Podcast: Creating a Connection With Your Audience

January 15, 2020 by Lee Watts

So often we get discouraged when our followers are small, the mailing list numbers are low, there are few likes or engagement in social media. However, we can still have an amazing impact when we make a good connection with our audience.

In my podcast today, I share 3 ways to have an impact with your audience.

Are You Listening & Watching?

April 21, 2018 by Lee Watts

The Power of Listening to Your Clients

Many companies have excellent services or products. I also see amazing brands, with great taglines, logos and sales pages. However, no matter how great your product or service, if you are not listening to your clients and customers to discover their needs, your business will only go so far.

I am still amazed when I speak with excited and ambitious entrepreneurs that design their wonderful plans and strategies based on their strengths and talents. Business and marketing plans should include your strengths, however, without listening and responding to clients needs or wants, you don’t have a business.

Below are five ways to listen to your clients:

1.) Client or Prospective Client Visits: Never underestimate the power of an in-person visit. When a business owner or professional visits their customers or clients, just for a check-in visit, more often than not, it turns into a business opportunity. Many professionals have projects and needs sitting on their desk or in their inbox that they have not assigned or sought help for yet, If your business is solving a problem or making someone’s life easier, visiting a potential client is a great way of reminding them about your value.

2.) Online surveys: Online surveys are great and easy way to receive client feedback. Not everyone will complete the survey, however, you still may be able to collect enough information to impact your marketing strategy. The key is to make the surveys easy and brief. There is a strategy to creating surveys. Be sure to be thoughtful and strategic when surveying your audience.

3.) Watch Your Analytics: Notice what your audience is responding to on social media. If your followers are not responding to your posts or asking more questions, you are not listening to your audience. You should reevaluate your content and create content that is valuable to your clients.

4.) More Social Listening: Not only should you watch your analytics, but also watching what your clients and prospective clients are responding to or sharing on social media provides competitive intelligence. Look at your top clients and prospects. What are they sharing or reading? This should give you more insights on your clients.

5.) Create Forums: Part of effective and strategic marketing is creating a community or a “tribe.” It takes time to do this and it depends on your industry, however if you are able to do this, it helpful in gathering feedback. Within this “tribe” – you are able to ask questions and get feedback on new initiatives and products. A tribe can be created and maintained through a private online group or focus groups. Think about your industry and what make sense for your business.

If you listen and watch, your customers will tell you what they need. How are you listening to your audience and learning more about their needs? If you need assistance with developing a plan to reach out to your clients or prospects, please contact me.

Marketing Challenges for Entrepreneurs

September 25, 2017 by Lee Watts

As an entrepreneur, we can get pulled in so many different directions. There are challenges that will distract you on this entrepreneurial journey. In this article, I will highlight just a few marketing challenges for entrepreneurs and new business owners.

Not knowing your audience: So many people start businesses based on their passions and strengths. This is excellent! However, we often are so focused on starting the business that we forget to pay attention to who we are selling to, including their needs, desires and burdens. We sometimes stop at just describing the demographics of our target audience. However, there is more to knowing your audience than their age or demographics. How do they purchase? What keeps them up at night? Where do they consume information? What do they follow and like on social media? It is critically important to know your audience.
The wrong marketing platforms: Many new businesses have the wrong marketing platforms. They hear about so many social media platforms or new apps or programs and they want to start all of them. There is not careful consideration of which platforms work for your business, target audience or which of them “speak” or sync with each other. It is important to do an audit of your programs and make sure they work for your business and marketing strategy.
Inconsistency & Lack of Clarity: One of the keys to branding is creating a consistent story and selling that narrative to your audience. This requires managing a lot of moving pieces and being able to stand back from your company and brand and decide on a consistent message. This can be challenging. Often, this is the importance of having a marketing or branding consultant, to have an objective eye to look at your messaging and challenge you on your strategy. Inconsistent messaging can cause distrust and ultimately hurt your brand and selling opportunities.
Not Knowing Your USP: Knowing your Unique Selling Proposition is key to marketing and branding. You must know what value you bring to the table. What is your differentiator? Why should your clients and customers purchase from you? When businesses are unclear on this, they stumble through their messaging and how to sell and package their products and services for their clients. Know your value.
Underestimating Content Marketing: Most small businesses don’t have the time or staff to work on content for their social media, blogs or website. However, content marketing is key to establishing your brand and identity. It is what will set you apart as a thought leader in your industry. No matter what you are selling, work on establishing yourself as an expert in your industry.

