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Keith Thirgood Articles

Written by: Keith Thirgood

Good News Travels Fast - Click To Read Article
This article is full of opportunities staring you in the face. If you don't believe me, write and tell me so--and by doing that you'd be proving me right. That would make you a proactive marketer: spotting a marketing opportunity in an everyday activity.

Taglines, a misused and misunderstood marketing tool - Click To Read Article
Pity the poor tagline. Dismissed as a mere slogan, hampered by a boring turn of phrase, ignored by “serious� business people. It’s a wonder an honest, effective tagline even gets up in the morning.

A Questionnaire for Businesses - Click To Read Article
Twenty-five questions to help you determine how well you know your own marketing condition.

Improve Your Websites Results - Click To Read Article
Your website should be built around the goal of getting the sale. You don't do this with hyperbole, or hard-sell techniques, but by leading your prospect through the emotion and logic of the sales process. First, chart out a path from where your prospect enters your website, through all of the steps required to sell your product/service. Begin with showing the benefits your prospect will gain.

The Anatomy of a Sales Letter - Click To Read Article
Sales letters work best when you have something to sell. You make an offer. Too many sales letters from smaller businesses are of the "Hi my name is..." school. When it comes right down to it, I'm busy; I don't care if you just started this wonderful venture because you love to serve people. What can you do for me right now?

Gain a client. Keep a client. - Click To Read Article
I'm sure you've heard the aphorism that "it takes six times the investment to gain a new client than it does to sell to an existing one". In general, that's true. But what's not said is, how you go about keeping those clients in order to sell more to them?

Where's your Media Kit? - Click To Read Article
I'm sure you've heard the term "media kit" before. It's something the big companies all seem to have. And it seems that it's something only they need. Not so!

Direct Mail, A Numbers Game - Click To Read Article
Seven seconds, one percent, 3000 addresses, thousands of dollars. Direct mail. It’s a numbers game.

Will it blend? - Click To Read Article
Have you seen that wild page on YouTube for the kitchen blender from BlendTec? More than 25 million people have visited that YouTube page to watch their blending antics. Over 3 million references to it are now on the web, not to mention that the question “Will it blend?� has become a household phrase. All from a small company out of Utah.

Visibility Actions and Value Tactics for Service businesses - Click To Read Article
Do you have a hard time hunkering down and marketing your business? Is it hard to know where to start? Will it be a waste of time and money? Scary thoughts.

Twelve Ways to Improve Your Marketing Message - Click To Read Article
Effective marketing writing's a lost art. More and more marketing copy is resorting to hyperbola, factual recitation and self-important puffery. If you want to see how your marketing copy stands up (and sell more as a result), ask yourself the following twelve questions.

Ten Steps to Web Marketing Success - Click To Read Article
We’ve recently noticed more and more articles, blogs and promotions touting all the new ways to market your website. “Buy into our secret system and you will be guaranteed top Google results!� We’re sorry to say, it just ain’t so.

The Sky is Falling-Run and Hide? - Click To Read Article
Ever since the financial sector crisis in America began, there's been a cloud of pessimism and fear reaching over the land. Here in Canada, I listen to business people talk about recession. Businesses big and small are cutting back on expenses, laying-off staff. The talk is even gloomier in the States. Many younger business people seem completely thrown off balance, while those of us a little older, look to be hunkering down to wait out the coming storm. What a great opportunity.

Seven Ways to Tackle a Marketing Headline - Click To Read Article
There are a number of standard headline formats that copywriters have used for years that consistently work. Substitute your product, service or benefit in place of my examples, and see if you get a good working headline.

Should a small, local business have a website? - Click To Read Article
Let’s get to the point right away. It’s money. For any business, the ultimate reason for having a website is to improve their bottom line.

Product You: The Person as the Product - Click To Read Article
It’s common wisdom that if you have a service business, YOU are the product. So, when marketing gurus bother to look at the service industry, they advise you to promote YOU, the product. In my opinion, that advice is misleading at best and destructive at worst.

Overcoming Doubts - Doing Business - Click To Read Article
Prospects have doubts; they get cold feet. Doubts are barriers to doing business. One of the best uses of your time is removing those barriers. It's a tough job but, in marketing, you've got to do it.

Keeping Your Distance: Marketing With a Twist - Click To Read Article
A number of years ago, we had a client we just loved. What we liked so much about him was how much he appreciated us. Out of the experience came a marketing method that has worked better for us than most other approaches.

Four Success Characteristics plus two - Click To Read Article
What was the difference between a marketing failure and a marketing success? It's rarely how smart you are. It's not how good your product or service is. It's usually a combination of skills, behaviours and attitudes.

Five Marketing Blunders - Click To Read Article
The following five marketing blunders undermine so many companies and independent business people's marketing efforts, it's surprising they're not better known.

Client Survey as Marketing Tool - Click To Read Article
A client survey can be an important part of your Marketing Action Plan. By getting a sense of how you’re perceived by your current clients and prospects, you can improve your service and enhance your image in the market.

