Values « Zenworkz Blog

Posts Tagged: Values

Great Quotes for Marketing!

Welcome to the Marketing Quotes that I have created over the last year.

Dream. Believe. Plan. Create. Succeed.

Observe the masses, then do the opposite.

Customer Focus: Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

’Those who tell stories – rule the world’ ~ Plato

Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make it’s colours appear.

Rejection can sometimes be the Universe’s way of saying ‘wrong direction’, find another way. ~ Unknown

Dream the impossible. Seek the unknown. Achieve Greatness.

The Facebook Paradox: The attention economy is not growing! That means we have to grab attention that someone else has today!

To be successful, you must surround yourself with positive people and seek advice from capable, trusted sources.

About the content creator: Teresa Bassham is the boss lady of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing and educates businesses to think, create, engage and optimise their marketing effort. She coaches customers in Strategies for traditional and online Marketing; and implementation. If you would like free how-to-do-it-yourself marketing resources or to subscribe to free e-news about all things marketing, please visit the website:

http://www.zenworkz.com/

For daily marketing tips and references, connect to our fabulous community on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Authentic Message Creation / Branding / Social Media / Trust — No Comments
10
Apr 13

How to craft the right brand message on social media

In your marketing journey to attract and keep new customers, unique and authentic brand messages work best on social media.

Technology is moving so fast, you must understand and optimise every interaction with potential customers in a way that establishes positive, emotional responses to form meaningful relationships with your business, brand and message.

Getting the brand message right for what your business offers is vitally important. Not only does it provide the basis for your personal relationship with your customers; it answers the question foremost in every potential customer’s mind: Why should I buy from you? Over time, these customers can become your best marketing advocates and promoters.

How do you create the right brand message? The focus is “social” and where you can, to project your fabulous personality into your brand message. Any unique and authentic brand message must be simple. If you can’t explain it simply, then you don’t know enough about what motivates your customer to buy. The step then must be to research your ideal customer, create a profile of who they are and write specifically to them.

As I have said many times before, ‘benefits’ and not features will always grab your target audiences attention. Your brand message should demonstrate that you understand your customers situation, either the problem they need to solve or a want they must have, – the “benefit’ to them. You can then construct an offer that helps them to address their situation. Approaching it in this way could be the single deciding factor for them choosing your business offer over someone else.

Finally, without trying to sound like a broken record, people like to buy from people they know, like, and trust. Building trust begins with sharing your story, and showing your values, so you attract prospective customers who can relate to you. Explaining why you do what you do, helps them understand what it’s like to deal with you and trust you.

In today’s crowded marketplace, with new competitors emerging from around the world, distracted audiences, and almost saturation marketing of products and services; it is more important than ever to ensure that when you have the attention of a potential customer, you are able to offer a compelling and authentic reason for them doing business with you.

I’d love to hear your thoughts? Please feel free to leave a comment or question below.

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the Boss Lady and Chief Coach of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to create their authentic marketing and brand message, attract more ideal customers and create a marketing plan to achieve success. Please contact me if you’d like help creating your brand message on social media. Visit my website for free resources and subscribe to weekly e-News updates on all topics related marketing.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my Facebook page.

Authentic Values / Inspiration / Mindset — No Comments
26
Feb 13

What Inspires You?

Today I am writing about inspiration. And the question, what inspires you? My inspiration is: Being loved, having gratitude, being alive with very few (not zero) health problems, being resilient, having an inquiring mind, and a drive to help others through my knowledge and skills?

Inspiration or being inspired is what pushes us to do big things. It can come in so many ways – other people, music, books, or simply being in nature. No matter what form it takes for you, inspiration is what moves us to dream bigger dreams, to plan action and push us out of our comfort zone; and learn or achieve something worthwhile. Inspiration can be that little push we need to turn an idea into an action.

People inspire me, especially those who have tougher than normal lives, but focus always on the positive. One person I think of whenever I feel unmotivated is a friend called Kylie and I have written about Kylie before. Kylie runs an online and market based business selling babies and children’s needs (Nic-Nac). If this isn’t hard enough as the Mother of a ten year old, she is also the full time carer of her quadriplegic husband.

