Customer emails with vague questions aren’t annoying. They are an overlooked content marketing opportunity. Resist the temptation to send a quick reply, or to copy and paste your answer. Instead, take the time to craft a long, detailed, personalised response. Why? The person who’s looking at it is your target market. You know they’re going to [...]
Do you want to know a common marketing mistake that drives me absolutely crazy? It's when small businesses have typos and grammatical errors in their marketing copy. This ‘small’ mistake is actually a big mistake that will end up costing you sales. Marketing is about building trust and credibility with your audience. Spelling mistakes and grammatical [...]
Change is uncomfortable. Whether that’s changing your marketing or changing your business strategy. It’s easy to get comfortable and set in your ways. But the problem is, things never stay the same. What worked for you yesterday, won’t work for you tomorrow. That's why you've always got to be open to new marketing messages, channels and [...]
People do business with small businesses they trust. If your small business can win the trust of customers, that will translate into sales. Trust equals sales. But trust isn’t established overnight. It takes time to build. So how do you win their trust? That's where marketing comes in. Provide your customers with helpful, interesting and relevant [...]
Good marketing includes a good call-to-action. But what's a good call-to-action? To create a good call-to-action, you need to follow these three rules: Make it easy to find. If your customers can’t find instructions for what to do next, how will they do it? Make it easy to understand. Write in clear, precise English. Make it [...]
Do you think marketing and politics mix? In general, most small businesses should steer clear of offering political opinions. The only exceptions to that rule are if your business is based around an ideology, or its identity is tied to a particular set of values. Then feel free to inject these politics into your marketing. But [...]
There are two types of marketing you can do – sporadic marketing and good marketing. Sporadic marketing doesn't work. It’s like wanting to lose weight and get fit, but only going to the gym once a month. If you want your marketing to succeed, you need to be in front of your target market every day. [...]
Unsure what to talk about in your content marketing? Here are five ideas: Offer advice Share news Provide analysis Answer questions Bust myths What do they all have in common? You’re not talking about yourself or your small business. Instead, you’re focused on providing your customer with valuable, helpful and relevant information. Always look to add [...]
Here’s an interesting psychology tip for small businesses. If you want people to think you're an expert - then start acting like one. Perception is reality. Some small businesses are great at what they do, but are shy and never talk about it. Other businesses may be less talented but are great at self-promotion. They publish [...]
Here's a sneaky little trick that restaurants do with their marketing. You've probably seen how menus sometimes highlight certain dishes, in large text or special breakout boxes. So those must be the best or most popular dishes, right? No, those are the dishes with the highest profit margins. The lesson here for small businesses is that [...]
