The biggest killer of following your passion is the need for income. You must be mindful that the need to earn money can skew your passion. It can introduce many tasks that you don’t like, let alone love. You can’t create what you are passionate about without this tension and you can’t a create change without the fear that you may fail. Failure must be embraced. Fear must be faced.

However, doing something you love will make you work harder at it, but that alone doesn’t mean you have a viable business. Hard work, ultimately, has to meet with the right opportunities, and that’s where a good marketing plan comes in, allowing purpose to meet a solid business foundation.

My own small business journey has taught me innumerable lessons from making a living out of pursuing my passion and doing something that I am skilled at doing, for an identifiable niche market that needs my help. As Confucius said, “choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

Here are some questions that will help you determine what is the right path for you:

1. Understand what you are great at?

This is no time to be humble. What’s something you’re amazing at? Do you have great practical and technical skills? Do you create great writing? Do you love finance and spreadsheets? Do you have great pitch ideas? Are you great at organising events? While answering this question think about all the things you are great at but seem to do easily.  We think that when it comes easily to us that everyone can do it, but that is not always true. Easy to do skills are good skills too.

In my case, marketing and coaching is a process, that requires practical, systematic, structural, and analysis skills, that are hard work. Marketing also requires a creative, ideas mindset. Those two traits are not often found equally in one person but luckily I have both.

2. What are you great at that you love to do?

Coaching was always the favourite activity of my previous corporate management roles. Are there tasks within roles you have had in the past, that you remember as fulfilling? What activities do you now do where you completely lose track of time? What are the first things you do on your to-do-list when you know that there are other priorities to be done. Chances are that these are the activities that you love to do. Be warned though, ‘love can be blind’ so make sure you attend to the following items: market and margin.

3. Does a market need it?

You can never assume that what you love to do will be loved by a market. Identifying the ideal customer for your passion activity and careful research is essential before going into business. Understand what troubles your potential customer and what makes their life difficult. What are they doing as a result of these problems to find a solution? Could you deliver that solution?

Are there good examples of successful businesses in your chosen field? Understand how you are different or unique to their offering. When I started out I was very clear that business’ needed to be authentic and unique, so I researched other business’ who thought the same. They weren’t in the same marketing subject matter area that I was, but I learnt a lot from how they approached the market place and how to differentiate myself.

4. What price will that market pay you?

Your initial research should uncover whether there are buyers willing to pay a premium for products or services that involve significant skill and expertise? As a small business you need to make good margins and be able to pay yourself a wage. When I started my business I made the same mistake that many, charging what I thought the market would bear. It was experience that showed me that I was initially helping people who charged the same rate as me to then make much more income, so I addressed this by increasing my fees.  Now I see the right people making a commitment to their successful marketing and coaching relationship because they value me more.

5. Are you prepared to be uncomfortable, both physically and mentally?

I tell my clients, if you want to be successful and make a real contribution, you have to be intrinsically motivated by what you do, and you have to gain satisfaction from expending your effort on it. When you have a small business you must be prepared to be uncomfortable, and to be challenged both physically and mentally. As I said earlier: Failure must be embraced and fear must be faced. Having a small business is hard work but it is intrinsically rewarding.

My final word: Passion is important. Passionately believing in your yourself, your product/service and vision makes it easier to put in all the hours you need to start your own business and grow it. But you need to suspend your passion when you’re trying to decide the what, where, and the how of creating a business.

Choose to start a small business based on what you love and identifying something that doesn’t already exist. Success could be yours if you choose something related to your skills and interests that your ideal customers are going to love and like enough to pay you for. If you take a leap of faith – success might be waiting around the corner for you.

As always, I love to hear your thoughts on the subject – so, please leave a comment below?

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the Boss Lady and Chief Coach of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to create their authentic marketing and brand message, attract more ideal customers and create a marketing plan to achieve success. Visit my website for free resources and subscribe for e-News updates on all topics related marketing.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Finding your ideal customer

Have you defined your ideal “customer”? If you haven’t, you will be attempting to be all things to all people, including those people who don’t really know what they need and those who waste their’s and your time. Not all customers are created equal, you will be surprised to learn.

