(Cartoons below)

Your business life can tick along making a certain kind of sense. You put in the hours, you fiddle with all the knobs to keep the business going. Then suddenly a series of seemingly unrelated mini events collide to make you change your mind.

(Possibly the number of mini events is related to how long it takes you to realise you need to do something to change NOW. Hey, that has a ‘recession’ ring to it. Who knew?)

Most recently, I’ve decided to change JupiterJasper’s direction. Not the original purpose -that is still quite clear. But the way the purpose is realised. The work I’m undertaking has a lot to do with making something simple. Not in a dumbing down kind of way, but a clear sort of way.

How grateful am I to have refound Hugh Mcleod’s stuff as I’ve been reconfiguring what I’m doing. He is awesome. Do yourself a favour and check our his gapingvoid gallery. To give you a flavour of what is resoundingly important to me, that he so eloquently cartoonifies, there are links to two of my favourites below.

I’m going to be exploring the making of my new manifesto in this blog while I put together various pieces to adapt this business to what it will be doing next. It will reach a point where I reveal my risky little vulnerability. I’d love for you to comment on the thought journey, it will help.

This blog is written by Bronwyn Durand, for JupiterJasper, the on-demand marketer service.

The work it takes to make something simple is a post from: JupiterJasper's Marketing Ideaology blog

I get emotionally involved with Client’s business. There. I said it.

I can’t help it. I get excited about their business as if it were mine, and I do everything I can to make sure what I contribute is the best it can possibly be. That means that I often do far more than I am paid for, and often means that what I have done isn’t noticed. But I know. I can see where it matters, and I do it for the result rather than the recognition. I guess that is the difference between doing a job and doing something passionately.

I take a lot of pride in what I do. Which is why it makes situations like I find myself in all the more frustrating. And many of you will turn around and say – get over it, it’s just business.

I’ve spent the last few weeks treating myself pretty harshly for being in this situation with a client. And then I realised – my conscience is clear.

I worked on a Client’s business for around 18 months, developing a really great and strong brand identity and defining their customers and tailoring their offering and how they go about it.

The process was long and difficult as it can often be in an organisation where there has been no clear marketing path, and each step required numerous discussions, substantiations and explanations. I pushed through all of that – all the unnecessary delays, all the additional time and effort. I could see the finish line and the transformation was going to be brilliant. I made myself one of the team.

Each payment was difficult to extract. But I kept at it – surely if the money keeps coming eventually, I can still continue. I battled to get the up front payments for suppliers – work was kept on hold on so many occasions while we all waited for them to decide to pay. And yes, it may seem obvious to all of you – there must be a cash flow management problem – a great big red flag. But again, if the marketing end improves, I told myself, the natural extension is that their money flow will be better.

So, the brand is finally complete. And it is GOOD. The different product and services have been properly structured to appeal and be of value to the right customers. The web copy has been written, the brief for a new website done. The business card designed, the sales process and opportunities have been devised and the team is starting to gain momentum in understanding and applying the new ideas.

Suddenly, the working agreement is drawing to a close, and happily, the Client’s team, suppliers and I are informed that JupiterJasper will continue in the role of marketing support for their business – rolling out the new look, messages to all the marketing requirements. On the basis of a continuing relationship and trust, the work begins – defining the best use of budget, discussing value with suppliers, and completing all of their additional stationery to get the ball rolling. Suddenly there is talk of a contract and unspecified payment terms favourable them, delivered in a strange email that isn’t clear whether it applies in future or addressing the immediate requirements too. Given their payment history, and the model JupiterJasper works under, I explained our position and offered various payment alternatives to continue working under for discussion.

And then everything goes quiet.

I try several times to get clear direction on what the Client wants to do. And there is just silence. The completed stationery is accepted, but not one word is said about the ongoing work. Eventually, I send an email saying that I assume they have changed their minds, and bill them for a portion of the hours completed since his agreement ended and previous invoice was paid.

