Small Business Archives

I’d like to teach the world to… do marketing ;)

We are getting to that time of year when I need to see one of my favourite adverts of all time. You remember it. That Coca-Cola ad with all the people on the hilltop singing about how they’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony :) I love that ad. To me, once I see that ad, then the holidays are coming.

I’m a singer (bet you didn’t know that – who knows, I might give you a little sample sometime lol ;) … but I’m not attempting to teach the world to sing – there are plenty of good people out there doing that ;) I do want to teach the world about marketing though. Particularly those of us who run small or medium sized businesses, where business is not just business but a lifestyle. Those of us that start a business because we have a dream – whatever that dream may be – more money, freedom, being your own boss, helping people or whatvever. That’s my passion. Helping build businesses that people love – that customers love, and that the owners love running. See, there are far too many great businesses that fail, simply because the marketing know-how is not there. And I don’t want that to happen!

It’s a jungle out there – a marketing jungle. I’m a marketing nerd. This is what I do all day in and out and I still get confused sometimes. With the internet, social media, smartphones etc. there are so many options, so many opportunities, so many potential pitfalls. So to help us all make some sense of all this marketing mess, I’ve written a book on it – hey, that’s what you do don’t you, when you want to teach? ;)

It’s my hope that this book gives non-specialists a good foundation to build their marketing on and makes sense of this whole thing. So far so good, I’ve got some great reviews from pre-reads of the book, some of which you can see on the page where you can get a sneak peek into the book: https://thoranna.is/marketinguntangledfree/

The book outlines the five main themes underpinning a solid marketing strategy and action plan: target groups, competition, branding, marketing communications and the marketing system. The plan is then to delve deeper into each of those five themes in the coming year with five more books in the Marketing Untangled series, giving you all the tools you need to master this marketing thing ;)

I do hope you’ll grab a preview. Once it’s out I’ll let you know, and for the first few days it will be available for free through Amazon – so grab the preview, keep your eyes open for the launch and grab a free copy! It really is a win-win!

Oh, and those that grab their preview can come join me in the Marketing Untangled Series Facebook Community where we talk marketing. I pop in regularly to take part in discussions and answer questions, and I’d love for you to come join me!

To your marketing success!

Thoranna

p.s. that link again – just in case ;) https://thoranna.is/marketinguntangledfree/

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?

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There were some sharp entrepreneurs sharpening their game even further on Saturday!

The Small Business Branding Day speakers at the Blue Lagoon!

The SMALL BUSINESS BRANDING day was held for the first time at a beautiful and unique location, the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. The BRANDit production was organized by its two founders; Bjarney Ludviksdottir, international director and producer, and Runa Magnus, the international branding lecturer, and author of the upcoming book “Branding Your X-Factor”. This special day was dedicated to small business owners and their executive team, and designed to give them insights into the 8 steps to sharpen their success with high-performance strategies from 8 leading European business and branding experts. [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…]

Get Your Customers to Get You Even More Business!

We all know that it’s great when our customers are happy and spread the word, as I have discussed in other posts. However, we tend to just cross our fingers and hope for the best, rather than taking matters into our own hands to increase the chances of them referring more business to us. What, if anything, can we do?

Be Great!

You have to be worth people telling others about you. People will not refer others to boring businesses, or “just ok” businesses. They will however recommend businesses they think is great. So to start off with, you have to have a great product or service, but you also have to consider the total customer experience – your brand and all your brand touchpoints! Great businesses are not made by accident, and those that are truly great won’t need to spend as much time and money on their marketing (remember what Seth Godin said about small business and branding? ;) How can you improve your product, service and the customer experience?

If you have a great product or service, help your customers help their people by making it easy for them to recommend your business.

How Can You Help Them Create More Customers for You?

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