No one else can be you.

I think this is one of the best things about being in business, especially small business – you, the person, are so important and relevant when you are thinking about what’s unique about your business.

Defining something truly unique and special about your business is not always easy; but when you are the designer, the marketer, the architect, the health coach – you are a big part of this uniqueness.  Your style, your personality, your language, your body, your attitude, your gift, your looks, your love, your passion – the list is almost endless!

So, if you are having trouble defining something seriously special about your brand, you should take a good look at yourself too, and talk about what’s unique right there.

Because after all, they broke the mould when they made you didn’t they?

Wherever you are in life think about how you can collaborate with someone to achieve greater things than you would otherwise be able to achieve on your own.

Lets talk about marketing specifically to show you what I mean. Whether you work in a big corporate with hundreds of marketing people responsible for a variety of things, or you are the sole marketing person in a smaller business, or even if you are a solo operator responsible for your own marketing. If you can open your mind up to the power of working with others as opposed to in a silo or on your own you are opening yourself up to greater success.

Some big organisations create a fight to death style culture when it comes to claiming your turf in the millions of dollars worth of media, where every last inch of space is going to have a direct impact on the bottom line.  Imagine if these people were encouraged to go through the process collaboratively from the beginning? Let’s sit around the table and focus on the overall long term objectives of the business first.  Then, lets look at how we can achieve those objectives in the most effective way.  Then, lets map out the media plan and make sure we capture the needs of each area, but remaining focused on the big picture.  Then these great minds that are becoming stifled would be allowed to contribute to the greater good of the business – everyone wins here.  Not only some.

Then at the other end of the scale, imagine you are a work at home mum, and you are working your butt off to build your business.  The only thing is, you don’t really want to be too open about it because what if someone copies your idea? So you do what you can to let your customers know about it, but you are still reluctant to talk about your biz with peers, industry experts, other mums because you are scared of what might happen.  Imagine the collaborative approach of reaching out to like minded people, complimentary services and products, even people who offer the same product or service as you.  In this scenario you will have valuable discussions that enhance your business, you will build meaningful relationships and you will be closer to your dream much faster than if you continue to try and slog it out on your own.

It doesn’t have to be like that.  The world is full of good people who genuinely want to help you.  And there are many people out there who you could also help on their business journey.  And you will even make some great friends along the way.

That’s has to be the better option doesn’t it?

What strategic relationships can you start to foster out there in your working world? I would love to hear about them – let me know.

Thanks for reading lovelies.

Kate xo

Why do marketing people insist on coming up with these terms and acronym?!  Seriously is it really necessary?  First the SWOT and now the CSFs…

Critical Success Factors sounds like a medical treatment plan – things cant be that serious surely 🙂 In fact CSFs, the abbreviation, sounds more like a disease!

Please keep reading though because I think this is really important for any business not just the big ones.  This is definitely a term you would find in a very traditional marketing or business plan in the corporate world, but it is one that I think is really important – critical in fact – for a business of any size.  Simple, the CSFs are those internal factors that you identify in your business that that are your must haves or non-negotiables in order for your business to work.

When you do a SWOT analysis you will be able to identify what your CSFs are.  For those of you who don’t know, SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats – it is a good simple tool to use to create a situation analysis of internal and external factors surrounding your business.

The best way is to show you an example, this one is from my Online Hub course and it is nice and simple.

Let’s think about an Interior Designer.  Here is her SWOT:

Strengths

Not just to me bang on about marketing & business!

I mean are you actively listening?  With all the energy it takes to give the person talking your utmost attention? Acknowledging that you have heard what they are saying in some way that makes them feel your genuine attention?

Are you someone who interrupts? Do you spend the time another person is talking putting your next sentence together – cant wait for them to finish because you have got something to say?

I’m really passionate about this for two reasons.  Firstly, because I actually discovered after the age of 30 – seriously – that I was not always practicing ‘active listening’.  Although I do naturally love to listen to people, and I think people must sense this because I am definitely one of those people who others open their hearts and minds to – with or without an invitation!  I have to admit I did sometimes formulate my opinions while someone was talking and just wait for them to finish so I could speak, and not really hear much of what they had said.  How much had I missed out on by then?!

