Don’t try to be better… Try to be different! The whole purpose of branding is to “position” your company, its product or service, so as to differentiate it from your competitors, so that your customers identify yours as being different, and having customers identify yours as being better, different, or more special than the rest. read more

The Discovery Audit Before developing a marketing program, you should conduct an honest and comprehensive assessment of your business and previous marketing efforts. read more

Sorry! There's no quick fix for small biz marketing. Success is about getting “"your hands dirty."” read more

Who Are Your Customers? Successful marketing begins and ends with your customer. How well you know your customer is a critical factor in the effectiveness of your marketing. read more

Protecting Your Brand If you're like many business owners, who get caught up in their zeal and the excitement of running their own businesses, you may overlook an important step of protecting your company's trademark. read more

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You are having a great meeting with a prospect. There is excellent rapport, they like your ideas, price is not an issue, and they need to make a decision right away!! You’re thinking this is a piece of cake. But then you hear the dreaded words; "Can you put what we’ve talked about into a proposal, so we can compare it with those from other firms we’re talking to?”

Like me, you probably do not relish these situations. You’ve now got to invest hours creating a proposal and once it is out of your hands, you really have little control over the outcome. Questions or objections may be raised which you may not be given the chance to answer. You won’t know how your proposal measures-up against your competitors and there is always the possibility of a ‘hidden agenda’ and behind-the-scenes politics that you are not aware of?

For many, writing proposals is a fact of doing business, but there are many ways to improve the chances that your proposal will be the winning one.
First and foremost, listen carefully. You must have a crystal-clear understanding of your potential client’s business needs, 'pain' issues or objectives. Your proposal should mirror what they’ve communicated to you, before you offer a solution. That shows you've listened and considered their interests and are not offering a canned solution. read more

Perhaps nothing is more important in marketing than what you decide to call your company, product, or service.

Smart marketers understand the advantages choosing the right name provides. Hollywood, for example, has long understood this concept, with many movie stars changing their name to broaden their appeal to mass audiences. Do you think Tom Cruise would be as big a star using his real name, Tom Mapother?

Unfortunately, many businesses put little thought or consideration into this important decision, settling for names that do little to add to or enhance their company image and reputation. As we shall see, this slapdash approach is not just confined to small, naive businesses – many large, sophisticated corporations are equally guilty of settling on generic, nondescript names. read more