I am working on a web site for my Positive Motivation speaking… Positively Female. I have found a couple sites I like but want something very flashy, feminine, upbeat, colorful, and of course motivational. I am looking for something personal without a corporate feel.

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Jay’s Answer: The best websites are the ones that both reflect your values and successfully attract traffic (and ideally sales/conversions).

Top traffic doesn’t arrive because of the look of the site, it comes because of the content of the site. Therefore, first focus on the value of the browsing experience. Who should find your site? Why would they want to hire you? What problems would they have? What would they need to feel comfortable hiring you? How can you show them what you can do for them without them contacting you?

Once you get your copy, then focus on your image. The images/colors/layout should reflect your target market. Corporate sites tend to look very different from micro-business’. I wouldn’t go with “flashy” or “over the top” unless your target market responds well to it.

Given you’re starting up, don’t spend a lot of $ on a flashy website until you’ve clearly done your marketing strategy homework.

A local Chamber of Commerce is always mentioned as a way for small business owners to network and receive other useful resources to assist them in their businesses. So, how does a chamber market itself?

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Jay’s Answer: In my region, Chambers act as basically political organizations and not networking/support organizations. If you have a brick-and-mortar business and you’re having problems with “City Hall”, a Chamber can be your best friend. The “networking” that occurs is generally a sales-fest, where everyone is looking to sell their product/services and few are genuinely trying to help one another. A great Chamber, in my opinion, would ask each (prospective) member what business problems they are having, and act as the conduit to helping solve the problem (whether that be creating a support group, finding mentors, bringing in experts, making introductions, etc.) and ensuring on an on-going basis that all members are still getting their needs met.

I need a slogan that highlights the benefits of saving Energy (electricity). We are targeting members of staff of a financial institution, age range 18- 55 years, slogan to be used perhaps on flyer brochure etc. We just need to sensitize them on thebenefits for the company when energy is saved.

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Jay’s Answer: You have a couple of basic options.

If you focus on saving money, company leadership will be happier, but it won’t necessarily trickle down to the rest of the organization.

If you focus on helping the “planet”, company leadership won’t benefit, staff will only get altruistic benefit.

Therefore, to make the message “stick” it needs to be made personal. For example, will saving energy mean higher year-end bonuses? Fewer people laid off? Perquisites for other things? Also, will saving energy mean that people will be more or less comfortable in their workplace (fresh air/natural light vs. filtered air/artificial light).

Here are some ideas for you to play with:

• The Lower Our Energy Bill, The Higher Our Profits
• Save Energy. Work Smarter. Everyone Benefits.
• Saving Energy Makes Good Cents

I am looking for a catchy name or phrase for my party planning business. I started my own Party Planning business. I do weddings, baby showers, birthday parties, holiday parties, anniversary parties, etc. I kind of wanted something that went good with Liz or my nick name Busy Lizzie. I want something catchy but yet professional.

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Jay’s Answer:

• Liz Party! (a play off: Let’s Party)
• Lizzie Does Parties
• A-Liz Parties (a play off: A-List Parties)
• Lizzie’s Whizzy Parties (alliteration)

I just wrote a new B2B ebook which I am making available for free. It is on marketing with case studies and can be downloaded at http://dynamic-copywriting.net/Plotthinkenspdf.pdf.

How can I get the word out, get blog reviews, get it forwarded along and generally create buzz?

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Jay’s Answer:
1) Having a URL for your website such as “http://dynamiccopywriting.blogspot.com/” doesn’t instill professional confidence. If you own dynamiccopywriting.com, make your site live there.

2) Having a blog for your site alone won’t build (online) confidence. You also need some pages of who you are, how you work, who your clients have been, examples of your work, etc.

3) Creating buzz isn’t a formula. The key is that what you offer has to be truly outrageous or remarkable to make it “water cooler conversation”.

4) Online, create a social bookmark (http://www.socialmarker.com/) to allow people to easily “thumbs-up” your site. Then, find people that truly like your offering and ask them to mark your site. That’ll drive traffic today, but won’t create an ongoing stream of buzz.

5) Find blogs that deal with business stories, case studies, etc. and offer both your wisdom and a link to your free ebook (where appropriate).

6) Finally, identify businesses that in your professional opinion, could really use your services. Find the right contact person in that organization, and send them a letter indicating that their website appears to needing white papers, etc. and that’s your expertise. Mention the ebook as part of your expertise.

