All posts by Jay

Should You Question Your Marketing?

Creative Business Ideas

Question Your Marketing

(Photo by Horia Varlan)

On your website, should you have a headline that’s a question? What about a title of an email? Would it be better to use a question to get people to think or reword the question into a statement?

When you ask someone a question, you trigger an internal process with your audience. They hear the question, recognize it’s a question, and quickly attempt to answer it internally. If the question isn’t rhetorical or inappropriate, then they’ll attempt to consciously respond. This is the normal process whether the question is asked in a conversation, a lecture, or in writing.

A question has the powerful effect of making someone internally reflect to come up with the appropriate answer. Some questions are easy to answer, and doesn’t take much time (“What’s your name?”, “Where do you live?”, etc.) while others may take a deeper contemplation.

However, asking a question in your marketing (“Do you have any of the following symptoms:…?” or “Do you know what 80% of people over age 40 have in common?”) causes someone to stop reading or listening, and think. The thinking process disconnects you from them. This disconnect is like a commercial in a television show. It stops the action, and lets your mind wander. And as your mind wanders, you might realize that the television show isn’t that good, or that your marketing isn’t that interesting. The result is that you’ve lost some of your audience, with a chance for them never to return.

Use questions with care in your marketing campaigns. Their powerful psychological effect is a double-edged sword.

Build Your Personal Branding

Branding, Creative Business Ideas, Starting Out

Merge Your Unique Skills

(Photo by Sam)

When you’re thinking of starting a new business, it all comes down to your personal branding. Why should someone choose to work with you?

You can create websites. So can they. You can bake delicious cakes. So can they. You teach yoga. So can they. So, why start a new business that others are already also doing? You’ll have no name recognition, no trust, a price that’s likely no better than theirs’. You need to brand yourself differently.

The trick is to realize that many people (including your competitors) can do one thing well, whether it be sales, marketing, product development, etc. The key to crafting your personal branding comes in is merging one of your secondary skills with your primary skill to offer something no one else is.

If you’re a website designer that’s deeply religious, then why not specialize working with other deeply religious groups (not just your own belief or sect)? Your passion for religion will be self-evident in crafting high-quality websites.

If you’re a cake baker who loves fixing up homes, then why not specialize in architectural cakes? Make cakes that look like business buildings, newly constructed homes, room layouts, etc. Realtors and architects could give memorable thank you cakes to their clients.

If you’re a yoga teacher that loves hip-hop music, then why not feature hip-hop music in your classes, creating special yoga sequences that match the music and your yoga goals? Instead of wearing the normal yoga clothes, imbue your class with hip-hop spirit. You might attract a totally different type of yoga student.

It might not be obvious or easy to figure out how to merge two diverse interests or even how to be successful doing it. By making your personal brand unique, you’ll stand out from the crowded competitive field and make it much easier to find your fans.

Speak With Passion: Ending Your Talk

Creative Business Ideas, Publicity, Speak With Passion

Ending your talk

(Photo by SCA Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget)

Imagine you’ve just given an amazing talk. It was well-paced, full of great stories, with no technical difficulties, and you received standing ovation. But if you didn’t built in a call to action, your talk will be relegated at most to “something entertaining” instead of “something life changing”. Why?

A call to action is the one step you want the listener to take after hearing your talk. The mistake most presenters make is assuming the audience will know what to do after hearing their talk (go to their website, buy their book, join their support group, volunteer for a new non-profit, donate to a named charity, or make a lifestyle adjustment). But unless you spell it out, people won’t make the leap. Since people are used to being entertained, if you want your talk to be life-changing, you need to tell people how to change their lives. It doesn’t have to be a big next step – in fact, the smaller the call to action is, the more likely people will take the first step painlessly.

Without a call to action, people are unlikely to remember your talk for more than a day or so (no matter how great it was). With no built-in way to keep the “thinking going”, you’ve given a one-way presentation, and not started a dialogue. A dialogue requires active participation of two (or more) and moves people from passive listeners to active participants.

A call to action also has the bonus of measuring how inspiring your presentation was. If you get 50% of your audience to join with you in doing something new, you’ve achieved a great deal. To build a movement, you need troops. With measured results, you’re both able to gauge your effectiveness and provide data showing that what you’re doing matters.

If the goal of your talk is to change lives, tell people exactly how to start their own life-changing experience with a call to action.

Poster Bikes?