Your business cannot serve every customer profitably. You need to invest your limited resources attracting those customers who bring you the most value and who you can satisfy their needs easily with your normal business strengths and competencies. And you need results from your marketing efforts which take time and resources away from the actual ‘doing’ of your business.

So how do you define your best customer? We can begin with examining the needs of your most loyal customers, either when dealing with them, calling them or doing an email survey. You can use your business data to identify which customers spend the most, use your satisfaction surveys to know which are happiest because they tell you and tell their friends. In a nutshell, loyal customers use the broadest range of your business offerings, purchase on a regular, repeated basis and provide the best profit margins.

Identifying customer needs and concerns

Your next challenge will be to understand why these customers have chosen your product or service. Which of their needs and wants have you been able to successfully meet?

If you have frontline staff, ask those people who know your customers best. Part of this process, is finding out as much as you can about how your customer’s business works and how your products and services met their needs and in what context.  Who makes the purchasing decisions and who influences it? How long is the buying cycle from initial identification of needs to purchase decision? What information do they need to do that and when?

Your best sources of data will be your customers themselves. There are a number of ways to engage customers in a dialogue to learn why and how they buy. Simple two-way dialogue directly with current customers, via social media platforms, establishing users’ groups, customer e-newsletters or interviewing customers for case studies, articles; and conducting surveys or focus groups.

Compare customer needs to your strengths

The reality is that 80 percent of your customers buy from you for one major, or no more than three major or minor reasons. What are they and how well do those reasons match your business strengths and competencies?

Beware though, as one customer’s perception of their needs being satisfied, may be different to another. It’s important to know which is which, and for whom. Test all your assumptions.

In the course of this analysis what matters, however, is what your best customers think and feel. If something is important to them, then it’s an important benefit. Once those benefits have been identified, you should be nurturing them, refining your ability to deliver them and promoting them to other potential customers.

By defining your ideal customers’ needs, their buying behaviour and their benefits, it will help you determine the best marketing message and your most cost effective marketing promotions. If you want to make marketing easier and more effective, please contact me and let me help you through the process of identifying your ideal customer, differentiating your strengths, and creating a clear benefit focussed message that you can communicate clearly and consistently.

As always, I love to hear your thoughts on the subject – so, please leave a comment below?

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the Boss Lady and Chief Coach of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to create their authentic marketing and brand message, attract more ideal customers and create a marketing plan to achieve success. Visit my website for free resources and subscribe for e-News updates on all topics related marketing.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

A logo is a graphic representation of your business purpose and it’s very useful for tying together the look and feel of your business communications and website.  A brand, however is the foundation of your entire marketing strategy framework; the head and heart relationship between your business and your customers; what those customers think and feel when they experience your business.

What elements come first? A graphic designer will tell you that the logo comes first and the branding is how people interact with your business. Frankly, I think this is rubbish and the reason why small businesses often waste their money and are not happy with the design results they end up with.

A designer will say the brand is shaped by the customer, which is very true. But a marketing expert like myself, would say the embryo of the brand is shaped by the small business owner before they even talk to a designer.

Simply, your brand starts with you, your values, your vision for what you and your service or products are going to do for a customer market. Defining that customer market is crucial to defining your brand.

Your brand is also your marketing message but only if your marketing message is a customer centric benefits statement.

To create your marketing message you do have to consider your competition and analyse what makes you unique; and how you want to position yourself, or differentiate your business from your competitors.

Your brand is the essence of you, it’s your business culture and it’s your reputation. These are decisions you take before developing a logo. If you don’t have a clear message to a well defined customer market, you won’t be able to instruct a designer to get the best logo design.

The development and evolution of your brand is what good marketing is. It is the conscious actions you take to reach out to your potential customers with an offer that speaks to them individually, about what only you can do for them. This is so important now, because capturing those individual customers attention is increasingly difficult as ‘content’ marketing reaches our minds saturation level.

It starts with you and your customer; and creating that message that answers the question ‘what can you do for me’? That ‘what’ is the benefits that capture their hearts and their minds.

