Karen's Marketing Tips

Attend Live Events

Webinars are an excellent means of learning new things.  Articles and blog posts share information incredibly quickly.  Meeting online via Skype can get a great deal accomplished.

But there’s nothing like the power of attending an event live and in person. 

You’re more participative.  You’re taking notes, sharing ideas, listening to others’ thoughts.  And if you have questions, they can be answered right away by the presenter. 

You’re more attentive.  Instead of having thirty different distractions, your whole mind and attention is focused on the topic at hand.  (And if you’re sending emails and text messages, it’s pretty obvious to the rest of the group.)

You get more out of it.  Because of the live connection, the participation and the attention, it’s more likely that you retain what you learn and put it into practice.  Of course, it’s tempting to feel that you don’t achieve as much as you could, but you might be surprised how much of your current success is achieved as a result of past live events.

You meet other business owners like yourself.  Whatever event you’re attending, the others who show up will have needs and interests like your own – so it’s an immediate connection.  Some of those connections you’ll keep for the rest of your life. 

You get a new perspective.  Even just getting out of the office can help you think differently, see differently, and look around with new eyes.  That always helps for coming up with great new ideas for your business!

You’re encouraged to run a live event yourself.  When you have a good experience at an event, you consider whether running one for your own clients and prospects would be beneficial. 

Live events are falling a bit out of favour these days.  It seems everyone is too busy rushing around to stop and sit down for a full day (or even a half day) live and in person.  But when it comes to making real changes in your business, don’t miss out.

I’m helping deliver our “Sell Without Selling” workshop in London today.  If you’re in the area, look us up!  We’d love to see you, live and in person!

Cheers,

Karen

Don’t forget the fail-proof tip for marketing:  Follow up, and do it forever.

Want to re-read them, or pass them on?  Previous weeks’ tips are now online!  Visit Karen’s Marketing Tips Blog at  http://ranone.typepad.com/marketingtips/

Comfort Food

Bangers and mash.  Steak pie.  Beef lasagne.  Fish and chips. 

On a cold winter’s evening, or after a long hard day, there’s nothing like good old comfort food to give you a sense of well being and – well, comfort!  I was enjoying a plate of bangers and mash myself the other night, and naturally my thoughts turned to marketing.

What’s your comfort food?

Not the pub food you’re going to go out and get tonight after having read this email – but what’s your company’s comfort food? 

Every company has an entire menu of products and services.  Some starters, some main dishes, a few desserts, coffee and tea, maybe even some cocktails.  But everyone has something that just makes most of your clients feel good, and they come back time and time again for the same thing.

Some examples of comfort food are:

-          Your preferred laptop.  There are more versions out there than any of us can imagine, but once you get comfortable with a particular brand, you tend to stick with it.  I’m slowly becoming an Apple user, and fully intend to purchase the new Macbook Air notebook.  I have a feeling I’ll probably stick with the Macbook family for many years to come.

-          Business coaching.  Perhaps your advisor or mentor offers a whole variety of advisory or consulting – ranging from a HR review to personality profiling to a full strategic planning session.  But getting monthly accountability and seeing your various ‘to-do’ items ticked off one by one feels good, so you keep on with that purchase.

-          Press releases.  A PR company again offers a whole range of services, but time and time again companies need a simple press release for a new product, new team member, or new office space. 

-          Newsletters.  RAN ONE offers almost a hundred different resources for accountants and advisors, but by far one of our most popular – and most requested – are the ‘Grow Your Business’ newsletters that we produce in Word, PDF, and HTML formats.  They’re easy to use and our members’ clients love them.  Comfort.

Do you even know what your comfort food is?  Don’t make the mistake of presuming that your most popular product is comfort food.  Just because people have to get their accounts done doesn’t mean that the production of their financials is their comfort food.  Maybe it’s payroll, or VAT returns, or the creation of a budget. 

Here are some ways to know what YOUR comfort food is: 

-          What do your clients come back time and time again for?

-          What do you do that inspires people to thank you?

-          What do you deliver that would cause a huge hue and cry if it was removed?

-          What product or service do you provide that is the simplest to purchase or use?

-          What do you do for people that makes them happy?

-          What ideas or services do your clients most often share with others?

-          What product or service is so systemised that you don’t have to expend a great deal of effort in order to deliver it?

