If you are in Chicago and looking for marketing strategies that pay for themselves in no time at all, then check out the case studies at Chicagoland’s Sharpest Entrepreneurs.

Most of all, don’t buy into the marketing message of any company that offers this to you as a service.

Read more about it in my article ‘Why Most ‘Done-For-You’ Video Testimonial Services Are a Stinking, Steaming Pile of Garbage‘

While the article has been written specifically for attendees of the 2012 GKIC SuperConference the advice provides some great tips for people attending any conference or large industry event.

Get my free report, The 7 Fatal Mistakes Businesses Make With Testimonials. Enter your information below:

Check it out at http://www.TheTestimonialGuru.com

When you’re setting up a website to talk to Facebook, like getting your WordPress website to link up to your Facebook page, you need to provide some information to get them communicating. Plugins like Facebook AWD require the App ID, the Admin ID, and the Page Admin ID.

Let’s get this clarified. Your own Facebook ID, your Facebook user ID, is your Admin ID, since you are the administrator for a Facebook page. So what you need to know for your Admin ID is your Facebook user ID.

The simplest way to find this out is to go to the Facebook Graph API Explorer by clicking here. The number it gives for your “id” is your Facebook user ID and your Admin ID.

On the Telegraph’s website is a feature on unusual wedding invitations.

Every single idea (well, perhaps except the zombies) could be used by almost any business to develop its personality and get noticed.

Outrageous Marketing

Bill Glazer would surely consider some of these `Outrageous Marketing‘ ideas. Can you find a reason to send your customers or prospects a paper record player, a printed tea-towel or a cool poster?

More great images of these wedding invitations at the Daily Mail.

The show followed Alex Polizzi’s efforts to turn around Guide Bridge MOT, a car mechanics and MOT testing centre based in Ashton Under Lyne, on the outskirts of Manchester in north-west England. As an experienced hotelier, Polizzi was quick to focus on the customer service provided to a handful of new customers she had sent in to test the garage. She made it clear to the Lord family, who run the business, that despite being nice people operating a family-owned business, the experience they offered their customers didn’t differ from their competitors in any way at all. Even basic communication, like telling customers when their cars would be ready, was absent.

Scripting the Customer Experience

60 minutes of edited television can only show a fraction of what took place and the closing scenes were of the garage re-launching with a refurbished office and waiting area, so we didn’t get a chance to see how the company is running now. Hopefully the Lord family’s experiences with Alex in hospitality and fine dining have encouraged them to script and choreograph their customers’ experience with their company. From the moment the customer arrives in the car park, Guide Bridge MOT has a chance to stand out from the competition by providing a memorable and positive experience for their customers.

One of the biggest and under-utilized selling-points of the company is the ladies who work there. Jan Lord runs the company and works with daughter Nicola to organize the mechanics’ timetables and deal with the customers. Alex Polizzi pointed out that they were well placed to fill a big gap in the local market by promoting themselves as a female-friendly garage. Polizzi also encouraged them to re-start their `Women at the Wheel‘ car maintenance training and education program for women, which is now a regular weekly fixture.

Hints were provided at what the company has achieved with its re-launch, with customers remarking that they liked the new fixed-price servicing menu. Guide Bridge MOT also had their service status upgraded for corporate fleet work, having increased their customer service levels enough to qualify for the extra tier of fleet customers and increase their turnover.

The broadcast of the programme last night will no doubt boost new customer enquiries for Guide Bridge MOT. I wish Jan and the Lord family every success with their re-launched business and encourage them to keep up their marketing efforts.

Watch last night’s programme on BBC iPlayer by clicking here.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be busy updating the website, adding content and explaining how customer feedback and testimonials can help your business.

It seems that in the UK, we need training for basic skills that waiters and waitresses in other countries (the USA for example) have in buckets. The English language skills of eastern European waiting staff in the capital comes to mind as a significant factor in the sterile service available in some of London’s eateries.

Whilst some may celebrate that a restaurant chain is investing in improving it’s table-side service, it is a real shame that they feel the need for formal training on the art of conversation in an industry where building rapport with the customers should be a fundamental minimum skill requirement.

At least they’ve got people (including me) talking, so the marketing team will no doubt be celebrating this lunchtime with a bottle at their local Pizza Express.