Shoes of Prey are an example of a successful Australian brand that captures the hearts and minds of their customers; after their very first campaign targeted the wrong customer market, they haven’t put a foot wrong.

For many of us, creating a clear message and an awesome brand is not easy. It can be hard work to create a positive perception in your chosen customer marketplace. The best way to do this is through a carefully crafted marketing message. Your brand can then continue to build through each positive customer experience and referral.

Zenworkz Marketing can help you get from where you are now to a crystal clear marketing message and strong brand. We start by deciding who your ideal customer is, how messages will reach them and how to craft the message benefit so they resonate with your potential customer. Once we have a consistent, cohesive benefit marketing message, all other marketing decisions become easy, from website content to advertising; and will deliver new customer sales. Want to find out more: please contact me and let me help you through the process of creating a clear message that you can communicate clearly and consistently.

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the Boss Lady and Chief Coach of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to create their authentic marketing and brand message, attract more ideal customers and create a marketing plan to achieve success. Visit my website for free resources and subscribe for e-News updates on all topics related marketing.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

This is a task of reflection or review and the following questions will help you to focus your 6 months plan.

1. What assumptions have I made about my business for the next 6 months?

A quick look through the key activities from the last plan will remind you what you’ve achieved (and importantly should celebrate!). This reinforces the ty overall vision or purpose and business goals you are pursuing. While your marketing tactics may change depending on the prevailing market conditions, the reasons you are in business should not.

By reaffirming your business values and goals you will ensure you’re focused on marketing tactics that will attract your ideal customer and achieve your business outcomes in the year ahead.

In a nut shell, review:

• Your pricing and make sure you are charging what what you are worth.
• Your customer value proposition to ensure it justifies a profitable price for your goods and/ or services.
• Whether you are adding value to customers at each step of the selling process.
• Areas for professional development, that are so easy to overlook when you are a small business.
• Technology investments, hardware and software upgrades, reference books, further education and attendance at future networking events.

2. What insights do I have about my customers from their buying habits and direct feedback?Continuously gathering data about your customers and asking questions; and keeping a record of those insights will enable you to maximise your marketing time and expenditure.

In a nut shell:

• Has your target customer market changed?
• Is your marketing collateral still talking to your target customer market in the right way?
• If you don’t know, ask them! Do a quick survey of your best customers, they will tell you whether your marketing collateral is working. If you’ve recently introduced a new product or service, you may be appealing to new customers, so your marketing tactics will need to reflect that.

Am I attracting the customers I want and enjoy dealing with?

Are you still enjoying what you do? If aspects of your business caused moments of despair in the last 6 months, think about what was actually happening to cause this and whether there are options to change this.

“There are no tricky secrets to marketing success, but I can predict a waste of time and money, if you try to promote to everyone”.

In a nut shell:

• Identify and focus your time and resources on your most profitable products and/or services.
• Focus and target the customers you enjoy dealing with, who are the most profitable.
• Provide simple, cost effective promotions to those customers.

Which of my products and/or services are most or least profitable?

It’s important to review how you’re tracking financially. What was your half yearly income, what was your half yearly expenditure?  What actions and tactics worked for you and what didn’t.  Could you do things more efficiently or more effectively, will that improve my product or services profitability?

In a nut shell:

• Analyse your capacity, revenue, overheads, income and profit to improve your productivity.
• Focus your attention, efforts and process to achieve your goals for excellent customer satisfaction and financial success.

Where is my marketing being most effective and how do I know this?

This is where you need to look at return on investment, of both dollars and time. What is the 20% of your marketing promotion that drives 80% of your results?

Website analytics, and social media insights can be used to evaluate what has been working and what has not. Some promotions might just need a little tweaking to get better results, rather than being scrapped altogether, so if there are positive results, focus first on trying to maximise those results. Which social media channels are giving you the best customers and if you are time poor, focus on being the best in one or two rather than being everywhere.

In a nut shell:

• Put systems in place to help you focus on the 20% that is working.
• Outsource your time wasting or ‘don’t want to do it’ activities.
• Use your precious marketing promotions for tactics that results in income.