All these issues can be overwhelming, however, every business owner faces marketing challenges. For assistance with any of these marketing challenges, feel free to contact me.

Dazzle Them with The Experience

May 20, 2017 by Lee Watts

Do you provide great customer service or a great client experience?

Do you have a business, restaurant or store that you enjoy visiting or supporting? It may because of the products they sell, or it could simply be how the establishment makes you feel when you visit Our emotions and our experiences play a huge role in branding and marketing. As brand owners, we cannot ignore the power of creating a great and memorable experience for clients and customers.

Why is Client Experience (CX) Important?

If a customer has a great experience with you, he/she will likely be a repeat customer and will tell others about your business, service or product. If they have enough good experience, they will be a loyal customer.

Customer experience is NOT customer service. Customer service is often that point of contact your customer may have your business. Customer experience embodies every experience, from digital awareness/media until after the transaction or service has been provided (follow-up or surveys).

Below are a few things to consider with creating a strategy for a wonderful and consistent customer service experience.

Keep It Simple

Unfortunately, I’ve seen businesses or organiations make this too complicated, and then not able to maintain a consistent customer experience plan. You have your core business – the service or product that you provide – therefore, be careful not to overthink providing a good client experience. Think about your current client interactions on a daily basis. How can you improve it? How can you make it easier or more efficient for your clients or customers? Is there another small way that you can make them feel appreciated?

Ask Them

We often underestimate the power of simply asking our clients/customers how they feel? If we remember that ultimately marketing is about creating and building relationships, we will keep in mind that in every relationship people just want to be heard and validated. Are you listening to your audience? Do they know you are listening and that you’ve heard them? Are you addressing concerns and issues? Ask. Listen. Respond.

Look at the Big Picture

Be careful that you don’t judge your client’s experience on one touchpoint. They may have a great interaction with you and your service or product, however, the payment process may have been complicated. Or they may have tried to order something from you online and it wasn’t clear. Or someone from your accounting department was rude. Be sure to step back and look at all touch points and the WHOLE experience of your clients/customers.

Don’t Forget Emotions

Emotions play a big role in marketing and branding in a myriad of ways. With client/customer experience, you must know your audience and what is important to them. When we know what is important to them, we understand more of the emotion to connect to and better able to make the the client experience relevant. Always know your audience and what is important to them.

If you need assistance with creating a client experience vision or strategy, feel free to contact me. I would love to answer any questions that you may have or help you create an amazing strategy.

To Thine Self Be True: Niche Marketing

June 15, 2016 by Levitica "Lee" Watts

One of the foundations to any marketing and branding plan is to know your audience. I cannot stress it enough. Knowing your target audience is critical for many reasons, including knowing exactly how to speak and market to your audience. Many people often fear that if that you get too specific or have too narrow of a target, they will miss out on potential business or clients. But there is no way to speak to all people. Just like we don’t look for designer handbags at Walmart, nor do we look for buy 1 get 1 free deals at

Bloomingdales. Getting really specific in your marketing and brand position, helps you to build a marketing plan that is sure to work. It helps to create niche marketing, which can be helpful in branding yourself and growing your business.

What is Niche Marketing?

Niche marketing examines a segment of your clients or audience and identifies how this particular audience prefers to buy, purchase or engage. It will identify a niche in various ways; either through industry, skill set, age, interests, purchasing behavior, etc. Once the niche is identified, the company will build a marketing plan around this industry.

One of the things I want to stress is that niche marketing does not mean that you will not focus on other areas of your business. However, it is simply making a decision on how you are choosing to create a specific marketing strategy or campaign.

How Do I Develop My Niche?

A niche will not just fall into your lap. You will need to create it, look for it, develop it, connect it.

1.) Know your USP – Be clear on your unique selling proposition. What sets you apart? What do you bring to the table that is different from others in your industry. Examine your strengths and talents and how you present it to the world.

2.) Know Your Passion – In order for any branding or marketing plan to succeed, you must know your passion. What is that you love to do or talk about? What are you truly good at? Take that and combine it with your USP.

3.) Know Your Audience – If you combine what you are truly good at and passionate about, with a specific audience or industry, you will learn all the factors, specifics of that audience and begin developing programs and services to assist with that. Know their main concerns, not just in your industry, but truly get to understand how your audience thinks.

Once you know the three items above, then begin connecting the dots. This is where you may need a coach to help you work through the process.

Test your niche. Do something of low cost and not too much effort and evaluate the type of response you receive from your intended audience.

If you need any assistance with developing a niche marketing plan, feel free to contact me for more information.