And again, nothing. Eventually, I get a vague response. And what follows is your standard ‘to and fro’ of varying reasons why they should not pay their bill. And so 6 months can be used up just like that.

First I am told that they had never appointed JupiterJasper to continue the work. My extensive paper trail very clearly indicates that they did indeed proceed under the same basis as they had for more than a year, with all sorts of team requests, supplier deflections, and even a great email saying I’ve been told that JupiterJasper is now handling all of the marketing for them, so please could JupiterJasper do….

Rationality and logic prevail.
Until the next excuse – they don’t believe that the work done is of any value.
Business cards and stationery, and more than 9 hours of my time working with the team defining shop layouts, merchandising, product lines, sales techniques, handling supplier information requests, quotations, and responding to numerous requests all generated by the team on instruction to do so from my Client. Well, perhaps they don’t now consider what they asked of me to be of any value, but my time is paid by the hour, and always has been in more than a year long relationship.

And now for the cherry. I must detail the specifics of a three hour meeting defining the marketing layout of the shop and merchandising in minutes to prove the meeting, despite it being called and attended by two of the team, before the bill will be paid. And I must promise to never discuss their business with anyone, and I must promise to never show or refer to the great work that I have spent more than 18 months producing.

Hands up who thinks they will take my marketing ideas and still not pay me?

There is a word for small businesses that don’t pay other small businesses and contribute to the economic pickle we are in, and it is not ‘business’. So they don’t want to or can’t pay me. Or they believe that I should have been working for free. We aren’t talking about very much money. Almost my food bill for the month, or Christmas presents. To me it’s a relationship that I fed and nurtured for more than 18 months and work that I am proud of that I can never share with anyone. What is the loss calculation for that?

Fortunately, we are mostly all grown up and can choose who we want to do business with. I am very confident that if you see value in what they do for your business, my story won’t matter to you in the slightest. But me? Well, I’d want to know.

My conscience is clear. I’ve really believed in their business, and everything I have done has been done with their best interests at heart. In a world filled with people you cannot trust, you’d think that finding a supplier who actually cares about your business is worth something.

I know this is not unique. It happens to everyone. But what is important for me is to continue with my values intact. I like giving clients the benefit of the doubt and my trust and continuing to allow myself to get emotionally involved with their business. I believe that I do great work when I take what they do personally and believe in it. And that’s why I do what I do. If that makes me a sucker, well then go on. Take advantage.

Bronwyn Durand writes Marketing Ideaology for JupiterJasper, the on-demand marketer service for small business.

It happens to everyone. is a post from: JupiterJasper's Marketing Ideaology blog

Somewhere along the line you’ve probably encountered someone that told you that you need a big idea or to think bigger about your marketing and your business.

What is remarkable is how much marketing there is out there that doesn’t really say much of anything, let alone convey a big idea. And by marketing, I don’t just mean advertising, I mean anything a business does to convey what it is about and stands for – even the invoice. And copying your competitor’s big idea doesn’t count.

A big idea is the bridge that makes an emotional connection between what you are selling and your intended audience. It pushes a button or two that helps your possible customer to say – hey, that means something to me. It’s the bit about your business that actually sells the difference that you and your offering will make to the customer.

Never before have big ideas been so important.

This is a new marketing era – where you are compelled to make a connection or you will get lost amongst the ever growing crowd still shouting randomly for attention. Your big idea cuts through and says, hey, you – yes you, I’m worth taking a look at. I really get you, and I will do THIS for you. And if there are two or more of you still in the game, your big idea also gets to go BANG! This is why we are the one for you. These days, it’s how you connect to the right audience in the first place.

And I don’t mean some sort of fancy marketing trick. The days of clever copy and stock pics are gone. Your audience barely has time to pay attention to even the stuff they really need, so don’t think you will win any ground by being anything less than authentic in what you are saying and conveying.

You can have functional marketing that doesn’t have a big idea at its heart. But it will always get by on functional, if that. It won’t have a chance against a big idea of a competitor.