Am I measuring the right things to make good decisions about my business health and growth opportunities?

If you can easily answer the above questions then you are well on track. But looking externally, has the business landscape changed? Are there any new competitors you should be aware of? Things move fast in today’s business world, so the chances are you are not playing in the same field as you were six months ago. Perhaps take the time to do a full S.W.O.T. analysis to make sure you are not missing a vital input that will help you be even more successful or at the very least be prepared for a major market change.

Once you’ve reviewed these 6 questions, write down a list of things you need to adapt and fine-tune. Are there any new ideas that you can apply to your business in the next 6 months.

In a nutshell:

• Focus on achieving one major goal in the next 6 months.
• Create monthly sub-goals.
• Then create minimum weekly goals.

We all need to embrace change to thrive and grow. By taking the time to answer the 6 marketing questions, you can ensure you are heading in the right direction.

I’d love to hear from you and if you think your friends/network would find this useful, please share it with them – I’d really appreciate it.

About the author: Teresa Bassham is a Marketing Coach and Director of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing. Teresa is passionate about helping small businesses create the right marketing, find the right customers; and achieve transformational results.

If you would like free how-to-do-it-yourself marketing resources or to subscribe to free e-news about all things marketing, please visit the website:

http://www.zenworkz.com/

For daily marketing tips and references, connect to our fabulous community on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

All or parts of this blog are able to be published with permission from the author – provided that the author is acknowledged and a link is given to the original source blog.

This blog is original content influenced by years of experience within the Australian small business culture and may not be applicable to other countries small business cultures.

Yes, I call this a strength because it is needed to change what is not working.

My customers also come with the belief that no one else could possibly be stuffing it up like they are and some are really surprised to find that most service based businesses suffer from similar challenges. If I could generalise about those challenges, I would say that they are prioritised so:

1. Believing that you can do everything yourself. Often with no one else to delegate to small business entrepreneurs must perform every aspect of running their business. But the reality is you simply can’t do it all yourself and if you are, something else is suffering, be it your relationship, family/children care, or 9 times out of 10 – it’s yourself.
2. Failure to define a viable niche market and really understand that market place, your ideal customers and your customers’ purchase habits. Which then leads to a poorly communicated marketing message.
3. Failure to price your services or products correctly. This relates to the clarity of information from point 2: what does your ideal customer view as ‘value’, as opposed to price. However, what I see sometimes that is far worse, is a person pricing their service on how much they value themselves.
4. Failure to measure cash flow regularly and anticipate adequately. For most small businesses suppliers require immediate payment of goods, which means large amounts of cash outgoing. There will be a gap in reimbursement for anything sold on credit, leaving you seriously cash-strapped unless you are monitoring carefully. Even service businesses that don’t purchase products, have expenses that must be paid regularly, which leads me to the next point.
5. Most begin their business with inadequate cash reserves. As it is currently almost impossible for a small business to borrow money in Australia, ideally you should anticipate a call on cash reserves, either through carrying a credit card debt, family loan or your savings, as a foundation to carry you through until you start making a profit that can pay you a living wage.
6. Failure to anticipate and react to competition, technology and changes in your marketplace. The GFC is a perfect example of changes that happened in 2008, that continue to affect businesses and consumers across the world. Even though there were lots of commentary that it was going to happen, many didn’t pay attention and now, we are all paying the price for that inattention. As you may be super busy doing points 1, 2, 3, and 4, it can be easy to not notice that things around you are changing and respond accordingly.

What the hell can you do? To begin with, contract professionals like bookkeepers, accountants, and assistants, to help you in the effective management and operation of your business. Why: Re-read points 1, and 4. While you have bags of enthusiasm, service skills,  knowledge and intelligence, you still can’t be expert in every aspect of running a business. If ‘you’ are the service component of your business, your time only stretch’s so far in earning needed income. Change your thinking that getting help is about parting with hard-earned income, rather an investment in professional help that allows you to focus your attention on the things you do best, usually the things you really like to do.

