Almost every cold email or LinkedIn spam that I receive assumes I want to “scale my business.” There’s a notion that every entrepreneur’s dream and duty should be to “grow at scale.”

What the heck is scale?

Blind Ambition

You hear about growth rates of triple, 5x, 10x, “add a zero” and the like. Sounds exciting but what’s the end game with scaling versus growing? Do you want “scale”, or do you want growth?

When I think “scale,” I think that everything must radically change to serve a rapid multiplication of new business with duplication – ideally, automated duplication of product and service delivery. Sure, technology can do that but who are your best customers and how will they respond to your scaling?

When a business discovers a way to scale and implements it, customizing deliverables to meet unique and sometimes nuanced client needs is replaced with finite product options or service levels. Dies (cookie cutters) are cast and production multiplies while administrative concerns grow.

Customization versus Duplication

If you’re in a professional services business, how can you maintain customization when duplication is required for scaling growth? Yet I’m constantly promised that I can scale my business if I will just install this AI tool or that marketing automation platform.

First, I don’t want rapid growth nor a radical change in my business approach. Second, my clients rely on our ability to focus solely on their unique market positions and customize plans that work for them, and only for them! Any choice within a 3-tier service level package I could devise and automate would not deliver the value that our exclusive focus gives our clients.

Do I want to scale my business? No. So why assume that I do? Because the scaled, AI-enabled, automated message bots fail to understand me. Sales cadence tools generate emails ranging from silly and irrelevant to creepy and presumptuous.

Know Your Niche

My point is that growing at scale through automation and duplication doesn’t work in our niche. Yet I’m bombarded with messages that promise we can scale our business. Ironically, most of them are from startups trying desperately to scale. Perhaps they need to learn an old concept like understanding your target audience.

If marketing tech folks want to sell to Chuck Sink Link, maybe they could first learn what business we are really in and lead with that.

If your prospective clients require a unique communication style to engage them and help grow your business, give us a call and we will have a real, 2-way conversation. We’ll both be smarter for it.

The post To Scale or to Grow? appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

The Transparency of Real Leaders

Every Business Owner I’ve worked with closely has spilled some beans to me about his or her business challenges, sometimes personal challenges. Beyond the important conversations concerning their markets, we often get into the confidential internal issues at the company that deal with employees, contractors, and vendors. We share personal stories.

While I’m certainly no coach or counselor, I appreciate it whenever clients trust me enough to open up and tell me what’s really on their minds. I’m happy to listen in confidence and respond in kind. Perhaps surprisingly, these deeper conversations can be crucial to strong brand development and better marketing executions.

Every business has some nuanced or even bold advantage that helps it differentiate value from its competition. Those unique attributes need to be understood by the market or the brand loses equity to those competitors that communicate better.

Do you know what clearly differentiates your product and service quality from your competition? Have you driven those points home to your marketing director or agency partners, and do they know how to execute in your particular market?

Availability, openness and transparency with your marketing advisors clear a pathway to full understanding of your value proposition and how to craft your messages to attract new business. A trusted confidant who gets to know the company’s leadership personally, and thereby fully understands the firm’s culture, can do a better job as your marketing partner. They’ll know how to differentiate your singular distinction to attract the kind of customers you can best serve.

And, if you’re really serious about achieving positive results from your marketing campaigns, there is one crucial thing for you to do.

The Secret of Marketing Success

Risk being a pain in the butt. Does a laissez-faire attitude cut it when overseeing the most critical functions of sustaining and growing your business? A true leader leads the single most important function in the company: marketing!  Why? Because marketing makes up your products & services, prices, distribution and promotion efforts. And promotion includes advertising, public relations and personal selling. Quite a lot to marketing, isn’t there!

As owner and CEO, you must get involved and stay involved in your campaigns. It’s your responsibility to keep marketing and sales at the top of your business priority list. How do you do this? In short, by communicating more. Here’s what that looks like:

• Clearly articulate your cultural values and your firm’s USP – unique selling proposition.
• Lead or attend marketing meetings on a regular schedule.
• Attend every meeting that includes campaign pitches.
• Do not delegate your leadership. Provide your knowledge and ideas directly!
• Provide key insights and feedback from your industry.
• Freely give of your specialized expertise.
• Provide resources for photography, video and other crucial assets as needed.
• Hold yourself and your team accountable for following through.

