Beyond business growth. What happens next?
All businesses, large and small, come to me to fix a very specific business problem: They need, or would like more customers. Whenever I’m consulting with a new client, I always find that the following question is the most telling about where they are on their business journey: ‘How many new customers do you want?’ […]
Brand tone of voice – Definition, consistency and integrity
I had an interesting Q+A session the other day. During which a lady asked me what was appropriate to post on social media, should we refrain from posting about social topics? “Well” I said “If it’s relevant to your brand then post it, if it’s not, then don’t.” “But I don’t want to be all […]
Most marketing is unprofitable
Most marketing is unprofitable. Notice I said marketing, not businesses. There are actually a lot of businesses who get by with little to no marketing success, but it makes client acquisition a graft. I wonder what percentage of businesses are actually thriving with marketing? As in, they’re exceeding their sales forecasts. When they want to […]
Enabling workplace creativity using design thinking
via GIPHY Being creative isn’t a magic skill that we’re born with. It’s not an inherent way of being. As I’ve been in a design and art education from the ages of 16-21, I know that all good designs come from what is essentially a five step process: Inspiration/exposure Brainstorming. Initial ideas. Editing. Developing ideas. […]
Customer pains and strategy
It’s no secret that I think SWOT analysis and most marketing strategy documents (and even business plans) are largely useless. Most of the time these are static Microsoft Word files that someone creates at the beginning of the project and never get looked at again. Often they include information that isn’t analysed and everybody is […]
Sorry, there are no magic tricks
I was doing a consultation project recently where the lady involved was assured by other marketing companies that if she changed her posting times, or used different hashtags or posted some Reels, her Instagram engagement would improve. This might be the kind of advice I’d give if a client had already gone ball to the […]
Customer profiling workshop
I made a little workshop to go over customer profiling. It’s one of the first things we learn as baby marketers but I feel like most of the stuff I’ve learned to do involved assumptions and irrelevant details. When I found the www.strategyzer.com customer profiling series I was pumped! I’ve spoken a bit more about […]
Sample Marketing Report (with conditional formatting & formulas)
Getting started in social media marketing or marketing in general and need to learn how to use spreadsheets to create your own monthly marketing report? I’ve made one for you, complete with sample formulas, data, graphs and conditional formatting. It’s not perfect, but I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to play around with it and […]
Your Digital Marketing to-do list for friday afternoons
There are some digital housekeeping activities that are so important to do and can make such a big difference to your web and social media presence and yet we never have time to do them because we’re too busy creating and publishing new content and running ads. I allocate Friday afternoons when I’m feeling a […]
The Con – How Internet Con Artists are Abusing Marketing Techniques
Common ways marketing and sales persuasion techniques are used unethically, and how you can spot them.