Featured
Posted by
Ian Brodie on February 16th, 2016.
There's a trap that very many business owners fall into when they launch new services and products that I like to call the “Hollywood Blockbuster Trap”.
It's a problem that the big Hollywood studios have because of the nature of their products, but it's a problem we small business owners shouldn't have. Despite that, huge numbers of businesses run into difficulties because they try to launch products like a Hollywood studio would, with disastrous impact.
I reveal what you should be doing instead in this week's video…
Click here to watch the video »
Featured
Posted byIan Brodie on February 2nd, 2016.
Being able to charge premium prices for your products and services is a huge advantage. Especially for smaller businesses and individuals where you don't have the scale to make money from a low cost position.
But premium pricing is often easier said than done. One big reason is that many businesses go about it the wrong way. They try to take an existing market or client base and persuade it that their products and services are worth paying a premium for.
That’s possible, but it’s hard work. A better strategy can be to find a segment or sub-segment of the market that’s inherently more willing to pay premium prices and to focus your products and services and your marketing on what that segment wants and needs, rather than what the general market wants and needs.
How do you find those premium segments?
Watch this week's video to find out…
Click here to watch the video »
Featured
Posted byIan Brodie on January 26th, 2016.
In this week's 5 Minute Marketing Tip I reveal what I think is the most useful question you can ask yourself in marketing.
Whenever I've run workshops with clients and we've been trying to figure out how to get more meetings with potential clients or get them to return our calls and emails or buy more of our products and services; asking ourselves this simple question has always helped us come up with a great answer.
Try it yourself in today's video…
Click here to watch the video »
Featured
Posted byIan Brodie on January 19th, 2016.
Hey there :)
In last week's 5 Minute Marketing Tip I showed you how to come up with 100 ideas for content for blog posts, articles, videos and podcasts.
In my follow-up emails to my email subscribers I also shared a few of the best methods for creating content quickly and easily. One of those was the “Expert Interview”.
I got an email back from Kevin who asked for more details on how to do Expert Interviews. And since they're one of the very best ways to create high value content without needing to do a lot of the work yourself, I thought I'd share the tips on this week's video.
So watch the video to find out what Expert Interviews are, how to find the right experts to interview and what questions to ask to get the most from them.
Click here to watch the video »
Featured
Posted byIan Brodie on January 12th, 2016.
Hi – welcome to another 5 Minute Marketing Tip Video.
I'm sure I'm not the only person who often finds myself staring at a blank computer screen wondering what on earth I'm going to write in a blog post or email.
If that sometimes (or often) happens to you, here's a way to quickly come up with 100 great ideas for articles or other forms of content. It's worked brilliantly well for me.
Find out more in the video.
Click here to watch the video »
Featured
Posted byIan Brodie on January 4th, 2016.
Hey – happy New Year and welcome to the first 5 Minute Marketing Tip of 2016.
If you're anything like me then by now your inbox will be overflowing with emails from experts and gurus telling you the world is all going to change in 2016 and giving you a huge list of new things you apparently must do to make this year your best year ever.
I don't buy it.
For me, the very first thing you need to do to make 2016 your best year ever is to STOP doing things.
I explain why and give you some tips on how in the video.
Click here to watch the video »
Featured
Posted byIan Brodie on December 21st, 2015.
It's the end of the year and it's party time round at our house, so no marketing tip this week; just a heartfelt and sincere wish for you to have a wonderful holiday period and a brilliant and prosperous 2016.
Here's a brief message from me, along with my Christmas Waistcoat…
Click here to watch the video »
Featured
Posted byIan Brodie on December 15th, 2015.
So, we all know that getting referrals is a great source of new business. If someone is referred to you there's a bunch of inbuilt trust and credibility that makes it much more likely they'll become a paying client (and you don't have to go out hunting for them either!).
The problem is: few of us get enough referrals.
The biggest cause if this, in my experience, is that the people we'd love to refer us are often hesitant to do so. They like us. They trust us. They think we do good work. But there's something that holds them back, even if you ask them directly.
I explain what it is and how to get over it in this week's 5 minute marketing tip video…
Click here to watch the video »
Featured
Posted byIan Brodie on December 8th, 2015.
A different approach to becoming seen as an authority this week.
Your status as an authority is based on your audience's perception of your expertise relative to other experts they know.
So one shortcut to being seen as an authority that we've discussed before is to focus on a very tight niche or specialist area where there's less competition and so it's easier for you to stand out.
Another approach that works in a similar way is to master a new media. Over the years we've seen an acceleration in the pace of new media appearing: from blogs to Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, to Youtube, Pinterest and Instagram. Today's hot new media is live video with Hangouts, Periscopes and Blabs.
Each new media brings with it a new audience, and a chance for early adopters of the new media to position themselves as authorities to that new audience. This week's video explains how.
Click here to watch the video »
Featured
Posted byIan Brodie on November 24th, 2015.
Excuse the weird title :)
If you didn't watch last week's 5 minute marketing tip on the Celebrity Showcase then the title won't make much sense. But the video is basically an approach to using Linkedin and Facebook Groups and Forums to quickly build visibility and credibility – but not in the way most people recommend.
The standard advice for a number of years on using Linkedin Groups or Facebook Groups or Forums on websites has been to become a valued contributor and to paste links to your blog posts and free reports to get people to your site and to sign up for your emails.
That approach just doesn't work any more.
Forums and groups are becoming bogged down in links to external resources that take people away from the group. So much so that many owners of the most vibrant groups don't allow promotional links like these because they take people away from the group and so kill off discussions if you get too many (and once one person leaves a link to their blog post or free report, everyone starts leaving links to their blog posts and free reports).
Instead, I recommend you use a variant of the Celebrity Showcase method to make your expertise visible to your potential clients in the group, but in a way that adds value to them and the group as a whole.
I explain how in this week's video…
Click here to watch the video »
Ian Brodie on February 16th, 2016.
