Gandhi once said, “A small body of determined spirits, fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission, can alter the course of history.” Gandhi and his followers certainly did just that, as have many others who took a mission to heart.

In the 1980 movie, The Blues Brothers, Jake and Elwood Blues are men on a mission. They experience a revelation and decide they must get their old band back together in order to earn enough money to save the Catholic boarding school where they were raised. Not quite as grand a mission as Gandhi’s, no doubt, but a mission just the same.

Chances are, your company has a mission, too, with an accompanying mission statement, carefully crafted and culled to provide optimal guidance in the decisions you make as an organization.

But what about you personally? What’s your mission? What drives your own personal decisions? Your career, aspirations, and dreams? What prism do you use to focus your thoughts and cast light on the choices you face at work, at home, and in the world?

Experts like Dr. Stephen Covey advocate the need for a personal mission statement to guide the decisions that affect your own life and career. Just as successful companies use mission statements to clarify and filter their organizational decisions, many successful individuals do the same on a personal level, as well.

FranklinCovey has put together an online Mission Statement Builder to help you create a personal mission statement for yourself, your family, and your team. I recommend checking it out and giving it a try.

As you begin filtering your day-to-day decisions through a personal mission statement, you may be surprised to find that reaching your goals becomes easier.

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Depending on the nature of your business, your customers may spend a lot of time on the phone talking to sales reps, customer service, customer support, etc. If you’re looking for a great way to add a personal touch to these interactions, consider posting photos of your sales or support staff on your website, business cards, and other marketing materials.

Employee photos are a compelling way to capture your visitors’ attention on your website. More importantly, though, conversion rates increase when people can connect emotionally. Photos are a great way to foster this kind of connection between your customers and staff.

Because people buy from people, they are often curious about who they are speaking with. Photos increase interest in day-to-day interactions and help customers and prospects recognize and remember the members of your team, making them more likely to approach your staff at trade shows or other social events.

In addition to posting individual photos, group photos and candid shots of employees at work are great ways to show off your facility, the various skills you can offer in-house, and the potential bulk of your workforce.

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The online commerce world is constantly changing, yet one thing remains the same: the dramatic impact “free shipping” has on sales. “Free shipping” is the top offer customers look for and will respond to in e-mail messages. In addition, many customers abandon their shopping carts because of high shipping charges and select retailers who offer free shipping over those who don’t.

Many people wonder, is free shipping really free? Unlikely. Pricing is often a perception game, with the cost of shipping getting absorbed into the product cost. However, many people would often rather pay more for a product than pay the extra shipping.

Here are a few creative shipping promotion ideas to encourage customers to purchase from you rather than your competitor’s website:

• Offer a shipping promo relevant to purchase amount. For example: Receive free shipping with an order or $50 or more.

• Send a free shipping code as an exclusive offer, such as a birthday or anniversary promo, or to those who “like” you on Facebook.

• Depending on the types of products you offer, consider an affordable $1/item shipping option.

• Offer free site-to-store pickup, which also encourages additional sales when customers pick up their package.

• Offer a customer loyalty club that offers free shipping or reimburses shipping after reaching X amount of annual purchases.

• Consider offering a free shipping club that usually carries an annual membership fee. For example: Pay a $30 annual membership fee to receive free shipping on every purchase for one year. This not only encourages loyal customers to purchase more than they may otherwise, but also encourages customers to do their shopping exclusively at your business versus another because of free shipping.

Offer a flat-rate shipping promo. While shipping isn’t free, it can often encourage customers to make more purchases, knowing they will only pay X for shipping regardless of their purchase amount.

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Many people enjoy shopping online for one main reason: convenience. A frequently asked questions (FAQ) section on your website will save your customers time by providing them with quick answers and relevant advice. At the same time, it will also save you time by eliminating repetitive questions. A well-produced FAQ will reinforce buying decisions and shorten the time it takes to order from your business. Here are a few tips to get the most out of your FAQ section:

• Answer each FAQ with well-written content that will also help rank in search engines for keywords relevant to your industry. Doing this can help turn your site into a resource for customers and other prospects.