You should also seriously consider engaging a coach. Ask a successful small business person and most will tell you that a coach has helped them be more successful. A marketing coach can help you with points 2, 3 and 6; and with having a strategic approach, creating goals, objectives and strategies for marketing your business that will keep you focused, and help you make the right business decisions in the future.

Coaches have the insight and expertise of the many small business customers who have struggled before you. Look for coaches who have:

• defined their niche market,
• communicate their unique message clearly,
• understand and market to you,
• have marketing and technology savvy,
• are appropriately qualified and well rated by their customers.

If they have launched their own small business, you know they understand the challenges and struggles of being an entrepreneur.  A coach can reassure you that even the most successful small businesses have been where you are and had the same struggles you have today.

Do you struggle, do any of these challenges resonate with you? I would love to hear what you are doing to change what’s not working for you?

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the Boss Lady and Chief Coach of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to create their authentic marketing and brand message, attract more ideal customers and create a marketing plan to achieve success. Please contact me if you would like help reaching the right customers online. Visit my website for free resources and subscribe for e-News updates on all topics related marketing.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Inspiration or being inspired is the energy which helps push us to do big things. It can come in so many ways – inspiring people, music, books or simply being in nature. No matter what form it takes for you, inspiration is what moves us to dream bigger, motivates us to plan action and push us out of our comfort zone; to learn or achieve something meaningful or worthwhile. Inspiration can be that little motivating push we need to turn an idea into an action.

When engaging in complex tasks as small business owners, we’re often motivated by our need for autonomy, mastery and meaningful purpose. Here are three things you can do to express your inspiration and stay motivated:

1. Have an open, inquiring mind. Learn something new, even if it’s not related to your business. You will be surprised how pumped you will feel through the process of learning and how that will affect everything you do.
2. Open your eyes and open your ears. Unplug from the connected world. Leave your phone at home when you go for a walk, go to a dance class, listen to the music in the cafe and take in your surroundings – some of the best inspiration is outside your office and home!
3. Engage with people by telling your inspirational story. Almost everyone wants to connect, so involve your customers and fans. They have a yearning to learn from you, to translate your achievements into lessons of their own, to adapt pieces of your story and re-imagine them into something that works for them. Listen to what people who inspire you have done, how they’ve done it and how you can learn from their mistakes and successes.

When you’ve discovered what inspires you, it’s time to use it as motivation! Leverage the feeling you get when you experience these inspiring things. Does it make you want to start that research? Does it make you want to learn a new skill? Does it make you want to try different business approaches and write a plan?

Often what motives and inspires us is the progress we have made in our own business and customer feedback of the good work we have done. Whatever your sources of inspiration are telling you, write them down. Use a mind-map, and dream big. Map the ideas that your sources of inspiration are pointing to. These are values and energy sources that are important to you, that motivate and drive you to excel in an authentic and aligned business.

Finally, by understanding what inspires and motivates your clients and customers, it will help you energise their creativity and drive.

I would love to know where your sources of inspiration and motivation come from?

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the Boss Lady and Chief Coach of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to create their authentic marketing and brand message, attract more ideal customers and create a marketing plan to achieve success. Please contact me if you would like my help. Visit my website for free resources and subscribe for e-News updates on all topics related marketing.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Do we need more than a positive attitude to be successful? The short answer is Yes. But I do believe that the action of working strategically on your business can radically alter the positive effectiveness of your mind and therefore have a positive effect on your business.

This occurs because: You are challenging your mind

Neuroscience has now proven the old saying “use it or lose it”. In the process of working strategically on your business, your mind is productively learning new skills. The benefits of increased mind function is an elevation in feelings of positivity, that more things are achievable or possible.

Begin with the end in mind 

To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination or purpose. To know where you are headed, is to better understand where you are right now and what steps will be needed to continue in the direction for positive results.  With my coaching clients, I foster a mindset of outcomes focus and optimised marketing, that will help create solutions, and not keep you stuck in the problems of your business.

