As we enter the world of marketing in 2024, creating a positive experience for your audience remains at the top of the list. Navigating all the marketing trends can feel overwhelming. Which one will work for your business, especially if you have limited resources? Great question. I’m going to lay out the practical side of marketing – no fluff, just strategies that work for you, especially if you consider yourself a micro-business with less than $100 K in revenue (micro, but mighty, right?) As a micro business, your best option is to implement practical strategies and avoid less reliable strate ..read more

Relevant brand imagery plays a role in the effectiveness of your marketing in websites, social media and promotional items. As an entrepreneur, you’re always learning. As the lead marketing strategist at SmartCat Marketing, I help you with websites, emails and sales funnels. As a long-time sales professional I also help you get more client yesses. What does this have to do with a brand photo shoot or a professional brand video? Everything. Here’s what I’ve learned , as a marketer, when you’re with a client at a brand video and photo shoot. Let me first say I have seen the difference a business ..read more

StoryBrand is the key to being seen, heard and understood. People are bombarded with information every single day. And it’s happening to such a degree that many will tune out some of it to avoid overwhelm. For them, brand messages become nothing more than noise. Have I got your attention? Good. Because with so much information to sift through, most people will only listen to brands that communicate clearly and simply.  As a business owner with a brand, I can’t stress enough the importance of a clear message.  If your ideal audience is confused at any level about what you do, who you ..read more

Clearly communicating your brand story As business owners, it’s our job to figure out how to communicate our brand and story in a way that is heard and truly understood by our target audience. That’s how you know that your marketing message is working—it’s reaching the ears of the people you intended it to, and it’s resonating in a tangible way. As an example, for about 4 years of my business, the tagline of my website read: Be Found. Be Heard. Be the Solution. This was the message I wanted to reach my ideal clientele. Because these were the three things that described a client’s journey. Fi ..read more

The Perfect Brand Story – Your solution, in the eyes of your potential customer, should be super enticing, relatable and not a pitch.  I really wish I could obliterate this word from our vocabulary. To the true experts in sales, they know how to create a great pitch. And guess what? They are not pitching. I know…..confusing. Let me explain. For anyone outside of the sales and marketing industry we equate pitching to that over the top selling nonsense. If you are like me, you hate that sleazy sales tactic of manipulating one’s thoughts into believing you are oh-so amazing and can solve my ..read more

So, you’ve heard you need to sell using story. It sounds simple enough until it’s time to put pen to paper and you’re faced with that blank white space, waiting for your story to appear. Whether you’re new to using story to sell or have been doing it for years, everyone has writer’s block at some point. I have some key themes you can use to springboard story ideas from, but first, let’s step back a little bit. You need to understand why using story to sell is important, how to infuse it into your marketing, and what makes it effective (cause, news flash, not just any old story will do). Market ..read more

It kills me to see businesses with great potential flailing because no one seems to “get” what they’re doing. They may have a great product or service but their marketing is super vague or cryptic. Potential customers and clients who see it are puzzled about the offer and move on to the next option. If you want to succeed in business you need to not only GET CLEAR about who you are and what you offer, but you also need to BE CLEAR about that to the public. Do you think acting all mysterious will intrigue people enough to use their precious time to learn more? Well, I’m sorry, but I’m here to t ..read more

  If you’ve been reading up on your marketing you will have heard the term Grab Attention Through Story.  Some entrepreneurs have the ability to sell through storytelling – or “story selling.” It’s an effective strategy that is not used often enough, but, when it is used, many business owners make a critical error in their storytelling. I’ll let you in on a secret so you can avoid that same error though. The key to grabbing attention through story effectively is that even though you’re talking about yourself, the story is not about you. It’s really about your audience. Huh? I know th ..read more

When most people start a business, they also set business goals. After a period of time, it’s important to sit down and determine if you’re reaching those milestones to figure out if what you’re doing is working. So, what happens if that time comes and you discover you’re not hitting those milestones? This is where many of my conversations with these clients start and my first question is often: “Do you believe your focus is more on branding or marketing your business?” Then I ask: “What does your sales process look like?” Unless you are in the marketing trenches, don’t worry if this question ..read more

Ever leave a (virtual) meeting and wonder why you have the strangest feeling that the person you were talking with isn’t as excited as you?  They didn’t jump in to your offer right away because they needed to think about it? But they know, like and trust you. So what’s the problem? They had unanswered questions. Often times, the person(s) wasn’t quite clear on everything. This is the main reason why people don’t sign your contract right then and there.  They have questions that didn’t get answered and  concerns that weren’t addressed. Assumptions will stop your person’s process ..read more