I have no competitors. No, really. Sure, marketing consultants are a dime a dozen. In that sense, yes, I have competitors. And if you want to do-your-own marketing, you can easily buy marketing info in your local bookstore. So books are my competitors, too. And so are digital product producers, and copywriters, and market researchers,…
How to Do Market Research Online for Offline Profits
Most small businesses, if they’re doing any online market research at all, simply use the results to write keyword-rich blog posts, or add a few twists and turns to their social media maze. Not that it’s a bad thing, but you really need to think a little more out of the box when you’re learning how to do market research online.
Word of Mouth Marketing – Ignore At Your Own Risk
Sooner rather than later, you need to put word of mouth marketing (WOM) into action. Especially if you’re a small business, and especially if you haven’t got a huge budget for advertising, branding and the like. According to WOMMA, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (now that’s a mouthful!), word of mouth marketing is defined…
Forget About Writing a Marketing Plan
Forget about writing a marketing plan? That’s not exactly the advice you expect to hear from a marketing consultant, now is it? Well, that’s exactly the advice I’m giving you. Why? You’ve probably read, or been told, that the very first thing you should do for your business is write a plan. Either a business…
How to Do Market Research With (Almost) No Budget
Even if you’re the owner of the smallest of small businesses, you still need to know how to do market research. And you need to know how to do it with what few resources you have at your disposal. Here’s the thing. Market research can make or break your business. And I exaggerate not. Here…
Knowing Your Customer Profiles Means Bigger Profits
If you know your customer profiles you can make more money from your customers? Oh really? Well, actually, yes, it’s true. But right now, to most small business owners, I’ll wager that the very idea of a customer profile is as clear as mud. It’s just one of those lovely marketing jargon phrases that people…
How to Market a Business? – Tough Question, Easy Answer
How to market a business? Now there’s a question! It’s one I’m asked a lot, and somehow the askers always think there’s an easy answer. “No big deal – you’re a marketing consultant,” they say, “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” Um, no. Here’s the thing. It’s YOUR business. No one…
Marketing Wisdom: How To Differentiate Your Product
A watermelon is a watermelon is a watermelon. Or is it? If you’re in the market to buy a water melon (or any other commodity-type purchase) how do you decide where to buy? And as a seller, how do you make your product stand out from the crowd? Here’s the thing. I know virtually nothing…
Customer Service Number – Make Sure Your Customers Know Yours
Now here’s an interesting thing. Out of curiosity, I typed in Customer Service Number into some nifty software which tells me what phrases people are using to search on Google and other search engines. It turns out that here are an awful lot of people looking for telephone help for particular products or companies. Many….
Customer Satisfaction Examples: From Fabulous to Frantic in 30 Seconds
So here’s what happened. In my ever growing collection of customer satisfaction examples this one is a howler. Our car was in the shop. In another city. About an hour away. The mechanic called and said it would be ready that afternoon and that he would arrange for a driver to pick my husband up…
