But how will you know if it’s the right thing to do? You could just be wasting your time and money.

It’s a really good idea to clear some space in your diary, and spend a few hours really getting to grips with a few fundamentals. For example:

• What exactly are you offering?
• Who is it aimed at?
• Who are your competitors?
• How are you different?
• Do you have a variety of products that suit different groups of people?
• What are their concerns?
• Where will you find these people?
• What are your key messages?

Once you know all these things, you can start to put together a plan of attack. The most important thing to remember is that your messages and communication channels need to be relevant to your audience. It’s no good having a facebook page just because everyone else seems to. What are you going to say? Are your customers using facebook, and will they find your content interesting while they’re on facebook? Don’t forget, many people use it to ‘escape’ from work, so if your messages are too business-like they may get overlooked.

What about local advertising? Are your customers all local people? Do they read the local paper? Do you have any newsworthy items that could get you some free PR coverage?

Could you do a leaflet drop instead? Are there any other local publications such as community magazines?

Would the trade press be more appropriate? Do you have a national audience in a niche market?

By taking some time to figure this all out, you can save yourself time and money, and generate income a lot more quickly.

So to pick up the story … Firstly, we were told delivery would be ‘about 6 weeks’ – this was in early October. We didn’t have anyone coming to stay for Christmas, we had no particular deadline, so that was fine. We were happy to put it to the backs of our minds and just wait.

Around the 15th December (10 weeks later), we had a call to tell us the table was ready for collection from the warehouse, 20 miles away, Monday to Friday between 10am and 4pm. I don’t know about you, but for me, the lead up to any major holiday is frantic, busy and stressful with many clients having urgent deadlines. Last Christmas was no exception and taking half a day to go and collect a table was not an option or a priority. We were also leaving for Cornwall on 21st, so we had no choice but to leave the table in the warehouse.

Lesson 1 – communicate with your customers. If your promised delivery date moves for any reason, let them know. Don’t just leave them wondering.

In the first week of January, they phoned to say ‘your table’s still here – you can collect it Monday to Friday between 10am and 4pm’. I told them I was aware of that, but for 2 working people, that’s not very convenient.

Lesson 2 – Think like a customer. Those collection times from a warehouse 20 miles from your home are not very user-friendly. They suit the retailer, not the customer. A weekend or a late night collection would be much more customer-friendly, even if it was just once a month.

Ultimately, Mr B managed to leave work early and collect it today! Almost 4 months after we ordered it. He had a last minute opportunity to go, which meant that he didn’t  have the invoice with him. This apparently was a problem for the warehouse guys, until Mr B got a little bit shirty and asked how many rectangular oak tables they had awaiting collection, and could they not get the details from the office or computer system? Ultimately they tracked it down and it was all loaded into the car. But then they pointed out there was money owing, as we’d only paid a deposit. ‘No problem’ replied Mr B, pulling out his credit card. But no, the warehouse couldn’t take payment. It had to be done at the showroom (a couple of miles away).

Lesson 3 – Don’t make it difficult to pay. If the majority of customers have an outstanding balance to pay on collection, surely the warehouse could be set up to receive outstanding balances?

This whole experience has made me wonder about this company’s cash flow. Because of their poor communication and inflexible collection facilities, they have had to wait an extra month to receive our outstanding balance. Surely that can’t be good for business.

Lesson 4 – Don’t jeopardise your cashflow through shoddy procedures. If the service or product delivery and payment systems are efficient, you will benefit.

We won’t be buying any more furniture from this retailer, or recommending them. What a different story that could have been if they had thought like a customer instead of putting their operational requirements first.

Cynics might say it’s just another public relations gimmick designed to make the business look ‘worthy’.

But my take on it is that it’s another way to help a business clearly define its values and objectives. 
Some of the benefits of defining your operational approach can lead to;

• better employee engagement
• improved customer service
• greater business efficiency

Many large organisations are starting to insist on a CSR policy being submitted as part of a proposal – they want to know that the companies they are sub-contracting have an ethical or sustainable approach … or at least have given these areas due consideration.

If you run a small business, is this important?

Put it this way. While it’s not vital, it’s something that helps to build a picture of your business. Even if you do it for internal purposes, it can make you look at how and why you do some of the things you do.

If you want more information about CSR policies or to look at some examples, there are plenty of articles online, but here is one definition I found:

“CSR is commonly described by its promoters as aligning a company’s activities with the social, economic and environmental expectations of its “stakeholders.”

