Marketing Archives - Page 3 of 8

Content Marketing: Are You Leaving Money On The Table?

Content marketing is something that is close to my heart as a marketer. I am very much the content marketing evangelist and have spoken quite extensively about it. In my Icelandic online training program there is a very big module about marketing communications and as I am reworking the materials in English (my training will be launched internationally next year) the realisation just hits me again and again how large a part of modern marketing content marketing is.

Amongst other things, the marketing communications part of my training covers the marketing process, how marketing activities must work together for optimum results, and then I list a great big menu of marketing communications tools and activities that SMBs and entrepreneurs have at their disposal.

To make sense of the myriad of things out there, I have prioritised the options and given examples of what activities are most suitable for what types of businesses. As I went through the list of only the most important things to do in marketing, just the ones that hardly any business can go without today, it became increasingly clear that in today’s business world content marketing is not an option but a necessity. It is something that we are all doing and all need to do if we are in business, and its importance will only increase in the future. It is literally everywhere!

Below are a few places where content marketing comes into play – and many of us don’t even realise it! [Read more…]

Use Content Marketing To Make Your Life Easier

– by educating your customers

Content marketing is one of my favourite aspects of marketing for many reasons. One of the somewhat hidden benefits of content marketing is how it can improve your relationship with your customers through their learning.

Most of us have experienced bad customers, whether they were difficult to sell to to begin with or whether they are difficult to work with once business is underway. There are many reasons for them being this way (some people are just like that ;) but in many cases these difficulties can be reduced through content marketing. By informing and enlightening your customers you can remove many of the hindrances to a good relationship, and even open the door to selling them things that they may never have been willing to buy otherwise.

The best way to illustrate this is by examples: [Read more…]

You Can’t Sell To Everybody: Find Your Target Group

When asked about their target group, many business owners say they sell to everybody. And it’s understandable. Who doesn’t want as many people as possible buying their products or services. I can totally relate. Sometimes you just want to stand there on the town square and shout to the world about what you are doing. Here’s the problem though. It’s never going to work. Why?

[Read more…]

I Love It When People Can’t Stand Me!

I met a friend and former colleague the other day. She asked me what reaction I had got to my last blog post and email I sent out to my followers. The reason she asked was that someone had come to her and expressed her dislike. That person did not know how to react to my email, whose subject was: “No one wants to be an ass, do they, …?” It was clear that this person was offended by this.

My friend did ask them whether they had actually read the email, and it turns out that they did not, so there was no way they were going to get the joke – oh well…

My reaction: Sheer joy! I thought it was great! OK – please don’t get me wrong. It was not my intention to make that person feel bad in any way and I am sorry for that. However, I am very very happy when someone really hates the stuff that I do. Why? Because if someone hates it, it is more likely than not that someone completely loves it! And that is what I want.

Eenie Meenie Miney Moe

I have said it before and I’ll say it again. Marketing is all about building relationships. The stronger a relationship you* can forge the more likely people are to buy from you, buy from you again and to create more business by telling others about you. You want some people to hate you and others to love you. Let’s be realistic – no everyone is going to love you – it’s just not possible! Those that love you will not want to do business with anyone else but you, and those that don’t, well, if they hate you enough, you will definitely be talked about ;)

If everyone thinks you’re just ok, you* won’t matter enough to people for them to choose you over anyone else. If you are ok, and that one is ok and the other one is ok as well, people may as well use eenie-meenie-miney-moe to choose who they do business with. Or even worse, make their choice solely based on price – and that is when business will start to get really tought!

* please note that when I say “you” that refers to your business, product or service – but can also refer to you yourself if you are what you are marketing.

Be Pink!

[Read more…]

Don’t Be An Ass – You Need To Do Market Research!

I woke from a bad dream the other day. I was working with a large group of people and suddenly I realised that they were just making up things about their target groups, rather than having any real information. And it reminded me of something I have always known, but one tends to forget. None of us can read minds! (If I am wrong, and you can, please get in touch because I really really really want to talk to you! :)

Not only did I assume that they knew they had to do some research to get to know more about their target groups – and thereby assumed they could read my mind – they also assumed they knew everything there was to know about their target groups – and thereby assumed that they read minds and knew all kinds of things about people they had never even met!

So what? Does that matter? [Read more…]