Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Our blog has moved!
Thanks for visiting this page. Our blog has now moved to our brand new site at Exceptional Thinking. Check us out by visiting: http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/index.php/blog
Monday, 7 December 2009
Do you know what your priorities are?
OK, I admit - at the beginning of last week, I had 87 tasks on my to-do list. These mainly consisted of tasks that I wanted to get out of the way before Christmas. But with only 2 weeks to go before we 'break up' for 2 weeks, I finally had to be realistic with myself and realise that much as I'd like to, I wasn't going to get everything finished.
So, in order to be clearer with myself, I asked the question of "what are my priorities?" between now and the 18th December? And the answer was "finishing off the website."
Once I'd focused, I cleared my to-do list and on it are only items involved with finishing off the website. Because I now know what my priorities are, it's meant that I'm much more likely to get this finished instead of trying to do everything.
So in the last two weeks before Christmas, do you know what your priorities are for your business? This isn't your to-do list, this is asking yourself what the big things are that you want to get finished and out of the way. Once you know, you'll be much more focused and can work on finishing off these tasks.
So, in order to be clearer with myself, I asked the question of "what are my priorities?" between now and the 18th December? And the answer was "finishing off the website."
Once I'd focused, I cleared my to-do list and on it are only items involved with finishing off the website. Because I now know what my priorities are, it's meant that I'm much more likely to get this finished instead of trying to do everything.
So in the last two weeks before Christmas, do you know what your priorities are for your business? This isn't your to-do list, this is asking yourself what the big things are that you want to get finished and out of the way. Once you know, you'll be much more focused and can work on finishing off these tasks.
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Use Christmas to promote your business
It’s getting close to that time of year again – when everyone starts to talk about the ‘C’ word and looks forward to their two week break. Before you look forward too much to your break though, I want you to stop for a minute and just think about promoting over the Christmas period.
It’s actually a great time to promote – after all, you were probably planning to send people a Christmas Card anyway, weren’t you? We might as well kill two birds with one stone.
Let’s have a look at some of the ways you could promote your business over this festive time.
1. Send out vouchers
My first suggestion is to send out vouchers with your Christmas Cards – what have you got to lose? If you can make it relevant to a product or service that people have to take advantage of before the New Year, you’ll also get people acting now rather than forgetting about it when January comes.
2. Thank your current customers
Christmas is always the time of year when we tell our customers how much we appreciate them, so they’ll be expecting this anyway. Why not think about doing something a bit different for them? Perhaps invite them for a few drinks or visit them in person to say thank you.
3. Have a Christmassy offer
People need a reason to act before Christmas – otherwise they’ll just leave things until the New Year. Last year, we produced a CD on marketing that we told people about over December. This worked great because it was a low cost offer (they just had to pay for P&P) and it was something many people wanted to listen to over the Christmas period. What could you do?
4. The ‘Money Mountain’
Several radio stations do a ‘Money Mountain’ in early December, which is about raising money to help good causes. You can donate a product or service and in return you will get free publicity on the radio for an hour or so on the day of the auction. How great is that? Get involved – you might be surprised at the result.
5. Do you have plans for a January sale?
Everyone likes to feel that they’re getting a bargain when they buy something. Are you planning to have a sale for your customers? It could also be a big incentive for those who’ve been thinking about buying your products or services to do something about it.
6. Put in place a marketing plan for next year
While you’ve got a bit of breathing space between Christmas and the New Year, why not put a marketing plan for 2010 in place? A bit of thinking time is often just what’s needed to decide on your goals for next year and how you’re going to accomplish them.
7. Remember to be realistic
While you have all the best intentions to get more business over the Christmas period, remember that everyone is going to be starting to wind down between now and the beginning of January so if you run a service business and are expecting loads of customers, think again. Don’t be too discouraged about it though – use the time wisely to give yourself a kick start for the New Year.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small businesses on their marketing and to people starting up in business.
It’s actually a great time to promote – after all, you were probably planning to send people a Christmas Card anyway, weren’t you? We might as well kill two birds with one stone.
Let’s have a look at some of the ways you could promote your business over this festive time.
1. Send out vouchers
My first suggestion is to send out vouchers with your Christmas Cards – what have you got to lose? If you can make it relevant to a product or service that people have to take advantage of before the New Year, you’ll also get people acting now rather than forgetting about it when January comes.
2. Thank your current customers
Christmas is always the time of year when we tell our customers how much we appreciate them, so they’ll be expecting this anyway. Why not think about doing something a bit different for them? Perhaps invite them for a few drinks or visit them in person to say thank you.
3. Have a Christmassy offer
People need a reason to act before Christmas – otherwise they’ll just leave things until the New Year. Last year, we produced a CD on marketing that we told people about over December. This worked great because it was a low cost offer (they just had to pay for P&P) and it was something many people wanted to listen to over the Christmas period. What could you do?
4. The ‘Money Mountain’
Several radio stations do a ‘Money Mountain’ in early December, which is about raising money to help good causes. You can donate a product or service and in return you will get free publicity on the radio for an hour or so on the day of the auction. How great is that? Get involved – you might be surprised at the result.
5. Do you have plans for a January sale?
Everyone likes to feel that they’re getting a bargain when they buy something. Are you planning to have a sale for your customers? It could also be a big incentive for those who’ve been thinking about buying your products or services to do something about it.
6. Put in place a marketing plan for next year
While you’ve got a bit of breathing space between Christmas and the New Year, why not put a marketing plan for 2010 in place? A bit of thinking time is often just what’s needed to decide on your goals for next year and how you’re going to accomplish them.
7. Remember to be realistic
While you have all the best intentions to get more business over the Christmas period, remember that everyone is going to be starting to wind down between now and the beginning of January so if you run a service business and are expecting loads of customers, think again. Don’t be too discouraged about it though – use the time wisely to give yourself a kick start for the New Year.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small businesses on their marketing and to people starting up in business.
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Can't be bothered moments...
This morning I had a "can't be bothered moment". It probably resulted from having cold all week and not sleeping properly, but all I wanted to do was go home and go back to bed. Knowing I couldn't really do that (it doesn't really set a good example to my team), I procrasinated for a couple of hours and then (just before I wrote this post), I gave myself a good talking to and decided to get on with completing just 5 things.
While some would argue that I shouldn't have pushed myself at that point and had the afternoon off, my argument is that none of us can really afford to do that. We all have deadlines, things that need to be done, planned and completed before we can have a break.
It's not like I don't have anything to do and for the most part I'm pretty excited about doing them. And if I don't, who will?
So, next time you have a "can't be bothered moment", give yourself a shake and make yourself get on with just a few tasks. Believe me (I'm currently on task 3 of 5), I feel loads better already and when I've done the 5, maybe I'll challenge myself to go for 10 tasks!
While some would argue that I shouldn't have pushed myself at that point and had the afternoon off, my argument is that none of us can really afford to do that. We all have deadlines, things that need to be done, planned and completed before we can have a break.
It's not like I don't have anything to do and for the most part I'm pretty excited about doing them. And if I don't, who will?
So, next time you have a "can't be bothered moment", give yourself a shake and make yourself get on with just a few tasks. Believe me (I'm currently on task 3 of 5), I feel loads better already and when I've done the 5, maybe I'll challenge myself to go for 10 tasks!
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Looking After Yourself and Your Staff at Work
Wouldn’t it be great if our bodies could diagnose and fix themselves so we wouldn’t have to worry about going to the dentist, or visiting the doctor and you’d never fall foul of the usual round of cold and flu viruses that magically appear at this time of year?
Unfortunately, there isn’t yet a Matrix style programme that we can download into heads to sort out our health. And yet most of us, if we stopped to listen to our bodies and took some simple measures, could actually prevent a lot of the illnesses we have.
Ok so you’re rushing around trying to meet with clients, grabbing a quick lunch and preparing an important presentation, but a small amount of time spent on yourself and the welfare of your staff could pay dividends in the future. It’s one of those investments that we should make but often don’t to our cost.
Healthy Environment
Providing a healthy environment for you and your staff is vital to help reduce accidents and keeping people safe. It everyone’s responsibility to ensure not only that their working area is tidy but that their equipment is up to scratch. It’s also good to check they are sitting in the correct positions and are following the correct guidelines when using equipment. However, as their boss, it’s up to you to make sure they are aware of their responsibilities and that all new staff are given adequate guidelines and the appropriate training.
Reduce Stress
A tense environment can quickly escalate causing staff to burn out and is one of the main factors why people fall ill. They may even end up leaving if this pattern keeps repeating itself, and in extreme cases this can result in staff taking their employer to court. Using humour in the workplace can foster wellness, improve stress management and increase productivity and morale. Also ensuring you and your staff take regular breaks and use up their holidays on a regular basis will not only minimise the build up of stress but also help avoid the glut of holidays that workaholics always seem to find themselves with before the year end.
Staff Training
Providing training gives your staff the tools to help grow your business. After all, you’ve spent time and money choosing good staff so why wouldn’t you invest the time to train them? It’s not just about providing your staff with training on a regular basis but also coaching and mentoring them. Your input is vital in guiding your staff through tough times and gives them direction. They also need to know why they are being asked to do something and are much more likely to do a better job if they understand its importance
Recognise and Praise Achievements
When was the last time you gave your staff a pat on the back, or thanked them properly for their efforts? If you don’t praise them at least once a day then you’re not praising them enough. Everybody likes to be praised for a doing a good job and its important to ensure you do this on the same day. It makes staff feel valued and keeps them motivated. It’s the easiest thing to do and a simple courtesy costs nothing but is worth everything.
Rewards and Benefits
Bonuses schemes are always popular with staff as they recognise their achievements. However, they don’t always have to be monetary. Giving away mini rewards such as gift certificates or taking your staff out to lunch can make a big difference. Just as importantly though are the types of benefits your company can offer staff. These can also go a long way in making your staff feel valued whilst promoting loyalty and a ‘feel-good’ factor. Many companies offer benefits to their staff but one of the most important are health schemes. They let your staff know you are concerned about their wellbeing, particularly if they offer costs towards routine dental and optical treatment, eye tests and prescription charges or even in-patient and day patient care.
That’s why Exceptional Thinking recommends health policies such as Wellness cover from WPA http://www.wpa.org.uk/keithiliffe/. From as little as £15.00 each your staff can be covered for dental and optical, eye tests, prescription charges, hospital in-patient and day-patient allowances, specialist or second opinion, post hospital recovery bonus, allowance for attending A&E, physiotherapy, Health Screening, Maternity and Paternity and even a confidential stress counselling service.
Exceptional Thinking http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/ provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing and to people setting up in business.
Unfortunately, there isn’t yet a Matrix style programme that we can download into heads to sort out our health. And yet most of us, if we stopped to listen to our bodies and took some simple measures, could actually prevent a lot of the illnesses we have.
Ok so you’re rushing around trying to meet with clients, grabbing a quick lunch and preparing an important presentation, but a small amount of time spent on yourself and the welfare of your staff could pay dividends in the future. It’s one of those investments that we should make but often don’t to our cost.
Healthy Environment
Providing a healthy environment for you and your staff is vital to help reduce accidents and keeping people safe. It everyone’s responsibility to ensure not only that their working area is tidy but that their equipment is up to scratch. It’s also good to check they are sitting in the correct positions and are following the correct guidelines when using equipment. However, as their boss, it’s up to you to make sure they are aware of their responsibilities and that all new staff are given adequate guidelines and the appropriate training.
Reduce Stress
A tense environment can quickly escalate causing staff to burn out and is one of the main factors why people fall ill. They may even end up leaving if this pattern keeps repeating itself, and in extreme cases this can result in staff taking their employer to court. Using humour in the workplace can foster wellness, improve stress management and increase productivity and morale. Also ensuring you and your staff take regular breaks and use up their holidays on a regular basis will not only minimise the build up of stress but also help avoid the glut of holidays that workaholics always seem to find themselves with before the year end.
Staff Training
Providing training gives your staff the tools to help grow your business. After all, you’ve spent time and money choosing good staff so why wouldn’t you invest the time to train them? It’s not just about providing your staff with training on a regular basis but also coaching and mentoring them. Your input is vital in guiding your staff through tough times and gives them direction. They also need to know why they are being asked to do something and are much more likely to do a better job if they understand its importance
Recognise and Praise Achievements
When was the last time you gave your staff a pat on the back, or thanked them properly for their efforts? If you don’t praise them at least once a day then you’re not praising them enough. Everybody likes to be praised for a doing a good job and its important to ensure you do this on the same day. It makes staff feel valued and keeps them motivated. It’s the easiest thing to do and a simple courtesy costs nothing but is worth everything.
Rewards and Benefits
Bonuses schemes are always popular with staff as they recognise their achievements. However, they don’t always have to be monetary. Giving away mini rewards such as gift certificates or taking your staff out to lunch can make a big difference. Just as importantly though are the types of benefits your company can offer staff. These can also go a long way in making your staff feel valued whilst promoting loyalty and a ‘feel-good’ factor. Many companies offer benefits to their staff but one of the most important are health schemes. They let your staff know you are concerned about their wellbeing, particularly if they offer costs towards routine dental and optical treatment, eye tests and prescription charges or even in-patient and day patient care.
That’s why Exceptional Thinking recommends health policies such as Wellness cover from WPA http://www.wpa.org.uk/keithiliffe/. From as little as £15.00 each your staff can be covered for dental and optical, eye tests, prescription charges, hospital in-patient and day-patient allowances, specialist or second opinion, post hospital recovery bonus, allowance for attending A&E, physiotherapy, Health Screening, Maternity and Paternity and even a confidential stress counselling service.
Exceptional Thinking http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/ provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing and to people setting up in business.
Monday, 16 November 2009
Changes are afoot...
There's been lots of changes happening at Exceptional Thinking recently and I feel very much like Willy Wonka keeping everything secret so that everything can be revealed at the same time.
But, gradually things are coming together and this is what will be happening in the New Year:
But, gradually things are coming together and this is what will be happening in the New Year:
- We will be launching our brand new website. It's getting close to the point of completion now and we'll be looking to test it shortly. By the way, if you'd like to be one of the testers and get a sneak preview, please email me on helen.dowling@exceptionalthinking.co.uk
- We will also be launching a new members area where members will have much more help with their marketing from us without paying a fortune. They will get access to calls, action plans, marketing audits and 1-2-1 meetings with me to name but a few things. Very excited about this - watch this space!
