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Growing your greens

Strategies to help your green marketing flourish:

When it comes to corporate responsibility and green marketing, an increasing number of companies are recognising the importance of including environmental sustainability amongst their goals….TLC Business are one of them.

Green marketing definitions can be a little confusing, since green marketing can refer to anything from promoting the environmental benefits of a product, advertising a company’s sustainability initiatives, to simply channelling your marketing message in a more eco-friendly method.

When many people think of SMEs going green, methods such as recycling paper and conducting more meetings over the phone spring to mind. However ‘green’ strategies can incorporate even more day-to-day business activities, from using social media more effectively, to the tools you use to market your product or service.
Green marketing can take many forms, below are some of the systems and tools you can adopt in your business:

  • Green digital media
    Green marketing has gone digital with the help of social media and technology. Utilising Facebook or Twitter instead of print advertisements and providing digital versions of press packs are all steps businesses can take to more effective green marketing. Below are examples of how global companies are using social media within their green marketing mix:General Electric has introduced the Ecomagination Challenge, which challenges people all over the world, from businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators to students, to generate ideas how to improve the planet’s energy future. This project is promoted through the company’s website, blog and Twitter.IBM has created a Smarter Planet blog and encourages visitors to participate in conversations about creating a more sustainable planet. IBM also uses Facebook pages and Twitter accounts to keep the conversations alive.
  • Re-design your materials with green in mind.
    One of the most effective ways to go green is to consider the potential environmental impact of your printed material at the design stage. That means taking into account factors like paper weight, item size, and mailing format at the beginning. This may seem extreme but a smaller, lighter piece will not only reduce the amount of paper you ultimately use, but also the emissions of the trucks delivering your pieces.Puma is a great example of a company planning ahead. The major sports brand is reducing its carbon footprint by redesigning the packaging for its shoes. Instead of packaging the shoes in a traditional cardboard box, which then necessitates a plastic carrier bag, Puma has designed a new product, dubbed “The Clever Little Bag”. Puma’s new packaging is made of a reusable shoe bag with a built in handle, thus eliminating the need for both a cardboard box and a carrier bag at the end of a sale. Puma’s green effort alone is projected to reduce the company’s paper consumption by over 65 percent, as well as cutting down on annual carbon emissions by 10,000 tons.
  •  Clean up your database:
    An up-to-date database can also play a key part in your green marketing strategies. Whether you are sending a direct mail campaign using your new eco friendly marketing collateral or you are sending regular e-marketing campaigns. You can save money, reduce paper use and delivery impact, simply by cleaning up and reducing the size of your database. Regularly updating mailing lists and removing undeliverable addresses, duplicates and bounced email addresses, will play a part in saving resources.
  • Adopting a lifecycle approach:
    Selecting green materials and products for marketing materials and adopting a lifecycle approach that looks at the whole campaign, thereby foreseeing areas of potential waste. More and more companies similar to Recycle Match are evolving. Recycle Match operates on the philosophy that one company’s trash is another company’s treasure and matches businesses who have waste products, such as used billboards, textile waste, and salvaged building materials, with businesses who need them.
  • The Green Community:
    Finally, community is another component to successful green marketing. The green revolution has caused the growth of thousands of organisations and causes, each championing their own method of fighting for the environment. Find the businesses that fight for green living in the area, which relates to your product or service and contact them for support.

With the current emphasis on going green, recycling, and saving the planet, it would be foolish not to engage with the green consumer. However, it is important that your actions are credible and sincere. It is all too easy to employ ‘green wash’ when communicating your ‘green’ policies. Organisations that do this run the risk of attracting negative feedback and potentially damaging their reputation. A business doesn’t have to implement all of the suggestions above, simply adopting one or two can be a step in the right direction. Like any marketing or business activity, having a plan is essential.  Your green plan doesn’t need to be complicated or lengthy, but you should outline the steps you need to take to ensure effective execution and alignment with your overall marketing strategy.

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Are you tweeting?

Twitter now has 10 million active users in the UK – Is your business one of them?
The once personally focused micro-blogging tool, Twitter, has developed in popularity with individuals but equally amongst businesses in the UK. Twitter may have been a source for celebrity status updates in the past, however, the times are changing and more and organisations are realising the potential behind the social networking site. According to research published this week, over one-in-six businesses now use Twitter to scout and engage with new customers.

So how are small businesses achieving success through Twitter?

  • The London Studio

Theo Paphitis of Dragons’ Den launched a Twitter competition called Small Business Sunday. Once a week, Theo started asking entrepreneurs to tweet him about their business, choosing his six favourite, which he then flagged up to his 240,000 followers and on his website.

