If you read one article on where marketing is heading in 2010, then this is it. It’s already been tweeted 627 times as I write this into! It’s written by David Garland of Rise To The Top and I think he’s nailed it – from claiming the 30 second is FINALLY dead, to big brands learning from us little guys (check this podcast) to the death of the one-way website it’s an article that will get you (the marketer and / or business owner champing at the bit for the new year to arrive. In fact don’t, start now! Read on.

There are many reasons…here’s 5 to kick things off:

1. Marketing is the quickest way to a sale. Great marketing identifies a problem your customer or prospect is experiencing and then provides them with a solution that gives them every reason to buy from you (and not your competition). Think of it like this…the marketer of a business has control of five very big levers labelled Product, Price, Place, Promotion and People. Their challenge is to adjust these levers to positions that make your offer so irresistible and compelling that it’s impossible not to buy from you…that competing with them seems far less desirable.
2. It’s your only (profitable) point-of-difference. Today’s market place (in almost every industry) is one of parity – it’s full of businesses offering the same products, at the same price, delivered in the same way. So how does one stand out? Well, you could be the cheapest…but discounting is a dead-end street as it is quickly copied, and a point is reached where a business can’t be any cheaper or they’ll lose money. Instead, it’s much more effective to be clever in the way you package up product, deliver it in ways that make it easy for them to use it and offer payment options that makes it much easier to say YES than NO!
3. “People can copy what we do, but not who we are” – Martin Daley, the head of People at Virgin Blue, uttered this. In saying so, he was admitting that it was possible for anyone to walk on up and start an airline. That was easy enough! What was much harder for them to do was create a brand that meant something…a brand that defined the business in the minds of its prospects and customers in a way that made them want to be a part of.
4. Great marketing creates a strong brand – A brand is best defined as an emotional attachment. This is not meant in any soppy kind of way. Not at all. The type of emotional attachment we talk about here is one in which you create a brand that clearly demonstrates it understands its target audience. One that shows insight and sympathy for what they are dealing with and provides simple, interesting solutions that make them want to buy from you. Most importantly, once a customer is emotionally connected to your brand it is that much harder for them to look elsewhere as they see real value in what you are offering.
5. Marketing creates a sense of value and meaning – As the previous point indicates, if you spend time building a brand (and remember, you register a business, but you build a brand) then you are inherently creating value for your customers. And a customer, who feels as though they are receiving real value by transacting with you, is generally willing to pay above the odds.

What would you add?

I just visited a local graphic designer who had on her office door…By Appointment Only.

It got me thinking how, as business owners, we can have systems and structures in place that actually make it hard for people to do business with us. Here’s four that come to mind:

1. Not making your contact details freely available…they should appear on all your stationary, email signature, website.

2. Not being easily contactable. These days a phone number and email isn’t enough…let people know your Skype, Twitter, LinkedIn handles.

3. Accepting only one, maybe two payment methods…what about Paypal, Moneybrokers, EFT, lay-by, credit, payment terms?

4. Ill-considered opening hours…this is business dependent however I sometimes see a business that is closed when it should be open and open when it should be closed. I just drove past the local GPs and it was closed on a Saturday afternoon. Isn’t this a good time for those who work all week to get things done?

I call these hurdles because they get in the way. In this case, in the way of making doing business with you really easy.

What would add to this list?

How often are you pleasantly surprised by great customer service? If you’re like me, then sadly not very often. But recently, I had a good customer service experience that demonstrates the best way to handle customer complaints.

Last winter I had a fire grate made. For $170 I got what appeared to be a solid piece of craftsmanship. But after only twenty fires, it started to lose shape, bend in the middle and generally stop functioning.

Because I generally like to avoid conflict at all costs, I tossed up for a couple of weeks about whether or not to take it back, but I finally decided I should. I was of course expecting the worse – “Sorry mate, our guarantee only extends to 14-days” or “Sorry but you shouldn’t have kept using it.”

To my astonishment the fellow who made it apologised, offered to fix it and/or replace it and advised that it would be all done within two days. The end result was that it was fixed on the same day, at no charge and now works better than ever. And he didn’t even refer to me as “Mate”. As a side issue, I think referring to a customer in this way is very unprofessional. My favoured approach is to use their first name, but that’s another article in itself!