That’s not to say that Kylie is positive all the time, because there are days when it gets too much and she reaches out to friends and family for emotional support. It’s that she bounces back stronger each time, and is always grateful for what she has; the love of a wonderful husband and daughter, a big network of friends and her extended family (overseas), her health, strength and resilience, inquiring mind and her business skills. She makes a difference to so many people lives through her involvement in her daughters school, teaching dancing, and volunteering for a local women’s business network.

What does Kylie’s story teach us about using inspiration?

1. Engage with people through living your inspirational story. Almost everyone wants to connect, involve your customers and fans. They have a yearning to learn from you, to translate your achievements into lessons of their own, to adapt pieces of your story and re-imagine them into something that works for them. Listen to what people who inspire you have done, how they’ve done it and how you can learn from their mistakes and successes.

2. Have an open-mind. Learn something new, even if it’s not related to your business. You will be surprised how elated you will feel through the process of learning and how that will affect everything you do.

3. Open your eyes and open your ears. Unplug from the connected world. Leave your phone at home when you go for a walk, go to a dance class, listen to the music in the cafe and take in your surroundings – some of the best inspiration is outside your office and home!

When you’ve discovered what inspires you, it’s time to use it! Leverage the feeling you get when you experience these inspiring things? Does it make you want to start that research? Does it make you want to learn a new skill? Does it make you want to try new big adventures?

Whatever your sources of inspiration are telling you, write it down. Use a mind-map and dream big. Map the ideas that your sources of inspiration reveal. These are values and energy sources that are important to you, that drive you. It’s necessary to discover these before you can excel in an authentic and aligned business.

Love to know your thoughts on sources of your inspiration?

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the principle of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to create their differential advantage, attract more ideal customers and create a marketing plan to achieve success. She coaches customers online and by phone – if you would like to request coaching – please contact me.

Advertising / Marketing 101 / Marketing Law / Social Media — No Comments
15
Dec 12

Update: Australian Marketing Law for Small Business

Here’s a quick summary of changes in marketing law and what it will mean for your small business.

Advertising and Consumer Protect Laws

The Australian Federal Court and Advertising Standards Bureau have determined that businesses are responsible for third-party comments posted on Facebook and Twitter. In a nutshell this means anything that could be deemed discriminatory, derogatory or degrading to women, homosexuals, or ethnic minorities; including strong or obscene language or inappropriate references to sexual activity.

The Australian Consumer Law covers many aspects of business activity, but advertising is perhaps the area where small businesses can most easily stray onto the wrong side of the law. The principle is the obvious one that businesses should not mislead or deceive through advertising. When you have a business page through social media, under consumer protection laws you could be held liable for misleading or deceptive conduct by a third party.

What this means for you is that you must regularly monitor posts from third parties and remove anything which may contravene any of these laws or standards within 24 hours of posting.

The Spam Act and Privacy Legislation

Recently two Australian businesses were formally warned about not providing an opt-out for their email marketing. The Spam Act 2003 requires that if you engage in email marketing you must have consent to the message being sent. You must have your contact information in the message. You must have an unsubscribe action to allow the recipient to opt-out. Failure to do so, may prompt warnings by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

As a very brief summary, Privacy Legislation revolves around asking people for permission to collect and use their information, and obligations to disclose what information is being kept and for what purpose, and obligations relating to the correction of inaccurate or disputed information. What this means for you is you need to provide a statement on your website that explains your privacy policy to users.

Intellectual Property and Copyright

Many small businesses use no forms of intellectual property protection and often breech other rights through copying pictures without permission to do so, especially via social media platforms.

What this means for you:

You need to consider what confidential information is used in your business and add security to protect it.
Ensure that you have the right to use any material (such as copyright material) in your marketing, both offline and online.
Always register trademarks used in your business.
Ensure there is adequate document recording the right and restriction of use for your own Intellectual Property.

The bottom line is advice should always be sought whenever material that may be the subject of copyright is proposed to be used in the course of your business marketing.

Its always a good option to consider these laws before unknowingly contravening them, creating heartache and potentially expense for your small business.

For more information there a comprehensive list of Legal Topics for Small business on this website:

http://www.innovation.gov.au/SmallBusiness/LegalHelp/LegalTopics/Pages/default.aspx

Advertising / Authentic Values / Branding / Engaging customers / Keep Calm & Keep Marketing / Selling / Trust — No Comments
14
Aug 12

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.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Attracting Customers / Authentic Marketing / Authentic Message Creation / Authentic Values / Branding / Engaging customers — 1 Comment
7
Aug 12

Why should customers buy from you?

