Blog
7 Tricks For Creating Powerful Ad-Copy
Guest Author: Jessica Swanson
Here Are 7 Key Points To Keep In Mind, When Writing Ad-Copy:
1. Choose Your Words Carefully
2. Focus On Benefits
3. Establish Trust
4. Create One Clear Objective
5. Differentiate Your Company
6. Pack Your Headlines With Power
7. Create An Emotional Response
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Jessica Swanson, “The Shoestring Marketer,” has helped entrepreneurs, all over the world, explode their businesses using cutting-edge, proven and completely free marketing strategies. To receive your FREE Shoestring Marketing Kit, which has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you, learn the exact techniques for marketing their businesses for no-cost, visit: www.ShoestringMarketingKit.com
Competitive Intelligence – Sophisticated or Quick & Dirty
Inc. has been posting some very good information on “how to” do things related to a small business. One of their posts that caught my attention was about the secrets of competitive intelligence. The post talked about how important it is for companies of all sizes to know what is going on around them and to pay attention to the competition. And that small companies may need to be even more attentive to their competitors.
Two key suggestions in the article were that you should know yourself first and then figure out what matters in your competitive space. The author quotes experts who offer ways to track what your competitors are doing and how to keep up with what your market is looking for from its suppliers.
A number of resources were mentioned in the article, including:
- Dun and Bradstreet (dnb.com)
- InfoUSA(infousa.com)
- mindtools.com
- quickmba.com/strategy
- 12manage.com/i_s.html
- Society of Competitive Intelligence Professional (scip.org)
- Polson Enterprises
- Financial Management Consultat Matt Evans (exinfm.com)
- CI Conultancy Fuld & Company (fuld.com)
- Google News news.google.com for email alerts
- Fagan Finder research site (faganfinder.com/urlinfo)
- WatchThatPage.com
The writers at Inc. point out that you need clarity and discipline to “be in the game.” The MBA in me got very excited to read about these tools and be reminded of SWOT analyses and competitive mapping, but I also thought about how much time and discipline these activities take. If you can check out the Inc. article, I encourage you to do so, it is excellent, but if you don’t think you can implement the more sophisticated system they mention, you might want to read a little bit about Howie Jacobson’s Checkmate. Don’t let the semi-cheesy sales page fool you, this is some really helpful stuff. Howie has taken what he knows about Adwords — which is enough to get the “for Dummies” book people to ask him to write the Google Adwords for Dummies books — and has taken on competitive positioning. In about an hour, using the Checkmate matrix, I was able to outline my client’s competitive space. I used the Google search page for the keywords that were important to my client and then went to town. I strongly believe in the competitive intelligence work outlined by Inc. That’s good stuff, but for quick and dirty and getting me started, I have to say what I learned via Checkmate was pretty powerful and something I can do easily at any time I need to check in on my positioning.
I’ve gotten to know Howie since he moved to about an hour’s drive me, so let me know if you are interested in Checkmate, I might be able to help you get connected or even get a discount. Just email me at info@barbarademarest.com.
Barbara Demarest (www.barbarademarest.com) received her MBA from the Babcock School of Management at Wake Forest University and her BA from Duke University. After 20 years at the Center for Creative Leadership, Barbara launched a strategy and development consulting practice focusing on people leading change in associations, foundations, universities, nonprofits and knowledge businesses. You can find Barbara’s executive coaching profile on www.thecoachingassociation.com.
How to Build a Business That Fits Your Life
Today’s guest author is Sherri Garrity from TheCorporateFugitive.com. Sherri writes frequent posts on her blog about what it takes to transition from a corporate employee to a self-employed entrepreneur. When individuals come to me for career transition counseling, one of the options that is often on the table is whether or not freelancing or self-employment might work for them. In this article, Sherri talks a little about how to think about your life first and the job fitting into that life second. For many of us, this is tough because we don’t realize that we can actually design our lives and not assume that our employment situation is what defines the rest of our existence.
Guest Author: Sherri Garrity on Building a Business to Fit Your Life
There’s a reason the first question I ask a client is “what do you want your life to be like?” It’s because without a clear and vivid vision of what YOU want, you won’t be very likely to get it.
This sounds trite and flippant, but I assure you, it’s by far the most important question you need to ask yourself as you build a business.
Who you are, what you love, what you hate, how you like to work, how you like to play, and how much money you desire and need are all important ingredients that will allow you to create the business that really fits you best. Doesn’t this sound better than if I were to ask you what business model is right for you?
Here are two scenarios of people in the same kind of business, yet set up completely different:
Peggy absolutely loves to nurture and care for her clients and enjoys lots of interaction with them. Her passion is taking care of her clients’ needs and making their lives easier. In her career she was a high level executive assistant in the corporate world. She left her job in her early 50s to care for her husband who became unable to work. She also has a daughter in university. She needs to have a consistent income, and a predictable daytime schedule. She needs to be at home. What works for Peggy’s virtual assistant practice is to work very closely with mainly local clients, from her home office. She does administrative work for a small number of ongoing clients in a particular industry. She can be available to them during their business day. She takes on a small number of virtual clients outside of her geographic area for task-oriented, as needed projects to diversify her income.
