What Matters Now – As promised each week, the team here at TLC Business will provide you with a free Seth Godin eBook. This week we bring you ‘What Matters Now’, a great book that gives you ideas on how to get more out of your business this year. Gallery Hosted – An image hosting and photo sharing website that provides what most people need from a photo sharing website plus a few little extras.
Corpdata – UK B2B marketing data list owner, providing up-to-date mailing list data for B2B direct mail, telesales and email marketing. To help boost your sales in these tough economic times, Corpdata are giving away 200 free contacts to every business in the UK.
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Businesses are coming under increasing pressure to engage in activities which come under the corporate social responsibility (CSR) banner. CSR follows the concept that each company has a responsibility, in fact an obligation, to help the same community that allows them to earn profit.Many believe that the larger multi-national companies impact the most upon society, and therefore, must be the primary undertakers of CSR activities; however, statistics tell another story. As we know, official data gathered from across the globe, has found that more than 90% of the businesses in the world are classified as small and medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs play a vital role and are an important part of the UK, EU and global economy; however when it comes to adopting social responsibility, smaller companies are falling behind in making changes within their businesses to honour ethical values, people, communities and the natural environment.
Although small and mid-sized organisations may not have a multinational’s budget to help them develop their CSR activities, there are some highly productive activities that can be undertaken by smaller businesses that can make a big difference.
SME’s can reap significant benefits from a reorganised approach to CSR.
Consider our key steps to ‘SME SR’:
To implement a social responsibility program effectively, a company must engage employees in the planning process. Talk to your staff. What causes do they want to support? What would create meaning and motivation for them in the workplace? By getting your network of people on board, you can work together to form an effective strategy. Set your ‘SME SR’ objectives.
Social responsibility isn’t just about recycling your paper and turning off lights. It requires a change in attitude. Look at every aspect of your business; from your impact on the environment, your staff, your community and your business network.
Gather ideas internally, from amongst your team and externally, from the wider business community and internet, of activities and undertakings you can commit to that fit with your ‘SME SR objectives’.
You may want to reduce your impact on the environment by reducing the amount of meetings that you drive to and embracing remote-meeting technology.
Rather than printing documents for clients, send PDFs via email.
If you do have to print, make sure it is duplex.
Stop printing out 1000s of brochures and leaflets that never get used. If you do need tangible marketing collateral, use folders with digitally printed inserts (printed as and when needed).
Use low energy bulbs.
Don’t leave PCs and equipment on standby.
Incentivise car sharing or cycling to work.
In the winter, introduce morning and afternoon hugging sessions to stay warm and reduce heating needs (only joking…or not!)
Allocate days when you’ll work in the community or for a cause.
Adopt a cause to fundraise for.
Most importantly, make it fun!
‘SME SR’ should be viewed as a process of building shared value within your organisiation, rather than a superficial PR exercise. Whilst it will undoubtedly give your business something to shout about, in blogs, newsletters and social media, we believe it is a lifetime commitment that should be integrated into the day-to-day running of your business.
What is in it for me, I hear you say? Well the benefits can be significant for SMEs:
Improved image and reputation within your market and local community
Improved trust and understanding
Larger, more prominent profile within your community
Possible business opportunities
Increased employee motivation within your organisation
Increased attractiveness to potential recruits and clients
Considerable cost savings and increased efficiencies within your organisation
These are just a few of the ways you can benefit. Over time, you will be surprised at what doors open as a result of your consideration of your business’ impact on your community, network and environment. We may be small, but combined; SMEs have the power to make a real positive impact on our external environment. So next time someone talks about CSR, think ‘SME SR’!
Everyone’s An Expert – Another great eBook from Seth Godin. This book is for anyone who wants more. How do you get more people to visit your site? or buy your product? or donate to your charity online?
Snip Snip is an easy way to share your favourite parts of videos you like. Simply snip out the uninteresting portions of the video, all you do is provide the site with the YouTube video’s URL and enter the start and end times. No sign-up required, just snip snip away.
High-quality images can often be too big to upload easily. BigImg solves that problem by taking awkwardly large images and resizing them to your desired size so you can easily embed them to your website.
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Mercedes has been revealed as the UK’s number one consumer superbrand in the 12th annual survey by the Centre for Brand Analysis, toppling last year’s winner Microsoft, which dropped into 6th place. This is the first time in five years that Microsoft or Google have not topped the list.
