Small business marketing tips by Danielle MacInnis

Small Business Marketing Tips

Danielle MacInnis
Marketing guru for small business
www.daniellemacinnis.com
www.macinnismarketing.com.au

Danielle MacInnis
Danielle MacInnis

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on March 16, 2011

Contents
Not For Proﬁt Organisations – They just don’t get marketing?
Whisper marketing. . . what’s the buzz? . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Touchpoints a key to understanding how to shape your brand.
6 top reasons why you need a marketing plan . . . . . . . . . .
Brand Repositioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nuture Marketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10 top marketing mistakes small business make – how to avoid
them. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Five small business email customer lifecycle tactics . . . . . . .
Funnel Vision – How to build a great business (from a good one)
Top 10 Lead Nuturing tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Do you want to create a webcast for your web or blog at no cost?
Pay it forward – the basis for a great social marketing strategy
8 marketing ideas that manager of small business can do today
Small Business Branding Webinar series . . . . . . . . . . . . .
How to use twitter for SMB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Do you really need a new website design? . . . . . . . . . . . .
What a small business should look for when investigating CRM.
Fragmentation of traditional media channels – a real opportunity
for small business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jim Collins on Good To Great . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Maybe it is time to audit your business and marketing strategy?
Start with the vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Your personal Brand – do you know your core value proposition?
Proﬁling your ideal customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Reasons why your customers buy from you. . . . . . . . . . . .
How to write great customer success stories . . . . . . . . . . .
What a marketing consultant does? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Meeting unmet customer needs, creates market leadership . . .
Sales readiness – how ready is your sales team? . . . . . . . . .

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48
49
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51
56
59
61
63
66
68

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Have you hired a marketing consultant as small business? . . . 69
Tribal Leadership – book review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005 . . . . . . . . 72
What is your secret sauce? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
What is a brand? Key functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Optimising your press release for SEO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
E-marketing approach is more eﬀective than just attending
networking events! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Prospect Plan – where’s yours? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Top 5 must haves in your marketing tool kit . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5 top tips for top Google listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
A design brief template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
70 of the best small business marketing applications – most free 92
How to give your customers a taste of you to win more business 94
Why small businesses need a marketing plan! . . . . . . . . . . 96
5 keys to designing a killer website! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
How much do you care about your customers? Show me the love!!100
Use hyped long sales landing pages and prepare for the backlash!103
10 of the best free marketing e-books for small business . . . . 105
Small business marketing survey 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Make your website your marketing hub . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5 steps for creating a marketing plan for small business . . . . 116
Build your small business from the inside out. Personal development is the best investment you can make! . . . . . . . . . . 120
Awesomely Simple is just an awesome small business website . 125
A marketers’ delight: video software animoto! . . . . . . . . . . 126
Marketing and sales goals for 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Inspiration – we all need it! Start by asking your customers. . 130
Top 10 marketing trends for 2011 for small businesses . . . . . 131
Lead generation made simple for small business . . . . . . . . . 136
Is your small business customer centric? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Hero Brands That Small Businesses Can Copy . . . . . . . . . 145
Good websites should .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Brand or the Marketing Strategy, which comes ﬁrst? Chicken
and egg or real marketing dilemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Why do you need a marketing plan? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
What Is A Value Proposition? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Protecting Brand Equity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

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Marketing Mistakes That Impact Your Effectiveness. . . . . . . 153
Get the scoop on the CRM close loop tools . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Branding for small business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Seth Godin – online presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Ten top ideas for marketing in a recession . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Measuring Marketing – trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
The Amazing Power of Growing a Big List . . . . . . . . . . . 166
6 Ways to weather an economic downturn . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Internet Marketing – A viable marketing strategy in a down
economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Top Five Lead Gen practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Five steps to building brand equity for the small business . . . 173
74% of small business have no marketing plan! . . . . . . . . . 177
How to attract visitors to your site? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Treat Customers Like Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
A map for working out your marketing strategy . . . . . . . . . 185
Small Business Get Marketing Wrong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Social media as a trend or savvy marketing tool . . . . . . . . 186
Should you dump your web and just have a blog? Is the website
days numbered? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Does the small business need SEO? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Twitter plug ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Make your marketing effort successful . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
10 tips on how do we get qualified traffic to our website or blog
or other social media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
5 ways to capture customer insights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Great source of blogs for small businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Marketing technology helping small businesses win big! . . . . 205
Who’s talking about you and how to listen online. . . . . . . . 206
10 Great marketing internet tips from Jay . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Coaching the PA in marketing – your best asset . . . . . . . . 208
The quick guide to using social media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Customers buy for their reasons not yours. 5 ways to join their
conversation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
5 things to consider before podcasting as a small business. . . . 216
CRM and how it intersects with social media – the next step . 220
7 best small business marketing internet tips . . . . . . . . . . 225
Best social media podcast I have heard – marketers get on board229

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Hubspot inbound marketing training now available on slideshare!230
5 key steps to building your marketing toolkit . . . . . . . . . . 231
Was Borders listening to its customers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
5 reasons why your content strategy is the most important
marketing tool as a SMB. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Social marketing metrics – Are you measuring? . . . . . . . . . 237
Social media is the new word of mouth – how does SMB leverage
it? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Twitter – best tips and tools for small business . . . . . . . . . 240
Outsourcing your social media marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Why blog as a small business? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
New way of selling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Creating a new toolbar to communicate all your interactions in
one interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Designing your brand – 4 Steps for a small business to follow. . 249
Join my online marketing training – for small business, it’s free! 253
Seize the opportunity with the convergence of communication
and conversational tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Your Story, The Most Compelling Marketing Tool For Small
Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
How to harness emotional intelligence to fast track your small
business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Social media metrics – how do you measure your activities? . . 266
Increase proﬁtability with employee engagement . . . . . . . . 268
Free Marketing training for small businesses . . . . . . . . . . . 271
My top podcasts for small business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Building your own personal mission statement . . . . . . . . . 274
Do you understand the mechanics of your small business? . . . 276
Marketing Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Why is it important to have a business model? . . . . . . . . . 280
Where sales and marketing intersect that’s the new competitive
advantage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Be strategic in 2011 and make your small business a 10! . . . . 286
Marketing Lessons from the best in the business . . . . . . . . 287
Engaging the customer – that’s all it’s about! . . . . . . . . . . 289
Build a high performing team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
10 top must have tools for small business marketing (most are
free!) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

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Does your small business depend on you? . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Your personal brand Vs your company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Small Business is relationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Who do we intend to be? Why are we here? What’s the point? 301
Fun is the core of a successful business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
10 Tips for start-ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
How to create a u-tube video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
So how are you doing on getting found on the web? . . . . . . 310
Trust Agents – play nice! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
How did you start marketing your small business? Read the
stories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
10 Hot Tips Before Small Business Engage With Social Media 316
Love thy customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Start with The Simple Marketing System! . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Great discussion about what marketing works for small business?324
What is your story? It’s your decisions and actions. . . . . . . 330
How small businesses can use About Us as a marketing tool . . 333
Why blog as a small business? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
How are small businesses marketing today? . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Marketing tools for small businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
You Need More Than Hope. You Need A Business Model . . . 339

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Not For Profit Organisations – They just
don’t get marketing?
Marketing Not for Profit organisations is a interesting Business. I
have found the managers of these organisations are not really able
to visualise their business as one that is able to leverage marketing.
The very nature of not for profit almost precludes them thinking of
themselves as a business and yet of course they are. They still need
members, they still have target markets and value to offer that they
need to communicate.
This is a largely untouched marketplace that is only now coming
to realise the potential that having a strong value proposition and
marketing strategy can have to help shape their potential appeal and
thus financial contributions.
Incoming search terms:
• 2011 for not for profits marketing
• marketing for NFP organisations
• Marketing for not for profit organisations
• not for profit marketing plan
• NOT-FOR-PROFIT marketing
• not-for-profit marketing plan
• 2011 for not for profits marketing
• marketing for NFP organisations
• Marketing for not for profit organisations
• not for profit marketing plan
• NOT-FOR-PROFIT marketing
• not-for-profit marketing plan

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Whisper marketing. . . what’s the buzz?
If you are on the ball you will have heard of whisper marketing by now.
That is to plant a person in say a shopping centre and recommend a
product to a fellow shopper. This “word of mouth” is constructed yet
could have the same eﬀect as a viral campaign, spreading the idea to
others.
The issue seems to be that it is a misrepresentation because it is a
constructed scenario, however creative it is. I just wonder what in
marketing isn’t constructed, ie ad campaign, direct mail, website, and
sometimes even the way testimonials are edited.
I guess the unsavoury thought for consumers is that something they
might think is a normal social interaction is actually being sponsored
by a company and that does leave a bad taste in your mouth.
Tim Pethick from Nudie I think might have the solution: Word-ofmouth is fundamentally important to our entire strategy. I think
consumers feel like they’re over-advertised to at the moment. They’re
immune, in a sense, to the messages that they’re getting. Well, what
about if we got consumers to be our evangelists? When we were doing
sampling events and were interacting with consumers, we gave them
brochures that said, ‘We want Nudie‘. Go and visit the store you want
to stock Nudie in. Give this to them and ask them to stock Nudie for
you. It worked. People went out and did that.” (ABC Mondo Thing
epi 12)
Or Ross Honeywell points out whisper marketing is similar to virual
marketing and be warned. “Viral marketing is perfectly ethical if
what you’re doing is communicating a fabulous idea to other people
who are happy to spread it. People who spread it most are these
neo-consumers. They’re savvy. They’re really smart. They really get
it. And anybody who tries to market them in unethical ways will, A,
be spotted very quickly, and, B, be rejected.” (ABC Mondo Thing
epi 12)
Food for thought.