- We'll also be doing more workshops, more telecalls, and lots more working with people individually to help them get the most out of their marketing.
We've recently taken on Nicky Benton to help us out in addition to Trudi Hayden and I hope by the end of 2010, we'll have another person on board too.
So, there's lots of changes afoot for the year ahead and I'm really excited about sharing the new changes with you. Keep checking back for more...
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Focus on educating your customers
When customers are not buying, it’s very easy to take it personally, think the whole world’s against you and get very demotivated with the whole thing. And then of course, that makes the situation even worse – because customers can sense a mile off if you’re not happy and even though you desperately want more customers, they don’t want to work with you.
So, what do you do to break out of this circle? Well, an easy way (and often a better way) to think about your marketing is to focus instead on educating your customers. That means, rather than trying to convince them to buy, all you want to do instead is pass on useful tips and information to help people.
The impact of this can be dramatic. Firstly, you start to perceive yourself in a different way. The emphasis is no longer on getting people to buy - you’re now an educator, a teacher in your subject. If you think of yourself in this way, you’ll find that you no longer worry if people don’t buy from you immediately. At least, if nothing else, you’ve been helpful to someone.
The second impact is that the world of marketing suddenly opens its door to you. If you focus on educating your customers, there are a multitude of ways in which you can do this, from writing articles to giving speeches and seminars. These methods will help you to reach more potential customers who will also all perceive you as being an expert in your field – can’t be bad!
Thirdly, customers receive a taster from you of what you can do. If you’re giving a seminar for instance, potential customers get to meet you and get to understand what you can do in a way they wouldn’t otherwise experience. Compare this method for instance to cold calling, where potential customers only get a call explaining what you do and no education at all.
Focusing on educating your customers takes all the pressure off for you and is (in my humble opinion) a far nicer way to do marketing. We have had some tremendous successes from employing this method in my business and clients of ours have received great results too.
But can every business focus on education rather than selling? For instance a customer of mine told me the other day that their business was different – their customers wouldn’t want any education; they either needed the service or they didn’t.
My answer was rubbish – every business can use the focus of education to market their business. No matter what product or service you supply, people always want useful information and tips to help them make a decision.
After all, isn’t that how we buy? Many of us go to the web these days and search for information on a particular product or service before we make a decision to purchase. And if you’re the one providing this useful information for free, who are they more likely to buy from?
Education is a great way to market your business and if you want 50 free ways to promote your business containing many ways to educate your customers, just send me an email – details in the profile.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing and to people starting up in business. For a copy of our 50 free ways to promote your business, just email me on helen.dowling@exceptionalthinking.co.uk
So, what do you do to break out of this circle? Well, an easy way (and often a better way) to think about your marketing is to focus instead on educating your customers. That means, rather than trying to convince them to buy, all you want to do instead is pass on useful tips and information to help people.
The impact of this can be dramatic. Firstly, you start to perceive yourself in a different way. The emphasis is no longer on getting people to buy - you’re now an educator, a teacher in your subject. If you think of yourself in this way, you’ll find that you no longer worry if people don’t buy from you immediately. At least, if nothing else, you’ve been helpful to someone.
The second impact is that the world of marketing suddenly opens its door to you. If you focus on educating your customers, there are a multitude of ways in which you can do this, from writing articles to giving speeches and seminars. These methods will help you to reach more potential customers who will also all perceive you as being an expert in your field – can’t be bad!
Thirdly, customers receive a taster from you of what you can do. If you’re giving a seminar for instance, potential customers get to meet you and get to understand what you can do in a way they wouldn’t otherwise experience. Compare this method for instance to cold calling, where potential customers only get a call explaining what you do and no education at all.
Focusing on educating your customers takes all the pressure off for you and is (in my humble opinion) a far nicer way to do marketing. We have had some tremendous successes from employing this method in my business and clients of ours have received great results too.
But can every business focus on education rather than selling? For instance a customer of mine told me the other day that their business was different – their customers wouldn’t want any education; they either needed the service or they didn’t.
My answer was rubbish – every business can use the focus of education to market their business. No matter what product or service you supply, people always want useful information and tips to help them make a decision.
After all, isn’t that how we buy? Many of us go to the web these days and search for information on a particular product or service before we make a decision to purchase. And if you’re the one providing this useful information for free, who are they more likely to buy from?
Education is a great way to market your business and if you want 50 free ways to promote your business containing many ways to educate your customers, just send me an email – details in the profile.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing and to people starting up in business. For a copy of our 50 free ways to promote your business, just email me on helen.dowling@exceptionalthinking.co.uk
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
It's your business...
At a meeting earlier today I asked a client why she was doing things in a certain way. She replied that she had to do things like that. I went deeper and asked her why to which she didn't really have an answer.
It's a pretty hard thing to get your head around but when you run a business, it's your business - no one elses and you say what goes. When you run your own business, you really do start each day with a blank piece of paper and it's up to you how you fill it.
Yes, there may be consequences if you don't do things, but make sure before you agree to any task or put any job down on your to-do list that you're 100% happy with it. If you're not, all that will happen is that it will stay on your to-do list and not get done. You'll put it off week after week until eventually it doesn't have to be done anymore.
Remember, it's your business. You say how it's run and what's ok and what's not. That means if you want to go out for a walk at 2pm in the afternoon, you can and if you don't want to take on a particular client you don't have to.
After all, that's why you started this business isn't it? To have freedom and enjoy life. Make sure you do!
It's a pretty hard thing to get your head around but when you run a business, it's your business - no one elses and you say what goes. When you run your own business, you really do start each day with a blank piece of paper and it's up to you how you fill it.
Yes, there may be consequences if you don't do things, but make sure before you agree to any task or put any job down on your to-do list that you're 100% happy with it. If you're not, all that will happen is that it will stay on your to-do list and not get done. You'll put it off week after week until eventually it doesn't have to be done anymore.
Remember, it's your business. You say how it's run and what's ok and what's not. That means if you want to go out for a walk at 2pm in the afternoon, you can and if you don't want to take on a particular client you don't have to.
After all, that's why you started this business isn't it? To have freedom and enjoy life. Make sure you do!
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
How to do business effectively while on the move
I don’t know about you, but there have been days when I’ve been out and about and not been near the office once. On days like this, it’s difficult to get any work done let alone any marketing.
So, what can you do? Here are my top tips to do business effectively when you’re on the move.
1) Plan in advance – how often have you had to rush because you needed petrol and didn’t get it before? Or, had to get up early to print out materials that you needed for the day? Yes – me too! But, if you plan in advance and do these things before the day you know you’re going to be out, you’ll find your life is much smoother.
2) Use Technology – there are so many things out there now to help us organise our lives better, so why not use them? Blackberrys and IPhones are fantastic for managing your emails and Notebooks are great for travelling with – they’re so much lighter than laptops and are often free if you sign up for mobile broadband. I got a new Notebook recently for just £20 a month!
