Skip to main content

February 8, 2021 – Breaking the Rules, Super Bowl, and Writing Copy

Breaking the rules.

The above quote, my master business strategist Tom Peters, makes a lot of sense. But in business, especially at the retail, multi-employee enterprise, it's often forgotten. Heck, it's not even a thing any more for a lot of businesses.

Yet, it should be.

Rules are guideposts. Consider them like guardrails on a highway – they keep your employees from going off the side of the road and into the abyss.

But that's not what we're talking about when we say, “Encourage (or authorize) everyone to break the rules “a little bit.”

What we mean is, keep it human. If a customer makes a weird request, consider it. Also consider how to fulfill that request without giving the store away. Give your employees autonomy to bend the rules “a little bit.”

Doing so will not just satisfy (or impress) your customers. It may also encourage employee retention, which is a huge thing. You may have invested thousands of dollars and dozens of hours of time training your employees. Losing one over repeated “you broke this tiny rule” will kill motivation and some may seek other employment.

It's just a fact.

Well, what does this have to do with you if you are a solo entrepreneur?

In a word, everything.

Here's why. You get to make your own rules (not your own laws). You get to decide if your offer is limited. I mean, we sell digital products that NEVER run out of stock. Bits are free, for all intents. But you can say, “This item is for sell only until tomorrow at midnight” or “until 100 are sold.” You get to make that rule.

You can also have a “no refund” policy.

And you can break those same rules. You made them. You get to break them.

Now, I don't suggest you do this “rule breaking” indiscriminately or often. Make them exceptions to the rule. Otherwise, if you break said rule all the time, it's not really a rule. In fact, breaking the rule makes it the rule.

Any way, don't get too caught up in your own rules. Use common sense, logic, and emotion to guide you.

Is it best for your customer? Does it harm your business in the short or long term? By enough that you really shouldn't break it?

You know what to do.


In other news, the Tampa Bay Bucaneers appear to have won decisively over the Kansas City Chiefs. I didn't watch the game nor did I watch the Halftime show or the commercials. I'm kind of done with football and have been for years.

But just in case you hadn't heard, there it is. LOL.

Did you know? Yesterday was “International Start a Blog Day Class of 2021.” It's not too late to start.

To come back full-circle to my original point above (breaking the rules), here's one of my favorite marketers, Seth Godin, on being nimble. It's kind of the same concept.


From time to time on the blog, I want to highlight something new that I learned or discovered. Today, it's copywriter Tania Dakka.

I found her in a Facebook group, headed over to her site, and found this. I love it!

https://www.taniadakka.com/the-sales-copy-blog/5-secrets-copywriters

Tania has her own FB group about writing copy – you can find it here.


The article was originally published here!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Free Disk Partition Manager

I know you think this is an internet marketing blog, but it's much more than that. I do talk tech from time to time. As it should be--I spent the better part of 20 years in IT departments in Fortune 500 companies as well as a few start ups. So I know just enough to be totally dangerous. In all seriousness, I wanted to share with you a neat little tool that I found the other day out of necessity. It's a free disk partition manager for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Operating Systems (so it Read more...and please RT, like, and share.

February 9, 2021 – Affiliate Marketing, Content Distribution, and Miscellaneous Ramblings

Lots of noise in the world…let's talk about affiliate marketing! Lots going on in the world today. Still fighting the COVID-19 pandemic (numbers are finally going down), Trump's second impeachment (will this be “must-see TV” – I don't know and I won't be watching), and it's FREEZING up here in the PNW. Could get a couple inches of snow. Snow day! Except the kids aren't IN school. They're “distance learning.” Anyhoo…let's talk affiliate marketing. What is Affiliate Marketing? Think of selling something. It could be something you make yourself or somebody else made it. If the latter, it's affiliate marketing. Of course, I'm really simplifying this. Is a retailer an affiliate marketer? I guess, according to the definition above. According to Wikipedia, Affiliate marketing  is a type of  performance-based marketing  in which a business rewards one or more  affiliates  for each visitor or customer brought by the a...

Pinterest: Sitting Infographic

http://bit.ly/1OA01C5 Sitting Infographic http://bit.ly/1D6ZKpP