If the product or service you’re thinking of applies to at least three or four of these categories, it’s very likely in the comfort food category.  (If you’re not sure, try the classic marketing technique:  ask! )

Once you know what your comfort food is, make sure that it’s prominent, featured, easy to purchase.  To select from our examples above, the laptop should be described in detail with photos and available for purchase online.  The business coaching system should be clearly defined with a simple registration form.  The press release can be requested via an online form on your website, where they fill in the basic details.  The newsletters can be downloaded in a short period of time and are always in the same place.

Make sure that if people want comfort, they can get it when they want it.  It’s great if the local pub decides to start serving Thai Green Chicken Curry or Vietnamese Pho Soup or Belgian waffles.  But if that pub also has the best steak pie around, it should be in large letters – with a photo – on every menu they have. 

May you bear tidings of comfort and joy!

Cheers,

Karen

Video Testimonials

A few weeks ago one of my clients saw an event we’re running and dropped me an email just to say how much she appreciated it last time she attended, and she was sorry she couldn’t come.  She offered to give us a testimonial if that would help.

I thanked her, and added almost as a postscript that a video testimonial would be even better, if she felt like going to those lengths!

The next day she emailed me a Youtube video just under 2 minutes in length, that she had created herself, and we posted it on our events page and embedded it in an email we sent out.  The power of that one video is huge.  Reading a line that says, “I really enjoyed this event and got a good bit out of it” is standard.  Seeing a real person with their own Youtube account speaking naturally and honestly about how an event entirely changed her business eight years ago, and still impacts her today, is better.

Here are my suggestions for video testimonials:

-          Ask for them.  Make it the standard type of testimonial you ask for. 

-          Be ready at all times.  I have an iphone 4 and it is absolutely ideal for the purpose.  It’s always with me, and when I go to visit a client I can just whip it out and have a one minute video recorded with no effort, no setup, and no stress for my client.

-          Don’t stress the perfection levels.  Having professional, high quality videos is great; but remember that reality is important too.  Some of your videos can be put together in minutes and have a greater impact than the ones you spend hundreds (or thousands) on. 

-          Post them everywhere.  It’s so easy to upload and share videos these days.  Most smartphones will upload it directly to Youtube, or you can use Vimeo or some other sharing site.  Put them on your website, in emails, on blog posts; share them using social media; email links to people.

-          Capture the moment while it’s happening.  If you’ve just delivered a particular product or service and the client is absolutely thrilled, get the testimonial then and there, while they’re excited and happy.  It will come across in a genuine manner and have more of an impact.

-          Have a script.  In case your client is willing to record a video (either on their own, or with you), but doesn’t know where to start, have a few questions prepared that you can ask.  Things like:

o   “What do you like best about working with us?”

o   “What kind of results did you get from....?”  (event/product/service/etc)

o   “Why did you want to record this testimonial?” 

o   “What’s your favourite...?” (product/service/etc)

o   Or get creative!

-          Keep it short.  People are used to fast and flashy tv adverts, less than 10 minute videos on Youtube, and sound bites.  Video testimonials don’t need to be longer than a minute or two – and even thirty seconds can have a great impact.

-          Encourage specifics.  “This is a great company” doesn’t have quite the same ring as, “After working with Karen, we doubled our turnover within three years and increased our profits by £70,000.”  Or “I attended this event six months ago and since then have closed twice as many sales meetings as I used to do.”

Incidentally, here is Patricia’s video testimonial for you to enjoy!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEIAFWHXT-Y

Cheers,

Karen

Don’t forget the fail-proof tip for marketing:  Follow up, and do it forever.

Want to re-read them, or pass them on?  Previous weeks’ tips are now online!  Visit Karen’s Marketing Tips Blog at  http://ranone.typepad.com/marketingtips/

 

The Lurkers

Last week we ran a webinar on social media.  Our guest speaker, Adam Harris, mentioned that due to the advent of social media many people are classified what is described as ‘lurkers’.  This means that they watch what you’re doing and saying, read your blogs, watch your videos, review your comments, and scroll through your photos without ever making a comment or indicating that they know you exist.

I don’t think this is a new thing.  Social media may make it a lot easier, but even as a veteran Facebook user I find that this trend is increasing.  Back in the day I would post a photo album and would have 60-80 comments within a day or so.  Now, I’ll probably get 10 or 12 at the most, and some people just choose the easy option of clicking the ‘Like’ button instead of actually saying anything.  But what surprises me is that there are more people who know what I’m up to than ever before.  My sister is here visiting, and everywhere we go I try to introduce her only to have people say “Oh yeah I saw she was visiting” and they skip out the intro completely because they feel like they already know her.  The thing is, Pin doesn’t know them – and sometimes, neither do I!