When it comes to marketing, before you even unravel the detail of what you need, who’ll make the design and produce the marketing, who it is for, and where it needs to be – let’s be honest – you need to have something to say. And that, when you get to the essence of marketing, is the most important thing. And that is where your big idea needs to spring from.

It’s not a factual sentence describing your product. It’s quite a tricky thing to behold to those that find it difficult to understand why people buy things. A big idea is often conceptual, but always a simple truth. It’s a way of bringing what you have to offer to life.

There are different ways that you need a big idea in marketing your business. Big ideas work on different levels – a really big idea for your whole business, and then quite possibly a serious of smaller big ideas that define brands and campaigns, but all ultimately link back to expressing the very big idea.

Here are some examples to inspire you to develop a big idea and reap the benefits. I’ve used TV commercials where possible just for entertainment purposes, but most of these would have been realised on other forms of media too, and how you demonstrate your big ideas is only as limited as your ideas.

1. A brand promise as a big idea.

What started as a campaign idea has come to represent all that Red Bull is and does in what it supports and continues to market itself in lifestyle events and sport. This kind of big idea is a thought, feeling or idea that is a way of creating a story about what a buyer can get from your product or service.

Red bull gives you wiings.

2. Bring a core benefit of dealing with you to life.

T-mobile’s parking ticket.

Whilst not an original idea (fake traffic warden), the big idea is ‘no unpleasant surprises on your bill’, and using the hated parking ticket experience to make a TV advert to convey that is one way of executing that idea.

3. Hitch hike another idea to explain yourself

This is about evolving a persona, or using an unrelated idea to give life to a seemingly boring concept and explain it simply.

Compare the meerkat.

Talk about standing out in a crowded, competitive and very samey market place! The Meerkat has evolved an entire new revenue stream, let alone coin a new cliche – Simples.

4. A big idea in service delivery.

A big, but simple expression of how you do business that the customer can hold you to.

Starbucks promise “Your drink should be perfect every time. If not, let us know and we’ll make it right.”

5. Use existing associations.

Using well understood and even public associations in a new way to convey what you are about to be even more relevant for your market.

Waitrose – Delia & Heston brought together to convey quality and passion – traditional with a new twist (best loved and most innovative in a collaboration).

6. Intrinsic to the product offering.

Every product upholds the big idea, and that is a big pull for the right customer.

Example: Body Shop (inspired by nature and ethical).

7. Tap into a current problem for consumers and solve it with a particular style.

Example: Innocent

The big idea: make it easy to do some good for yourself (eat 5 a day with no hidden extras).

8. Own a touchpoint for your market.

Connecting with your market in a different arena/ touchpoint than where you are expected can convey aspects of what you are about in an often more relaxed and open setting. Humour, well done, can highlight relevant issues to that touchpoint, and demonstrate that you are in tune with your audience.

Orange phone break in the movie. Orange own the ‘movie space’ by making fun of their efforts to integrate with the movie space as a mobile provider.

9. Capture a human ‘truth’ and associate to it.

Example: Berocca – you on a good day. Everyone likes how they feel on a good day.

10. Embody why your customers buy your product

Don’t underestimate how much a decision to purchase is linked to the customer expressing something of themselves or their business, by having that product or service.

Skoda – mean green (and previous cake advert)

The big idea – is what is the car made of – ultimately something that you want to add to your personality or express or feel about yourself. It’s about what you feel like when you drive the car.

Big ideas are hard to happen on. But their effect in practice is worth the effort. The more you understand about your market, the more what you are selling aligns with what your market really needs and wants, then the easier it will be to build a big marketing idea.

Bronwyn Durand writes Marketing Ideaology for JupiterJasper, the on-demand marketer service.

What is a big idea anyway? 10 examples to inspire. is a post from: JupiterJasper's Marketing Ideaology blog

The 6th of our blog competition guest posts – Samantha Jones of the HomeTruths shows that success is at the end of completing the plan.