Secondly, because I am astounded by how many people I know in both my business and personal life who have no idea what it means to really listen to someone.  Their own words are just more important than others, they don’t hear what you are saying, even when you are sitting across the table from them and you are the only person in the room.

If you practice active listening you are being a better person, it will benefit you and the people you talk to.  You will grow from this experience.  Don’t ever interrupt. Don’t be so distracted that you cant even remember what they are saying.

To get a bit formal, just to be sure you know what I am talking about, Wikipedia describes Active Listening as:

“…a communication technique that requires the listener to feed back what they hear to the speaker, by way of re-stating or paraphrasing what they have heard in their own words, to confirm what they have heard and moreover, to confirm the understanding of both parties.

When interacting, people often “wait to speak” rather than listening attentively. They might also be distracted. Active listening is a structured way of listening and responding to others, focusing attention on the “function” of communicating objectively as opposed to focusing on “forms”, passive expression or subjectivity.”

Why is this important for me to write about on my marketing blog?

Because listening in an incredibly important skill that you need to develop for your business.  On so many levels.

If you are not listening to what people are saying about you, your brand, your product, or your service then how much are you missing out on?  How much more could you give you clients or your customers?  what kid of super special offers could you provide that would delight your ideal customer?  Could you be charging more than you are? Could you improve what you do?  The list, of course, is endless.

I just want you to think about practicing active listening as often as possible, consciously deciding to particpate more in your conversations, and see how different the experience is.  For you and your friends, colleagues, clients, family – everyone deserves this kind of attention after all don’t they?

Do you already do this? Do you not? I’d love to hear from you – and I will listen.

Thanks for reading lovelies.

I appreciate it,

Kate

I’ve been inspired by someone I think is awesome, also named Kate*, to write something here that is a bit more personal.  I think it’s a good thing to share with you something about me that is still very relevant to my business, so here goes!

About 10 years ago I had a bit of a moment in time where I was thinking to myself what I do is sooo not helping the world – or anyone in it!  At the time I was the Marketing Manager for a retail chain in Australia, I worked with great people, I looked up to my boss, I loved the brand.  But I was becoming increasingly conscious of the fact that what I did was not contributing to the overall well-being of any individual or group of people.  In fact, what I did was really just to make people spend money on something they potentially didn’t really need in the first place!

So I started to investigate what I could do that would change all this.  I’d leave marketing and become something else, a family lawyer protecting the innocent victims of divorce, or go and work in a not for profit a sacrifice my salary for the good of it all, something like that? It didn’t take me long to realise that I had set myself up to be pretty reliant on the salary I was earning and that I couldn’t really go and work for peanuts, I was single and supporting myself and I had to be realistic.

Jump forward a couple of years and this was still on my mind.  What else could I do? By this stage earning more money in an industry some might not have a lot of time for, I felt more strongly about it.  So I started to look more closely at it.  I would become a psychologist.  That way I could save lives, save marriages and improve the quality of peoples lives, help them get happy.  Same thing reared its ugly head, was I going to study for 8 years part-time to do this, because at the time this was my only option.  No, I wasn’t.

I decided to do an MBA instead.  This way I could live my dream of one day becoming a consultant after I had children to give me the flexibility I needed to be with them the way I wanted to be.  I went ahead and finished my MBA.  Perfect timing about 6 months before my twins were born.  After 12 months off I went back to the corporate world.  What was I doing? I’m supposed to be starting a consultancy, why am I here?  Then my third precious gift arrived, and to say I have been busy is an understatement.  I needed some serious motivation to get off my arse and seriously focus on starting my consulting business.

It wasn’t until I finally sat down and started the process (you know that marketing planning process i teach people to do but put off doing myself?!) of really working out what was going to be special and unique about me, in comparison to the many other marketing consultants rocking this world, that the penny finally dropped.  I had such a massive a-ha moment that it seriously lifted me up so high and got me so damn motivated I have not looked back.