3) Use a call minding company – manage any phone calls you receive while you’re out and about by using a call answering service. They will answer your calls in your company name and will send any messages to your emails or by text to you. People far appreciate speaking to a human being rather than an answering machine, making you look more professional too. We use Professional Call Minders who are fantastic.
4) Scale down your workload - much as we’d like to get everything done if you’re out working, your time will be limited. Recognise this and scale back your workload accordingly – sounds obvious, but we very often don’t do this leaving us feeling stressed because we haven’t done as much as we would like.
5) Outsource tasks – if outsourcing tasks is an option for you, it is definitely something that’s worth doing to help you manage work while you’re out of the office. If you can outsource to a company or an individual, you’ll have confidence that the work is being done even if you’re not there to do it.
6) Set up systems – ultimately if you can set up systems in your business meaning that marketing and work get done while you’re not there. This can of course, include outsourcing tasks. A simple example of a system is to use a programme that sends people who visit your website emails to help you build a relationship with them. Start by looking at everything you do in your business and see if you can set up a system to streamline things. You will speed up your tasks and eventually your business will operate efficiently even if you’re not there.
While it’s hard to manage everything when you’re out of the office, setting up system and using the tools that are available to manage things will help you to feel less stressed and make sure things still get done.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small businesses on their marketing and to people setting up in business.
So, what can you do? Here are my top tips to do business effectively when you’re on the move.
1) Plan in advance – how often have you had to rush because you needed petrol and didn’t get it before? Or, had to get up early to print out materials that you needed for the day? Yes – me too! But, if you plan in advance and do these things before the day you know you’re going to be out, you’ll find your life is much smoother.
2) Use Technology – there are so many things out there now to help us organise our lives better, so why not use them? Blackberrys and IPhones are fantastic for managing your emails and Notebooks are great for travelling with – they’re so much lighter than laptops and are often free if you sign up for mobile broadband. I got a new Notebook recently for just £20 a month!
3) Use a call minding company – manage any phone calls you receive while you’re out and about by using a call answering service. They will answer your calls in your company name and will send any messages to your emails or by text to you. People far appreciate speaking to a human being rather than an answering machine, making you look more professional too. We use Professional Call Minders who are fantastic.
4) Scale down your workload - much as we’d like to get everything done if you’re out working, your time will be limited. Recognise this and scale back your workload accordingly – sounds obvious, but we very often don’t do this leaving us feeling stressed because we haven’t done as much as we would like.
5) Outsource tasks – if outsourcing tasks is an option for you, it is definitely something that’s worth doing to help you manage work while you’re out of the office. If you can outsource to a company or an individual, you’ll have confidence that the work is being done even if you’re not there to do it.
6) Set up systems – ultimately if you can set up systems in your business meaning that marketing and work get done while you’re not there. This can of course, include outsourcing tasks. A simple example of a system is to use a programme that sends people who visit your website emails to help you build a relationship with them. Start by looking at everything you do in your business and see if you can set up a system to streamline things. You will speed up your tasks and eventually your business will operate efficiently even if you’re not there.
While it’s hard to manage everything when you’re out of the office, setting up system and using the tools that are available to manage things will help you to feel less stressed and make sure things still get done.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small businesses on their marketing and to people setting up in business.
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Do people read?
You know I keep bleating on about why you have to keep repeating your message, not just tell people what it is once - well the reason for this is because people DON'T read.
Let me give you an example - I've just run a free call on Using Articles to Promote your Business. I sent out several emails to the people who were registered and in those and the promotional material put that if they couldn't make the call, not to worry as it would be available as a recording after the call.
And yet, I've lost count of the number of emails I've received telling me that people couldn't make the call and would a recording be available!
If you want people to pay attention to things you need to keep repeating your message, explain things in a different order and highlight different areas just so you hopefully catch the eye of whoever is reading your info. It has to literally hit them in the face otherwise people will just ignore it.
I think next time I do a call, I will put this bit in the subject header - made a mental note!
Let me give you an example - I've just run a free call on Using Articles to Promote your Business. I sent out several emails to the people who were registered and in those and the promotional material put that if they couldn't make the call, not to worry as it would be available as a recording after the call.
And yet, I've lost count of the number of emails I've received telling me that people couldn't make the call and would a recording be available!
If you want people to pay attention to things you need to keep repeating your message, explain things in a different order and highlight different areas just so you hopefully catch the eye of whoever is reading your info. It has to literally hit them in the face otherwise people will just ignore it.
I think next time I do a call, I will put this bit in the subject header - made a mental note!
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Just what is an autoresponder?
The word ‘Autoresponders’ has been used more and more over the last few months and pretty much all of us have now experienced them even if you don’t yet realise it.
But just what is an autoresponder and why should you think about using one in your business?
Well, let me explain.
The simplest form of an autoresponder is when you send a message to someone and you immediately receive an email back that tells you that person is out of office. This email will have been sent automatically (no human response was required) and it will have responded to you – hence the name autoresponder.
You will have also probably seen an autoresponder if you’ve purchased products off of a website. Take Amazon for example or Ebay. If you’ve purchased something from Amazon or made a bid on Ebay, the chances are high that you will have immediately received an email from the company confirming your purchase or your bid.
And you may have seen autoresponders at work if you’ve subscribed to a newsletter from a website. In most cases now, you will have immediately receive an email from the company concerned welcoming you to the website with a copy of the newsletter.
Now, trust me when I say that a human is not sitting there at all times of the day or night responding to messages that come in from a website or order confirmations – these emails are sent automatically from you by a computer programme that has been specifically written for this purpose.
But, why should you care? What has this got to do with your business?
Now (hopefully) you’ve got your head around what an autoresponder is, I want you just to think for a minute about the power of autoresponders and how they can help your business.
Imagine that while you’re on holiday, a potential customer visits your website. On your website, you have a mechanism to allow someone to subscribe to receive some top tips about your product or service. The potential customer is interested in what you do and then signs up to receive these.
These tips are sent to the customer automatically while you’re relaxing on your holiday. Over the next few days, the customer receives more tips and helpful information all while you’re soaking up the sun on the beach. By the time you come back, the customer has been so impressed with all the free information that they’ve been receiving that they’ve placed an order for your products or services.
Now ok, there is a bit of work required here – you’ll need to write the tips and useful information in advance and put them into a series of emails that the customer receives over the next few days or weeks. But, once you’ve done that, a potential customer will receive this series of emails over time from you even while you’re asleep.
And it will happen with every new customer without you even thinking about it. You’ll be perceived as being helpful and useful and you’ll be building a relationship with your potential customer while massively reducing the time you take on this activity.
You can even set up a series of emails so that everytime a customer purchases a product or service from you, they get emails automatically to encourage them to purchase more from you.
I’m only giving you a brief introduction to autoresponders here, but the power of them for building a relationship with your customers and reducing the amount of time you spend doing your marketing is immense.
So, where do you go to get an autoresponder? Well, there are a number of packages already out there including Constant Contact, 1ShoppingCart and theautoresponder to mention but a few. Have a look at them and see whether they are for you.
But for now, just consider the benefits that autoresponders could make to your business – if you understand that, you can definitely take your business to the next level – automatically!
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small businesses on their marketing and to people starting up in business.
But just what is an autoresponder and why should you think about using one in your business?
Well, let me explain.
The simplest form of an autoresponder is when you send a message to someone and you immediately receive an email back that tells you that person is out of office. This email will have been sent automatically (no human response was required) and it will have responded to you – hence the name autoresponder.
You will have also probably seen an autoresponder if you’ve purchased products off of a website. Take Amazon for example or Ebay. If you’ve purchased something from Amazon or made a bid on Ebay, the chances are high that you will have immediately received an email from the company confirming your purchase or your bid.
And you may have seen autoresponders at work if you’ve subscribed to a newsletter from a website. In most cases now, you will have immediately receive an email from the company concerned welcoming you to the website with a copy of the newsletter.
Now, trust me when I say that a human is not sitting there at all times of the day or night responding to messages that come in from a website or order confirmations – these emails are sent automatically from you by a computer programme that has been specifically written for this purpose.
But, why should you care? What has this got to do with your business?
Now (hopefully) you’ve got your head around what an autoresponder is, I want you just to think for a minute about the power of autoresponders and how they can help your business.
Imagine that while you’re on holiday, a potential customer visits your website. On your website, you have a mechanism to allow someone to subscribe to receive some top tips about your product or service. The potential customer is interested in what you do and then signs up to receive these.
These tips are sent to the customer automatically while you’re relaxing on your holiday. Over the next few days, the customer receives more tips and helpful information all while you’re soaking up the sun on the beach. By the time you come back, the customer has been so impressed with all the free information that they’ve been receiving that they’ve placed an order for your products or services.
Now ok, there is a bit of work required here – you’ll need to write the tips and useful information in advance and put them into a series of emails that the customer receives over the next few days or weeks. But, once you’ve done that, a potential customer will receive this series of emails over time from you even while you’re asleep.
And it will happen with every new customer without you even thinking about it. You’ll be perceived as being helpful and useful and you’ll be building a relationship with your potential customer while massively reducing the time you take on this activity.
You can even set up a series of emails so that everytime a customer purchases a product or service from you, they get emails automatically to encourage them to purchase more from you.
I’m only giving you a brief introduction to autoresponders here, but the power of them for building a relationship with your customers and reducing the amount of time you spend doing your marketing is immense.
So, where do you go to get an autoresponder? Well, there are a number of packages already out there including Constant Contact, 1ShoppingCart and theautoresponder to mention but a few. Have a look at them and see whether they are for you.
But for now, just consider the benefits that autoresponders could make to your business – if you understand that, you can definitely take your business to the next level – automatically!
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small businesses on their marketing and to people starting up in business.
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
What are you running a business for?
Last week, I was sent an article (thank you to the person who sent this to me by the way) which was on the subject of "What are you running a business for?" - in other words if you're putting in all this hard work and can't go off and enjoy yourself occasionally, what's the point?
Reading through the article made me realise that what I'd written on my earlier blogs over the last couple of weeks might have been misconstrued. You see, I'm actually very clear on what I'm running a business for and what I want to get out of it.
Up until fairly recently, what I wanted to do was get the business to a point where it was established and to where it could start to run without me necessarily being there. We've now done that and the next phase is to put structures in place to support it over the next 5-10 years so that the business grows; we can provide service and quality to more people and so that the business is not reliant on me.
As we enter this new phase, it's presenting its own challenges and I am being tested and I'm writing about my experiences because a) we are all human and b) I hope my experiences will be useful to others going through the same situation.
But, I haven't lost sight of why I'm running the business or what I want out of it for me personally or what the end goal for the business is - although it may seem like it at times. Knowing why you're doing things and what you're running a business for is a vital question - but to take time off and go out for lunch etc occasionally is often not the prime reason for everyone. Without a doubt for me, it's much more than that!
Reading through the article made me realise that what I'd written on my earlier blogs over the last couple of weeks might have been misconstrued. You see, I'm actually very clear on what I'm running a business for and what I want to get out of it.
Up until fairly recently, what I wanted to do was get the business to a point where it was established and to where it could start to run without me necessarily being there. We've now done that and the next phase is to put structures in place to support it over the next 5-10 years so that the business grows; we can provide service and quality to more people and so that the business is not reliant on me.
As we enter this new phase, it's presenting its own challenges and I am being tested and I'm writing about my experiences because a) we are all human and b) I hope my experiences will be useful to others going through the same situation.
But, I haven't lost sight of why I'm running the business or what I want out of it for me personally or what the end goal for the business is - although it may seem like it at times. Knowing why you're doing things and what you're running a business for is a vital question - but to take time off and go out for lunch etc occasionally is often not the prime reason for everyone. Without a doubt for me, it's much more than that!
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Is it a good idea to have some time off from your business?
Yesterday, I went out to lunch - which was lovely by the way and I really enjoyed it. That's the second time in three weeks that I've done this, but it's unusual for me and I think I've only done this twice since the business started.
Yes, sure I've gone out for business lunches and met clients etc, but going out for lunch for pleasure during work hours is completely alien to me.
What's worse is I didn't do any work when I came back either (shock, horror)!
And do you know what - I didn't feel any guilt at all. I've worked incredibly hard this year and have decided it's now high time to start treating myself. Not every day, but every couple of weeks or so - especially when I've worked hard.
I read an article recently about taking time off to recover BEFORE you start on a major project and maybe the author was right - I feel much better this morning and ready to get cracking.
It's easy to feel guilty about taking time off when you're supposed to be working, but if you deserve it, don't! I guarantee it will make you feel better and more motivated and you'll want to do more work as a result.
Yes, sure I've gone out for business lunches and met clients etc, but going out for lunch for pleasure during work hours is completely alien to me.
What's worse is I didn't do any work when I came back either (shock, horror)!
And do you know what - I didn't feel any guilt at all. I've worked incredibly hard this year and have decided it's now high time to start treating myself. Not every day, but every couple of weeks or so - especially when I've worked hard.
I read an article recently about taking time off to recover BEFORE you start on a major project and maybe the author was right - I feel much better this morning and ready to get cracking.
It's easy to feel guilty about taking time off when you're supposed to be working, but if you deserve it, don't! I guarantee it will make you feel better and more motivated and you'll want to do more work as a result.
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Tell me what questions you want answered...
Thanks for signing up for our free call on "Using articles to promote your business" - if you haven't signed up yet, you can do so by going to: http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/articlecall.htm
For you to get the most out of this call, I'll be trying to answer as many of your questions about writing articles to promote your business as I can.
If you'd like to ask a question, just leave a comment on this blog and I'll make sure I cover it during the call. Don't worry, you can stay anonymous if you like - just indicate this in your comment below.
Thanks and I look forward to you joining me on the call on Tuesday 3rd November between 2pm and 3pm GMT.
For you to get the most out of this call, I'll be trying to answer as many of your questions about writing articles to promote your business as I can.
If you'd like to ask a question, just leave a comment on this blog and I'll make sure I cover it during the call. Don't worry, you can stay anonymous if you like - just indicate this in your comment below.
Thanks and I look forward to you joining me on the call on Tuesday 3rd November between 2pm and 3pm GMT.
Monday, 12 October 2009
Have you taken action on your marketing yet?
