Andy Beale's Post

Came across Andy Beale's article on Marketing Pilgrim site. It is dated over a year ago but the information is still good to use.

This is great for any small business wanting to monitor the profile and enhance their reputation - have a look at Tools for Buzz Monitoring

Marketing your Business

I asked a client recently what she had been doing to bring in clients and she replied that she had her business cards, the website is finished and she joined some networking groups. But there has been no interest….

I asked these two questions:
- Who do want to have a customer or client?
- What solutions do they want?

To the first question, I got the answer, women between the ages 35 and 55 who want to realise their dreams.

Well this is a start, but how can you find only those women who are wanting to realise their dreams. Is that every women? Is it peculiar to a specific location? Or are these women living in every third house?

You see you have to be able to find your prospective customers and clients. You have to be able to identify them in detail so you can find them and start a conversation with them. And, starting the conversation is essential. Because, it is from the conversation that the problems they have and how they plan to resolve will be discovered. And, that is the start of marketing.

No post for so long!

I can’t believe it has been so long since the last post. I am writing now because I am back to my morning ritual of exercise, meditation, writing and focused work. It really makes a difference. I wrote about that in October – Developing as an Entreprenuer

What happened over the past couple of weeks was illness and then chasing my tail playing catch up. Yet, the past few weeks has been interesting because it really came home to me that by listening to my body I am able to stay true to my path. There was a time whne I would have just shrugged off the illness, the feelings of unease, the accidents etc and just carried on….. Now, I don’t know about you, but it tended to end up in tears!

So, how does this relate to marketing?

As micro and small business owners, people buy from us as people and the value we offer. So, when we are ‘under the weather’, this comes through in our choice of words, our mannerisms and the timeliness of our responses.

People remember how we communicate long after we have forgotten the sentence or the post because we were not ourselves! The aim is to be consistent in all of our communications – this is much easier to say than do! But, your prospects and customers are more forgiving when you just own up and say “I screwed up!”

People buy through their emotions so will respond to the emotions we display – consciously or unconsciously! Looking after our emotions is key to us looking after our businesses.

Keep well and stay true!