I have discovered the most annoying question you can ask a prospect: “What’s your budget?”

I was recently looking around for some branded promotional products for a client (pens, notepads, golf umbrellas, etc). This was the first thing several of the companies I contacted asked me – “what’s your budget?”

A client recently asked me if I was worried about ChatGPT and whether I thought I’d be out of a job soon.

My short answer is, no. Read on for my longer answer, and why I’m more intrigued than worried.

The key to good marketing is marketing that helps you connect with more prospects and clients and create more revenue. I always say that marketing is simply this: Getting the right message to the right audience.

If you run a business, manage employees, or deal with suppliers, there will inevitably be times when you have to face some difficult conversations - ones that you dread, avoid or mismanage.

Does your business have a copy style guide? Do you know the in-house guidelines when it comes to abbreviating the company name, referring to directors by name or title, or using industry jargon? Or is it a phraseology free-for-all where anything goes?

The topic of where and when a business should state its prices is an interesting one – and it’s something that business owners ask me about often. Should you state your prices in your marketing materials, such as your website or brochure?

If you’re a business owner, then you’re in the business of marketing. Effective marketing boils down to three key things that you need to do to find more clients, create more sales and generate more revenue.

If your job or business isn’t classified as essential services, chances are you’re either binge watching Tiger King or the new series of Ozark, or you’re working your way through a long list of jobs around the house that have been in the procrastination pile for some time.

Compliments and words of affirmation from others are often more powerful than anything we can say about ourselves. Here is your simple and easy guide to getting great testimonials and getting them to work for your business.

Estimates, quotes, proposals – did you know that the title of the document that you use when you offer your services to a prospective client can greatly affect whether you win business or not?

Never underestimate the power of your words. If you want to create any change in your life or your business, the key might just be in the language you use. You can change your outcomes simply by changing your words.

Small yet fierce, the little hashtag wields so much power and influence in the world of social media. We use it everywhere in our posts, updates and tweets. We even use it in our verbal communication (because doing those quotation mark gestures with your fingers is soooo 2014).

It’s time for “the talk”. You know the one. The “where are we going” talk. You’ve probably had it in one of your past relationships. Well now it’s time to have it with your clients.

Are you selling drill bits or are you selling holes?

Want to sell more of your product or service? Then you need to understand what people are buying. Sound simple? It is. But it’s not merely a case of looking at sales reports and seeing what the big sellers are.

How often do you find yourself saying "I'm too busy"? Or, when someone asks how you are, you reply with something along the lines of, "Good, thanks, just busy"?

If you enter the phrase “top marketing trends” into a search engine, what you’ll find come up in several of the top results is “content marketing”. We’ve been saying it for years – content is king.

If your job or business isn’t classified as essential services, chances are you’re either binge watching Tiger King or the new series of Ozark, or you’re working your way through a long list of jobs around the house that have been in the procrastination pile for some time.

Why do we even call it that?

Look up copy in a dictionary and you’ll see something like this:

copy (n.) early 14c., “written account or record,”