A recent Forbes article covered how marketing strategy in mature organizations is “moving from communications leadership to growth accelerant.” That might sound like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo to some of you. And like some pie-in-the-sky idea to others. So let’s break it down for the entrepreneurial-minded leader, shall we? As a small service-based business leader, […]
Strategy Is Changing; What Does That Mean for You? Read More »
Why do we take a holistic approach to service? Why does service experience design start with a broad view? David Clarke in an Adweek article says it best: Experience isn’t just one thing. It’s comprised of sales, customer service, order entry, human resources, quality assurance, shipping, billing, collections, maintenance—a hundred parts of an enterprise. Therefore,
Why We Take a Holistic Approach to Service Read More »
If you are a coach or a consultant–and especially if you have “productized” your solution by creating a program or are looking into doing so–you want to see success in your clients’ development and in your relationships. But sometimes, unless clients blatantly express dissatisfaction during our engagements or begin “bad appling,” we can’t really be sure what
Gaining Client Insight Read More »
It seems everyone talks about managing expectations but it’s just as important to do the work of uncovering them. I say “uncovering” because sometimes they can be buried. Even from the people who have them. And ourselves. Too often, service providers will assume what the expectations are and cater to those assumptions. In fairness, sometimes
Uncovering Expectations, Not Just Managing Expectations Read More »
Yesterday at Conscious Connections, Kristin Slice of Empowered Lab Communications presented on personal leadership. The room was filled with conscious women business owners–and many of them one-woman shops. For those of us who have a background in marketing, we relied on our knowledge of product development and brand when starting our business. We (ideally) spent a
Designing the Client Experience Read More »
Processes are in place whether you design them or not. When you’re a smaller small–a solopreneur, solo service provider, or microbusiness–making time for process development can seem a luxury. A nice to have. And even sometimes “a waste of time” compared to the pressing needs (read: Quadrant 1) of sales efforts. This is as much
Process Mapping for Smaller Small Businesses Read More »
Hint: Make culture directly funded by each sale There’s a lot I could say about Buffer‘s (aka Bufferapp’s) pricing transparency and how they have budgeted for culture, as well as the impact that has on me as a prospective customer. But, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll just let this sink in:
How to Budget for Culture Read More »
Nonprofits need segmentation strategies. One of the biggest problems I see as a donor is when I receive mailings and other costly marketing materials (such as gala invites) when I have only donated a small amount to a particular charity. Nonprofit organizations need to understand their markets (i.e., target donor personae) and design communications strategies
Marketing Soapbox: Nonprofits Need to Segment Read More »
During the Q&A session of Gary Vaynerchuk’s talk last night, one guy brought up his annoyance with the bank tellers (at Wells Fargo) asking him questions about himself and making small talk. I forget the exact question but Gary’s response was that this is an annoying experience because it isn’t authentic. They want a piece
How Big Banks Are Blowing It Read More »
Oftentimes, I get the specific request to help market (i.e., “promote”) a product or service from a small business or microbusiness leader. The assumption is that the barrier to sales is market awareness, understanding, or knowledge and that “marketing”—marketing communications or promotion of the product or service alone—will solve the problem. But I don’t like
Can You Help Market My Small Business? Read More »