What’s a Smile Worth?
50 years ago, Harvey Ball designed the iconic Smiley Face. Its aim was to ease the acrimony following a merger of two insurance companies. The graphic supported a friendship campaign […]
SMILE – If You’re Exhibiting
Why would you even consider exhibiting when, according to Robert Craven, in terms of generating sales it ranks 8th out of 10; marginally more effective than direct mail and email? […]
When You’re Smiling … Marketing
“Smiling is infectious, you catch it like the flu, When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling too. I passed around the corner and someone saw […]
Made Me Smile
68% of clients leave due to indifference or lack of attention … sometimes it only takes a smile to get them and keep them coming back. This New Year’s Eve […]
Voice Power for Presenters
During a weekend last year, I had the privilege to facilitate the lecture series at the Good Funeral Awards in Bournemouth. Five fabulous and worthy speakers on a variety of fascinating […]
The Credibility Factor
When you have worked hard and have done a fabulous job for a client and they voice their appreciation; do you just blush and say thanks, or do you turn […]
Is your Business Niche Enough?
The essence of attraction marketing is creating a niche with your ideal client in mind. This ‘customer driven’ sales strategy means you must have a good idea of your ideal […]
Portal Projects – Getting through the Door
For most of us in the service sector we can be all things to all people and can advise on myriad subjects. The ideal position in our target organisations is […]
Marketing Harmony
The impressions that readers gain from advertising campaigns are as varied as musical notes. The true value of marketing material is not the quality of the paper, the print […]
Zones of Perception
It is possible you can learn a lot about communicating by checking out some of the big brand success stories. We receive somewhere in the region of 3000 commercial messages […]
The Low Down on Slogans
The art of assonance adds poetic rhythm and medial rhyme to the words that you use. Unlike alliteration when the reader is aware at the start that there is a […]
Every step you take …
So how do you emulate the shoe retailer, Clarke’s superb strapline – “enjoy every step”? It is not easy – your strapline needs to convey a combination of customer awareness; […]
Boost Your Business
Everyone knows that a good testimonial can work wonders for your business reputation and encourage prospects to buy from you. But customers rarely know how to write a testimonial that […]
The Killer Question! – Market Research
I seldom see people tackling primary market research, which is, probably the most important piece of work they will ever do when setting out on a business project or idea. […]
Love Changes Everything
Ask any designer, worth his/her salt, what a brand is and they will tell you that it is so much more than a logo and its colours. Sure, they are […]
Want v. Need
Don’t think, because people might need what you want to sell, that they will want to buy. Being needy is not attractive and none of us wants to feel unattractive. […]
Making a Living
This weekend I was invited to attend a group think at an Eco-Lodge in the New Forest on how we might ‘teach’ sustainability in the business schools. With duly packed […]
What Makes You Stand Out?
The final killer question in my last Blog post was … what one key performance indicator measures your dramatic business differentiator. Easy for me to ask! However, we all know […]
Chutzpah! – Cheek Charms
Since we are amidst the awards season, it seemed appropriate to discuss harnessing the power of chutzpah! The word has been adopted from Yiddish and means someone who has shameless audacity; […]
When Words are SO Important
This week, I was reminded of a vivid conversation I had with Steve Graham of Internet Mentor We were discussing the ‘plagiarism’ of Dr Albert Mehrabian’s work and his often […]
Perception V Reality
In his book ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’, the late Dale Carnegie tells the story of Two Gun Crowley. This is a man who was sent to the […]
Taking the ‘lead in’ questions
It is not easy asking leading questions. No wonder – it is hardly natural. You would wouldn’t walk up to someone you didn’t know in the pub and ask them […]
One-liners
My Blog this week continues the story telling theme. However, this is about shortening the story to a one liner that really gets the message across. The thought was kick started […]
Let me tell you a story
Over the last couple of weeks the benefit of telling stories (not untruths of course) has come up in various different guises. The great thing about telling a story is […]
If you don’t ask …
If you don’t ask …You don’t get; won’t get but more importantly in business if your business connections don’t know what you want, you can’t possibly get. Rudyard Kipling oft […]
Back of an Envelope
It’s another of those quirky idioms. It refers to a quick and dirty calculation jotted on a scrap of paper. However quick and dirty, the impact is only achieved if […]
KISS – (Love Me Feb challenge #9)
A cliché symbolised by the mnemonic KISS. I have always found the phase slightly insulting. What is so stupid about keeping things simple? Or is it saying that if you […]
Siphoning the Sales Funnel
To put this into context; this post is not about marketing, PR and lead generation, it assumes that you already have an abundance of enquiries that are filling up your […]
Champions – who do they know …
The most important thing you can do when you are looking for clients is to find your champion. That is someone who will introduce and preferably recommend your abilities. These […]
A Minute to Win It! – a Toastmasters Speech (8)
A minute to win it …. One of the most commonly used tools cited on the networking circuit is the one minute elevator pitch. Hands up if you’ve heard that? […]
Surefire Social Wins
Cisco Systems reported the results of a survey they completed last year that businesses that took a strategic and tactical approach to online social networking made an 18% increase in […]
Laura McHarrie @ The Hidden Edge 