Some of you may have already heard me speak about the need to really hone in on your target audience before you go out there and market yourself extensively.  Most people try to market to EVERYONE, fearing that if they niche themselves too much, they'll narrow down their prospective client pool.

However we know that this isn't true.  Experts make more per hour than generalists.  The media is only looking for experts not jack-of-all-trades.  Experts stand out in the marketplace.  And guess what... it's so much easier marketing to a specific group of people than to a whole mess of people.  When our message is compelling it catch's people's attention.

Posted by Deborah Jackson on March 12, 2010

Have you ever looked at your list of things to do and just wanted to run away? Procrastination sometimes does get the best of us self-employed people. Everything seems to be a priority therefore we tend to put some things on the back burner. The point is, if the items on your to-do list have to do with marketing your business to attract clients then you don’t want to ignore them otherwise your pipeline of prospects will be empty in 6 months or less.

Every now and then Procrastination rears its ugly head into my business. Sometimes I think that the to-do list is so overwhelming that I tend to go into an avoidance mode rather than a mode of just dealing with it. Does this happen to you? Realistically, you can’t ignore marketing yourself. You’ll have to just bite the bullet and do what it takes.

Posted by Deborah Jackson on February 15, 2010

How many of you have got on the road and then realised you didn’t really have a clue where you were going?

Realistically – that’s not going to happen is it? Most of us get in the car with a clear understanding of where we are going and what we are likely to face on our journey.

Driving without a bit of forethought is going to end in tears somewhere along the way – either with no fuel left in the tank, hopelessly lost or in a ditch somewhere.

Sadly, it is not unusual for small business owners to launch in to the journey of a new year in precisely this way. Any wonder that so many businesses run out of fuel half way through, lose their way or, worst of all, end in a figurative ditch.

Posted by Deborah Jackson on January 11, 2010

Imagine for a moment you are walking along one day in the park. You look down and see a beautiful envelope, which you pick up. Its fine quality paper, with an embossed company logo on the back and full postage on the front and it's very impressive.

To your surprise, however, the envelope has nothing written on the front - no recipient's name, no address. And you can tell, on closer inspection, that it also has no contents.

This envelope is like many small business's marketing messages. All the investment is spent on the tactical element represented here by the stamped envelope. It's like purchasing advertising, web sites, brochures, network memberships and tradeshow stands.

Posted by Deborah Jackson on December 4, 2009

To master marketing you need to understand the core marketing principles, which leads us to understanding your overall strategy. In the first issue we began the 'Mastering Core Marketing Principles' series by discussing Positioning, then Packaging, Promotion and Persuasion. If you missed these articles... just click on each P to read the past articles...

The fifth and last cab off the rank is Performance.

Posted by Deborah Jackson on October 19, 2009

To master marketing we need to understand the core marketing principles, which leads us to understanding our overall strategy. In the first issue we began the 'Mastering Core Marketing Principles' series by discussing Positioning, then Packaging and Promotion. If you missed these articles or want to read it again... click here.

The fourth cab off the rank is Persuasion.

Posted by Deborah Jackson on September 7, 2009