• Allow answers to expand and minimize with a single click, so the questions remain easily scannable and readers don’t have to wait for a new page to load each time. Do not create the FAQ as a separate file (such as a PDF) that customers need to download to read.

• Update FAQs frequently to ensure answers are still relevant.

• Organize questions so they are easy to find, such as by category, with the most popular questions first.

• Use brief, informative answers. If detailed answers are required, provide a link to more information. Have the link open in a new window, so the visitor doesn’t have to leave the current page.

• Focus on providing helpful information. Avoid flashy designs that distract from your content.

Include various contact methods should the reader want more answers. In addition to general contact information (phone, fax, email, mailing address, etc.), provide a question form that’s easily accessible from your FAQ page.

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We’ve all heard the adage that time is money. Well, in the financial markets of New York and London, they measure that time in milliseconds and the money in hundreds of millions of dollars.

More precisely, a new transatlantic cable, currently in development, will save traders about 6 milliseconds per transmission. The project’s cost: $300 million. Once finished, the company behind the cable plans to charge as much as 50 times more to use the service than existing alternatives, and financial companies are already chomping at the bit to pay.

Why? According to one estimate, a savings of just one millisecond would add $100 million to a large hedge fund’s annual bottom line.

So where can your company shave time?

• Start small. Sure, you’re not likely to see a $100 million savings, but even little time-savers — a few minutes here, a couple seconds there — add up and can help you work more productively.

• Streamline processes. Engineers working on the new transatlantic cable project studied commercial flight paths between New York and London in planning their route. As a result, the new cable will be about 310 miles shorter than existing lines. What best practices can you follow to achieve similar savings at your company?

• Plan for the future. This is the first new transatlantic line installed in the last 10 years, and planners have spared no expense to make sure it lives up to its promise. If it fails — or someone builds a faster conduit — all they’ll have is a very expensive piece of cord lying at the bottom of the ocean. So how can you plan ahead to keep momentum going? Start by investing in technology, building up infrastructure, and creating a mindset of efficiency and effort at your company.

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Many people think that simply attending social or networking events is enough to get their name out there. However, being approachable and remembered are far more important than simply showing up. Here a suggestion on how to become more approachable:

• Always wear a nametag at company events. Seeing your name will make people feel more comfortable (especially if they’ve forgotten it), and your company name can easily be a conversation starter.

• Extend a friendly handshake, and introduce yourself to someone new.

• Walk slower, smile, and look around. Make eye contact with people. This makes it easier for people to get your attention. If you are hanging out in one area, put your cell phone, computer, and other distractions away, so you don’t appear too busy to visit with others.

• Bring business cards with you everywhere. Don’t avoid people if you don’t have time to talk very long — simply say you’re sorry to be rushed. Then give the person you’re talking to your business card, and ask them to contact you to continue your conversation another time.

• Prepare a brief, creative answer for the question, “What do you do?” An intriguing response can easily fuel a conversation.

• Be friendly to everyone, regardless of their job status or title.

• Avoid crossing your arms. You will appear distant and unapproachable otherwise.

• Don’t be afraid to ask questions. This shows you are listening.

• Share experiences, whether successes or failures. People remember stories they can relate to more than hard facts.

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If you had to choose one or the other, do you think it would be wiser to work on your company’s weak points or to push its strengths?

On the surface, it seems that shoring up the weaknesses makes more logical sense, but in reality doubling down to push your strengths and create a wider gap to stay ahead of your competitors is the smarter tactic.

Why?

To stand apart from your competitors, your firm needs a point of differentiation in the eyes of your target market. In the mind of your audience — your current customers and prospects == the strengths of your company are what draws them to you.

Working to widen the gap further accomplishes two things: It makes it harder for your competitors to catch up and entrenches your company as the leader in your marketplace.

Of course, this is not to say you should ignore the weaknesses, but they shouldn’t be your primary focus. Instead, you should devote the bulk of your resources to developing your strengths. By working primarily on your weaknesses, you may inadvertently make your company seem more similar to your competition, rather than having it stand apart.