Over the years, I’ve repeatedly observed successful sales and marketing campaigns yield sustained business growth. I’ve also seen great ideas and creative energy come to nothing because of lackluster leadership and effort. The common factor in most successful campaigns has been the CEO’s time, leadership, commitment, and support.

Every Team Needs a Head Coach

A team needs its head coach on the field with them if they expect to win.

Your team will only perform to the level they perceive you expect, and guess what? They’re human. You need to remind them of your expectations and provide guidance regularly or inertia will set in and cause efforts to go stale.

Your sustained enthusiasm for building your brand and growing your business is the energy that’s needed to fuel your campaigns. And when your team feels your energy and support behind them, they’ll be moved to perform. Let them show you and the market their best stuff!

The post Are You a Marketing Leader? appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

One of my professors liked to say, “Business is people!” He often said it when he wanted to reduce student anxiety about jumping into the real world of professional work. The plain truth of that statement left an impression with me. Later in life I read the book, How to Make Friends and Influence People. Then, “Business is People!” became fundamental to my career.

Lose Yourself

When you really want to connect with a potential customer and form a good relationship, how do you steer the conversation to get their interest? What’s the best approach for getting someone to listen to your message?

You steer your attention away from yourself and listen carefully to understand their message. Then you can respond in a way that identifies with their thinking. This leads to dialog which leads to a relationship. As they find they can relate with you, they’ll become genuinely interested in hearing your message as it relates to them, including whatever it is you’re selling.

Marketing is All about Them

Your business prospect’s immediate interests probably have little to do with your product or service “solution.” They’re more likely to be thinking about their family, favorite hobby, or pressing business and personal issues. Marketing messages should align with real life experiences, both lived and hoped for.

Step into the shoes of your audience and better understand their needs, then demonstrate the value your business offers them.

Get to the Table!

To hit a home run, you must first get up to bat. A salesperson’s job is to reach out to potential new customers proactively. A marketer’s job is to create awareness and desire for a brand. The best way to accomplish both is to create an attraction in the market, not push a product or service with a lot of hype.

There is a time and place for spirited selling, answering objections and hard-nosed negotiation, but you’ll probably be absent from that table if you haven’t first developed an authentic relationship with your prospective customer. This relationship begins first in the mind of customers as they relate to your consistent messaging that speaks to their interests. It is further developed by what customers actually experience when doing business with your company.

Resist the Urge for Urgency!

Perhaps there’s some urgency indicated by your revenue projections. Maybe you really need to hit a financial target and think you should bust out and use more aggressive selling tactics. Go ahead and try. You might force a few sales through the pipeline. But what if your competition has already made friends with your best prospects by talking with them about what really matters – their personal interests and business goals?

Small Talk and Bigger Deals

People love to share their interests with those who are genuinely interested. Moms and dads do this. Decision-makers who are moms and dads and grandparents and aunts and uncles do this. And you do this. Wouldn’t it then make sense to connect on a more personal, emotional level in your messages and conversations?

Advertising should tap into personal emotions to generate recall and awareness. In sales and business development, patient relationship-building cultivates valuable friendships in your professional life which helps your business thrive!

The post Great Marketing is Not About Your Business appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Excellent Content Drives Marketing Enthusiasm

When you produce a fantastic marketing piece based on an excellent value concept – a video, custom photo gallery, a song, a story, website redesign or full-blown ad campaign, you won’t need to worry about distribution. You will find a way to get it in front of people!

The quality and value behind a great message produced with excellence will make broadcasting it an imperative. Your excitement and eagerness – your imperious urge for the message to be seen and heard will propel you to roll it out however you possibly can to the right audiences.

Re-energize Sales with Fresh Ideas

Whether it’s in your grocer’s produce isle or your marketing agency’s studios, freshness and quality matter a lot!

