Tag Archives: Small business

Are You A Marketing Slouch?

Posted on by
Reply

If you’re not exactly doing cartwheels about how much your business has been growing then you might be interested in taking this test to see if you’re a dreaded Marketing Slouch or a happy Marketing Superstar. Chances are, if you’re not happy then you can stand to make a few changes in your biz. I’m here to shed some light!

Give yourself 1 point for every YES.

1. When people ask you what you do for a living, do people’s eyebrows go up (interest) versus down (confusion)?

2. After hearing your elevator speech, has anyone asked for your card to call you for a consultation?

3. Are you out networking with your perfect target client at least 1x a week?

4. Do you often get business from the places you network at?

5. Does your website talk more about your client’s problems or you?

If you scored between 0-2 You’re a Dreaded Marketing Slouch- Pick up the slack and you’ll see results right away, I promise!

If you scored between 3-4 You’re on your way to becoming a Marketing Superstar. Fine tune a few of your tactics and you’ll get the clients lining up!

If you scored a perfect 5, you are a certified Marketing Superstar. Congratulations! Your results probably tell you that anyway.

When you’re wondering why you’re not attracting new leads and the only new business you’re getting is from word of mouth, think back to whether you’re a marketing slouch or not.

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk!

Related articles

Your Website Should Be A Love Letter

Posted on by
Reply

As a small biz marketing coach, I sure do write and think about love a lot, don’t I? Well, that’s just me. Now what about you? Are you looking at your biggest and in most cases first point of contact between your potential clients and yourself, ie. your website with love in mind? If not, you might be losing them literally at ‘hello’. If it’s time to brush up the messaging on your website, simply think about it as a love letter and the rest is easy. Here are some ways to do that:

1.  Address One Lover

If your website is addressing more than one person, ie. “I love to help architects and home owners decorate their space’, then you’re confusing your audience. Just pick one person to love and talk to them. The more specific you get, the more I as a client will think you’re into me.

2. Tell Them Why You Love Them

There’s a specific reason why you care about who you help. Maybe it’s because you’ve lived their pain. Maybe it’s because you’ve trained in their solution for decades. Whatever it is, tell them your big WHY and let them understand where you’re coming from.

3. Be Honest

In love and in business, authenticity wins you the prize every time. It’s attractive, it’s loveable. When you’re honest about who you are and what you want, it scores points. I’ve put my values on display for all to see on my website. How are you reflecting YOUR honesty in yours?

4. Make Them Feel Good

Your website is a love letter when anyone who is your target client (your one love) visits it, they feel good about their problem. Your website is bursting with solutions and advice about their pain. There are examples of others who were in similar pain as them and that you helped.

I met my husband Andy on an online dating site but our courtship was all about old-fashioned love letters (emails) which we still write to each other to this day. The power of love letters are still very relevant. Why not use this power to connect deeper to your future clients? You will LOVE the results.

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk!

Related articles

The Secret to a Strong Branding Message? Focus.

Posted on by
Reply

Can’t focus? Then you’re in for a tough time in business.

Here’s someone else who agrees with me about the need for a business to pick just 1 thing to sell to only 1 group of people–, (a cool ad agency dude).

He agrees that people are confused by your messaging if you’re telling them you do MANY things for ALL types of different audiences. In addition, he outlines the 4 musts that the 1 message you choose must have:

First, your core message needs to have an emotional and rational side. You  need to connect with people’s hearts and minds. Make no mistake. People are  driven by both. A simple idea like “Volvo makes cars that are safe” resonates on  both levels.

Second, it needs to be believable. I could tell you: “Adam is the next  President of the United States.” But wish me luck convincing you of that.

Third, your core message needs to be relevant to a group of potential  customers. If there’s no market opportunity, that’s not a good place to be. I  might own the only lemonade stand on Mars — a great positioning opportunity –  but not if there are no thirsty Martians to drink my lemonade.

