I was recently invited by Andy Hayes of Travel Online Partners to be a guest on his TOP radio show. We discussed marketing, websites, the Hotel Success Handbook, being in business, and lots more.
Listen online or read the summary.
On the radio – me talking Inspired Marketing, Websites and business
Selling online – How we design and build ecommerce websites
Selling online can be as straightforward as adding a PayPal button to your website, but if you’re looking to manage a full catalogue you really need something more sophisticated.
Continue reading...Talking your customer’s language – my advice on video!
So here I am now on video!
The really helpful Your Business Channel is packed with videos and shows to watch online, that have an incredible range of advice and tips for business owners from a huge range of experts (lots of which are quite famous) – and now me too!
Continue reading...Why I’m a big fan of Twitter (and how I use it for business)
I do like Twitter and what it can do for my business. Twitter is huge and growing every day — there’s a lot of people to Tweet to.
Here are a few ways that I use Twitter — and that any small business or individual can use it for too…
Continue reading...Playing nice in business — why manners maketh money
Sometimes I come across businesses, and business people, that just don’t seem to have any manners!
It’s not just customer service; you should also be thinking about how you work with other businesses too…
Every customer has their own agenda
Everyone who buys your product or service has their own agenda — they want ‘their problem’ solved, or ‘their need’ satisfied. This explains why customer segmentation is so important if you want to sell more to your best customers…
Continue reading...What does your perfect customer ‘look like’?
So who is your perfect customer? This is a really important exercise to undertake. Your perfect customer ideally is already your most profitable ‘best customer’(s), but it might not be…
Continue reading...Not all customers are created equal…
Now, while I do believe it’s true that all men (and women) were created equal, in business it’s very important to remember that not all customers are created equal. What I am talking about here is customer segmentation, and identifying the ‘best’ customers for your business…
Continue reading...Make more money from your website
How DO you make MONEY from your web site? Or, how I like to think about it: how can your web site make your business more successful?
Continue reading...Well, what a surprise… customers like good service! and they aren’t always bothered about price
Now, you may be thinking that, in these price conscious times, that having the best (lowest) price is all it takes to get customers. But, in many instances, this is just not true… in fact, pricing is less important than good experiences and service. That’s pretty vital to remember in business, whatever you are selling…
Continue reading...Are you special? Can you explain your uniqueness?
I was reminded again at the weekend (I am being Masterminded by Jonathan Jay) how important is it to be unique in business. We were talking about USPs, and why a business owner must know what their USP is before they can market their business with success.
USP stands for Unique Selling Point, or Unique Sales Proposition. I was reminded how hard it is to define these — to really make them totally unique.
It is quite easy to come up with a USP only to realise under scrutiny that it’s not, in fact, unique and could easily be applied to other businesses. So it was good to have the Mastermind group of business owners challenging each other to be unique.
Continue reading...Why blog for your business?
So why am I blogging, and should you blog for your business? And if you are blogging, is it helping?! Blogging is something that can be a very effective part of your marketing. It’s not always sensible to blog in the ‘traditional’ sense of a diary though, as if you’re not doing anything interesting day-to-day then you might not get value from it!
Continue reading...When new business is staring you in the face… and you look the other way!
Lots of businesses are turning away customers every day… and they probably don’t even realise it.
I’ve made a few calls over the last few days to travel companies (not all my own holiday research, I have to point out!), and it was incredible the number of the companies that didn’t even take my contact details. I could have walked away from them forever.
Here’s the range of responses I got…
Continue reading...Sound advice on what NOT to do in business — some good New Year resolutions for 2009
I was reading the UK Business Forum ‘Round-up of 2008′ email today (part of the very useful www.businesszone.co.uk), and this article was the one that caught my eye.
Now I love a to-do list as much as the next person (OK so I probably love them more), but I really loved the idea of ‘What to include on your not to do list’. The article was written by Robert Craven, who is MD of The Directors Centre.
Here’s what I nodded my head at…
Continue reading...Getting your ‘business head’ on (and why you need to keep it on!)
This morning I visited my friend Nicola, who’s just started running her own business (she’s my hairdresser), and it was great to hear that she’s already got her ‘business head’ on, and is busy working out how she’s going to start differentiating and improving her salon.
She’s taken over an existing business, and this of course can have its upsides and downsides — the upsides being that she is making money from day one (quite useful!), but the downside being that there isn’t a blank page to start from to do everything your way from the outset.
But here’s some things that we talked about that made me confident that the salon is only going to get better and more profitable…
Continue reading...What’s inside my head and how it can help your business
Yesterday, I got back from the first 2-day ‘Small Business Marketing Workshop’ run by the very smart Jonathan Jay in his new business venture Success Track.
The purpose of the 2-day workshop was for Jonathan to share his own experience in what does and doesn’t work in terms of marketing a business. Jonathan also offered a ‘marketing clinic’, where attendees could (perhaps crushingly honestly in some cases!) receive a critique of their current marketing materials and approach (note to anyone who attended here — you will of course get the irony of Jonathan describing this in his own words as “a clinic”!).
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