This January, I am doing an online 30-day personal development program. One of the first things we addressed was health and fitness. The instructor pointed out that health and fitness is conceptually easy: exercise more and eat healthier. The challenge is in our motivation. With the proper motivation, you can overcome all of the small roadblocks that come into our lives. You have to want to be fit more than you want that piece of chocolate cake. So, the program focused primar

A few days ago, I heard an advertisement for bail bonds on the radio. While I am not sure what radio station I was listening to at the time, I would expect that only a very small percent of people listening were in need of bail bonds or would be at some point in the near future. When choosing to advertise, the single most important thing to figure out is where to find your target market. The most brilliant message and offer is worthless if no one you are reaching is even a ca

Next week, two of my nephews have birthdays. They live in Kentucky, so we do not get to see them too often. That makes me want to get them something special, while at the same time, I do not really have a lot of insight into their current interests or wants. What should I do to get them a great gift? Get them something that I think is cool or ask them (or my brother)? This is the same situation that we run into with clients or prospects. We can try to surprise them with somet

Last Friday, we went to the U2 concert at Qualcomm Stadium. And as my wife said, “We are the demographic.” Most of of the concert goers were in their 40s or 50s, and some of them had children in tow like we did. We even ran into some old friends in the next section. The show was impressive. As we told our boys, you are unlikely to see a better live band than U2. It was quite a performance. However, I had one serious problem with the show: it was too loud. My wife even planned

Last week, I was talking with a prospective client about their marketing efforts. They offer a service targeted at business executives. And they assured me that they had LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter covered. My question was why were they putting effort into social media when their target market are not high users of social media? Most business executives are not very active on social media. They see it as a distraction. If you want to find your prospects with the least amou

These past 12 days in Germany, we experienced a lot: castles, museums, towns that had not changed much since the 1500s, and visiting with friends. It was a great trip. However, one of the fun things we found were the translations. In some restaurants, their menus included English translations. One of our favorites was “Snacks Against Small Hunger.” Of course, what they meant were smaller plates if you just wanted a snack, but it made us smile. Other translations were a little

On Sunday, I arrived in Germany with my family. This is my fourth trip to Germany, including a 3-month internship in 1991 (while I was still in college). I speak enough German to get by and am familiar with the culture and interactions. While I don’t turn down anyone who offers to speak to me in English, I generally try to blend in and act like a local. This is in complete contrast to our trip to Taiwan in 2015. There, I was stuck being a tourist -- I did not speak or read th

I just got off the phone with a prospect. This was the second time we had talked, and I knew from the start that she was unlikely to become a client (any time soon). She is just getting her business started and is still trying to fit all of the pieces together. So, we figured out some of the questions she needs to answer and she is now focused on answering those questions. The things we talked about were a good reminder of how challenging it can be to put all the right pieces

If you have kids who will be heading to college soon and you are interviewing financial planners, which response would be more appealing when you ask “why should I work with you?” We provide great customer service and build a plan customized to your family. We help families find money for college without sacrificing their current lifestyles or reducing the amount of money they are putting into retirement. Clearly, most people would pick option #2. However, if you ask most ser

In the internet age, it is easy to get caught up in wanting to the do the latest and greatest thing for marketing. Compared with Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook, an email newsletter can seem so old fashioned. However, it remains a powerful way to reach potential customers and referral partners. Even with the increasing use of social media, email remains the dominant online application. There are 4 times as many emails sent each day as posts, tweets, pins, etc. combined. Ne

For the last five days, my family was in Pennsylvania to visit my wife’s parents and her brother’s family. The thing that really struck me was how differently they approach the world. The most obvious example is with food. When I buy and prepare food for my family, I am constantly looking for the freshest, healthiest food (that tastes great) I can prepare. My brother-in-law’s family focuses on convenience. While I avoid buying pre-cooked chicken, that is a staple in their hou

A client recently engaged us to help with their online marketing. As part of that process, I reviewed their Google Adwords account and found that their ads did not really speak to their target audience. This explained why they were having trouble converting traffic into leads. Their message was very broad and their offering was very specific. It’s like advertising that you sell vegetables when all you are really selling are tomatoes. That meant that many of the people coming

Do you find it hard to reach the right audience for what you offer? It is critical to successful marketing, because putting a great offer in front of the wrong audience is not going to get you new clients. Here are three fairly new ways to reach the audiences you want to reach. Reaching the Right Decision Makers If you are looking to reach specific decision makers in an organization for a one-on-one conversation, there is no tool more powerful than LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator.