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Articles develop your marketing message.

Articles help get your message out in the world, so that prospective customers can start to know like and trust you.
Print them out instead of a leaflet for face to face networking, email them to people you have met, distribute them to article directories and put them on the website...the search engines will feed on the keywords.

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Article: Bring on the Bear market!

So we are officially in a "bear" market. This is when the share price has fallen 20% from its peak. The last bear market lasted 3 years and 3 months. I know this is true because I read it in the newspapers and saw it on the news.

The price of housing is going down minute by minute and the price of food and commodities such as oil are rising every day. Gloom is descending the earth because people aren't spending and this is all a BAD THING.
What's a small or medium-sized business to do?
Weep and wail and give up? Go to a cheaper area of the world? Sit it out with gritted teeth and wait for the storm to blow over? Do nothing different? Or adapt your marketing?

Get into the conversation. If your customers are fearful, those fears will seem real. As with all good marketing you need to get into the conversation inside the head of your customer - so don't ignore those fears. In fact people often buy more quickly from fear than from hope, so a good quality solution to reduce the fear can become more attractive.

Look at your product range. If your customers genuinely have more fear and spend more cautiously - adapt. Perhaps you need an additional product at the free or entry level, or a new service at the top end to really banish the fears.

Improve your service. Use your own fears to improve your company. Maybe delivery could be streamlined with better procedures, more focus on clients, new staff, outsourcing or new technology. You may negotiate a better price on that bright shiny kit you have had your eye on. Beat the bottle-necks.

More motivation. As the head of your business - or responsible for communication - does your company operate with values? If so, are those values real for the whole team? A company with a meaningful Mission Statement will have more energy and resilience, and be more attractive to customers. And will simply get more done more easily.

Find the right customers. The lifeblood of your business are your customers. What are they like and where do they come from? Are you getting customers who are perfect for you? If leaner times are here the wrong clients could be dangerous, and it is important to know which customers you would turn away or refer elsewhere. With your marketing set up correctly you find the right customers and they lead to more. A good pipeline of perfect prospective customers has got to be an excellent defence against recession.

Planned with care, you could gain from the credit crunch. It could be the catalyst for a more committed, better-response business which meets the needs of the market with more conviction. You could even become more expert in a particular niche and put your prices up! Credit Crunch Catastrophe could turn into Recession Revitalisation.

For more help and inspiration about getting clear on your business please get in touch for marketing consultancy or take the 30 day e-course Spark into Marketing Stop and Think

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Be the expert

Small businesses have more status when they are experts. As an expert you can charge higher prices, customers will queue up to work with you, you are valued more highly, and you can develop additional streams of income with speaking, books DVD's etc. You can even have more holidays!

You have to first decide where you are going to be the expert.

It is easier to dominate a small niche - make a big splash in a small puddle - than get lost in the wide open sea. Focus on one area to make best use of your valuable money and your even more valuable time.

What kind of people do you enjoy spending time with?
The more you understand the problems your customers are going through, the more credible your solution. You use the right words, you naturally speak in the right tone of voice, you can talk with authenticity about the market and the problems.

This makes your marketing simple. You know the places to go on-line and in the real world, and the people to see.

You know your stuff, so getting down to writing and updating a website, writing articles, developing newsletters and putting in a proposal to speak at a conference all feels natural. Most importantly you are relaxed about what you do so your tone of voice is confident, which gives confidence to your clients. You understand the market, and you are interested in your subject. It hardly feels like work to do the marketing and it helps you get paid more as an expert.

Moving into a new area that you feel passionate about takes longer. but the process is much the same. As you don't yet know the movers and shakers do lots of research. Use the internet to find special interest groups, forums and meetings and soak up the information. Read the appropriate magazines and books that everyone talks about. Find blogs at Technorati about what interests you and make comments.

Ask questions in online surveys and face to face, and write articles about the results. Your status as an enthusiast is an exciting part of the process and soon you will find that you are treated as an expert. Use a blog, articles and your website, and others will be inspired by you.

Jean Wolfe

For more help and inspiration about getting clear on what your business is all about take the 30 day e-course Spark into Marketing Stop and Think

I enjoyed it so much I did it in one weekend! Discovered a lot and appreciated the light touch.

Charles Campbell Garden Design

Helped us to think through our approach, get much clearer - and enjoy the process!

Ute Wieczorek-King and Mary Fraser

You are always a breath of fresh air and wake me up to possibilities

Pattie Horrocks Coach and Trainer

"If getting clients has become a chore, I highly recommend this valuable resource which has Jean working her usual magic. Spark into Marketing! Stop and Think is about getting you to enjoy marketing your business, and it provides simple strategies for doing just that. From helping you to become clear about your ideal clients, gaining a greater knowledge of yourself and exactly what you want from your business to increasing your business credibility, this excellent course will put you back on track."

Lucie Storrs