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• whispers marketing branding
• whispers marketing branding

Touchpoints a key to understanding how to
shape your brand.
There seems to be a consensus that we need to understand how a brand
is build today to help manage it. To do this we need to understand
that the process begins with identifying each point of interaction, or
brand “touchpoint,” between the company and its customers. Here, a
company can uncover the various opportunities for its brand to be
positively upheld or negatively represented.
As Mark Ritson explains in Professional Marketing Magazine July
Sept 2008, touchpoints for a bank can have many more negative
impacts on a customer’s perception than positive. ie statement of
account, letter from the manager, out of work cash dispensers, and
long lines to speak to a bank teller. If you think about it from the
customer’s view how many opportunities does your brand have to
disappoint them?
Ray George from Prophet.com explains: each activity falls within the
three touchpoint experience categories: pre-purchase, purchase (or
usage), and post-purchase.
Pre-purchase experience touchpoints represent the various ways
potential customers interact with a brand prior to deciding to do
business with a company. Some typical pre-purchase touchpoints
include Web sites, word-of-mouth, direct mail, research, sponsorships,
public relations and advertising. Cymbic.com adds that most marketing dept of B2B companies spend most of the marketing budget on
the pre-purchase part of the customer interaction when most of the
customers experience is spent in the other two areas.
Each pre-purchase touchpoint interaction should be designed to shape
perceptions and expectations of the brand as well as heighten brand

3

awareness and drive its relevance, while also helping prospects understand its benefits over competing brands and the value it brings in
fulfilling their wants and needs. As the pre-purchase experience for
prospective customers is examined, the focus should be on refining
those touchpoints that most effectively will drive customers to put
the brand into their consideration set.
Purchase (or usage) experience touchpoints are those that move a
customer from considering a company’s brand to purchasing a product
or service and initiating a brand relationship. Examples of purchase
touchpoints include direct field sales, physical stores and contact with
customer representatives.
The main objective of these points of interaction is to maximize the
value that prospects see in offerings and instill confidence that they
have made the right decision in choosing the brand. During these
interactions, it’s critical to instill trust in the minds of prospects by
demonstrating beyond a reasonable doubt that a company’s product
or service offerings are better than those of the competition.
Post-purchase experience touchpoints come into play after the “sale”
and maximize the customer experience. These can include loyalty
programs, customer satisfaction surveys and warranty and rebate
activities. These touchpoints are frequently under-leveraged or ignored as brand-development opportunities, even though they offer the
potential for businesses to drive sustainable and profitable growth.
Three goals of post-purchase experience touchpoints are to deliver on
the brand promise, meet or exceed customer performance and usage
expectations and increase brand loyalty and advocacy.
The long-term benefits of assessing a brand’s touchpoints are tremendous. This knowledge can help build a strong, powerful brand that
keeps its relevance in the minds of customers. But even more important is how this exercise fully equips an organization to better control
the most important interactions customers have with the brand.
Here’s what typically emerges as a result of a touchpoint assessment:
New Opportunities. Many of the identified touchpoints won’t fall
in the category of typical “brand-building” activities, but if they’re
aligned with the company’s current brand message, they can instill

4

strong customer preference and loyalty. By demonstrating how they
impact customer perceptions, they can be used to give the company
a fresh perspective on its brand-building activities.
Control. It’s a common misconception that brand development is the sole responsibility of the marketing department;
in reality, the responsibility for the development, execution
and ongoing maintenance of each touchpoint may fall within
several different functional areas of the company. In fact, some
touchpoints—word-of-mouth, for example—may seem to be impossible to control altogether. In such instances, analysis of what’s driving
word-of-mouth exposure may reveal a greater degree of control over
this touchpoint than initially thought. The tactical importance of
minor touchpoints
that are not typically considered within the marketing domain. The
automated phone answering experience. The product User Interface.
The monthly invoice. However you can see the potential impact they
can have on the perception of the brand of a company.
Complexity. Managing all the different points of interaction customers
have with a brand is a multifaceted and interdependent responsibility.
Ted Mininni is president of Design Force adds: It really is about all the
intangibles around those products and services that form customer
perceptions, thoughts, emotions and attitudes based on repeated,
interactive experiences with corporate brands. This mix of intangibles
transcends actual products or services—all of which can be purchased
from a number of competing companies. Meaningful brand experiences
are unified experiences; that is, they are corporately designed, properly
managed and aligned across all customer touchpoints.
Examples:
Pre-Purchase: Borders, smell of coffee, quiet, sections of books to
easy to find. Information centre, large variety, cafe to enjoy while
reading. Entertainment value. Meet friends.
Purchase: Quick and streamlined, discount for valued customers. Staff
all dressed in borders black t-shirt, easy to identify.

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Post-Purchase: Follow up with email offers, vouchers in your black
bag with logo – status bought book at borders or CD or whatever.
From within the offices of Starbucks, a branding guru had summarized
the Starbucks brand into an extremely concise brand statement: A
great coffee experience.
This brand statement encompassed the Starbucks store design, bean
selection, barista personalities. . . even its toilet paper. 2 ply for
Starbucks.
A lousy experience with one touchpoint can negate all the brand
equity you build in other touchpoints. When Microsoft releases a
security patch that creates more openings for hackers, its brand is
diminished.
They are marketing the experience and the brand as much as the
products they sell and doing it effectively through every touch point.
What are the distinctive, heritage elements of your brand that resonate
with customers?
Once all current and potential customer-experience touchpoints have
been identified, the next step is to determine which are the most
important, and why. Trying to control every touchpoint can be an
overwhelming and costly endeavor. However, prioritizing the touchpoints and identifying which have the greatest impact on customers
ensure that customers are being spoken to where and when most
relevant. Additionally, prioritizing the touchpoints maximizes the use
of corporate capital and human resources.
Consider the following factors in prioritizing the touchpoints:
Value in decision-making. What impact will the touchpoint have
on the overall customer decision-making process? Ability to control.
To what extent is the touchpoint within an organization’s ability to
control?
Degree of misalignment. How is the touchpoint diluting or contradicting the brand message, and how quickly must it be aligned?
Achieving business objectives. Does the touchpoint support the underlying business objectives?
Companies across t

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he board are facing numerous challenges that require leadership to
take a hard look at how well their brand strategies position them with
customers. Competition is fierce and growing and customers are both
wary and confused, particularly in the face of largely undifferentiated
products, services and messaging.
Businesses that intend to successfully stand out from among the
competition would be wise to scrutinize the core of where and how
they interact with customers and communicate the essence of their
brands. That sort of thoughtful and measured assessment is what
will lead to brand investments that are most likely to create powerful
results.
If you want to do some touchpoint analysis for your company here is
a good url
www.marketingdriven.com/userImages/touchpoint analysis.pdf
• human resources touchpoints
• touchpoint usage
• how to find good touch points for your brand
• brand touch points seth godin
• touchpoints banking
• brand touchpoints
• touchpoint marketing and brand
• cymbic touchpoints
• starbucks in store touchpoint
• brand touch points analysis
• starbucks brand touchpoints
• starbucks brand messaging
• Touchpoint Analysis
• touchpoint banking software

7

• touchpoint banking software blog
• human resources touchpoints
• touchpoint usage
• how to ﬁnd good touch points for your brand
• brand touch points seth godin
• touchpoints banking
• brand touchpoints
• touchpoint marketing and brand
• cymbic touchpoints
• starbucks in store touchpoint
• brand touch points analysis
• starbucks brand touchpoints
• starbucks brand messaging
• Touchpoint Analysis
• touchpoint banking software
• touchpoint banking software blog

6 top reasons why you need a marketing plan
I read this on the web the other day and I liked it because it put
marketing in layman terms. I thought I should share it.
The Top Six Reasons – by Jap Lipe e-merge Marketing
#1 A marketing plan formalizes ideas
Nothing is more forceful than committing your ideas to paper. If you
say to yourself “Gee, I’d really like to upgrade our website this year”,
that’s just an idea, without any course of action.