My why, the reason I want to do this, is because I want to be able to help people achieve their dreams.  This is what I can do – how good is this? How lucky am I to be able to genuinely help people do what they want to do?  This is my gift, this is why I have taken the path I have now and gathered all that experience and all that education in my little bag as I have been running along my path – it is so I can help people in the best way possible. With a mix of caring, knowledge, experience and maybe even some tough love – the best way I know how.

So, that is my why.  And I am over the moon to now be in this place, that I seriously started to think about all those years ago, where I can help people’s worlds become a better place by helping them achieve their dreams.

Thanks for reading this super personal download.

Love,

Kate xo

*the gorgeous Kate who inspired this post has a brilliant Blog with some fantastic interviews you should check out called Betty Means Business

How do I stop discounting? How can I compete on something other than price?

I’d be a very wealthy person if I could give you the answer to this in the current retail climate! But i have been asked this question a bit lately and I wanted to write about it here.

My answer to this is to take it back to basics with your marketing, ask yourself these questions:

1. why does your business exist?
2. what is your brand proposition?
3. do you have a unique value proposition that genuinely resonates with your customers?
4. is everyone involved in your brand a guardian, a protector, a promotor?
5. do you have a really clear idea in your head of who your ideal customer is?
6. are you building meaningful, one on one, relationships with our customers?
7. Is your customer service really good?
8. what can you do that is over and above what your competitors do that will make people want to come to you?
9. how can you surprise them and make them go “wow that is amazing they did that for me I didn’t expect that, I’ll be going back to them”?
10. how can you give your customers more – more service, more care, more follow up, more understanding – whatever is relevant to your business.
11. what can you do that your direct competitors don’t already do?
12. what do you offer that no-one else does?

Its up to you to think about how you can offer them real value without dropping your price and losing margin.  Remember value is about perception and relevant to each individual AND  it is not about being the cheapest.

Have confidence in your product or your service.

It’s a viscous cycle to get in I know I’ve been in the thick of it before with brands I’ve worked with. All of this may sound a bit idealistic I understand that. And of course this all has to be balanced with the bottom line and any extra costs. But try to weigh all that up with the long terms benefits for your business and focus on the big picture.

I also really believe even when you are discounting, as is sometimes appropriate, you should portray your brand appropriately and always protect what that brand stands for and why your business exists.

Just taking the time to stop and think about all of this can sometimes be the trigger to lift you out of the spiral of discounting, losing margin, grappling for higher volume, discounting, etc., etc…

I encourage you to take action now, think about what you can offer that doesn’t involved discounting, and see what the results are.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Kate

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This is actually a bit of a favourite topic of mine.  I think many businesses don’t really understand a how often their brand touches a customer, and how critical it is that their brand is represented consistently every time.

So what on earth are customer touchpoints anyway?!

I actually think this term is perfect as it really helps you to think about your brand.  It’s refers to any point where a person is “touched” by your brand.

So, its not just where they see your advertising or your logo, its anywhere they experience your brand – when they see / touch / smell / hear your product or service – when they see it on facebook, or hear a friend talking about it, read about it in the paper, see it on someone walking down the street, walk past your shop, see you online in your store or on your blog, see your pinterest page, see you in a magazine, try it on, the list goes on.

And lets not forget about the people that are your brand – every single person that represents your brand in the consumers mind must represent the values your brand espouses to possess.  Sales staff, Customer Service staff, your CEO, your media spokesperson, the delivery person, any personalities that endorse your brand, your social media gurus – YOU!  These people are you brand guardians.

All of these are opportunities to make a positive impression on your ideal customer, so many places, and the reason it is so important to clearly define your brand and make sure you communicate this to all stakeholders.

A great way of exploring this is to look at a day in the life of your ideal customer.  Have a little brainstorm and think about all the places they might experience your brand.  When they get up in the morning, listening to the radio, dropping their children at school, on the train, at the gym, on their favourite blog, on Facebook. will their friends be fans already? Think about everywhere they could possibly be touched by your brand, and then think about what you can do to make sure that gives them the most positive experience at all these touchpoints.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Kate