It doesn’t matter if you are a coach, day care provider, fashion designer, make-up artist, an IT consultant, corporate manager or executive, or landscaper. If you are in business you are focused on growing your business to affect your income. I am not a marketing maven, but when I learn about great information, I have to pass it on. What I learned recently is that there are seven solutions when advertising that you need to address for your business growth "to truly fulfill the potential of our contribution to driving the business" to capture your clients’ or audience attention. A sustainable business thrives on these seven solutions.

Before we get started I want to briefly talk about a resource needed that may stump many but doesn’t have to stump you.

If you are not creative, find someone who is. You can create your site and your marking collateral (electronic or hard copy) but it will not come alive unless you have an eye for it to do so. Use their total creativity skills that they have available. If you can dream it, they should be able to do it unless it is physically not possible. Be ready to pay for quality creativity. How do you want your Big Idea to come to life?

Your brand should be a focus of "total immersion," using various elements at one time purposefully to capture who you need and to meet the needs of how your clients and audience receive and absorb information best. Skilled marketing consultants will instruct you how to do this. If they are saying to do it all one way, they are not the person for you. Make sure to mix it up!

1. Use a problem you may have or missing link you discovered as an opportunity re-brand your business and launch a long-term brand campaign. What can you do to create a business character that no one else can claim? People have service opportunities, including special or fast customer service and customer rewards. If package right, someone may find value in one area and forgo the other area. For instance, if you find a great logo or branding artist, you would be willing to wait 2 weeks to receive your product. What hidden opportunity can you include in your Big Idea?

2. Your service can result in and secure your sale. People are returning to the "good ol’ days" of expecting great, friendly, comfortable, understanding customer service. Welcoming new customers in and treating them like customers should be treated…needed. If your customer service is accommodating without being a push over, understanding without being taking advantage of, your customers will remember that you "do a fantastic job and are so great to work with." There should be no pressure. And if you cannot help the customer, be honest and tell them. How can you take your Big Idea service and customer service above the level of everyone else?

3. Make sure where there’s sizzle, there’s steak! Don’t have a lot of lights, camera, and showtime! Make sure that when the curtain opens you have something just as succulent to keep them in the room. Is your Big Idea, a prime piece of steak or budget hamburger with a bunch of fat everywhere? Your audience wants substance and they want it now because they may be able to get it elsewhere. So make sure you have some steak to go with that sizzle! What is the steak of your Big Idea? Do you know how to sprinkle it with some seasoned, succulent sizzle?

4. Provide what they need effectively, efficiently, and unequivocally. When someone purchases from you, make the product or communication automatic, useful, and unparalleled to anyone else. You don’t have to follow someone else’s model for what you provide. Make it your own so they will always think of you and automate, automate, automate. Is the provision or delivery of your Big Idea effective, efficient, and unequivocal?

5. Take what you do and offer it more than one way. Tyson Chicken just had raw chickens in the grocery store. Now they have chicken patties, pre-cooked seasoned chicken, skinless chicken breasts, strips, drummettes, Any’tizers, nuggets, canned chicken, frozen chicken, cornish game hens, and even a meal kit. All of this from one main item, chicken. Diversify. Be creative and you can do something that someone has never done before. If you don’t know what that is, schedule a session with me and we will work on it. Is your Big Idea adaptable to grow legs or is a hugely profitable niche?

6. Maximize your money doing something that no one else does quickly! When Progressive insurance acted on the opportunity in 1988 of the mandated auto insurance premium roll-back, they began to settle claims on the spot. That simple change saved them money because it was quick and the savings was able to be passed on to their clients; hence their prices can be low. The clients loved it because that is one of the biggest and time-consuming headaches for driver in an accident. So what can you do to take away the waste of time and pain in your process? Does your Big Idea answer the hard question everyone is asking?

7. Make your business authentic, real, and illuminate your personality. Make your business yours, not a clone of someone else’s business. The core of your business should be your dream, your vision, your Big Idea. Know your business, know what you are getting into, and know that you know you are committed and let that show through your interactions and operations. What do you need to do to make sure your "personality stamp" is on your business?

Make sure that in moving towards your ideas, you have welcomed, respectful, and open partnerships or collaborations. Embrace the change. It can really be refreshing as you grow your business. Be more proactive and know your clients and their business better than they do. Strategic thinking and planning is one of the keys to your business growth whether you have a team or a mastermind and engage everyone so they don’t just contribute but they feel a part of your Big Idea. Be innovative and use a total brand marketing mix to make your business’ growth stronger.

Your Big Idea is worth your attention, dedication, and effort. Give it, do it, exert it and get your Big Idea going! Sign up for our newsletter to receive information about generating, developing, and communicating your Big Idea. Also look at our Evolve Ideation Program! Get ahead of the pack! If you sign up before April 30, you will receive 2 individual ideation consultations with me before June 6. Sign up now!

Have an idea-filled day!