marketing

Attract Clients with Energy and Emotion

February 3, 2012

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 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 [...]

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Why You Feel Icky About Marketing

January 12, 2012

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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 [...]

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

January 7, 2012

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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, [...]

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

September 15, 2011

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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 [...]

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Why Is It So Difficult to Talk About Your Difference?

September 13, 2011

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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 [...]

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All You Really Need are 1000 True Fans

August 1, 2011

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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 [...]

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Should You Fake It Until You Make It?

July 29, 2011

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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 [...]

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Promote Your Value (Even If You Lack Experience)

June 20, 2011

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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 [...]

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The Power of Words + Images

June 14, 2011

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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 [...]

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How to Persuade: A Short Reminder

May 6, 2011

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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 [...]

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

April 18, 2011

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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 [...]

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How to Capture Attention | Build Strong Relationships

February 21, 2011

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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

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How you sabotage your own work . . . and yourself

January 9, 2011

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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 [...]

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Be more successful online by being seen more online

November 17, 2010

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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 [...]

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Capturing Attention: Why Marketing Efforts Fail, Part 2

May 7, 2010

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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 [...]

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Capturing Attention: Why Marketing Efforts Fail, Part 1

May 6, 2010

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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 [...]

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Capturing Attention: How Your Prospect’s Mind Works

May 6, 2010

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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 [...]

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

May 5, 2010

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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 [...]

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Emotional Buzz: How to Get People to Talk About You

May 4, 2010

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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 [...]

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Why Won’t They Respond? Base Your Business Positioning on Your True Offer

April 30, 2010

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How can you let potential clients know you can help them if they don’t know what you do, don’t care about you, and are only interested in themselves? (And let’s face it, that’s most, if not all, of your potential clients out there.)
You’ve tried telling them about your great products and services, and they [...]

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Don’t Forget to Profile Your Ideal Customer

April 17, 2010

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Every time I go through this process with a client, I’m amazed at how well it works. It’s easy to overlook this simple idea, or to brush it off as nothing new. “Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard of that, now let’s get into the meaty strategic stuff. Let’s not waste our time on that airy [...]

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The 5 Mistakes You Make Most Often When Describing What You Do

February 9, 2010
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Your work is great. You know it, and others know it, too, but as a values-based creative entrepreneur, you don’t go around being all loud and pushy about it. So how do you reinforce it with your ideal client and let her know what you do, in a way that’s not salesy or awkward? [...]

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Positioning: Give Them a Reason to Buy

January 24, 2010

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If your message isn’t getting through to your clients and prospects, and you don’t seem to be able to guide people towards working with you, it could be your positioning. Or maybe your lack of positioning.
Maybe you’re aware of that. But what does it really mean, anyway?
A positioning statement stands for one message that’s [...]

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