Think about the times you’ve invested in a marketing campaign and really liked how the designs and executions came out. Now think about the opposite; when all of your marketing materials were dated and fading in relevance or outshined by competitors’ campaigns. In the first case, you can hardly contain your enthusiasm to promote your message but in the latter case, you hesitate to even use what you have. Is it time to reenergize your marketing content to increase your drive to seize more opportunities?

Put the empowering quality of freshness and excellence into your sales and marketing efforts. Then let your enthusiasm for its greatness drive you to promote the value you offer through every feasible channel.

It Just Takes One!

Very often, it’s just one great video! A sometimes-overlooked asset is the vast gallery of excellent still shots that a premium high-def video production also yields. These can be used across the internet and even in some print applications. A great video is the anchor piece for many a refreshed marketing campaign.

For example, images from the drone video we produced for Bow Auto Parts are replacing some of the previous terrestrial still shots to improve their branding and website user experience.

Just one video shoot with a good director (ahem!) and camera operator and you’ll be equipped for great marketing executions you’ll be doing for years!

Now check out the second-generation version of Bow’s company video introducing the owner and team member who offer their candid inside perspectives.

Always remember that a guy with a phone won’t cut it when it comes to making a video that displays how well your shop performs (Like Bow Auto Parts’ operation clearly does) and how good you and your people are. Investing in a day of video photography is probably the most valuable marketing investment you’ll make this year.

We’re here to help write and produce a great video when you need one!

The post Great Content Gets Distributed appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

When you see an inbound call from a familiar company or brand name, you’re more inclined to answer the call. If you’re a business owner, you know this is true, and so do your salespeople.

Sales is a brutally competitive, uphill battle in this day and age. Why discourage your team by pushing them up a steep hill? Help level the playing field by investing in your brand and executing a targeted marketing plan.

Creating strategic brand awareness is the best investment you will ever make in your business. Name one initiative that brings in customers and revenues better than being well-known for what you do best… You can’t.

Better Mousetrap?

“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” This is only true when people believe you have a better mousetrap, and they have to find out about it first!

The more you authentically communicate your value proposition in the marketplace, the better your “mousetrap” is perceived by potential customers. Once you have established a high-quality perception in your market, prospects’ doors open much easier. Your outbound emails and phone calls have not only a fighting chance but a likelihood of being answered or returned.

Sales Pay Dirt

If your brand carries sway, your prospective customer is either curious, willing or eager to answer their phone when you or your team come calling. This is sales pay dirt. It’s the magic merger that takes companies to the next level and improves lifestyles.

Grow Your Business in 90 Days

Once you make the decision to invest in your brand to boost sales, you just need to remain committed and stay the course! Within about 90 days of implementing a new branding campaign, you should start seeing profitable results. Sequencing looks like this…

1. Create or refresh your brand with the focus on unique value – include both visual and verbal elements. 30 days
2. Produce branded marketing communications right away – Don’t worry about perfection at this point! You can easily start with a landing page, an email blast, a press release, a postcard or just a flyer. 45 days
3. Develop a media and direct marketing strategy – use your proven, go-to channels and carefully consider adding new, targeted media. Apply tracking code to your digital communications and utilize your platforms’ analytics to monitor engagement. 60 days
4. Launch and implement a marketing/advertising campaign according to an appropriate frequency schedule – stick to a consistent brand theme and keep reinforcing your core value proposition in creative ways. 75 days
5. Make copious targeted sales calls to prospects in your database – prioritize people you identify engaging with your campaign. Email platforms and social media tracking tools make this easy. There are even certain marketing automation programs with tracking code that can identify individuals who visit your landing pages. And remember, this is sales. Be persistent! 90 days

This simple 5-part strategy should be implemented in a continually repeated manner except for step 1.

Your sales team should always be prospecting and making calls with or without a rigorous marketing campaign. We get that. However, those who sell for Leading Brands enjoy more answered phones and open doors while the unknown, me-too reps deal with voicemail greetings and declined meeting requests.

