Perpetuate Your Brand Through Content

One of the easiest and cost-effective ways to market your business online is through the publication and distribution of content. We’re talking blog posts, articles, reports, email content…and even audio recordings and video. Help people solve their problems, entertain them and you can win a loyal audience. Couple that with strong calls to action in your content and you can quickly grow your website visitors, subscriber list and sales. Thousands of businesses use content marketing every single day…but most attempt to do so using so-so, generic content that does little to build true relationships and perpetuate their brand.

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Perpetuate Your Brand Through Content

How To Police Your Brand!

Your brand is probably your company’s most valuable asset. It is what provides you the opportunity to make money based on strong relationships. Your brand makes advocates out of customers which means that they in effect become salespeople for you. Being an advocate for a brand, makes it a pleasure to recommend that company to your network of contacts. Paying close attention to the environment in which your brand exists will reward you at times when you find your brand in a bad place or subject to sloppy practices

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How To Police Your Brand!

The Problem With Advertising: Lesson 2

This one will be short and sweet… Most of my clients know that I’m not a big ‘fan’ of advertising – NOT because it doesn’t work – but because of the fact that I feel there are far BETTER ways to invest your marketing dollars. And here’s a quick piece of advice – for EVERY dollar you spend, please please please have a way to track your ROI (return on investment). If you spend $5000 on a magazine ad….how much business did it bring you? If you’re a small business owner, and you can’t answer this question, you’re wasting your money. Here’s an example from one of my clients… A fitness club was spending $1000/month on newspaper advertising. When I asked about the ROI on these ads, they had no idea. So I asked them to let me spend the following month’s $1000 budget on something different. The Result? $14,000 in new membership sales. (When was the last time you invested $1000 and got $14,000 in return, within 30 days?) Want to know what I did? Contact me!! : )

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The Problem With Advertising: Lesson 2

Heard It Through The Grapevine

Okay…this isn’t really a marketing lesson. More of an observation about human behaviour that has fascinated me over the years. Each day, people spread buzz about the latest trends. We talk about things that interest us, things that are newsworthy, things we’ve ‘heard’. That’s my favourite….when people say “I heard…”. Let me give you an example. A few co-workers, hanging around the water cooler, start talking about a movie that’s coming out…when one of them says “I heard its supposed to be the biggest movie of the summer.” Here’s what kills me…they ‘heard’ it in an AD FOR THE MOVIE!!! (But they make it seem like they got it from a trusted news source or from their best friend) My next favourite thing is when people say “Everyone thinks….” For example – “Everyone thinks our prices are too high” (when really, only 1 or 2 people made the complaint…out of 100,000 potential people that could have made the complaint) Yes, its not my usual post. Just something to make you say “Hmmmmmm….”

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Heard It Through The Grapevine

Your Invisible Assets

One of the main objectives of taking my clients through my ‘Marsico Marketing System™’ is to leverage and capitalize on what I call a company’s Invisible Assets™. These are the assets that won’t show up on a balance sheet, but are just as (or maybe more) important than the ones that do. A company has 3 Invisible Assets – their (1) Reputation (2) Relationships (3) Knowledge 1) Your Reputation – who you are, what you do, why you’re different and unique, your story, your message, who you serve, and how you benefit them. 2) Your Relationships – with your clients, your prospects, your vendors and suppliers, your employees, and with the marketplace. 3) Your Knowledge – your wisdom, your experiences, your expertise, your skills, and your capabilities. Many of my upcoming articles will be focused on specific strategies which help leverage and profit from these assets. Until next time…

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Your Invisible Assets

The death of the USP

Ok so maybe I’m being a tad over dramatic when I use the term ‘death’.  It’s not that the USP is dead per se, but it certainly is living out it’s final days in some retirement home along side telemarketing and the VCR.  I am sure there are people still finding certain levels of success hawking goods via the phone and of course we will need a device to play all thoseVHS tapes stockpiled in the attic from the mid 90’s but like anything else, evolution kicks in and the human race finds a better way.  While the USP can still serve a purpose to the average small business owner, I think that evolution will once again have it’s way.

As a small business owner you’ve probably come across the term USP a million times.  USP stands for ‘Unique Selling Proposition’ and many believe it should form the backbone of your marketing.  The basic premise is that each and every business should have a unique selling point.  Something that a customer can associate with that specific business and specifically a definitive benefit gained by doing business with that particular business.  The key is that it must be unique and powerful.  It must be something different that sets the business apart from the competition and yet powerful enough to convert new prospects.

