Atomic Penny

It is funny how you remember certain things. I remember sitting the back porch with my parents watching the Apollo 11 moon walk. I remember making a u-turn at college when the Challenger explosion was announced. I also remember I slightly “bumped” a car when I was making that turn. To be honest I didn’t leave a note. I seem to recall his Subaru was already in worse shape than my Pinto. Yes, a Pinto.

Keywords: Apollo, Challenger, Pinto. Three simple words that have vivid memories about specific events in my life. Not life changing in any way, but memorable and indelibly etched in my past. What do they bring to mind for you? If you use a search engine, Apollo brings up 41,500,000 references on Google, Challenger-19,800,000 and Pinto-37,100,000. Think about Challenger, is it a spacecraft, a contestant, a car, a participant in a race, a politician or a school?  Pinto is even more generational in the 70′s it was a car, the 80′s a movie character in “National Lampoon’s Animal House”, the 00′s a baseball player or an actress in an academy award winning movie; “Slumdog Millionaire”. Or it was a bean that has been eaten for generations.

Specific things  mean different things to different people. When developing a SEO program you need to keep that in mind. If you are too general you spend too much money chasing after dead ends, too narrow and you have nothing to show for your efforts. Be smart, take it to another level. MAking your search parameters will yield very different results;  Apollo 11 (10,100,000), Challenger Explosion (324,000) or Ford Pinto (682,000).  While you as a user know this, when you create your SEO you program, you may tend to forget in order to reach a wider more diluted audience. If you use the correct words for your SEO program, you will find the correct group of potential customers. If using SEO as an option in your marketing program, be generally specific. Also don’t forget to be unconventional. While the Apollo 11 was the first to land on the moon, Apollo 17 was the last lunar mission. You don’t want to be first or the last, but you want to be easy to find and memorable.

What will be memorable about your SEO strategy?  And how will you get there without spending a mint? I have some ideas, and I am sure you have some great ideas, drop me a note and we can chat about it.

POWER ON–Mark

mark@atomicpenny,com

Atomic Penny, in conjunction with Adams G3 Collision Repair and UVU Athletics, is pleased to announce the First Annual Community Share Night on December 5, 2009. Community Share Night is being held to recognize the efforts of community organizations in the Utah Valley area. This event will be held at the UVU vs. San Jose State basketball game in the McKay Events Center.

The featured community organization will be Turning Point, and the Womens Resource Center a resource for non-traditional students who have faced hurdles in returning to school and rejoining the business community.

Additionally, local community organizations will be present to provide information pertaining to the services that are provided to the citizens of Utah County. Your partnership dollars will provide valuable assistance to these organizations.

As a local business, we are offering you the opportunity to be a part of this special event. Partnerships are being offered for a pre game dinner, 2 media timeouts (6 total partnerships) and halftime festivities. Partnership levels are:

• Time-out Sponsor  : $250 plus a  prize to be given away ($50 minimum value) 6 Available. Recognition during the time out, partnership information on handouts, opportunity to nominate community organizations.
• Pregame Dinner for Spotlight Organization and Sponsors: $500 (2 Available) Recognition at pre-game dinner, partnership information on handouts, opportunity to nominate community organizations.
• Halftime Sponsor $400 plus a prize to be given away ($50 minimum value) 2 Available. Recognition of Partnership during halftime festivities, partnership information on handouts, opportunity to nominate community organizations.

As partners, tickets to the game will be made available and you are encouraged to invite family, friends, and clients to this exciting event.

At halftime, there will be a special presentation courtesy of Adams G3 Collision Repair to a very deserving individual. Halftime sponsorships will assist us in bringing this presentation to reality.

All monies collected (with the exception of supply costs) will be distributed to participating community organizations.

Plan now to be a part of this exciting event. For more information and to sign up as a partner, please contact Atomic Penny at 801-995-5550 or via email at atomicpenny@gmail.com. Response requested by October 28, 2009.

Have you ever watched others and wished you had their job, money, clothing, car or life? My question to you is: WHY? Why do you sit back and wish for something you can probably attain or create with your own abilities? How much time do you let go by while wishing instead of doing?

If you want something, go for it. Take a day or week and act as if you are living the life you wish you had. Act like a leader at work, rent the car you have always wanted to own. If you can afford it attend a high class event. Charities are always having fundraisers. Find one and savor the experience.

Or go to the local coffee bar and ask to volunteer to work there even busing tables.

Me personally? I want to share ideas and help others build successful businesses. I want to be able to get up in front of a seminar, large or small, and share knowledge. I want to work at the local coffee bar a couple of hours a week and just listen to people talk. I want to have fun making money.

I am living a part of my life and working on the rest of it. I am the one who decided what I want, and I have decided to go and make it happen.

Is this about marketing? I say yes, it is about marketing yourself, enjoying what you are doing, and having fun doing it. And, it is a bit unconventional.

What are you doing?

POWER ON–Mark

Luis, an older Hispanic gentleman approached me about a year ago while I was filling my car at the local gas station. He walked right up to me and stated, ” Those are nice shoes. When you need them shined give me a call”. He proceeded to give me his card and moved on to another person at the gas station.

When I look back on that incident, I really have to take my hat off to Luis. He knows his market, he knows his target audience and he knows where to find his audience when they have time to listen to him. His approach was more effective than newspaper, TV or a bill board.

What was even more astonishing was the fact that he had a great marketing plan and other than the cost of his business cards, he did not have a large marketing outlay. When I took my shoes in, he was very busy, but took the time to greet me, and he remembered my shoes. I was impressed!

The thing that Luis did not know was the day he approached me was the first day I had worn the shoes and I felt they were a little too shiny and new looking. Luis saw my shoes and did not see a new pair of shoes that didn’t need a shine. He saw a future customer.

As a friend of mine says, “It’s all about the shoes”. 

What a great use of unconventional marketing. Luis used traditional face-to-face marketing to meet his customers. He was unconventional in his approach. He complimented my shoes, not my car, not a big sales pitch. But a simple straightforward message that complimented his prospects, asked for business and did not interrupt anyone in the process. Sometimes it is about the shoes! Or the marketer wearing them.