This isn’t a bad thing, actually.  Hopefully you’re not reading this and panicking, thinking that the whole world knows what you’re up to and you have to stop immediately.  But it does mean that there is a whole new philosophy for social media – and for marketing in general.  You have to presume that people are reading, thinking, commenting, discussing, introducing you to others – they just may never tell you about it.  I get that all the time with these marketing tips.  Some Fridays I think nobody ever bothers to read them and I wonder if I should continue.  And then out of the blue someone will mention (in connection with something else) that they love my marketing tips and are greatly helped by them! 

So, here are some tips for you in relation to The Lurkers:

-          Be a blogger.  People will read it, and it will get your website higher in the search engines.  Whether they comment or not isn’t the primary thing.  If you don’t want to do the writing yourself, you don’t have to.  Talk to me about getting your blog written for you. 

-          Be consistent.  If you’re connected to people via social media (and if you’re not, I can only presume you’re doing business in an alternate universe), keep it up.  Make comments.  Read what they post.  Be visible.  Don’t give up after a few months – or a few days.  If you start a blog or a Facebook page, keep going.  Lack of response does not mean lack of interest.

-          Be interesting.  It’s a conversation, not a sales pitch.  Find articles that grab your attention, and they’ll probably do the same for your readers and connections.  If you hear of a grant that certain businesses can apply for, let them know.  Or a free offer, a discount, anything that might strike their interest. 

-          Be up to something.  Sometimes people don’t like social media because they don’t have anything to say.  They aren’t running events or reading new books or issuing new products and services.  If that’s you, change something.  As our guest speaker put it during our webinar, “Social media won’t help you if your product sucks.” 

-          Be a responder.  Even if nobody else seems to be doing it, don’t be afraid of making a comment when you’re the only one, or thanking someone for following you.  I would encourage you, though, not to over-post; there are some Twitterers who seem to be posting something every four seconds (or more often), and it can be overload or stream-of-consciousness, neither of which are ideal for business.  Huge opportunity for regret there.

-          Be real.  I don’t know how often I’ve mentioned this, but it’s a fact that social media has changed expectations about how businesses interact.  If someone makes a negative comment, own up to it or address it as best you can.  If you make a mistake, admit it.  I wouldn’t go overboard here (nobody really cares whether you are walking your dog or making a second cup of tea or refuelling the car), but be a real person.

-          Be positive.  People who are constantly complaining about their home, dog, partner, job, car, or any other aspect of their life are just asking to be deleted/unfollowed/removed.  If you’re having a particularly bad day, make a joke out of it, or run a poll about what everyone else with bad days is doing to make them better.  Or (imagine this) just say nothing.  Even a cartoon character can tell you that “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all”.  (Apparently this is now known as the Thumperian Principle.  People will academise anything these days!)

Thanks for lurking around this week’s marketing tip!

Cheers,

Karen

 

Sell Without Selling

The more I talk to people about how they feel selling their own services, the more I find the following responses:

-          Once I get in front of the prospect I do pretty well, but I don’t like to push.  I like to let them take their time deciding.

-          The economy is so difficult right now, people just aren’t buying as much as they used to.

-          Salespeople are born, not made.  I’m not a good salesperson naturally.

-          I hate sales.

-          Most of my sales come from referrals, so I don’t have to make much of an effort.

-          The “hard sell” is aggressive, impersonal, and ignores the real needs of the potential client.

-          My services should be good enough that I don’t have to sell – they should sell themselves.

There are many more, but the overriding response has to do with a disinclination for ‘sales’ and ‘selling’, and a heartfelt wish that our products and services would just get out there and sell themselves with no effort from us at all.

Nice dream.

The fact is, many of us have excellent products and services.  We’re good at what we do, and deep down we know it.  Our past (and present) clients are a witness to this fact, and they often tell others about us.  We get enquiries often enough.  So what’s missing that we still avoid or get weary of the selling process?

The main reason is that we really don’t know enough about it.  We’ve tried it a few times – maybe cold calling, or sending out emails for a few months, or even exploring the world of social media.  When someone decides to go ahead with our services, we breathe a sigh of relief and don’t explore the reasons too deeply.  Those who never phone us back or give any response, we presume they were never very interested and we move on.  But as for really sitting down and going into the detail of our own, personal selling process – well, we’re just too busy.

