Photographs you generate can be more engaging on your website. And it may be easier than you think. Stock photography has now been a go-to option for marketing for decades. It is easy, there is a ton of it on scores of sites, and you can move on to the next item on your checklist faster, right? Well, hold on. Stock photography, however, is not seen as authentic by many in your audience. For that reason, it can’t make a very good connection with visitors, prospects, buyers, clients or customers. Does putting something fake in front of your audience create the kind of relationship you intend to ..read more

You are on a cruise, admiring the crisp dry air and the beautiful water. Sitting in a nicely padded deck chair, you have just opened a book to read when you hear an announcement over the ship’s public address system to head for the lifeboats - the ship has hit an iceberg and is sinking. The good news is, when you boarded the ship a week ago, there was a nice ship’s steward who explained to your group all the emergency procedures if you wanted to survive such a calamity. The bad news is, at the moment, you can’t remember a word of that presentation. Suddenly, you notice your ankles are wet. 75 ..read more

It is so easy to get wrapped up in promoting our small businesses that our efforts can begin to sound like too many other small businesses. And often, that can be a little on the bragging side. In marketing, it is known as “puffery.” You are familiar with the types of promotion this includes, although you may not be consciously aware of how it turns you, and others, “off.” Library of Congress. “The best source in the region for supplies, equipment, consultation, refinishing and more.” “With customer relationships second to none …” “For all your business needs.” “The leader of the industry ..read more

Graphic tools can make complex ideas into buyer education. Customers have problems. If you think of them as pain points, your job as a business is to provide solutions that act like ibuprofen on the pain. Not all purchases are made to stop “pains,” but a high number are. You go to grab something from your nightstand and four items fall off and you have to turn on the light to find what you needed. Well, that is a pain. The ibuprofen you might offer is a valet which keeps things in the same spots and from falling off the table - without turning on the light. A business uses university students ..read more

You go to take a new medication and stop before picking up the pill. You type in to your search bar, “What are the interactions between [my drug] and [my other drug]?” You want to take guests on the tram in the morning after eating breakfast at Bobo’s Restaurant. To decide when to leave, you type into your smartphone, “What time does Sabino Canyon open?” You notice the succulent you planted last week is turning yellow. You sit down at a Chromebook and type, “What company near me can tell me about succulents?” Steam Pump Ranch tour, Oro Valley, AZ. The fact that people ask their computers, sm ..read more

86% of U.S. consumers today expect companies to have social or environmental responsibilities. That developed out of the last two decades of changes in perception of companies and what their place is within communities. The majority of potential buyers today want to work with companies whose values align with their own. There is a common thread in these beliefs that companies should be responsible not only for operating safely and in the public interest, but have a duty to use their unique powers wisely to be of social benefit. There is a more recent subset of this shift where businesses have ..read more

You wake up late for class. Today you have to debate in front of 27 of your peers and a professor who can be demanding. You took this lightly, assuming your general knowledge of the topic, which is considerable, would get you by. On the way to class you get a text from the roommate of the person you will debate. She lets you know that person spent parts of the last 79 days looking up information on the internet on this topic. Do you still feel as confident? Raring to go? Fortunately, it is just a dream. You’re not in school anymore. Or are you? Research by GE Capital found that 81% of buyers r ..read more

Long before writing or cave drawings, there was fire. People would gather around a fire at the end of the day to eat, kibbutz, plan and - most important - to tell stories. Stories of the hunt. Stories of new discoveries. Stories of the children. Stories of threats. Fire destroys, but also renews, plant life on Table and Bighorn Mountains in the Pusch Ridge. Our ancestors had oral traditions and storytelling as a way of sewing communities together long before recorded language could save them for future generations. We are a species uniquely rooted in storytelling as a method of explaining con ..read more

People do not believe what your company says about itself. That is why testimonials and reviews are more important than ten years ago. If your communications focus on what you have to sell, rather than who you are, you could be missing an opportunity to build trust and mutual respect. Training helps put you and your customer on the same side of the table. Rather than talking about yourself - the industry leader, your one-stop resource, our people are the best - you can demonstrate who you are through taking an educational approach. Explaining how things work through educational communications ..read more

Think back to a time you were working toward dating someone who caught your interest. Or were being approached. Was communication important? Of course, the most minor detail probably became significant. How about frequency? If you were on the phone or texting, what did you or the other person think about long pauses between communications? What if you, or they, called too often or made you feel as if they were stalking you in several places, like going to a coffee shop you frequent. Did that build rapport or mistrust? What was the affect of talking about yourself too much or even bragging? Cu ..read more