Work Better, Not Harder

Whether you've been doing an email newsletter for a while or are just getting started, there are always ways to improve. Download our Newsletter Audit Checklist and use it to ensure both you and your readers get the most out of your email marketing efforts. If you discover you'd like help with your email marketing efforts, fill out the Newsletter Planning worksheet here and book a call. Click to Tweet this Article

If you're feeling - like I am - that you need to get focused for the next quarter, perhaps my list of planned activities below will be helpful. Business development: Continuing to refresh and work a business plan is a top priority, but sometimes it can get lost in the daily grind. I have several activities I'm keeping alive and making progress on by using a simple project management tool (Trello). I recommend reading The Phone Lady's post with advice about how to reach your revenue goals this year. Website refresh and audit: It's a good idea to do an audit of your website quarterly. It's even better if you pay or beg someone else to do it for you - they will see things you won't. Over the summer I've been working with Alison Knott on a brand refresh that you'll see roll out in September. A full audit will be part of that process. Masterminding: This continues to be an important road to business development and growth for me and my company....

Every time I do online research, I find broken things. I'm curious; I like to see how things work. And it's quite amazing how many times I find things that don't work, or don't work well. I'm not just talking about small business websites - even big brands fail sometimes. The thing is, big brands usually have a reputation which leads people to forgive or ignore more easily. I've written before about how important it is to audit your website at least quarterly. (I pay someone to do it for me and it's well worth it.) If you haven't done a website audit recently, now is a great time. Here are a handful of specific things to check. Is your website doing these things well? Be really clear about the benefits to potential customers and put that front and centre. More money and more time are great - but how much? Read and test everything yourself. Don't rely on what others tell you. I've seen a lot of non-functional website forms and suc...

Can you remember your first really big concert? For me it was The Rolling Stones in 1989 at CNE Stadium soon after I moved to Toronto. We had seats about mid-field and, when the concert started, it was a great spot to be. And then everyone stood up... and up onto their seats. Now I'm game but I'm also short. Standing on my seat up on tippytoes, I could just see the big screens... no stage, no Mick. Eventually my tippytoes got tired, so I sat... and suddenly the music was unrecognizable, muffled by all the surrounding bodies. I remember feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sea of people. Online marketing reminds me of that feeling, of being surrounded by many different people deeply interested in something other than me. Shouting over the noise to be heard, waving arms or grabbing people to get their attention. When you're not Mick Jagger, it's not easy to get people's attention. In fact, it's darn hard work trying to stand out in a sea of other peopl...

How's your static content? Say what? Yup, I'm inventing new words to categorize all those things many of us small business owners call 'marketing stuff'. The word 'content' is part of my everyday vocabulary but maybe not part of yours yet. Whether you call it content or stuff, it represents you, your business and your brand to everyone that encounters it . There are lots of ways to slice and dice content but one important distinction is whether it is dynamic or static. Dynamic content is new and ever changing - the articles and videos you create, the messages you post on Facebook and Twitter, your newsletter, and so on. Static content includes the messages you create once and continue to use. Things like your tagline and advertising text, everything on your website, your social media profiles, business cards, and so on. While you're busy working on your dynamic content all the time, it's easy to forget about that static content. You might ...

Has anyone really read every word of Gone with the Wind ? Be honest now. I've read it twice and I remember skipping whole pages of scene-setting descriptive text. When I read this quote by Elmore Leonard, whose books I read, it resonated with me. "I try to leave out the parts people skip." ( click to tweet this ) This is a great principle for marketing , too. Recall those bags of brochures and business cards you've thrown out after conferences. What's the practical application? Have a look at your website with a fresh eye from the perspective of your ideal client . Better yet, have one of your ideal clients take a look. Ask them to 'browse' and then find out what they skimmed over, or skipped completely. You can also do this for your brochures and bios, your articles and newsletters. You could even get carried away and do an audit of all your marketing materials . Click to Tweet this Article

When was the last time you audited your brand? If it's been more than a year, it's time. Your brand is more than your logo - a lot more. It's also more than all the pieces you can touch or look at. But all of those pieces need to be just right to pull their weight as part of your marketing strategy. Click here to download a checklist (.pdf) you can use to keep track of your progress. Too busy, you say? This is a great job to delegate because a different set of eyes may catch things you won't. A great option is to find another business owner you can partner with. You audit their brand and they audit yours. Take a moment now to add a branding audit to your to-do list or calendar.