BlackBird Copywriting

Dear Fellow Dream Builder;

I want to share some Calgary marketing strategies that I’ve been using to help local businesses that I know will be able to help you improve your business wherever you are in the world. I’m basing this on the belief or my belief in relationship marketing. To me, everything is about relationships and relationships are built on trust. And people all around the world build relationships every day with businesses and with each other. My argument is that we aren’t all that different from each other deep down. In fact we have more similarities than differences.

That’s my treatise for this blog post. If you get it, your business will improve in leaps and bounds.

This is why the Calgary marketing advice that I’ve been offering folks here in cowtown will help you too. The biggest marketing tip that I can offer  businesses is to see every single customer as a real person.  This is what this Calgary copywriter keeps trying to drum home. Step back from the hard numbers of your business for a minute. Close the accounting books and put away the spreadsheets. Forget about profit and loss statements and push yourself away from the table.

Have a look around you. If you’re in most businesses in the world there are other people very close by. Your customers are very real people and take a moment to appreciate that. It is easy to let the fog of numbers cloud that fact, but your customers are people just like you with similar needs and desires.

If you’re fulfilling those needs and desires then your business is doing well. You don’t have to look at the books. You’ll know it from the telephone calls you our your customer service reps get. You’ll know from the sales that your sales reps or business is bringing in. This isn’t rocket science. So many piss poor businesses do well because they excel at understanding the customer as an individual human just like them. So many great businesses fail because the forget this very simple fact. Calgary marketing is all about relationship building. When you build that relationship with another human being and not just a customer, wonderful things happen. Your business improves and you get rich as a side benefit.

So next time you’re looking at those numbers and you’re not happy with the results just remember who your customer is. He or she is likely someone very similar to you. Are you treating them like you would want to be treated or better yet how you’d like your grandmother, child, wife or husband to be treated? This one Calgary marketing tip is worth millions of dollars to the long term success of your business. If you get it.

Seeing YOUR big picture,

Jason

Dear Fellow Dream Builder;

I’m watching the Oscars tonight. I confess to enjoying them. Being a creative thinker and deep down an artist, I’m inspired to see what are really just dreams come to fruition and more than that get recognized. I’ve written a few novels and I understand the sacrifice and work that goes into producing any art. Let alone great art.

And I’d like to suggest that running a great and profitable business is much like creating art. As is the marketing that should go along with it.

Art is nothing more than giving expression to your creativity. Some of the most creative folks out there are business owners. Entrepreneurs trying to provide a needed service or a product they know will fill an identified void.

But just as with art, marketing and business come along in all shades of effectiveness. There is art that moves us and inspires us to greatness. Marketing should do the same. So why I’m I talking about Oscar winning marketing? Many of you will suggest that the Oscars have nothing to do with marketing, or perhaps that they don’t always go to the most worthy film/actor/director etc.

And you’d be right. But I’m writing to you tonight as I’m watching the Oscars and they got me to thinking about marketing. I’ll show you how they go together. How you can use the Oscars to make better marketing and to have greater successes for your business more often.

Firstly I’d ask you to think of your business and your marketing efforts as art. Put effort into and take pride in what you are putting out there. Make it the best you can be. I’d start with integrity. Art is or at least the best art has integrity. So should your business. Be guided by goodness and honour and honesty.

Secondly, art is made not so much for the awards as it is to speak to the human condition. Your marketing, your business should do the same. I’d argue that there isn’t a decent film out there that was made firstly in the hopes of winning an Oscar. Make sure your business and your marketing are not about the awards. And those awards are likely advertising awards or increased sales. As unintuitive as this may sound, run your business and marketing guided first by how you can be of service to your clients. This is your marketing as art speaking to the human condition. Address your customers needs and you will be honoured and rewarded by awards and sales and success.

Lastly, art is fun. If you aren’t having fun in your business and marketing, you’re doing it wrong. I’m pretty sure Steve Jobs has fun at work and his marketing tells that story too. So have fun with your work, your marketing, it is your art. Make it passionate and fun.

Seeing YOUR big picture,

Jason

Dear Fellow Dream Builder;

Thank you once again for reading my scribbles. I want to offer you some value today about Calgary marketing. These Calgary marketing strategies are not just for those of you who live and work in Calgary. You’ll find that the marketing tips I’m offering will work wherever you are. Whether you’re in Edmonton, Toronto, Vancouver, Los Angeles or New York.

Heck, so long as your product or service is needed and sold to human beings you’ll make some good use of these tips. That last comment was in no way meant to be facetious. Truly, marketing is not some magic whoo-whoo that only divine soothsayers can figure out. Sure there is a science to marketing properly to folks whether you’re marketing online or marketing offline. Every business owner can build a terrific marketing campaign regardless of your marketing background. If you’ll only choose to think about these ideas that I’ve called Calgary marketing tips.

Engage your customers in a conversation. What I mean by this is that your business will prosper if you nurture your customers. You wouldn’t expect your friendships to evolve, deepen and last if you didn’t take the time to visit your friends, talk to them and ask after them. Treat your customers as you would your best friends.

Reward those who are your best customers. In line with the above Calgary marketing tip, segment your customers an create a VIP club if you can with only special rewards and offers for your best customers. Above all else though, continue to reach out and engage your customers. Send them valuable information way more often than you send them offers. The 80/20 rule works well here. Offer value 80% of the time and ask for business only 20% of the time. Send your best customers a physical birthday card on their birthday. Write something specific to them in your own hand. Watch the results increase your profits and revenues.

One last marketing idea that you can use, and this one might sound contrarian. Fire those 20% of your clients who bring you the least business and the most headaches. This can be hard, I know. But your best customers will be better off for it and your employees will respond well to it. You never know the amount of sorrow that your worst customers are creating for your business. It can be affecting employee morale which in turn affects all of your customers. Trust me, those 20% are dragging your business down like dead weight. You’ll be happier and your business stronger if you’ll just do it.

It’s hard I know. In today’s economic environment we think we need all the business we can get. But this is just not true. Fire those customers who are holding you back and your business will soar to new heights. Hope you’ve enjoyed this Calgary marketing advice. Now just implement it!

Seeing YOUR picture,

Jason