Doing a lot for a little - Click To Read Article
You can do a lot of marketing for a little investment, if you’re ready to do most of the work yourself.

Emotional Marketing, Part One - Click To Read Article
Emotional Marketing is the most powerful approach to marketing you can imagine. It's about connecting with your prospects where they hurt. They're annoyed; they're anxious or close to rage about something that you can do something about. Emotional marketing, done well, sends a message that validates their feelings. He/she who validates the feelings of another is that person's hero.

Emotional Marketing, Part Two - Click To Read Article
In another article I talked about Emotional Marketing. I concluded it by saying that once the prospect has indicated an interest in what you do, that it wasn't the moment to pitch your service or outline all your product offerings. In fact, it's not even time to try for an appointment. In this article, I'll talk about the next step.

Direct Mail The Numbers Game, part two - Click To Read Article
In an earlier article, I talked about direct mail and some of what you need to know to be successful at it. In this article we'll take a look at three of the key parts of a direct mail package, the sales letter, response device and brochure.

Branding and the Smaller Business - Click To Read Article
You all know that the big guys invest big bucks in marketing their brands. Whether it’s Pepsi, GM or FedEx, everything they do goes toward making their brand irresistible to their target market. Without deep pockets, what’s a smaller business to do?

Break Away Marketing - Click To Read Article
Are you still marketing your service/product the way you have been for years? The same way your competitors are marketing theirs? Are you marketing the “industry way�? If you are, how can you expect to get break away from the pack?

20 questions to ask about your website - Click To Read Article
One of the hardest things to do is to analyse your own marketing materials. This rule seems to go double for a business' website. The business owner rarely sees them for what they are. At least they don't see them from a visitor's point of view. The following are some of the criteria a professional designer uses when evaluating a website. Use the same rules when you look at your own site.

Get your visitors to voluntarily give you their contact information - Click To Read Article
How to capture your site visitors' e-mail addresses and what to send them once you do.

Where is King Content? - Click To Read Article
One bit of advice you'll read over and over about business websites is that "content is king". Whether this is true or not is debatable, but most marketing and web advisors agree that content is very important. Great! But how do you get this fabulous, important content that surfers are looking for?

Your Marketing Message - Click To Read Article
Your message is first among your weapons in the battle of perceptions. Your message allows you to accomplish many things. Your message can educate the masses, convert the non-believers or separate the wheat from the chaff. But not all three.

Target Your Market - Click To Read Article
Your market is not everybody, as so many small businesses assume. It is the people/organizations who need, want, have the money--and the willingness--to pay for what you are offering. Identifying them can be complicated and expensive, or it can be relatively painless and cheap.

Nice Guys Finish First - Click To Read Article
Volunteering your services can be an excellent way to form new business relationships and raise your business’s profile while lending a hand to a good cause. However, unless you take care, it can also become all-consuming, with little return (besides creating good karma).

Getting Paid to Promote Yourself - Click To Read Article
We all know we can pay a magazine or a newspaper to run ads for us. Businesses do it all the time. In many cases, you're obliged to advertise to survive. But wouldn't you rather promote yourself and your company in a number of publications, and get paid for it?

AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT - Click To Read Article
How many times has someone you've called said, "Why don't you send me some information on your company"? Ask yourself, before you send anything: How will this be dealt with once it arrives at that person's desk. Aren't they already suffering from information overload? On the one hand, people say they need more information in order to make the decision just to meet with you, let alone to agree to buy or hire. On the other, they have more information about everything than they know what to do with.

Selling Services - Click To Read Article
Selling a service isn't the same as selling a product. Your prospect is buying an intangible. There are no shiny buttons to show off. You and your company are the visible representations of the service. You need to live up to them in your image. (marketing) And in how you "court" the prospect. (sales)

Cave Paintings, Baseball and Connecting - Click To Read Article
There’s no such thing as a captive audience--any of us can tune out at will. It may surprise you, then, to know that keeping people’s attention in this high-tech age takes the same know-how we had in neolithic days.

Site Lines Why are you on the web - Click To Read Article
Today, there are few businesses that can avoid being on the net. However, many businesses still don't treat their site like any other marketing tool. The development of your website should be guided by a goal. A focused site helps a small business be successful on the web. Analyze why you want to be on the web--what’s your goal?

Too Dull? Too Sharp? - Click To Read Article
You work hard getting the right cover message and words for your brochure. Now, you want to give it a look, an image.

Seeking Help - Click To Read Article
Where does the time go? Billable time. As a consultant, your practice may be doing reasonably well; you’re charging $100-150 an hour. As an independent consultant, you’re probably also doing everything from grinding the coffee to editing the umpteenth draft of your brochure.

Business Planning for Non-MBAs - Click To Read Article
Have you taken the time to do some reflecting and planning around your business? Planning is one of the key variables separating financially successful businesses from those who just scrape by.





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