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But, if you write on a piece of paper the:
Objective (”We will upgrade our website”)
Rationale (“because our site is looking outdated versus our competition.”)
Project leader (”I will take the lead on completing this project”)
Timeline (“by December 31, 2003”) and
Budget (”for under $3,000”).
Now you have a plan that commits time, people and dollars to the
project, and its likelihood for success has grown exponentially.
#2 You can hang it in front of your nose
After you’ve finished your marketing plan, I recommend taping parts
of it up all around you—on your cubicle wall, on a computer monitor
or over your phone. The goal is to hang it where you’ll see it every
day. There are two reasons for this. First, seeing it every day serves
as a conscious reminder to accomplish this week’s tasks. Yes, it’s a
subtle form of nagging, but I guarantee you’ll get more done because
of the subtle pressure you feel.
Second, having your plan in plain view helps sink the plan into
your subconscious mind. As your eye passes over the plan, your
subconscious mind notices and starts converting your plan into action.
You don’t consciously know it’s happening, but it is.
#3 A plan breaks down tasks
After completing your marketing plan, you’ll know every Monday
morning exactly what needs to be accomplished to stay on track. If
written correctly, your marketing plan breaks down seemingly huge
tasks (e.g. develop a website) into smaller, more manageable tasks.
#4 A plan gives you hope
With a completed marketing plan guiding your efforts, you’ll be
amazed at how much more confident you feel. Now amidst all the
day-to-day fire fighting, you’ll know you have a plan, a path to
follow, and a quiet assurance that you’re building momentum for
your business. That positive attitude alone goes a long way towards
steering a company in the right direction.
#5 A marketing plan sifts ideas
Over the course of 12 months (we’ll assume you’re writing an annual
marketing plan here), you’ll probably stumble across a marketing

9

opportunity you didn’t foresee when you wrote the plan. Maybe you
field a call from a magazine offering you discounted advertising rates.
Or, you meet the president of a call center who offers its telemarketing
services to your company. Should you do these things?
With a written marketing plan in place, you can sift each idea through
it. If you’ve spent thoughtful time developing your marketing strategies and committing them to paper, you’ll know quickly if any of
these ideas are on-strategy.
#6 A plan gives you something to go back to in slow times
If your business is like most others, it has a seasonality to it. That
is, some months are traditionally slower than others. During those
slow months, instead of wringing your hands and worrying about slow
sales, you know what to do. Crack open the plan, and review it cover
to cover. Are your assumptions about the market still valid? Do your
strategies still make sense? Which tactics do we need to implement?
At a glance, you’ll know whether you’re ahead of schedule or behind,
and turn passive statements like “I don’t know what I should do” into
active ones like “We planned for a newsletter in the 2nd quarter, now
I’ll get started on that.”
How long does it take to write a marketing plan?
How long it takes to write your marketing plan depends on these
factors in your business. Its:
Revenues
Geographic scope
Distribution channels
Markets served
Number of products or services offered
Number of employees.
The larger the number for any of these variables, the longer it will take.
As a general rule of thumb, a sole proprietor can write a marketing
plan in one to four weeks. A larger company will need eight to twelve
because it must account for more input.
Whichever company type you are, budget for enough think time—that
is, time away from the planning process itself where you can ruminate,
cogitate or (if so inclined) meditate about the major questions you
face.

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A marketing plan lays the foundation for well-thought-out action. If
you are serious about your marketing, start with a plan.
• major reasons for a marketing plan
• top reasons why you need marketing
• major reasons for a marketing plan
• top reasons why you need marketing

Brand Repositioning
THis is a good article on the how and why of brand positioning.
How to Unleash Power of Brand Repositioning: A Four-Phase Processby Gregory J. Pollack
Published on May 20, 2008
Many brands and companies today are constantly reinvigorating their
businesses and positioning them for growth. There is a constant need
to innovate, reinvigorate, update, recalibrate, or just simply fend off
the competition in an effort to better explain “why buy me.”
To move forward, companies and brands need to first take a look
at their current brand positioning. But for a moment, even a brief
moment, it would make sense to go back to the brand drawing board
to answer the question, “Just what is brand positioning, anyway?”
Simply, brand positioning creates a specific place in the market for your
brand and product offerings. It reaches a certain type of consumer or
customer and delivers benefits that meet the needs of key target groups
and users. The actual approach of a company or brand’s positioning
in the marketplace is determined based on how it communicates the
benefits and product attributes to consumers and users. As a result,
the brand positioning of a company and/or product seeks to further
distance itself from competitors based on a host of items, but most

11

notably five key issues including price, quality, product attributes, its
distribution, and usage occasions.
As companies and brands today look to brand repositioning, they first
have to ask, “What are the reasons to reposition my brand?” The
answer might be declining sales, loss of consumer/user base, stagnant
product benefits, or the competition, including such issues as increased
technology and new features.
After having identified the reasons for pursuing a Brand Repositioning,
you might now ask yourself, “What do I do?”
A four-phased brand repositioning approach will help guide you
through this process and allow your company and brand group to
best calibrate based on timing, budget, and resources to get the job
done.
Phase I—Determining the Current Status of the BrandThe
purpose of this phase is to understand the company and brand, including exploring key issues, opportunities, and challenges. The reason
is to obtain a clear snapshot of the company and brand in present
terms, which will offer a clear insight to opportunity identification
and assessment.
Understanding the brand includes reviewing the complete history of
the company and brand, including its current brand positioning, the
original positioning, how it has evolved—and, most important, what
the company and brand stands for today. Key questions to ask and
answer:
What differentiates our company and brand from the competition?
What are the equity drivers of the company and brand?
What are the historical ways to communicate the company and brand
equity to consumers and customers alike?
As we dive deeper into the current status of the company and brand,
we also need to get a clear understanding of the company and brand,
including a review of the current brand customer. Key questions to
ask and answer:
Who is the current target customer base?
What is his/her profile?
What are the reasons for purchase?
What are the buying patterns?

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What are the user patterns?
Once we better understand the current brand customer, we can then
review the company and brand sales history, including revenue, growth,
and industry and category market share. Also important to look at
are the specific core product or service offerings.
This review should include a review of the current product strategy
and mix, with specific emphasis on understanding the current SKU
product strategy, if you are a company and specifically a manufacturer.
If your business is in the service-offering or professional-consulting
arena, this would include a review of the total service offerings and
programs offered.
A key questions to ask and answer: “Do all products live under the
same brand strategy, or are there different product strategies that
fall under one brand strategy?” Here, you’ll need to consider whether
your business is a category leader, or a player as a secondary brand.
This phase should also include looking at production capabilities and
constraints, distribution strength and strategy, top key accounts, key
selling points, along with a careful review of all sales and marketing
promotional materials.
Finally, review the competitive landscape: the number of competitors,
keys to their success, and what they are doing right and some of
their key challenges. Key questions areas to look at are market share,
industry strength, customer profiles, consumer buying trends, and a
review of the industry and category trends and forecasts.
Phase II—What Does the Brand Stand for Today? With a
solid understanding of your company and brand, we now need to
understand how consumers feel about your company and brand today.
In the consumer packaged goods world, this might mean talking to
kids and moms and other user groups, to determine what your company and brand stands for among consumers.
Obtaining a clear insight into the way consumers feel and relate
to your company and brand will provide the starting point of the
repositioning work. First we need to gain parameters, including the
following: identifying key growth areas for your brand, marketplace,
and industry opportunities; looking at your brand positioning in the
competitive landscape; measuring the current equity of your brand;
and determining opportunity areas of where to take the equity of your

13

brand.
Your clear objectives are to. . .
Understand current consumer perceptions and needs of your brand.
Determine how far to move your brand without alienating customers
and loyalty base.
Identify how to position your brand to attract new users and ultimately convert them into loyal purchasers/users/buyers.
The first path to travel on the course of brand repositioning is to hold
brand equity groups, which will directly ask consumers and users of
your brand key questions, including “Why do they select your brand”
and “What was the key decision-making element?”
Beyond these general questions, the brand equity groups will seek to
understand users’ and consumers’ reasons for purchase, determine
their hierarchy of needs and what your brand currently delivers, understand usage occasions and patters, and showcase brand-equity
dimensions.
In addition, one of the most important functions of brand equity
groups is to identify similar affinity groups and lifestyle and behavior
patterns among your consumers and loyal customers that can translate
into better understanding your customer profiles.
From a logistical perspective, the brand equity groups could take
place over the course of two days with about four groups total. To
ensure a good program read and reach, it would be best to run these
groups in three to four cities.
Through this process you will identify needs, both unmet and met,
in category and industry, determine the delights and dissatisfiers of
your brand, as well as determine current brand equity drivers of your
brand. In a sense, it will provide you with a current measure of the
value of your brand to consumers or end-users. It will provide not only
a snapshot of today and where your brand sits but also an immediate
look of where you can take your brand tomorrow.
The end-goal of the brand equity groups is to identify opportunities,
including looking at growth areas for your brand as well as unmet
consumer and user needs.
Once we can find the current equity value of the brand, the next step
would be to run brand-positioning workshops.
Phase III—Developing the Brand Positioning Platforms:
Where Can We Take It Tomorrow to Grow the Brand?