As a small business (even a one or two person business) you can still give some thought to these areas .

• What efforts do you make to be a considerate business, for example to the environment, the community and the workforce?
• What is your approach to doing business ethically and professionally?
• How do you manage personal development and training within the workforce?
• How (and what) do you recycle?
• How do you conserve energy in the office?
• Where do you get your supplies from, and are they from sustainable sources?
• How do you contribute to the local community?

Finally, we decided to tackle the buying decision head on and go and get a table. Hurrah! 
We went to a warehouse that has been sending us promotional material for 7 years (persistence finally paid off with that one!)  About every 6 months, they have sent a leaflet full of special offers, deals, one day only events etc. so off we went to secure a deal.

Having settled on a mutually agreeable table we went in search of a salesperson who told us how to care for it and keep it in good condition.  He tried to find us some chairs to go with it (we didn’t like the recommended ones) but with the best will in the world, he never stood a chance with us and our opposing tastes, so we will make do with our existing ones for now.

Failure to deliver

But the disappointment came when it was time to pay. Understandably for him, it was just a transaction and a bit of form filling. But for us, it was a big deal. For years we’d been building up to this moment, but he was completely joyless. He dealt with the tedious practicalities in a manner that suggested he wished he was somewhere else. He processed the credit card, explained it would be 6 weeks before our table arrived and asked how we wanted delivery. And that was pretty much it. No ‘congratulations’ or ‘you’ve made a great choice’ or ‘we look forward to seeing you again when you come to collect it’.  To say it was underwhelming is an understatement! We might as well have just bought a bread bin, such was his lack of enthusiasm. Considering we had just made a major decision that had been years in the making, we left feeling disenchanted.

I have had more enthusiasm from a shop assistant when buying a £15 top. It really makes a difference if someone says “That’s lovely isn’t it? I’ve had my eye on that!” You feel that you’ve made a good choice and that someone is at least interested in what you are buying.

So what can you do to make the buying process more rewarding?

Monday: Had a meeting with my business coach. It’s always good to step back and take a look at your business and how it’s working. My life changes whenever there is a change to my family’s life e.g. a change of school, an increase in workload, trips away etc. so I have to have strategies for managing my business around that, and I find coaching very useful.

Tuesday: Worked on a couple of projects for The Rosevine. Each month, I create a newsletter which is sent to their email database, but they also have a database of guests who have stayed or enquired. We’ve created a lovely postcard to mail to those guests, promoting a Christmas and New Year break. My job was to review the database, write the copy and brief the design agency, liaising with the printing and mailing company to make sure that everything was provided in the right format. We’re also working on the website in order to improve its effectiveness, both in terms of search engines finding it, and users being able to find the information they need. This involved reviewing the existing website, analysing what’s needed and creating a brief for the design and SEO agency.

I have been working with another client in the catering industry for a year now, so in the afternoon I prepared a proposal for renewing that contract.

Wednesday: Spent the morning working on a new product launch for another client, a point of sale software company. Having devised a marketing and communications plan which incorporated advertising and PR in the trade press, leaflet drops and a new website landing page, I had to create the copy for the advert for approval. Once this has been approved, I will brief the design agency and they will produce the advert which will then be used as the basis for the website page which will be my next task: to create the text, source the images and liaise with the website developer. Then, I will need to book the ad into the trade press and speak to the journalist about doing an interview with one of the product users.

In the evening, I attended a wine-tasting dinner on HMS Belfast for my catering industry client. The event was one of 4 networking events that they run each year for people that work in commercial catering. My job is to take notes, interview key people, take photos and publicise the evening within the trade press.

Thursday: Spent the morning writing up the press release from Wednesday evening, pulling together some of the best images and getting quotes from relevant people to include within the release.

In the afternoon, I prepared for a training session at the weekend. It’s an annual event, run by a coalition of breast cancer advocates in Milan. It includes women from all over Europe who come for a 2 day conference to learn all about the latest advances in science. On the second day, they have a training session that covers dealing with the media, assertiveness techniques and presentation skills.  4 of us travel over for the day and simultaneously deliver the communications training. It’s full on, but very rewarding as they all go away brimming with new ideas and confidence.

Friday: Finance morning. One of my least favourite activities, but I’m trying to get my accounting system a bit more organised, and am transferring everything over to Kashflow. It’s a really easy-to-use system for raising and sending invoices, but all the incoming finances need to be input manually and I’m playing catch-up.

