Keep Calm & Keep Marketing

Telling Stories and Ruling the World (apologies to Plato)

Good marketing promotion has always been about building a strong relationship with your audience through telling your story. And building relationships with an audience of potential customers, is about being relatable and matching values.

Why are values important in your marketing promotion? Values represent what you stand for or believe in; and your values form the foundation of your personal and business branding message.

Your personal branding message is what sells you, your services, and helps you develop relationships with potential customers. Your business brand is what makes your business recognisable and sets it apart from others.

People will ultimately buy from those they know, like, and trust. That’s why telling your own story is so important. While your story is not a sales pitch, it is and should be seen unashamedly as self promotion. You just can’t create something fabulous, you have to communicate that fabulousness to your potential customers. It will be the story of your passion, your ideas, your values and the medium that people (who you ultimately want to buy from you), will get to know you, like you and trust you.

When people land on your web or social media page, meet you or walk into your office; they should understand within seconds what you are all about. Your blog posts should communicate that personal story directly or indirectly. Every piece of promotional material, including your story, that you put out should be put out with your potential customer in mind.

Telling your story can help you and your potential customers by:

Displaying a clear values message or value proposition, your ideal customer will know very quickly if they trust you and want to do business with you.
Explaining passionately why you do what you do, which also helps potential customers understand you and trust you
Sharing something about yourself, revealing the real person; will enable customers (and suppliers) to see what you’re like to work with and for
Clearly identifying a profile of your ideal customer, will encourage them to contact you

The bottom line is “be who you are” and make that your difference. Your values form the foundation of your personal brand. Your personal brand is what sells you and your branding is what makes your business recognisable and sets it apart from others. In sending out a clear message, your ideal customer will know very quickly if they trust you and want to do business with you.

Never forget that businesses are ‘people’ too, and in revealing the real you, you offer a sense of trust and assurance that the business is real, ethical and has integrity. Given the exponential growth of online video and social media, communicating your own story will have a big advantage over those that don’t reveal anything about themselves.

I would love to know how you feel about revealing the real “you” – so, please leave a comment?

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the principle of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to research their customer market; create their authentic marketing message; attract more ideal customers; and create a marketing plan to achieve success in 2012/2013. She runs local workshops in Northern NSW and coaches customers online and by phone – if you would like to attend the next scheduled workshops or request distance coaching online –please contact me.

Visit my website and subscribe for monthly e-News updates on all topics related marketing.

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Coaching / Keep Calm & Keep Marketing / Mindset — No Comments
31
Jul 12

Keep Calm and Keep a Positive Mindset – part 4

These trading times represent a difficult period for small business. Up and down economic cycles are inevitable and if we just keep positive, hang in there, and get through this difficult period, we will get some relief at the next up turn. This series of Keep Calm articles has been created to help improve feelings of confidence and personal power; part 4 provides tips for managing your mindset.

Taking positive action is the first step to feeling more in control.

Here are three simple business mindset habits that will have the potential to radically alter the effectiveness of your mind and the potential of your business:

Give up trying to be perfect if you want to be successful!

We try to show customers that we are flawless to be liked and respected. But you can’t please everyone, and you shouldn’t try. When you embrace who you really are and decide to be authentic, instead of perfect; you open yourself up to authentic customer relationships, authentic happiness, and tangible success.

Manage your Negative Self-Talk!

Besides our own thoughts, there is nothing that is absolutely in our control. Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story. The mind must believe it can do something before it is capable of actually doing it. So, be aware of your negative self-talk – replace it with positive self talk and a positive outlook.

Reflection is the key to changing mindset!

Find some quiet each day for reflecting on both positive and negative experiences that came up, and look for habitual patterns that you need to change. Learn from your daily reflection. Work on a positive mindset every day because it will be 80% of your success in business.

Ask yourself: What is the positive mindset you can apply today? Please leave a comment – I’d love to hear from you?

Author, Teresa Bassham principle Marketing Coach at Zenworkz Marketing, inspires small businesses to foster a positive marketing mindset and develop a empowering marketing plan for business profitability. See full services at http://www.zenworkz.com

Business Transformation / Cash Management / Keep Calm & Keep Marketing / Marketing Mix Strategies / Pricing / Process Improvement — No Comments
24
Jul 12

Keep Calm and Keep Marketing Part 3 – Focus on Cash Management and Pricing

This series of Keep Calm articles has been created to help improve feelings of confidence and personal power; Part 3 will focus on tips to improve Cash Management and Pricing:

Focus on Cash Management

Cut expenses and track cash flow carefully. It is extremely important for you to understand your monthly cash position. Determine where you can cut costs, and make sure on a weekly basis that you understand what money is coming in. As you cut costs use this formula, for every $2 dollars you cut in business expenses, invest $1 into your marketing investment.

Start collections at 7 days past due. You need your money now. Once a customer gets to 7 days past due, get on the phone and track down whoever pays the accounts for an update. Be sure you are ready with payment options to get paid faster.

Focus on Pricing

Time to raise your prices? It’s a new financial year and with the cost pressures of the last year, it’s reasonable to consider your pricing. If you raise your prices by 1% that will give you an approximate 11% increase in income. In comparison, you would need to increase sales volume by 1% to yield a 5% increase in income. One warning though, don’t tell people you are raising your prices because of the Carbon Tax – as you have seen, this is not good PR.

