Tag: communicating with clients

Brexit –Mistaken Marketing?

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brexit

UK Votes to leave the EU.

You’d have to be living in a cave to not know this news!

Now, the purpose of this article is not to argue the merits on either side of the debate. It is not only not my place to discuss what citizens of  another country should do, but the decision has been rendered, making any argument moot in any event.

Rather, I wanted to make the point about the importance of marketing your product appropriately.

When most people think of marketing, they envision advertising. As I have repeatedly commented, the true essence of marketing is the development of a strategic approach to entice a specific, targeted audience to “purchase” what you have to sell. Advertising is merely one method undertaken to get this strategy in front of your audience.

And when I talk about what you have to sell, I don’t limit it to a product or a service. As you might know, I spent some time in federal politics several years ago. During this time, I acted as campaign manager for a period of about 18 months, leading into a federal election. I approached this role as I do any marketing campaign; in this case, my “product” was the candidate. As I said to her, we needed to approach our target audience (the constituents) and demonstrate to them why they should “purchase” her politics, rather than the politics of her opponents.

Brexit is no different.

Most pundits observing the lead-up to the referendum agree that both sides ran campaigns based on negativity. The Stay side argued that to leave the Union would result in extreme financial hardship, perhaps even a deep recession. Those in the Leave camp argued that to stay in the Union would continue to erode their wealth and their culture.

The politics of fear, in my view, created the outcome that they received; a close vote, with 52% opting to leave the Union. And now of course, there are many exclamations of regret. But democracy is what it is.  And, without any prior determination of what would constitute a win, anything more than 50% rules the day.

So let’s bring this back to the role marketing.

Perhaps both sides of this referendum misread the public. What if, instead of resorting to the politics of fear and hoping to frighten people into voting their way, the argument focused on positives.

What if those who argued to Stay spoke of the benefits of staying in the Union, rather than the doom and gloom that they predicted would happen if they left. What if they spoke of the benefits of free and open travel throughout the European Union, and the benefits of mobility rather than the negative position of financial ruin.

What if those who argued to Leave spoke to the ability to act more independently and negotiate their own trade deals, rather than focusing on the perils of open borders.

We all know that when it comes to making a decision, people like to do business with people who they like, know and trust. We also know that people make decisions primarily based on emotions. It is unfortunate that those people who are in positions of power – those we should be able to trust – have benefited over the past several years from creating a culture of fear, and have controlled decisions through what I call “the Chicken Little approach”.

Current global affairs, whether we agree with the various positions are not, are demonstrating that the pendulum is swinging the other way, and that people are fed up with the way things have been done over the past several decades. They are looking for change.  And savvy marketers would be wise to heed this call and understand the importance of reading your target audience and responding with strategies that make sense to them.

Until next time…

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, contact us today.

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Find Your Niche And Stick To It!

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niche

I had a few different topics I was considering for my post today, but then a conversation with a colleague clarified my decision.

Everybody talks about the importance of finding your niche. But often, this is simply a phrase that is thought of in generalities rather than specifics.

Many people consider that finding their niche translates to deciding what area of business to work in. And yes, this is the definition of a niche.

But how you work with your niche goes much deeper than the basic definition.

To get to my point, let’s take a brief look back.

As many of you know, I have been working in the marketing field for over 30 years. And a lot has happened over these 30 years. When I started marketing, there was no internet or online marketing. Then, in the early 90s, the internet became accessible to most people, and by the mid-90s folks were starting to recognize the untapped potential of utilizing this technology to help market their products and services to an audience that was very difficult, if not impossible, to reach in the past.

As we all know, the era of internet marketing was upon us and opportunities exploded. Then, in the 2000s, social entered the scene. Suddenly there were even more ways to interact with prospects and clients, often in real time.

But successful marketing doesn’t lie in any one delivery mechanism. Sorry, but there is no magic bullet.

So let’s get back to the present and the topic at hand – finding your niche.

In the 80s and 90s, as things were evolving, there was a strong demand for people to become generalists. Due to the fact that internet marketing was a new, untapped, and unknown resource, people had to educate themselves about this new technology. As a result, marketers became resources who knew a little bit about a lot within the emerging and transitioning workspace.

To some degree, this persisted into the early 2000’s, as social platforms evolved and became opportunities for brands to interact with their clients and prospects.

But now it would appear that the pendulum has swung back. The era of the generalists seems to have passed, and now more than ever, it is important to identify and stick to your area of expertise.

The internet and new technology have created the opportunity for the global marketplace to be right outside your door. We have access to information that has been unparalleled in its growth and its reach. As I often say, we now live in a world where answers exist at the click of a mouse.

Therefore, in a sense, we have all become generalists. We can research everything from how to build a lamp to medical sites to help identify health issues.

So now, any of us can learn how to do nearly anything. But just because we read it on the internet does not make us an expert in that area.

Medical sites are great for researching and finding answers to questions you may have about your health, but to self-diagnose can be harmful to your health. It’s still important that you see the expert – a medical professional – to accurately diagnose and treat any symptoms you may have. And the same is true of every other market.

So find your niche. Stick to what you know; stick to your area of expertise, and create trusted alliances with those who support your niche. Stay true to your path and you won’t lose your way.

Until next time…

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, contact us today.

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Don’t Make These 3 Errors With Video

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video marketing

The key to successful marketing lies in it’s creativity.   But let’s be frank – most marketing falls far short of this.

But now, thanks to video, the face of marketing is changing. In fact, in many ways it has become reinvigorated.

It’s unfortunate then, that many marketers who have been innovative enough to venture into the opportunities that video presents have remained stuck in their old habits. They failed to stretch their storylines, utilize calls to action, under user overuse graphics, and maybe even using inappropriate humor.

So let’s explore the three errors that most marketers are making with video and look at some ideas about how to avoid them.

1. The videos are too “salesy”

People are becoming smarter and smarter. They are becoming more marketing savvy and are more likely to see through marketing schemes. Therefore when you are using video marketing, find the most appropriate way to get your point across while still keeping it relatable for your audience. Ensure that the delivery is done in a way that is entertaining, yet relevant to the pitch. Otherwise, you risk losing the purpose behind the video.

2. The title is wrong

I’ve written many articles about content, and we all know that content is king. But you need to get people involved in your content, and that’s where titles come in. Titles are what attracts your viewers to your video, so you want to make sure that you use a title that captivates and draws prospects in. Remember, however, that it is the first impression, so must be concise and applicable, well capturing attention.

3. The video is too long

Pay attention to the length of your videos. Thanks to technology, our attention spans are much shorter these days. But video seems to captivate audiences, making it a great tool for marketing. People love the visual, and like to be entertained, but be careful not to overestimate how long they will stay engaged with your content. What is the right length for a video? That’s hard to say, and depends on the audience, the product, and the intent. If it is a product or service explainer video, logic dictates that it might be fairly lengthy. But if it is to promote a service or product, the general rule of thumb is to keep it short. Check your analytics and see how much of your videos are actually watched. I bet you’ll be surprised. Most people start to fall away after about 30 seconds, depending of course on the type of video. Based on the statistics, you can decide where and how to place your call to action. Test your call to action and make adjustments when and if necessary. Also, remember that many social media platforms are now offering to present video live, allowing you to share directly with those people in your social network. While there are definite advantages to this, again, be cognizant of the length of your video; attention spans seem to be even shorter on social platforms.

Get the tools you’ll need.

Although the fundamentals of marketing have never changed, the delivery methods continue to evolve thanks to many newer and easier to use technologies, such as video marketing. It does not have to be difficult to implement video marketing into your business, but you will need some tools to help you harness the power of video. A Webcam, a green screen, proper lighting, and some basic editing software can help you get started with video creation and marketing.

Until next time…

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, contact us today.

If you like the information you are receiving, please consider forwarding this post.

Content Marketing Made Easy

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Content marketing

Providing informative, useful content should be the driving force of your marketing.

We all know that the face of marketing has changed significantly over the past several years. Sure, at its core the fundamentals and the principles of marketing remain the same. But how clients and prospects engage has shifted, thanks to the advancement of technology, and content marketing is the best way to reach them online.

Clients and prospects now, more than ever, have control over what they see. TV remotes and DVR’s have allowed us to skip advertisements and channel surf to find those shows that we find most engaging. Traditional cable is also suffering, as more and more people see the advantage of streaming the shows and content that they want to see, without being locked into packages and programming that is dictated to them by the cable companies.

Savvy marketers who have kept up with the times understand that they need to adapt to this ever-changing landscape to keep their clients relevant within their niches. And one of the best ways to do this is with content marketing.

Simply defined, content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.  The purpose of content marketing is to attract and retain customers through the consistent creation of relevant and valuable content intended to sway or enhance prospects behavior towards your business.

Content marketing is not something that you do once and walk away. Just like the more traditional forms of advertising, repetition is important. By providing consistent, interesting and valuable information to your clients and prospects, you develop an engaged audience that learns to trust your authority.

But remember, content marketing is not about selling; it is the art of communicating with your clients and prospects. Rather than pitching your products or services, the focus is on providing information that helps make your prospective client more intelligent. This strategy is based on the belief that through the delivery of consistent, ongoing content that provides value to your prospect, you will be rewarded with their business and loyalty.

repeat-customer-marketing

And history has shown that this strategy works! Content marketing is being used successfully by some of the largest global organizations. But the beauty of content marketing is that you don’t have to be a big player to implement this strategy successfully. Properly developed and executed by small businesses, content marketing has proven itself to work over and over again.

Content marketing represents the current and the future state of marketing.

Remember our earlier definition of content marketing?

The key difference between content marketing and other types of marketing is that content marketing is not focused on selling your “stuff”.

Keep in mind that companies are sending us information all the time. But is it relevant? Most of the time it’s not, so clients and prospects become conditioned to delete so much of this. What makes content marketing so in trading in today’s marketing space is that one key point of differentiation – relevancy. Good content marketing engages the audience, changing the way they think and behave in reaction to the materials they are being sent.

You just can’t market without great content.

I’m sure you are using many different types of marketing tactics. But regardless of what you are doing, be sure that content marketing is a part of these processes not something distinct and separate.

Indeed, quality content is a part of all types of marketing. Consider the following:

• Social media marketing: integrate content marketing into the posts on your social media profiles
• SEO: Search engines love businesses that publish quality, consistent content.
• PR: Successful PR strategies address issues that people care about. PR is not about selling.
• PPC: PPC is an expensive experiment that is unlikely to give you a proper ROI without great content behind it.
• Inbound marketing: to drive inbound traffic and leads, you need good content.

To be effective at content marketing, it is essential to develop, create and follow a documented content marketing strategy. We can help you with the development of this strategy.

Until next time…

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, contact us today.

If you like the information you are receiving, please consider forwarding this post.

Give ‘Em What They Deserve!

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client experience

How do you take care of your clients and prospects?

There are many facets of running your own business that can be challenging. But one of the most important aspects is to ensure that you are giving a great client experience. After all, without customers you have no business.

You spend lots of time hiring the appropriate support staff, creating the perfect products and services for your ideal customers, developing and promoting your brand, etc.

However, the preparation is simply the prelude to the success of your business. Once you have laid the foundation, it is essential to capture and retain your market share in order to run a profitable business-and to stay in business!

Now, I do not believe in that old adage “the client is always right”. While the vast majority of your customers have reasonable expectations, you will always find the rarity who either believes they deserve special treatment, or will never be satisfied with what you provide no matter how hard you try. So don’t focus your time and energy on these few bad apples; instead focus on providing the best experience to the majority of your clients and you will have success.

There are three key ingredients that will help you define and deliver quality service to your clients, ensuring loyalty. Let’s break them out.

1. Provide good quality to your clients and prospects.

Okay, that’s easy to say, but what is good quality? The key factor here is for you to define what good quality means to you. How do you want your product or service to look and feel? What guarantees or warranties do you provide for your product or service? Do your employees represent you and your brand in a way that is consistent and matches your values? Do you have proper policies and procedures that are easy to understand and easy to follow?

