Marketing Success Stories and Tips from Real Small Businesses, Courtesy of Yellowbook 360

As small business owners we are always looking for ways to maximize our business efforts. But I have discovered, like most of us, that the best investment is in the small business owner herself/himself. In that vein, learning from others is priceless.

Yellowbook, a 360-degree marketing company, has created a cool website, Yellowbook 360 Building Success, that shares marketing success stories from small business owners. There is nothing like a true and encouraging story to motivate and remind us that we can:

1. improve on our services and products;
2. solve that impossible problem that just won’t leave us alone until we tackle it; and
3. successfully market ourselves with wisdom and purpose.

Take a look at the video interview titled “Maximizing Your ROI” with Serge and Carmen Sognonvi, owners of Urban Martial Arts in Brooklyn, New York.  Serge discovered that after 10 years in corporate America, he was missing a “connection” with people there.  He is much happier these days because he now feels that connection to people that he was once longing for.  And Carmen credits their fast success and happiness to the fact that they had really great mentors:

“We were fortunate enough to know other martial arts school owners who were really successful at what they did.  And so they were able to give us a lot of guidance and that really cut our learning curve by a great deal.”

To maximize their ROI, Serge and Carmen take a couple of different approaches that they’ve found work for them:

• Online Marketing (Facebook page and Twitter page)
• Offline Marketing (flyers and brochures)

Carmen reports that many students find out about the school through the flyers and that Facebook has also been very effective for them.  She also believes that figuring out the best way to adapt is the key to successful marketing:

“We started with more of a shotgun approach and then have been narrowing it down from there.  I don’t think that I would completely abandon anything.  I think that, very often, just because something doesn’t work doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t good for your business.  It could just mean that you’re not applying it in the right way.”

There are some upcoming videos to look out for, too.  Our very own Anita Campbell, CEO of Small Business Trends, interviewed some small business owners on camera, as well.  Anita speaks with Yehuda Klein, owner of Oh! Nuts, a Kosher candy store in Brooklyn, New York, about strengthening relationships.  (You can find Oh! Nuts on Facebook and Twitter, too.)  Anita also interviews Tom Roman, owner of Quality 1st Basement Systems in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, about acquiring new customers.  (Quality 1st Basement Systems also has a Facebook page.)

We’ll let you know when the rest of the success stories and interviews are available at the Yellowbook 360 Building Success website.  Or you can track the activity at Yellowbook’s Twitter page or Facebook page.

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