It’s important to add value, when increasing prices! Continuously adding value to your products and services is the best way to get repeat customers and new business through referrals.

The secret of pricing is this knowledge: When the right customer sees your product or service in the right context – price will not be the primary element in their decision to buy!

If you need support from someone who can guide you – a coach or mentor who can look at your business and your progress with an honest and objective eye; guide you away from costly mistakes and head in a direction that may challenge you, but also helps you to survive and thrive – please contact me. The next Keep Calm topic will be “Mindset” – how to stay positive and outcomes focused!

Let me know if find you find these tips helpful? Please leave a comment below:

Advertising / Attracting Customers / Authentic Message Creation / Authentic Values / Coaching / Engaging customers / Integrated Marketing Strategy / Keep Calm & Keep Marketing / Marketing 101 / Selling — No Comments
17
Jul 12

Keep Calm and Keep Marketing Part 2 – Focus on Marketing Tactics

Recently I responded to a request to help small businesses that were feeling despondent because of falling sales and general feelings of frustration with marketing a small business in difficult, trading times. In this series of posts, Part 2 will focus on marketing tactics you can do to survive and thrive.

Firstly don’t be tempted to stop marketing! This is not the time to cut back on marketing activity. The key to building customer awareness is to take consistent, regular action. Be sure to keep your marketing activities going at least six months so that you can track your rate of return.

Promoting your products or service, little and often is better than one large, expensive campaign. The more you crop up in potential customer’s awareness, the more they feel that something is drawing them to you. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard this from my customers – it was meant to be! Little did they know it is my marketing tactic.

Identify your best product or service by it’s revenue margin; then focus your promotional and selling efforts on this only. Add as many low cost promotional options as you have time for, like Twitter and Facebook Pages to broadcast valuable information about how to solve customers problems or bring them joy. Update your LinkedIn profile regularly with updates about your business and any valuable content such as blog posts.

Work out how you are unique to your best customer and focus on doing this better. Define what your unique marketing difference is and promote that consistently. Being different and finding that difference is easier in a service based business because YOU are unique. Finding the difference in a product market, means adding or augmenting your products with value added services, like lay-by’s, special deliveries, or exceptional customer service – there are a thousand different options. The secret is understanding what you need to do to make your service or product a vital part of someone’s life to the extent that they just won’t be tempted by your direct competitor’s offers.

What makes your marketing message unique is your story, your purpose, and your values. What makes your message compelling is that it is customer focused – it speaks to the customers hot button that your service or product fulfils as a necessary part of their life or business. It must tap into the emotional metaphors: looking good, feeling good, being successful, rewarding themselves – refer to Maslow’s Hierarchy of highest needs.

Finally, recognise that you can’t always do this alone and if you are, not with peace or joy. To be able to hire support, you need to focus on sales and cash flow. You may need support from someone who can guide you? A coach or mentor can look at your business and your progress with an honest and objective eye; and guide you away from costly mistakes and focus on a direction that may well challenge you; but will also bring you the business success you desire.

I’d love to hear your thoughts? Please leave a comment below:

About the Author: Teresa Bassham of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing inspires small businesses to develop and use an empowering Marketing and Communications Plan for Business Profitability … see my full services at www.zenworkz.com and while you are visiting my website – subscribe for weekly e-News updates on all topics related to authentic marketing.

Attracting Customers / Keep Calm & Keep Marketing / Marketing 101 / Marketing Plans / Process Improvement / Selling — No Comments
9
Jul 12

Keep Calm and Keep Marketing! Part 1 – Focus on Sales

Recently I responded to a request to help small businesses that were feeling despondent because of falling sales and general feelings of frustration with marketing a small business in difficult, trading times. I too experience these feelings, they come up for me when business is slow, and I follow my own advice which centers around the philosophy that:

“A clear vision, backed by a marketing plan, gives a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.”

In a series of Keep Calm & Keep Marketing posts to help improve feelings of confidence and personal power; part 1 will focus on 5 tips to improve Sales:

Develop 30-day sales goals each month

Break down how many sales you need each month to meet your revenue targets. Determine exactly how many meetings, calls, emails and blog posts you need to have, make, send or write to generate your target sales.

Make the first task of every day, activities to create sales

Focus each day, first thing in the morning, on actions that are “selling” or will definitely lead to sales. Do this offline and don’t go online* (*read getting distracted) until complete. You should be doing at least 60 minutes of sales cultivation activities per day.

Ask existing customer for referrals

Ask for referrals, they can always say no – but be honest – you need the work or you need to sell!

Prepare for “ Sales Objections”

Write down all the “sales objections” you get from potential customers and then script positive responses – so you are prepared for them when they are spoken. It will be the difference between passive and active selling that will get better results.

Mine that dormant pot of gold!

Follow-up on old sales leads – get out every old business card, brochure or any other sales lead that you may have and start calling these contacts. Take out any old enquiries that had not been converted into orders and follow up on every single one of them.

Let me know if find you find these tips helpful? Please leave a comment below:

While you are visiting my website – subscribe for weekly e-News updates on all topics related to authentic marketing.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

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