I had an interesting conversation with someone the other day about our newsletters. He said he received them and I asked him whether he found them useful. He said he did, but mentioned that 70% of what I included, he already knew.
Good point, I thought – but often it’s not about what you already know is it? There’s very few new things in this world, so the chances are fairly high that you’re going to come across what I cover somewhere else.
The point really is this – even though you heard my messages before or come across them somewhere else, have you actually done anything about it? Have you taken any action on your marketing?
Now, I know we’re all busy; I know we’ve all got things we need to do and get on with, but if you don’t take action on your marketing and put into place some of what I talk about, you’re missing a massive opportunity for your business.
I’m not exaggerating when I use the word ‘massive’ here. If you’re getting business and you’re doing little or no marketing, just imagine what could happen if you actually did some marketing?
There are usually three things that stop small businesses doing any marketing – I thought I’d cover them in this article and then (hopefully) you’ll have no excuse and you’ll have to get on with it.
Reason number 1 is the fear of being too busy. People really talk themselves into this one. If they got tons of new customers from doing some marketing, how would they cope with the extra workload?
I can understand this fear to some extent. After all, you may not want to take on anyone else and you may not want to get that big in your business.
But, let’s also be realistic here. The chances of you being snowed under with work after doing some marketing are very remote. If you did some marketing today, it would take between 2-3 months to actually see the results of that marketing. You would also be able to see business increasing and then choose to scale down your marketing accordingly.
When people give me this reason for not doing marketing, I always tell them that we should get them to the point of being too busy first and then we’ll worry about it. Getting too busy will take a lot longer than you think and doing a bit more marketing than you’re doing already is unlikely to get you to the point where you need to employ someone else – it is likely just to even out the peaks and the troughs, which is probably not a bad thing.
Reason number 2 is not knowing what to do. When you first start in business, most of us try the traditional marketing methods of advertising, cold calling, direct mail or leaflet drops and networking. If these don’t work as well as we want them too, it’s very difficult to know what to do next.
If you’re not sure what to do next to market your business, most of us fall back to relying on word of mouth and referrals in order to get business.
What if I told you that there are over 100 different methods to get business, most of which cost nothing at all to do? If you’d like to see 50 ideas to promote your business, just drop me an email – details at the bottom.
Reason number 3 is just not having any time to do marketing. This reason is an accumulation of the first two reasons – in that, because people don’t know what to do and they’re worried about getting too busy, marketing doesn’t look very attractive to them.
Consequently many small business owners find lots of other things to do before they get on with doing any marketing. And as I said earlier in this article, if you’ve got customers with little or no marketing, you probably do have lots of other things to do too.
With this reason, I would suggest a couple of solutions. The first is to get yourself a marketing coach who will work with you to keep you motivated on marketing. I’m putting together a new membership group launching in 2010 called The Marketing Gym to address this very problem – more about this shortly.
The other solution is to get a company to do your marketing for you – again I’m very happy to have a chat about this – just give us a call.
The simple fact is that even though you know that you should be doing all of these things I talk about, it’s hard to actually get motivated to do them. The first two reasons for not taking action are relatively easy to sort out, but if you really haven’t got the time to concentrate on marketing, drop us a line. That way, your marketing will get done, leaving you time to do what your best at – running your business.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing and to people setting up in business. If you’d like a free copy of our 50 ways to promote your business, just email us on helen.dowling@exceptionalthinking.co.uk
Good point, I thought – but often it’s not about what you already know is it? There’s very few new things in this world, so the chances are fairly high that you’re going to come across what I cover somewhere else.
The point really is this – even though you heard my messages before or come across them somewhere else, have you actually done anything about it? Have you taken any action on your marketing?
Now, I know we’re all busy; I know we’ve all got things we need to do and get on with, but if you don’t take action on your marketing and put into place some of what I talk about, you’re missing a massive opportunity for your business.
I’m not exaggerating when I use the word ‘massive’ here. If you’re getting business and you’re doing little or no marketing, just imagine what could happen if you actually did some marketing?
There are usually three things that stop small businesses doing any marketing – I thought I’d cover them in this article and then (hopefully) you’ll have no excuse and you’ll have to get on with it.
Reason number 1 is the fear of being too busy. People really talk themselves into this one. If they got tons of new customers from doing some marketing, how would they cope with the extra workload?
I can understand this fear to some extent. After all, you may not want to take on anyone else and you may not want to get that big in your business.
But, let’s also be realistic here. The chances of you being snowed under with work after doing some marketing are very remote. If you did some marketing today, it would take between 2-3 months to actually see the results of that marketing. You would also be able to see business increasing and then choose to scale down your marketing accordingly.
When people give me this reason for not doing marketing, I always tell them that we should get them to the point of being too busy first and then we’ll worry about it. Getting too busy will take a lot longer than you think and doing a bit more marketing than you’re doing already is unlikely to get you to the point where you need to employ someone else – it is likely just to even out the peaks and the troughs, which is probably not a bad thing.
Reason number 2 is not knowing what to do. When you first start in business, most of us try the traditional marketing methods of advertising, cold calling, direct mail or leaflet drops and networking. If these don’t work as well as we want them too, it’s very difficult to know what to do next.
If you’re not sure what to do next to market your business, most of us fall back to relying on word of mouth and referrals in order to get business.
What if I told you that there are over 100 different methods to get business, most of which cost nothing at all to do? If you’d like to see 50 ideas to promote your business, just drop me an email – details at the bottom.
Reason number 3 is just not having any time to do marketing. This reason is an accumulation of the first two reasons – in that, because people don’t know what to do and they’re worried about getting too busy, marketing doesn’t look very attractive to them.
Consequently many small business owners find lots of other things to do before they get on with doing any marketing. And as I said earlier in this article, if you’ve got customers with little or no marketing, you probably do have lots of other things to do too.
With this reason, I would suggest a couple of solutions. The first is to get yourself a marketing coach who will work with you to keep you motivated on marketing. I’m putting together a new membership group launching in 2010 called The Marketing Gym to address this very problem – more about this shortly.
The other solution is to get a company to do your marketing for you – again I’m very happy to have a chat about this – just give us a call.
The simple fact is that even though you know that you should be doing all of these things I talk about, it’s hard to actually get motivated to do them. The first two reasons for not taking action are relatively easy to sort out, but if you really haven’t got the time to concentrate on marketing, drop us a line. That way, your marketing will get done, leaving you time to do what your best at – running your business.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing and to people setting up in business. If you’d like a free copy of our 50 ways to promote your business, just email us on helen.dowling@exceptionalthinking.co.uk
Learning to let go
Last week was a tough week emotionally. For the first time, I had a real appreciation of why, when larger companies are asked to participate and give money to charities and organisations, they say "no" more often than not. It's because they don't have the time, energy or money to participate in everything.
Sadly though, the charities and organisations that are asking very often don't understand and get angry with the response given back to them.
I realised how these companies feel because last week I had to face the same situation. My natural tendency is to get involved in things and say "yes" to voluntary activities. This was fine when the business was young and getting involved helped me to get known and to get established.