Reflection is the key to changing mindset

The process of finding quiet time for reflecting on your current business situation and the negative responses that comes up, provides insight about what you need to change. Through coaching, you can work on a positive mindset combined with effective marketing, because it will in the end, be 80% of your success in business.

Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story

The mind must believe it can do something before it is capable of actually doing it. By being aware of your personal self-talk, your thoughts, and being honest about your current situation through analysis, and changing your focus through answering questions about yourself and your business – it’s amazing what insights you will gain.

Without awareness and giving yourself an opportunity to examine your business and learn new skills, you’re not likely to be able to do something about your business situation. If you don’t like the results you are getting, if you aren’t achieving your business goals, then knowing yourself, your strengths, and what you’ve been doing in the past to influence that situation is key. A structured process will reveal both personal and marketing barriers to business success. It helps you take control of what you can control.

There is no need for unconscious or disengaged marketing in 2014. Smart businesses make conscious, mindful marketing a part of their daily working lives.

Remember, if we’re unable to learn about ourselves, how we work and maximise our strengths, how are we to help ourselves excel at the business we have chosen?

I’d love to know your thoughts?

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the Boss Lady and Chief Coach of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to create their authentic marketing and brand message, attract more ideal customers and create a marketing plan to achieve success. Please contact me if you would like help reaching the right customers online. Visit my website for free resources and subscribe for e-News updates on all topics related marketing.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Whether you’re creating a marketing pitch for advertising, your website ‘about’ section, or that long thought about recipe book, the process requires a deft and precise touch.

A poorly written marketing pitch can result in confusion, wasted marketing costs and effort, not to mention a disappointed crowd of hungry tummies and even a touch of kitchen rage.

It’s the most important message that a business needs to get right, which is why I have triple tested my recipe; and why I am revealing some of my marketing pitch writing tips to you.

Any recipe consists of a clear description (or purpose), a list of ingredients, and a preparation method for creating a tasty result.

Starting with a List of Ingredients. The list of ingredients is the key for achieving the most flavoursome results. The list must clear and enticing, aimed at your perfect customers; titillating their tastebuds and getting them to want more. Customers are looking for a unique blend of strong values, creative juices, and authentic sauce.

You know you have something that customers would benefit from, that would really help them or that they might even need. If they don’t want what is in your list of ingredients, you with struggle to sell it. We all have needs for food, shelter, security, but it’s the ‘wants’ that drive our consumption behaviour. Getting from ‘I need’ to “I want but also need” is the true test of your tasty marketing pitch.

It’s good to build your marketing pitch from a base to achieve the right balance of flavours and correct Preparation Method. We need to experiment with customers ‘wants’ to get the right balance, so that they complement instead of overpower each other. Don’t overcomplicate your pitch – less is more! Too many options can put people off. Keep your marketing pitch simple.

Here are 3 questions that will help you to create your tasty marketing pitch:

What is the customer problem you are solving? What information do you have from research or customer insight that clearly defines their problem (that your service or product solves). Your research must enable you to communicate your solution as what you provide, using your customers language. If you are thinking that your service or product doesn’t solve a problem, a “want” is still a ‘problem’ to be solved, whether it’s wanting a piece of handmade jewelry, a painting, or a service that simply makes your customer feel good about themselves.

What is the clear customer benefit? Your research must enable you to measure your “most important customer benefit”. The Preparation Method defines how will you deliver your solution? Consider the scenarios in which your perfect customer is most likely to purchase your service or product; and how they interact with your service or product pitch, your informational messages and content.

What are the values and beliefs that compel you to solve their problem? Tell your authentic story. A clear benefit will grab your perfect customer’s attention, but a story will powerfully hold their attention. The story needs to be one that they will naturally relate to because they will feel it will be about ‘them’. Weave your tasty marketing pitch through your story to align your customer wants with their needs. Remember, that customers buy from people they know, like, and trust; and building that trust begins with your authentic story.

Finally, the recipe ends with ‘what is it that you want them to do’? A tasty marketing pitch must have a clear call to action.

A tasty marketing pitch, a powerful story, and enduring customer relationships will create continuous business value. Meeting customer expectations requires research, data, good process and constant review to ensure you continue to meet changing wants and needs. Over time, these customers will become your best marketing advocates and promoters, making marketing so much simpler.

