June’s Top Marketing Tips

Top marketing tips:

  1. Conduct a client survey: – Some businesses are reluctant to undertake a client survey in case they don’t like what they find out. For those that are keen to understand their customers better, it might just be the best thing you do for your business. The benefits are plentiful. 1. If clients aren’t happy with some aspect of your service or product, better to find out early and have an opportunity to rectify it. 2. Showing your customers that you care will build loyalty and foster a stronger relationship. 3. Are you struggling for ideas as to how you can improve your service or develop that new wonder product? You customers have the answer. All you need to do is ask the right question.
  1. Data capture tool: – If you are like us, you’ll hate spending time typing in or copying and pasting the contact information of various prospects when building a database. Inspired to find an alternative solution, we stumbled across a piece of free software called Contact Capture. Now all you need to do is highlight all the information you want to gather, press a button and hey presto it is organised into a workable format, ready for exporting into your CRM or database software of choice. It is particularly good when consolidating different excel spreadsheets! You can find a link to this software on tlcbusiness.wpengine.com/cool-stuff.
  2. Consolidate your social media: – for those of you out there that are already hardened tweeters and social networkers you’ll probably know this already. But for those of you that are irritated about having to waste time updating Facebook, twitter and LinkedIn accounts, why not use Ping.FM to update your social media status on these three platforms and more. It is free, easy and saves you time. What more can you want? Enjoy.

 

Hope you find our top 3 marketing tips useful. Do let us know what you think and any areas you’d like more info on.

 

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What is in your marketing budget?

Some businesses complain they don’t have a marketing budget, whilst others religiously put aside an amount of money to allocate towards marketing activities throughout the year.  At TLC Business, we feel that the most efficient way to budget is to make sure every marketing activity in your plan is included to meet a specific objective. It makes for a more efficient and cost-effective investment of your money, rather than putting aside a pot of money that is continually dipped into until it is empty.
We have put together 3 example marketing mixes, for those with no budget, through to those with ambitions to grow quickly.

No budget:
If you have no money for marketing do not despair, fortunately for you, we now have the internet, which affords huge marketing opportunities for those that are willing to invest their time:

  1. SEO: if you have a website, but no budget for paying a professional SEO company to get your site on the front pages of Google, why not consider DIY SEO. You might be surprised at what a little research, keyword analysis tools and some link building will achieve. Oh, and don’t forget to update your content regularly either.
  2. Social Media & blogging: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, online forums etc. There is no end to the different platforms you can utilise to engage with potential customers, enhance your credibility and grow your brand recognition. You’ve got no excuses either. It is free and all it requires is an investment of your time.
  3. Networking: whilst online networking is expanding rapidly, face-to-face networking is still a vital tool for SMEs to get out there and meet potential customers, partners and suppliers. There are an increasing number of free events but choose them wisely, you often get what you pay for.

Tight budget:
If you’ve set aside a marketing budget but have to be extremely careful as to how you spend it (like most of us) then the internet is a blessing to you too. As well as the 3 tips above, consider:

  1.  Email marketing: this is an incredibly cost-effective medium for communicating with large numbers of people. The bit we like and are constantly raving about is that it is the marketing medium that just keeps giving. Not only does it communicate your message to your target audience but it then tells you who was listening and what they are interested in, incredibly useful when managing a tight budget.
  2. Adwords: we feel that advertising is often an ineffective medium for many SMEs. However, adwords is a big exception. Managed correctly, it is an incredibly effective means of communicating with your target audience. Only pay for those people you want to visit your landing page and again, it is entirely measurable, so there is no need for elaborate guess work when deciding if an advert is working.
  3. Telemarketing: love it or hate it, for many businesses this should be a vital tool in your marketing mix. If you can’t stand the constant rejection, get the professionals in. For those B2B businesses out there telemarketing is often a lead generation winner.