14

Now that we have a good, solid understanding of where the company,
business, and brand sit within the overall marketplace, as well as a
good understanding of its value to consumers,
the next step is to find out how far to grow, expand, and stretch the
brand.
The purpose of Phase III is to use all marketing research, brand, industry, and consumer information to reposition what your brand should
and can stand for. The key reasoning is that determining effective and
successful brand repositioning will help retain current customers and
acquire new ones. As we look to begin brand repositioning, we need
to keep in mind that it needs to capture “How we want consumers to
think and feel about your brand.”
This process will develop and create several key “brand positioning
platforms” to showcase how far your brand can move to retain customers and acquire new ones. Accordingly, you will answer “Who
do we want our brand to be?”; “What benefits will it deliver to the
consumer?”; and “How will we promote The Brand product purchase,
collection and user patterns?”
The most important guidelines to success will be to ensure that all
aspects of where to take your brand are carefully reviewed to ensure
that it maintains the core values and essence of your brand. With
this in mind, as a general guideline, there are four key ingredients as
part of the brand repositioning work. The new brand positioning will
be. . .
Ownable: Unique to the brand
Leverageable: Important and relevant to the target
Sustainable: To other categories in the future
Extendable: Partnership marketing and other marketing programs
There are two key components to the brand positioning workshops—strategic and creative—and should involve two sessions.
The first session would be “Developing The Brand Vision,” which
includes where the brand is and what it should become tomorrow, as
well as mapping out where to take the brand in the short and long
term.
The second session would be “Stretching The Brand.” Essentially,
we would take everything we have heard and learned, and review
consumer insights with the goal taking your brand where it should
go. This process should include exercises to stretch your brand into

15

the future.
For instance, you might develop different marketing positioning platforms that can take key dimensions as far as possible. For a toy or
consumer brand it might include such parameters as fun, mystery,
anticipation, taste, usage occasions. However, this process should
really center on what consumers think we should explore.
As a result, the brand positioning workshop should determine four to
five key benefits and potential platforms that are agreed upon by the
entire group. Then it is up to every member of the group to refine
and validate each positioning platform. These workshops review key
marketing research information and consumer attitudes, and most
important. . . the current purchase patterns. The overall purpose is
to determine which areas and brand positioning platforms to pursue.
The final output of the brand positioning workshop is “Developing the
Brand Vision,”“Developing the Brand Drivers for Future Positioning,”
and “Developing Brand Alternatives.”
Now that we have developed new brand-positioning platforms, we
need to test and validate with consumers as well as key customers.
The ultimate purpose and goal is to refine the brand positioning
platforms.
So, we go back to the focus group format and again talk to key consumers and customers with the purpose of checking back with them to
validate the new brand positioning. This essentially allows for refinement of the new brand positioning. It will also help us determine just
how far your brand can be stretched. It is also essential to develop
visual concept boards to position your brand and its products in a
new light in front of consumers and customers.
The final output of this phase includes a concise and clear understanding of consumer views on key new brand positioning platforms
as well as the final brand positioning. This will provide and deliver
an overview of consumer attitudes toward the new brand positioning,
with a focus on retaining existing brand customers and acquiring new
users.
Additionally, it will also showcase the final “New Brand Positioning
Statement,” explaining in detail the reasoning behind the new brand
positioning.
Phase IV—Refining The Brand Positioning and Manage-

16

ment Presentation
Now we have a great start, a new thinking, and most important the
beginnings of the New Brand Positioning for your company, business,
and brand. The purpose now is to review and refine the new brand
positioning and communicate to all function departments in order to
align efforts.
The main reasoning is that it is important that everyone on the Brand
Team and all function areas understand, buy into, and support the
New Brand Positioning. Essentially, this will become the umbrella
strategy for the brand group dictating marketing programs and tactics.
As part of this final and very important phase in brand repositioning,
we need to refine the positioning. This includes finalizing the brand
by incorporating all feedback from consumers, customers, vendors and
agencies, as well as the brand group, to ensure achievable positioning
vs. aspirational positioning.
The ultimate final stage results in building a strong team to carry
the message to senior management and leaders within your company.
This includes developing and presenting to the brand group and senior
management the new brand positioning.
Once the entire senior management and leadership buy into and
endorse the New Brand Positioning, there is still much work to be
done. The main focus now shifts from research and development to
solidifying, marketing, and communication.
Therefore, we need to create a “Brand Identity Manual,” which provides a clear direction on the New Brand Positioning. Most important,
it describes how the New Brand Positioning will deliver growth for the
business. The “Brand Identity Manual” showcases industry, competitive trends, and consumer attitudes that resulted in the New Brand
Positioning.
Its purpose would be to communicate all marketing research and
findings, the reasoning for the New Brand Positioning, as well as
deliver clear and concise brand messaging for all subsequent brand
function areas, support groups, agencies, etc. The result is that the
“Brand Identity Manual” ensures unifying and agreed-upon brand
positioning for the entire company and support groups and functions.
The final output for Phase IV is the production of a “Brandscape.”

17

This includes a visual imagery and musical score combined to bring
the New Brand Positioning to life. It can be shared with entire brand
group and brand support groups to communicate new brand positioning and is a core way of communicating the New Brand Positioning
to anyone in the company or anyone connected to the brand group.
The reasoning is that the “Brandscape” could be used by all future
brand departments as “Brand Communication Guidelines,” including
packaging, marketing, sales, communications, etc. The overall purpose
is to ensure consistent communication of the brand equity across any
medium and by any partner.
• brand repositioning 2008
• brand repositioning and brand vision com au
• brand repositioning format
• CV/Met consumer marketing what does it stand for
• next step after brand positioning
• repositioning your brand questions
• step involves in repositions brands
• successful brand repositioning
• what is brand repositioning
• brand repositioning 2008
• brand repositioning and brand vision com au
• brand repositioning format
• CV/Met consumer marketing what does it stand for
• next step after brand positioning
• repositioning your brand questions
• step involves in repositions brands

18

• successful brand repositioning
• what is brand repositioning

Nuture Marketing. . .
I was at an offsite and heard the term nuture marketing and it was
one that I hadn’t heard in a while but nuturing customers is key to
establishing a long term commitment both ways, between you and
your customers. Karin Schaff has a good article explain the process.
Nurture Marketing: Always Being Connected
by Karin Schaff Glazier
The concept of nurture marketing has been around for a long time.
However, with narrowing customer markets, fierce competition and
an abundance of consumer purchasing options, nurture marketing
is changing from a want to a critical need for survival. Much of
nurture marketing involves basic common sense: Treat others the way
you would like to be treated to keep in touch with prospects (new
and existing customers) and develop and cultivate relationships to
generate new business. Here are just a few highly valuable but simple
tips you can use to begin developing your nurture marketing game
plan:
Know your ABCs (and Ds)! Before jumping headfirst into nurture marketing activities, dissect your prospect base into A, B,
C and D accounts. Typically, the A and B accounts are where most
of your revenue will come from in the near term, per your sales plan
and ideal client profile. The C and D accounts are those that hold
potential to become revenue-generating accounts, though not necessarily in the near term. The As and Bs typically receive personalized
communication when possible. The Cs and Ds tend to receive more of
what the industry calls “drip” marketing, which means activities are
more general rather than highly personalized by account and contact
type.

19

Become the trusted advisor. Nurture marketing helps to establish
you as a trusted advisor in the minds of your prospects—and therefore
puts you at the top of their list when they are searching for or trying to
make a decision regarding your type of offering. Ask yourself what
you need to provide so that they will see you as a trusted
advisor. Remember, your product/service information is important,
but it isn’t everything. Industry reports, case studies (industry case
studies as well as your own), articles, Webinar invites, etc., can also be
powerful tools. These tools eventually build your nurture marketing
tool kit.
Execution is key. Once you have developed your nurture
marketing tool kit (which should grow continuously to keep
information fresh and new), start to assign activities/materials to specific prospect types (the A, B, C and D accounts).
Record specific dates in your calendar when materials should be sent
out to each prospect. You may not know what materials you will send
two months from now, for example, but you should at least note that
you will be sending something on X date. And, don’t forget about
the in-person visits and outings; they are great tools to add to your
nurture activities. You may also have multiple contacts per target
account which value different information sent in different ways–and
possibly at different times. The information sent to the A and B
accounts should be personalized. Sales should lead this effort (i.e.
sending an article, highlighting the important concepts, adding a
handwritten note, mailing in hard copy format). Be sure to explain
why you are sending the information, otherwise prospects may not
understand how the information pertains to their business objectives
and functional needs. The C and D accounts may receive the same
information but in more of a canned/ongoing campaign type approach
through mediums such as monthly e-zines or direct mailers. These
activities tend to offer the same information to the same people at
the same time, and the marketing department tends to oversee these
efforts.
Track your activities. It’s important to know what you are
sending, when and why. Using technology (i.e. customer
relationship management and/or sales force automation) to
track all your nurture activities helps give you and others

20

visibility into what is working, when and with whom. This
allows you to continually improve your approach for better results.
The tips above are only a handful of the things you can do to proactively connect with your prospects. Nurture marketing is a forever
commitment that needs some basic ingredients, such as common sense,
strategic planning, consistent follow through and passion for getting
close to your prospects, so you can reap the many rewards it oﬀers.
• sample nurture marketing campaigns
• sample nurture marketing campaigns

10 top marketing mistakes small business
make – how to avoid them.
Carolyn Staﬀord from Connect Marketing has a great report and the
10 top marketing mistakes small businesses make.
Report on Marketing Mistakes1 as pdf.
In summary however:
Mistake #1 they lose sight of the big vision – for their life
and their business. Carolyn recommends:
Stop spinning your wheels. If you have lost sight of the vision for
your life and your business, I
recommend you get up close and personal with yourself. I think you
need to spend some time working on your business and not in it.
Schedule this time in every week or it won’t happen.
Mistake #2 they don’t follow a plan and take a ‘scattergun’
approach to marketing.
Remedy
1 http://www.connectmarketing.com.au/files/QXUYSSFZNQ/

←

Top10MarketingMistakes0908%20%282%29.pdf

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Follow this simple Step Process to get yourself a simple marketing
plan as a starting point:
1. Get some marketing know-how
2. Do a marketing audit.
3. Get a marketing plan.
Mistake #3 they slash (or even wipe out) the marketing
budget.
If you are a solo operator, I suggest you seriously consider employing
someone so you can focus on working ‘on the business’ instead of ‘in
the business’. The day I employed my first staff member was the
turning point for my business. Suddenly I had to generate the new
leads and business to fund their salary and it inspired the growth of
the business.
Mistake #6 they communicate poorly with the people that
matter most to their business.
Remedy
Spend a few days going through your database of contacts. Apply the
80/20 rule and identify the 20% of people (include clients, suppliers,
business associates) who are likely to give you more business or are
advocates for you in some way. Then don’t wait. Call them up. Invite
them out for a coffee. Don’t make it a sales pitch. Ask them for
feedback on how you can improve your service to them. This is by
far the best way to get honest feedback.
Mistake #7 they don’t seek professional support or help until it’s too late.
Remedy
Review your business vision and make a list of all the kinds of professionals you could use to help you in your business. List the top
three you need to achieve your goals for the next 90 days. Think
aboutwho you might know who does good work in these areas. Ask
your friends in business who they use for their marketing (provided of
course you like the way they market themselves and they are getting
good results). Do some research on the internet too.
Mistake #8 they stop networking and building business relationships.

22

Mistake #9 they stop being creative and innovative and are
slow to adapt to the environment.
Mistake #10 they reduce investment in technology and the
internet.
Remedy
Make sure that a web strategy is part of your overall marketing
strategy and budget. Look for an emarketing strategist to work with
on your website – do NOT simply get a designer or an IT person to
work on it in the early stages.
• top 10 marketing strategies small business
• top 10 marketing strategies small business

Five small business email customer lifecycle
tactics
This article is by Kara Trivunovic and Andrew Osterday
Published on January 27, 2009
I thought it was insightful so I thought I would share it.
It’s probably no surprise that the process of acquiring new customers
comes with one of the higher price tags of any of your marketing
initiatives. The value of growing your customer base is obvious: the
potential to sell more products or services. Moreover, increasing
customer loyalty will reduce your marketing costs by providing you
with a growing number of prospects and customers that can be easily
and efficiently communicated with.
Accounting for the following five basic lifecycle tactics for the coming
year will help identify areas of focus when laying out your strategy
and setting goals.
1. Target and AcquireIt’s not only about a customer database with
the most amounts of records. The key is to fine-tune your targeting

23

tactics to grow your customer database with those individuals who
have a true interest in your products or services. Adding 50 new and
engaged customers or prospects can have a better positive net effect
on your bottom line than adding 500 prospects who might not be as
interested in what your organization has to offer.
Look to add to your email database with those potential customers
who have the most relevant connection with your organization. In
short, poor leads equal lackluster performance and added costs.
Targeted growth provides you with a database of motivated customers
who are not only ready and willing to open your email messages but
also less likely to opt out of communications and less prone to mark
your communication as spam.
In an email world where your Email Sender Reputation is critical,
avoiding increased complaint rates with ISPs means better in-box
penetration. Those spam complaints not only harm your email reputation but also limit the number of messages that individual ISPs will
actually deliver to your customers who want to receive your message.
2. Onboard the Correct WayAn onboarding program that reflects
your brand, sets expectations, and confirms the appropriate customer
information needs to follow industry best-practices as well.
Interested prospects and future customers who desire to be a part of
your marketing program are willing to share information regarding
their needs. This information can be used to help grow your relationship with your customers as well as increase the trust in your brand.
Create clear and easy forms that allow your customer to quickly tell
you the information that they are interested in.
The more you know about your customers (not just their email address) the better. Crafting email program enrollment forms that ask
the information you need to execute the most relevant communications back to them is not merely desirable, it is a necessity.
Keep enrolment forms easy to complete and available on every page
of your Web site, and follow industry best-practices using a double
opt-in confirmation method and welcome message. These messages
need to be timely and reinforce your brand.
Waiting too long to send an enrollment confirmation or your first
message can be the difference between your prospect’s staying engaged
or forgetting about you and moving on to your competition.
You should also take the use-it-or-lose-it approach with collecting in-

24

formation during the enrolment process. Collect only the information
that you will use to help get the right message to the right recipient
at the right time.
3. Deliver on the Promise and Serve up the Right Content
Your email marketing programs should have a clearly defined purpose
that your future email recipients will easily recognize in communications that they have requested.
“Sign up for our monthly newsletter” means that the future recipient
is expecting an electronic issue every month. Inform your recipients
about when they can expect your communications—and show them
examples. Providing a link to your most recent communications for
them to peruse may limit the number of records that you add to your
database in the short term, but as noted in the Target and Acquisition
section, the value in growing your database is based on acquiring
customers and prospects who are unquestionably interested in you
communications.
Providing the right message, to the right person, at the right time does
produce results. One study over a five-year period showed that when
marketers provide relevant product and service offerings to engaged
customer segments, they reported an annual profit growth of about
15% as opposed to 5% for those marketers that did not take into
account engaged customers and relevant content.
4. Grow the RelationshipLearn more about your customers by
analyzing purchase history and Web site traffic. Satisfied customers
will most likely account for a larger portion of your sales. Being able
to identify the attributes of your most-engaged customers will allow
you to leverage those attributes on a growing customer database.
Your best customers shouldn’t necessarily be getting the same message
that you are sending to your entire database. These individuals are
more familiar with your brand, knowledgeable about your offerings,
and amicable toward receiving targeted promotions and tailored marketing messages.
Say in tune with the marketing strategies of your competition as well.
You are all vying for the attention of that same customer. Knowing
what your completion has to offer allows you to tailor messages that
that can compete. Timely offers, tested frequency, and clear product
differentiation afford your customers the ability to make purchase
decisions quickly.

25

Good customers make great advocates. You customers share common
likes and interests with friends, family members, and colleagues. Relying on these advocates is often one of the easiest way to organically
grow customers and subsequent sales.
5. Retain
Retaining a customer has a much smaller price tag than acquiring a
new one. Growing customer loyalty by 1% can be the equivalent of
a 10% cost reduction, according to Bain & Company. “Catch-andrelease” marketing tactics may not provide that top-of-mind ability to
keep your brand as your customer’s first choice when contemplating
a future purpose.
Communicating with your customers using messages that go beyond
marketing offers keeps them engaged with your brand. Take into
account birthdays, anniversaries, or holiday greetings. You communicate with friends and family with these types of greetings, why not
with your customers?
Complimentary products or services that enhance previous purchases
or are aligned with customers’ previous purchasing history demonstrate that you understand them as customers and can identify what
is important to them.
Providing tips and tricks to help your customer’s use your product or
service in more efficient ways also helps to strengthen the relationship.
Keep your customers up-to-date on new products, upgrades, and
updates.
Reach out when your customers become unengaged. Test the way you
communicate with those individuals who stop opening or interacting
with your communications. Are you sending too many or too few
messages? There could be many reasons that your once engaged
customer acts less interested in your communications. Monitor your
reporting for cues that a change may be needed. Test your theory,
and apply your learnings.
• email customer about new price
• email customer use

26

• email customer about new price
• email customer use

Funnel Vision – How to build a great
business (from a good one)
Great article by Hugh Macfarlane
Standing out from the crowd is tough when your competitors are also
working towards the same end. Occasionally, though, a business that
has been doing ‘fine’ suddenly starts doing better than fine. In fact,
it goes from being good to great. For some, this success is temporary
and they soon slink back into the pack. A select few make a significant
shift and go on to achieve sustained greatness.
How does a good business become a great one? Hot on the heels of
his groundbreaking work with co-author Jerry Porras on the bestselling management book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary
Companies, researcher and author Jim Collins set out to answer this
question. As a result, he produced an even better book, Good to
Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap & And Others Don’t.
Collins’ team of researchers drew up a list of extraordinary companies
that met three criteria – they had to have performed at or below the
rest of the market for 15 years; then undergone a change; and then
significantly outperformed the stock market for 15 years or more.
Collins wanted to understand what these businesses had done to
transform themselves into market leaders. His findings suggest there
are seven keys to creating a great business.
Disciplined people
1. Adopting level 5 leadership: build enduring greatness through a
paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.
2. Considering who first, then what: begin by getting the right people
on the bus (and the wrong people off it) and then work out where to
drive it.
Disciplined thought
Confronting the brutal facts (yet never losing faith): all good-to-great

27

companies began their transition by analysing the facts of their reality
while being determined to rise above that reality.
4. Embracing the hedgehog concept: this entails getting clear answers
to three questions:
· what are you deeply passionate about?
· what do you know you can be the best in the world at?
· what drives your economic engine?
Disciplined action
5. Fostering a culture of discipline: getting sustained great results
requires self-disciplined people who take disciplined action.
6. Using technology as an accelerator: good-to-great companies avoid
technology fads, but become pioneers in carefully selected technologies.
7. Creating ‘flywheel momentum’: sustainable transformations follow
a pattern of build-up and breakthrough. Like pushing a flywheel, it
takes effort to get things moving, but persistence builds momentum
and breakthrough.
In our experience, the final idea needs further examination. Momentum is a great outcome, but how do you get it?
In business-to-business (B2B) marketing, organisations often come
up with a great idea, try it once and then go looking for another
great idea. This is fatally flawed. Not only is it hard to get good at
anything this way, but the market becomes confused.
Consumer marketers know that perceptions take a long time to build.
They create ads and sell their message consistently. As B2B marketers,
we have to do the same. Create campaigns that last for years, and
execute them again and again. Refine those plans when necessary,
but only after robust measurement and testing.
Adhere to these rules and you’ll soon hear that flywheel humming.
• what are the visions of some great companies?
• marketing funnel vision
• what are the visions of some great companies?
• marketing funnel vision

28

Top 10 Lead Nuturing tools
Found this list on Duct tape marketing. Really good list.
The following ten tools are ones that I would suggest to most any
small business owner to use in tandem with a cadre of education based
marketing content in the form of ebooks, audio, video, newsletters,
surveys and seminars.
1. BatchBlue2 - a lightweight CRM tool with a twist. BatchBlue
makes it very simple to add your prospect’s social media profiles
thereby having access to their blog and twitter feeds right at the point
of interaction. Really great for your journalist target market too!
2. ACT!3 - still the grandaddy of the desktop CRM software. Sage
had done a nice job with the most recent release and I still think
ACT!’s campaigns are the most intuitive and effective for the very
small business.
3. InfusionSoft4 - this is a hybrid CRM, email, shopping cart, affiliate
tool all rolled into one and not for every business, but if you have
large lists to manage and want a really great tool for segmenting and
targeting those lists, this is a great tool.
4. SwiftPage5 - this tool allows you send batches of email to prospects
and then receive ranking reports based on how the prospect interacted
with the email. Integrates with ACT! and Outlook and works for one
email or many. The best time to follow-up is when your prospect
takes interest.
5. Enthusem6 - this is a fairly new tool to me, but I really like the
presentation. You can send a high end greeting card to prospects that
sends them pick up a free report or watch a video. The system then
alerts you when the recipient visits your landing page.

2 http://www.batchblue.com/%20
3 http://www.paloalto.com/bundles/act.cfm/?affiliate=ducttape
4 http://www.infusionsoft.com/
5 http://www.swiftpage.com/
6 http://www.enthusem.com/

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6. AWeber7 - this is low cost, but very effective, autoresponder and
email service. Autoresponders have been around for some time now,
but I still find them a very effective way to drip information to
prospects via email.
7. Vertical Response8 - this email and post card sending service is
one of the simplest to use, allowing you to send large amounts of
high-impact email messages, campaigns and newsletters.
8. SendPepper9 - another tool that is newer to me, but I really like
what they have to offer. Think autoresponder, but with direct mail.
Someone visits you site and fills out a form and then they receive an
auto email message right away and a high impact post card a few
days later. The postcard further had a personal URL that sends them
to a landing page to receive more details created just for them. (I use
this one myself and find it great at adding rules to segment customers
and send personalised messages.
9. Web Conferencing - using a service like iLinc10 , GoToWebinar11 , or Calliflower12 you can offer your prospects the ability to
attend demos, peer2peer panels, collaboration sessions, or even sales
presentations from the comfort of their office. Great to archive and
offer in other formats as well.
10. Hand-written notes - low tech and still the greatest lead nurturing tool around. Get in the habit of sending a dozen or so a week
and you’ll be hooked.
• batchblue autoresponder
• batchblue autoresponder

7 http://www.aweber.com/
8 http://www.verticalresponse.com/
9 http://www.sendpepper.com/
10 http://www.ilinc.com/
11 http://www.gotowebinar.com/
12 http://www.calliflower.com/

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Do you want to create a webcast for your
web or blog at no cost?
I was looking around at what was out there in the marketplace that I
could use to create a video for my online communications. I found a
great tool calledjing13 . This tool allows you to screen grab whatever
you have open on your destkop and make a movie from it. You can
add commentary to your slideshare14 presentation without paying for
a licenced copy of a editing package like Camtasia studio.
This tool is awesome. Only down point is it creates a large file.
To make this file smaller you need to upgrade from free to a paid
subscription and then you can make video footage at a small file size
and it can be MP3 compatibale and u-tube ready!
PS you need to subsribe to screencast15 to upload your files and share
them but this is free and easy.
• what applications do you need to create a webcast
• what applications do you need to create a webcast

Pay it forward – the basis for a great social
marketing strategy
Pay it forward I think is the context in which you should approach
social marketing. Give to get, invest and the good-will, will spread.
The saying based on the film16 has inspired a foundation17 . The
premise is: It begins with doing a favor for another person– without
13 http://www.jingproject.com
14 http://www.slideshare.com
15 http://www.screencast.com
16 http://payitforward.warnerbros.com/Pay_It_Forward/
17 http://www.payitforwardfoundation.org/get_involved.html

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any expectation of being paid back. Changing the world one favor at
a time.
If you helped 3 people and the next day those 3 helped 3, and the
next day those 27 helped 3 more people and each day after that each
helped 3 that would equal 4,782,969 IN 2 WEEKS”.
Take these principles and apply them to your social marketing strategy
and you will be on a winner and feel good about yourself at the same
time. I love a win-win.
1. Be attentive wherever you are for opportunities to help someone. See someone who looks like they could use some kind help
on your web or blog and answer them. You can change people’s
attitudes about the world through your unobtrusive acts of
kindness. It could be a simple as saying thank-you. Rarely do
a get a personal message about my blog and how it help but it
is really noticed and appreciated.
2. Do something nice for someone you don’t know (or don’t
know very well). It should be something signiﬁcant, and not for
a person from whom you expect a good deed — or anything at
all, for that matter — in return. Invest in them.
3. Spread the word. If the person thanks you and wants to
“repay” you (that is, pay it “back”), let them know that what
you’d really like is for them to pay it “forward” — you’d like
them to do something nice for three people they don’t know,
and ask those three people to do something nice for three more
people. The idea is to consciously increase the goodness of the
world. This might be tweeting your information to their friends
if they found it useful.
4. Pay it forward. When you notice that somebody has done
something nice for you, make a note in your mind to practice
three acts of kindness towards other people, as described in Step
2.
Some rules I follow:
• Inform

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• Educate
• Invest
• Add value
Subscribe18 to this wordpress
• how much should i pay for a social marketing strategy
• pay it forward for danielle
• how much should i pay for a social marketing strategy
• pay it forward for danielle

8 marketing ideas that manager of small
business can do today
With my clients I have found it is sometimes a slow process to build
and execute the right marketing strategy, especially if we are starting
from scratch. However, there are some smart tactical things that
business managers can do immediately that will make an impact.
1.
Elevator pitch – everyone is one the same
page Resource: http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/08/ ←
how−to−craft−killer−elevator−pitch−that.html
Task: Get together an formulate on statement to describe your company and
communicate it to all staﬀ. Not all your staﬀ can articulate your story.
We can build this into your value prop as we go.
Examples:
“Intel, the world’s largest silicon innovator, creates products and
technologies that change the way people live, work and play. Whether
it’s a mobile lifestyle or a new way to enjoy entertainment at home,
18 http://

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Intel is helping people all over the world accomplish things they never
before dreamed possible.”
Metro Pizza. Each of our pizzas is a hand-crafted labor of love, backed
by three generations of experience. We believe that a true Pizzeria
should be a gathering place for family and friends to relax, share great
food and enjoy each other’s company.
. . . .what’s your story?
2. PR – leverage your relationships
•

PR can shape opinion, inspire action and change minds.