The original guidelines for entry are here, read all the featured entries, you could also read about how we chose the winner, or what we learned from running the blogging competition.

Cheating at bootcamp? Not me!

I recently attended a month-long fitness ‘boot camp’; you know the kind of thing: lots of exercise, clean eating plan and a very scary instructor (thanks Jo!) to keep you on your plan. Halfway through the month, I had a social occasion to attend, and asked Jo if I could have her permission to take an evening off my plan, so I could enjoy the delicious food and a glass or two of wine. “Of course”, she said. “Just don’t be surprised if you don’t reach your goal”.

A bit harsh, I thought. Could one evening of enjoying myself really make that much difference? My goal was a weight I really wanted to achieve, and if that one evening was going to put me in danger of not making it, I just wasn’t prepared to risk it. That evening, I stuck to fizzy water, and stayed away from the pastries and crisps. It wasn’t so bad, actually. Two weeks later, I stood on the scales, elated that I had, in fact, reached my goal, to the pound. I was so glad that I’d stuck to Jo’s advice; after all, she was as keen for me to succeed as I was.

What has my boot camp got to do with selling houses? It’s all about following the plan – the plan of proven success. When we deliver a Home Sale Strategy to a client, in the form of an action plan, it is designed to get the house sold for the best price possible. If that client then decides that instead of the estate agent we’ve recommended he uses, he wants to use someone he knows from the golf club, or that the front path is fine as it is, despite the fact we have advised it be weeded and tidied, can he then really expect to get the result he wants? Do what we tell you to do – no more, no less – and you’ll massively increase your chance of selling your house for the price you want.

Our advice is, after all, the right advice to sell your house.

Read Sam’s original blog post here and we’d love your comments – do you ever manage to see your marketing plan through?

Marketing lesson: follow the plan is a post from: JupiterJasper's Marketing Ideaology blog

I’ve realised that I’ve become a retail sales staff stalker.

I’m obsessed with how much better the experience of shopping in a retail store can be. From a professional point of view as a marketer – there is the obvious benefit of happier customers buying more, and in an effort to build a sustainable business, surely happier trained staff and slicker processes should all make for stronger businesses.

The natural sales woman

I was suddenly aware of my retail sales staff stalking when I realised that the only reason I was still browsing in Accessories Staines, was because I was listening to the young sales lady behind the till. She was doing a great job of making her young customer feel welcome, and leave with an overall positive feeling about shopping there. She’d asked what the customer was buying the accessories for, and managed to turn it into a conversation about parties and fun and looking great. I welled up with pride, and I have never even met the girl before, much less talked to her. I’m a sucker for a job well done.

The ‘don’t come back’ store

In sheer contrast, on a day when I was out shopping with my two kids, I spent a fraught 10 minutes collecting things to try on in a new Topshop store. I was the only customer in the store, there were at least three sales staff, and it was quarter past 5. I had even raced to the store to make it there before it closed. So it’s 5:25, I’ve found 3 things to try on, I’ve got two moaning kiddies, go to the change room, only to be told by the sales girl that she’s closed the change room already because the shop closes at 5:30.

Forget even an apology, I was informed like I was a menace. Really? So there was no opportunity to tell me while I was battling around the store that you were closing up, and I should try on now if I wanted to? Or how about, if the store closes at 5:30, close the store at 5:30? Very easy way to ensure that I don’t come back to your new store, ever. (I’m like that). And tell several hundred people that you turned down my custom. How do you get so disillusioned after a store’s been open a couple of weeks? Aren’t the customers ensuring you have a job? More importantly, just who is behind that sort of policy? Effectively it amounts to – we don’t want customers hanging around potentially buying things even one minute after closing. I’d like to see a study on just what percentage of turnover is from items purchased just on store closing times – if you have ever seen how many people are left just passed closing time in a supermarket – as a retailer you’d be a fool to miss the sales. And I know the hours are long. It’s the business you are in.

