When it comes to marketing, most small businesses find that it takes repeated messaging to prospects before those leads become clients. Unfortunately, I also find that a lot of the small business owners I meet are uncomfortable to reach out more than once to prospects. This sets up an inherent problem. One way that you [...]
You know that one person on your to do list that you just can’t seem to contact? The person who has been on your list for a week…or a month….or more….and you just aren’t sure quite what to say? The one who is dangerously close to dropping off your to do list altogether? What if [...]
When it comes to running a successful campaign, the tendency is to look at sales as a measure of that success. However, when you focus on the end sales, you may find that the results-driven mindset gets you stuck in focusing on the end of the sales process as a whole in your communications. In [...]
LinkedIn can be a terrific place to develop contacts for your business. Whether you are using it to cultivate your target market or to form alliances with other businesses, LinkedIn can play a key role in your marketing, networking, and sales plan. That said, the tendency to be overly aggressive is rampant on LinkedIn. Today, [...]
When it comes to marketing, I see a conflict in messaging around how quickly to expect results. On one hand, you hear about how long-term brand awareness and consistent touch points with your audience are key to generating revenue. On the other hand, there is a demand to know the ROI of any marketing activity, [...]
One of the most important aspects of small business marketing strategy is having a marketing funnel that shows a clear pathway for building relationships with your leads. In B2C sales, the funnel is often more straightforward since your lead may also be the end user. B2B sales are a bit more nuanced because of the [...]
Talking with potential customers can be a tricky experience. You may feel like you are walking a tightrope, having something to sell – and knowing you need to sell – but not wanting to come off salesy. The experience is subjective for everyone involved, and it can be difficult to find the right balance. If [...]
I’m going to do a little guesswork here. If you market a small business and this title inspires you, you probably have some amount of concern that you do too much marketing. Even though there isn’t actually a limit to how much you can market, you may feel like you’ve surpassed one or you’re close [...]
I speak to thousands of small business owners a year, and this type of question comes up a lot. The wording may change, of course. Sometimes people ask about the ROI of a specific marketing activity or campaign. Sometimes they ask the quickest way to see success in marketing. However the question is phrased, the [...]
For many businesses, customer retention is part of a healthy profit model. Once you do the work to connect with new leads and build the relationship so they become customers, it is inefficient to then go and drop the conversation altogether and search for new leads to woo. Yet, it can be a real challenge [...]