (+ 4 Unique Ways to be Human)
Four Calling Birds… It’s Day 4 of the 12 Days of Branding. If you missed any of the series thus far, you can find them here. In today’s installment we’ve got an awesome case study on how to do things that work, plus I give you four new ways to...
Case Study: Create Your Mastermind ‘Posse’
Peer-led Mastermind Groups. Everybody wants to be part of one, but the good ones can be hard to find (or create). Besides the obvious logistical challenges, you’ve also got to get just the right mix of personalities, expertise and commitment. And even then,...
Spinning Your Plates: How to Find Balance and Order
A guest post by Zeus Yiamouyiannis. For those of you just tuning in, this is the latest in a series of posts for The Zeus Experiment, whereby I chronicle my learning curve and ups and downs in developing my own successful online business. Tea Silvestre is my mentor in...
The Remarkable Purple Carrot: A Marketing Parable
Here in the West, purple carrots aren't a commonly found in your local produce departments. In fact, you'll probably have to go out of your way, by searching for them at the fringes: places like your farmer's market or a specialty grocer. There's a little vegetable stand near my house where I can find maybe 3 or 4 at any given time (mostly because there's a woman who comes in every morning and buys nearly all of them for herself). The shop owner literally can't keep enough of these guys on hand. In short, these guys are special. Remarkable even. And they're almost certainly a topic of conversation when served to dinner guests. They're so special, they make the chef look special, too.
Build Your Brand and Your Business Without Cash (A True Story!)
When I first started my consulting practice I used a combination of just three funding sources: savings, credit cards and a little thing called barter. Bartering can be great fun — especially when you find someone who has what you need and who needs what you...
Speak Up! Why and How to Find Your Voice
This is a guest post by Zeus This week I quadrupled sign-ups for my mailing list, and re-taught myself some valuable lessons: Trust yourself. Be original in voice. Put quality first. Tap into your existing community. Write what you know. Here’s what happened: My...
The Baconomics of Branding (or, How to Bring Home More by Being Different)
True story: Mr. Perfect and I are moving in together in 3 weeks. Sure. It’s just across town. But the headaches are still the same: find just the right place; do gobs of paperwork; make tons of phone calls to various utilities; simultaneously pack-sell-or-trash...
The Golden Triangle of Coffee Joints: A Marketing Parable
Locally-based businesses (as opposed to multi-national corporations) are the life blood of any community. And people are beginning to understand the importance of nurturing local economies. But there are still a few hold outs. While it is clearly to our collective benefit to support local businesses, many people still patronize national chains. And the reasons don't all have to do with pricing. If you are a small, locally-owned business trying to compete with the big guys, you might want to consider the following parable.
Small Business Pickles: a True Tale of Trust and Betrayal
na·ive [nah-eev] adjective having or showing a lack of experience, judgment, or information; credulous: She’s so naive she believes everything she reads. It’s easy to see looking through the rear-view mirror that one of my biggest life lessons is trust....
Book Marketing Lessons from a Finance Rockstar
As the President of Small Business Finance Forum, Nicole Fende, aka the Numbers Whisperer™ is a credentialed actuary with experience as a Chief Financial Officer, Investment Banker, and successful entrepreneur. She’s also the author of the new book, “How...
5 Marketing Lessons from Celebrity Chefs
Except for my client Rebecca Joseph (aka The Rabbi Chef), your goal is probably not to be the Next Food Network Star. But there's a whole lot that celebrity chefs can teach us about working in a crowded marketplace. The successful ones truly excel at building their brands and growing their fan base. How do they do it? Here are five of their marketing strategies that you can (and should) adopt today:
