It’s crucial you know exactly who needs your product or service. Mass marketing doesn’t work as well in today’s business-to-business environment. It forces you to water down your marketing message to please everyone, and it’s very expensive for the shoestring marketer. Your ideal customer: Values what you do Is profitable for you Refers you...
Are you past the point of keeping track of all your important meetings, dates, and events via a paper planner or calendar? Jump on the Google Calendar bandwagon! Google Calendar is a free web application that is, you guessed it, a calendar! It is Google’s version of a digital planner that gives you the...
Many companies have neglected their marketing machine for a long time. They’ve done minimal maintenance of their customer base. Cut all advertising which fueled growth in better times. Let their brand rust out. That’s understandable, after four years of a massive recession. Now, there are signs of recovery. How’s your situation? Are you prepared...
Has it really come to this? I was recently talking with a colleague who also owns a service-based business over lunch when he mentioned he’d realized that when he met with prospective clients to discuss how his service could benefit them, he’d started to consider what types of marketing budget items he was competing...
It’s human nature for most people not to try to stand out in a crowd, assert themselves, be the center of attention. Your mom probably said “Don’t be a show off. Don’t toot your own horn.” Often, by extension, they assign the same restrictions to their advertising and marketing. Here’s an example. I used...
…what does that say about the cobbler? My mother is full of idioms and good old country phrases (we call them Phyllisisms) and, upon hearing the difficulties I will describe forthwith, she immediately respond, “Of course, the cobbler’s children have no shoes.” (I was much happier with this comparison than that of the little...