The ‘how can our products suit you’ store

I find myself visiting Body Shop stores just because I’m fascinated by how much knowledge the sales staff have about their products, and importantly, how that product could suit me. The customer experience there is an amazing value add to the actual product which most of the time actually does a surprisingly excellent job – reinforcing the entire positive experience. Yet another accolade to the amazing history of this brand.

Queuing in the name of ‘fashion’

How about a H&M? Where you get to challenge yourself to how long you can hold out in the queue. Is your reward getting to buy something? Is this arrogance meant to replicate the perceived attitude of the fashion world? Does this make it cool?

Surely if you are a profit orientated business, customer niceties and value added bits aside – the goal is surely to take as many sales as quickly as possible, giving customers as much reason to come back and do it all over again as soon as possible?

Simple pleasures like Sainsburys calling all trained till staff to tills before there is much of a queue. And actually having more trained staff on hand to serve customers?

Yes, you can go above and beyond

In another supermarket, Waitrose, I was amazed that a member of staff (not even a manager) picked up on me grumbling that I couldn’t find the loaf if bread I wanted, offered to help, told me they had been short delivered that kind a few times lately, and that to avoid being disappointed, please could I call next time I knew I was coming, and one of them would be happy to put one aside for me. Heavens. (If only my previous car insurance company who took the cost of a loaf of bread off me every few hours had 1% of that customer care.) I even believe that if I ever took them up on it, they really would do it.

It really doesn’t take much to impress a customer in a retail environment these days. The bar is so low, you could wow with a smile.

Retail, whether it is high street based or not, has a lot to answer for in bringing hard times to themselves. I suppose you could argue that in times of plenty, customers want the merchandise, so come whether you are nice to them or not.

I don’t dispute that there are great things about a lot of the big retail brands. I am a fan of the empires they have built, and in stark contrast to a lot of people, I appreciate what it takes to build them. But really, the world is changing, and I really believe that now more than ever, you need to give as much reason as possible to a customer for them to choose you to take their money. Not caring about their experience in store, at the hands of your staff, or once they have spent their money, is the potential undoing of all the blood-sweat-money and tears it takes to make a business.

Walk a mile in your customer’s shoes

And if you are a smaller retail business – wondering what it is you could do right now to make a difference to your sales – walk a mile in your customer’s shoes. Chances are, you won’t be impressed with your own experience either. Do you have what your customer’s need? Can they enjoy the experience of buying it from you, and what do you do once the deal is done?

And for those of you with the web-only retail experience, don’t think you are excluded. I was astounded recently by an online-only store that didn’t have a single phone number that I could address someone about the fact that my order was over two weeks late, only an online form to send any contact (3 weeks since I did that and STILL no response). Communication and customer experience are critical – your operational difficulties should not be the customer’s to bear – and if you can’t get around them, give the customer the choice to buy from you honestly under those circumstances.

The goal really isn’t to make as much money as possible

Get everyone in your organisation behind the same goal – the goal is not to make as much money as possible. The goal is to make the right customers as happy as possible so that the business and employees can thrive.

Happy retailing.

Bronwyn Durand writes Marketing Ideaology for JupiterJasper, the on-demand marketer service for small businesses.

Retail sales staff stalking is a post from: JupiterJasper's Marketing Ideaology blog

The 5th of our blog competition guest posts – Ipshita Chatterjee of Minor Edition discusses some of her previous marketing joys and losses.

The original guidelines for entry are here, read all the featured entries, you could also read about how we chose the winner, or what we learned from running the blogging competition.

A marketing lesson?

As I was tweeting my blog link about my tips on setting up a market stall for the very first time, Bronwyn Durand suggested I write about the single most important marketing lesson.. so far

Uh hmm.., I thought.. easy peasy. So, as I set about writing this blog post, it might end up as an incoherent blur.

Now!

A little bit about me

I design absolutely gorgeous dresses for little ones and they are manufactured ethically in very limited editions. Once my daughter Mini road tests and approves all the dresses, I set about selling them. I run all aspects of my business single-handedly and hubby, the accountant, assists me on keeping the books in order.

