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 [...]
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 [...]
Some small businesses swear by the rule that they should ‘always be closing’. However, a more effective business rule is ‘always be marketing’. If you want to make sales, then you need to build trust, credibility and brand recognition with your customers. That takes time. But the more marketing you do, the more trust, credibility and [...]
“Make the customer the hero of your story.” That quote from Ann Handley gets to the heart of what separates good marketing from the bad. A lot of small business understand the importance of telling stories in their marketing. But then they often fall into the trap of positioning their business, product or service as the [...]
Here's a controversial thought – most customers are less concerned about price than small business owners. "But don't customers always ask for discounts?" Small business owners obsess about price, with the result that they plant the thought in customer’s minds by constantly talking about it. What customers really care about is value. They are willing to [...]
People don't buy the drill – they buy the hole. In other words, when customers come into your small business they’re not looking for the products or services you provide. Rather they want the solutions those products or services deliver. That’s what’s valuable. Marketing works better when there's less talk about drill specs and more talk [...]
Repetition is one of the keys to succeeding in marketing. Let me say that again: repetition is one of the keys to succeeding in marketing. In my experience, I’ve found that repetition is one of the keys to succeeding in marketing. Got that? Repetition is one of the keys to succeeding in marketing. In conclusion: repetition [...]
Psychology is full of interesting and useful facts. Here’s one: Humans are more likely to take action to avoid pain than they are to pursue pleasure. So if you want your marketing to be more effective, then you need to explain how your small business can help customers avoid something bad rather than achieve something good. [...]
Henry Ford, one of the greatest business people of all time, has a great quote. "Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time." He knew what he was talking about. If you’re a business and you’ve got the world’s greatest products or services but no one knows about them, you’re not [...]
