Category: Blog

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in my steamed up car in Tesco car park. I was supposed to be joining a storytelling webinar on Zoom but a sudden torrential downpour was preventing me from getting to my studio, and my phone was struggling to load the stream and kept buffering.

When I left the studio for a meeting an hour earlier the weather was fine so I decided not to pick up my coat. Now there I was, stuck in one place when I really wanted to be in another. The cost of moving from the car to the office was to be wet and cold for the rest of the afternoon. The reward was to learn something new and be inspired to be more creative.

Have you ever felt like your business is stuck in one place when you really want it to be somewhere better? A better connection with your customers will help move your business on.

Get clarity about how to connect with your customers. We are offering a free messaging review of your website or social media now on our website. Look good, sound great, and grow your business.

20 minutes later it was blue sky and sunshine.

One morning last summer I was walking around the local farmers market and as I ambled along the rows I was intrigued by a stall selling mushrooms. Really good looking mushrooms.

The two young men behind the stall started telling me about how they had just started the company, grow all their own mushrooms and this was their first market. I like mushrooms, and these really good looking mushrooms were very reasonably priced. But my head was telling me I’ve got some mushrooms at home. I thanked the stall holders for their information and walked on.

The next stall was a man selling English wines. ‘Red or white sir?’ What do you prefer? There is only one answer to that question. ‘Red’ I said. The wine guy then proceeded to tell me how the red wine compares in taste to the more familiar European wines I might know more about.

I walked away with a bottle of not so cheap wine – and I have loads of wine at home.

‘People don’t buy the best product, they buy the one they can understand the fastest.’ Donald Miller

The difference between the two markets stall vendors was that one told me about themselves, the other made it about me. They bought me into the story.

Marketing and communcation should always be about the customer and the problem that you solve for them.

At Press Creative we help businesses get the attention of their customers by bringing them into a story.

For engaging design, words that matter, and marketing that works visit our website and schedule a call.

The wine was OK, but I bet the mushrooms were nicer.

About 20 years ago I was on a flight to Cairo that had a short stopover at Rome airport. In those days my drink of choice was a bucket of latte from Starbucks or Costa and having never been to Italy before, this 90 minutes on Italian concrete was a chance to have a real Italian latte.

Real coffee from the land of coffee drinkers.

I had a few euros in my pocket and having landed in Rome I scouted the terminal for the best looking cafe. A row of finely dressed, coffee drinking Italians were stood at the bar I had selected and as I queued I felt the anticipation growing.

Real coffee in the land of coffee drinkers.

I don’t speak Italian but as the smooth looking bar tender looked at me for my order I said in my best Anglo Italian ‘Un Latte Per Favore’. He looked at me and repeated back to me what I said. I nodded and repeated back to him. Anticipation was now at fever pitch.

30 seconds later I was stood at the bar, next to many finely dressed, coffee drinking Italians nursing a glass of cold milk.

Caffè latte! It’s Caffè latte!

One important word made all the difference and I missed it!

At Press Creative we help small businesses say the right things to get the results they want. Clear design and strategic messaging that can be applied in clear marketing.

P.S. I now drink a small Americano without milk which, as I discovered after a long lunch in Paris a few years ago, is also a rather strong cocktail. But that’s another story.

Communicate with clarity and get the results you want.

One sunny morning a few years ago I was jogging along my usual country lane route, listening to some helpfully upbeat running tunes when my rhythmic stride was rudely interrupted by an uninvited noise. White van man had been patiently inching along behind me for a few yards before realising I couldn’t hear him so he hit the hooter. Hard.

My need for a soundtrack had drowned out everything else and I did not have a clue that an increasingly irate driver of a vehicle that had clearly seen more than it’s fair share of scrapes was about to invite me to stand aside and let him pass. I swiftly made way. Gandalf I was not.

Our marketing and brand messaging is not always heard because we are not talking about the right things and not using the right words. We are standing in the way of the message.