• PR vs. Media Relations. Not just pitching stories. PR is the
art of actively managing relationships and perception.
Task: Collect cards of media people you meet and start forming
relationships with key industry media
Example: When you are at a industry event, talk to and collect cards
of media people. They are good contacts to build our PR strategy
with and often give coverage based on relationships
3. Success stories – capture your success
If a customer tells you have done a good job, ask if we can contact
them to write about it.
Task: Capture the discussion.
Example: Talk with staﬀ if they hear something good about us, collect
the source as it might be a possible testimonial we can write up for
our web or newsletter later.
4. Competitor insight – you probably come across your competitors all the time, are you taking notice, are your staﬀ?
Task: if you see anything your competitors are doing, good or bad,
jot it down.
Example: see a billboard from a competitor take down the name and
url, better still take a picture.
5. Good ideas – capture the good ideas –

34

Task: If you or your staff come up with a good idea, write it
down for discussion at a marketing meeting. A bad idea is
a lonely idea. Keep a small note pad with you and jot down
the ideas.
Example: whiteboard in the office or suggestion box
6. Customer satisfaction – a pillar of your business that shouldn’t
be left to chance.
Task: If a customer has an issue, document it and capture it and
resolve. You can use this to improve your response over time and set
up a customer satisfaction process.
Example: bring up any customer issues at team meetings and set in
place a resolution process.
7. Partners and associations- some of the best business ideas
come from a collaboration of resources and ideas.
Task: If you see a partner you could collaborate with collect that
information for our meeting.
Example: pizza place partnering with local cinema to offer special
vouchers for customers or vise-versa.
8. Customer referral. Capture and thank.
Task: Set up a system to recognise referral from a thank you letter to
a gift. Eventually this would be part of your integrated CRM program
or strategy.
Example: note from the CEO to say that you appreciate their referral.
Start doing these things and you will have a good leg up when you
come to implement your marketing strategy.
Subcribe19 to my blog.
19 http://www.daniellemacinnis.com//feeds2.feedburner.com/wordpress/

←

dCcq

35

• marketing ideas for cinema
• what are good marketing ideas to bring up at a meeting
• marketing ideas for cinema
• what are good marketing ideas to bring up at a meeting

Small Business Branding Webinar series
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing. John Jantsch has come up
with some great content here.
Small Business Branding Webinar Series
Over the course of the last month John has been conducting live
online panel discussions with some great guests on a range of small
business marketing and branding subjects. Featuring Guy Kawasaki,
Chris Brogan, and David Meerman Scott on the subject of online
branding.
You can listen to this session and the entire series archive here20 .
• online branding webinar
• online branding webinar

20 http://www.brighttalk.com/channels/2753/view

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How to use twitter for SMB
Rita Pant has done a great diagram explaining how to used twitter.
Love it! Click on image to get bigger high res image. Hubspot21 also
have a greatdownload22 on how to use twitter.

• why use twitter smb
• why use twitter smb

Do you really need a new website design?
This week I have been assessing whether I need to redesign my website.
Even a new client said it didn’t do me justice, but hey he is a client
now so maybe it was still eﬀective! What are we trying to achieve
with a website anyway? How do we measure its success? Sure we all
want it to look nice but isn’t the real measure of a successful website
if it achieves your goals? What are my goals for my website?
21 http://www.hubspot.com
22 http://www.hubspot.com/internet-marketing-whitepapers/

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• Targeted visitors
• Leads
• Customers
Mike Volpe from Hubspot explains some of the key measures for
landing pages are in the diagram below and I agree, but I think these
are measures are also relevant for your website. Mike makes a good
point in his pdf23 and presentation24 Web Design tips and Tricks, when
he says that “websites are about performance not looks”. I think what
is really interesting is he goes on to discuss the pitfalls of redesign that
might not be aparent at the start of the redesign process, something
I didn’t really consider. Items like lost links, content, key words and
page rank that all can be compromised by this process. Will pages
have new urls and what will this mean? Will you loose valuable
content for the sake of design? In essence don’t break what is working
well even if it might not look fantastic. Content and conversion over
classy and creative. Thanks Mike, I am going to tweek my website
rather than overall the whole thing!

23 http://www.hubspot.com/Portals/53/docs/pdf_website_redesign_marketing_april

-2009_webinar.pdf
24 http://www.hubspot.com/website-redesign-kit/

38

←

• do i need a new website survey
• do i need a new website survey

What a small business should look for when
investigating CRM.

Image credit: capturetheconversation.com Most of my clients don’t
have a systematic way of engaging with their customers. To be entirely
correct, most of them are operating from a makeshift spreadsheet as
a database. While this serves the purpose of capturing data, CRM
(customer relationship management) has a much larger purpose. In
its simplest form, CRM can help you track and manage the way you
interact with your customers and suppliers to manage that relationship
more eﬀectively and the ultimate application use is to change the
way you do business by using customer insight, transparent business
operations and tracking and optimising on the ﬂy all of your activities
and interactions with the customer over their life-time.
Here are some key features of a CRM software.
Capturing Customer insights
1. It can be a database with more contact information on each
customer. If it is all you are going to use the system for them stick
with your spreadsheet. However, if you are going to use it to capture

39

really insightful information on your customers, ie how did they find
you, conversations you have had with them, their preferences, their
complaints, their feedback etc then it is a powerful tool.
Lead Generation and nurturing tool
2. It can manage and nurture leads and opportunities. With segmentation capability via data collection fields which gives more depth
and customer insight, you can now plan an integrated sales tasks
and marketing activities to manage the customer through the life
cycle with your company. Tracking and planning a lead generation
campaign can be a simple as a series of tasks and follow up actions or
as complicated as a series of automatic contact points to nuture the
lead with information, tools and advice so that when they are ready
to purchase, your company is top of mind.
Forecasting and tracking tool
3. Forecasting and tracking become more achievable and visible when
all the leads and prospects are entered into the tool and ranked
according a scale. Closed deals that flow through to accounts and into
customer records can give you information on conversion rates and cost
of a sale (ie sales reps time and marketing activities costs). Marketing
campaigns can be tracked with tracking code on websites, blogs and
emails. Integration of these business operations is sometimes an
under-estimated value of capturing data, but this transparency allows
you to tweak your efforts, fail quickly and re-direct your attention to
marketing and sales strategies that could be more effective.
Customer support
As important as it is to manage and track the customer through
the sales cycle, it is just as important to give the same attention to
the customer service experience they have with your company. The
aim should be to make this experience for the customer a positive
seamless systematic approach that is consistent. To do this you need
to capture customer complaints and create a work flow that allows
for follow up and assign ownership of that compliant. The CRM tool
can assist you with this work flow. Also, because all the information
is captured in the one tool, management can have visibility to this as
a metric on an overall dashboard.

40

Business Intelligence
As a manager of a small business with say ; over 10 staff and more
than 50 customers, I would seriously consider a CRM software solution, for no other reason other than it will give you the business
intelligence to run your business more effectively. You can have a
dashboard that will give you instant access to your top customers,
sales funnel and customer issues. It can help you identify potential
issues or opportunities more quickly because you have visibility to
all interactions with your customers. Unless you can manage this
yourself then CRM becomes a very valuable value proposition.
So which platform?
There is no one fits all and the right CRM system for you depends on
many variables including functionality and cost. I think the key is that
it should be easy to use because using this software will change the
way everyone does their job if it is to be successful. The adoption
curve can be slow if the system is to hard to use. Money is well
spent on getting in a specialist consultant to set it up and do some
training. This should start with the senior management team. This
ensures that everyone sees the CRM as important. A CRM software
is only as good as the data entered and so this cultural change needs
to happen for it to be a success. The leadership team need to be the
champions.
Automating as much as possible will help the adoption of the tool.
Seeing some early wins for sales will help the sale force see this tool
as a lead nurturing aid not an invasion of their territory.
There are hosted, Server and Desktop versions of the software. I
would opt for a hosted solution as it solves the remote access problem
for reps on the road and there is no need for IT support in-house.
This is usually a fee per month based on a user licence or a group
licence. You get what you pay for so if it looks too cheap then you
probably are not getting all of the functionality as listed above. I
would expect to pay around $100 – $300 per month for a system
that would perform the key functions as listed above and would allow
additional costs for the training an consulting and set up costs.

41

CRM is a new way of doing business and an investment in doing
business with customer insight, business intelligence and marketing
feedback mechanisms. See my CRM mindmap25 that lays out in a
diagram the key business functions.
Really Simple Solutions26 have a great whitepaper27 on 10 critical
factors to consider when looking at CRM and Business-Software28 have
a great download on 40 top CRM vendors that is worth downloading.
So are you starting to think about a CRM platform for your business.
Share your thoughts, we’d love to hear them.
• investigating a small business
• investigating a small business

Fragmentation of traditional media channels
– a real opportunity for small business
Fragmentation.
As consumers seem to start abandoning traditional media channels
opting instead to customize their viewing via ipod, Internet tv, etc is
there a real opportunity for small business to capitalise? I think so.

25 http://www.drivehq.com/folder/p5988057.aspx
26 http://www.reallysimplesolutions.com
28 http://www.business-software.com/

42

Eric Tsai29 in his blog
3 Ways to Capitalize on the Destruction of Traditional Media and
Embrace Social Media30 is on the money when he explores that
people are consuming media in new ways. Eric says “It is now
possible for individuals to choose from a wide variety of communication
arsenals outside of the mainstream commercial system to reach the
mass audience.” I would add to this that people can customise their
communication experience and we as marketers and small businesses
can leverage the social media explosion by having a presence in our
niche.
Social media allows small business to build an audience very quickly
and as long as the content is engaging, educational and relevant build
a loyal fans and hopefully eventually customers. Tools like twitter,
blogging, podcasting, utube, ﬂickr, etc allow you to express your
brands personality like never before. They are all very low cost and
easy to use and most importantly the audience for this medium is
growing!