Ambitious budget:
For those businesses that really want to make their mark and grow this year, getting the biggest bang for your buck is still important. Including the different media above in your marketing mix is still important, however, to increase impact consider:

  1. Direct Mail: the age of mass marketing has come to an end. With all the customer information available to businesses now, you can target your ideal customers more efficiently. Having built a list of interested prospects through email marketing and adwords, you still can’t beat an engaging and quirky direct mail piece to get them hooked.
  2. Events: they can be hard work and often costly but organising an event for customers, prospects and partners can be a very effective way of generating new business, PR and awareness. To reduce the cost and workload and expand your reach, consider a joint event with a complimentary business partner. Two heads are always better than one.
  3. Advertising: we would caution any SME about taking out adverts in magazines and newspapers without having considered it thoroughly. If you are going to advertise make sure your advert has a clear call to action, a means of measuring its effectiveness (like a quotable promo code) and is not a one-off but instead run as part of a series of multiple issues. If done correctly, advertising is still an incredibly effective means of generating new business. But we stress the words ‘if done correctly’. If not, it is an incredibly efficient way of wasting money quickly!

We hope this has given you some food for thought. There are many more activities you can include in your marketing mix. This is just a taster. So be sure to consider the plethora of activities and opportunities available to your business when putting together your next budget.

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Free Public Sector Tender Training

Hampshire business organisation, Southern Entrepreneurs, is offering free public sector tender training to businesses based in Winchester and Eastleigh. The course will help businesses learn how to identify potentially lucrative public sector contracts and put together a successful tender for them.
The workshop takes place on Thursday 5th August. It starts at 17.30 and finishes by 21:00 @ Civic Offices, Leigh Road, Eastleigh SO50 9YN. Tea coffee and light refreshments are provided during the evening.

For more information click here. To register email anne.dawson@eastleigh.gov.uk.

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Why the recession could be the best thing to happen to your business?

Life is what you make it, or so the saying goes. This principle can be applied to business as well.There is no getting away from the difficulties many businesses have experienced as a result of the recent recession. Some businesses haven’t made it and others have been transformed radically just to stay afloat. Whilst the economy is now growing again (albeit tentatively), many are anticipating a challenging 2010 and with all the doom and gloom surrounding the forthcoming budget, it is easy to overlook the positives. What are they I hear you say?  Well, that the recession could be the best thing that ever happened to your business.

There are a multitude of reasons why, but three of the best are as follows:

  1. We got lazy: A common response to questions about marketing, from many businesses prior to the downturn, was ‘we don’t do any marketing, we are already getting more work than we can handle.’ Whilst this is an excellent position to be in, for many it is no longer the case. This attitude often translated into inefficiencies elsewhere in the business, with resources being used wastefully, a lack of focus on profit margins, no strategy or planning culture and no urgency or hunger to improve and be better. Post-recession this attitude doesn’t fly. The downturn has forced many businesses to reassess their attitude and undertake rigorous analysis of the organisational practices and systems. Out have gone the unnecessary and inessential operations and in has come a new vigour and focus around efficiency, innovation, improvement and growth. The net result in this shift in attitude is a leaner, more efficient and innovative business, built on more stable foundations, going forward into the future. Surely a good thing?
  2. New opportunities: Referred to in a recent Independent article on SMEs, a Shell LiveWIRE survey found that 28% of business owners say the recession has actually ‘inspired them to refocus their business vision’ with 25% believing it has ‘challenged them to identify new areas of growth’. Touching on the innovation mentioned above, for many businesses the recession has prompted them to look carefully at the opportunities available to their organisation and ensure they exploit them fully. The much maligned SWOT analysis is the perfect tool to undertake this and we’d advise ever organisation to implement one at least annually. Innovation through necessity will result in some unexpected and profitable ventures for businesses; it will build long lasting relationships and unusual, yet profitable, strategic alliances and will inspire the creation of new and improved products and services for our clients and customers. This can’t be bad.
  3. Business evolution: The premise of ‘survival of the fittest’, proposed in Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, is also applicable to businesses. We can’t avoid change; it is going on constantly around us. No matter how established a business is, it is always exposed to change. Sometimes this results in extinction i.e. Lehman Brothers and Woolworths and other times, to world domination i.e. Facebook, Google and Apple to name three. What is inescapable is that if you do not evolve with the times, you stand a very good chance of being replaced by a new and improved alternative. The recent downturn has removed many businesses from the marketplace, some of them may have been clients and suppliers, but others might have been competitors. Congratulations to you remaining businesses, you are the future and you can benefit from the growth that follows a downturn.

So if you don’t forget the valuable lessons learnt during this period, stay focused on your customers and satisfying their demands, don’t slip back into lazy business practices, ensure you embrace all the opportunities out there and put the fear of change aside, you may just find the recession was the best thing to happen to your business.

 

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5 Top Direct Mail Tips

With the rise of email marketing and the focus on environmentally sustainable business practices, Direct Mail has taken a bit of a pounding. Indeed in the US, Direct Mail spending dropped by 3% in 2008 for the first time ever.
Some argue the end is nigh for Direct Mail. We would argue otherwise, you just need to be clever and innovative in how you use it. It can still be an incredibly effective way of communicating with your target market.

Here are 5 top tips on how to use Direct Mail effectively:

  1. Follow up phone call. The statistics don’t lie; we’ve found that following up a direct mail with a phone call can improve results by over 100%. However, compelling your call to action, don’t rely on your targets acting on it. A follow up call is a great way of prompting action and engaging with your prospect.
  2. Make it lumpy. To standout and grab someone’s attention you need to be different. The same goes for Direct Mail. We all receive hundreds of plain, flat, paper Direct Mails, which at worst never get opened and at best go straight from envelope to recycle bin in 1 second flat. Including something engaging in the Direct Mail, not a pen or mouse mat, but something creative and a bit different, will increase the chances of your mail getting opened and absorbed. Unusual ideas we’ve worked with include: airfix models, lego, sweets, teabags, handcuffs and airplants.
  3. Use a hand written envelope. A simple but effective way of getting your mail opened is to hand write it. It makes it personal and doesn’t scream mass mail.
  4. Speak in their language. When writing any text always bear in mind who you are sending it to and make sure you speak in their language. Make your words, syntax and imagery consistent and relevant to your target.
  5. Send it to the right person. Always get the name of the relevant person to send the mail to. If you’ve gone to the trouble of making it an interesting and relevant mail, handwriting the envelope and planning a follow up call, make sure that it goes to someone how is in a position to make a decision.
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May’s Quick Marketing Tips

May’s Quick Marketing Tips

  1. Register at seomoz.org and start using their free SEO tools to get on top of your websites search engine optimization. There are a whole host of different tools available to check back links, keyword analysis tools and page rank trackers to name a few.
  2. Another website top tip is to make the time to read Steve Krug’s ‘Don’t Make me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability.’ It comes highly recommended and gets you to think about your site from a different perspective.
  3. Start using a CRM. It is amazing how many businesses we meet that do not have any means of organising their data, monitoring the success of campaigns they undertake or keeping on top of future call backs to possible leads. ‘They are so expensive’ is a common reason given for this. Well with Sugar CRM Open Edition, this is no longer a valid excuse, because it is free! Take a look at it and see what you think.
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Outsourced marketing: pitfalls to avoid

Outsourced marketing: how to make it work
We believe that in order for an outsourced marketing relationship to be effective for our clients, it needs to be just that, a relationship. An outsourced marketing company needs to understand your business, get a clear understanding of your objectives, your values, ethos, business practices and how you like to work.

Without this understanding, an outsourced marketing company will never become a genuine extension of your team.

Below are 3 things to avoid if you do decide to outsource your marketing.

Potential pitfall number 1

When outsourcing your marketing, always be prepared to invest your time to properly communicate the information above to your marketing partner. Many businesses are looking for a magic bullet that will solve their marketing problems immediately and are keen to delegate responsibility for it immediately. It is important that you make the time to ensure your marketing company knows and understands your business, not just what you do. Without this understanding you might not get the results you want.

Potential pitfall number 2

Communication is key. When discussing the arrangements for reporting back progress, make sure you agree specific times and dates for communication and stick to them. Experience has shown us that without specific times scheduled into the diary, they tend to slip. It is vital that they don’t. They are important opportunities for you to be informed of what is happening, why and how it is going. Likewise, for the marketing company, these are important opportunities to get your feedback and ensure you are happy with what they are doing.

Potential pitfall number 3

Morale, motivation and enthusiasm. Most businesses recognise the importance of keeping their employees and teams motivated. It is important that they don’t forget about their outsourced marketing team. There is nothing more demoralising for a marketing company when they do their best for a client and start achieving success, only for the business they are working for to hamper progress. Not attending appointments generated, not supplying information that was promised, not signing-off artwork when requested, not answering relevant questions, the list is endless. Believe it or not, any good marketing company cares about doing a good job for their clients; they want their clients to be successful. When it appears like their client doesn’t care, they start to wonder why they should. The net result is an ineffective relationship that will end swiftly, with neither party happy.

