“So what is a SWOT analysis?” Not one of my small business clients has ever asked me that question, so why am I bothering to write about it? Well, because it’s something that should be on the radar of all small businesses and it isn’t. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and it’s…
How to Figure Out Your Marketing Budget – Part 2
Figuring out your marketing budget isn’t always easy. In fact, most of the time it’s probably hit and miss. Mostly miss. Here’s how to take the guesswork out of working out a realistic marketing budget. In Part 1, I suggested that you look back over the past year and document exactly what you spent your…
How to Figure Out Your Marketing Budget – Part 1
First of all let’s get one myth out of the way: There’s no such thing as a magic formula for working out your marketing budget. If you do a search for marketing budget online you’ll find a lot of different ideas about how to figure it out: everything from a percentage of sales (and the…
Strategic Marketing – A Jargon-Free Intro to Marketing Strategy
There’s a lot of information out there on marketing strategy. In fact, if you type marketing strategy into Google, you’ll get around 23,600,00 results. But most of those entries on the first page or two aren’t exactly small-business-friendly, even though some of them claim to be. Here’s a definition of marketing strategy from www.businessdictionary.com. A…
Why Small Businesses Fail – And What To Do About Yours
I teach marketing on a course for people who aspire to start their own small business. Invariably I begin with one of those frightening statistics about how many small businesses will fail in their first year of operation, and how many of those who do survive the initial struggles will still be around five years…
Don’t You Dare Drop the Price!
Time and time again, my clients ask me whether they should drop the price of their product or service to match their competitors’ prices. I’m biting my tongue. Think about it. When you reduce your price, what do you actually achieve? At best you might make a few more sales. At worst you’ll cause yourself…
A Guide to Marketing Literacy
If you want to become a marketing expert, one of the best things you can do is read a marketing book or two a week. Honestly, marketing isn’t rocket science. It’s largely common sense and practice. But there’s a lot to learn if you want to avoid getting a roasting. For starters, you’ll benefit from…
How to Make Time For Marketing
No time for marketing? So what’s your excuse? Busy with paperwork? Troubleshooting complaints? Chasing after suppliers? If you don’t put the day-to-day stuff on the back burner and get some marketing done, you’ll be digging your business an early grave. And it’ll be your fault. Here are my top three ways to carve out some…
Let the Number Crunching Begin!
Alright, so marketing statistics isn’t the most appetizing of topics. But it’s one of the most sustaining for your business. If I told you that a little bit of number crunching could lead you to mouth watering cost reductions you’d listen up, right? So let me ask you these questions: How many new leads have…
How To Write An Eyeball-Stopping Headline
What exactly does it take to write a great headline? Well, to start off with, I’d say about 99 rejected headlines and 1 winner. Headline writing is an art, and, like all art, benefits from practice and different perspectives. First of all let’s get something out of the way. Whether or not you like the…
