You might be trying to solve the wrong problem
One of the things I’ve learned from working with businesses over the years is that what we think matters to our customers isn’t always what actually matters to them. And sometimes the difference is quite surprising. Take somebody looking for a builder to renovate their home. You might assume they’re interested in getting the best […]
6 things you can do today to improve your Google visibility
Last Tuesday, I ran a webinar on how to get more local visibility through your Google Business Profile. One of the main things I wanted people to take away from it was this: Having a Google Business Profile isn’t the same as having an *optimised* Google Business Profile. For a lot of local businesses, their […]
One idea. A whole lot of marketing.
I met with a client this week who has an article coming out in a magazine at some point before the end of the year. It’s a decent opportunity, with a big audience, and we were talking about how we could get as much value from it as possible. Because the obvious thing would be […]
Can You Explain What Your Business Does in One Sentence?
We had Dom’s girlfriend’s parents staying with us from the US at the weekend. On Saturday evening, we were chatting over dinner and they asked Claire and me a perfectly straightforward question: “So, remind us, what do you guys do for a living?” You’d think, after running a business for this long, we’d have a […]
Write to One. Measure the Many.
I’m not writing this email to 2,000 people. I’m writing it to you. Which might sound slightly odd, given that around 2,000 people will receive it. But when I sit down to write these mailshots, I don’t imagine a database. I imagine one person opening their emails, probably with another 37 unread messages sitting underneath […]
Are You Too Expensive – Or Have You Just Failed to Explain the Value?
I’ve managed to brush my teeth for 48 years without ever feeling that the process was particularly lacking in technology. Dyson clearly thinks otherwise. They’ve just launched a new toothbrush. It costs £420. Yes. £420. It has a tiny camera that looks inside your mouth, uses machine learning to identify the gaps between your teeth […]
September Is the Real New Year for Business
My son Tom started college this week. New place. New routine. New people. New timetable. And presumably several new reasons why getting out of bed before 8am is completely unreasonable. It feels like a proper fresh start for him. And it’s made me realise that September has always felt much more like New Year to […]
Boosting a Facebook Post vs Running Meta Ads: What’s Actually the Difference?
If you manage a Facebook or Instagram page for your business, you’ve almost certainly seen the suggestion. “Boost this post to reach more people.” Perhaps a post has performed particularly well. Maybe you’ve shared a new service, an upcoming event or an offer you’re running. Meta spots the opportunity and makes it incredibly easy to […]
What a Solar Eclipse Can Teach Us About Marketing
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you’ll probably have noticed there was a fairly significant solar eclipse last night. And here’s what amused me about the whole thing. We knew it was coming. Not a few days ago. Not when someone happened to look out of the window and […]
7 Signs Your Business Has Outgrown Its Website
Your business may have changed significantly since your current website was launched. You might offer more services, employ a larger team, work with better-known clients or be targeting a completely different type of customer. But has your website kept up? For many established businesses, the problem is not that their website is broken. It is […]