Mercedes-Benz has performed well over the last five years, with the brand featuring in the top ten since 2006, finally claiming the top spot on their 125 year anniversary. The TBCA poll, carried out by the Centre of Brand Analysis, placed the car firm ahead of luxury watchmaker Rolex, which maintained its position from last year, whilst the BBC came in third, having placed in the top five for the last five years.
So what factors are considered when crowning the UK’s top consumer brand? The survey defines a Superbrand as having established “the finest reputation in its field”. Such a brand is deemed to offer “significant emotional and/or tangible advantages over other brands, which customers want and recognise”. The survey asked 2,000 consumers to assess the following:
Quality – Does the brand provide quality products and services to its consumers?
Reliability – Can the brand be trusted to deliver consistently against its promises and maintain product and service standards at all customer touch points?
Distinction – Does the brand offer unique services and products to its consumers? Is it a well known brand that stands out from its competitors?
So how has Mercedes claimed the top spot? The premium brand attributes its success to investing in innovation and building on its 125-year heritage. “We haven’t chased volume sales in the downturn, but last year we increased our market share to 3.4% – a significant figure for a luxury brand. Everybody in the company is absolutely committed to delivering exceptional levels of customer service, and this survey result shows that these efforts are paying off,” says a spokesman for the brand.
Heritage proved to be a key trend in the Consumer survey, with most of the brands having had a longer life span than the average consumer, for example Rolex, British Airways and Jaguar.
So what can SMEs learn from this to help build their brands?
Well, focusing on the 3 attributes of ‘quality’, ‘reliability’ and ‘distinction’ when assessing your business, seems a sensible place to start.
Whilst cutting costs, and corners in the process, might seem appealing in this challenging economic times, it is clear that compromising on quality will severely damage your reputation and potentially long-term profitability.
Reliability and consistency are critical factors to have in place, whether you sell products or deliver services. It is vital that you maintain, if not improve, the levels of service and quality that your customers expect. The challenge for businesses is that customer expectations are not static, they keep increasing, so what might have been perceived as outstanding in the past, might be deemed expected as a minimum, in the present. Ensuring you have effective CRM and delivery systems and managing customer expectations will help maintain the excellent levels of service / quality your customers have come to expect.
Being distinct from your competitors is equally important. In an increasingly crowded marketplace, occupying a distinct and competitive position from your competitors will help your target audience understand how you differ from the other options open to them and most importantly, how they will benefit from your UNIQUE position. It may be challenging, but make sure your business has a USP. Without it, you are just another business amongst many, indistinct and indiscernible from the multitude of options out there. Having trouble coming up with your USP? Take a look at the competition. You may find it is staring you in the face.
Ensuring your business puts ‘quality’, ‘reliability’ and ‘distinction’ at the forefront of its values, gives you a chance of becoming one of the ‘Superbrands’ of the future.
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Really Bad Power Point – This Seth Godin eBook explores why power points are so bad and how we can tackle them to create a better presentation.
Search PSD – Free online collection of over 1,500 PSD files. You can search for them by name or category. When you hover the mouse cursor over a thumbnail of the file, it shows a download link that helps you download the file in zipped format.
ytplaylist.com – A YouTube playlist maker that helps you effortlessly create playlists out of different videos, and then share them with friends or embed them on your website. An easy way to create videos for your blog and no sign up needed.
Research indicates that a third of UK companies have now signed up to online networks. We all know about the big B2C companies such as Starbucks, Pringles and Adidas, who offer their audiences a strong presence on social media sites. So what makes them so successful? Their use of Facebook fan page features to promote complimentary social media and advertising campaigns demonstrates a commitment to engage with their target audiences through proactive online interaction on popular social media channels.
Most recently, Adidas ran an exclusive Facebook contest where a fan could win an all-expenses-paid house party. What made this campaign so successful was that Adidas chose to work alongside MTV, a partner that echoed the Facebook user demographic, forming a perfect partnership. Adidas also promoted the contest on their fan page before and after the campaign. Once they had chosen the lucky winner, they used their page to share the fan’s blog posts, photos and videos from the party. This resulted in further fan engagement and interest. Adidas and MTV used the power of social media after the event as a follow up tool, which offered added value to fans. Followers could see how the campaign played out, start to finish.
