Sonja Jefferson

Contrary to popular belief, marketing is not just about generating new leads. As one of my favourite US marketing bloggers, Sonia Simone puts it:

"So many businesses think ‘marketing’ is the same thing as ‘lead generation’. In other words that marketing equals chasing down strangers so you can wrestle them through the conversion process and turn them into […]

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In December, most small business owners will snatch some time in between signing Christmas cards to think back over the year and assess how the business has fared. You’ll check the figures - profitability, margin, new clients won - and compare these to previous years. Even if 2008 has been a good one, you’ll wonder how to improve your marketing to weather […]

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If you’re thinking about designing or redesigning your company website, it’s tempting to concentrate on how it should look to impress your customers. Design is important, but if you focus on colour schemes before content you run the risk of creating a great looking site that customers either have no use for or cannot use.

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Web user behaviour is changing. Today we spend more time on the web, we have shorter attention spans and are way more demanding of the websites we visit than ever before. We are no longer impressed by self-serving marketing spin or cool flash graphics. These days there is no time for dawdling; we want to reach a […]

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LinkedIn has just hit the 1 million user mark here in the UK. With over 2000 business professionals signing up every day, it can no longer be discounted as a US phenomenon: LinkedIn is now a mainstream tool for business professionals here in the UK, and a highly useful one at that.
Most business people have heard […]

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Great businesses have a clear purpose; something bigger than just revenue or profit; certainly something better than what was there before. For me this is one of the things that separates the great from the run-of-the-mill.
I’ve been lucky enough to work for a couple of these ’super companies’ recently (see examples below). I know when I’ve found […]

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"SO, WHAT DO YOU DO?"
If a potential customer asks you to describe what you do, what do you say?
In my experience, the usual response is a literal one:

"We’re IT developers. We build web-enabled retail systems."
"I’m a builder. I renovate old houses."
"We’re a recruitment company. We source contractors."

This is all very well; it’s part of the answer, but […]

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Want to be seen as an expert in your field? Traditionally, you had to either hammer down the door of a well-read industry magazine or tread the boards on the conference speaking circuit. Luckily for today’s consultants and professional companies, it is now far easier. If you want to take the first step on the […]

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Selling professional services is tough. With no physical ‘product’ to demonstrate it is really hard to prove your unique expertise and set yourself ahead of the competition. Just saying you are ‘market-leading’, ‘cutting-edge’ or ‘quality-driven’ is not enough. There are hundreds of other companies in your field pushing the same empty buzzwords. How can you […]

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