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Is Your Business Ready For The “Busyness” of The Holidays?

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We’re all aware of the hustle and bustle of the busy holiday season and what that means to our families, our sanity, and our budget. But have you thought about holiday planning for your business?

Canada just celebrated their Thanksgiving holiday, and we’re just around the corner from celebrating ours here in the US.  Which means, Christmas is a little too close for comfort to suit me. So it’s not just a matter of “Ready or not here they come,” it’s more like “Ready or not here they are!” But never fear, it’s not too late.

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Social Media Works, But Who Has Time For It?

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This seems to be the question of the day. We all know (or at least we should) social media works. But, BUT, who has time for it? The most frequent answer to the question is, not me!

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How to Put Your Social Media Insights to Good Use!

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Unraveling the Mystery of Social Media Insights

If your head starts to spin when a marketing conversation shifts to analyzing and insights on one of your favorite social media platforms, you’ll appreciate what I’m sharing.

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Smart Marketing: 5 Affordable Ways to Get the Word Out

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Creating a marketing plan is one of the best investments of time you can invest in your growing business. But for many flourishing businesses, cash flow issues brought on by “growing pains” can often dampen the best laid plans for big and bold marketing ideas.

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Content Marketing is Not For the Faint of Heart!

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Time and time again, I read woeful posts on discussion groups or on social media from business professionals who feel as if they are beating their heads against the wall with their content marketing efforts. Comments like, “nothing is working,” “no one reads my blog posts,” or “no one opens my email” are becoming commonplace. Is this all too common woe affecting your business?

Content Marketing is NOT for the Faint of Heart! [Read more…]

Social Media Checklist for Speakers and Coaches

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Social media is a huge part of most savvy business professional’s online presence and relationship building practices. Once used “in addition to” the more traditional marketing strategies, social media is now firmly embedded in the fabric of today’s business’ marketing plans.

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Top 5 Benefits of a Consistent Public Relations Strategy

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You might be saying … what? Another post about PR? My answer would be yes! A well-thought out and executed Public Relations plan can go a long way toward helping a business reach more clients, establish the desired perception of their business, drive traffic to their website and generate more sales.

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Do You Know the Difference Between Features and Benefits?

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It’s not about what you do. It’s about what you do for them. 

My team spent a lot of time developing some new website content for a client. And in doing so, we carefully broke down the business in terms of features and benefits. When you’re marketing your products and/or services, are you promoting the features of your business, or the benefits they provide?

Do you know the difference between features and benefits? It’s not about what you do. It’s about what you do for them. My team has been developing some new website content for a client this week. And in doing so, we’ve been carefully breaking down the business in terms of features and benefits. When you’re marketing your products and/or services, are you promoting the features of your business, or the benefits they provide? Are you aware of the differences between features and benefits? If not, don’t worry. You’re not alone! It’s easy to confuse the two. A feature is a fact about a specific product or service, and a benefit is something meaningful that feature offers the end user. In this article, we will attempt to explain benefits vs. features while giving you tips on how to use them both in your marketing message . To make this simple, let’s imagine we're selling a chocolate bar that will appeal to health-conscious young mothers. Our chocolate bar is made with vegan ingredients. It is 100% organic, free of refined sugar, and contains no gluten. It is made with fair trade chocolate grown by working mothers in a developing country and its wrapper is biodegradable. Those would all be features of the chocolate bar. Do you follow? Features: • vegan • organic • sugar-free • gluten-free • fair trade • supports working women • biodegradable wrapper Now, what would the benefits of that chocolate bar be? Benefits: • enjoy a chocolate treat knowing it hasn’t been made with any animal products • consume a chocolate treat without consuming pesticides • indulge in a sweet treat without suffering dietary damages caused by refined sugar • have a chocolate bar without having a gluten attack • feel good about your chocolate break knowing that the cocoa was grown and sold in a fair manner that benefited the female farmers • good until after the last bite, this chocolate bar does not have a negative impact on the environment as its wrapper will biodegrade Do you see how, by breaking the features down into benefits, you can see a clearer picture of why the target customer really cares about buying this chocolate bar? By nailing down the benefits you have to offer, you can make a much better argument about why the customer should choose your product (in this case, your chocolate bar) over competing products. Instead of touting your features, promote your benefits! Your customers and clients need to be reminded about why you are the best option, so make it easy for them to see that. Get inside your client’s head and really become familiar with what it is you have to offer that can make his or her life better. Then make a list of all of those things. Those are your benefits. The client doesn’t really care about the fact that your chocolate bar is vegan. They care about the fact that no animals have been used in making it, because they feel strongly about not eating animal products. They don’t care that your bar is gluten-free. They care about the fact that their stomach won’t puff up and feel bloated for a day or two like it does when they eat products with gluten in it. Do you see the distinction? As a great practice, study your competitors’ marketing materials and see which benefits they are promoting and which ones they are missing. Then get to work on promoting your business in a whole new way. [Read more…]

Is Your Business Prepared for the Unexpected?

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It happens to everyone at some point. You get sick, someone in your family gets sick, you have a power failure, a broken computer, or something completely unexpected throws you for a loop and puts you behind.

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8 Tips to Help Your Business Survive and Thrive

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Business survival may differ from “personal survival,” (there are no canned rations or underground bunkers involved) yet it is still a critical piece of our longevity. Here are eight important points to remember to help your business “survive and thrive,” even in the toughest of economic times.

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