Can you sell from the stage?

Can you sell your products and services from the stage? I’m not talking about the theatrical stage or suggesting that you become an actor. This is about selling what you do from giving presentations. For many years I’ve given presentations at networking groups. At the end, people tell me how much they enjoyed my talk, [...]

How to sell a book without selling a book

My book has been rejected by two publishers! I’m dismayed and I’m giving up! No, not really. There are plenty of other publishers out there who I can approach and someone will, eventually see sense and give me a publishing deal. (Imagine being the person who originally turned down JK Rowling and her first book [...]

Ranting, reminding and rewards from Recognition Express

I have worked for Appletree for nearly 4 years as Customer Service Administrator. I was thrilled to be presented with an award plus lots of lovely goodies from Recognition Express. I didn’t know that my boss Chantal had nominated me, what a fantastic surprise! I am delighted to think my boss believes I have the [...]

14 ways how to optimise your website’s index page

A question from LinkedIn presented this subject, and I duly responded with these following points. They are in no particular order, just as they came out of my head. This information is stuff I have been gleaning for years, from observation, reading books, blogs and articles, and from my own personal realisation. Someday I may [...]

How to increase the open rate of your newsletters

One of the features of Appletree’s newsletter system JAC shows how many of your newsletter’s recipients have opened it (and there is also a new feature that shows you who has opened it too and how many times). One statistic is that newsletters with large mailing lists seem to show a low open rate. So [...]

Are Referrals the Best Way to Win New Business?

Referrals can come in all shapes and sizes and from all directions. They don’t just come from your clients - have you thought about where else they can come from? Here are some examples of how referrals can lead to new business for you. From your clients. We’ve been working with Trese on her newsletter and marketing for [...]

Is your marketing joined up?

Last week I ran a couple of workshops at a business event and we talked about all sorts of different marketing activities. We talked about the fact that whatever marketing you do, it should all be joined up, planned and on going. By the time I got to my desk the following day, numerous people who attended the [...]

Is Social Media a Waste of Time?

When I first learnt about Twitter, I heard about how a number of celebrities where using it and how they were telling the world about the mundane things they were getting up to during their day. Interestingly, they were building up large followings, so obviously a lot of people did want to know what they [...]

Why should businesses have a list?

Many marketing specialists often say that it’s important to have a list, which is a database of interested, like-minded and relevant contacts who would like to know more about you and your business. This list has a variety of uses, of which the most well-known is for a newsletter. After all, you should be maintaining [...]