Cavalletti Communications

“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”
Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com

Like a person’s reputation, a business’s brand takes consistency, creativity & diligence to build – and is easily damaged or lost if not constantly nourished. How do you communicate with your clientele?

What are you doing to develop & maintain your brand and company’s reputation?

What’s your favourite blog?
Which websites do you enjoy reading?
Seen an ad lately that stayed with you for a long while?

Chances are, their writers were saying something that mattered. To you.

They appealed to you because you could find out quickly what the writer was trying to say. And they were relevant, not just waffling on. They may have been funny, entertaining, educational, silly, serious, or even pure marketing.

What they have in common is good writing – with you, the reader in mind. They “got” what you need, what you were looking for. Rather than just going on about themselves, without saying anything that matters to you, their reader/client/prospect/fan. People and companies can get very wrapped up in their own jargon, their way of talking about their services and products, because they are just too close to the topic they write about. It’s their baby, after all.

Getting a professional copywriter like myself involved, does not mean you loose control of what’s written. A copywriter or editor helps you say what you want and need to say – but in a way that actually gets your message across.

Seth Godin, marketing “guru” extraordinaire, has this example of copywriting gone haywire on his blog:

“The firm will remain competitive in the constantly changing market for defense legal services by creating and implementing innovative and effective methods of providing cost-effective, quality representation and services for our clients.”

Now, I am sure you’ll agree: there are better ways of saying whatever it was the writer intended to communicate.

Remember: Communication is what’s received.

Now… fire away & let me know your thoughts on this topic.
Looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

Until soon,
Daniela

As an entrepreneur, business owner or marketing manager, you all face the same issue: how to create engaging and on-target marketing messages, and truly connect with your audience. How to create leads and convert them into (preferably repeat) customers.

Here are five steps for creating an effective marketing message:

1. Identify your Target Market
2. Understand your Target Audience’s unique Problems, Needs and Wants
3. Offer a Solution to those Problems, and Fulfill Desires
4. Provide Testimonials (customer experiences) as a Proof of your Solutions
5. Differentiate Yourself from your Competitors

And remember: what your prospects and customers really want to know is “what’s in it for them” when they buy your product or engage your services. How you achieve that result for them that (i.e. what you do), is of secondary interest to them. So, your audience mainly wants to know you provide a specific benefit that’s important to them. For example, that what you sell provides security and safety – not so much the details of the insurances you offer or the technical specifications of a security system.

Read more on how to create a strong marketing message here.

Until next time,
Daniela

Wow! Some information I gather, read, like, digest and get (very) excited about is just too spot-on to even try to change!
So, here is the text of marketing “guru” Seth Godin’s latest blog offering – shamelessly repeated in its entirety.

He poses some very important questions that are worth considering before you start any new project, job, venture or adventure.  I hope you will find his writing and ideas as useful and thought-provoking as I do.   Enjoy!

Until next time,
Daniela

If you’re starting out as an entrepreneur or a freelancer or a project manager, the most important choice you’ll make is: what to do?
As in the answer to the question, “what do you do?”

Some questions to help you get started:

1. Who are you trying to please?
2. Are you trying to make a living, make a difference, or leave a legacy?
3. How will the world be different when you’ve succeeded?
4. Is it more important to add new customers or to increase your interactions with existing ones?
5. Do you want a team? How big? (I know, that’s two questions)
6. Would you rather have an open-ended project that’s never done, or one where you hit natural end points? (How high is high enough?)
7. Are you prepared to actively sell your stuff, or are you expecting that buyers will walk in the door and ask for it?
8. Which: to invent a category or to be just like Bob/Sue, but better?
9. If you take someone else’s investment, are you prepared to sell out to pay it back?
10. Are you done personally growing, or is this project going to force you to change and develop yourself?
11. Choose: teach and lead and challenge your customers, or do what they ask…
12. How long can you wait before it feels as though you’re succeeding?
13. Is perfect important? (Do you feel the need to fail privately, not in public?)
14. Do you want your customers to know each other (a tribe) or is it better they be anonymous and separate?
15. How close to failure, wipe out and humiliation are you willing to fly? (And while we’re on the topic, how open to criticism are you willing to be?)
16. What does busy look like?

In my experience, people skip all of these questions and ask instead: “What can I do that will be sure to work?” The problem, of course, is that there is no sure, and even worse, that you and I have no agreement at all on what it means for something to work.

Are you a soloist, entrepreneur, micro- or small to medium business?  If so, sometimes, as the owner of such a business, it can feel like you are all alone, out there on a big big ocean and only a few islands in sight.  But you are not alone.  And dry, solid land is there for the taking – if you know how to look for it and stake your claim.

