Recently I came across a relaxation and day spa business that used red as its primary brand colour. I immediately questioned the colour choice and the feelings it elicited. Unconsciously I wasn’t drawn to this business and consciously I was turned-off by its in-your-face bright red. Given a different type of industry or business, such as fast food, red is …
Blogs are one of the most under-utilised and misunderstood marketing tools a business can lay its hands on. Anyone can start a business blog and the best news is that it can be done for free. For nothing more than a little planning and your own time, you can create a business blog that drives all of your online marketing …
It’s time for your new year’s marketing resolutions. The new year is a great time to review your marketing strategies and plan ahead for the remainder of the year. Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/freedigitalimages.net Take time to review what has worked for you, what hasn’t and what you should focus your efforts on when marketing in 2014. So what are …
As a business owner it is a constant challenge to keep up-to-date and inspired to learn and try new things in business and marketing. For Christmas I wanted to share my five best business and marketing books, which would make great stocking fillers for any business owner. Some of the below books have been around a while but are still …
So you have set up a business Facebook page that you diligently monitor and update once a day with snippets, pictures and videos, which may or may not feature a cat playing a piano. You may have ventured out further and have been tweeting your thoughts on the latest reality TV show. If so, you are probably congratulating yourself on …
It doesn’t take a marketing genius to appreciate the power of marketing leading up to and during the Christmas season. Christmas is typically a peak selling season for retailers with sales increasing dramatically as people purchase gifts, decorations and supplies to celebrate. From a marketing perspective, Christmas is more than the observance of a religious holiday and the celebration of …
A few years back some colleagues mentioned they were out for the day to go to “pickle training”. This statement perplexed me. Now I like pickles but we didn’t work in an area that had anything to do with food. They went on to explain that pickle training was about providing exceptional customer service and how it …
Stop the press! Customers are people. Sounds pretty obvious doesn’t it. Well you might be surprised to discover how often businesses and even marketers seem to forget this little gem. Marketing 101 tells us that we must identify our target market or audience. We need to classify our customers by demographics such as age, gender, income, geography – you get …
Over the years many of my clients and students have asked the same question. “What makes good writing?” This question shouldn’t come as a surprise to businesses out there. We all want fabulous business and marketing content that will connect with our audience. We want to know how to best write for business. Most of us know the importance of …
Let’s make a list of marketing rules small businesses need to follow. Create an effective online presence There is only one rule. Okay, there is more to marketing than just online, but I wanted to emphasise the importance of online marketing efforts. Mastering your online presence is more important now than ever. When I say online presence, …