Articles

Scaling Your Business HUSTLE Stage

Blog-Zensen

How a Conversational Strategy Helps to Scale Your Business

What does it mean to be interesting? According to Dictionary.com, interesting means “arousing curiosity or interest; holding or catching the attention”. Is your brand interesting? Does your marketing arouse curiosity or hold the attention of your intended audience?

To be interesting doesn’t mean you need to become a comedian or that suddenly you only share content featuring cute puppies. Being interesting means that you are interested in your audience’s needs and wants. It means that you can re…

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Blog-Hourglass

Which is More Important Quantity or Quality in the Sales Funnel?

Which is more important, quantity or quality? It seems like everyone has their own opinion about which one is “more” important. I think it’s asking the wrong question and seeks to justify an excuse. Yes, you need quantity because not every prospect is a good fit for your organization and yes, you need quality to ensure that your leads are qualified and likely to convert. It’s not one or the other, it’s both.

Most of your client journey is outside of your control. With all the modern technology …

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Img-Arrows

Growth and Scaling: What's the Difference and Why Does it Matter?

In early 2021, I changed my tagline to Be Ready to Scale®. Shortly after that, I was meeting with a prospect and he asked me, “Why did you choose the word 'scale' instead of growth?”

At first, I was taken aback. It wasn’t a question I was expecting as we were talking about his company and how I could help him. I was happy to answer him though. It’s what makes me different from my competitors.

I explained that growth is something that is usually thought about in linear terms—a company acquires …

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Blog-MVP

The Ability of a Brand to Go from Viable to Valuable

MVP. Sounds exciting. You want that title. Right?

Well, unfortunately, I am not going to talk about being the most valuable player. Instead, my thoughts are about a minimal viable product (MVP). I know that is nowhere near as sexy. And as you know, you don't want me talking sports. LOL!

Anyway, I want to draw attention to the words--minimal...viable...product—MINIMAL in particular.  

The concept is great, you spend as little as possible and generate the most revenue (and hopefully profit too)…

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Blog-Slinky

Increase the Power and Impact of Your Brand with a WOW Statement

Are you looking to enhance your brand impact, drive sales, and achieve your revenue goals? Harnessing the power of brand messaging with category design is the key to unlocking growth and scaling your business.

In my experience, there are gaps between formal, traditional marketing statements, the pillars of marketing success, and the actual application and results of these structures. These statements are either too formal and wordy or too slapstick and trendy. The pillars used to build and defi…

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Blog-ClickLikeShare

Unlocking Success: Hiring the Perfect Social Media Manager for Your B2B Brand

As a B2B executive, the quest to find the ideal social media manager can significantly impact your company's digital marketing success. To streamline this process, it’s crucial to establish a clear understanding of your company's short- and long-term goals, its marketing goals, the necessary internal setup to support your inbound efforts, and the specific qualities to look for in a social media manager.

 

Establish Your Company and Marketing Goals

Before meeting potential candidates, it's cru…

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Blog-Avoidable

How to Make Sure Your Rebrand is a Success

I remember having a conversation with a business owner years ago about branding. He was trying to convince me that a brand’s logo should NEVER, EVER change. At the time I had been in the industry for over a decade and knew that his intention was correct, but the reality couldn’t be more wrong. As I sat there listening to his reasonings—which completely contradicted each other, but that’s another story—I was taken back to my days in college and my History of Graphic Design book. There was an enti…

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Blog-CMO

The FAQs of Working with a Fractional CMO

What is a fractional CMO?

A fractional CMO is a contract Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), retained on a part-time basis to provide executive marketing leadership for a growing business. They are a key part of your executive team brought in to take a holistic view of your business. They seek to understand your business objectives with enough clarity to develop fresh and impactful marketing strategies that will drive growth for your organization. They work with you to develop strategic insights, fo…

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Blog-NewMindset

Do You Need a CMO or a Fractional CMO?

Hiring a CMO or Director of Marketing can be challenging. These are very important roles that can make or break an organization— especially when you factor in the costs of recruiting, benefits, and the equity you may have to hand over. To invest all this in finding a CMO when there is no guarantee they will be a fit is a massive risk to take on.

‍Fractional work is the new full-time employee. Whether you call it part-time, interim, gig work, virtual, on-demand, contract work, consultant, or fra…

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Blog-Diamond

How to Build the Ultimate Brand to Better Connect with Your Customers

Figuring out your brand personality can seem to be impossible. It's like figuring out who you are and what really matters to you as a person. We all struggle (whether we admit it or not) when it comes to figuring out who we really are. It can take years of self-reflection, self-care, and personal discovery only to discover that who we thought we were is not who we actually are…and then begins the process of accepting who we really are. Well, you don’t have that kind of time when it comes to buil…

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