The Language we Speak

When I was still a rookie-marketer, if I could call it that, I had this wonderful mentor. He taught me a great number of essential human etiquette that truly stayed with me throughout my marketing career.

In today's age, digital everything is taking marketing by storm. It's making marketing easier on some but more complex on others. But in essence, digital marketing is a wonderful new tool that opens doors for many small businesses.

The one big problem with digital marketing is too much focus on digital marketing. This happens when we forget the human element of our business. We focus more on the number aspect of marketing. How many likes, how many followers, how many views, how many reviews, how many clicks, how many shares etc. It becomes a number game and not a human gain.

I believe, marketing is a relationship phenomenon. The way we treat people will definitely have a major impact on one of the most important aspects of your marketing strategy, WORD OF MOUTH.

There is this saying that people will not remember you, but will always remember how you made them feel. The first time I heard this saying, it struck me how perfectly this fits into marketing.

My point is that we can have so many different strategies on how to better market ourselves and get our reach to this great high, but if you do not give people a good experience when they deal with you, you've lost. Then all your hard work, was truly not worth it.

Therefore, I wanted to share some fundamental secrets my mentor, Milton, shared with me and thought it would be interesting to share this with my growing marketing audience. These secrets have become so much a part of me as a person, that I want you to really implement them into the way you deal with your prospects and clients.

Whenever a person deals with your company or business or venture, it's so important to treat them as important. Never underestimate a kind gesture, people want to feel they matter.

My Milton Secrets:

• Greet people with real interest, shake their hand and look them in the eye
• Never only send an email to a new prospect, give them a call and arrange to meet them 
• When you phone a prospect or a client and you ask them how they are, don't do it out of habit, but be sincere 
• Always ask for information with true kindness and let it show in your correspondence and voice
• When conflict arises, stay calm and ask a question rather than directing a statement, get the focus on the solution and redirect it away from the problem (otherwise the focus is on blame)
• Apologise when you were wrong or made a mistake and truly make it up to your client 
• Be honest, never make promises you're not sure you can keep 
• Stay in contact with your client on the progress of their order 
• Always smile, even if you're having a bad day 
• Focus on the positive of every situation, no matter how bad it gets 

There are so many more Milton secrets I'd like to share with you, but I'll keep them out for my next blog session. Keep reading... 

Teeth Whitening - the BIG debate!

Wow! I was amazed at the grand phenomenon of teeth whitening and how it has taken South Africans by storm!

To me personally, whitening my teeth, have never really been that much of a concern, until one of my clients, a dentist, required me to do research on this white topic!

Firstly, I had an appointment with her Oral Hygienist and was amazed at the fundamental basics of keeping your breath nice and fresh! It was quite a learning experience! But that's a conversation for another day!

We discussed teeth whitening and I was quite intrigued and had to say, I wanted to try it out! I also found out that there are various options available. I always thought it had to be done only by a professional and they kind of gave you new teeth!

Well, I was impressed (Mpressed) that you can even try and do the technique at home by yourself. Although it takes a few days and some real dedication. Not something, a mother of two would be able to handle without some mishaps!

The best part came when I saw a certain tooth paste being advertised on Facebook. Every time this product was advertised, about fourty people would reply - I want this! With their email addresses attached! I was, but what is this? And isn't this grand competition for my client?

Therefore, I'd like to throw the ball into your court. What's your opinion on this tooth paste phenomenon. Obviously, if it did work and cost much less than going out to a professional, people would try it, right? But apparently it has some bad side effects on tooth enamel!

What's your opinion on this matter? Would you sacrifice your tooth enamel for a chance at having perfectly white teeth? Or would you rather save some money to have your dentist do it for you?

Mpressiveness of Marketing

Marketing to some is selling.

Whenever I tell someone I am a marketer, they ask me, so what do you sell?

That's the fun thing about my profession. To help others understand that marketing is much much more.

I started this blog to convey my thoughts around the principle of marketing and how in today's age, it has become a much more personal phenomenon.

To me, marketing is about building relationships and not simply all about telling people about what product/service you have, how much it costs and how wonderful it is. But it's about truly tapping into the needs of those people and then aligning what you have to offer with their needs. When you do that, you get people to trust you!

I've been doing marketing for 8 years now and I'm still learning new creative ways to market people's businesses. Now that I've started my own marketing company, not only do I help my clients market themselves, but I need to market myself to them too!

Marketing is a word I would love to explore more and share with fellow bloggers who love the possibilities it brings, and who wish to know more about this awe-inspiring term that can turn your business from mediocre to Mpressive!