But, we're not in the same situation anymore. The business is growing up, meaning that we haven't got as much time as we once did. It's more important now more than ever to stay focused on where we want to be and what we need to do to get there, rather than being distracted by things that take us away from this.
As a consequence, I'm slowly learning that we have to say "no" to more things, be firmer and not let people take advantage, but this is tough for someone who's been used to being helpful and getting involved.
Last week, I had to deal with 5 situations that really tested my resolve and because I'm still learning to say "no" I didn't handle the situation as well as I could have. It was tough emotionally and the team and I felt a bit demotivated.
So, time to move on this week - let go of the past and move the business forward. Be firm and don't agree to things that take my focus away from this. I'll let you know how I get on.
Sadly though, the charities and organisations that are asking very often don't understand and get angry with the response given back to them.
I realised how these companies feel because last week I had to face the same situation. My natural tendency is to get involved in things and say "yes" to voluntary activities. This was fine when the business was young and getting involved helped me to get known and to get established.
But, we're not in the same situation anymore. The business is growing up, meaning that we haven't got as much time as we once did. It's more important now more than ever to stay focused on where we want to be and what we need to do to get there, rather than being distracted by things that take us away from this.
As a consequence, I'm slowly learning that we have to say "no" to more things, be firmer and not let people take advantage, but this is tough for someone who's been used to being helpful and getting involved.
Last week, I had to deal with 5 situations that really tested my resolve and because I'm still learning to say "no" I didn't handle the situation as well as I could have. It was tough emotionally and the team and I felt a bit demotivated.
So, time to move on this week - let go of the past and move the business forward. Be firm and don't agree to things that take my focus away from this. I'll let you know how I get on.
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
How to use articles to promote your business
Have you ever longed for people to knock on your door wanting to do business with you? Um – doesn’t often happen does it?
Actually that’s not quite true. There is a way to get people knocking at your door, but it doesn’t just happen by itself. You need to influence this. And how you do that is to build relationships with people so that they perceive you as an expert and know, like and trust your approach.
That sounds so easy doesn’t it? Well, I know it’s not. One of the best ways to help people to perceive you in this way though is to write articles.
Articles are great for loads of things. They’re great for building your reputation as an expert in your field and they have the added advantage that once you’ve written one article, you can then use it in tons of places.
Some ideas of where you can use your articles include in your newsletter, in other people’s newsletter, post them on-line to build your presence on the internet and on social networks, send them to the press, include them in a book, put them on your blog, send them out to your clients and contacts as useful information or you could swap your article in exchange for people’s contact details on your website.
Just in the last few months, articles that I’ve written have been included in three books (two are still being published, but one is on the bookshelves as we speak), got me several clients and I’ve also been ask to speak in several places too. How much free publicity is that?
I’m not telling you this to boast – I’m telling you this so that you can realise that writing articles is a powerful marketing tool that can really help you pitch yourself as an expert in your field. After all, do you think your clients would rather work with an expert? Yes, of course they would!
I’m constantly amazed though how many things put small businesses off from writing articles – from what to write about to where to put the article when it’s finished. And I’ve often heard people saying that an article takes them weeks and weeks to write and as a result, they’re put off from writing any more as it’s too time consuming.
The message I want to give out with this article is this. Articles are great – they can be fantastic for promoting your business, giving you the status of an expert and you can use them time and time again in different places. But you need to keep writing articles. You can’t just write one article and be done with it – you need to keep writing them and getting them out there.
So, because people seem to find articles really hard to do, I thought I’d talk to you about them on a call happening on Tuesday 3rd November between 2pm and 3pm GMT. You can get all the details by going to www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/articlecall.htm It’s a free call and on it, I’ll be breaking down everything to do with writing an article including:
· What to write about
· Who to write the article for
· How to come up with a great title that people want to read
· Where to use your articles
· How to get started with writing an article
· Keeping motivated so that you keep writing
· How to get an article written and completely finished in ½ an hour
· Getting business from writing articles
If you’d like to join me, just register for this call by clicking on www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/articlecall.htm. As soon as you register you’ll receive all the call details and I’ll remind you again shortly before the call too. Don’t worry if you can’t make the date or the time either – if you register for the call, I’ll give you access to the recording afterwards.
Make sure you don’t miss out on this call – register by clicking on www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/articlecall.htm
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing and to people just setting up in business.
Actually that’s not quite true. There is a way to get people knocking at your door, but it doesn’t just happen by itself. You need to influence this. And how you do that is to build relationships with people so that they perceive you as an expert and know, like and trust your approach.
That sounds so easy doesn’t it? Well, I know it’s not. One of the best ways to help people to perceive you in this way though is to write articles.
Articles are great for loads of things. They’re great for building your reputation as an expert in your field and they have the added advantage that once you’ve written one article, you can then use it in tons of places.
Some ideas of where you can use your articles include in your newsletter, in other people’s newsletter, post them on-line to build your presence on the internet and on social networks, send them to the press, include them in a book, put them on your blog, send them out to your clients and contacts as useful information or you could swap your article in exchange for people’s contact details on your website.
Just in the last few months, articles that I’ve written have been included in three books (two are still being published, but one is on the bookshelves as we speak), got me several clients and I’ve also been ask to speak in several places too. How much free publicity is that?
I’m not telling you this to boast – I’m telling you this so that you can realise that writing articles is a powerful marketing tool that can really help you pitch yourself as an expert in your field. After all, do you think your clients would rather work with an expert? Yes, of course they would!
I’m constantly amazed though how many things put small businesses off from writing articles – from what to write about to where to put the article when it’s finished. And I’ve often heard people saying that an article takes them weeks and weeks to write and as a result, they’re put off from writing any more as it’s too time consuming.
The message I want to give out with this article is this. Articles are great – they can be fantastic for promoting your business, giving you the status of an expert and you can use them time and time again in different places. But you need to keep writing articles. You can’t just write one article and be done with it – you need to keep writing them and getting them out there.
So, because people seem to find articles really hard to do, I thought I’d talk to you about them on a call happening on Tuesday 3rd November between 2pm and 3pm GMT. You can get all the details by going to www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/articlecall.htm It’s a free call and on it, I’ll be breaking down everything to do with writing an article including:
· What to write about
· Who to write the article for
· How to come up with a great title that people want to read
· Where to use your articles
· How to get started with writing an article
· Keeping motivated so that you keep writing
· How to get an article written and completely finished in ½ an hour
· Getting business from writing articles
If you’d like to join me, just register for this call by clicking on www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/articlecall.htm. As soon as you register you’ll receive all the call details and I’ll remind you again shortly before the call too. Don’t worry if you can’t make the date or the time either – if you register for the call, I’ll give you access to the recording afterwards.
Make sure you don’t miss out on this call – register by clicking on www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/articlecall.htm
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing and to people just setting up in business.
Monday, 5 October 2009
Talking till I'm blue in the face
Ahhh! How many times do I have to repeat myself?
I have talked before about BUILDING a relationship with people before you ask them for something and yet I have two requests in the last two weeks that want me to just do things for people even though I don't know them, trust them or know anything about them.
Both of these requests have been to speak on our workshops. Fact is, it takes a lot of time and effort to get bums on seats for these - why should I let someone come along and take advantage of that and speak on it when we've done all the hard work? Oh and did I mention these people want to be paid for speaking as well!!
