If you want to read a book that will not only improve your business skills but also make you a better person, try How to Win Friends & Influence People. Dale Carnegie’s international bestseller, which was published in 1937, provides timeless advice on human behaviour. Carnegie’s insights will help you better understand your clients, suppliers, colleagues, [...]
The research is in: people who speak plain English are considered smarter than those who use corporate BS. In a nice coincidence, I discovered this research soon after reading a stupendously awful strategy statement from a company called CarrierBank*. “‘One CarrierBank’ is an integrated, customer-centric business model that enables customers to choose any of the Group’s [...]
Before the internet, you’d get home and your letterbox would be full of letters, catalogues and flyers. These days - not so much. Most of those printed communications have gone digital in the form of emails, banner ads and SMS blasts. Print, apparently, is dead, which is why so many people believe that printed marketing no [...]
Want to grow your small business? Then you need to dump your clients. That’s the message from Michael Port’s wonderful small business book, Book Yourself Solid. To clarify, Port isn’t advising you to dump all your clients – just your bad ones. The idea is that once your small business culls its soul-sucking clients, it will [...]
Picture this. You walk into a bar. You spot a good-looking man or woman across the room. So you walk up to them and ask them to marry you. Sound like something you’d do? Probably not. Yet small businesses do this all the time with their customers. You meet a new prospect. You do a quick [...]
Repetition is one of the keys to succeeding in marketing. Let me say that again: repetition is one of the keys to succeeding in marketing. In my experience, I’ve found that repetition is one of the keys to succeeding in marketing. Got that? Repetition is one of the keys to succeeding in marketing. In conclusion: repetition [...]
Your company needs a new chief executive so it decides to hire a hairy-chested alpha male. Big mistake. That’s one of the key lessons from the business classic Good to Great. The book’s researchers found that the best companies aren’t led by superhero chief executives who crave the spotlight. Instead, they’re led by quiet, humble people. [...]
As of today, you no longer run a real estate agency or a dental practice or [insert your business]. You run a media company. Once you make that mental shift, you’ll suddenly realise how to improve your marketing and make more sales. Think about the most successful businesses in your field. There’s a good chance they’re [...]
Here’s a provocative marketing idea: ignore what your competitors are doing. Or, better yet, pay close attention – and then do the opposite. The number one rule of marketing is to stand out. So if you want to succeed at marketing, you need to constantly establish points of difference for your small business. If you don’t [...]
Digital marketing guru John Rampton has a simple formula for how small businesses can turn online activity into offline sales. The key, he told Big Questions with Cal Fussman, is to "give away the farm" in your blogs and social media posts – to reveal all your intellectual property to existing and potential customers. Rampton says [...]