Become a leading brand in your market and simply sell more!

The post The Magic Merger of Marketing & Sales appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Marketing is all about message optimization because your content is always unfinished. So is everyone else’s. Some content is better than others, and some executions are really great. Your goal isn’t to make your communications perfect but to keep improving them regularly. This gets easier when you have some guidance.

Building Suspense

One of the most common challenges for novice content writers is ordering sentences and paragraphs properly so the information keeps building rather than backtracking and covering the bare spots. When the writer thinks ahead, anxious to get the main point out there, he or she attempts to enhance the message with subsequent details and examples after revealing the main attraction. This makes sense at first but has an anticlimactic effect. The reader may end up bored or confused rather than informed and engaged.

First Things First

Good writers are engineers. They must understand foundations and successive building blocks needed to support a finished edifice for the edification of their audience. They begin by acknowledging their audience as students and their role as the teacher (and builder of ideas). They get to work laying the groundwork that entices the reader to witness the whole edifice take shape and have meaning. They put themselves in the novice’s shoes and know the right path to understanding.

Your Two Choices

The “make or buy decision” comes up all the time. You can “save money” by the do-it-yourself method (while forgoing money-earning time). You can handle the tedious, arduous and sometimes frustrating work of a trained professional, or you can just hire a pro and let him or her have at it while you get important (and profitable) tasks accomplished. When you tell a real pro to “have at it” they take your challenge seriously. Pros aim to please.

Don’t you just love taking possession of a purchase that meets or exceeds your expectations? In my industry, for example, a great new article, website design or advertisement is truly thrilling when first seen by the client and will tend to have a similar impact on it’s intended target audience, especially if they happen to be earnestly shopping different brands.

How optimal are your communications?

You and I both know they’re not perfect. How much better must they be right now in order to reach your marketing goals? Is there one communications area you can focus on that will raise your company’s image in the market? Which building blocks of relevant meaning need to be logically arranged for your market’s benefit?

Remember that life is all about continuously getting better as nobody can attain perfection. But think about another word – optimal. Optimal essentially means the best you can get from what’s available. So get to work on your message optimization. Your audience wants to understand exactly where you’re going. Lead them logically and they will at least be curious. Some will follow your lead, and to those new customers, your information is successfully optimized.

The post Optimize Your Information… appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

“I know I’ll find you somewhere… somewhere you can hear my voice…”

Meet Tim, Dan, Cheryl, Jack, Dianne, Josh, and Cam

The Most Vital Branding Exercise

You might be asking, who are those people and why should I know them? They’re the folks who personify your best clients – those whose working styles and needs align with your company culture and value proposition. These names happen to be the clients who have influenced how we operate, deliver value and communicate in the market. Just as importantly, they know us, prefer our approach and collaborate in their own marketing success.

Can you automatically rattle off the first names of your best customers? If so, there’s where you’ll find your brand differentiation and value proposition.

Client Differentiation Drives Branding Value

We talk about brand differentiation in marketing. What differentiates your offerings positively over your competition? Try some reverse engineering. There’s a reverse kind of differentiation that’s so crucially important to discovering your own and growing your business. It’s client differentiation.

You need to know the common persona of customers you can best serve and who appreciate your business style. They will choose your company for the very reasons that you think they should.

As you differentiate your clients from “the masses,” you’ll better understand whom you are really serving and you should tailor your messages only to them. Resist the temptation to appeal to the broadest possible market for your generic product/service because you’ll only add more noise in the cluttered, me-too world of commercial media. Few will notice. But if you call out to specific people (if not by name, then by interest and passion), they’ll hear the message as it resonates and engages them out of the crowd. They call you, email you or message you, hoping to reach a deal with you.

The Consistency Payoff

Be consistent with messages that focus only on your differentiated and distinguished target audience. You are of most value to your narrowly defined target market and you’ll find them more enjoyable to work with. Your relationships are mutually profitable. Working with them is more gratifying and often fun.

The post Your Best Marketing Strategy Calls Your Own Flock appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Most brands fall short of complete integrity. How about yours?

