In these turbulent times should you lower your rates or change your offer? Or should you keep holding out for your ideal clients? Tips for attracting your hero clients.

Two months ago I wrote a blog about the first week of being in lock down. I’ve just reread it, anticipating finding different words on the page. Two months seems like an age, and I feel more grounded now, so I was expecting to find something more naive and jittery. But actually it’s pretty sound. I surprised myself.

Last Tuesday my client made the decision to cancel her two day workshop booked for Friday and Saturday in London and deliver it online instead. It was a hard decision to make, but the right one. Here’s what happened, and some ideas for you if you have to change your plans and deliver online fast.

Businesses that really connect with people put their clients and customers at the centre of all they do. How do you do that? By talking to the people you serve; asking them the right questions and listening hard. The single most useful thing that you can do to inform your marketing, and indeed your whole business, is to invest in customer feedback.

We often talk about the need to have a really clear message. Capture the value of what you do in simple language, and share that story consistently in the valuable content that you create. Build a brand and a reputation by getting known for the one thing you do really well. Be niche.

But what if you want to shift the focus of what you do? What if the one thing you’ve become known for is no longer lighting your fire?

Writing your business story is a creative exercise. It’s not like any of the other writing you do – very different from blogs or sales proposals – and you need to approach it in a different frame of mind. Here are five steps to help you write your business story.

If your aim is foggy, your content marketing efforts will stumble. It’s easy to get caught up in tactics - I’ll write a six blogs a month, I’ll make the newsletter weekly not monthly, I’ll start a podcast - rather than being really specific about the goal you want to reach. 

Here’s how to focus your marketing efforts and thrive in 2021.

What does your business stand for? Would a manifesto help you tell your story? Here’s how to write a meaningful manifesto for your business.

Which words matter most for your business? Is it your strap line? Your ‘About’ copy? The words you use to describe what you do? Or does it go deeper than that. Here’s my view on what to prioritise.