A Final Note: You must test your tasty marketing pitch’s to make sure they work, the ingredients entice and the story resonates, and that they are as digestible as you intend.

Do you have a secret recipe for your marketing? Please feel free to leave a comment or question below.

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the Marketing Coach of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to create their marketing pitch’s and brand message, attract more customers and create an action plan to achieve success.  She coaches customers via Skype and by phone – if you would like to request coaching – please contact.

Most importantly, any marketing activity you undertake will be made vastly more effective if the following key components are solid and in place:

Knowledge of your target customer: Knowing your target customer helps you to determine where’s the best place to spend your limited funds. Start by understanding:

• Do you know what they need or want what you sell?
• How do they search for your product or service?
• Who and where do they seek recommendations or word of mouth referrals about your products or services from?

A compelling, unique marketing message and offer: What makes your message unique is your story, your business purpose, and your values.  What make your message compelling is that it is customer centric – it speaks to the customers “hot button” that your service or product serves as a necessary part of their life or business. It must tap into the emotional hooks: looking good, feeling good, being successful, rewarding themselves – think Maslow’s highest needs. And check out my free marketing resources on www.zenwork.com to help you create a compelling marketing message.

With your target customer knowledge, your unique message and offer, there are many low cost marketing options available. Think of your marketing effort like a giant spider web. The more touch points of intersection, connected media platform elements, and spread or reach, you can create, the more effective you will be at connecting and engaging your target customer with your marketing message.

Let’s take a look at some low cost ways you may be able to market your business on a minimum budget:

Build awareness where your target customers are: Once you know your target customer, it becomes easier (plus more time and cost effective) to target your offer or message directly to them. The key is, potential customers need to receive information about you from many different sources and the more you crop up in their awareness, it increases the likelihood that they will consider your offer.

Use as many free media platforms as you have time for: The caveat here is return on your investment of time. When you know your customer, you then know what social media, networking events, keyword searches that they use, so you can confidently know that your marketing effort will be fruitful. The key here is to only spend time on marketing through social media that are frequented by your target customer. If you have limited time, identify the best platform and become an expert in it’s use. But make sure you are in all free industry specific directories like Google Places and Local Directories.

Competitions: Offering competitions on your website via a social media platform could send a lot more traffic your way from your existing customers and encourage signups to your email list from potential customers. You don’t need to give away anything big or expensive: if the prizes are small, most people think they’ve got a better chance of winning.

Stay Local: Don’t forget the local newspaper (yes, people do still scan them) for two sources of information, one is research about what other people and local business’ are doing in your area for potential sales leads; and also as an opportunity to tell your local area what your successful business is doing. Make sure that you submit media releases regularly, it’s a great opportunity for free advertising in your local area.

Build an email newsletter subscriber database: The value of any small business is the number of actual and potential customers you have.   Email, if done well, can be a very effective engagement and selling tool. Of course, you need to have the mechanism to attract existing and potential customers to sign up for your newsletter, e-zine, blog or other content. Building an email subscriber database can be a smart return on investment for your time.

Don’t skimp on good website design: Think of your website as a ‘home for your business’ and behave accordingly. You wouldn’t build a home without researching the most effective design, the best value builder and effective materials, so why would you use a free platform to build it yourself (unless you really know what you are doing), and deliver a substandard, hard to optimise home for your business. Understand search engine optimsation (SEO) before engaging a website builder or designer – there is no shortage of free and useful information on the internet.

Create a Blog: If you like to write, are an artist or a photographer with work to show, then creating a blog is a great way to gain interest, engagement and leadership in your field. It does take time to generate good and regular content but the rewards of building your credibility, increasing SEO and building your brand make it worth the effort.

Ask for recommendations: Ask customers who are happy with your product or service for recommendations, a testimonial or to write a review. Other customers will be positively influenced by seeing people they know and respect, support and recommend you. Even if you don’t have a website yet, you can place your reviews or testimonials on your brochures, emails or social media platforms.