Sandra has a pre-school child and gave her letter of resignation soon after going back to work so that she could be home with her young child. Her income from her job was not enough for her to make working for someone else worth it financially and emotionally. Her schedule is completely erratic and she requires absolute flexibility. Her income needs are not high, and is a second income for her family. She loves variety and the satisfaction of turning projects around quickly and moving on to the next one. She tends to get bored quickly, just likes to get the work done and move on. She dislikes the day-to-day administration and works best when she has a clear direction and a definite project end. Her passion leans toward technical problem solving and creativity. What works for Sandra’s virtual assistance practice is a specialty in online marketing software. She sets up electronic newsletters, and manages the back end of her clients’ shopping cart systems and email marketing. Because she is so specialized, she often is not the sole virtual assistant for her clients and frequently is a member of a project team. She likes this because she doesn’t want to be the point person and also due to her schedule, she isn’t suited for customer service and regular interaction with her clients and their clients. She can handle a higher number of clients and most of the work she does can be done at any time of day or night as long as she meets her deadlines.
As you can see from the above examples, Peggy and Sandra have entirely different needs. Had either of them chosen each other’s model to follow, they’d be miserable. Their businesses would soon feel like a job, and you can bet their relationships with their clients would be less than effective.
So, how do you avoid this in your life and business? Take the time to figure out what you truly want, and custom fit your business to your life plan.
Here are some tips to get you thinking:
1. What’s your “sweet spot”?
Jim Collins, the author of the Good to Great leadership books, says it is where all of these three things intersect:
- Something that people will pay you for – these are your marketable skills that you have
- Something you’re passionate about
- Something that you’re put on this earth to do – the elusive “purpose” many of us seek
2. What kind of lifestyle do you want?
Explore and carefully consider how you want your life to be, now and in the future. Look at each of these areas:
- Personal and family responsibilities
- Financial obligations and desires
- Amount of time you want to spend “doing” client work
- Degree of flexibility in your schedule
- Willingness to travel, or need to work from local base
- How you prefer to work (degree of autonomy and interaction, short turnaround or long haul)
- Energy level (prefer steady and predictable, or adrenaline junkie)
- Risk tolerance (lots of security and stability, or open to uncertainty)
3. Who needs you?
There’s a client out there right now, just waiting for someone like you who understands their needs and is ideally matched for you.
If you “do the work”, you’ll reap the rewards. These guidelines will help you to identify what you really want and what is ideally suited to you, so that you can build the business that is your best fit.
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Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success SystemTM for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and live outside of the ordinary. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful and extraordinary business. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for information and step-by-step resources to take you from overwhelmed employee to extraordinary entrepreneur.
Morning Sports Talk: It’s Business
ESPN’s Mike and Mike in the Morning Show was on today as it is most mornings during my household’s get-up-get-ready-and-go period. I was a bit more attentive today since the talk was college basketball and my alma mater had just won the championship in a squeaker. I was about to tune out as the two Mikes moved on to the story about how the Philadelphia Eagles had traded Donovan McNabb to the Washington Redskins. At some point, the conversation turned to whether Redskins player Jason Campbell should or should not have been told about the trade before the public heard about it and the media questioned him.
This is Business
Mike Greenberg said yes, someone, even if it was an assistant should have talked to Campbell before he was blindsided by the media. Mike Golic responded with a bit of a you-gotta-be-kidding-me-you-wimp face and a comment that let the audience know he thought Greenberg was being way too touchy-feely about the whole thing. 
Golic also postured that the Redskins had publicly stated that the quarterback position was open and that Campbell should not have hurt feelings about being passed over in a trade. Then Golic said, “This is business.”
I’ll save for another post why I think “business” and treating well the people who are part of your organization are not mutually exclusive concepts and focus today on how taking the time to manage your message is absolutely about “business.”
Managing Your Message, Brand and Fan Experience
When Mike Greenberg suggested that Jason Campbell should have been informed about a trade that didn’t involve him personally – he wasn’t being traded and he hadn’t officially had the job that McNabb was being traded to take – Mike Golic reacted to the comment as if it was all about Jason Campbell’s feelings. I’m suggesting that this was one way to react, but certainly not the only reaction if you are thinking about “business.” Instead you could have thought about brand, the marketing message, and the fan experience.
Management guru Peter Drucker is often quoted as having said that there is only one valid purpose of a business and that is to create a customer. He also said that there are only two basic functions of a business: marketing and innovation. It seems to me that the Redskins are taking care of the innovation function by trying out a new mix of players and shaking up their line up (not that I know ANYTHING about professional football). Where I think Golic gets it wrong is on the marketing.
Marketing is about creating a great customer experience that keeps them coming back and buying your product or service. It includes managing your message and maintaining your brand. If for no other reason than “business,” it would have been a good idea to make sure Jason Campbell knew about the trade and that management knew what he would say to the press when asked. If the press thinks that your fans, i.e. the Redskins’ customers, will be interested in what Jason Campbell thinks about the trade, then the leadership of the Redskins should be strategically thinking about that too. Even if you aren’t going to like or can’t control what Jason Campbell says or does next, it is better to know and plan the next piece of your messaging strategy than to leave it as an unknown where you have to react in the moment to whatever is said to the public.
