All posts by Jay

Need A Tagline / Theme For Faith-based Initiative

Names + Taglines

 I need a theme that uses the word “purpose” or “purposeful” to define the initiative of a church’s mission for this coming year. The mission for both this church and this women’s group in the church we’re trying to create this tagline for is “service”. They serve others. What they want is to start off with arousing support rallying around purpose, having a purpose. Motivating people in a form on an evergreen type of initiative by drawing on a purpose to act to serve.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • The Purpose of 2017
  • What’s Your Purpose?
  • Show Your Passion!

How to Leverage Other’s Networks?

Publicity

I am a mental health author and I am looking for advice on how to find well known people in my field. Once I find these “experts” I would like to tap into their huge network of fans by contributing helpful advice to their fan base through guest blogs, social media posts and article/blog comments.
 
Do you have any advice on how to find these people and the process itself would be appreciated or know of someone who could help me? If so I would appreciate the help.

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Jay’s Answer: Since you’re asking a large favor from people, you need to provide a great reason for them to help you. To start with, why should they trust your advice? What special knowledge do you possess that they would gladly share with their network? If your advice is incorrect, then that may affect their credibility in their network – what promise will you make to shield them from risk? What makes your request especially hard is that the health field is very sensitive to fakery.

To find these people, start by identifying who specifically is reaching the audience you want to connect with, and then offer to write a guest blog article for them. You’ll need to provide samples of your work for them to ensure that the quality meets their criteria.

Superhero Marketing

Creative Business Ideas

Superhero Marketing(Photo by Lane Pearman)

From comic books to television shows and movies, superheros are more popular than ever. Who wouldn’t want to have superpowers and the ability to save the day (or planet)? In your marketing, when you tell the story of how you helped your clients become successful, who do you make the superhero – you or your client?

If you take the mantle, then that means that you claim the the spotlight, the exclusive success, and therefore the exclusive blame should your client have have a bad experience with working with you.

Instead, let your client be the superhero. They paid for your services, they responded to the calls/emails, and helped others succeed. If you’re part of their secret sauce – shine in their reflected glory. It’ll show prospective clients that you really care about THEIR success, not just your own.

Up, up, and away!

Stop Speaking Nounsense

Creative Business Ideas

Don’t Speak Nounsense in Marketing(Photo by Steve Rotman)

Seen any of these buzzwords anywhere (everywhere)?

Disruptive, groundbreaking, ninja, revolutionary, cross-channel, inbound, agile, growth hacking, stakeholder, mission critical, bandwidth, low-hanging fruit, unicorn, or pivot?

Buzzwords are handy to show you’re part of the “in-crowd”, but in trying to impress you’re likely to distance yourself from others. Buzzwords also come-and-go quickly, so it’s easy to look dated in the eyes of leaders. Nouns and adjectives are also used to describe things. But things aren’t what people are searching for.

Use verbs to connect with people’s emotions. Verbs tease, entice, motivate, satisfy, enlighten, and transform lives. People are searching for better life and business experiences that evoke life-long memories.

The next time you’re writing a newsletter or an advertisement, start with the emotion you’re trying to evoke in the reader/viewer, and build your message around that with juicy verbs.

 

Customized Travel Service Name

Names + Taglines

I’m starting a website that will serve as the go-to destination for people who want to visit Greece and need a personalized holiday package with all the comforts that a luxury package could offer. Obviously this will be more of a premium service targeting affluent consumers. I’m struggling to crack the name for this business and I’d appreciate any help on this.

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Jay’s Answer: Why not simply “Elite Greece Experiences”?

Cute And Catchy Children’s Boutique Name

Names + Taglines

I currently run an online children’s boutique with 3 friends but the time has come for me to branch off on my own. Can you offer suggestions for a cute, yet catchy name? I sell hair accessories, flip flops, hair bow holders, boys bow ties, burp cloths, etc. My middle name is Jo and in the business I am branching out from our name was JoJos Deeliteful Creations (but I don’t necessarily have to use my name in the store title.)

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Little Jo Peep: A Children’s Boutique
  • From Jo With Love: A Children’s Boutique

Need To Name Our New Training Program

Names + Taglines

We are combining 2 training programs – one is our TEAM Trainer Program (TEAM – Together Every Associate Matters), which is a one-on-one training conducted locally at each of our sites. The other is a new all star Training Program where more advanced training will take place. The all stars are promoted up from the TEAM Trainer role. We’d like to name the entire program (that includes both) but want something catchy, training related, and possibly Property Management related. Any ideas?

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Propel (Property + Compelling)
  • All For One (where “one” is the property)

Beware of Tunnel Thinking

Creative Business Ideas

Tunnel Thinking Dangers in Marketing(Photo by jugbo)

If you’re a perfectionist, you’re likely overwhelmed daily with all the various things you are trying to keep up with: technology, emails, phone calls, marketing campaigns, outreach, your competition, and opportunities. With a 24/7 world economy, you are frequently finding yourself working harder just to keep up with your goals. Be very careful.

Going fast feels good. It’s adrenalizing. It shrinks your to-do list. Everyone around you is in awe of what you’re juggling. But your single-focus on getting things done likely means you’re not paying attention to peripheral issues (and opportunities).

Instead of always going fast to make things perfect, experiment with solutions that are good enough. Good enough doesn’t mean that you deliver sub-par solutions or shabby products. It means that your solution does the job better than others, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, you likely don’t know what perfect really means in the eyes of your target audience. Good enough will attract attention, and with a long-term relationship, you can fine-tune your offering.

Remember: The light at the end of the tunnel can be an oncoming train.

Layering Your Business Marketing

Creative Business Ideas

The Layers of Marketing(Photo by Sidney San Martín)

A mature business owner knows instinctively that marketing isn’t all about the business owner and it’s also not all about the prospective customer. It’s a delicate balance between the two. In fact there are four layers to your business marketing that you need to clearly understand, articulate, and authentically connect with:

  1. Mission.  This is your (branding) promise for your organization (or non-profit). It states who you serve, how, and why. It’s not laden with gobbledygook words or phrases that you think people should hear. It’s clear and logical.
  2. Passion. Why you (and your team) do what they do? If you don’t have passion, you don’t have fire, which your prospects can detect. Knowing why people are passionate inside your organization, you can better match skills/needs (what do your people want their organization to do for them?).
  3. Strategy/goals. What you want to achieve and how will you achieve it? If your goals don’t pass your “mission filter” you probably shouldn’t be doing it – it dilutes your mission/brand promise. Clearly measurable and transparent goals need to be regularly examined and updated.
  4. Actions. What will you do about the plans? Ideally, match actions with passions. This layer is about what people can do for the organization. Without action, you get no results.

Your customer wants to know the key benefit of your product or service to their needs. But emotionally, they want to connect to your mission, passion, and goals (so they feel that they can trust your work). Done well this strategy produces sweet rewards.