One of the companies that tried to attract the attention of the successful dragon was a multidisciplinary design studio called The London Studio.

“I tweeted Theo hoping to tempt him to look at The London Studio website and see the products I’d designed,” says the MD.

“He did — and his single tweet saw my website’s traffic more than double on its weekly average. I thought the server might break. Sales jumped too — gift shops and other independent retailers got in touch and asked me to be a stockist, and existing ones put in larger orders. I sold an extra 13,000 cards in the month after Theo’s tweet. Twitter has been great for business.”

  • Big Green Bookshop

The Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green tweeted on the 24th of February 2011 that without help they would have to close the doors to the book shop in nine months due to an unpaid bank loan. Shortly after the tweet was sent, the topic started to trend on the social media platform, growing in popularity, spreading throughout the social media realm. Due to Twitter the shop sold enough books to cover its bank repayments for two months and is now trading healthy.
Is your business one of the 10 million active UK users on Twitter? If so, has you ‘tweeted’ or ‘followed’ in the last two weeks?  Take a look at the top tips below to get your business on the path to social media success.


Tips to get your Twitter activity up and running:

  • Follow other relevant small businesses – Quality rather than quantity
  • Share tips related to your industry
  • Post links to original thought pieces
  • Give referrals via Twitter
  • Communicate with potential customers, strategic alliances and suppliers
  • Engage with industry magazines, editors and journalists – you never know who might read your latest news or blog feature.
  • Ask your audience questions

Twitter is more than just a status update, the opportunities are endless….Get tweeting today!

For more social media tools and tips, click here.

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New Cookie Regulations

By now, you should be aware that new regulations on a website’s use of cookies came into force at the weekend. Websites available to European visitors and owned by European companies must now follow the EU E-Privacy Directive passed in 2011. The laws require websites to provide information about the use of tracking technology on the site and the purpose of that technology. Websites also must allow visitors to choose whether or not to be tracked.
Is your website compliant with the new regulations? Click here for all you need to know.

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TLC Business Host Top 10 Marketing Tools Seminar

Website

TLC Business was delighted to host its annual marketing seminar yesterday, at Winchester Business School, tackling the topic ‘10 Top Tools for Effective SME Marketing’. The unseasonal weather didn’t put off attendees, as a packed house was treated to a morning of our top marketing tool tips. Topics covered included: effective CRM and email marketing systems, Google Analytics, Dropbox, YouTube, URL builders and QR Codes.

TLC Business Director Joshua Spencer said “We were delighted with the turn out and would like to thank everyone that took the time to attend. It was our intention to give attendees ideas and tips that they can take back to their business and use straight away to make their marketing more effective.”

We were very pleased to receive excellent feedback, below are just a few examples and 100% of people stated they would recommend attending future TLC Business events.

  • ‘Excellent insight into the most up to date and effective marketing tools’
  • ‘Excellent morning’
  • ‘Useful tips – food for thought’
  • ‘Very informative – thank you’

For those that were unable to attend the seminar, but are interested in the content and would like to receive a copy of the presentation, please email anna@tlc-business.co.uk.

We are already starting to think about next year’s topics, so if you have any ideas or preferences, please let us know.

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A picture is worth a thousand words

Following on from our July marketing seminar, here is another top tip to more effective SME marketing. This month we highlight the growing trend in Quick Response (QR) codes.
Whilst the QR code debate rages on and we assess whether this is a passing fad or a marketing phenomenon, the last year has certainly proven that QR campaigns can work effectively for the larger brands. From Coca Cola to Tesco, more and more companies are adapting their marketing campaigns to take advantage of the latest technology and consumer engagement channels available.

So is it worthwhile for SMEs to jump on board the latest marketing bandwagon?

SMEs may feel that technology such as QR codes is best left to bigger firms, with more resources and a deeper understanding of how it works. However, with QR codes, this is simply not the case; they can benefit the marketing of organisations of all sizes.

A QR code is a marketing tool that can help drive consumers to specific content of your choosing, such as a landing pages on your website, contact details or competition entry forms.  QR codes are cheap and easy to generate online. All your prospect needs to access them is a smart phone. Studies from 2011 indicate that businesses were reluctant to introduce QR codes, with only 8% of businesses thinking that QR codes were worthwhile; however, in 2012 the numbers changed significantly, with 47% of businesses declaring that their brand would benefit from introducing QR codes into their marketing, due to the rise in smart phone adoption amongst consumers.

How can my business use QR codes?

QR codes are currently dominating the consumer market, from packaging, magazine adverts, bus stops and billboards, the list is endless.