2. Evaluate your products or services regularly.

The secret here is to continually monitor your product or service to ensure that you are delivering something of value to your clients. Consider sending an email survey to your clients on occasion, asking for feedback. Invite them to express comments or concerns they may have during delivery of your product or service. If you’re working on a project that has deliverables over time, evaluate each step of the process. Take the time to follow up personally with clients on a random basis. Make sure that you address any issues that are brought to your attention immediately. This doesn’t mean that you have to change your product or service, but ensure that the client feels that they have been heard and understands why things are done the way that they are.

3. Never underestimate the value of a testimonial or review.

Remember to ask your clients to share their experiences with your company. Nothing is as effective as a positive review or positive feedback on the experience you have provided to a client. Expressing why they prefer to do business with you, instead of one of your competitors, can be one of the most compelling reasons for new prospects to choose your business in the future. These reviews and testimonials can be provided by the written word, an audio file, or video testimonial. Think about making it a policy to send a follow-up email or make a follow-up phone call with each and every client, asking them about their experience with your business, and then asking for the testimonial. Be sure to get permission to share this information, and post it on your website, social media profiles, and any other appropriate place.

It truly doesn’t take that much effort to ensure that you are providing a quality experience for your clients. Following these three simple steps will help provide the foundation to build a client user experience policy that will give your customers that loving feeling and help you grow a successful business.

Until next time…

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, contact us today.

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Keep Your Channel Fresh!

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YouTube

Those of you who have been following my articles and posts are very well aware of my comments about utilizing video to help market your business.

It’s true that a picture says 1000 words, and video has eclipsed many other forms of communication as the preferred option. And although there are various options for streaming your video, YouTube remains the overall champion.

We all know that YouTube is owned by Google. And we also all know that Google is the number one search engine. YouTube, as an extension of Google, enhances your search results even more.

But, beyond the SEO advantages, YouTube has been around long enough that it is the most popular choice.

Who among us hasn’t Googled YouTube to discover various “how to” videos? I nearly threw out a couple of lamps because the switches weren’t working; a quick search and a three minute video solved that issue. I quickly learned how to replace the switch in the lamps, and now the lamps are working just like new.

So, despite the fact that I had to get used to being in front of a camera and get over my reluctance to be on video, I embraced the concept of producing videos to provide marketing strategies and tips, albeit in an abbreviated version, to all of you.

Therefore, it is no surprise that I nearly had a heart attack little over a month ago when I visited my YouTube channel only to read the dreaded words “channel has no content”!

After regaining my breath, I contacted my techie guy who went into the back end of my channel. He discovered that YouTube had done some updates and had created a new way for channels to display their content. He helped me to restructure the design and layout of the channel, and everything was quickly back to “business as usual”.

The new design features offered by YouTube, in my opinion, are brilliant. You can now structure the video navigation to make it easier for your visitors, and it can be set up so your most recent video shows in the current window. It also allows a special feature for new visitors to the channel, allowing for an introductory or a welcome video.

And that is what I have provided for today’s post: a new video welcoming new visitors to my channel. If you have been on the channel in the past, please check it out anyway, as I explain a little bit about why it is that we are doing these videos and what you can expect to get from. And, if you haven’t already subscribed to our channel, please do so to ensure that you don’t miss any of our new videos.

Watch our video here or on YouTube.

Until next time…

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, contact us today.

If you like the information you are receiving, please consider forwarding this post.

Doing It Write

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writing

Communication is at the core of everything we do in life.

And writing is at the heart of all communication.

From very early times, humans have striven to tell stories in a way that is preserved for future generations. From cavemen drawing images on walls, to hieroglyphics and the Rosetta Stone, to manuscripts and books, and now to abbreviated conversations through the technology of texts, we have told our stories.

Now, I’ll admit that I’m a bit old-school. I’m a bit of a stickler for spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I prefer telephone conversations rather than text messages, especially for any conversations of length. And, if I’m looking to memorialize something, I am more likely to rely on email than on a text message.

But I also am a realist.

I recognize that technology has changed the substance of communication, if not the inherent value of it. Probably half of our current population has grown up in a world that doesn’t know what it was like before the age of computers. Although most of the younger generation can type faster than I can, none of them grew up with the experience of learning the keyboard on a manual typewriter.  These are the folks who can text nearly as fast as they speak.  Which is probably why I still prefer telephone conversation.

