If your marketing is not attracting enough paying clients or customers, I have an idea to share with you. It’s based on a strategy I use with my clients and the results are amazing. It starts with a foundational truth of marketing. You can make a fortune if you market to the right kind of people. However, you will waste time and money, if you market to the wrong kind of people. So, who should you be marketing to? And why? Allow me to explain. Ignore the uninterested No matter how great your service is, people who are delighted with their current provider are highly unlikely to switch to you ..read more

There’s a powerful marketing lesson I’d like to share with you, from my own personal experience. I visited a store yesterday morning. In the space of just a few minutes, they damaged their reputation and lost at least 2 customers instantly. They will almost certainly have already lost more by the time you read this, as the story has now surfaced on a local Facebook group. Here’s what happened. I was standing in line waiting to buy a new razor, at a local, independent store. A customer in front of me was trying to exchange a faulty hair dryer she’d bought from them. The hair dryer was, appar ..read more

There’s an old saying that tells us, let your past make you better, not bitter. Business owners should use a revised version of that saying, let your competitors make you better, not bitter. I’ve worked with thousands of business owners over the years and noticed a strong tendency, for them to drastically underestimate their competitors. This then creates bitterness, especially toward the most successful of their competitors. It seems totally unfair. I get to see both sides. And there’s always a reason why one business is ahead of the pack. They market their services extremely effectively. T ..read more

Back in the 1800’s, Edgar Degas said: Art is not what you see, but what you make others see. The same is true of great marketing Successful marketing paints a compelling picture in the mind of a prospective client. It doesn’t list a series of facts or features. Instead, it talks directly to the needs and wants of your clients. It paints a picture of how you can help them. It illustrates how you’re passionate about helping them. Everything is rooted in what’s best for them. Everything. Ineffective marketing paints a picture of the provider. It’s all about their business and the products or ser ..read more

Today, I’m going to give you an unfair advantage over your competitors. I was just 29 years old when I started my first, and current business. So I made darn sure to seek out as much advice and as many tips as possible, from those with lots more experience. That’s when I discovered what I’m about to share with you. It’s so effective, I’ve used it with great success ever since! It came from my first accountant, back in the 1990’s. He suggested I work 1-hour a day longer, than the average for my profession. This is what he himself did, and it gave him what he called “an unfair advantage” over h ..read more

Someone recently asked me why her business needed a story. She thought it was, “a load of trendy nonsense”. When I answered her question, she emailed me back to say it had changed her perception completely. She said it would improve her approach to marketing forever. So today, I decided to share my answer with you. I hope you find it just as useful. Why your brand needs a story My answer begins with a quote from advertising legend, David Ogilvy. Ogilvy was the inspiration behind the hit TV show, Mad Men. Here’s what he had to say. “There isn’t any significant difference ..read more

Marketing tactics and strategies seldom fail overnight. Instead, they become a little less effective over time. The decrease in effectiveness is usually so gradual that for weeks, often longer, you hardly even notice it. Then you look at your sales leads, your upcoming sales meetings and your sales figures and the reality of the situation kicks in. Your marketing is no longer effective and you’re about to feel some real pain, unless you resolve things. One guy went 5 months without a sales lead, before he contacted me. He said, and I believe him, that he hoped it was just a long blip, and t ..read more

One of the best things about owning a business or directing the path of a company, is that you have the freedom to adapt and improve as things change. With this in mind, I’d like to share an idea, more of an opportunity really, with you. Something you may not have considered before. It’s all about which segment of the market you should serve and how to get your prices or fees right. High priced, medium priced or low priced? Long before the current economic turmoil. Before the pandemic. In fact, for decades now, here’s what we have seen. High priced, quality brands are doing really well. Low p ..read more

You’ve connected with a prospective client or customer. You’ve taken time to fully understand their needs. You are now absolutely certain that your service or product is exactly what they require. Experience of your industry assures you that they won’t find a better match than you, anywhere. You now have a professional obligation to the prospect. Your obligation is to make sure they don’t make the mistake of hiring or buying from another provider. Your professional obligation The reason you have an obligation, is that as a professional, you always act in the interests of the market you serve ..read more

Unsure why you’re attracting too few sales or too few clients? It could be down to false assumptions. Allow me to explain. I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying, ‘if the words don’t add up, it’s usually because truth wasn’t part of the equation’. Here’s my marketing equivalent, ‘if the numbers don’t add up, it’s usually because truth wasn’t part of the equation’. In other words, when your sales numbers don’t add up the way you expect, it’s usually because false information entered the equation. False information, rooted in a false assumption, to be precise. Here’s a very common example of what ..read more