Here are a few things to keep in mind if you’re going to write your own marketing pieces. First, step back from your business or service and try and see it through the eyes of your ideal patient, customer or client. What problem do they have that you solve? Write to that.

That’s the only thing your marketing should do. Illustrate their problems and challenges and provide your solutions. Remember that we all do more to avoid pain than we do to gain pleasure and good marketing taps into that psychology.

Let’s take a quick look at an example. I wrote a website for a woman who helps people buy cars – particularly for women. When I researched the topic, I learned that women do in fact pay more than men for new cars and they do fear being ripped off and rightfully so; it happens fairly often.

The site owner helps people negotiate car buys all the time, she’ll even do the entire deal for them, so all they have to do is walk in to the dealership, take the car for a spin and sign the paperwork (it’s a pretty cool service). She’s also written a guide that teaches people exactly what they need to know to negotiate like a pro.

She regularly gets great car deals for people (women and men alike) and can almost always save them money. We chose not to focus on the savings, but to make that a secondary point. Instead, we focused the copy to tap into the pain felt by her target audience. That’s their fear of getting ripped off and having to deal with a high pressure salesman who will hype them into spending too much money or making a decision they’re not ready for or. Being helped through the car buying experience and feeling confident and knowledgeable is very compelling for her audience.

Her website speaks to their fear and how she can help her clients avoid it – by educating them, thereby empowering them to get a great deal themselves, or by doing it for them. I’ll say it again, because it’s the lesson here: we did NOT focus on the money savings, but on the fear her clients experience at the car dealership.

She gets great feedback from people who are so relieved to have found her. Clients say that her eBook makes them feel empowered and confident and takes away their fear, hence solving their problem.
Spelling it out clearly gets results. For the business owner AND her clients.

Solve problems and you’ll get more business. You can visit her site at: http://carbuyingsos.com and get her Free Report about getting top dollar for your car when you’re ready to sell it: What You Must Know to Get Your Car Sold.

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Branding.  You hear the term all over the place lately. Corporate Brand. Business Brand. Your Personal Brand. So, why all the buzz about branding and what does it mean for your future and your business?

Brands are part of our everyday lives. Many brands cross cultures and continents, some are unique to certain countries or even regions. For us here in the U.S., what comes to mind when I say tissue? How about “Just Do It” or adhesive bandage?  Kleenex. Nike. Band-Aid.

That’s corporate branding and it’s mostly been brought to us through television, backed up by every kind of media – print, radio, billboards, you name it. I bet if you start thinking about it, you know slogans and jingles for corporate brands as well as you know some of your favorite songs or the national anthem. That’s branding. Burning an identity into our collective consciousness so that the brand has credibility, personality, and the power to make us want it, buy it, use it, buy it again – and best of all: recommend it.

Branding is the visual, emotional, rational, and cultural image that you associate with a company or a product.  Your business has a brand. It’s the sum of everything your organization is, says, and does. You have a brand. It’s your personality, your beliefs, the way you move in the world and present yourself to others. You’ll be reading and hearing more and more about your personal brand this year – how to create it, how to market it, how to use it to identify yourself now and into the future. It’s no longer just for the rich and famous. And, that’s good news for the rest of us!

Branding and brand consistency are critical. Branding is how you become known and identified. Social media has changed the branding game. You can build your own empire based on your branding and your brand can be whatever you choose. Maybe it’s your personality or your humor combined with your product or service offering and how it stands out. If you don’t know what makes you stand out, work on your Unique Selling Proposition – read my article: http://amyposner.com/your-unique-selling-propostion.html

Maybe it’s the quality of service or product you deliver. Maybe you stand for being on time at the best price. Maybe you’re about being on time and charging a premium for it – but you’re worth it and people pay for your reliability and consistency.

Here’s a branding example. The CEO of the online shoe store Zappos is committed to killer customer service. That’s what their brand is built on. It translates into everything they do and the experience you have with their company. Shipping? Free. Return shipping? Free. Have a problem? Call their customer service department and you speak with people empowered to help you, to get the problem solved – not just a phone jockey whose goal is to get off the phone as soon as they possibly can. Their brand speaks volumes – it represents their corporate culture.

Gary Vaynerchuck, renowned entrepreneur (find him at winelibrary.com) is a great example of a personal brand. He’s funny, he’s charismatic, his personality is bigger than life. He’s a straight shooter – he tells it likes it is – some people would call him in-your-face. Some people don’t like him, or follow him because his personality style turns them off. A lot of us like him and trust and respect him. He’s fun, he’s entertaining, he doesn’t pull any punches. He’s the real deal and he’s built a personal brand so strong that now part of what he does is teaches people how to build their personal brand. And, his store Wine Library is in my home town – I’m just sayin’…..

What is your brand? What could it be? How can it set you apart? What would you really love it to be? However you engineer it and position yourself, you want this to be something you’re going to enjoy building and developing. It should be fun and really express who you are. You might feel intimidated – uncertain if you have something to say that’s unique and authentic. You do. Your DNA is yours alone, and we all have something worth saying and worth listening to. Read Gary Vaynerchuck’s book Crush It! to really drill down on your personal brand. It’s a great book, and unlike some others of its’genre, this one motivates and inspires and makes you certain you’ve got what it takes. Build your brand, and look for some great resources coming your way soon.

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What exactly is business development – especially when you’re a one or two-person shop? It’s funny how topics run in gangs – seems everywhere I turn the last week or two I’m reading about business development and time organization. Or is that my awareness is tuned there at the moment, so I’m paying more attention and it’s been everywhere all along?

I know there’s a cosmic law at work here, just not sure which one…if you know, please tell me…. My coach and I spent some time on this last week – by the way, having a coach is a major highlight of my 2010 business world. I’m writing a series on accountability for a client at the moment, and while it seems obvious that is a good thing, I think it’s something that those of us who are disciplined and have worked for ourselves for a long time  think (maybe) we don’t need. Fresh eyes and insight are brilliant. Other people (well, talented people with the right skills…) can see things about us and our businesses which we just can’t, or won’t. But, I digress.

The bottom line question is this: what are you actually doing every day? Business-wise that is.  What activities are you engaged in and what do they do for your bottom line – now and in the future? Are you allowing time for the learning, reflecting and planning that will allow you to take your business to the next level? Importantly, do you know what that next level is?

When you’re the proverbial chief cook and bottle washer, it’s easy to spend all your time in the areas that bring in the money right now and less time on the things that, if you paid attention to them today, would make you much more money down the road. And perhaps more easily as well.

Because two really great blogs showed up in my email box today on just these topics, I’m going to share those articles with you and recommend you read:

http://zenhabits.net/2010/02/kill-busywork/ which is a great guest post by Michael Stainer of http://www.boxofcrayons.biz/

And then check out: http://www.productiveflourishing.com/free-planners/ and read some very simple, elegant ideas about the art of meaningful action, combined with some great free tools about how to get that meaningful action accomplished.

Let me know what you think, and more importantly, let them know. Go get ‘em.

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