What limitations have you attached to your business?
I often speak with business owners, who have restricted the growth of their business because of limitations they have placed on themselves, often without knowing. Interestingly, in the majority of cases, these limitations are groundless. In other words, a lot of business owners are missing out on countless opportunities, needlessly!
Here’s how to spot if you too are missing out…
Creativity plays a big part in the development of any successful business. In fact, your ability to creatively solve problems and spot opportunities will to a large part, determine just how far you and your business will go.
In my experience, one of the best ways to kick-start our creativity, is to ask ourselves questions, which lead us to creatively search for answers and new ideas. So, here are 31 questions, designed to help you find new opportunities or improve key aspects of your business…
In marketing, the more focused your messages are, the more effective they will be and the more business they will generate for you. A focused marketing message speaks directly to the reader, in a language they understand. It addresses a challenge or opportunity that’s directly relevant to them. These messages have the power to motivate the reader to take action, to; buy from you, call you, email you or visit you.
Compare that kind of focused approach, to what we see with the typical marketing messages used by small and medium sized businesses…
There are 2 very different voices out there. Listening to one of these will help your business, listening to the other will make life a LOT harder. These 2 voices are…
Have you ever wondered how things would change, if every company you dealt with, treated you as if you were the husband or wife, parent or child, of it’s owner?
Most companies genuinely try hard to make the customer experience as good as possible, but many set their gold standard for service, too low. This is because they allow the typical customer experience within their industry or profession to determine what counts as either good or average. Here’s why YOU need to avoid this…
This post contains 3 lessons, which have helped Leo Laporte become one of the Internet’s biggest success stories of recent years and which we can all learn from.
Here’s an introduction to Leo along with those three key lessons…
I have already had several books sent to me this year for review, written by social media experts or gurus. One thing all of them have in common, is that they contain a version of the following advice, which is, in my opinion totally incorrect: Build a following and market to that following.
Here’s what I have found to be better advice: Don’t build a following. Build a community instead!
FOLLOWERS are like the audience at a rock concert. They are set apart from the rock star on stage. They see the rock star as distant. They are part of the event, but a very small part. The rock star might get the crowd to sing the occasional verse, but we all know they are REALLY just broadcasting THEIR VOICE to the crowd! I really don’t see a lot of value in positioning yourself as a rock star, if you actually want to get involved with people. Ironically, the people I see using this approach all the time, are social media experts!
COMMUNITY members are like…
I wrote recently about copycat marketing. That’s where someone copies the marketing of someone else, hoping that it will work.
After writing that post, I received a lot of email and comments, from people who had personal experience of copycat marketing going wrong.
Here’s one email, which I would like to share with you and hear your thoughts on….
Have you noticed how some of the people who comment here, do so without using their name? The reason you are seeing this, is because they are trying to build links back to their websites or blogs, which contain anchor text, that will help their SEO.
From an SEO perspective, this can be effective, however, by commenting with a marketing phrase, which does not include their name at all, it makes the comments seem impersonal.
It’s hard for the readers or myself to build a dialogue or connect with someone in the comments, who calls himself “Cheap PC Spares!” Here’s an alternative approach…
Sales leads or enquiries, are an essential part of the marketing process. After all, a steady flow of good quality sales leads, when acted upon correctly, can lead to a regular stream of lucrative business and allow business owners to plan ahead with confidence.
SO, this post gives you TEN 10 popular and powerful lead generation ideas, to add to your marketing arsenal…
Endorsed Relationships, have been referred to by marketing experts, including Jay Abraham, as the most powerful form of marketing in the world. I totally agree. This brief post, will show you what endorsed relationships are and how you can use them to market your business.
What is an Endorsed Relationship?
An endorsed relationship, in marketing terms, is simply a relationship you form with another person / company / brand, where they endorse (or recommend) you and your services to their clients, customers and contacts. This can come via literally any form of marketing…
Joint Ventures, often known simply as JV’s, can be an extremely effective way to generate new business. This is probably why so many of you asked me for information on Joint Ventures, when I asked you for your marketing questions recently.
