success
1,070 posts
The Long Way Round
In most situations if there’s a shortcut we’re tempted to take it. It’s human nature to conserve energy and take the most efficient route from point A to point B. This makes the business of selling hard, because we are naturally impatient to see signs of success and to avoid nagging doubts about the
What Your Marketing Needs More Of
Think of a person you love to be around, someone you have rich and satisfying conversations with. It’s likely your conversations are a two-way exchange including acknowledgement, pauses and even moments of silence. Compare that to how we market to customers. We know that the best conversations make
Doing Is Underrated
The customer you could follow up with. The survey waiting to be sent. The product you could trial. The colleague yet to be contacted. The copy you could test. The important observation you might take action on. Each one is an opportunity to learn something that could change everything. The GoPro sta
Where’s Your Magic?
The long Sunday morning croissant line at Lune moves slowly and never gets any shorter. Not a single person in the queue complains or shoots a frustrated glance at the time that is clearly slipping by. The servers work slowly, carefully boxing each pastry as if it were made of porcelain. All the whi
Good To Do Vs. Right To Do
The brand new billboard spanned the four lanes of the freeway that led to the airport. The location was obviously a strategic move, given that the company being advertised was in the travel business. The gorgeous image of a lone traveller in the wilderness had likely been painstakingly chosen by the
Where Your Brand Story Ends
Like the gym in my city you can invest time, energy and considerable resources into telling your story. But the stories your customers tell are what tomorrow’s customers are paying attention to. Your brand story ends where their stories begin. The question might not always be, “how many people can w
Changing Minds And The Decision Timeline
When was the last time you switched brands? The reality is we mostly make decisions on autopilot and we don’t often change our minds. When change happens it doesn’t happen in an instant—however hopeful we as marketers might be that it does. We know for example, that the transition to bottled water d
Where Your Story Starts
The question we mostly try to address when we set out to tell our business or product story is what we want the customer to know about our brand. The better place to begin is by understanding what the customer wants to believe about herself and where our brand could potentially fit into her story.…
First Impressions Vs. Lasting Impact
“What’s that new cafe like?” asked a business colleague from out of town. His question got me thinking about how much a negative response from a single customer could cost a business. What’s the lasting impact of a one bad experience? We can invest time and energy and money into the things we believ
The Three Sides Of Customer Experience
As boarding time came and went, it was clear that the flight wasn’t about to depart on time. The huge crowd of expectant passengers at the gate began to get restless. By the time the first announcement was made things were getting heated and when the call to collect refreshment vouchers went out res
Do Your Actions And Story Align?
Have you ever seen the somber, suited doorman at Cartier chasing a thief, searching a customer’s bag or stopping a young woman from entering the store? Me neither. If he’s not doing that then why is he there? Does the sales assistant at MontBlanc really need to wear a white glove to remove the pen…
The Simplest Way To Add Value
We just moved house. You can probably empathise—so many logistics to arrange and tiny details to keep in your head, no matter how much help you have. By 3pm on moving day we had Internet (no mean feat). At about 9pm we realised there was no hot water. Too late to contact anyone of course,…
The New Rules Of Email Marketing
The old rules are broken. Familiar email marketing tactics might enable us to extract one more sale, but they are definitely not designed to respect our customers—the people who pay our bills, the same people we hope to matter to. They are busy and smart. We should treat them that way. THE NEW RULES
The Opportunity Equation
In order for a business to take advantage of an opportunity four factors must be in place. The formula looks like this. VISION + RESOURCES + SKILLS + PLAN = OPPORTUNITY REALISED An opportunity can only be realised when you have the vision to recognise it and the resources, skills and plan to execute
Want To Vs. Have To
The famous fashion designer doesn’t have to pay a fair wage to the workers in the Indian village, who hand bead the $600 dresses she sells to affluent Melburnians. Her customers would never know—and yet she does. The busy graphic designer doesn’t have to make suggested improvements to the slide deck
How Will You Get To Where You Want To Go?
There are always things we know we’d like to change or improve about our businesses. Often we’re just not sure what’s missing, how to begin or even where to start. To make change happen you need to have the vision to know where you’re going, the skills and resources that enable you to get there…
Not Everything Is An Opportunity
We first met casually, in a social situation one Saturday morning. Less than five minutes into the small talk Terry asked what I did for a living. No sooner had the words “I run my own business” left my lips, than his hand reached into his back pocket to draw out some business cards (one…
Context And The Value Story
How much is nail polish removal worth? It all depends on the circumstances in which it’s executed. Use a tissue and liquid remover at home and we’re talking a cent or two. Individually wrapped polish removal wipes for use on the go, cost as much as $1 each and a trip to the nail salon…
The New Rules Of Brand Awareness
If you conducted a survey of entrepreneurs or business leaders, asking them to name their three biggest challenges, I can guarantee that nine times out of ten, attracting more customers and creating brand awareness would be on that list. The default method for creating brand awareness goes something
Who Is This Not For?
When we spend time thinking about growing our businesses we tend to focus on our ideal customers—the people we know we want to matter to. A great way to get really specific about who you are creating your products and services for is to think about who they are not for. The temptation in the…
