marketing

Attract Clients with Energy and Emotion

February 3, 2012

 
 
 Q.
“I’ve heard you talk about the energy of business and how important it is to attract clients to you instead of pushing yourself on them. But how do I do this? I want to take action and when I hear things like this, it makes me think you want me to sit in a lotus [...]

Read the full article →

Why You Feel Icky About Marketing

January 12, 2012

.
 
 
Q.
“I don’t really know how to do marketing for my own business — I avoid it because it makes me feel uncomfortable. I’ve always gotten business by referral in the past, but I can’t count on that for regular business anymore. How can I start to effectively market myself without feeling like I’m being pushy, [...]

Read the full article →

How to Get Clients to Really Value What You Do — So You Can Charge What You’re Worth

January 7, 2012

Do your clients truly value your work, allowing you to charge what you’re worth, and trusting you to do more for them?
You may think you’re describing your work’s true value in conversations with clients, when you’re really not. They may not be getting it.
If you don’t think they place enough significance on what you do, it [...]

Read the full article →

Help! I Don’t Know How to Market Myself!

September 15, 2011

 
 
.
Business Conundrum #31
Q. “I admit I don’t know how to market myself. I need to get my message out there, and I don’t know where to start. It seems these days there are so many choices – you have to have a killer website, you have to be networking, you have to be doing Facebook [...]

Read the full article →

Why Is It So Difficult to Talk About Your Difference?

September 13, 2011

I come from a creative firm background. So I bleed for creative firms. When my creative firm clients can’t talk about their difference and value, I feel it, too.
When I talk to creative firms about what makes them different, there’s a lot of hesitation. Because we do so little to market ourselves and rely on [...]

Read the full article →

All You Really Need are 1000 True Fans

August 1, 2011

Go and read Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans post, if you haven’t already. This article has been around for awhile but the wisdom is clear and focused and evergreen: you don’t need to have a big hit or sell to millions or even thousands. All you need are 1000 true fans.
And that stuff you hear [...]

Read the full article →

Should You Fake It Until You Make It?

July 29, 2011

I was doing research for a webinar about confidence a few weeks ago and came across the following snippet on someone’s blog. I have to tell you, it brought back some bad memories for me. I’m not going to credit the excerpt to anyone, even though I’ve reproduced it word for word, for two [...]

Read the full article →

Promote Your Value (Even If You Lack Experience)

June 20, 2011

I’ve got a guest post running today on Parse, the blog for designers created by Jennifer and Ken Visocky O’Grady and presented by HOW magazine.
Mosey on over and take a look at “Promote Your Value (Even If You Lack Experience).” It’s about not having to rely on your years of experience to gain trust [...]

Read the full article →

The Power of Words + Images

June 14, 2011

I know this story is a few years old because I looked it up, but it just came into my email box from my sister and really struck me. I couldn’t stop looking at the photo, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the whale, and I couldn’t stop being in awe of the amazing thing [...]

Read the full article →

How to Persuade: A Short Reminder

May 6, 2011

Every once in awhile I find it useful to remind myself that clients must decide for themselves if a product or service is right for them — we can’t do this for them. Clients — and all of us, really — trust their own opinions more than they do anyone else’s.
Therefore, the best way to [...]

Read the full article →

How to Sell or Save Your Soul on the Internet: What it Really Means to “Market” Online

April 18, 2011

Four years ago, when I first started poking around into information marketing, one of the things I was told was that
“marketing is marketing. And it’s the same no matter where you do it, online or off.”
I was willing to take that statement at face value, having dipped my toe into the mysteries of marketing online, [...]

Read the full article →

How to Capture Attention | Build Strong Relationships

February 21, 2011

My two most recent guest posts:

On Copyblogger: How to Capture Your Reader’s Attention

On Parse: Build Strong Client Relationships: Three Simple Rules
Go there and read! And don’t forget to leave a comment! :)
Thanks so much,
Marcia

Read the full article →

How you sabotage your own work . . . and yourself

January 9, 2011

I was on the phone with a client right before the holidays and ran into an amazing phenomenon, again, that happens with my clients — I call it the “Just Me” Curse.
I’m sure I run into it because of who my clients are: values-driven creatives, coaches, and consultants.
It goes like this (and I’m including [...]

Read the full article →

Be more successful online by being seen more online

November 17, 2010

OMG, can it really be this simple?
I’ve always been so, so, so interested in what captures attention. Having owned a marketing communications firm for 25 years, and now coaching small business owners, I’m still fascinated and intrigued by what it is that initially captures and then holds the attention of potential customers. What makes one [...]

Read the full article →

Capturing Attention: Why Marketing Efforts Fail, Part 2

May 7, 2010

This post is a follow up to “Capturing Attention: Why Marketing Efforts Fail, Part 1.”
There are two main reasons that marketing and promotion efforts fail to capture attention:
1.) The message is unclear
2.) The message is inconsistent
In my last post, I talked about where we go wrong when we put out unclear messages, and some steps [...]

Read the full article →

Capturing Attention: Why Marketing Efforts Fail, Part 1

May 6, 2010

This post is a follow up to “Capturing Attention: How Your Prospect’s Mind Works.”
There are two main reasons that marketing and promotion efforts fail to capture attention:
1.) The message is unclear
2.) The message is inconsistent
Let’s take a look at where we’re going wrong when we put out unclear messages, and some steps we can take [...]

Read the full article →

Capturing Attention: How Your Prospect’s Mind Works

May 6, 2010

You must get your prospect’s attention before you can sell her anything, or let her know how wonderful you are. Simple enough. Sure, that makes sense, Marcia. Just like I had to get your attention — maybe with the headline, maybe with the illustration — before I could impart the wisdom of this article to [...]

Read the full article →

How to Get Referrals: The Two Things You Must Have First

May 5, 2010

I love referrals. Hearing my phone ring, with a pre-qualified new client on the other end of the line, asking if they can work with me, is the sweetest sound on earth. I didn’t have to convince them I was a valuable resource. I didn’t have to “sell” them anything. I didn’t have to explain [...]

Read the full article →

Emotional Buzz: How to Get People to Talk About You

May 4, 2010

If you want your business to grow, you need people to talk about you. So you need to give them something to talk about.
We don’t talk about companies that we “like.” We don’t talk about companies that deliver good, quality service, day in and day out, for a reasonable price. We expect that. Do you [...]

Read the full article →