I have just completed one year of becoming a small business owner, but Marketing?

Did I do it at all?

Not a great deal I thought. I did jump at the usual marketing bandwagon in the first quarter of my year.

image source – internet

What did I do?

Printed flyers and postcards and distributed in every possible corner, where I thought my target customer is.

There were hardly any sales!

Advertised in baby shows and magazines that my target customers read and had good readership.

It was not worth it.

Do you know what was the worse thing that I did? Organise a Facebook giveaway.

It was beyond belief.

All along, I continued to contact my target customer through Facebook, Twitter, through word of mouth and showcased my dresses by meeting people, my friends and also at market stalls.

So what lesson did I learn?

Not all marketing is smart marketing

With no budget for marketing (or for anything else at all), I finally did manage to get sales and would you believe it? A lot of people visit my website daily. (Not obsessed with the latter obviously because I am interested in the actual number of sales).

Direct interaction with potential customers, reviewers, bloggers and meeting customers first hand, helped me sell in the first year.

I therefore do have mixed feelings about my marketing strategy (was there any?) for the first year.

A little bit about tomorrow. What do I want to do?

I want to

- Concentrate on strengthening to build relationships

- Improve my art of telling a story about my hopes and ambitions.

- Develop a brand.

- Visualise my dream of establishing a higher purpose of the brand by giving back to the community.

Read Minor Edition’s original blog post here Any thoughts? What is your top marketing lesson ?

To remind you once again,

I design gorgeous dresses for little girls (2-6 yrs) and sell online to their savvy mums worldwide.

P.S. You can catch me on twitter @minor_edition

Read the original Minor Edition blog post here. What do you think? What kind of marketing choices have you made and learnt from?

Marketing lesson: not all marketing is smart is a post from: JupiterJasper's Marketing Ideaology blog

Day four of our blog competition guest posts – Claire Park of Claire Park Therapies shares her (common) experience in overcoming her dislike of marketing by understanding the difference between advertising and marketing.

The original guidelines for entry are here, read all the featured entries, you could also read about how we chose the winner, or what we learned from running the blogging competition.

Marketing….yuck.

Marketing and I have never really seen eye-to-eye, I never really felt comfortable blowing my own trumpet, so to speak and telling the whole world how wonderful I was.

I guess I had always confused Marketing with Advertising, something that I felt had never really worked for me. Over the years I must have wasted hundreds of pounds on magazine advertising, different internet sites, leaflet distribution, networking….and as my accountant will tell you none of it brought me any business…or at least not enough!

Most therapists are not very good at the business side of things, we are more interested in looking after our clients and being involved in our therapies. We have it drummed into us that the only way to grow our businesses is by word of mouth. This is a bit of a cop out really.

Yes, word of mouth is the most successfull way to build your business but it doesn’t just happen on its own, you need to make it happen.

You cannot be a successful therapist without some business acumen.

On my journey so far I have found that working on the marketing and business side of things actually makes me a better therapist. Now this has really been a bit of a revelation to me – I don’t mind admitting.

The most important thing I have learnt so far in marketing is to be myself, stay true to my core values and get involved in the type of marketing activities that I enjoy.

Yes, I did say, enjoy.

I enjoy connecting and staying in touch with my clients, I enjoy communicating via my blog, I enjoy reaching out to other business leaders via portals such as Twitter, I enjoy meeting up with like-minded women, I enjoy making sure my clients get the absolute most out of their treatments with me.

I no longer worry about Marketing or Advertising as I understand the difference between the two and know that I am already marketing myself just by doing the things I love, consciously and with purpose.

This is an entry into the JupiterJasper Marketing lesson blogging competition.

ClaireParkTherapies provides relaxing Reflexology treatments for busy women who need vital “Me Time” for mind, spirit and body.

Visit Claire’s original post here, and we’d love to hear about whether you have found yourself having a similar experience.