Tesco in South Korea is a great example of a forward thinking QR campaigns. In order to help save time, Tesco found a clever way to bring the grocery store to the consumer. Tesco launched a QR code campaign that plastered enormous images of food items on to South Korean subway walls. These images came with a QR code and allowed consumers to scan individual food items to be loaded in their virtual shopping cart. Once they finished their checkout, their order was processed and delivered to the consumer’s doorstep.

If you were at the Olympics this year, you may have noticed that QR codes were sitting right at the centre of mobile engagement during the 2012 games, linking supporters to Olympic action, promotions, merchandise and information.

Before and throughout the Olympics, Southwest trains used QR codes to help their customers plan their journey in a timely fashion, so the passenger could avoid any confusion during the games.

QR codes are not just for the big players. QR campaigns can be used in various ways within an SME environment, from business cards and adverts to direct mail and merchandise.  QR codes are a cheap, effective addition to many marketing campaigns and can be used to increase the effectiveness and measurability of campaigns. Common ideas include:

“Scan this product to download a recipe straight to your phone”

“Scan to ‘Like’ us on Facebook and get 20% off this purchase!”

“Scan to enter our latest competition”

Like any marketing activity, it is essential to have a campaign strategy in place, offering something special or unique. You need to understand your target audience, have a clear objective in mind and most importantly, provide valuable information to encourage the user to interact with your brand.

Businesses should always measure the results from any marketing campaign, QR codes included.  Did your website receive more traffic? Did the campaign generate more sales, Twitter followers or ‘Likes’ on Facebook? Whilst trying out the latest marketing trend can be fun, ultimately the campaign needs to generate results for your business.

To create your free QR code today, click here.

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The Rise in Business Social Media

With our social media event only a matter of weeks away, we thought we would whet your appetite with a couple of social media business success stories.
In today’s highly connected world, an increasing number of business professionals and SMES are making social media a key component of their marketing strategy. More and more companies are adopting social media as a channel for connecting with current, past and new customers.

A global survey by Regus has shown that 41% of UK firms are using social media in order to increase their business. The poll questioned around 17,000 managers and business owners from over 80 countries across the world, including the UK, about their use of social media and social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The survey also revealed that 50% of UK firms now encourage their employees to join business networks, and that 33% devote up to 20% of their marketing budget to business social networking activity with the hope of engaging new customers, building brand awareness, improving customer loyalty, and ultimately turning customers into long time fans of their brand.

Celia Donne, Regional Director at Regus comments: “Business social networking has finally come into its own in the commercial world. More and more companies are leveraging the channel not only to increase the loyalty of existing customers, but as a successful acquisition tool. As businesses emerge from the downturn they are increasingly reconsidering pre-recession working practices and opting for more flexible, competitive strategies. Among these, the use of business social media is proving extremely successful and suited to the fast pace of recovery. Particularly in the UK, where one in three social network users is a fan, follower or friend of a company page or profile, firms should expect to see an increasing proportion of marketing budget being destined to this activity.”

The team here at TLC Business recently stumbled across a creative way of taking social media activity to a new level, yes Nike may not be your usual Hampshire business, but it shows its thinking ahead of the game and creating an exciting platform to stand out against competitors and reach a network of past, present and future customers.

Like many companies, Nike felt they needed to shake up their market place online and create something new and different for their target audience. Nike began their search through simple market research in Amsterdam and found out that people thought running was boring and that the youth market showed a lack of interest in this area of exercise. Nike wanted to change this negative view, so decided to launch an innovative online to offline campaign that used Facebook as the main platform. The idea was to create a movement of runners who had to paint their city using the running routes as their artwork. The campaign was a huge success on Facebook with users engaging with each other offline and online and a real sense of community was built up between the runners as they all started to join up and follow each other’s routes that had been created on Facebook.

Obviously we would all like our businesses to be able to create such an exciting and innovative way of engaging with our market place but we also wanted to highlight some Facebook pages that are slightly closer to home and not totally out of reach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plum baby, a Hampshire based business has created a highly interactive Facebook page that brings mothers together in an online community to share their baby food experiences, new recipes and advice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hampshire based Samantha Russell the Social Sardine helps business get more from their Facebook business pages. Samantha Russell will be a speaker at our Social Media event on the 7th of July.

If you would like to attend our social media event on the 7th of July and learn more about how Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn can help you business, click here.

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Think ‘SME SR’ not CSR

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’!

 

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Top Marketing Tips For March

  1. 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?
  2. 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.
  3. 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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What can SME’s learn from the super brands?

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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This Month’s Top Marketing Tips

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

 

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