The following is a brief explanation of what JV’s are and how they work…
In order for me to make this blog as valuable as possible to you, I need to know which marketing challenges or problems are most important to you.
For example; lead generation, email marketing, social media marketing, mail shots (direct mail), networking, retail marketing, referrals, joint ventures, etc.
So, I would really appreciate it, if you would [...]
This quick marketing tip is all about how to improve your marketing results in the medium and long term. In fact, it will give you one of the marketing foundations behind the most successful businesses in the world.
Successful marketing is all about people.
It’s not about; brands, venues, websites, companies or social media tools – Marketing is all about people. You see, without people, none of those things matter.
I met with a friend of mine this morning, who owns a large and very successful nightclub. We had our meeting this time, in the nightclub itself, rather than his office, and the sensation was amazing. I have only previously been there, when it’s been packed with hundreds of people, having a great time and enjoying the music. This morning, you could have heard a pin drop, as we sat, drinking coffee and talking about his marketing.
You see, it’s not the building, fixtures or fittings that makes his nightclub a success; it’s the people who work there and party there. Without people, the place means nothing. The value is in the people…
As a marketing coach, I love working with people, who are passionate about their businesses.
Passion is infectious. Passion is inspiring and motivating. Passion is power. You see, no matter how great your plans are, without the passion to see them through, they will simply remain plans. How sad would that be? What a waste – To have the ideas and make the plans, but to lack the passion to see them plans come to life.
Here’s what my mentor, Jim Rohn, used to say;
“We each have a decision to make. We can either pay the price for discipline or the price for regret. Discipline weighs ounces, but regret weighs tons!”…
Following on from yesterdays marketing tip, a number of readers have asked me the same question:
“Why do so many people do the same type of marketing, if it doesn’t work?”
Here’s the answer. Amateur marketers will copy what they see others doing, wrongly assuming that it must be working. This then gets more and more people repeating the same ineffective marketing, which encourages even more people to do the same, etc. In other words, they copy what they see the crowd doing.
Here’s why this is a really bad idea for your business…
Is your marketing shouting at people?
If you go into Starbucks today and start shouting at the people around you, you will definitely grab their attention. However, it’s not the kind of attention you want to attract. Many small businesses use a very similar approach with their marketing. In an effort to capture attention, they act in a way that gets them noticed, but for all the wrong reasons.
They not only fail to generate new business; they can permanently damage the reputation of their business too.
Some examples of how companies shout at people with their sales and marketing:
* Adding people to their newsletter list, without permission. It’s spam.
* Spamming people on Twitter.
* Meeting people at networking events and using that transparent crap; “tell me about your business and how I can help you.” Wake up, it’s not 1985 any more!
* Asking people to join their Linkedin network, claiming they worked with them (when both parties know it’s a lie.)
* Unwanted telemarketing calls to people’s homes at 8pm. Just what you need when getting a young child to sleep or relaxing after a hard day….
Which are you better at: Marketing your services or servicing your market?
I have lost count of how many outstanding businesses I have seen go broke, simply because they failed to market their services correctly. They enjoy superb customer retention, because their services are so good that people just don’t want to leave.
However, because they win too few new customers, their revenues and profits stagnate and if they do lose a big account or have a large, unscheduled financial commitment pop up, they can suddenly be running at a loss. If that loss goes on too long, they are in deep trouble. If only they adopted better marketing, they could achieve great things…
If you run a business, you will already know how precious your time is. This is why it’s so important to ensure that you avoid time wasters, and that’s what this post is all about.
One of the biggest time sucks in business, are those seeking free advice from you, with no intention of repaying you in any way. Often, these time wasters will disguise themselves as prospective clients or customers, in an effort to get the benefit of as much free information from you as possible.
These are the time wasters I am going to focus on in this post…