As you can see, I'm pretty passionate about this subject.
Please, please, please remember that most small business owners have NO time, are VERY busy and if you want something out of them, you really need to think about what's in it for them. Why should they do something that benefits only you?
These business owners could have said:
I have talked before about BUILDING a relationship with people before you ask them for something and yet I have two requests in the last two weeks that want me to just do things for people even though I don't know them, trust them or know anything about them.
Both of these requests have been to speak on our workshops. Fact is, it takes a lot of time and effort to get bums on seats for these - why should I let someone come along and take advantage of that and speak on it when we've done all the hard work? Oh and did I mention these people want to be paid for speaking as well!!
As you can see, I'm pretty passionate about this subject.
Please, please, please remember that most small business owners have NO time, are VERY busy and if you want something out of them, you really need to think about what's in it for them. Why should they do something that benefits only you?
These business owners could have said:
- Would you like to run a workshop together - we can both jointly market it to our lists?
- I'm happy to come and speak for free
- In return for me speaking at your event, I'd like to invite you to come and speak at mine
And so on...
Then, I might have been more willing to consider this. But, until the day comes that some small businesses actually think about more than themselves, I guess I'm just going to be posting furious posts about this subject.
Anyone else experienced this?
Thursday, 1 October 2009
Should you advertise?
Advertising is one of those things that just about every small business owner considers at some point. After all, that’s how big companies promote their businesses, right? So, shouldn’t you be doing it as well?
Well, while advertising has its place in promotion, it has a number of drawbacks which means it’s often not the best method for small business owners. Let’s have a look at some of these.
Firstly, advertising is great for generating awareness of your business. It tells everyone who you are and what you do and people will notice you and realise that you’re around. However, while it’s great for building awareness, it’s not too good at getting customers. Only 1-2% of people seeing, listening or watching adverts actually buy directly from the advert.
Secondly, advertising needs to be repeated often in order for it to stand any chance of being effective. You need to be repeating it at least three times: let’s face it you might see the advert and mean to do something about it, but not get around to it. And if you need to repeat it, this can become effective.
Which brings me to my third point, advertising is a pretty expensive way of doing marketing – the average cost of an advert in your local paper (and I’m talking about a small advert here) is around £150+VAT. If you need to repeat your ad at least three times, that’s £450+VAT before you even start. And if you do radio or television advertising, the costs can end up being astronomical.
With all these drawbacks, my preference isn’t to advertise, but to concentrate on free or low-cost methods of marketing that have the same impact. After all, if advertising is better for awareness than getting customers, believe me there are at least 50 different ways I can think of, just off the top of my head that will create the same result, but cost nothing to do.
Having said that, there are some good deals around at the moment if you negotiate and are not afraid of walking away if you can’t reach the price you’re prepared to pay. And there are quite a few places where it’s very cheap to advertise and might well be worth exploring. For instance, church magazines tend to be very cheap to do as do adverts in post offices or supermarkets.
Advertising in the yellow pages is also free and is a must for all small businesses – remember yellow pages is where people go if they know your name but can’t remember your contact details. Don’t be tempted to pay for an advert until you know it works. If you get business from a free advert, you’ll definitely get business from a paid advert in there. Test it first.
If you’d like a copy of my 50 free ways to promote your business which is now a 14 page factsheet, please feel free to contact me on helen.dowling@exceptionalthinking.co.uk
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice for small business owners on their marketing and to people setting up in business.
Well, while advertising has its place in promotion, it has a number of drawbacks which means it’s often not the best method for small business owners. Let’s have a look at some of these.
Firstly, advertising is great for generating awareness of your business. It tells everyone who you are and what you do and people will notice you and realise that you’re around. However, while it’s great for building awareness, it’s not too good at getting customers. Only 1-2% of people seeing, listening or watching adverts actually buy directly from the advert.
Secondly, advertising needs to be repeated often in order for it to stand any chance of being effective. You need to be repeating it at least three times: let’s face it you might see the advert and mean to do something about it, but not get around to it. And if you need to repeat it, this can become effective.
Which brings me to my third point, advertising is a pretty expensive way of doing marketing – the average cost of an advert in your local paper (and I’m talking about a small advert here) is around £150+VAT. If you need to repeat your ad at least three times, that’s £450+VAT before you even start. And if you do radio or television advertising, the costs can end up being astronomical.
With all these drawbacks, my preference isn’t to advertise, but to concentrate on free or low-cost methods of marketing that have the same impact. After all, if advertising is better for awareness than getting customers, believe me there are at least 50 different ways I can think of, just off the top of my head that will create the same result, but cost nothing to do.
Having said that, there are some good deals around at the moment if you negotiate and are not afraid of walking away if you can’t reach the price you’re prepared to pay. And there are quite a few places where it’s very cheap to advertise and might well be worth exploring. For instance, church magazines tend to be very cheap to do as do adverts in post offices or supermarkets.
Advertising in the yellow pages is also free and is a must for all small businesses – remember yellow pages is where people go if they know your name but can’t remember your contact details. Don’t be tempted to pay for an advert until you know it works. If you get business from a free advert, you’ll definitely get business from a paid advert in there. Test it first.
If you’d like a copy of my 50 free ways to promote your business which is now a 14 page factsheet, please feel free to contact me on helen.dowling@exceptionalthinking.co.uk
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice for small business owners on their marketing and to people setting up in business.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
How easy it is to make silly mistakes
I had an email from a client this week entitled "Your phones aren't working". He'd tried to call us and found it went through to some completely random person we'd never heard of.
Turns out that it was completely our fault and we'd just diverted the phones wrongly instead of to our call minding company who answer the phones for us when we can't.
But it got me thinking about how easy it is to make silly mistakes. And while the above mistake wasn't serious and it was corrected easily, it does have an impact on how people perceive us.
Now I know mistakes will happen in the future and I think that's just one of those things we'll have to accept, there are procedures and systems we can put in place to minimise mistakes happening. For instance, I can put the number to our call minding company on the wall next to my desk so that I can refer it to as I'm typing it into the phone. I can also listen to the number as the automated voice reads it back to check I've done this correctly.
If you look at any business, there are probably loads of simple systems and procedures that can be put into place that minimise mistakes from happening, but also speed things up too. I can think of several I'm going to be implementing in ET over the next few months. What simple systems could you put into place in your business?
Turns out that it was completely our fault and we'd just diverted the phones wrongly instead of to our call minding company who answer the phones for us when we can't.
But it got me thinking about how easy it is to make silly mistakes. And while the above mistake wasn't serious and it was corrected easily, it does have an impact on how people perceive us.
Now I know mistakes will happen in the future and I think that's just one of those things we'll have to accept, there are procedures and systems we can put in place to minimise mistakes happening. For instance, I can put the number to our call minding company on the wall next to my desk so that I can refer it to as I'm typing it into the phone. I can also listen to the number as the automated voice reads it back to check I've done this correctly.
If you look at any business, there are probably loads of simple systems and procedures that can be put into place that minimise mistakes from happening, but also speed things up too. I can think of several I'm going to be implementing in ET over the next few months. What simple systems could you put into place in your business?
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