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.

Your Grade D and F clients are ones you should fire and transition elsewhere right away!

Your Grade C Clients are on the fence. If they can become Grade A or B clients with better training, keep them. If they really should have been Grade D or F clients but you were being nice, think about a staggered exit plan for these clients too.

Not look closely at your Grade A and B clients. These are your best clients — The clients you want a lot more of. All of your best clients have at least one thing in common (if not more) and you need to find out what it is: Are they all men? Are they all the same age? Are they all moms? Do they all have the same problem? Are they in the same industry? Do they attend the same events?

If you’re not sure what your Grade A and B clients have in common, ask them! Ask them what events they attend, who they look to for mentoring, what websites/blogs they frequent, what challenges they have, what they dream about, etc.

Once you have a clear picture of who your ideal client is, create a Client Persona for reference.

A Client Persona is a profile of a person who would be the perfect client for you. Start by giving them a name and find a stock photo online to represent them and make them real to you. Then describe in detail everything you now know about them (the more specific the better):

• List what they are passionate about, what is important to them, and what they cherish
• List their hobbies, likes, dislikes, and pet peeves
• List their demographic information
• List their challenges, needs, and struggles
• List the events they go to, the people they follow, the media they consume, etc.

When you have completed your Client Persona, put it somewhere that is easy to see and reference.

Every time you work on marketing your business, writing blog posts, editing your website, filming a video, etc. do it with your Client Persona in mind. Tailor the content to speak directly to them and to address things that are important to them. If you can do this, your ideal clients will "click" with your content, resonate with your message, and feel compelled to read more, contact you, or click that buy link.

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:

1. You Must Research:
   The more you know about your audience, ideal clients, and market place, the better and more impactful your marketing can be.
2. You Must Know The Benefits:
   You need to really understand the tangible and emotional benefits your clients and customers will experience and receive. Know exactly how your product, program, or service will transform their lives, change their business, and make a difference.
3. Select The Right Marketing Tools:
   Be careful to choose only the marketing tools you will use. Don’t add everything into your marketing mix at once — that a recipe for overwhelm! You’ll start out great, then you’ll start to slowly abandon tools and strategies. Start with a few you know you can stay committed to and that you know you enjoy. Successful marketing tools are ones you enjoy using because you’ll continue to use them and stay committed.
4. Create a Marketing Plan:
   Yes you need a marketing plan. It doesn’t have to be several pages long. It doesn’t have to be complex. It just needs to clearly define the purpose of your business, the purpose of your marketing, your brand story, your target market / ideal client, your differentiators, your chosen marketing tools, and your marketing budget. Keep it short and sweet and refer to it often, tweaking as needed to keep you on track.
5. Create a Marketing Calendar:
   Plan out your marketing on a year-long calendar! Include your marketing activities, budget, message, and focus for each month.
6. Locate Marketing Partners:
   Look for complimentary not competitive business owners and entrepreneurs who serve the same ideal client you do and partner up in your marketing. This may be as a joint venture, strategic referral partner, social media support, affiliate, etc.
7. Maintain Your Marketing:
   Marketing is an ongoing process that never stops. It is not a one time event. Keep going, keeping getting your message out there, keep providing value, and maintain (or grow) your position in the marketplace.
8. Track and Measure:
   Test headlines, calls to action, content, and graphics. Track everything. Look and where you succeeded and where you failed. Ditch what didn’t work and focus on and expand what did work. Know where your new business is coming from and nurture those leads sources.
9. Never Stop Learning:
   When you think you know it all and stop learning, you’re paving the way to business death! Never stop learning and improving your knowledge and skills. Always work on being better than you were at what you do than you were the day before.

You see? Marketing success isn’t a mystery. If you follow these nine simple guidelines, you’ll succeed at marketing your business, generate new leads, get more clients, build your reputation as an expert, and grow your business.

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.

