How can they sell it at that price?
I was interviewed by a journalist recently on the way up to Barnsley in South Yorkshire. Barnsley has come a long way since my dim and dark days as an undergraduate, and the hotel that I was staying in was mighty fine as was the hospitality.
Apologies for the aberration, back to the interview.
The journalist wanted to know my thoughts on branding for a small business, or if branding was for big businesses only. If you ever find yourself suffering from …
And what are you gonna do about it?
I am in a celebratory mode. One of my small business clients has scored a major accomplishment over a multi-million pound national brand that had sought to unfairly undermine their best-selling product. Sadly, I can’t go into too much detail for fear of being hauled over the legal coals, but I wanted to share with you how we managed to stand our corner and emerge victorious.
My client knew from customer feedback and sales that his flagship product was the best …
28 Spelling Mistakes?! To the gallows with him !
On occasion, I am asked by a business to “review their sales material” – a euphemism for striking my red pen through most sentences before donning my black cap and delivering the damning and usually unexpected verdict – yes, whilst they are brilliant at their business, no, that does not make them a Grade A copywriter. Most people take this in good humour and they appreciate the constructive feedback.
I have however been shown the door on a couple …
Let's face it, I'm a contender.
Now please don’t go thinking that I’ve strayed into life coaching territory with this particular blog.
I haven’t.
I was inspired to write it after spending a couple of days last week with a group of very talented women. My role was to empower them with some gutsy direct mail and telephone cold calling techniques, on a shoestring as you would expect.
I opened up the first day by asking each delegate to share a little about …
By Jiminy... I've got it!
A little while ago I had the honour of being the guest speaker at the University of Sussex annual business awards. Over 200 students had scribbled their business idea on the back of a beer mat and the four ideas deemed by the judges to be the best were presented by the students on the evening. This event got me thinking about the importance of ideas and how everything that we do in life stems from an idea. In business, the ongoing generation …
'I say, I say, I say.....'
In the last year my services as a public speaker have been called upon extensively and although I still do the occasional freebie, I do now get paid for my efforts. If you follow me on twitter, then you’ll know that I tweet with unrelenting monotony about constantly having to push out of my comfort zone, and public speaking was certainly not something that I took to like a natural from the start. With the benefit of much practice and a little …
"Now let me tell you some more about ME"
One of the many privileges of being an author and a marketer is that I get invited to speak at a fair number of interesting events and I get to meet some really inspirational people.
Occasionally, (usually when I am chatting to said inspirational people) I find myself interrupted by a business card being pressed firmly into my hand and the person it belongs to delivering their one minute elevator pitch. It’s at this point that I either resort to …
Oh, Raymond......
In my lifetime, I have read numerous marketing, advertising and direct marketing books. Like you, I suspect, some books I have skimmed through whilst others I’ve poured over, reading, re-reading, furiously scribbling in the margins and fishing out my highlighter every other second.
One of my all time favourite books is Ogilvy on Advertising by advertising legend David Ogilvy. Beautifully written as you would expect from a heavily decorated copywriter, I find myself revisiting it frequently and returning to one page in particular where homage is paid …
Oh neigh, neigh, neigh.
Last week while on holiday, I read an on-line article that, had it been printed, would have ended up in the swimming pool.
Face down.
I should have known from the introductory paragraph that it was going to raise my hackles. In it, the author forcibly asserted that “traditional marketing such as direct mail and advertising is dead. The only way forward is social media, online advertising and blogs.”
Nonsense I tell you, nonsense!
If we agree that the role of marketing is to communicate our products and …
"Catching some free PR must be easy.....Doh!"
Sad and sorry person that I am, last night I found myself listening to a CD on how small businesses can get PR. It had been sent to me from a ‘marketing guru’.
Now before this blog goes any further, I want you to know that I have absolutely no problems in worshipping at the shrine of truly talented and inspirational marketers. If you follow my tweets, you will know this to be so. However in this case, by the time I …
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