In their book The Risk Takers Renee and Don Martin identify ten common traits, challenges and ultimately opportunities for entrepreneurs:

1. Trust your Instinct
2. Challenge Convention
3. Persist
4. Find your Niche
5. Spot Trends and Act
6. Fill the Gaps your Competition’s Left
7. Just Start – there is no Perfect Time
8. Get Creative in Marketing
9. Competitor’s Weakness = Your Strength
10. Never stop Changing
11. I like to add another point here: Be Clear and Consistent about your Brand.
    Ensure you communicate clearly, regularly and in an engaging way with your target audience, i.e. your potential and existing clients.
    Be relevant, give them something for free, don’t just hard-sell. Be professional, yet personal. Put yourself in the client’s shoes and think how you would like to be communicated with and treated.
    There is much you can do yourself towards this aim. Everything else a good copywriter and communications expert can help you with.
    Help is at hand – for all budgets.

Read more on how to get motivated, find your niche and not lose the edge over your competition here.

Until next time,
Daniela

As a consumer or client, we all can get riled at bad service or a product that looked oh-so-enticing but fails to deliver what it promises.  And we all appreciate getting a good result when buying a product or receiving a service.

But what about those businesses, services and items that surprise us, that deliver extraordinary experiences? Those are the ones that stick in our mind, that we recommend and which we will go back to over and over again.

I live by the belief that it is the extraordinary  – experience, service and reputation – we should aim for. As employees, service providers or manufacturers, no matter which.  Putting in that extra bit of effort, passion, care, quality and professionalism will set you apart from the crowd, distinguishes us from our competitors and makes our business or career flourish.

Marketing “guru” Seth Godin talks about the disproportionately positive effect of the last ten percent of effort here.

Until next time,
Daniela

I just had a conversation with a friend of mine who is changing careers and starting his own business.

We chatted about layouts & copywriting for websites, and social media.  I was singing the praise of blogs and LinkedIn (and Twitter and facebook, but we’ll leave those for another time) and the many ways of meaningfully connecting websites with social media.  I talked excitedly about he possibilities of writing in a professional yet personal way to bring your business and value to your audience – and generally displayed my inner communications nerd -, when I heard a big silence spread at the other end of the line.

Assumption is a dangerous thing, they say.  Luckily, sometimes it’s just impolite. Phew!

My friend was new to social media for business, and especially a”LinkedIn virgin”.  He, understandably, felt a bit overwhelmed by the possibilities and confused by the mechanics.  So we ran through the gist of set up and options – and I think I created a fellow LinkedIn devotee. And all in half an hour. It’s easy to get started and quite a bit addictive to keep going and growing.

Try for yourself: Read here about the essentials that will get you a long way, and here for a few further bits of how to utilise LinkedIn for your business.
Drop me a line via the comments box below. I am looking forward to hearing about your experiences.
You can connect with me via my LinkedIn profile here. Let’s get connected….

Until next time,
Daniela

First there was the Website…

You own a business and have set up your website. It’s informative, it looks fab and it gets a lot of hits.
But does it get you customers, clients – and sales? Hmmm….

So, you start spreading the love, trying to find your potential clients elsewhere and keep in touch with your existing clientele.  These days, your next step is entering the world of social media: you get a facebook page, spruce up your LinkedIn account and you are Twitter-ing away.

But what next? How can you use your social media presence to grow your business, spread your ideas and create a following – all while contributing something valuable? Is it only looks that count, to be seen to “do the social media thing”?

Content is King

Potential clients are people, not just an abstract construct. And people want substance, something useful and not just a sales spiel. Getting your product, brand and marketing message across in a way that is valuable to you as well as your target market gives everyone something to be happy about.

Taking without giving or contributing does not work in 2010. Content, value and sharing is what your target audience – your “tribe” – needs and wants. Write a blog, offer some free resources, share your thoughts. Your readers want substance.

Give it to them

Find 10 tips on website content and social media strategy here.

WE LIKE TO HEAR WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY….

Would you like to share some of your thoughts on business or a creative topic?
Want to discuss a marketing or social media topic close to your heart?

COME & SHARE

Post your thoughts, ideas, worries, recommendations and experiences as a comment to this post, or on our facebook group wall and discussion board.

WELCOME TO THE CC TRIBE

You are facing a challenge or change – in your business or on a personal level:  Uncertainty and fear of failure can be paralysing.
But they don’t have to be.

This article on how to overcome fears related to starting your own business has five tips by Ron Koss (o-founder of America’s first nationally distributed organic foods company) that can be applied to many situations.