The fact is, we avoid selling (or understanding our own selling) because there is a great deal of fear and of the unknown about it.  We’re afraid that if we really look into it, we’ll find out that we are actually quite rubbish at selling, and perhaps our services aren’t as good as we thought, and then we’ll feel miserable and make less sales.  So we carry on with what we’re doing and get a measure of success, and wonder why others around us are doing so much better than we are. 

I’d like to introduce the amazing concept that you can actually really love selling.  You can look forward to it, be excited by it.  You can enjoy the meeting, and your prospects can too.  And you can close more sales than ever before, amazing yourself with the growth in your business.   How is that possible?

There are some excellent principles on the concept of “Sell Without Selling”.  We’re running an entire day’s workshop in London on this concept, but here are a few of the basics:

-          Preparing what you are going to say actually makes the selling process go better.  It doesn’t make it stiff and rehearsed – it causes you to get more sales.

-          Trying to impress people with our skills and experience is the wrong place from which to start.

-          Most of the obstacles we face in selling are from our own creation – NOT from the prospective client.

-          We need to let go of the desire to ‘win the client’ at the end of the sales meeting.

-          You don’t have to convince anyone of anything.  Following the right process means that the prospect naturally chooses to work with you, with no pressure at all.

Now isn’t that a relief?  Imagine – going into a sales meeting with no expectations at all, just being open to a whole world of possibilities, and coming out of more of those meetings with even more sales.

If this is the kind of approach you wish you could have, you’re welcome to join us in a free webinar covering these principles and more – it runs next Thursday and you can register here:  http://global.ranone.com/BookingRetrieve.aspx?ID=107276. 

Either way, I wish you the best with your upcoming sales meetings!  May you look to help others see change in their business and in their lives, and be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Cheers,

Karen

Automatic Replies

One of the worst marketing crimes these days is automatic replies.  Not just email – it’s just as bad in social media.  This is the kind of thing I’m talking about:

-          You ring up a company and it is answered quickly and efficiently by an unkind robot who doesn’t know what you want and insists on having you repeat it not only to the robotic voice but also to several other robotic (or real) voices.  By the time you get to a real person, you want to put THEM on hold.  Forever. 

-          You contact a company by email and you get an immediate reply that says, essentially, “Thank you for your email.  Do not under any circumstances contact us again in the way that you just did.  But we really appreciate hearing from you and we have seven thousand other ways that you can contact us.  Just not this one.” 

-          You follow someone on Twitter and you get an immediate DM (direct message) that says you are a wonderful person and they love you and can’t wait to do business with you and could you buy something? 

o   Note:  I confess to having done the automatic-DM to Twitter followers in the past but I am repenting of it now, and if I send any DM’s to new followers, they will be real ones.

-          You have an excellent conversation with someone from a company that you’re interested in doing business with, and a week later you get a very generic email thanking you for your interest and asking whether you would like to do business with them.  Two weeks later you get the “Two Week Email” and a month later you get the “One Month Email” and then you never hear from them again.  That’s just bad business, and it does not bear any resemblance to the follow-up process that I recommend every week to you. 

These principles do not apply to sending out mass emails, or even certain times when an automatic reply is good.  Examples of these are when you complete a questionnaire online and the report is emailed directly to you.  Or you request a webinar recording and an automatic reply ensures that it comes right away.  My point is, make it easy for people to do business with you.  Don’t frustrate them by pretending to care but identifying them as just a number. 

Relating to Facebook and Twitter faux paus, I found this excellent article that I couldn’t have written better myself.  If you use either of these, please follow all these rules. 

http://shankman.com/top-ten-things-that-will-make-me-unfriendunfollow-you/

And have a great Friday!

 

Important, But Not Urgent

One of the greatest thefts of our marketing time is the ‘important but not urgent’ (INU) tasks.  They swoop in, thieves and robbers, creeping carefully into our inboxes and onto our daily schedules, giving the appearance of a critical task and then unmasking later with a flourish saying, “Ta da! I’ve wasted your time!”  And we bury our heads in shame and carry on with other, unimportant tasks.  After a while we become immune to the process and begin shaking hands with the INU task.  We welcome it in, offer tea and coffee, and generally act as though everything is going according to plan –wondering why others seem to get so much accomplished while we are still swamped and exhausted.

I’ve done this myself. One of my examples is to get all caught up responding to an email from one of our team members who is located in Bali, and suddenly I realised I’ve spent a half hour (at 10 in the morning) working on something that this person will not see for another twelve hours or so.  It’s important, but I could leave it there until the end of the day and nobody would lose out. 