Fourth, your core message needs to be simple. If people can’t understand,  remember or repeat your one thing, it’s too complicated. If it’s too  complicated, it won’t find a home in your prospect’s mind. And remember: that’s  where your brand lives.

via The Secret to a Strong Branding Message? Focus..

All the books I’m reading lately (Seth Godin’s Icarus Deception, Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind) are telling me about the new connection economy where left brained thinking jobs and tasks are moving en mass to China and that right brain thinking like appealing to emotions and empathy are essential skills to prosper in the economy of the future.

What does this mean for your business? It means that your brand has to stand for something that connects to your consumer’s emotions. Focusing that message on a single emotion like safety or freedom can make a huge difference in how much people remember and value your brand.

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk!

Related articles

5 Signs That You Are Living In The Dark Ages

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve been having lots of short phone chats with people I meet while networking, on social media or with people who’ve been e-introduced to me. In some cases, I have to really shake my head at the mindset that greets me. Here are some hints that you might also be living in the dark ages…

1. You Connect With Someone Only Because You Think They’ll Become A Client

When did every date become a marriage proposal? How do people expect every interaction to yield money? How archaic is the thinking that unless I’m going to buy from you that you are not interested in a single word I have to say? Sheesh

2. You Are Perfect (Or Think You Are)

Not open to hearing about how others are doing it? Success stories in your industry are automatically tuned out by your senses? I understand, of course I would too if I were perfect. It’s too bad there are so few of us in this world, am I right?

3. You Don’t Care About Me

If you’re spending 90% of the conversation, oh no–make that 100% talking about you and never once think to ask about my business, then I’m going to start getting the idea that you just don’t give a hoot about me. You also don’t give a hoot about helping me or connecting me with a potential partner or client or anything.

4. Your Sales Suck But You Say You’re Really Busy

Authenticity and transparency are the new black. On one hand there are clear indicators that you’re not doing so hot and on the other you’re bragging about a marathon of non ending work. Which is it my friend?

5. You Refuse Any Help

You refuse resources, partnerships or any other type of help because, yeah I forgot, you are perfect and you’re already really busy.

If you, as a small business owner are exhibiting any of these signs, I beg you to get yourself checked out and get a cromagnonitis stat. Drag yourself and your business into the new age of marketing. Give instead of ask. Listen instead of talk. Collaborate instead of sell.

Getting off my probably PMS driven soap box now.

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk!

Related articles

Brandings Cardinal Sins: 3 Common Mistakes to Avoid

Posted on by
Reply

You probably know that branding started in farms thousands of years ago to distinguish one farmer’s cattle from another’s. In business, it’s one of the most important things to set you apart from your sea of competitors. Nobody’s born with this knowledge and you don’t know what you don’t know. I mean look at this ad from a cigarette maker.  Here are a few things to avoid when it comes to picking your own brand:

1. Choosing a bad name:
- It’s difficult or confusing to pronounce.
Restaurant chain, Au Bon Pain, or the shoe company, Saucony.

- It’s embarrassing to say.
Even diehard Apple fans rolled their eyes and laughed uncomfortably when the company launched the iPad, a product whose name sounded to many like that of a feminine-hygiene product.

- It’s impossible to remember.
Long names and those containing ambiguous descriptors, like “solutions” and “partners,” are generic and difficult to remember.

2. Imposing outlandish services, products or terms:
Qwikster was a sloppy attempt to gloss over a huge price increase in Netflix’s service offerings. The experiment went so badly that Netflix quickly reversed itself and reverted to a single brand, albeit one with separate streaming and DVD pricing plans.

3. Offending users:
Bic’s pastel-colored pens created to meet the “unique” writing needs of the  female gender sparked outrage and derision across the internet and represented a  major branding blunder for the pen manufacturer.via Brandings Cardinal Sins: 3 Common Mistakes to Avoid.
How sad is it that one of the offenders of bad branding mistakes is my alma mater (BIC) but it’s a great lesson about how important branding is to even a giant, let alone a small business like me.
Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk!
Related articles