It’s extremely difficult to find a tagline for these guys. The name of the company is “tankserv” – It’s located in Austria, but we are looking for an international (English) tagline. Since we’re not native in English, it’s twice as hard…

#1 promise is that tankserv’s services will extend the lifetime of tanks. #2 promise is less hassle during projects as tankserv renders a vast variety of services and the customer gets something like one-stop-shopping. Some words and phrases that already came to my mind: Extend lifetime; Extend Lifespan; Repair-Refill-Regain; Longevity; Revive; Life-cycle; Durability; We Think Tank (funny and the tankserv-people like it – but it’s not related to the promise and not entirely new to the industry).

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Jay’s Answer:

• Tanks, But No (New) Tanks
• A Tank-less Job
• Better Contain Your Expenses
• A Lifetime Of Better Storage

• The Smarter Storage (of) Solution(s)
• Hold Onto Your Tanks Longer
• Increasing Tank Wellness
• The Fix Is In
• Reduce Tank Downtime. Increase Longevity.
• Fix Your Money Pit.

I work in a service firm as a marketing executive. I need to come out with as many marketing ideas as possible to build good relationship with customers before passing over potential customers to the sales department. Currently we send our company info, sometimes hampers and small souvenirs to keep in touch with potential customers. what else can i do to build strong relationship with our ‘to be customers’? I also have to monitor the progress after the sales dept take over – so the bind between me and the customer is a continuous one…whereby i have to keep coming out with new ideas all the time.

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Jay’s Answer: Find out what your customers need, and give it to them (even if it’s not services/products from your company!). Your prospects don’t initially need your company info, hampers, nor souvenirs – they want their problems solved. Get clear on what their underlying problem is, have them place a price tag on it, and offer solutions that clearly (and in a proven way) address their issue. That’s a service worth talking about to ones’ friends.

I have a book being launched in another state to where I live, at a conference, however after a recent email from an associate in my city asking for an invitation it occurs to me I really need to do something local too – so my family, friends, associates, colleagues, clients and others can attend. This has the potential of growing big if I’m not careful and I don’t want to be paying out huge dollars.

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Jay’s Answer: Are your friends, family, etc. simply wanting to see you “in-action”? If so, if you could record (or even, web-cast) the party, then they can feel a part of it.

If you’re trying to fill seats with friendly faces, be careful to limit it to people who can actually help your business. For example, people that understand what your book is about. Perhaps even provide some questions to your friends to ask should things be quiet.

Your friends & family may also want to help. Ask them to provide snacks/finger-food. Ask them to help you find an appropriate venue.

Lastly, given your book topic, contact local mothers groups in Melbourne. This would be a win-win: they would be interested in the topic, would love to help you succeed, would be great to get support from, and perhaps have a meeting space that they could provide (in exchange for free attendance by their members).

We are planning to have a educational but fun childcare center.The ages of the children will be from infants to 5 years old. We are planning to open 24 hours a day,seven days a week.We are planning to have an area where the mothers that are still breast feeding can go and have privacy,There will be a nurse on call for the children/staff in case of an emergency or sickness. We will have the best trained employees on site with educational and professional skills, but most of all love for children and their needs and learning abilities.

I need a name that would draw attention to the parents and the child wants to come inside and stay.I need the name to reflect my business on the inside as well as the outside.I also need a tagline. I need a name that would stand out in their heads. Thanks.

Here are some names I came up with:

• Kids Cove
• Kids Paradise
• Sugar & Spice

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Jay’s Answer: Here are some ideas for you to consider:

• 24/7 Childcare Center
• Childcare Around The Clock
• Childcare When You Need It
• Grandma Thelma’s Childcare Center
• Childcare Away From Home
• Child Day And Night Care
• The Child Hotel
• Child Cloud (a soft place to care for children)
• Kids Kare
• Care 4 Kids
• Open Arms Childcare

Each of these names focus on different benefits. Unless you have a large budget for marketing, it’s generally best to keep the name “obvious” rather than obscure. Also, some of these names can be used as taglines. For example:

• The Child Hotel: Childcare Around The Clock

As for your names:

• Kids Paradise and Cove connote an older kids group.
• Sugar & Spice sounds little like a bakery’s name, and might be confusing.

Pick a name you like, but more importantly, pick a name that your prospective clients’ like. Find people you know (and don’t) and ask them for what resonates (and why). Your name needs to “work” for your area.

We are opening a new shop in a retail unit close to one of the busiest shopping centres in the city. Our services includes: Printing, Design and Copy.

3. What should we do on the day of our opening that will attract shoppers and create awareness?

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Jay’s Answer: Distinguish yourself on service. Offer to pickup and deliver (within a small range) all their printing. Offer a web-based system to deliver and proof your jobs. Make your menu of services easily understood.

To attract business on day 1, you could: offer free copies (or the first N copies for free), spin a wheel for people that are about to checkout giving them a discount of up to 100% off, free business card critiques, etc.