Here are some signs of the INU task, so you can catch it before it tricks you into time wastage:

-          It IS important.  This is not a useless, unimportant, or silly task.  It should not be deleted, and does need to be dealt with.  Likely it needs to be dealt with today.  The question is, must it be answered or dealt with right this second?  Very often – probably ninety percent of the time – the answer is no.  Decide whether you need to wait an hour, or three hours, or even until tomorrow, and stick with it.

-          It comes from someone who is important.  Another reason we leap to a task that is not urgent is because it comes from someone who is in authority over us, or is a client who pays us a great deal of money, or even just someone we like and want to please.  I am not proposing that you begin ignoring these important people: but consider whether that is the primary reason you are leaping to this task which has just appeared, over the one you were previously engaged in.

-          It is more interesting than what we’re currently working on.  This is the most deadly of traits.  The email that pops up while we’re slogging through a task we’ve been putting off for months will be like a glad reprieve.  “Freedom!” we cry, and click on it.  William Wallace would not be impressed. 

How do we beat this cycle?  I suggest the principles from Mark Forster’s book “Do It Tomorrow”.  It’s an excellent concept, and involves identifying the critically important tasks that must be done today, and anything else that is not identified as an emergency (a category you clearly defined before it happens, so as not to become confused) is set aside to be done tomorrow.  Then, tomorrow, you work through your critically important tasks as identified the day before, and so on.  It is remarkably effective and I couldn’t recommend it more highly, especially for those in professional services whose emergencies are much fewer than we like to think.

Now that you’ve read this email, you’re wondering, was it an INU in disguise?  Perhaps.  But if it causes you to clear out your desk and inbox and stop listening to the evil, thieving tasks that would have taken your Friday away, then it has done its work well. 

Don't Use Gimmicks

People respond to sincerity and truth in marketing.  If your goal is to get lots of money, people will notice that. 

One area in which we are beginning to see this is in the realm of social media.  So many people ask me, “How do you get business from it?  Does it work?”  These are entirely the wrong questions.  Yes, businesses all over the world are using social media because, in a sense, “it works”.  They get more clients, more customers, people find out about them.  But there’s an attitude that works and an attitude that does not work, and your prospects are pretty savvy people.  They can tell the difference. 

Another example is stock photography.  Stock photos are starting to be a bit passé - and companies are beginning to use real employees or real customers in their photos and marketing.  I recently saw a video that an accountancy firm made,  and it was entirely filled with their own team members singing along to “I’ve Got A Feeling”.   It was fun, relaxed, and most of all filmed with real people.  They know as well as I do that if you watch that video and then come into the office, you expect to see those same people walking past you.   It makes a difference. I can spot a “stock businessperson” a mile off.  A real person has those crinkle lines of laughter and maybe their shirt doesn’t exactly match their tie. 

As mentioned before, your marketing has to match YOU.  Don’t put together a video exactly like this one because you think it will get you more business.  If your team members don’t want to be part of a company video, you could cause more problems than you create solutions.  But do what fits you – and make it real.  If your office is really into recycling, make sure you highlight that.  Don’t use corporate-speak if you’re a small business with four team members, three of whom are your family members who work part time. 

There has been a fundamental shift in the way the potential customer looks at a business.  No longer do you have to pretend to be bigger than you are: they’d rather you be genuine.  Be willing to Skype with clients from home.  To send a text message to a prospect.  To be friends on Facebook with a supplier.  It’s up to you – there’s no law that says you have to do these things – but what the prospective customer expects is reality.  Much of this is due to the social media revolution:  if a big company puts great testimonials on its website, but all the online reviews are rubbish, people start to pick up on that.  And if you’re small, but everyone loves your product, that will become evident very quickly as well.

So, here are my tips for “keeping it real”:

-          Use language that is simple and easy to understand.  The less of it, the better.  It’s a visual generation.

-          Use real images, as much as possible.  A good photographer can really capture people’s personalities (not just their head and shoulders on a white background).

-          Record video.  People want to see who you are, listen to you, decide if they trust you before they’ve even met you.  If several of your competitors have a compelling video that is interesting to watch, and you have some stiff wording that sounds like everyone else’s website, you could lose points.

-          Get your team members involved in some way.  People like to know who they’re doing business with.

-          Share real information about yourself.  Even if you aren’t sure others will find it as fascinating as you do.  Saying you play golf, when really you’ve only played a few games and your passionate interest is actually reading about ancient Roman ruins, isn’t going to win you any favours when a real golf enthusiast comes in.