In your journey to attract and keep new customers, unique and authentic messages work best. Today, a small business must understand and optimise every interaction with customers in a way that establishes positive, emotional responses to form meaningful relationships with you and your message.

Getting the message right for what your business sells is important, because it provides the basis for your business relationship with your customers; and it answers the question foremost in every potential customer’s mind: Why should I buy from you? Over time, these customers will become your best marketing advocates and promoters.

Here are 3 tips to help you to create your authentic marketing message and grow your business:

Any authentic message must be simple: Put yourself in the shoes of potential customers and ask “Are my messages easy to understand? Do they motivate customers to purchase?” When constructing your authentic message, you need to first research your ideal target customers. Then visualise who they are and write directly to them.

Benefits – not features, will grab your targeted audience’s attention: Your customers want to hear a clear, simple message that demonstrates that you understand their situation – that you recognise the problem they wish to solve, or the outcome they wish to achieve. Followed by a specific offer or explanation how the benefits of your products or services will help them address their situation. A simple authentic message like this will be the single deciding factor for customers choosing you over someone else.

Tell your authentic story: Potential customers buy from people they know, like, and trust. Building trust begins with sharing the story of your business and the people behind it. Telling your authentic story helps both you and your prospective customers by:

Demonstrating your values, so you naturally attract customers who relate to you
Explaining why you do what you do, which helps prospective customers understand you and trust you
Sharing your unique persona, enabling customers to understand what you’ll be like to work or deal with

Taking an authentic marketing approach, developing insights into your customers’ needs and wants, and understanding what motivates them requires effort and investment. Figuring out what you stand for and the core authentic message you present to your ideal target market as a brand is easier said than done, but is easier with the help of an Marketing Coach.

I’d love to hear your thoughts? Please feel free to leave a comment or question below.

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

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

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 / Developing Resourceful People / Mindset / Relationship Marketing / Social Media — No Comments
27
May 12

7 Zenworkz Habits of Highly Effective Minds

Each day I invite you to work on a habit, a simple business habit that will have the potential to radically alter the effectiveness of your mind and the potential of your business.

No 1 Learn new skills and challenge your mind every single day! Neuroscience has now proven the old saying “use it or lose it?” – use your mind productively to learn new skills. The benefits of increased mind function is an elevation in feelings of positivity, that more things are achievable or possible.

“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.” ~ Leo Burnett

What new skill or information are you going to learn today?

No 2 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. Be aware of your mental self-talk.

“The way to overcome negative thoughts and destructive emotions is to develop opposing, positive emotions that are stronger and more powerful.” Dalai Lama

What are the positive emotions you will use to replace your negative self-talk today?

No 3 Acts of gratitude are highly contagious on social networks! Human beings are social creatures. On a day you deliver one powerful thank you …

Your gratitude spreads to 6 people you know. (+6)
Then it spreads to 6 people they each know. (+36)
Then it spreads to 6 people they each know. (+216)
6 + 36 + 216 = 258 people who feel more grateful – just from one thank you!

When the human mind is happy, it is less stressed. And a less stressed mind is a more efficient mind.

How will you show your gratitude today?

No 4 Reflection is the key to changing mindset! Find some quiet each day for reflecting on any personal negative responses that came up, and look for habitual patterns that you need to change.

“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” ~ Sylvia Plath

Learn from your daily reflection. Work on a positive mindset every day because it will be 80% of your success in business!

What is the positive mindset you need to apply today?

No 5 Your mind is part of your body! It just makes sense to fuel your body with healthy food and keep your blood oxygen levels high with regular exercise. Simply fuel, exercise and rest your body properly. A tired mind is rarely productive – ask any working Mum!

To begin the change today – what will you be doing differently?

No 6 Begin with the end in Mind! To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination or purpose. To know where you are headed, is to better understand where you are right now and what steps will be needed to continue in the direction for positive results. Foster a mindset of outcome focus and extreme optimism that will help you create solutions, and not keep you stuck in the problems of your business.

What clear outcomes do you need to create today to achieve your purpose and goals?