Monday: Here I am, writing my newsletter (feeling slightly jaded from my Milan trip). Once I’ve written the articles and chosen pictures from a photo library I’ll get them loaded onto my website, so that they can be linked from the email newsletter. Technology is a great enabler for communicating regularly with people. Between newsletters, facebook, twitter and LinkedIn, I feel connected to lots of people, even if I don’t actually see anyone face to face all day.

Why does it matter?

On average, it takes 7 exposures to your marketing message for someone to take action. That means they might see your ad in the paper, notice your van driving around, hear someone mention you, pass by your shop, see you on facebook and get a leaflet through the door from you before they actually do business with you.

If they are seeing a different ‘brand’ each time, they won’t be sure it’s you. Don’t forget, a lot of this is subliminal … of course people don’t actually count the number of times they see your logo. But if your product is relevant to them, they will notice it and you want to make sure they know it’s YOU they keep seeing, and not some other, similar business.

The right way to do it

A company that does a fantastic job of presenting themselves consistently is a steam fair that visits our village each year. They have lovely, old-fashioned circus style lettering in distinctive red and yellow colouring. Most of the rides feature the lettering. Their vans are fully branded in the same livery. They even have one with a fairground horse on the top! Last weekend, they were arriving for their annual visit, and there were posters all over the town, stating the location, the times, how to get a money-off voucher. Every approach to the green where they set up had a succession of posters. The local paper had a full page advert. They sent out an update on their facebook page. The vans were driving around.

All this activity used the same logo, the same typeface, the same colour-scheme so you were in no doubt it was them that was coming to town. The result was that all my children could talk about was the fair for days leading up to it. All their friends were going, we bumped into neighbours, friends and colleagues there – it is a popular, anticipated event.

How can you create the same impact?

• Make sure you have a copy of your logo in all the file formats you might need (jpeg, gif, bitmap, png – depending on what you need it for – find out!)
• Always use the same colour-scheme
• Always use the same fonts
• Choose an appropriate style and stick with it

Don’t take a gamble with your brand – take ownership of it!

I can’t help feeling this is deliberate, and it causes me to be suspicious – not a very positive emotion to have between customer and supplier.

A good example of the opposite is the garage where I recently got my car serviced. I was offered 3 options … gold, silver or bronze.  Each option had a fixed price and a list to show you what was included. It even had a recommendation as to when you should choose each option.

Of course in business, it’s not always possible to have a ‘shopping list’ approach to pricing – the cost could depend on the extent of the work involved, but the more straightforward you can make it, the more straightforward the transaction is likely to be.

Have a clear pricing policy, and make it easy for your customers to understand … because if they can’t work it out, they’ll just go somewhere where they can.

Could AdWords be more effective?

AdWords appear when someone is actively searching for a solution to a problem. If you can just get your ads right, they should prove to be a much more effective lead generation tool. I met with team from The Adword Adviser recently to grill them on how to do it. They had some very useful tips which I’ve outlined here…

Message match

It’s important to ‘message match’ – this means that the words within the search term typed into Google match the content of the ad that appears, and that this matches the content of the web page they are directed to.

Targeting

There are various ways you can target, including:

• Geographic search intent i.e. targeting searchers who use a specific location in their search
• Physical geographic location
• Scheduling at different times of day i.e. if you’re expecting phone calls as a result of your ad, the ad will only appear when you’re open or available to handle the calls

Another option is to target different platforms such as:

• PCs and laptops
• Mobile phones
• Tablet PCs & Ipads

Keywords

Google offers a keyword tool which is very helpful for finding out what search terms people actually use when looking for your type of product. Tell it the keywords you are thinking of, and it will tell you a whole bunch of related phrases that people search for.

You can also block out keywords that you DON’T want, such as anyone searching using the word ‘free’

Formatting your ad

Your ad consists of a heading, 2 description lines and the url line. It’s wise to use your keywords in the heading so that people can see the relevance of the ad compared to what they searched for.

The description lines should be concise and specific.

Poor quality ads won’t show. If the keywords, description and website content aren’t ‘matched’ Google will not show them. You only pay when your ad gets clicked, so you’re not losing any money but it means that you’re not getting the publicity you hoped for.