-          Take breaks.  One company took the decision recently to give its employees an early weekend every week, and the office closes at 2pm on Fridays now.  They don’t apologise for it.  They give you email addresses and mobile numbers if you need to contact them, but that’s just the way they do business.

-          Find out what your clients like, or are interested in.  CRM systems these days can track anything.  You can jot down a note when you come across a  client who loves sailing, or hates chocolate, or wants to go to the opera this year.  When it’s their birthday, send them a birthday card with a sailboat on it.  Don’t buy them chocolate, get them a gift certificate to Ticketmaster.  Make it personal.   ( “It’s not personal, it’s business” is no truth, and no excuse.  There is nothing so personal as your business.)

-          Live a little.  If you feel like you never do anything fun and you’re always working, that’s probably because you don’t, and you are.  So take a day off and do something you really enjoy.  It WILL make your business life better.

Have a great weekend!  I’m off to the Lake District to celebrate my birthday.

Cheers,

Karen

 

Don’t forget the fail-proof tip for marketing:  Follow up, and do it forever.

Don't Delay

One of the reasons we miss out on so many marketing opportunities is because we limit ourselves.

“I’ll update social media on Monday mornings”, we say.  Or, “I need to start looking at PR for my business, but I’ve got clients in today.”

Marketing opportunities are available all the time.  But, these days especially, it’s very much a case of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it. 

I get several emails from organisations that supply PR opportunities.  They send out a list of requests, and if one of them applies to you, you can respond.  If the requestor wants more information, or to interview you, or include you in their article, they’ll get in touch.  I get three or four emails a day, and each email has 50 or 60 requests.  They range all over the place from “How Not To Take Life For Granted” to “Need An Expert On Mayan Astrology”.  But every once in a while there’s a request for something like “Seeking Accountants To Interview” or “Marketing Expert On Small Business”, and I drop them a note for myself or on behalf of one of my clients.  Also, if I see something that applies to a friend or colleague or business partner, I send it on.  I want them to get the benefit, too.

My point is, I can’t just scroll through these emails when it suits me.  Most of them are on a deadline, and sometimes the deadline is today.  Once I emailed someone four or five days later, and I got an automatic reply saying the deadline was gone, sorry.  It would have been a great story, too! 

It’s not just PR opportunities – everything has a deadline.  And these days, the world expects speed.  Email is becoming a thing of the past.  I have clients who text me, Skype me, send me a message via Linked In, or talk to me using our online chat facility.  Prospects read about our company on Twitter, calculate their own Professional Wellbeing score on our website, and watch videos on Vimeo.  And if they’re looking for a response, same-day is good, but same-hour is even better. 

You don’t have to be everywhere at once, though.  If you’re a one-man band, well, I guess you do.  But even the person working on their own can come up with ways and means to stay in touch 24-7.  Here are some ways you can do this:

-          Find an organisation that will answer the phone for you 24-7.  Make sure to screen them carefully, so that they represent a good image for your company.  It’s better that the phone not be answered at all, than if it is answered poorly, or gives a bad impression.

-          Get blog posts written for you.  Again, choose wisely.  It’s very important to have blog posts going up regularly, but you want it to sound like you, not like a generic business page that means nothing to nobody.

-          Get help to ensure that your social media posts are going out regularly.  Similarly to the blog posting, you don’t want it to be ghost written so that you sound like everybody else; but you can give them a lot of great material and then do the time intensive work of putting it online for you.

-          Consider an online chat facility, if service is important.  I cannot stress enough how little desire people have for speaking to someone these days.  They would rather book online, register online, purchase online, get help online.  It’s faster, and it means they can multi-task.  Of course there’s no substitute for the in person meeting or phone call, but give them the option. 

-          Get help from friends or family.  If you have a small business, ask someone you trust to man the phones on the weekend or in the evenings.  Or the other way around, if you want to be on call weekends and evenings, but not during the day.  Make sure to explain what is needed, what they need to know, and what they should say.  Run a few testers to make sure all is working as you want it to.

-          Organise your inbox.  Everyone talks about how many emails they get, but down deep most of us feel really important when we come in from the weekend and have 400 emails to deal with.  Stop fooling yourself and get organised.  I suggest Mark Forster’s book, Do It Tomorrow. 

And have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Karen

 

Don’t forget the fail-proof tip for marketing:  Follow up, and do it forever.

It's Not What You Do

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”  -Simon Sinek

Watch this video and in your marketing, do what this man says.  He’s absolutely right.

“The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have; the goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.”

Cheers,

Karen