You've heard it a thousand times: "You need a clear USP to stand out." Every marketing book, consultant, and agency says the same thing. Find your unique selling proposition. Claim your space. Be different. There's just one problem: most professional service firms...
"Gentlemen, this is a football." That’s how Vince Lombardi started training camp in 1961. He wasn’t talking to beginners. He was talking to 3 dozen professional athletes. Athletes who had come within minutes of winning their championship the year before. The team...
The baseball season is upon us. Crazy early this year, isn't it? And when it's time to toss the ball around, it's also time to toss around the stats. Baseball has stats for everything: There are stats for batting.Stats for fielding.Pitching...
The consultants, trainers, and other professionals who experience consistent growth in their firms or solo practices have 8 specific marketing mindsets in common. By using these mindsets or "ways of thinking" they're able to build a consistent stream of new clients....
One of the first questions that comes up in a marketing discussion is "how can I differentiate myself / my company?". Unfortunately, too many businesses try to differentiate themselves by: coming up with a cutesy tagline OR making claims that are easily copied and/or...
How quickly do you and your organization make decisions? Do you make them quickly, or does each decision seem to be a long and painful process filled with uncertainty and doubt? In working with small business owners over the years I’ve noticed that those who have a...
If you been through any sort of “marketing 101” education, you have undoubtedly heard about the three M’s – market, message, and media. You may also have heard this expressed as “getting the right message, to the right people, at the right time”. All three M’s are...
“Strategy before tactics” is something we talk about every day in the Duct Tape Marketing Consultants’ network. It’s what sets us apart from other small business marketing consultants. Strategy is one of those words that conjures up images of intellectual giants,...
Last Tuesday night I was watching Charlie Rose’s interview with Dick Costolo. Mr. Costolo is the current CEO of Twitter and during the interview he said something that really struck a chord with me and I wanted to share it with you here today. What Costolo said he...
When we talk about small business marketing, we always talk about starting with a sound marketing strategy before jumping into tactics. One of key elements of your marketing strategy is identifying your ideal customer – those customers in your sweet spot, the ones you...