In yesterday’s post, I mentioned Andy Sernovitz of MarketingProfs and his list of ingredients found in good word-of-mouth marketing. Then I asked you to figure out what was missing from my list. (Note: It’s on Andy’s list, but I purposely omitted it to make a point.)

The missing link is the same thing that causes a lot of products, services, blogs, and companies to crash and burn. With it, you’ve got a shot at success. Without it, you’re doomed. What is the missing ingredient?

It’s what makes something — anything — exciting, buzzworthy, viral. It’s simple, once you think of it. Ready?

It’s having a fantastic product (or service). Then adding some features that make it remarkable. (”Remarkable”= “worthy of remark” = word of mouth!)

Sure, it’s obvious and elementary. But look around at many businesses today, especially some online businesses and Web applications. You’ve got to wonder, what is so special about this? What were these people thinking? Who did they think was going to use (buy) this?

Online or off, I believe the biggest problem most small businesses have is cultivating their uniqueness. Your Unique Selling Proposition, to use the old marketing textbook phrase. It’s really tough to distinguish yourself from competitors when everyone is offering essentially the same product or service.

Finding and promoting what’s different and fantastic about you — that’s the essence of all marketing. Once you find (or add) that, copywriting and promotion becomes easy.

Let’s face it, none of us like dishing out our personal information online, especially to a company we don’t know or haven’t done business with before. It can result in all sorts of unpleasantness, including spammy emails.

Zillow, the real estate valuation website, is launching a service that I think is simply brilliant. Mortgage Marketplace lets borrowers get quotes anonymously, and at the same time provides free leads for lenders. Can you say “win-win?”

“Borrowers fill out detailed loan request forms but do not provide any personally identifiable information… The borrowers get e-mail alerts and can choose which quote and lender they want. Zillow vets the lenders so only reputable ones can offer quotes… The quotes must… disclose all fees and Zillow estimates the taxes, insurance, and monthly payments, making comparison shopping easier.” CNet

Wow! As a marketing consultant, I’m always trying to dig out my client’s Unique Selling Proposition. But this — this is a no-brainer!

I predict privacy will become an even more urgent problem in the months and years ahead. (Can you say TJX and Hannaford?) Savvy companies like Zillow will proactively offer ways to protect their customers’ privacy while still providing value-added services.

Amazon, which has already revolutionized the way we shop and buy, has taken what I think will be another giant step forward. It is satisfying our passion for comparison shopping with a new service that lets you compare prices — and make a purchase, of course — with a few quick taps on your cell phone.

That’s right. No longer do you have to leave a store and fire up your Web browser to find out if you can get the same item cheaper someplace else. Amazon’s TextBuyIt, which launched yesterday, lets you text the name of a product, its description, UPC or ISBN from anywhere — even inside a physical store.

How does a bricks-and-mortar retailer fight back, especially when the American consumer has already made it quite clear he expects superior customer service, but is unwilling to pay (extra) for it. Retailers, I’d love to hear your thoughts — and ideas for how to cope — in the comments.

Wouldn’t it be nice if your business had no competitors? Imagine — if customers wanted to buy what you were selling, they’d have to buy it from you. Or do without.

Think again. If your small business really had no competition, something would be very wrong. It could mean there’s simply no market for your product or service. Maybe others tried it and failed, or customers simply don’t want it. As old-time movie mogul Sam Goldwyn put it, “If people don’t want to go see your picture, nobody can stop them.”

Besides, people often grow to hate companies that don’t have competition. Look at Microsoft (especially in the past). Look at the growing grudge many people have against Google. (Not only for their past privacy intrusions but now — yikes! — their takeover of DoubleClick. If that doesn’t prompt you to start dumping your browser cache and deleting your cookies, I don’t know what will.)

Maybe the best example is cable television. You could hear the cheers all over New York after the stranglehold monopoly of cable systems within apartment buildings, condos and co-ops was struck down by the FCC.

Now if only those of us living in small cities had the same choices. For many of us, we have two options: one overpriced cable system — bloated with hundreds of channels we don’t even watch — or rabbit ears. Do I really have to pay $100+ a month to watch Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert a few times a month?

I wish I had a competing cable system to choose. I know that would drive down prices. Or maybe someone will finally introduce something all cable systems hate and fear: a la carte pricing. That is, you pay only for the channels you want. For most of us, that would probably be 10 or 20, not 200.

Actually, when it comes to television, this guy probably has the best idea.