So what is it you actually do?

I often get asked "so what is it you actually do?"

I often think of the pressure I would put on my clients to have a good snappy answer for this at the ready. I used to call it "Homework" for a marketing planning day where I asked them to come to the meeting prepared to give me a 30 second commercial answering ... What is your core business? What do you offer? How do you offer it? What sets you apart? What will get people excited? … and give it to me in 30 seconds. To those clients of mine reading this I'm so sorry!

My 30 second commercial takes me about ten minutes to tell, but I love a good long story, often over wine. However from the conception of the company until now our underlying ethos has stayed the same: make use of your existing relationships. It doesn't matter that the tools for doing this over the years have changed; it doesn't even matter that over the next five years who knows what we will be using to communicate with each other. The fact that we are communicating and continuing to communicate with those people who want to have a relationship with us is paramount.

I was sorely irritated when a client of mine said to a third party that I was a "traditional marketer" and they needed someone more "in tune with the trends". But as I said above it doesn't matter what the tools are as long as you are getting the results - and to be honest with you some of the traditional marketing tools are still the best for relationship marketing.

Ah ha! Relationship Marketing I hear you say … what is that?

So back to the initial question. "So what is it you actually do?" We use whatever tools are necessary to ensure that you continue to have a long-term relationship with those people who want to have a relationship with you. Did you get that, because we have been doing this as friends for years. Great friends are people you invest time and money in and keep in contact with. Stop contacting them and you're no longer front of mind, stop finding time to talk to them and you're no longer front of mind stop spending money - dinners, drinks, birthday presents - and they're soon gonna find another friend who values them.

Okay so now think about that in terms of your business. It's all there. All that you need to do, right down to the old they'll tell ten friends and so on and so forth.

Stop spending your money waving at people who might be your friends and start telling people who are your friends that you appreciate them.

Do it today!

Email them, put something nice on your Facebook page, tweet it for goodness sake, oh ... my ... god give them a discount off your online store! Then they will tell other people that you are a great mate! Those people will visit your website and see how transparent and trustworthy you are because of all the testimonials on your website and the number of shout outs you have on Twitter and Facebook and they'll want to be your mate too.

"So what is it you actually do". That's what we do ... and then we measure it!

So if you want us to do that for you just give me a call and I'll buy you a beer ... or a wine ... or a coffee. Because I love a good story!

-- Kelly