“People aren’t impressed by the answers you give. People are impressed by the questions you ask.” Thanks for the words of wisdom, JT Foxx. If you want to ask your customers the right questions, you need to focus your attention on them, rather than you and your business – which, of course, is the key to [...]
Looking for a way to stand out in pitches? One smart way is to do marketing before you show up on the day to pitch, as I explain in this episode of 3MinuteMarketing. How? By sending a pre-meeting pack a few days before the pitch. The pack should include not only the key facts about your [...]
Don’t make the mistake of thinking your marketing will be more effective if you just insert more adjectives and just give more examples. Studies show that the longer it takes to deliver a message, the less effective and persuasive the message becomes. Focus on delivering a punchy message with a clear point. Some small businesses find [...]
Pushing the boundaries can be an effective marketing tactic, but there are four boundaries you should never cross. The first three, hopefully, are obvious – don’t produce marketing that is racist, sexist or homophobic. The fourth boundary may not be obvious – don’t talk about your rivals in your marketing. This is a bad idea for [...]
Want to know the number one rule of communication? It’s this: what matters is not what you say, but what they hear. We’ve all experienced that maddening situation where we say one thing and the other person hears something completely different. When that happens, it’s easy to blame the other person; but it’s more useful to [...]
What is a nightclub? Just a space with music and alcohol and dancing. Simple. Yet there’s a wide variety of nightclubs. Some are cheap – they’re free to enter and the alcohol is affordable. Others are exclusive – you have to pay a steep cover charge and the drinks are exorbitant. So why the difference in [...]
Humans are tribal creatures, for better or worse. Throughout human history, we’ve congregated with members of our own tribe and distanced ourselves from members of other tribes. That mindset doesn’t just apply to race and religion; it also applies to ‘tribes’ that develop around different sporting teams or different products. So when you do marketing, you [...]
Ebooks are a great marketing opportunity that too many small businesses overlook. Here are some things you can do with ebooks: Put educational ebooks on your website – customers can download them in exchange for contact details Compile an ebook full of testimonials – attach it whenever you respond to customer enquiries Compile an ebook full [...]
There are no quick wins in marketing, as I explain in this episode of 3MinuteMarketing. Just as you can’t do one gym session and expect to become fit and toned, you can’t do one burst of marketing and expect customers to suddenly know and care about your business. Instead, you need to do content marketing every [...]
I’ve got two words for you: DONALD and TRUMP. I’m not going to talk about his policies or personality – that’s for you to judge. Instead, I’m going to talk about his approach to marketing and communications. Here’s my view: Trump is a genius at marketing and communications. There are two things Trump does brilliantly. First, [...]
