Re-runs

When something is good it always deserves a second (third, fourth…) viewing. I will happily sit through re-runs of Frasier, Friends & other classic TV shows. And I’m not sure I can count how many times I’ve watched Star Wars—especially now I’ve got my small people into the way of the Force!

I appreciate that not everything is worth repeating, but when you have a process or a system or a marketing campaign that works do a re-run. And then another re-run until it stops working!

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What time is it?

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What time is the right time to start being a business celebrity? What time is the best time to launch a new product or service? What time is it?

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Are you asking the right questions?

It’s always good to ask questions if you’re stuck—after all, you’re not likely to get an answer if you don’t ask a question. But make sure you’re asking the right questions.

And if you’re not sure what the right questions are then find someone who will challenge you so you’ll ask questions you didn’t even know needed answering.

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Ban the brochure speak! (& 10 tips on how to avoid it)

I can’t stand brochure speak.

You know that beautifully crafted tidy copy that is full of neat words and clever phrases and lots of ‘we’: “Jargon jargon jargon ‘we’ do this and we’ve been doing this for 1000 years and we are the best…”

That is brochure speak. And you’ll find it out and about not just in brochures but it lurks on websites and flyers and adverts and sales & marketing materials across the land.

Here are 10 tips to avoid it!

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Don’t underestimate what you already know

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We all do it.

We think that we ‘don’t know much’, or that we only know ‘what everyone else knows’. This is the blight of ‘common sense’ :)

Sometimes it takes a new situation, a meeting in a new context, or simply being asked the right questions, for you to realise what you DO know and that it IS of value and that YOUR common sense isn’t everyone else’s.

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The Business of Helping

Most businesses are in the business of ‘helping’–helping other businesses, helping people, helping society, helping the world, some kind of ‘helping’ is usually the result of what they do. Whether that’s helping with a product, system or service… it’s usually there to ‘solve a problem’.

So why is this important to understand? In Marketing terms, it’s important that you absolutely know and can demonstrate the ‘problem’ that you solve and how you ‘help’.

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