No 7 Develop the habit of Listening! Many of us today have such busy lives, that we often don’t take in the messages that we hear from potential customers, friends and family members. The best clue that you are not listening, is when you hear yourself asking why a customer doesn’t like this or that; or why you can’t seem to reach people? Giving a person your full attention, and showing them that what they say matters, will have a long-lasting impact on them and your relationship, and provide you with information to change your approach.

How will you listen effectively today?

Each one of the seven habits above has the ability to make your mindset more effective and change your business. But when you combine them together their beneficial effects increase exponentially.

I would love to know what works for you?

About the Author: Zenworkz Authentic Marketing inspires small businesses to foster a Positive Mindset – Develop and use an empowering Marketing and Communications Plan for Business Profitability … see my full services at www.zenworkz.com

Authentic Marketing / Authentic Message Creation / Authentic Values / Mindset — No Comments
13
May 12

12 Keys to Mindful Success

What you believe about yourself and your business will come true. Believing in your success is 80% of the battle won, with the other 20% being your skills, expertise, products or services that meet your ideal customers needs.

What may be preventing you from fulfilling your business potential grows out of your beliefs.

Here are 12 useful keys for developing a belief system for mindful success:

1. Develop authentic confidence!

2. Take ownership of the outcomes!

3. Clearly communicate your vision and talk about it!

4. Create a passion for learning and making mistakes!

5. Learn to be a team player to grow a successful business!

6. Learn to be systems-oriented – to produce consist results!

7. Dedicate yourself to your vision, purpose and goals!

8. Be grateful for what you have and be open to more!

9. Develop a positive outlook and generate optimism!

10. Tell people how excited you are to share your ideas!

11. Motivate yourself and lead by example!

12. Don’t be afraid of risks or of amazing financial success!

If you like what you find in this list, please share it with your friends to help us spread the idea.

Are these 12 keys working for you? Leave your comments below?

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 on 6^th & 7^th June, 2012 or request distance coaching online –please contact me.

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

Authentic Marketing / Authentic Message Creation / Authentic Values / Branding / Online Marketing / Social Media / Trends / Uncategorized — No Comments
15
Apr 12

Authentic Branding – the Future of Marketing?

As a forward thinking business, I consider what a marketing business might look like in the future? How to provide marketing services to smaller business in a fast moving technological marketplace.

I know that my customers are often overwhelmed by the choices available; the fear of missing out by not jumping on the “next new media thing”; and often lose sight of return on investment, whether it’s time or money.

Psychologist, Abraham Maslow formulated the “Hierarchy of Needs”, where he mapped human needs in a hierarchy; starting at the bottom with basic physiological needs of food, shelter, water and safety, and at the top with esteem, belonging and self-actualisation. This remains the strongest model we have for understanding what has meaning for customers and explaining what they do and why.

Today brands can no longer tap into satisfying basic needs without considering the higher needs of belonging and esteem. Customers respond to brands which match their values, aspirations and esteem. This is the future of marketing – it is about authentic communication and engagement; and this is where customers are now driving brands via social media platforms. Today it is the customer who will figure out what your business does and how they will let the world know about you!

Future Authentic Brand Marketing will utilise effective marketing psychology to create brand messages which begins with what you do that effortlessly connects with your customer. Authentic means not hiding from the customer or the public – it means being open and human; something that smaller business often excel in over their larger competitors.

Authentic brands that tap into satisfying basic and higher needs together, including elements of relationship, respect, support, and even happiness, will hook us because they will help to feed our social selves, the part that seeks connection and belonging as Maslow suggested.

Do you think that your brand meets these broad range of “needs” or do you love a brand that does? Please share your comments below?

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the owner of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing and educates businesses to think, create, engage and optimise their marketing effort. She coaches customers in Marketing Strategy, both off and online; and implementation. If you would like some free how-to marketing resources or to subscribe to free e-news about authentic marketing, please visit the website:

http://www.zenworkz.com/

For daily marketing tips and references, connect to the community on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Zenworkz BlogAuthentic Marketing Coaching

Posts Tagged: Values

Great Quotes for Marketing!

What Inspires You?

Telling Stories and Ruling the World (apologies to Plato)

Why should customers buy from you?

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

12 Keys to Mindful Success

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Posts Tagged: Values

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