Marketing lesson: talk about what you love is a post from: JupiterJasper's Marketing Ideaology blog

Day three of our blog competition guest posts – first today we have the refreshingly straightforward Sheree Lowe, of Sundowner VA.

The original guidelines for entry are here, read all the featured entries, you could also read about how we chose the winner, or what we learned from running the blogging competition.

I was bullied at school. A lot. A LOT, a lot. I never fit in socially, was a bit more academic than the average (and undiplomatically opinionated with it) and better at sports than most (which makes you cool if you’re male, but not if you’re female).

I pretty much spent my entire childhood and teenage years trying to appear unexceptional in every possible way so as to stay under the radar. I worked hard to hide opinions, thoughts, emotions, tendencies, habits, character traits – just to be able to live a quiet life.

The bullying and self-repression had no negative short- or long-term consequences. That I can remember.

By the time I left school it was simply habit to behave this way, and spent the next ten or so years as an unhappy and unfulfilled employee not living up to any kind of potential (ie, as a PA on £20k – who was a member of Mensa with a first in Classical Latin – and considered by head office incapable of progressing beyond that role). The problem is, you can’t repress your entire self for years without something big happening. Something, as they say, has gotta give. In my case, it was jacking in the job after a hissy fit with said head office with no other job to go to. I found another job though, and did precisely the same with that one, 2 years later – only this time when I jacked it in, I’d been running Sundowner for 3 months.

“I want to break free! I want to breeeeaaaak free!”
The last 18 months since I launched Sundowner has been a process of breaking free of that habitual self-repression and discovering characteristics and qualities I didn’t know I had (for example, I had no idea I was at all creative, thought my social skills were completely non-existent and thought I’d be rubbish leading or talking in front of groups). I still remember turning up to my first networking event in a white collared shirt and grey pencil skirt (if you know me, you’ve probably just wet yourself laughing) – because I thought that’s what a PA/business owner was “supposed” to look like to be taken seriously.

But Camille Jones and Fedde Le Grand proved me wrong.

The Real Me
I still find it incredibly upsetting when someone doesn’t like me – but that’s ok, I’m working on that. But it has taken me 18 months and the support and perception of some lovely, wonderful, insightful and encouraging people I’ve met through networking to be able to feel comfortable saying and believing this:

(*deep breath*)

This is the real me. Take it or leave it.

So is this – but the less said about that one, the better.

My business started to become successful once I accepted this, and little by little began to uncage the Real Me. When you’re pretending to be something you’re not, people can pick up on that and even if you’re not deliberately trying to mislead or deceive, people will have trouble trusting you – the kiss of death for most service-based businesses.

You are your brand
If you’re starting a small business or are self-employed or freelance, you are your brand. It has to be that way. Your personal values and your business’s values are likely one and the same, because when your business is an extension of your heart and is either the manifestation of, or a vehicle towards, your hopes and dreams, you have to believe completely in who you are and what you are doing. You are your greatest selling point, not any service you offer or product you sell – because, let’s face it, we all have loads of direct competitors selling or doing exactly the same thing. I’ve said it before on this blog – I don’t care how unique you think your product or service is, it’s not. What’s different is the person behind it, and ultimately that’s what people are buying.

So let them see you – the real you.

Not like this.

Give as much of yourself as you are comfortable giving without it feeling intrusive. Trust people to love and respect the real you and if they don’t, they’re not the customers or collaborators you want anyway; the relationship will forever be filled with resentment, tension and misalignment of expectations – and who wants that? You went into business to do it YOUR way, to work with the people YOU wanted to work with and do the kind of stuff YOU chose to do, remember?

Sheree is a VA who specialises in ensuring creative, open-minded small business owners build loyal relationships with their customers.

Visit Sheree’s original post here, where you can read the various comments that her post generated. Any thoughts to add of your own experience? Comment below!)

