Many of the ways that you could market your business open you up to receiving feedback from the audience receiving your message. For some business owners, the idea of creating conversation with your audience is appealing and invigorating. For others, the idea of getting negative engagement – especially in forums that are publicly visible – [...]
This Marketing Tip of the Week is going to be different. This is a public service announcement for small businesses, non-profits, event organizers, farmers markets operators, trade show organizers, chambers, SBDCs, and business associations of every description anywhere in the world. Who am I? I am a small business owner (service business) in Seattle. I [...]
Last week I attended Cirque du Soleil’s show Volta. I have long been a fan of Cirque du Soleil’s artistry, creativity, and original approach to its shows. Many parts of this show left me in awe, but one sticks out as a great lesson I can apply to life and to marketing. One of the [...]
In marketing, we often talk about the power of reviews and testimonials. What others choose to say about us holds weight – more than our own words, even. Like it or not, external validation plays a role in decision making for most people. So, what happens when the reviews aren’t positive? Today we’re talking about [...]
Something interesting happened this last couple of weeks. Four different people asked me for advice on how to message when a business has a change in ownership. Four people in two weeks – and I had never been asked that question before! The contexts were different, but the root question was the same: how do [...]
This post is a crash course in crisis communications. If you are a small business owner or a nonprofit CEO, you probably wear a lot of hats for your business. Also, you probably were never told much about the hats. The crisis communications hat is a tough one, because when it is time to wear [...]