Different ways to use AdWords

You can use AdWords in various ways. The most obvious one is to sell a product e.g. shoes. But you can also use it to get people to sign up for a newsletter, or to conduct research. If you’ve got your finger on the pulse, you can even use current news stories to generate visits to your website. One such example was a company who sold lightbulbs. Following a popular TV programme that was talking about attracting moths, this company ran an AdWord campaign using the TV programme name and the phrase ‘moth friendly lightbulbs’. This was a very effective tactic and a great use of the tool.

Wasting money

Clicks can cost anything from 6p to £20. How much you’re prepared to spend on clicks will depend on the value of what you’re selling.

This year, we got ahead! We researched online before leaving and set off knowing that we had a plan. We found somewhere that we could stop for lunch, served food all day, was about 10 minutes from the motorway, child-friendly, dog-friendly and with a garden. Perfect!

Feeling very smug, we arrived at the idyllic Crown Inn in Somerset – an ancient country pub surrounded by flowers with a couple of tables occupied by contented customers soaking up the sun.

The kids disappeared into the garden to find a table, hubby went off down a footpath to stretch the dog’s legs while I placed our drinks orders and browsed the menu … home cooked food, with something to suit everyone. Fantastic!

The landlord presented the drinks and I asked if I could leave my card behind the bar as we wanted to eat. “Ah, we don’t do that new-fangled stuff” he said. “It’s cash or cheque only I’m afraid”. With a sinking feeling I opened my purse to reveal £6.20. “Sorry, I’ll have to wait for my husband to come back” I apologised. But when he turfed out his pockets, our pooled resources came to a measly £10.60.

I never carry a cheque book as I never use it. In towns and cities, cards are widely accepted even for just a couple of pounds so I’ve got out of the habit of having much cash either.

It turned out the nearest cashpoint machine was in the next village 10 miles away – our carefully planned stop was turning out to be not quite so perfect after all. Did we down our drinks and set off to find somewhere that would take our card (like a motorway service station … grrr!) Or should we draw straws to see which of us was going to get back into a hot car (broken air-conditioning) and drive off to get cash?

Then Tim, the landlord said “Never mind, just send me a cheque when you get home”. We were complete strangers, evidently passing through and unlikely to return – what trust! At first, we felt quite uncomfortable about the idea, but he was very relaxed and insisted that it was no problem.

So in the end, that’s what we did. We enjoyed a delicious meal in the garden, and met up with another family who had returned to the village for a holiday, having moved to France. They said it was their favourite pub in the world and they always came back at least once a year. I can understand why. As soon as we arrived in Cornwall, we took out some cash, wrote a thank you note and posted it off to Tim.

We’ve told lots of people the story, as it’s unusual to come across such good, customer-focused service. If you can surprise your customers in a good way, they will be compelled to talk about it (especially in the instant world of facebook and social media).

So if you’re looking for a genuinely warm welcome, and a truly genial host en route to the West Country, try the Crown Inn, Churchill, Somerset BS25 5PP.

http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/54737/

As a rule of thumb, people have to see or hear about your company or your offer 7 times before they will act upon it, so if your ad counts as one of those times, where are they going to see the other 6?

It’s a bit like getting dressed, but only putting a shirt on. It’s simply not a complete outfit! You need the core basics, and perhaps some accessories. View your marketing like getting dressed, and you’re more likely to get noticed.

For instance, your basics could be an advert in a publication, a facebook page and a website.

Your accessories could be an email marketing campaign, a telephone sales blitz and a leaflet drop.

Which ones you use (and when) will depend on the type of business, what you’re selling and who you’re selling it to.

Think of your basics as your constants – things that are always there. You need to be easy to find when someone is looking for you, with up to date information (no offers or ‘news’ items that are 2 years out of date!)

Your accessories are things you can add which add sparkle to those basics – maybe you do them less often, but make them appealing to your customers.

For example, I recently visited a restaurant that was giving out vouchers to people who came in that were local residents. They are offering 10% discount on meals costing £30 or more and a free bottle of wine to parties of 8 or more. This is a really good basic idea, but if I was that restaurant, I’d also be asking people to sign up for my email newsletter, or join my facebook page for up to date offers, invites to special events, letting me know when the menu changes etc. They could also advertise in the local community magazine or do a leaflet drop in the area. The voucher is a step in the right direction, but a few more steps would make it even more successful. They’re kind of half-dressed at the moment.

The key thing to remember is getting the message out there in several different ways to give your customers more opportunities to see, and more importantly, to NOTICE you.