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Have you ever read a bio or "about me" page that made you think "Ugh... I feel like I'm reading an encyclopedia. You were founded in that town, you've been in business for that many years, wheeee..." Or maybe you found yourself wondering, "What do the three other jobs you've worked in, your fishing hobby, and your cats have to do with everything else on this website? I mean, I guess they give us a thing or two in common, but they don't really tell me why you're qualified to do what you're doing now." And have you ever wondered... o ... Read More

When you make promises in your marketing, or talk about the problems you solve for your clients, it's important to be both clear and compelling. If your promises or "problem I solve" statements are too vague, your potential clients will be left thinking things like... "That kind of sounds good in theory, but I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to get out of this, and I don't feel like taking a lot of time to find out." "I don't think I have the problem she's talking about. Or maybe I do a little, but I don't think it's causing... Read More

Happy New Year! As we start 2020, one way to set yourself up for success is to make sure you're marketing to the right people - and that you aren't marketing to people who will be justifiably angry with you if you sell them your product or services. When I talk about marketing to the right people, I don't just mean picking a niche by age, gender, marital status, and whether or not they have kids. In this blog post, I'm going to share an example of how bad audience selection left me ticked off at a coach who'd enrolled me into his program,... Read More

Sometimes when I watch other business owners describe their product or service, the descriptionleaves me thinking, "Wow... not only does that NOT make me want your product, but it actually makes me feel LESS inclined to explore your offer." Other times, I can see how it might be useful, or why the product is of high quality, but I'm not really convinced that I need it. Why? Often, it's because their marketing failed a simple yet powerful litmus test that determines whether they're speaking about the right things to get their potential... Read More

I was planning to write this on Tuesday, but I decided to share it a bit early, becauseI'm celebrating a new accomplishment: I just published a class on SkillShare, called Low-Cost Marketing for Small Businesses and Freelancers ... and for a limited time, you can get it for FREE. In this 68-minute class, you'll discover how small businesses and freelancers can attract leads while spending little or no money on advertising, and convert them into clients without feeling guilty, pushy or salesy. You can access this class, and thousands of... Read More

The first month of the New Year just ended, and as we continue this new chapter in our businesses and lives, many of us will be reflecting on the strategies we use to grow our companies and attract clients. If your strategies include content marketing, particularly social media marketing, this is a perfect time to look at a trend I've noticed in the strategies two different industries use, and how they impact the level of engagement these industries get on Twitter. In particular, I'm talking about the #Business hashtag... Read More

When you're creating your product, program or service package, designing your brand, scripting your marketing materials, and speaking to potential clients and referral network members, one of the most important questions you need to answer is "What problem do I solve for my clients?" I recently met an entrepreneur who was having trouble answering that question in her business. Here are the strategies I recommended: 1. Create a list of all the physical, emotional, financial, and/or lifestyle problems that you've helped people solve, or... Read More

One day, an ad appeared in the sidebar of a site I was browsing, and I couldn't help but stare at it. Not out of curiosity or desire, but out of the same kind of incredulous fascination one might feel if they were walking in a desert that had only one tree, and saw that a car had somehow managed to crash into that tree. It was just that improbably bad. The headline in particular caught my eye: "The only site that gets you a girl". There are so many things wrong with this ad. Let's take a moment to break it down. Problem #1: For... Read More

If you get coupons in your mailbox, you might have seen this one recently: Image credit: Foodology.ca If you're anything like my family and I, your reaction was probably something like this: "Ummm, what? What's beyond meat?" "Something unexpected? What would I not expect to have in a burger? If I don't expect it to be in the burger, I probably don't WANT it to be in the burger." "Are they seriously advertising the fact that they're being dodgy about what's in their burger?" "It's human meat, isn't it?" "Frell me, they're... Read More

I recently read a sales page that perfectly exemplified how important it is to put the right information in your marketing materials - because this page definitely didn't. Let's see if you can spot the problem before I point it out. This sales page informed me that: 1. Their CBD oil wasproduced using a cold method of CO2 extraction, which produces the highest quality and best flavor. 2. The oil was quality tested and analyzed using cutting-edge equipment. 3. It was safe and ethically sourced. 4. It was 100% natural,... Read More