Archive for May, 2007

The Power of No

Try telling someone they can’t have something they want. What happens? They want it even more.
The trick is getting people to want what you offer – that’s the power of marketing.
But even when you’re just starting out or at times when you haven’t many clients, telling people “no” (especially those with whom you don’t really [...]

Try telling someone they can’t have something they want. What happens? They want it even more.

The trick is getting people to want what you offer – that’s the power of marketing.

But even when you’re just starting out or at times when you haven’t many clients, telling people “no” (especially those with whom you don’t really want to do business or who aren’t really your ideal clients) is about having integrity. You may find that telling people “no” does your business the world of good.

The Most Effective Free Marketing Tool: Testimonials

As most people who run a small business know, getting glowing, positive and useful testimonials from your best clients & customers is vital.
People like social proof, so if someone is considering using your services or product, the more good reports you have from other satisfied clients & customers, the less of a ‘risk’ it is [...]

As most people who run a small business know, getting glowing, positive and useful testimonials from your best clients & customers is vital.

People like social proof, so if someone is considering using your services or product, the more good reports you have from other satisfied clients & customers, the less of a ‘risk’ it is to purchase from you. It’s that recurring challenge of “building trust” again.

But what makes a ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ testimonial?

• It mentions real specifics about how the product/service has helped or made a difference (specific numbers are always great) not just vague, waffly praise. Something like “after working with Lea for just a month, my monthly income increased by £800 per month”.
• It shows how that buyer also felt hesitant & indecisive before purchasing from you. Something like “I was a bit hesitant to start my coaching program because I wasn’t sure if it would be worth it or I’d get a good return on my investment. Well, how wrong could I be…”
• Ideally, it includes the name, profession, age (or whatever details may be relevant for your target market) of the person who gave the testimonial and if possible, a photo for all those visual people out there.

Getting good testimonials from your clients isn’t always easy. You can ask them outright (which is effective but somehow not as satisfying as unsolicited); you can hint at it (which isn’t as effective but somewhat more satsifying if they take the bait): or you can ‘educate’ them about how important testimonials are to your business and then sit back and wait for that glowing, perfect unsolicited testimonial.

The dangers of WiFi

You’ve got to wonder about the media reporting on health in the Western world. As one of my favourite blogs (Gadget Lab) put it…
"In the very British world of hyped-up health scares, however, it’s easy to place a powerful seed of doubt with minimal effort".
They have an interesting point to make on the recent [...]

You’ve got to wonder about the media reporting on health in the Western world. As one of my favourite blogs (Gadget Lab) put it…

"In the very British world of hyped-up health scares, however, it’s easy to place a powerful seed of doubt with minimal effort".

They have an interesting point to make on the recent hype about the dangers of WiFi.