Manage your message, make sure everyone involved in creating the fan experience is on board with your strategy, and leverage your opportunities in front of the press to enhance and extend your fan base. That’s business.
Barbara Demarest (www.barbarademarest.com) received her MBA from the Babcock School of Management at Wake Forest University and her BA from Duke University. After 20 years at the Center for Creative Leadership, Barbara launched a strategy and development consulting practice focusing on people leading change in associations, foundations, universities, nonprofits and knowledge businesses. You can find Barbara’s executive coaching profile on www.thecoachingassociation.com.
How Proving Your Value Costs You Money and Loses Clients
Today’s guest author is Sherri Garrity from TheCorporateFugitive.com. Sherri writes frequent posts on her blog about what it takes to transition from a corporate employee to a self-employed entrepreneur. Her useful tips about personal positioning related to how to price your services is outline below.
Guest Author: Sherri Garrity on Value Pricing
If I were to ask you, are you committed to doing things the hard way? I’m sure you’d say no. But every day I see examples of business owners making what could be simple, instead very complex. What they don’t realize is that it’s costing them a ton of money in lost profits and sales.
Of course, we don’t do this consciously. The fact is, it’s something that we’ve grown up believing. We’ve learned to equate success with sacrifice, and high value with more. If you’re committed to doing what it takes and are prepared to work really hard until it pays off I’d like to play Dr. Phil for a moment and ask: How’s that working for you?
Yes, you need to have faith, develop a strong strategy, and be consistently committed to sticking to it. You also need to be willing to stretch yourself out of your comfort zone, and learn the technical skills needed to run a business. But muscling your way through and doing more is not the answer.
Here are two examples of how this backfires on you.
One: Under-pricing and devaluing your worth
I see this often with entrepreneurs who feel the need to work their way up. They’re inclined to start low and aim high, when they are far better off going for the gold right from the beginning. They price extremely low, and feel the need to prove themselves by discounting, giving a lot away for free, take work that doesn’t fit them, and limit themselves in many other ways.
As a result of charging low fees, they often get clients, and lots of them. The problem soon becomes getting the work done. They can’t keep up. They are afraid to market more because they can’t take on new clients. They’re becoming known for the work they don’t really want to do for clients who are not their ideal. They’re afraid to raise their fees because they’re worried they’ll lose the clients they have. And guess what? Clients who buy the cheapest solution are often the most difficult to work with. Does that sound like fun?
Two: Setting high fees and defending your worth
Other entrepreneurs who understand the need to set their prices higher often still give too much away because they feel they need to prove their worth. Demonstrating value is fine, but doing too much out of feeling the need to defend high prices, is not. Entrepreneurs who bend over backwards and stuff their packages with so many extras often don’t realize that although they might be charging and getting a premium fee, they’re chipping away at their profitability by going overboard. And the sad thing is that most of the time, their clients actually don’t want all of the extra stuff. They’re often overwhelmed by it! Or they draw out a process longer because they’re afraid letting the clients know how quickly they did it, will make it seem less valuable. In either case, it takes away from the elegant, efficient solution the clients are more than willing to pay a higher price for. And it becomes unsustainable.
If you watched the popular 1980s sitcom Murphy Brown, you’ll remember Eldin. He was practically a live-in at Murphy’s home. What started as a simple project grew more and more ambitious but never was completed. You may have hired contractors like this.
When it came time for us to repaint our house a few years ago, I knew it was something we couldn’t take on. I was busy with my working and having a young child at home. In the past I had tried various painters and was really frustrated. While they were not around quite as long as Eldin, each job took far longer and became more complicated (and more expensive) as it progressed. They were sure to tell me how much work it was for them, how many steps there were to take, and why it was costing more and taking longer.
I decided to try someone else I found through a referral. He quoted me a higher fee than the others. But he sold me on efficiency and guarantee. He let me know what to expect and made it very easy for me to say yes. The morning of the appointed day, he arrived at 7:30 a.m. as promised. All I had to do the night before was move furniture a few feet away from the walls and take down hanging items.
By the time I arrived home around 5 p.m. that day, he was gone. I had a beautiful, professional quality paint job in our family room, hallway and bathroom, and it was completely done. No mess, no fuss, and delivered as promised. I felt it was almost magical. This was not something I could ever do myself. Was I willing to pay more for that? You bet I was. And I’ve referred him thousands of dollars in new clients since.
So what does this have to do with doing things the hard way?
I encourage you to look at the two examples of business owners. If you see yourself in either description, think about what your value is to your clients. Most of the time, they are paying you to solve a problem, and the faster, more gracefully and expertly you can do so, with the least amount of work and inconvenience for them, the higher the value is of what you offer. Think of ways you can make it easy and effortless for your clients to say yes, and to work with you, instead of ways to prove you’re worth it.
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Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success SystemTM for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and live outside of the ordinary. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful and extraordinary business. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for information and step-by-step resources to take you from overwhelmed employee to extraordinary entrepreneur.