Fan pages such as these are actively engaging with companies’ target demographic. These pages have creative content, two-way communication, active discussion boards, images and videos. Facebook pages present an exciting platform for brands to directly engage with their existing and past customers and generate new ones. Case studies indicate that the more time you invest in your brand’s Facebook page, the better response you’ll get.
So you may be thinking, how does a Facebook page relate to my business? Every day we are asked the question, ‘Isn’t Facebook for friends and big consumer brands, how can I use social media in a B2B environment?’ Every organisation, no matter what sector is selling an idea. It might be associated with a product or less tangible like: ‘you should invest in our company’, ‘we need your donations’, ‘we’re a great place to work or volunteer’, or ‘we promise to take care of the planet and be good corporate citizens’. These are ideas that require social interaction and social media seems the perfect platform to facilitate it.
Deloitte, one of the big 4 consultancies, are a well known B2B player on Facebook. Deloitte annually recruit over 1000 new people. They know that in their industry recruitment is key, as human resources are their main asset, and they use Social Media to recruit as well as retain employees. Through a heavy presence on Facebook they are able to connect their employees together, and identify students from the best universities.
Deloitte produced another great example of a powerful Facebook campaign. To get their staff to reflect on Deloitte’s business culture and values, Deloitte launched a Deloitte Film Festival competition in which workers in their US offices were invited to submit short videos answering the question: “What’s your Deloitte?”. The campaign was a huge success with the videos posted on YouTube receiving 400,000 views.
As a business focused on working with SMEs, we know it is often difficult to find the time to focus your efforts on building your social media presence, as well as generating ideas for interesting content. Here are a few tips to help you get started in producing a successful social media channel for your business.
1. Use your own unique brand image on your profile. Use images and content that reflects the values of your business. It is common knowledge that the ‘about us’ and ‘meet the team’ pages are often the most viewed pages of a website. Your Facebook page is an excellent platform to introduce your team.
2. Post relevant and industry related content. Interesting content is required to keep people engaged. Use links to blogs, articles and videos that are relevant to your industry to supplement your own original content.
3. Start a conversation using social media. Facebook and Twitter are supposed to be interactive, participate in discussions on relevant topics or comment on someone else’s postings. Find every opportunity to start a discussion.
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You may already know that TLC Business supports ‘CamKids’, The Cambodian Children’s Charity. ‘CamKids’ is a development and relief organisation, dedicated to providing direct aid to children in Cambodia who are either poor or whose parents are not there for them: orphans, street children, children living in poor rural areas and children affected by natural disasters, such as flood or famine.
Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Crippled by decades of war, international embargoes, political instability and economic stagnation. The majority of the population live in rural areas, are poor and lack access to even the most basic services. With over half of the population under the age of 18 years, there are serious concerns for their economic and social well-being. Cambodia is one of the countries worst affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the impact on many households in human and financial terms is devastating.
‘CamKids’ work on a number of projects and programs to help the children of Cambodia. ‘Camkids’ opened the Who Will Village in 2008, the village is doing all it can to provide a fantastically stimulating, happy and safe home life for the poor or abandoned children of Cambodia. Many of the children have come from broken and underprivileged families and/or unsuitable, risky living conditions. A lot of importance is placed on fostering the children’s self worth and emotional needs and actively encouraging the children to be proud of who they are and to have dreams to aspire to. There are currently 46 children under the care of Who Will, ranging from 4-16 years old. The children all attend a local government school and also have English lessons once a day at the village.
This year the team here at TLC Business decided to help ‘CamKids’ further by sponsoring a child from the Who Will Village. Sreylim Ngeth is 11 years old and arrived at the village in 2009. Sreylim’s parents are incredibly poor farmers who cannot afford to look after their children. Social Services have established that it is in the best interests of Sreylim and her brother Chanrith to live at the Who Will Children’s Village.
Our donation will contribute towards the cost of Sreylim’s food, school uniform, medical expenses and her education. We will be raising money this year through various activities to help support Sreylim and the Who Will Village.
The team here at TLC Business are looking forward to seeing how Sreylim progresses over the next few years. To find out more about ‘Camkids’, click here.
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MARKETING FOR DUMMIESThis was a very funny email a client sent us. Hope you enjoy it.
1. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: “I’m very rich. Marry me!”