My company brand could benefit from a little listening, introspection and fine-tuning after 8 years of continued growth in the market.

Our brand made one significant shift from “great copywriting” to “content-focused marketing services” about 3 years after start-up. Now it’s time to realign our core strengths and value delivery with a consistently focused message strategy that includes provable, relevant differentiation. The work is very exciting!

Where does a brand strategy start?

Core strengths, core values and delivery track record should be at the heart of your branding strategy. Putting that realness about your people and products into the right words, images and sounds is what effective branding is all about.

Authentic brands are respected, believed and bought.

Start with the demonstrable. How true and accurate are your brand statements and marketing content when compared with what your clients experience in your deliverables?

You and your team, like any other group, know what you’re good at and not so good at. Stick to the “good at” or better yet, “the insanely good at” when differentiating your brand and building consistency into your ad and web content.

We suggest spending focused time, several hours or more, on writing an honest and clear positioning statement for the benefit of your customers and your entire target audience. There are some really great positioning exercises and writing formulas available. We help many of our clients with this vital exercise and the results speak for themselves in business growth.

4 Part Marketing Communication Strategy

I strongly recommend establishing an authentic brand identity prior to implementing any significant marketing campaign. Starting from there, the most basic way to assure that your marketing communications have a high degree of success is to use a proven 4-step process.

If you’ve done a thorough job on your branding strategy, then implementing this formula is much easier and works much better!

1. Identify your target customers narrowly. These are people with money already in their budget, either now or in the future, for the kind of things you provide.
2. Determine the best channels (media, salespeople, events) to reach them.
3. Plainly state how you give them a better life and show evidence – visual evidence and testimonials.
4. Show how to get it easily – buy now, try it free or learn how it works.

The best performing e-Commerce websites follow this formula consistently because it works! We all know why. It’s the age-old value proposition followed by the call-to-action laid out simply!

Somehow, we tend to complicate our messages by adding extra stuff we want to “be sure to include.” Being marketing savvy does not always include being thorough. Too much content injects potential distractions, pauses and stumbling blocks to purchases.

Keep it simple and provide clear, smooth, short pathways to buy your products. It’s what our customers want! Isn’t that what you want?

The post Your Brand – Is it Real? Does it Matter? appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Gillette blew it in my opinion. Their marketing group projected their own cultural and political bias onto their target audience and many of us are turned off by their overt condemnation of all masculinity as “toxic.”

The message of respect and kindness itself is good but the thrust of the ad presupposes that disciplined respect by men is a new, progressive idea and that men need to clean up their act, never mind our unshaven faces. If there’s a positive side for Gillette, the brand will gain additional support from the market segment in which the message resonates, but that would be a hard segment to measure.

The Marketing Risks

I believe the risks for Gillette are twofold. 1) They have annoyed a sizable portion of their customer base because the ad’s tone implies that most men have been jerks all along but things are different now and they better get with the times! 2) The ad’s video news clip collage panders to progressive political leanings and the #MeToo movement. It will be seen as an insincere play on promoting social justice.

As a longtime Gillette customer, I’m very annoyed! Why did this corporation jump headlong for no apparent reason into a politically charged cultural movement, attempting to shame men and correct their behavior?

The only behavior of mine that Gillette has any business in whatsoever is my grooming behavior.

As for social behavior, I will look to my Church, family, friends, neighbors and colleagues for feedback and correction, and so should the rest of Gillette’s audience in my opinion. There are no moral and spiritual leaders in the marketing team at Gillette or all of Proctor and Gamble and they have no business assuming moral authority in their advertising campaigns.

Here’s the Marketing Kicker

My advice is to keep all of your business messages on point. Attempting to use your company’s platform to influence the culture will only divert your attention and resources away from your primary business purpose – serving your customers.

I believe the best marketing is sincere marketing. So far, my best shaves have been with Gillette razors. They make excellent shaving products and that’s the only message I want to hear from a razor company that profits from my continued patronage.

The post Stick to your business and stay out of the pulpit. appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.