29 http://designdamage.com/blog/index.php/200906/3-ways-to-

←
capitalize-on-the-destruction-of-traditional-media-and-embrace- ←
social-media/
30 http://designdamage.com/blog/index.php/200906/3-ways-to- ←
capitalize-on-the-destruction-of-traditional-media-and-embrace- ←
social-media/

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100,000,000 u-tube videos viewed every day!
How a small business can capitalise.
So as a small business you might be daunted by the prospect of
entering into the social media world. Don’t be. Just pick one medium
and start by listening and following. Go onto twitter search tool31
and look up your industry and start by viewing some tweets. It is a
great education.
Visit Alltop32 and create an account to view and participate in some
of the top blogs relevant to you. Social media has made word of
mouth all the more powerful. Set up a blog to discuss ideas with
your customers. You can use WordPress or Blogger they are free!
According to Paul Marsden and his Slideshare33 , “Social media now
accounts for over 50% of internet traﬃc. What others say about
you is more important than what you say about yourself.” Another
31 http://search.twitter.com/advanced
32 http://alltop.com/
33 http://www.slideshare.net/paulsmarsden/social-media-the-business-

opportunity-for-marketing-agencies-presentation

44

←

interesting statement from the slideshare is the Lake Wobegan eﬀect34
in which ” 80% of CEO believe they oﬀer superior service but only
8% of their customers agree”.
The blog environment is a chance for you to talk to your customers
and get some immediate feedback and perhpas to realign expectations
with reality. The idea I really like from Paul’s slide share is that “social
media allows us to market with consumers instead than at them”.
This change can quickly create brand loyalty and fan following as our
customers come on the journey, buy in and promote us via viral word
of mouth freely. The challenge for us is to listen to their feedback,
solve their problems and pre-em pt their queries and engage in their
conversations.
According to Neilson 3/4 of the global Internet population participate
in social networks and it is now more popular than personal email!
As Rupert Murdock recently said, ”Now it is the people who are now
in control”. Everyone now has an opportunity to be heard and select
who they hear.
Business Week35 says,” For companies, resistance to social media is
futile. Millions of people are creating content for the social Web. Your
competitors are already there. Your customers have been there for a
long time. If your business isn’t putting itself out there, it ought to
be.”
3,000,000 tweets on twitter.com per day

34 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Wobegon_effect
35 http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2009/

←

tc20090218_335887.htm

45

Companies doing it well.
Virgin36 with the entrepreneur pitchtv37 and ask Richard directly
section on their web. This interaction with their customers is just
another point of diﬀerentiation for the Virgin brand.

Starbucks38 is doing it right also. They want to hear your ideas. You
can vote on ideas submitted and make suggestions. In this way they
are letting you guide their business and that makes a whole lot of
sense. The whole community has an opportunity to inﬂuence the
36 http://www.virgin.com/
37 http://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/innovations/pitchtv-episode-2-

july-09
38 http://www.starbucks.com/

46

←

products, atmosphere, locations, merchandise, social responsibility
policies, just about everything to do with the Starbucks brand.
Nike39 has built a great web space that converts the traditional
web into a hub of ideas and education segmented on each customer
group. They are trying to give the visitors tools that they can use in
their ﬁtness campaign and thereby build a community and customer
engagement.
Do you have any other examples of companies doing social media
well? Please share.
See previous blog - How to leverage social media – SMB40 . for more
ideas.

39 http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeplus/?locale=en_au
40 http://macinnismarketing.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/social-media-is

←

-the-new-word-of-mouth-how-does-smb-leverage-it/

47

• fragmentation of media channels
• eﬀect of fragmenation of media channels
• fragmentation in media channels?
• fragmentation of traditional media
• reason for the fragmentation of media channels
• fragmentation of media channels
• eﬀect of fragmenation of media channels
• fragmentation in media channels?
• fragmentation of traditional media
• reason for the fragmentation of media channels

Jim Collins on Good To Great
Stages of building great companies.

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.3002497&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%
more about ” Jim Collins on Good To Great41“, posted with vodpod42
• Google Jim Collins survey
• Google Jim Collins survey

41 http://vodpod.com/watch/1820598-jim-collins-on-good-to-great?pod=

danmac
42 http://vodpod.com?r=wp

48

←

Maybe it is time to audit your business and
marketing strategy?
Before you know where you are going you need to know where you
have been. I find with clients I need to do a audit of their business
and objectives before I can understand how to help them with their
marketing.

cidesign.com.au
When was the last time you had a look at your business and objectives?
Maybe my marketing objectives map43 will help in exploring how to
revisit your marketing objectives. Once you have looked at your overall
business then you can go through your marketing objectives and refine
them so they are all assisting your business overall strategy.
Online marketing business survey44 Even just reading this survey will
help you know the right questions to ask when marketing any business
on-line.
The key to really great marketing strategy is information. Understand
your business, your market and customers. Then you can make
intelligent informed decisions that will offer you the best return on
your marketing investment. Look at how you collect information
today on these three areas and see if you can refine it. The better
44 https://macinnismarketing.wufoo.com/forms/online-marketing-

←

business-survey/

49

your touch points the better the information. Surveys, calls to
customers, talking with your staﬀ for improvement suggestions and
monitoring your competitors are all great ways you can increase your
market intelligence.
How do you collect information about your customers, market and
your business today?
• business audit
• business audit

Start with the vision
I have been working with a client over the past few months and we
have been going back and forth with marketing strategy and in the
end we have had to come back full circle to what is their vision. It has
made me ask many questions. Here are a list of strategic questions
you need to answer before you can move forward in implementing any
marketing strategy.
Make sure you get all of these sign oﬀ and right. It is worth spending
the time on these as it will ensure that your objectives are right and
then you focus on the right strategies to execute.
1. Our purpose – what we do?
1. Our vision – what we want to be known for?
1. Our mission – single minded focus of a goal?
1. Our value prop – why our customers choose us?
1. What is our culture – who we are?
1. Our values – what we stand for and believe in?

50

• danielle vission
• danielle vission

Your personal Brand – do you know your
core value proposition?

The other day a work colleague asked me for some feedback on their
personal value proposition or personal brand. It struck me as a really
good idea. Just like a corporate brand it is what others say and how
they perceive you that amounts to your personal brand, not what you
think necessarily. However, knowing yourself is very important when
establishing your personal brand. Your authentic self should shine
through and this allows you to be the best you can be.
What is a brand from Wikipedia: Some people distinguish the psychological aspect of a brand from the experiential aspect. The experiential
aspect consists of the sum of all points of contact with the brand
and is known as the brand experience. The psychological aspect,
sometimes referred to as the brand image, is a symbolic construct
created within the minds of people and consists of all the information
and expectations associated with a product or service or personality.

51

Why do we need to do this?
•Establish yourself as an expert in your chosen ﬁeld. It establishes
your expertise, authority and value.
•Build a solid reputation within your industry.
•Increase your notoriety and improve your perceived value in the
marketplace.
•It sets you apart from your competitors.
•It reﬂects your core values, personality, talent and skill set.
•It increases your credibility, especially if you can harness the power
of the media.
• It creates a success spiral that can boost your health, wealth and
career.
How do we do this?
We need to know who we are and what our strengths and weaknesses
are.
•Your values
•Skills
•Talents
•Leadership style
There are lots of tools and resources out there to help you accomplish
this. Myer Briggs tool : •http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi− ←
win/JTypes2.asp

52

www.aboutpeople.com
Feedback – candid feedback from your friends, staff and peers You
can do a 360 profile that provides feedback depending on your role or
just ask for it continually.
The http://www.greenlightcommunity.com/ is a group that can help
develop your sense of self. Having a mentor or as Keith Ferrazzi45
states: ” isn’t about changing who you are. It’s about enlisting others
to help you become the best you can be”. Keith’s philosophy is all
about creating an inner circle of “lifeline relationships” – deep, close
relationships with a few key trusted individuals who will offer the
encouragement, feedback, and generous mutual support that every
one of us needs to reach our full potential.
To build a personal brand based on credibility the formula
is: Competence + Character + Consistency = Credibility What is
your area of competence? What is your character? How are you
consistently true to these things? Once you understand what you
stand for and what you personal value proposition is the you need to
market it.
Marketing your personal brand can be as simple as knowing you
are and being transparent about it or can involve a marketing plan
45 http://www.keithferrazzi.com

53

for yourself to establish your credibility with the audience you are
targetting.
Resources:
Personal branding blog46
Marcus Buckingham47
Mashable: Personal Branding 101.48
Personal Brand vid49
Luke Harvey Palmer –personal branding blog50
Small Business Big Marketing podcast51
• Personal and corporate values
• Personal Value Proposition
• brand core values personal
• personal values
• best practices for website personal brand
• survey monkey marcus buckingham
• personal brand
• who are you at the core for Building your Brand
• what is a core value proposition
• value proposition
• building a personal brand rain today
46 http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/
47 http://tmbc.com/site/about_us/aboutUs.php
48 http://mashable.com/2009/02/05/personal-branding-101/
49 http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5037/3-Tips-From-

tommytrc-Grow-Personally-to-Succeed-Professonally.aspx
50 http://www.buzzle.com.au/author/admin/
51 http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/podcast-2/

54

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• building a personal value proposition
• personal value proposition for customer service
• core value expert
• personal branding best practices
• Personal and corporate values
• Personal Value Proposition
• brand core values personal
• personal values
• best practices for website personal brand
• survey monkey marcus buckingham
• personal brand
• who are you at the core for Building your Brand
• what is a core value proposition
• value proposition
• building a personal brand rain today
• building a personal value proposition
• personal value proposition for customer service
• core value expert
• personal branding best practices

55

Small business marketing tips by Danielle MacInnis

Small business marketing tips by Danielle MacInnis

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