Passive marketing – or how to get clients knocking at your door

During the first week of January this year, we took on two new clients and had two existing clients ask us to do more work for them. I wasn’t at work during the first week of January, and, as one of my members of staff pointed out, I hadn’t been out networking or meeting clients [...]

Do you work with your ideal clients?

When someone asks you who your clients are, is your answer something like, ‘anyone with a pulse and a cheque book’? If it is, I’m going to let you into a secret. No matter how hard you try, you are always going to struggle to grow your business. You might think that trying to attract [...]

Do you know your ideal clients?

Do you know your ideal clients? When someone asks you who your clients are, is your answer something like “anyone with a pulse and a cheque book”? If it is, I’m going to let you into a secret. No matter how hard you try, you’re always going to struggle to grow your business. You might [...]

How many marketing activities do you need?

In the last couple of weeks I’ve heard two different marketing presentations that give very different advice and I wanted to share them with you and let you decide which is right. More is less At the first presentation, we were shown the idea of a wheel with a number of spokes. The presenter said [...]

How should you use #ff effectively in Twitter?

For those who don’t already know, #ff is a hashtag that stands for ‘follow friday’. It is a fun gimmick that adds to the sociability element of Twitter, typically used on a Friday to allow tweeps (Twitter users) to recommend certain followers for others to follow. Not only is it a way of recommending or [...]

What’s the best way to encourage more referrals?

One of my clients told me that she’d given some vouchers to someone to say thank you for a referral she’d given her. Nothing new in that, I know. I do think it’s really important to send an appropriate thank you for every referral you receive that turns into work. Make it personal – don’t [...]

Use LinkedIn effectively – starting with your profile

The social networking site for business has to be LinkedIn. Anyone in business should have a profile that is properly completed and updated. Failure to do so is like submitting your CV with gaps and omissions, which would certainly not impress a prospective client or employer – since it is both these targets you should [...]

Twitter isn’t just a gossip engine

Twitter isn’t just about sending your followers chatty messages constrained to 140 characters, or valuable tips that can be shared. You can use it like a search engine too, or a method of exposing your complaint and getting results! Like a search engine: I have seen many questions put out on Twitter. If you have [...]

Using relationship marketing with customer loyalty

In my past post about customer loyalty, I mentioned that “Loyalty requires working on these satisfied customers, giving them excellent, high quality service, forming a relationship with them to find out exactly want they want, how it can be delivered to them in the best possible manner, and consistently providing your service that exceeds their [...]

How customer loyalty is preferred over satisfaction

If you make your customers happy, then they are satisfied; but that is not the same as loyalty. Loyalty requires working on these satisfied customers, giving them excellent, high quality service, forming a relationship with them to find out exactly want they want, how it can be delivered to them in the best possible manner, [...]