Publicity, Starting Out

We run a street marketing service in the Bay Area- distributing flyers, posters and postcards and we are considering adding bikes with poster trailers.The bikes pull a small trailer that has a two sided poster board standing vertical. It would be mobile and travel throughout the city. Does this seem like a service that would be of value?

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Jay’s Answer: Why not simply test market the service? See if people notice, and the call-to-action on the signage works. If so, you’ve got something that’s easily explained to be effective.

Need Help Naming An Indoor Golf Business

Names + Taglines

I am starting an indoor golf center – a place where people can play golf indoors on HD Simulators. Need help coming up with a name for the business. Any suggestions? Would like to appeal both to the serious golfer as well as the hack!

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Golf 24/7
  • Virtually Golf
  • SimGolf

 

So I Have A New Blog…Now What?

eMarketing, Publicity

What is certain to totally wreck a blog?
-or-
How can I dodge the pitfalls of blogging?

Any assistance will be gratefully appreciated.

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Jay’s Answer: I’d suggest to research what your target market is searching for (using a free tool like https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal), and then using these searches to inform your blog article content. That way you’re creating a way for the right people to find you.

Measure your traffic and see what articles are more popular.

Encourage a discussion of your findings to the visitors.

Ensure you can spread your thoughts in a social media environment that your prospect’s might more easily stumble upon including LinkedIn or Facebook.

Need A Catchy Tagline/slogan For Travel Agency

Names + Taglines

I am in need of a Tagline / Slogan for a new Full-Service Travel Agency. We are located in Norwich, CT but serve anyone in the USA. The name of our Agency is: Trip Guru Travel, LLC. We have incredible customer service, quality consultations, great pricing and awesome pre-planned vacations called Guru Getaways and Escapes. We have an online booking engine for clients who want to book by themselves and online. We specialize in Group Travel, Wedding, Honeymoons and Eco-Friendly Travel. We hope to someday donate lots to charity. We book everything from Hotels, Care Rentals, Flight, Vacation Packages, Rail etc. What makes our Travel Agents (or as we like to call them: Trip Gurus) happy is when our clients smile and have a good time on their vacation. We serve Leisure and Corporate clients. I hope this is enough info to give you a good idea of what we do and who we are.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • We Love To Make People Go Away
  • A Stress-Free Vacation Begins With Us

 

Need A Tagline For Chocolate Business

Names + Taglines

I am currently a home based business involving chocolates – from pralines to truffles, chocolate brownies, chocolate cakes and cupcakes. Need a tagline that will make customer remember my chocolates

I’m using Callebaut choc which is not used by other homemade chocolate business. Lastly, the name of my business is “tisa” that is 9 in Swahili. The reason I chose the name is because I started on my 9th year of marriage with nine flavors. Thanx

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Handmade Premium Chocolate Treats
  • Artisan Chocolatier Confections
  • For Premium Chocolate Lovers

 

Name Construction Landscaping Co In Small Town

Names + Taglines

We are looking for a name & tagline for a construction & landscaping co we are starting in a small Texas town we will offer landscaping yard maintenance home repairs masonry work fencing building barns sheds flooring remodels small home repairs installing fixtures my husband likes rock solid or dream creations for names any input would be helpful.

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Jay’s Answer: You’ve got a wide menu you’re trying to cover with a name, but what ideally do you both want to focus on? Landscaping? Home repairs? New home construction? It’s hard to convince someone you can do everything well, especially if you’re just starting out.

Next, do you want your name to highlight the town you’re in (to show you’re local folk) or the region you’re in (to give you room to grow)? If so, put that in your name.

Finally, who are you trying to appeal to: high end clients? retirees? new home buyers? By specializing you make it easier to find exactly who you’re looking for and communicate with them about their needs/concerns.

10th Anniversary Tagline For My Business

Names + Taglines

My company is a B2B trading platform specialized in electronic components. We are turing 10 this year and would like to have a series of promotion. Our current tagline is “The worldwide sourcing platform for electronic components.” Could you pls ad something for the 10th anniversary which is also related to our business? Thanks

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Jay’s Answer: How about something like: “10 Years Of Electronic Worldwide Sourcing”?

But also realize that the only one that will care about your anniversary message is your company. Longevity is a nice thing, but in some ways it can also be seen as a negative – it may connote that you’re not “leading edge” anymore. If you want others to celebrate your anniversary, then have 10 months of special deals, or a special 10% off sale, or pick 10 customers to feature in your marketing. In other words, give your customers a reason to care about your anniversary other than simply with a phrase.