We collect all different sizes and shapes of marshmallows before the trip and when combined with toothpicks, they can become almost anything we can imagine. Then, when we’re finished, we put our sculptures in the campfire and watch them burn, grow, and ooze gooey messiness – that’s the Marshmallow Lava, the burning marshmallows. It’s fascinating to watch!

We try all different kinds of techniques for building and burning. Now we know:

• Which work best as foundation pieces
• When to use a whole toothpick or break it in half
• How to get the sculptures to stand up on the plate without falling down
• How to get it into the fire in the best spots
• When to put it in the fire on the plate

We created something new and learned what worked and what didn’t from trial and error.

Now we keep on doing what works over and over, testing new ideas with the tried and true methods.

It’s kind of like marketing if you think about it. In marketing you:

• Try something new
• Assess what worked and didn’t work
• Get rid of what didn’t work
• Keep what did work
• Repeat the process

Just like building marshmallow sculptures, you learn what works best for you, your business, your audience, and your marketing from trial and error.

Sometimes you’re lucky enough to be the first to create a new approach or method. Sometimes you’re lucky enough to work with a great coach, mentor, or service provider who will help minimize the errors. Sometimes what seems like your biggest failure turns into your best opportunity.

But in the end it is all a marketing process of trial and error and consistent steps forward toward your goals isn’t it? What do you think?

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:

• Star Wars gear is available for sale outside Space Mountain and the Jedi Training Show area
• Princess accessories, dresses, and makeovers are available in Fantasy Land and princess headquarters.
• Buzz Lightyear and Toy Story toys and gear are available in dedicated stores at the exit of both the Toy Story Mania ride and the Buzz Lightyear ride
• Adventure and safari gear is available in Adventure Land, with Pirate gear just outside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and jungle animals across from the Jungle Cruise.

By offering an upsell that ties in perfectly with the experience you just had on a ride or at a show and the high of emotions you’re feeling at that exact moment, Disney uses your emotions to get you to pull out your wallet and fork over the cash.

Of course the sales of Star Wars lightsabers are the highest right outside Space Mountain and the Jedi Training Show! My daughter Natalie was picked to go through the Jedi Training and fight Darth Vader on stage and we definitely bought both kids lightsabers for $14.95 each to take home after that!

This smart marketing approach got Brian and I thinking about our own marketing upsell strategies and your marketing upsell strategies too. I’ll bet you could increase your sales and conversions by simply reworking or tweaking your upsell process a bit.

This week I want you to look at your offers, products, promotions, and upsells, and evaluate their effectiveness. Ask yourself:

1. Am I offering this at the right time
2. Am I offering this to the right people
3. Am I offering this is the right place

Look at ways you could improve your process to make saying YES easier and more natural for your audience.

I also want you to look at areas that you may be missing an opportunity to make an offer. Are there places in your sales funnel or marketing process that could really benefit from the addition of an offer? After the sale or completion of a project, is there an item you can offer as a follow up to offer even more value?

Think about it and share your thoughts and ideas below! I’d love to hear about your upsells, added-value offers, or tweaks you make to your process!

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.

Just like teens, you audience WON’T DO ANYTHING UNLESS YOU ASK THEM TO. Teens aren’t going to do the dishes or clean up the house without being asked to. And, guess what? Your audience won’t hand over their email or buy your stuff unless you ask them to. You need to include a call to action in your marketing and make the ask! So many entrepreneurs forget to make the ask and then later wonder why no one bought.

Also, just like teens, your audience wants it to be easy and they wants to get something out of the deal. Teens don’t want to work hard or expend a lot of effort. Well, neither does your audience. Your audience wants an easy, no-brainer buying process that directly answers the two big marketing questions: What’s In It For Me and Why Should I Care.

If you’re a lazy marketer, you don’t put in the effort to get to know your audience, you don’t get out of your own head and into theirs, and you don’t take the time to communicate the results and benefits they will experience and achieve. Unfortunately for lazy marketers, you HAVE TO TAKE THOSE STEPS before you start copywriting or you may just get an “F” in marketing.