The fastest way to build trust with potential customers is face-to-face, as I explain in this episode of 3MinuteMarketing. The obvious way to do that is to actually meet, because there’s something powerful about shaking someone’s hand, looking them in the eye and getting to know them as a person. But there’s another way – publishing [...]
Take a look at your print and digital marketing and ask yourself this question: "Would I do business with my company if I was a customer and I saw this marketing?" If the answer is 'no', there are five reasons why your marketing might not be hitting the spot. It doesn’t stand out from your rivals’ [...]
I’m a big believer that every small business should look for valid pretexts to market to their customers. Why? Because the more times you can get in front of your customers, and deliver them helpful, engaging, relevant marketing, the more sales you're going to make. What is a pretext? It could be anything from Christmas, Easter, [...]
Sending gifts to your clients is not only considerate, it can also be a clever marketing tactic. That said, there are good gifts and there are bad gifts. What are bad gifts? Bad gifts are generic items like chocolates or flowers that will get discarded fairly quickly. Good gifts are things that are personalised and that [...]
Are you planning to save money next quarter by cutting back on your marketing? Your rivals will be delighted to hear that, because on any given day, at least one of them will be marketing directly to your customers. Marketing is all about building trust, credibility and brand recognition with your customers. It takes time – [...]
Print marketing is dead, right? It no longer works, right? So why do supermarkets keep leaving catalogues in your letterbox? Because those catalogues make sales. Why do real estate agents keep leaving flyers in your letterbox? Because those flyers generate sales. Why do restaurants keep leaving menus in your letterbox? Because those menus generate sales. Print [...]
How do you build a brand on social media? Here are some tips: Post regularly Use consistent messaging Provide helpful, relevant and interesting content Give, don’t take Inject humour into your posts Show some personality If these tips sound familiar, that’s because they should be. While social media might be relatively new, timeless marketing principles never [...]
Facts tell, stories sell, as I explain in this episode of 3MinuteMarketing. So look for ways to inject stories into your marketing. Good stories go straight to the heart – which is perfect, because although we like to think of ourselves as rational creatures, humans are emotional creatures. That’s why story-based marketing works better than marketing [...]
I've got some marketing advice that might sound a little strange. Don't market your products. Instead, market the product behind your products. What on earth am I talking about? Let me give you some examples. Say you sell barbecues. Rather than marketing your barbecues, talk about the quality family time people can spend around one of [...]
What is the most important activity of any small business? The answer is sales. If a small business is able to make sales but is terrible at everything else - it has some chance of survival. But if a small business is brilliant at everything but making sales it will fail. So what drives sales? The [...]
