Here’s some great marketing advice: treat social media like a party. When you’re at a party, you don’t bang on and on about your ‘game-changing life insurance’ or your ‘synergistic software solutions’. Because nobody wants to talk to that person. If someone asks what you do for a living, naturally you then talk about your life [...]
“Devonshire Tea – $7.50.” How’s that for a sign I recently saw outside a cafe? The cafe did two things right with its marketing and three things wrong with its marketing. Here are the two things the cafe did right: It alerted me to its existence – otherwise, I wouldn’t have noticed It planted the thought [...]
What happens when you treat your customers well? They become your advocates – in other words, your unpaid marketing representatives. The good news is, you don’t have to deliver six-star service to impress customers. People are impressed when simple things get done well and done repeatedly. That’s why looking after your customers isn’t only right from [...]
People rarely wake up and decide they have to buy a lawnmower right now or they can’t live another day without a particular pair of shoes. What usually happens is that they go on an emotional journey – which might take months or even years – before they make a purchase. Your small business needs to [...]
“How many blogs will it take before we get a return on investment?” This is a question I often get asked by potential clients. And I always give the same answer: “I’ve got no bloody idea.” It’s a bit like asking a personal trainer: “How many push-ups will I need to do before I get fit?” [...]
People buy the hole, not the drill, as I explain in this episode of 3MinuteMarketing. So when you’re doing marketing, you should focus not on the features of your product but about the benefits the customer will receive. The great thing about benefits-based marketing is that it forces you to put the spotlight on your customers. [...]
We always want to be front-of-mind with our customers, because if the time comes when they need the sort of product that we sell, and they’re thinking of us, we’ll be the one they choose. That’s why I was impressed when a friend told me about a simple marketing hack he uses when he’s on LinkedIn. [...]
Ever heard of the ‘pub intro’? This was a really important lesson I learned in my first journalism job, because it significantly improved the quality of my writing and communications. Sometimes, when we write a blog, an email or some other form of marketing communications, we may be unsure what information to put in the opening [...]
There are two main reasons why small businesses do marketing. The first is brand recognition. If customers don’t know you exist, you won’t make any sales, even if you have the best products in the world. The second is credibility. Even if customers do know you exist, they won’t buy from you if they don’t think [...]
The way you communicate with your customers is a form of marketing. Good communications is good marketing. Bad communications is bad marketing. I was reminded of this lesson when I called my bank to announce that I would be refinancing to a rival lender and received an appalling piece of customer communications in reply. Words matter, [...]
