Your brand is your promise to consumers and the world. Unfortunately, with very little effort you (or others) can screw it up, leaving you scrambling to do damage control. Here is a list of ways you can make a mess of your brand: 1. Ignore Your “Core Truth.” Every brand has something that it does well that makes it unique. It’s the thing that people automatically associate … [Read more...]
Is Your Monday a Horror Story? Change It
Hassle, fuss, haste, low energy levels and never-ending tasks---these are the regular parts of Monday blues we face every week. Talking about work makes some people sick and actually working, well I better remain silent on the subject. For most people, the don't go back to work in a happier mood than they were in during the weekend. The scale of despise towards work varies but … [Read more...]
3 Strategies for Effectively Communicating with Your Customers
When you look at large corporations, it can sometimes feel like you will never have the success they have. They have more manpower and bigger advertising budgets as well as brand recognition. Does that mean that a small business doesn’t have a chance? There are a lot of “mom and pop” businesses that started out in their kitchens or garages and then grew. Some of these … [Read more...]
What You’re Selling isn’t Always What They’re Buying
Do you ever wonder why the prospects on your mailing lists and in your locality do not buy from you? Maybe this story will help. Sally owns a flower shop and takes great delight in helping customers buy flowers for their partners, for weddings, for Valentine’s day and all the events people tend to buy flowers for. Between events, she struggles to find any customers and the … [Read more...]
Promote Your Business with Coupons: Quick and Easy!
Coupons are an ideal way to promote your business. They can cost almost nothing, allow you to change offers almost immediately, and can drive prospects to your website for more information. Coupons Are Inexpensive Let’s start with “cost almost nothing.” Although print media and direct mail still offer coupons that have to be designed, printed and distributed, you can get … [Read more...]
Ramp up Video Marketing Impact
Sponsored by Alphabet Transcription Specialists: Make a splash. Make your mark. Make an impact. So many terms, but the gist of it all is this: to grab the attention of your target audience and leave them asking for more. Say you specialize in video production and marketing. Naturally, you would want your clients to be satisfied with your work, wouldn’t you? You would want … [Read more...]
Why Your Clients Dictate Which Social Media Platforms Work Best For You
Your client profile is not complete until you know which social media platforms your clients like use to communicate and how often they use those platforms. Share too much or too often and you lose them. Share too little or every blue moon, and your voice gets lost. There is a fine balanced line between informing or sharing and bombarding and overselling. You have to … [Read more...]
5 Ways to Boost the Digital Presence of Your Business
Having a strong digital presence has never been so important for doing business as it is today. Why? Because, believe it or not, your customers---both the existing and prospective ones---expect to see you out there. You may think that your business is not the kind that needs an online presence, but the truth is there is no set convention guiding which businesses should or … [Read more...]
How to Market Your Best Asset
One of the biggest challenges for small businesses and budding entrepreneurs is effective marketing on a shoestring or with no budget. You can’t get or do any better than word of mouth. Word of mouth is mainly based on an impression you made with a client or prospect who would like to do business with you in the future. That impression has value. You can trade on that … [Read more...]
What do Free Samples Have to do with Your Business?
You carefully prepare your grocery list. You've got everything written down and your budget is set. As you walk into the store you are on a mission. Then you are greeted by someone offering you a free sample of flavored coffee. It not only smells good but tastes good and now you are hooked! You have to add that to your list. You walk to another aisle and another smiling … [Read more...]