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June's Top Marketing Tips

29.06.10

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 www.tlc-business.co.uk/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?

29.06.10

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

09.06.10

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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