So throw aside common wisdom and defy the herd mentality. Blaze a path by continually working on advancing your strengths in order to be the thought leader in your market.

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Want to breathe some life into your marketing? Try telling a story.

The art of storytelling is as old as civilization itself. Through the years, storytellers have used their skills to educate, entertain, enthrall, and explain the world around them. Heroes, villains, gods, and demons. Storytellers breathe life into their characters and keep their audiences spellbound until the end.

So what does any of this have to do with business? A lot, really.

At its heart, marketing is storytelling. Like a storyteller of old, you need to connect with your audience (your customers and prospects), engage them, educate them, enthrall them, and inspire them to act on that newfound knowledge by buying your wares or responding to your offer.

Does that mean you need to strive to become the next Steinbeck or Shakespeare, or that you should fill your website with flowery prose? Certainly not. But it does mean you should try to make your materials more engaging and less dry, dull, and routine.

One way to tell your story is through the eyes of a satisfied customer. Case studies and testimonials provide an ideal medium. Start with a look at the customer involved. Introduce them and offer some background information about who they are and what they do. Next, present the challenge facing them (a difficult deadline, a tight budget, a bad experience with the competition). This will serve as your antagonist and provide the conflict necessary in all good storytelling. Finally, talk about how you (or someone at your company) helped them overcome those challenges and live happily ever after.

The key is to make the customer the focus of your story, not your company. Your company merely helps that person overcome their challenges. Readers need to relate to a story’s main character and to the struggles they face. Otherwise, they won’t feel invested in the story enough to care how it ends. They’ll also tune out if they sense a story is nothing more than chest-thumping and self-absorbed bravado.

Of course, storytelling isn’t limited just to case studies or testimonials. Consider your company-focused content, like your history and executive bios. Are there any interesting stories from your company’s past you’d like to share? For example, what led your company’s founders to start your company? Did they as consumers have a need that no one else was meeting? What challenges did they face? Were there any obstacles that stood in their way? And how did they position themselves to overcome those challenges…to the benefit of their customers (people like those who are reading your materials)?

Even product literature offers a chance to tell a story and captivate an audience. What led your company to introduce the product you’re writing about? What challenges does it help customers (like those reading your materials) overcome? How has customer feedback helped you improve the product? And what role do you see customer interaction playing in future product offerings and upgrades?

Notice a common theme here? In all of these, the focus is on the customer. They are the heroes of the stories you tell. It’s their challenges, struggles, and needs that shape your decisions and encourage you to do what you do.

And that makes for one very compelling storyline.

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Celebrating a special event such as a corporate anniversary, coworker’s birthday, or holiday? Consider offering mini cupcakes, muffins, caramel roll bites, popcorn, or seasonal snacks.

Don’t attack visitors and push a sales pitch down their throat while they are enjoying a treat. Instead, create an inviting environment with a high-top table or small table and chairs, then use this perfect opportunity to visit and build relationships.

While your visitors will likely do a great job promoting your delicious goodies to others via word of mouth, don’t forget to devote some space in your next marketing promotion to invite others to stop by for a sweet treat and a sweet deal on XYZ.

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Here are a few tips on how to research the features your audience is seeking, as well as those that your competitors are already offering:

• Talk to your customers. Find out who your customers used before and why they switched to you. Ask questions when you lose a customer, as well, and try to identify why they switched to your competitor.

• Join industry associations, and attend industry trade shows and conferences to learn about your competitors and their products.

• Monitor your competitors’ blogs, Facebook posts, and tweets to stay up-to-date and in touch with their promotions and products.

• Conduct a survey to see what people think of your products and why they are (or aren’t) buying from you.

• Gather competitive collateral, and see how your competitors are positioning themselves. If you offer the same outstanding warranty as your competitors but don’t advertise it, you could be losing sales by default.

• Join the conversation by using social media to see what consumers of your products or services are seeking.

• Don’t be afraid to sit back and watch people as they make buying decisions at your business or a competitor’s business. You’d be surprised how much you can really learn just by watching.

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