No one is looking for your outbound marketing messages. They’re driving, watching TV, reading e-mail, listening to the radio, scanning the paper. The only way — the only way — to earn their attention is to distract them from what they’re trying to do with something so different, it draws their attention away from the…

A client recently shared that she had joined a 24-hour fitness center six months ago — and that was the last time she had been there. The problem? She needed to make an appointment with someone to run her through the machines and help her set initial weights and targets — but staff were only…

It’s been called a hundred different things, but every business needs one. It’s the single statement that tells people why you’re a better choice than your competitors. It singles you out and makes you the go-to source for what you do. And you should never stop working on it. This single statement – let’s call…

Everybody wants great referrals. Here are three of the biggest reasons we don’t get them. First, we don’t make referrals to others. Do this, and referrals will start coming to you. Second, we’re not specific about who we’re looking for, so we get referrals that are a bad fit for us. Third, we don’t remove…

The one common element in all great marketing — and something that’s noticeably absent from all the rest — is empathy. Prospective customers recognize immediately if you “get it” — if you understand what really makes them happy, or the challenges they face. And marketing that demonstrates this, whether in traditional or digital media, is…

Fear and Vagueness. Why is so much marketing so bland and generic as to be completely forgettable? One big answer is fear — specifically, a fear of being specific. Everyone knows that for a brand to be memorable and bring in business, it has to lay claim to a particular niche. But when you do,…

Spring is the time of year when newly-minted college graduates start their job searches. But often, probably in an effort to just get a foot in the door, they introduce themselves in a very vague way, looking for “any openings you may have.” Such a request is easy to ignore, because that’s all it is…

The digital world is a place where everything happens with blinding speed, right? Kind of. Some online moments live forever — and businesses don’t spend enough time thinking about that. Here’s an example. Write a blog post today. Five years from today, that post is still on your blog, still searchable — and still selling…

One of the best ways to build your brand is to make customers feel like they belong to something special. And one of the best ways to do that is to create situations in which like-minded customers (and prospects) can get together. For example, a bank or credit union might host its own CEO or…

Companies often look to a tagline to develop their brand. The problem? Most taglines — which should really be called brand promises — slip away into empty sloganeering. Think about the tagline that launched Federal Express: “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.” This is the trick — to position yourself as, in…