-That’s Direct Marketing
2. You are at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says: “He’s rich. Marry him.”
-That’s Advertising
3. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. Next day you call her and say: “Hi, I’m very rich. Marry me!”
-That’s Telemarketing
4. You are at a party and see a gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie, you go up to her and pour her a drink, you open the door (of a car) for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her a ride and then say: “By the way, I’m rich. Will you marry me?”
-That’s Public Relations
5. You are at a party and see gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says: “You are very rich. Can you marry me?”
-That’s Brand Recognition
6. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: “I’m very rich. Marry me!” She gives you a nice hard slap on your face.
-That’s Customer Feedback
7. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: “I’m very rich. Marry me!” She introduces you to her husband.
-That’s Supply and Demand Gap
8. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say anything, another person comes up to her and says: “I’m rich. Will you marry me?” and she goes with him.
-That’s Competition Eating into your Market Share
9. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say: “I’m rich. Marry me!” your wife arrives.
https://www.tlc-business.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/logooptimised.png00adminhttps://www.tlc-business.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/logooptimised.pngadmin2015-08-10 00:00:002015-08-10 00:00:00Marketing for Dummies
A selection of SME apps for your blackberry. From a travel assistant that gives users instant access to travel and weather updates to an app to help you source the best place for a business lunch.
Mylikesbox – Facebook application that provides an easy way to view your Facebook likes. Each page’s thumbnail image is shown for easy recognition. You can also filter your Likes by viewing pages according to their categories.
Do Less – Another eBook from Seth Godin. Learn how to be pickier about what you do and who you do it for so you can enjoy more of your life.
As the new financial year begins, many of us will be busy putting together our new marketing budget for 2011. Budgeting can be a difficult process; many companies estimate or base their budget on last year. We feel there are more effective means but an estimate is better than nothing. Either route you take, it is important to review and evaluate what worked and what didn’t for your business in 2010. Any time and money you spend on marketing is an investment in your business, so you need to make sure it’s time and money well spent.
When completing your new marketing budget, it is important to consider any changes that may have happened in your industry. Have there been any important innovations? What about the use of technology within your market? What about the distribution channels used to deliver your product or service?
As well as looking outside the box, it is important to consider factors within your business. What were the most successful marketing activities last year? Can they be repeated? It might be an event your business ran or a successful lead generation campaign. Likewise, what are the failures that should be omitted all together this year? Did your advert generate any sales? What about the mailouts? Did you follow them up with a phone call? No? Perhaps that is why they weren’t more effective. When evaluating the relative success or failures from last year, it is important to ascertain whether it was the implementation of the campaign or the activity itself that was fundamental in the success or failure. Don’t make kneejerk reactions.
A new international survey from E-consultancy and SAS found that overall marketing budgets are up, with over 52% of UK businesses claiming to have increased their marketing budget for 2011. Digital marketing continues to be the focus for many marketing budgets, with 72% of companies investing online, compared to 26% purely on offline channels such as print and direct mail.
As an SME ourselves, we understand that marketing budgets can be tight. But that doesn’t mean you can’t budget. We’ve put together some effective, low cost activities that your business can do online in 2011. The success of these activities can be easily measured, helping evaluate the success of your activities when it comes time to define your budget for 2012.
Web Content – Is your website up to date, do you spend time generating new and relevant content for your website? Keeping your content moving is a great way of getting the search engines to love your website and keeping your target audience fully informed. Do you use Google Analytics to review traffic to your website on a monthly basis? Analytics is an incredibly powerful tool for businesses to understand and measure the effectiveness of their marketing mix – a great way to determine appropriate areas for your future marketing budget.
Social Media – Do you have a strategy in place? Have you set a target of likes/followers you want to reach in the next 6 months? Yes, you do have to invest your time in Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, however, it’s a great way to showcase your business and keep customers up to date with your business activities and news.
Email Marketing – Do you monitor who views and opens your email campaigns. E-marketing software is a great tool to measure how successful your emails have been. Integrate your email marketing with telemarketing; call the companies that are showing an interest in your emails.
Now is the time businesses need to look closely at their past, present and future marketing activities. Businesses need to create more revenue for less cost and this can take some creative thinking. If you are struggling to know where to spend your marketing budget most effectively on measurable solutions, click here to find out more about TLC Business FREE Marketing MOT.
