Closely related to reputation, credibility is at the heart of business success. Even if you havae a great product or service, if you have no credibility, you don’t have much. This issue came to mind when I received a newsletter from a potential supplier recently. It contained a statistic that I made me stop and…
“Our website is just not creative enough,” lamented a new client recently. “It’s stale and lacks spark,” she said. “Can you help us?” While creativity is a relatively important aspect of all marketing collateral, in and of itself, creativity is highly overrated. Jay Conrad Levinson, the author of Guerrilla Marketing, says “creativity should be measured…
You know those stories and lessons you learned from your parents that have always been with you? That little voice in your head that says, “you are in control of you, nothing else,” or “you always have a choice, you might as well make it a good one.” Well, education doesn’t always flow downhill. One…
Are testimonials a great way to help you get people to believe in your business or program or, are they just so much fluff? Are they worth the bother? I get asked that question all the time. And every time I am asked, I say the same thing: maybe. If you have low-quality products, terrible…
A few days ago, we pulled into Costco to “pick up a couple of things.” You know how that goes. Three hundred bucks, two shopping carts and a hernia later, we load up the car and head home. The kid inside me was anxious to get there because we had picked up a treat—chocolate milk.…
Imagine having customers so loyal that they tattoo your logo on their arms. That’s the kind of brand awareness—and loyalty—Harley-Davidson enjoys. So, imagine the eye-popping that went on when H-D discovered that its fastest-growing market was. . . women! The marketing department immediately started making plans to invest heavily to secure that market. Why would…
If you think people are listening to you with only their ears, you know only half the story. Want to be more influential and better understood? Then be aware that you also “speak” with your body. Non-verbal communications include the look on your face, eye contact, your posture, how close you are to the person…
If you can reach into your wallet or purse and pull out something that doesn’t belong there permanently—a receipt, an old parking ticket, someone’s business card—you are disorganized, according to Getting Things Done author David Allen. He puts it this way: “You are disorganized if you need something somewhere that you don’t have or have…
[In The Pyramid Principle, Part 1, we discussed author Barbara Minto’s theory of business writing as outlined in her book, The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking and Problem Solving. Specifically, we looked at how good writing is dependent not only on style, but also on ensuring a logical structure and order. That is…
From briefing notes and memos to reports, presentations and proposals, for most of us, writing is an essential part of our business lives. What distinguishes a clear, dynamic report or a persuasive, well-written proposal from a muddy mess? The answer, according to business consultant and writer Barbara Minto, is in the pyramid. In her book,…