Avoid making these mistakes and your business will benefit from a highly motivated, experienced and skilled team of marketers, devoted to helping you achieve your business objectives, leaving you and your team to focus on what you do best.

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Top 3 branding tips (May)

1. Talk to your existing clients and target audience members and discover what they look for in a business they work with? See if any common factors crop up, what values do they see as important? Consider aligning your brand with these.
2. Look at your competitors. What positions do they occupy in the marketplace? Try mapping on to a graph the various positions held in the market by your competitors, against two key categories i.e. price vs. product variety or age appealing to vs. innovative services / products.

You will quickly see if there are any gaps in the marketplace for a new brand. But be careful to look at why that gap exists, you may find there is a very good reason why no businesses operate there.

3. Be consistent. Once you have defined your brand values, what you stand for and how you will conduct business, make sure you communicate them consistently, across every aspect of your business. It is counterproductive to have a great website that presents you as a luxury brand, then send a poor quality home printed brochure to a potential client. Likewise make sure your marketing mix aligns with your brand values. If you have an innovative brand, make sure that is communicated through your marketing material. Be consistent with your logo, your corporate colours. It should all serve to build a clear identity of what your business looks like and what it stands for. If you send mixed messages, the customer will be unsure as to what they are getting and is likely to become insecure with you offering.

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Is marketing your midfield general?

Every team has its manager, who defines the team’s strategy and objectives. In much the same way, businesses have their managing director or CEO to play this role, defining the business’ mission, strategy and objectives.
It is the responsibility of the captain to marshal their players on the pitch and deliver their manager’s strategy and achieve their objectives.

Your business needs a similar function as the captain on the pitch. It needs an individual or department that is responsible for communicating your strategy and business objectives to the different departments of your business, and pulling them together to work in partnership to achieve those objectives.

We believe that marketing is that function.

Now where does your captain and key player sit within the team? For us, it has to be in the centre of everything. They must play the role of creator, developer, communicator, motivator, the central hub of the team, through which all the play goes, a midfield general if you will.

Marketing should take this place within your business.

It should not sit on the periphery of the game, coming in to play every so often. Many businesses see marketing in this way. A necessary evil, linked to sales and advertising. We believe this is entirely the wrong perspective to take on it.

Marketing should be the MD or CEO’s best friend, their ‘captain’ in the business, ensuring that the business works most efficiently to achieve its objectives. It should operate a central role within your business, helping to strengthen your position within the market place, ensuring you keep providing services or products that satisfy your customer’s needs better than your competitors, and at a profit.

So if you are keen to improve your business’ performance, take a look at the role marketing is currently playing in your business, and think about moving it to the centre.

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Google top brand for 2010

The Brandz report for 2010 has just been published and it is no surprise that Google are top with their brand value increasing 14% over the last year, to a huge $114 billion.
The top 100’s total brand value exceeded $2 trillion! That is just shy of the $2.2 trillion GDP forecast for the UK in 2010 from the IMF.

Indeed in a period of extreme economic hardship and uncertainty, the overall value of the Brandz top 100 increased by 4%. However, part of this increase could be attributed to the inclusion of Oil & Gas companies for the first time.

The big gains, as you would expect, lay in the technology industry and highlight the massive importance of innovation in this sector. Brands like Blackberry weren’t even in the top 100 5 years ago, however, now it ranks 14, with a brand value of just over $30 billion dollars.

The report highlights the importance of defining a brand on more than just product and service excellence, it needs to be founded on deeper ideals and values:

‘The biggest share price gains will be made by brands which aren’t afraid to stand for something. They will go beyond the functional, to represent an ideal, which appeals across products, categories and cultures.’

One of the most interesting areas of the report focuses on the role of Social Media and brand building. Those of you still questioning the importance of social media as part of your business’ marketing mix should take notice. Widespread adoption of this medium by many of this year’s top 100 brands, shows it is here to stay.

The report cites examples of brands as diverse as HSBC, Ford, Evian, Coca Cola and Starbucks, all employing social media campaigns to compliment their more traditional marketing methods.

The WPP study makes an interesting read and provides insights into brand building, relevant to even the smallest organisation.

To access the full report visit: Brandz Top 100 Most valuable global brands 2010.

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