Photo thanks to: heiwa4126

This post is the last in a continuing series highlighting attributes or ways of doing business that make people or businesses remarkable, and worth talking about and spreading.

 If you’re familiar with Seth Godin, remarkable marketing is what he calls “a purple cow.” In other words, something that’s so unusual and special, that it’s worth remarking on and talking about. If you saw a purple cow, you’re more likely to mention it than if you spotted an ordinary brown one.

Two remarkable people

The first is Bo Hume of American Airlines. Leigh McMullen of Cult of Mac left his iPad on a plane (and didn’t even realize it). Bo tracked him down and returned it.  And he wouldn’t accept a reward either.

Louise Penny (one of my favorite mystery writers – and a great person too), is holding a drawing for advance copies of her new book. I wrote her a note asking her to enter my name.

I got a reply back five minutes later. And, it was clearly personal (OK, my note was silly – but still).

She’s a best-selling author, she’s busy, she was in the middle of working on her next book, but she took the time to respond to me.

Share your thoughts

Know any remarkable people or businesses? Have your own story? Share it in the comments.

Here are the rest of the posts:  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

This is the fourth post in an ongoing series about small ways that businesses large and small can stand out.  It’s good for your customers (they’ll remember and appreciate you), and it’s good for your business too (you’ll be memorable, talked about, and probably get more customers too).

The post office can be remarkable

Seth Godin’s recent experience at the post office was sad. But, here are three examples of how people with repetitive jobs and lots of rules to follow can still find ways to stand out and, dare I say it, be linchpins.

1) My postman greets me by name (I live in New York City, in an apartment building – it’s not a small town where everyone knows each other).

2) A few days ago, I was on the way to mail a Netflix movie. A passing mailman saw me, and wanted to know if I was off to mail back the DVD. I said yes. He held out his hand and popped it in his bag.

3) My mom sent me something in the mail. She put the wrong address on the envelope. Instead of sending it back as unknown, they looked up the correct address (don’t know how they knew which Jodi to pick), and delivered it – all in three days.

Share your thoughts

Got your own examples of small things that are remarkable? Something that happened to you? Or, something you do yourself? Share them here.

You can find the first three here, here, and here.

Image thanks to: ronnieliew

This is the third in a continuing series on how small differences can make you stand out from your competition in a big way.

The first two posts are here and here and the final two are here and here.

There was a big storm in the northeast last weekend. Bob Poole had major damage to his house; he said he felt like he was in The Wizard of Oz. He called several companies to come over and assess the damage. The first one arrived with a bouquet of flowers. He said, “Nobody else brought flowers. I bet they spend over $1,000 a year on flowers. They will more than recover that on this one job.”

Here’s another example. I recently wrote a guest post about writing great headlines. I suggested using magazines to get ideas for headlines, and gave a few examples of how to change the headlines so they worked for your business.

A small thing, but it made a big difference to Kiesha, who said she’d read many, many articles on writing headlines, but “this is the first that actually takes the time to do a brief, yet highly effective comparison to demonstrate how to actually make those magazine headlines apply to blogging! Awesome!”

What small steps could you take to be remarkable? Or, are you already doing something that makes you stand out? Tell us in the comments.

Flowers compliments of hello-julie

Milton Kramer got a check from the US government for one cent.  Fearing there might be some obscure regulation about not cashing government checks, he went to the bank.

He handed it to the teller,  who glanced at the endorsement, then at the front of the check, and asked, “How would you like that sir?  Heads or tails?”

It was remarkable enough for Mr. Kramer to send it in to the New York Times (which has a column with reader submissions for tales of the big, bad city).  And noteworthy enough for The Times to print it, and for me to repeat it.

Small things can make a big difference in the way your clients perceive you.  Do a little something extra.  Give them free soup. Make them smile.  Send a note for no particular reason, except that it’s National Tortilla Chip Day (which it is).  Include some chips.

You can check out part one here.  Parts three, four, and five are here, here, and here.

Photo compliments of sids1/