Wednesday, December 28
Small business marketing: persistence pays!
Persistent people begin their success where others end in failure. -- Edward Eggleston I'm trying as hard as I can, and sometimes things don't go your way, and that's the way things go. -- Tiger Woods Be persistent and work hard. Will this guarantee success? Of course not. But it certainly will increase your chances! Success is a marathon, not a sprint. Never give up. Tom Peters believes that "success in business comes from surviving long enough to get lucky." |
Wednesday, December 21
Small business marketing: learning into action
| Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. -- John F. Kennedy He who learns but does not think is lost. -- Confucius Never stop learning. Go back to school or read books. Get training and acquire skills. But never think of learning as learning for its own sake. Take what you've learned and apply it, modify it, expand it, develop it, share it, teach others, and boil it down to its essence in real, concrete business terms that you can use in your immediate environment. In any learning situation, focus like a laser beam on application, application, application! Learn from every source, think, and then translate that learning into appropriate, useful, meaningful action. |
Tuesday, December 13
Small business marketing: How to be a better writer - FAST
Writing compelling and results-producing copy requires two skills: You must learn how to break complex items into smaller (more digestible) parts and you must be able to convince your readers to take action. Here are guidelines that have served me (and my clients) well. I hope they're equally helpful to you. 1) The first few paragraphs of any marketing document must tell your reader what's in it for him. We don't want our reader looking up after 30 seconds and wondering, "Why am I reading this?" 2) Each marketing document (sales letter, web page, brochure) should focus on a single purpose-it should be written to stimulate a specific response. This response could be an action (take the next step in the sales process) or it could be emotional (I want them to feel worried about a particular problem). 3) Density (not length) is important. Marketing materials that stimulate interest and curiosity have lots of new and good ideas. Ideally you should introduce a new fact, figure or idea every couple of paragraphs. This stimulates interest, builds credibility and goes a long way towards ensuring that your entire piece gets read. 4) Write only about what you know. Keep these points in mind the next time you're developing a marketing document of any type. |
Wednesday, December 7
Small business marketing: dreaming for 2011
| Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living. -- Anais Nin Decide upon your true dreams and goals. Write down your specific goals and develop a plan to reach them. Then look at this list frequently, update it, and keep on course. Jesse Owens said, "We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort." Dreaming, and making dreams come true, is the hardest and highest form of business. |