Now, back to my fire grate. Okay, so maybe the problem shouldn’t have arisen in the first place and they should pay more attention to their craftsmanship…but mistakes do happen. From a business owners perspective, the learning here is how you handle customer complaints.

I could almost guarantee the fire grate fellow has had no training in customer service, he just did what seemed right. He listened to the customer, made a judgement that the customer’s request was reasonable and then over-delivered. In fact he under-promised and over-delivered…even better!

This doesn’t mean giving in to every customer’s request – of course there are times when they are simply unreasonable. But it does mean being sensible and mature about your options for the best way to handle customer complaints.

How you handle customer complaints can create an opportunity to promote your business. Handled well, they are a great way to generate word-of-mouth. That said, I’d buy another fire grate tomorrow from Flash Weld in Mornington, Victoria!

Many Clients ask me if they should be utilising the various social mediums available to them.

As long as they’re up for providing ongoing content, and they (or someone within their business) has an inkling about how to find their way around the web, then my view is GIVE SOCIAL MEDIA A GO. And here’s 12 reasons why:

1. To engage in conversations with their customers. (Do we need any more reasons?!). Assuming we do then…
2. To attract prospects.
3. To provide customer service (answering questions, giving advice).
4. To gain information on our competition.
5. To exchange information with others who know more than you.
6. To extend your reach globally (this may force you to develop a new offer).
7. It costs nothing but time (compare that to other marketing channels).
8. It’s fun (nothing wrong with that!).
9. It’s measurable and accountable (compare that to advertising, sponsorship, direct mail).
10. To attract quality employees, suppliers.
11. To attract media attention.
12. To position yourself as an expert…or at least someone who knows what they’re talking about.

Let’s create the ultimate list. Why do you believe businesses should use social media?

I speak to Clients and groups of business owners weekly about what it takes to build a strong brand.

The first thing I respond with is that BRANDS ARE EARNT…not bought. You buy a business name…you create a brand.

The second point is that it’s important to agree on a simple definition of a brand. For me…A BRAND IS SIMPLY AN EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT. Already we’ve covered some seriously important concepts that we’ll leave for another day.

So, in no particular order here’s the ten things every business owner must do to ensure they build a strong, healthy brand:

1. Know what your brand stands for…whilst I may be a marketing consultant in every day speak…my brand  is all about making businesses and charities irresistible. That’s what I stand for. Identifying what your brand stands for is actually the first part of my Brand Character process.
2. Do things properly…If this means do less, then do less. Avoid cheap, shoddy anything…Printing, design, packaging, photography, copy etc etc. If this means buying a cheaper office chair, then get a cheaper office chair!
3. Have one designer do everything…logo, fliers, website, signage, PowerPoint, stationary etc. Make sure they know what they’re doing though…particularly in regards to your website.
4. Know your core values…These should form the basis of all decisions you make in your business and around your brand.
5. Identify your prospects’ problem…As brand builders we are problem solvers. Make sure your brand clearly says “Hey, I can fix your problem!”
6. Identify your brand’s personality…Then ensure it comes through in all its marketing.
7. Be unique…Take a look at what the competition is doing, identify the gap and fill it with your brand. If all the brands in your category are black then be white. Great brands challenge their category.
8. Be consistent…Make sure you present your brand to the market place in exactly the same way no matter what the medium. You are creating one brand…not 10!
9. Socialise it…Make sure every person within your business knows what your brand stands for. It’s useless having everyone on different pages.
10. Make it visually really interesting…There are so many boring logos out there…Don’t be one of them. Be brave…it pays off.
11. Under promise and over deliver…All good brands do this. Remember, I promised 10 points…well this is the 11th ;0)

This is not the definitive list but we could make it one…What would you add?

There’s a key question in any good marketing communication’s brief that asks something like…”What’s the single most important thing you want to tell your prospects?”

It’s based on some consumer behavior theory that states that as humans we aren’t overly good at taking in too much information at any one time. Ironically, as Marketers we often feel the need to bombard our prospects with information overload…It comes in this many colours, it’s price is this, you can buy it here, the various models are these blah blah blah.