Now I am a huge fan of being different especially when it comes to small business.  For me identifying Points of Difference is a crucial exercise that every small business should engage in.  The problem I have with the USP is that the vast majority are merely SP’s as opposed to USP’s.  In many cases the ‘uniqueness’ is no longer present.  What was once a very distinct point of difference or USP is now just par for the course.  Take FedEx for example.  “When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight” was a great USP at one point.  Now you would be hard pressed to find a reputable courier company that doesn’t offer some sort of same day or overnight delivery.  Not so unique anymore.

My point is that without the ‘unique’ you basically only have a selling proposition.  With our unprecedented access to information and the huge selection we have thanks to the global economy having a selling proposition will hardly cut it.

For a great article on the evolution of the USP check out Marsico Marketing.  John is a marketing genius and he helps small business owners develop their “DNA” or Distinct Natural Advantage.  Distinct Natural Advantage is a concept coined by John and involves what he calls the Seven P’s…
(1) Purpose (2) People (3) Pain (4) Promise (5) Proof (6) Positioning and (7) Packaging

John is writing a 7 part series on developing your ’Distinct Natural Advantage’ and I highly recommend it to any small business owner looking to take their business to the next level.

The “Word-of-Mouth” Paradox

Here’s a fun conversation I have with small business owners. It usually goes something like this… ME – “..so how much of your new business comes from referrals and word of mouth?” SMALL BUSINESS OWNER – “We get around 70-80% of our clients from referrals” (note – any good company gets a tonne of referrals…it can range anywhere from 50-100% depending on the industry) ME – “How much of your marketing budget do you allocate for word of mouth and referrals?” SBO – “Huh? What? What do you mean? I guess, nothing…they just happen.” ME – “Amazing. So, 80% of your business comes from referrals, and you spend all of your money chasing the other 20%?” SBO – “Doh.” The moral of this story? Maybe its time to invest some of your hard earned marketing dollars into a form of marketing THAT ACTUALLY WORKS FOR YOU. (Sorry…I’m a little passionate about this). : )

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The “Word-of-Mouth” Paradox

Copycat Marketing: Small Business Marketing Mistake #1

So one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to small business marketing is what I call ‘copycatting’. Here’s what happens… A small business owner knows they needs to market and promote their business, so they look to others in their industry to find out what they are doing and figure ‘Hey, that guy is doing well…so whatever he’s doing must be working…and I’m just going to copy him’. The fact is, 80% of companies within any industry all copy each other..WHETHER THE TACTIC WORKS OR NOT. If you want a true competitive advantage, do what I call ‘Synergizing’. Don’t just look at the major players in your industry – start looking OUTSIDE your industry for success practices, strategies and tactics that you can apply to YOUR business. Your competition will be too busy copying each other to realize what you are doing and that you are slowly stealing all the business away from them.

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Copycat Marketing: Small Business Marketing Mistake #1

Why being different will win you more customers

Identifying Points of Difference

For small business, being different is a good thing.  In fact it is probably a great thing.  When it comes to marketing a small business I often like to do an exercise with clients to help identify what are known as ‘Points of Difference’.  It is often an enlightening process for the business owner because all too often I find that business owners are way too focused on making sure they do exactly what their competitors do… only better.

While doing things better than the competition does have it’s merits, I would suggest that doing things differently from what your competition does is a far more effective strategy when it comes to winning over customers.  You see if a customer (or prospect) can’t distinguish you from your competitors than you have a problem.  A very big problem.

What most small business owners don’t realize is that when a customer makes a switch to a new service provider (or even a product for that matter), more that half of the time it has absolutely nothing to do with the level of service they are receiving (or functionality of the current product).  In the majority of cases, customers make the switch simply because the new provider is offering something that is different.

Offering something that is different gives the customer a very specific reason to do business with you.  This is the very essence of marketing.  On the most basic level, marketing comes down to identifying a problem, finding a solution and then formulating an offer that prospects can understand and relate to.  Good Points of Difference are easy for prospects to understand and relate to and will provide that very specific reason for them to do business with you.

When it comes to communicating or marketing your Points of Difference there are two things you want to focus on.  First, you want to differentiate what you do from what your competitors do.  Second, you want to differentiate how you tell people what you do.  Be sure to be as specific as possible because a confused prospect will always say no regardless of how good your marketing or Points of Difference are. 

Take a good look at your own business and try to identify the things that you do (or could do) differently from your competition.  With some effort and a little bit of creativity you will easily find good solid Points of Difference that your prospects can understand and relate to and when you do, more prospects will choose to do business with you instead of your competitors.