Courtesy of Canada Post’s Venture One Program

1. Identify your objectives. What do you want to communicate? What action do you want the customer to take? Do you want to build a relationship?
2. Sell benefits not features. A feature tells what your product does, while a benefit tells how your product satisfies a need or overcomes a problem. Customers want to know, “What’s in it for me?”
3. Include an offer. Give your prospects a reason to respond—now. Make it relevant, irresistible and worth their time and effort.


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As you may know I operate businesses in Kelowna, Vancouver, and Calgary.  With that come alot of road trips.  Kelowna is where I went to highschool and Okanagan University College before moving to Toronto, Calgary, Europe, and then eventually back to BC again.

On one of my recent commutes from Vancouver to Kelowna my muffler decided to turn my usually enjoyable ride into an adventure.  I had to drive with the windows rolled down for fresh air as the cab filled up with exhaust.

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The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics were a great success and have motivated many Canadians to cheer on the Olympic Team that brought us the first of many Gold Medals on home soil, breaking several world records.  The numbers are impressive now, but it wasn’t easy to get there.

What do the Olympics have to do with Marketing?

There are many marketing lessons to be learned here, and this I can’t stress enough, I’m not referring to the big corporate fancy advertising campaigns, tv ads, or BC’s “You’ve gotta be here” commercial.  (Which by the way I quite like).    Instead the focus should be behind the scenes, dig deeper, and you’ll see that there are many Marketing lessons  to be learned here.

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Marketing Your Small Business with direct mail and unaddressed admail is a breeze with Canada Post’s Venture One Program.  In case you’re not familiar with it, the VentureOne program is a small business loyalty program from Canada Post and is available to any small business that ships parcels and documents, and that sends brochures or flyers to connect with their customers. It’s FREE and easy to join; there is no contract to sign and no minimum purchase to make.

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What a week… What a day!   Time to de-stress, unwind, put a smile on and look forward to the weekend and a new week ahead.

Enjoy this funny Guerrilla Marketing Video.  TGIF!

While watching the Lang and O’Leary Exchange on CBC there was a great quote made during an interview that really puts light on the question of whether the Stock Market is Gambling or an Investment?

“Short Term you’re betting on the market, long term you’re investing!”

That got me thinking about Marketing and I realized the same can be said about most small business marketing “tactics”. 

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The idea of specialized and modern office designs has experienced a major change from the times when it was considered just a gimmick. Nowadays it is an accepted fact that good office design not only manifests the corporate philosophy of the firm, but it also increases the productivity of the staff and plays a vital role in staff retention.

Flexibility, openness and sustainability are the key elements that define a modern office, so you have to be mindful of these when building a new office. The office system furniture and the office interior design must be selected wisely in order to successfully attain these important objectives, and a few considerations in this regard should be made.

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When you think of Marketing Real Estate you probably think MLS, Flyers, Direct Mail, and the Remax Balloon.  Well there is more to marketing than meets the eye and Rick Wong, a Vancouver born and raised realtor with 30+ years experience in the Metro Vancouver Area is quick to point that Selling Your Home is more than just putting a sign on your lawn.  …and marketing your home is more than just your average run of the mill marketing.

As Rick Wong puts it, marketing is more than just advertising.  It’s about generating interest and desire and that can be done with some out of the box thinking…

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On of the main components to a successful marketing campaign is to plan in advance.  Planning each detail of your promotional events, seminars, or workshops will not only make you r promotion the success you are hoping for, it will also save you a large amount of money over the course of the year. The best way to go about planning in advance is to work a year ahead. So in June of 2010 you should be planning your promotional for June of 2011. This will allow you to take advantage of the clearance items that are available for the month.

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