At Press Creative we help small businesses to create clear brand messaging that connects with their ideal clients, so they are seen, heard, and understood.

We recently found ourselves looking for a cafe for a quick lunch in a town we’d never been to before.

We walked into Cafe #1. There were lots of people eating and lots of staff. However, no staff members looked up to greet us. There was know way to know whether we should stand at the door and wait to be seen, or sit down at a table and wait for someone to bring us a menu, or order at the bar and then find a table, or find a table then order at the bar, or would a waiter will be round to take our order? Nothing. We felt a little stupid. And left.

Walking into an equally packed Cafe #2 we were immediately greeted, shown to a table, given menus and told that someone would be over shortly to take our order.

It may sound simple, but when customers don’t know how to do business with you they move on. They don’t want to appear stupid. Just because you know, don’t assume that everyone else knows.

A clear 3 step plan helps takes the mystery away. Explain the process. Don’t leave it to the customer to work it out. Build a bridge using words that links the customer problem to the solution you offer to that problem.

As hungry customers we needed:

1. Sit here.
2. Order there.
3. Eat and be filled!

Don’t let your potential customers leave before you even knew they were there!

At Press Creative we help small businesses to create clear brand messaging that connects with their ideal clients.

A little over two weeks ago Sir Paul McCartney successfully headlined Glastonbury at the age of 80, but on this day 37 years ago at about 9:45pm he was the big final act at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium. 72,000 people in London, 89,000 in Philadelphia, and on live tv to an estimated 1.9 billion people across 150 countries. That’s almost 1/3 of the planet.

He came on, sat down at the piano and started the intro and first verse of Let it Be. One of the biggest singers, from arguably the biggest band, singing one of their biggest songs. It should have been a glorious rock and roll triumph that united the world.

But as he sang no-one joined in. He carried on. Still very few people sang along.

In all the technical mastery that goes with running a groundbreaking event like Live Aid, his microphone wasn’t coming through the speakers, or the TV feed. Except for those sweaty souls at the very front, no one could hear him for about 2 minutes. He found himself in times of trouble, and Mother Mary was nowhere to be seen.

Getting the attention of your potential customers can sometimes feel like yelling into a packed stadium without a microphone.

The vision of Press Creative is to help small businesses thrive through engaging design, and words that matter, so that the things they say – their marketing – connects.

We help them be seen, be heard, and be understood.

Contact me and we can talk about how you can communicate with clarity.

Back in the early 1980s I learned how to do the Rubik’s Cube. I walked to a bookshop, bought a book, studied and learned the moves and solved the puzzle. Some kids partied. I learned the cube.

For a few weeks I was known at school as the kid who could do the cube. Teachers would bring me their unsolved cubes so that they could see me do it, and then take it to the staff room and claim that they did it.

I became known for solving a problem, and people knew me for the problem I solved.

Connecting with your customers becomes a whole lot easier when we can identify and articulate the problem that we solve, and then be known for solving that problem.

At Press Creative we are known for helping help small businesses communicate with clarity by creating clear design and clear language that can be used in clear marketing so they can cut through the noise and be seen, heard, and understood.

What problem should your business be known for solving?

The start of Spring is probably my favourite time of year. The warming sun starts to peak out from behind the greyness of winter, the days get a little longer, and signs of life start to appear again.

Every year I pretend to be a gardener and plant seeds in the hope that they will bear some fruit in the coming months. Last week I carefully planted my usual concoction of fruit, veg and herbs and have peaked under the plastic lid of the potting box every morning since to see if anything has happened overnight.

It’s a reassuringly slow process!

It’s really important to get things right at the beginning and when we talk about our businesses it’s important to get the messaging right.

Customers don’t particularly need to know the detail of what you do and how you do it but they do need to know how you can provide value to them and how what you do will bring success to them.

In the last few days some green shoots have broken through the compost to let me know that all is well.

Let your customers know that what you do can help them. Be seen, heard and understood and let your business thrive.