Marketing lesson: the greatest selling tool is you is a post from: JupiterJasper's Marketing Ideaology blog

Day two of our blog competition guest posts – today we have the runner up, Joanne Dewberry of Charlie Moo’s, Networking Mummies. The original guidelines for entry are here, read all the featured entries, you could also read about how we chose the winner, or what we learned from running the blogging competition.

I thought this would be really easy to answer … and I’d be able to write an awesome post on how amazing I am haha!! Not quite!

My biggest marketing lesson hummmm …… Never miss an opportunity!! Always see a way to work your business into a situation.

Everyone knows how much I love twitter for finding great #journorequests there is usually an opportunity for you to promote your business. I sometimes reply to journalists looking for case studies for parenting magazine and ask everso nicely if they will mention Charlie Moo’s. If they say no, I send this image …

Photo by Andrea Pittam

Although Megan is only a baby in it! She is clearly holding a Charlie Moo’s bag and if the image is large enough in magazines/newspapers you can sometimes make out the the name and webaddress. There is also the possibility that they may google Joanne Dewberry and Fabric Bags and viola there we are!

I recently sat reading a Trade Party Suppliers Magazine and was annoyed by a comment made about children’s party ware. So I emailed the editor and left my feedback plus a few lines about myself and Charlie Moo’s. The next day the editor emailed me, after checking out my website. I recently did a phone interview with her and now am appearing in the next edition talking about more eco-friendly children’s parties and they are compiling and A-Z of greener retailers.

No clever PR tricks or paid advertising, just a bit of research and out of the box thinking. You know your business better than anyone your USP and what makes you great!

Never miss an opportunity!

Just to remind you – I’m mummy to 3 lovely children, partner to one bolding man and owner of 3 small businesses.

Charlie Moo’s – specialising in handmade fabric party bags and Charlie Moo branded products
Networking Mummies – support networking for mums in business
www.joannedewberry.co.uk – business mentoring and support

(Visit Joanne’s original post here, where you can read the various comments that her post generated. Do you agree with Joanne? Comment below!)

Marketing lesson: never miss an opportunity is a post from: JupiterJasper's Marketing Ideaology blog

JupiterJasper is featuring some of the entries to our blog competition over the next few days, beginning with the winning blog competition entry, from Sarah Arrow, of Arrow Light Haulage, Same day courier services in Essex. The original guidelines for entry are here, read all the featured entries, you could also read about how we chose the winner, or what we learned from running the blogging competition.

The biggest marketing lesson I have learned so far…is that most marketers don’t listen.

It’s true.

Do you recall a few months back I blogged about the term “haulage”? and how I get a slew of calls relating to selling me something? Because when people search for the term “haulage” rather than the term same day courier (which we wish to be found for), they are looking to sell me a fuel card rather than build a relationship or even understand what our services offer!

I have found over the years I have had similar experiences with marketers; they don’t listen to what your business is about in order to market it.

For example, I recently attended a networking event and got chatting to a marketing expert. When the marketing expert heard what we did he promptly informed me I was missing a very big marketing trick.

“Go on” I asked, curious to what the response would be.
“You need to sign write your vans and advertise on them”.
“Why would I want to do that” I replied, “we do confidential deliveries”.
“You need to do it so you get more business” came the reply back.
“But how do we keep our customers reputation, and deliver in confidence if people know who we are?”
“Oh my is that the time… I have to rush…” gulps wine and rushes off!

Each business, including a courier business has different needs. They reach different customers. We deliver, quietly and confidently for our clients. You may not notice us as we drive sedately past you on the motorway, and that’s the way our customers like it.

My biggest lesson in marketing is listening to what customers and potential customers have to say.

In many cases advertising on vehicles is the right choice for a courier service, but it’s not for all of us. We deliver time sensitive freight and commercial products, quietly and swiftly so you can get on with business. How we market ourselves doesn’t impact on our customers requirements.

Sarah

(Visit Sarah’s original post here, where you can read the various comments that her post generated. Do you agree with Sarah? Feel free to add your comments below)

Marketing lesson: listen to your customers is a post from: JupiterJasper's Marketing Ideaology blog