Build a network of contacts: Business networking is perfect for this. Develop relationships first to demonstrate the value you bring. Leverage those relationships in a win/win way to build a referral program and remember it’s important to follow up leads or contact with people after meeting them. Through this built network of contacts, offer freebies and valuable information but ask for something in return – a written review or testimonial; and offer to do the same for people in your network.

As you can imagine I see lots of examples of wasted effort and funds, because confusion leads a small business to try every kind of marketing without really thinking it through. Marketing doesn’t have to cost a fortune and there are many ways to maximise what you do spend and make it work better for your business.

I’d love to know what actions you will now be taking from reading this? Please leave a comment below?

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the Zenworkz Authentic Marketing coach, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to create their authentic marketing and brand message, attract more customers and create a marketing plan to achieve success. Please contact me if you would like help simplyfing your marketing. Visit my website for free resources and subscribe for e-News updates on all topics related marketing.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

So, how do we find enough time to market our businesses online?

Sounds like a time management blog, doesn’t it. But in all of my experience as a coach, traditional methods of time management don’t really work in today’s over-stimulated environment, what I see are people becoming firstly, overwhelmed; and secondly, stop being strategic about online marketing.

The first lesson is, there is never enough time. And when you understand that, you can start thinking strategically about the use of your time.

All time is relative. According to The Doctor: “People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint – it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly … time-y wimey… stuff”. Ergo: time flies or drags depending on what you’re doing – whether you are enjoying or not – we know that is right. 

And that is the key to managing time for anything that is an important goal in your life, is that it exists in your “wibbly wobbly … time-y wimey” mind. You can create it. You can get up at 5am and go to the gym! You can leave work at 5pm to pick up the kids and devote time to them! You can find time to think like your customer and create marketing that works!

It’s time (pun intended) to remove any self doubt or limitations you have around “not having enough time,” or it not being “the right time” to manage your current online marketing effectively. Here are the “wibbly wobbly … time-y wimey” steps:

Regain control of your marketing time through a review

Just like a Dietitian would advise if you were trying to improve your diet: Carry a diary and record all your marketing activities for a week. This will help you understand how much you can get done during the course of any working day and where your precious time is going. You’ll see how much time is actually spent marketing and producing results; and how much time is wasted.

Create a Goal to maximise your marketing time

As I have stated before: time is a thief in social media world without a clear purpose or goal for your efforts! Schedule blocks of time every working day for high-priority actions. I make a point to schedule at least one hour every working morning to marketing activities that lead to income (note: before looking at emails or social media!). Then, I take the next 30 minutes to plan the rest of my day. It’s important to not let yourself be interrupted until you complete your daily time plan.

If you work from home like I do, it is very easy to be interrupted, so put up a “Do Not Disturb” sign when you absolutely have to get online marketing work done. Practice not answering the phone and checking e-mails during this time.  It requires discipline at first, but you can make it a habit, just like that early morning workout.

Use tools to reach multiple platforms and to engage more easily

If you can’t afford to engage an Assistant or VA to help you, there are many low cost platform and App solutions to maximise your marketing time investment. I provided more detailed information recently here.

What I see every day is small businesses making their marketing more and more complex by thinking that they need to keep up with online marketing developments. I don’t really see it working that well for them. However, you can choose to make online marketing more simple, and more targeted, saving yourself time with a focus on clear purpose and goals aimed at engaging the right customers and bringing increasing income to your business.

Finally, remember that it’s impossible to get everything done and celebrate that there will be low priority actions that will never be done (perhaps until you have the income to hire an Assistant).  But, remember the 80:20 Rule. The odds are good that the achievement of a clearly focused 20 percent of your priority activities will produce 80 percent of your results.

If you feel like sharing your own online marketing issues in the comments I’d love to discuss them.

About the author: Teresa Bassham is Chief Coach of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to create their authentic marketing and brand message, attract more ideal customers and create a marketing plan to achieve success. Please contact me if you would like help reaching the right customers online. Visit my website for free resources and subscribe for weekly e-News updates on all topics related marketing.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing