One of my favourite analogies is that marketing is like filling a bathtub one drop at a time. The aim of marketing is to build trust, credibility and brand recognition – but those things don’t happen overnight. It’s a long-term process, in which you fill the marketing bathtub one drop at a time. Marketing shouldn’t be [...]
Studies show that people are more likely to remember humorous information than boring information. That's one reason why I advise small businesses to try to inject humour into their marketing. If your small business puts out boring marketing, it will quickly get forgotten. But if your small business can find a way of injecting some humour [...]
"The reason it seems like your customers only care about price is that you haven't given them a reason to care about anything else." Thanks, Seth Godin, for another piece of marketing gold. Good marketing shifts the attention from price to value. What should your small business talk about rather than price? Talk about the problems [...]
Here's a marketing idea that's cheap, old-fashioned – and surprisingly effective. Send handwritten thank-you cards to your clients. Imagine if you did business with a particular company, and then a few days later a handwritten thank-you card arrived in the mail. Wouldn’t that make you more likely to do business with them, and refer other people [...]
Every business should use humour in its marketing, as I explain in this episode of 3MinuteMarketing. Yes, really. The point of marketing is to stand out. Most marketing is stuffy and boring. So by using humour, you’re going to stand out from 95% of your rivals. Yes, really. By the way, your humour doesn’t have to be all [...]
What is the one thing your customers want most in the world? This is not a trick question. What is the one thing your customers want most in the world? Whatever it is – mention it in your marketing. Don’t make the mistake that a lot of small businesses do, and talk about yourself in your [...]
Most small businesses know that posting on social media is an important content marketing activity. But what some don't realise is that engagement is every bit as important as posting. That means liking other people's posts, commenting on their posts and replying to their comments on your posts. Why? Because engagement is a great way to [...]
"Nick! Help! We've run out of content marketing ideas! What should we talk about?" Don’t worry: you’re not alone. This is a common marketing problem faced by lots of small businesses. When people run out of ideas, I tell them to focus on answering whatever questions their customers are asking them. If you go to the [...]
A lot of small businesses want to know: what information should you include on your website? There are two non-negotiables – clearly explain what you do and prominently display your contact details. Added extras include testimonials, case studies, ebooks and blogs. You know how, before you make a purchase, you visit several websites as part of [...]
I want to tell you about a potentially devastating incident that occurred to a business owner friend of mine ... which actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. My friend's email account was hacked. The hackers sent a phishing email to the thousands of people in his database, including me. All of us then [...]
