I love minimalism. After moving from apartment to apartment and finally across the country you really realize how much clutter and ‘stuff’ seems to pile up over the years. It’s incredibly refreshing to find yourself with fewer things. Just the basics are really required. There’s less stress in being able to find things, there’s no over piled shelves, no worry of where you are going to store something that you haven’t touched or looked at in years. Just the basics.

I love minimalism in not just in my own life but in the way things are marketed and designed as well. Boiling down messages to the simplest possible form. The use of white space in design. All often overlook or forgotten about with the need to pile and shout more and more information onto one simple piece.

One of the best exercises I find that a business can do, is answer the question:

What is your message?

If you can answer that question quickly and easily in a few words, then you’re golden. However, many of us try to focus on so many things in our business. We’re here to help people with problems a. b. c. d. and e. When really your overall message can be boiled down to a few simple words. Being able focus on your businesses key message will allow you to get your message across easily and efficiently, without clutter or confusion. And in the end, that’s the main goal. Getting your message out to the customers who’s problems you can solve.

Your actionable this week:  If you could describe your message in one word, what would it be?

I’d love for you to leave a comment and tell us what your message is!

Defining your target market can sometimes be a difficult thing to do. Many people think well isn’t everyone my customer?! As Seth Godin says simply:

“Everyone is not your customer.”

The best way to be able to market your product or service is to understand exactly who it is that you will be talking to. People have different tastes and opinions. When you know who you’re talking to, you can speak in their language.

I was listening to a podcast the other day, and the podcaster, John Lee Dumas, of Entrepreneur on Fire, described his target market as a person. I thought to myself “how perfect is that!” Not only is it the perfect way to exactly describe in detail who your target market is, but it’s a fun and enjoyable exercise.

Gone are the standard and bland “define your ideal target market’s geographic, demographic and technographic merits.” Why not make it a fun exercise and give your target market and name and personality.

For example:
My target market’s name is Leena. She’s a 35 year old Entrepreneur. She wakes up every morning, does 15 minutes of power yoga and drinks an energy boosting smoothie to start off her day.  She heads out to her boutique shop and works hard but notices that her message simply isn’t getting out to her own targeted audience and wonders how to go about doing that. She does some research online and finds my website, reads a few blog posts and decides to sign up for the FREE marketing materials to see how she wants to move forward with making her mark in business.

Does your target market have a name? What do they do during the day? What problems are they having that you can solve?

Your actionable this week: Take a look at your target market, give them a name and describe what they are all about.

I’d love for you to leave a comment and share who your target market is!

I often get asked why it’s so important to have a uniform look across all of a company’s marketing materials, from business cards, to websites to your print material. Many times brochures are designed separate from a website and they tend to come out looking nothing alike. But why is that such a bad thing?

Let’s take a look at 3 main factors and what i categorize as style, connection and simplicity.

1) Style
When you think about going to a high end restaurant there are certain things that come to mind, maybe elegance, cleanliness and modern decor. If you were to walk into a high end restaurant and their decor gave off a fast food vibe, would you stay? Or does their choice of decor say something about the restaurant as a whole? Likely. The same feeling should apply to the design of your marketing materials. They should all give off a similar feeling and style which should portray what your company is all about.

2) Connection
Style is not the only important thing when it comes to unifying a brand. Easily making a connection is another. McDonald’s has their signature golden arches, Nike has their swoosh and Apple has well, their apple. Everyone makes the connection which shoe is Nike’s and which computer is Apple’s quickly and easily. There’s no confusion. Imagine if your image was something different on each piece of material, potential customers may not make the connection to who you are. And no one wants that!

3) Simplicity
No one likes confusion and sending multiple messages, in multiple looks, in multiple varieties… your customers are simply not going to understand what you are trying to say. So remember to KISS – Keep It Simple Silly!

Your actionable this week: is to review your materials and see if they have style, connection and simplicity!

As society turns to a digital world and people enjoy the flexibility of working from home, how do you know what you’re getting into when you hire an online consultant? So many people put smoke and mirrors as their business face and it’s difficult to tell whether you are being told truth or lies. So how do you distinguish between the two? Here are a few key points to consider:

• Do they provide references, successes and failures? Past work is often a great way to tell how the end product turned out.
• How will they be measuring success? Success should be measured throughout the project to ensure it’s being kept on track and in the end you can see how far you’ve actually come.
• What documentation of the work completed will you be getting?
• Take a look around their office. Is their website professionally designed? Are things easily accessible in a logical way? Is it welcoming or unorganized? A website should be like seeing into someone’s business and getting a taste of what they are really like.
• Do you get an overall good feeling like you want to dive in right away? Go with your first instincts.
• Does your personality and chemistry mesh?

Don’t forget that in order to have a great relationship with an online consultant, you need to put in the effort to communicate as well. If everything is one-sided the project will never be a success. But if both parties communicate, then you’re on your way!

I’d love for you to leave a comment and share some of the best and worst experiences you’ve had with an online consultant.

The marketing mix or the 4 P’s of marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion, were developed in 1948 and were easily described as the launching pad of your marketing plan. You simply couldn’t have a plan without completing the 4 P’s. The question is, are the 4 P’s still relevant?

I would say yes, absolutely! People can’t stand without a spine – a marketing plan doesn’t have a base without the 4 P’s. How they are defined may have changed over the years but the essence of the marketing mix is still very much the building blocks of any good marketing plan. In the 1990’s the concept of the 4 C’s were introduced as a replacement to be more customer driven: consumer, cost, communication and convenience. In 2012 another 4 P’s theory was proposed with people, processes, programs and performance.

Times have changed so much that the initial concept of looking internally at the 4 P’s is no longer valid, however, if we switch them around and look externally at what our customers want, the 4 P’s are still very much valid.

Product
Product is no longer about the physical product or service that you are offering, but rather studying what your customer is really looking for. Take a walk in your customers shows and see if there are things you would change in the entire product experience.

Price
Relying solely on the best price won’t get you anywhere. People are looking for what value you can offer.

Place
We live in a much more global world. Place is no longer one location, a business can be locally run, a global business or even a glocal company… businesses offering online services both locally and globally!

Promotion
Promoting your business is no longer about blasting your potential customer with ad’s and bulletins, but about truly communicating with people and showing them you have something of value to offer.

Your actionable this week: What are your 4 P’s and how can you adjust them to bring them into modern marketing methods?

I’d love for you to leave a comment and share with the community what your 4 P’s are.