It seems that some things in business just never change. Like those people we affectionately call time wasters. I was prompted to write this, after being emailed today by a reader, who had wasted a lot of time dealing with a time waster. This guy claimed to be interested in using her ...
As you may know, I've been on holiday for the past 8 days. Because blogging is such a valuable part of my communications strategy, it was important for me to be able to maintain my blogging pattern, whilst I wasn't here. This post is all about how wordpress' scheduled posts feature allowed me ...
I live in a small village, in an area known for its natural beauty. We occasionally have people walk past our home, who are on their holidays. They see the open fields, the winding canal and the streams that snake their way through the village, and occasionally tell me; "You're very lucky to live in such ...
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…
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….
Many businesses seem to forget that people are people and numbers are numbers. As a result, they lose touch with the 'people' side of their business. Here's why this is a REALLY bad idea: It's People who work for us, buy from us, recommend us and help us - not ...
Here's a great way to make your business stand out from the crowd for all the right reasons! A common marketing problem Most businesses really struggle to develop something uniquely valuable about their services. That's why your local; accountants, designers, insurance companies and recruitment firms etc, seem so similar and find they have to sell their ...
Whilst it's relatively simple (if time consuming), to develop a large social network, many business owners tell me they find it difficult to successfully market their products or services via social networks. Here's why I believe this happens & how to fix it! People talk in terms of "increased brand awareness" and "being part of ...
Did you start using Twitter in order to waste a stack of time attracting "followers"- Or to generate more sales, leads and business connections? Did you invest in those expensive brochures in order to watch them slowly go out of date - Or to increase the effectiveness of your marketing? Did you ...
If you want to develop the effectiveness of your marketing and increase your sales, I have a piece of advice, which could help you massively improve your results. Stop pushing! If you are walking down the street and a stranger pushes you, they get your attention! Of course, the attention you are giving them is 100% negative, ...
Here's why so few people get the marketing results they want from social media tools like blogging, Twitter, FaceBook etc. If you wanted someone to make you a superbly crafted piece of handmade, wooden furniture, you would go to an experienced carpenter or cabinet maker. You know that it takes training and dedication in order to ...
Right now, no matter what kind of business you are in, one person or company is leading the way; locally, nationally or internationally. These elite providers get to work with the most commercially valuable clients and their name is usually on everyone's lips - but why? A great marketing question Most businesses spend their time focusing on ...
This post is all about how to increase your sales and profits, by matching your actions to your promises. Marketing & trust Trust plays a BIG part in sales and marketing. That's because we buy from people we trust. It's also why testimonials and referrals are such powerful marketing tools. They provide ...
Question: What happens whenever the economy gets tough? Answer: People become massively more value focused! Right now, there are businesses in the same industry, in the same town, selling to the same people; with very different results. Some will be struggling, whilst others will be seeing their market share increase - even in a recession. We know that ...
I received a very interesting email on Tuesday, which will be of interest to ANYONE who is using Twitter as a way to market their business, but not getting the kind of results they need. First off, for those of you who do not already know, I used to be the 3rd most followed person on ...
In case you were wondering how come I have not posted anything to the blog for the past couple of weeks, here's an update! Over the past eight weeks, I have been suffering with an increasingly painful trapped nerve at the top of my neck. The end result was that for the past two weeks, I ...
In this post, I am going to share one of the success factors behind; Seth Godin, Robert Scoble and Chris Brogan with you. It's all about one word; contribution. A few weeks ago, I had a problem with this blog. So, I got in touch with two experts, who I knew would be able to help; ...
One of my favourite sayings is; "start with the end in mind." In other words, make sure you know what your outcome is, before you decide to take action. I was thinking about this earlier, when I received an email from a reader, who had just realised that the time and money she ...
In this post, I am going to show you how to get massively better results from your advertising – starting right now! Making advertising work! If you tried advertising in the past and found that the only winner was the person who sold it to you, you’re not alone. Over the years, I have
Here's a quick marketing tip, which has helped thousands of people to massively improve their sales results. One of the most common marketing problems businesses have, is reaching the right people at the right time. You need to get YOUR message in front of people, at the exact point where they are extremely interested in buying ...
