Friday 30th April 2010
A fun and rewarding half-day seminar presented by Jason Sammon of FL1 Group and June Cory of My Mustard
This is a relaxed and non-techie seminar that is aimed at businesspeople with a preliminary knowledge of Google AdWords and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) but who want to know more and how to apply the techniques to their business for greater profitability.
Online PR, RSS and Article Marketing: how to raise your business’ profile for little or no cost!
Friday 16th April 2010
A fun and rewarding half-day seminar led by Sabra Swinson of Cerco Communications
This is a relaxed and non-technical seminar that is aimed at businesspeople with a preliminary
knowledge of Public Relations but who want to know how to raise the profile of their business online,
with online PR.
Delegates will leave with a thorough understanding of the key tools for online PR, many of which are
free, and techniques to improve the results of their existing campaigns.
Delegates will also learn how online PR works alongside, and improves, organic Search Engine
Optimisation (SEO) results.
Our ‘Advanced Social Media for Non-Techies’ seminar has just been announced, click here for more details.
Marketing processes
1. Really get to know your BEST customers – profile their characteristics in detail and then go, find similar ones!
2. Communicate regularly with your customers: current customers, potential customers but particularly lapsed customers. Newsletters and emails are great but can you find other methods e.g. podcasts?
3. Take a look at how you are perceived by the outside world. Image is all today! Do you need a new brand image, a new website or new business cards? Review your website. If you have more than one area in your business, consider having separate microsites rather than one large website.
4. In a world of spam, never overlook the humble postcard. A good postcard can be more effective than a bad brochure.
Why buy from us?
5. Decide what really makes you special. What is your USP? What are the benefits of buying from you? Once you have identified it, encapsulate it in a few words or a strapline and promote it everywhere!
Marketing tools
6. Consider co-marketing with another (non-competitive) company with a similar customer profile. Could you do a joint venture? Could you ‘piggyback’ on someone else’s marketing activities? Could you swap mailing lists or share costs?
7. Review your advertising costs. If local advertising works for you drive a hard bargain on costs and make it a sales advert with a clear call-to-action.
8. Editorial is free so cultivate a few journalists. Make sure that you have a real ‘story’ to tell first though!
9. Use free social media tools – especially blogging! Obama won the US election by understanding and using social media.
10. Consider video – even accountants reading slides have got 500 views on!
11. Use market research tools as a basis for CRM improvements and communication – www.surveymonkey.com is free
Plan and monitor
12. Have a plan! Create a simple one-page Marketing Plan that works for your business.
In the current economic climate monitor your results very closely and adjust as necessary. Track everything!
Finally, the key to marketing success is to pick one or two tools that work for your business and use them consistently!
A trip along Oxford Street yesterday at lunchtime showed in ‘real time’ the shift in retail spending.
The street was very crowded with shoppers, many of them tourists from France and Italy or from Eastern Europe, enjoying the reduction in sterling’s value.
Yet many of the lunchtime shoppers were clely locals who had ‘escaped’ from nearby offices to enjoy the early spring sunshine and to browse the rails.
What was interesting from a marketer’s perspective was what the shoppers were buying.
A quick review of the carrier bags that shoppers were carrying yesterday showed that the clear winners were Primark and Selfridges. Certainly both stores were very busy with queues at tills, particularly at the former.
The carriers that were glaringly absent were from the ‘middle market’ – Next, M&S, Bhs etc.
This was a physical demonstration of market positioning with consumers shopping at the top of the market and the bottom.
While these observations spring from two hours one lunchtime, it does show that is being reflected in market share and share prices – the middle market is finding the going tough.
Retailers in the middle ground need to create a reason why we should shop there. Differentiation is the key! Give us a reason to spend money with you!