Typos and Auto Correct are the bane of my existence!damn you autocorrect

In so many ways, technology has improved our ability not only to communicate, but to communicate with people at great distances from us. And this communication happens in an instant.

So, how are you communicating with prospects and clients?

The art of writing is not lost. If you are not already providing a newsletter – or at least regular email updates – to your clients and prospects, I urge you to consider starting this immediately. Yes, in a world of messages of 140 characters or less, people still like to engage at a deeper level.

Don’t stop doing your short posts on social media, and don’t stop making and uploading videos and podcasts. But don’t forget the art of writing. There is something permanent about the written word; something that strikes to the core of all of us.

And although I admitted being a stickler for proper spelling, etc., language continues to evolve. Many words that were abbreviated for the purposes of text messaging have now become normal in many areas of our language. Who hasn’t included “LOL” in something that they have written?

So my final thoughts for this article are to encourage you to keep writing, in whatever form makes you comfortable. Just keep doing it!  And  100 years from now, people will have an indication of how we communicated, just as we look back in history at others.

Until next time…

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, contact us today.

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Are You Content With Your Content?

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content is king

The English language is a funny thing, isn’t it?

Many words, depending on their pronunciation, have different meanings. The word “content” in the title of today’s article is a great example of this.

To be content is to be satisfied, or happy with the current state of things. And content is also the substance of something, such as a book, website, etc.

So, back to my question: are you content with your content?

We all know that to attract prospects and clients, we have to engage them. One of the best ways to engage them is through content. But not just any content. You have to provide something of value to them, something that stirs emotion and reaction and stimulates their desire to know more.

Many business owners, although great at delivering their product or service, don’t really understand the value of providing good content on a consistent basis. Keeping your clients and prospects interested is the key to keeping them engaged.

Now, I understand that as a small business owner you may not see the correlation between the service or product that you sell and simply writing about it on your website or blog. But just think about this for a minute; if you can provide insights and help educate your client or prospect, what would you expect the result to be?

Consider your own behavior as well. If you are researching something online, do you simply find a provider and run out and purchase from them, or you check out a few different sites and interact more with those sites that are providing a more personalized experience?

We all like to do business with people we like, know, and trust. In our current world of electronic communication, it can be difficult to establish and build that relationship. Therefore, it helps your prospects and your clients understand and trust you and your business by learning about you through your content.

There are many ways that you can provide content as well. Consider sending an online newsletter to folks who subscribe to it on your website. Think about writing articles about topics that are pertinent to your business and posting them on a regular and consistent basis to your website. Determine which social media platforms your clients and prospects use, and post updates and interact with them regularly there. If you are camera shy, get over it and make a few short “how-to” videos, explaining certain processes on a YouTube channel that you set up and link to your website.

These are just a few examples of simple ways to interact and build trust with your clients and prospects. If this is an area that you aren’t comfortable with, consider outsourcing this service. You will find that you will gain a huge advantage from that small investment.

Until next time…

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, contact us today.

If you like the information you are receiving, please consider forwarding this post.

2nd Key to Successful Social Media Marketing

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focus

Get ready – today we talk about the second critical element – that of focus.

Is your social media focused? Do you know who you are trying to reach, or what your message is that you want to deliver?  Join us today and learn how mastering this second key will help you on the road to social media marketing success.

Did you watch the previous video unveiling the first of the 10 key components of a successful social media marketing strategy?


Watch our video here, or watch on YouTube.

Until next time…

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, contact us today.

If you like the information you are receiving, please consider forwarding this post.

10 Key Elements to Successful Social Media Marketing – Intro

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social media success

Learn to achieve success with your social media marketing.

We’ve been planning a new video series to share with you regarding social media marketing for some time now, and the day has finally arrived!

We thought it would be beneficial to you to create a series that provides some insight to 10 of the most critical elements to elevate your social media marketing.  Every business should be using at least one social media marketing channel to assist with awareness of their brand, but it is important that you choose the right channels and strategies in order to have success with them.

Join us today as we introduce our series and tell you a bit about what you can expect in the coming days.

Watch our video here, or watch on YouTube.

Until next time…

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, contact us today.

If you like the information you are receiving, please consider forwarding this post.

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