It takes courage to be single-minded…particularly in paid media where you want to make every second or column centimeter count. But the reality is that all great communication is single-minded…look at the ads that appeal to you and I’ll bet they’re single-minded.

So, how can you apply this to your business. Easy…figure out what you want your prospects to do and then decide what is the most important (AKA compelling) thing you could share with them in order to inspire them in to action.

What brands do this well in my book? Apple. Seth Godin. Can you add to this list?

What’s your single-minded proposition?

Google page rank SEO

Author’s note…I’m no SEO guru (at all)…I can barely spell it! BUT…

…that said, I just reviewed a slide presentation made at Wordcamp in San Francisco recently by one of the Google honchos.

Some of it was pretty complicated (there was even a math’s algorithm!) but within the complication was some gold…real gold.

It explained in simple terms how Google ranks pages. The answer:

1. Be relevant.
2. Be reputable.

To be RELEVANT you need to ask yourself:

1. What do I love?
2. What am I really good at doing?
3. What do I have to say?

Think about the key words users are searching and include them naturally in your copy and posts…and this includes image and video search as well…we must tag those slippery suckers!

To be REPUTABLE, you need to:

1. Be interesting.
2. Update often.
3. Be useful…do original research or reporting.
4. Find a niche.
5. Give great information.
6. Make lists…”The top 20 ways…”
7. Create controversy.
8. Make a video.

I’ve taken the gold out of a much longer slide presentation that you can view here.

What do you do to build your Google ranking?

Do you have a core focus in your business? Up until recently, I thought I did…In fact I thought I was laser-focused.

“What I do is crystal clear” I’d say to myself…I help businesses and charities with their marketing efforts with the end result being that they get more inquiry…more customers. Quite a succinct value statement, huh?

Well, that was true to some extent and quite compelling….who wouldn’t want a piece of that? It’s not as if I don’t have enough Clients.

Yet I continued to feel an uncertainty around the question…Do I really have a core focus?

Then I had an epiphany…well, it was more like a whack across the head by a business strategy coach I’m using at present. He very quickly highlighted to me the fact that whilst I clearly knew what I was and wanted to do for my Clients…I had far too many ways for them to access this brilliance! His words, not mine ;0)

I had to get some laser-focus around my product offering which as I write this includes workshops, webinars, 1-on-1 coaching, campaign implementation, a book and more. No wonder I was going nuts…jumping from one thing to another. One morning I’d be running a workshop…that afternoon I’d be doing some coaching…and the next minute I’d be doing an interview for my book.

So, through a process of elimination I’m working on getting scarily focussed to the point that I have one core product offering that I will deliver exceptionally well to anyone who decides to work with me. My criteria for arriving at this core product offering will include:

• Love-ability (do I love providing it?)
• Do-ability (Is it doable?)
• Accept-ability (Is their a need for it amongst my prospects?)
• Profit-ability (Can I make a good earn from it?)

And yes…profit-ability is purposely last as I want to ensure that I love what I do more than anything and hope that that old cliche of ‘the money will follow’ is a truism!

Have I arrived at my new core product offering? Yes…I’m now in the process of ‘packaging’ it up ready for market. What is it? Bookmark my blog if you haven’t already and I’ll share it with you shortly.

Why am I sharing my business strategy with you. Mmm…well, it’s cathartic…I feel better having done it. I’d love your feedback on it….not for reassurance, just for curiosity really. Most importantly, I think it’s a really smart thing to be doing…and if like me…you feel there’s something that needs fixing in your business then this may just give you that positive shift you need.

What do you think?

So I ran a webinar on Twitter and Business today….Click here to view it.

It goes for 30 minutes (plus 15 minutes of questions) and you can view it below.

Why’s it worth watching? Mmmm…well it shares with you some key concepts that, if you spend a moment understanding them, will enable you to develop a mindset around Twitter that will allow you to make your tweeting work hard as an effective sales channel for your business. That’s all!

I also give you practical HOW TO’s on ensuring your tweeting looks right and stays on brief. Enjoy…and please feel free to share the love and RT this link.

Here’s the webinar link again.