While getting started on brand strategy and design and website strategy with my clients, one of the first things I want to know is who the ideal client is. Who is the person the brand and website must resonate with and speak to. Who does it need to attract to my client?

How do you know who your ideal client is? Your Ideal Client is some one who:

• Has problems and challenges you can easily fix and solve with your eyes closed
• Sees you as a valuable necessity they treasure, instead of a necessary evil
• Likes you, appreciates your hard work, and will tell their friends, peers, and contacts about you
• Will pay you what you’re worth and will be happy to do so because they know you’re worth it

But how do you find out exactly who they are?

Grade Them.Look at all of your clients for a set time period and give each one a grade — A, B, C, D, F. Don’t think about it too much. Just go with your gut instinct and be honest — Don’t worry! No one will see this but you.

Learn More About Finding & Defining Your Ideal Clients

Marketing includes any contact a person has with any part of your business. It is an ongoing process not a single event.

When you look at it that way, marketing can sound pretty "big" and overwhelming — After all, every contact with your business is a lot of space to cover!

I want to you think about marketing a bit differently though. Think about marketing as a whole bunch of opportunities to educate your audience on how to achieve their goals, grow their business, improve their life, etc.

One important thing to remember though, is that people only read and pay attention to what interested them. That means it’s your job to provide them interesting content, images, videos, audios, and messages so they pay attention!

It’s also your job to market your business. You owe it to the people whom you can help that are suffering and just haven’t found you yet. They need your help and they need to be able to find you. The only way to do that is to market your business.

Now you don’t need to be a marketing guru, expert, or maven to succeed at marketing a small business — you just have to be committed and consistent. Consistent mediocre marketing with commitment will work better and produce more results than brilliant marketing done inconsistently without commitment.

Here’s what you need to know about successful marketing for small business:

Learn How to Succeed at Small Business Marketing

During our recent camping trip, I created something brand new …
and we named it Marshmallow Lava.

In one of our previous camping trips, I started a new family tradition of building sculptures out of marshmallows. We LOVE arts and crafts projects, and this is just another way for us to express our creativity.

Learn How Marshmallows Can Help Your Marketing

Last week Bourn Creative was closed while we took a trip with my parents to the Happiest Place on Earth — Disneyland! This photo is a picture of all of us getting ready to jump on the Toy Story Mania ride in California Adventure.

While we explored the two theme parks and enjoyed the fabulous Grand Californian hotel, we definitely noticed a few things about Disney’s sales and marketing upsell strategies…

They key to making the sale is when and where the offer is made!

For example, would you buy Toy Story toys and clothes in Fantasy Land where the princesses reign supreme? Not a chance! But guess what, when we walked out of the Toy Story Mania ride into the Toy Story store, we definitely bought a Lego Buzz Lightyear and a bucket of Little Green Men!

This is Disney’s secret to making more sales and getting you to part with more of your hard-earned cash… offer the right upsell at the right time at the right place. For example:

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Lessons From Our Teenage House Guests

Currently, we have a good friend’s two youngest kids (ages 12 and 15) staying with us while they take their oldest on a two-week graduation trip to Paris (lucky kid right!).

We’ve been having a blast baking and eating junk food, swimming and relaxing, doing some great craft projects, and even going fishing (check out the photo!) at S and J Mandarin Grove, my in-laws’ organic mandarin orchard in Newcastle, California! My two kiddos, ages 4 and 6, have LOVED having their new “big sisters” to play with every day.

During their stay, I’ve drawn some interesting conclusions about the similarities between my young teenage house guests, marketing a business, and why you might be a lazy marketer. READ MORE