marketing articles
Take control of your marketing
Many small businesses know that they need to carry out marketing activity to grow their business, but lack either the time or the skills to do it.
With the help of a marketing mentor, you can put together clear objectives with an action plan to achieve them. This will reduce that feeling of ‘overwhelm’ and panic and you will feel in control of your marketing.
It is also a very cost-effective way to make sure that marketing gets done. You can pick and choose which activities you will carry out yourselves – costs will be provided for any additional projects as they come up.
KICK-OFF MEETING
The aim of the Kick-Off Meeting is to establish your marketing objectives so that we can put together a plan for achieving them.
This will be a 2 hour session where we discuss what you are hoping to achieve, what you’ve done to date, and any ideas that you have already had.
We will define your target market and talk about ideas for communicating with them. We will look at all the different media (print, websites, email marketing, social media, advertising etc) and how to get the most from your marketing budget.
ACTION PLAN
Following that meeting, I will put together an action plan for you. This will talk about up to 3 objectives with detailed actions to achieve each one.
If you want to carry out those actions yourself, that’s absolutely fine. If you need help, I can cost these out for you.
MONTHLY REVIEW
For any marketing plan to be successful, it needs to be ongoing. A monthly review (either by telephone or face-to-face meeting) will keep everything on track.
We will look at the success of the activity to date, and adjust anything that’s not working as well as it could.
COST £250 for kick-off meeting, action plan and one follow-up meeting.
Additional activity or meetings to be quoted on an ‘as required’ basis at £50 per hour
TERMS
The Marketing Mentor package is a one off payment of £250, followed by monthly payments according to the activity carried out. Invoice will be raised once the Action Plan is complete. Payment within 14 days
Travel expenses are charged at 45p a mile (or at cost for public transport)
Travelling time will be charged at £5 per 15 minutes for any journeys over 15 minutes.
This daily rate is valid until 31st December 2012. Rates may be reviewed at this point.
Jane Brocklebank’s total liability in contract, tort, misrepresentation, restitution or otherwise arising in connection with the performance or contemplated performance of this Agreement shall be limited to the price paid for the Services.
How to choose your customers
It can be difficult to narrow down your target market, perhaps because you’re worried that you might miss an opportunity. The problem is, you simply can’t be all things to all people. And when you’re promoting your product, it has to talk to somebody. Somebody has to look at it and think ‘that’s just what I need’ or ‘that looks interesting, I’d like to know more’.
Even if your product is suitable for anybody and everybody, there will be a ‘best’ customer out there. And that’s what you need to focus on.
Let’s take a dog walking service as an example. The owner of the dog walking service initially decides their target market is anyone with a dog. But how about people in Scotland? OK, so now they’re clear that it needs to be within 5 miles of their location, so they have a geographical element.
Anyone with a dog within 5 miles … well, not everybody with a dog needs a dog walking service. Many people walk their own dogs, and would never think about it. So now, we’ve got people within a 5 mile radius who cannot walk their own dog for some reason. Perhaps they’re at work, are ill, are going away. But there is a condition attached.
Now that’s all a bit clearer, it’s easier to ‘talk’ to these people in language they can relate to. It’s not to say that the service isn’t available to anybody else – it’s just that the most likely customers will be those identified by the criteria identified above.
Choosing who you want
We all have customers that are not ideal. Perhaps they are unnecessarily demanding or fussy, maybe they take up a lot of your time, but don’t spend a lot of money. They could be really bad payers. Use the ‘bad’ traits to help you understand and work out what you DO want.
Once you know who you want to talk to, and what the message is, you can start to plan ways in which to do it. For example, the dog walking service could create a series of messages related to ‘what would you do if you couldn’t walk your dog for a week?’ or ‘who walks your dog while you’re at work?’. They could then:
- Send a press release to the local paper with a nice story about some of the people who use the service, or how they’ve helped somebody in temporary difficulty
- Advertise in the local community or parish magazine
- Post leaflets through doors that have dogs barking behind them
- Set up a facebook page, and encourage their customers to share it with their dog-owner friends
- Distribute leaflets through the local puppy classes
If you’re clear about who you’re best customers are, you will start to attract more of them.
Are you afraid of sharing?
If you’re concerned about sharing too much information about what you do, you’re not alone. Many people don’t want to give away their knowledge or trade secrets for free. Why would you?
But if you do it right, you can position yourself as a trusted expert who knows their onions … and when people are ready to buy, they’ll be knocking on your door.
Getting the marketing balance right
When you’re busy running your business, it can be easy to push marketing aside. You’re busy, you don’t have time and anyway, you don’t need it as you’ve got plenty of customers.
But when those customers dry up, what do you do?
Whatever you do, don’t go into panic mode and start bombarding your mailing list or social media community with offers, reminders, packages and promotions. They haven’t heard from you for a while, and all of a sudden you start SHOUTING at them … how rude!
Not just a ‘me too’
This week in my local free newspaper, 3 leaflets fell out, all advertising supermarkets. At first, I thought they were just duplicate copies – then I realised they were 3 different brands. But they all had exactly the same format – an A4 double page spread, plastered with £1 offers and ‘buy one, get one free’ deals. Do they all use the same printers?? How are we supposed to differentiate when they’re all offering the same thing? It’s really important not to be a ‘me too’ and find a way to make what YOU offer more appealing.
The social media minefield
Many people now use social media, not just to keep up with their friends and family, but for business too. Some people only use it for business, preferring not to chit-chat about more personal things.
But the whole point of social media is that it’s social. It’s no good just blasting out information about your business in the hope that someone might take an interest. Your messages need to be interesting to those looking at them, and in the appropriate tone.
Get your priorities right
It’s all too easy to think ‘Right, we need to do some marketing’ and dive right into advertising in the local paper, or producing some leaflets, or setting up a facebook page.
But how will you know if it’s the right thing to do? You could just be wasting your time and money.
Customer service (part 2)
Recently, I wrote about the lacklustre service we experienced from a furniture retailer. This retailer has continued to be very un-customer focused and there are lessons to be learned for all businesses, so take heed! (Here’s a link to the original article)
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.
Corporate Social Responsibility – is it for you?
Many large businesses now have a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy. But is it appropriate for small businesses? I think it is.
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.
A pleasure doing business with you … or is it?
A few weeks ago, having been deliberating for some years, we decided to invest in a new kitchen table. The delay in buying was due to several factors, such as having to consider the impact of crayons, pencils and glitter on a new table, and general disagreement to the shape, size and functionality, not to mention the cost. My view is that most of the time there are 4 of us, so there’s no need to have a table that seats 10. Mr B’s view is that when we have friends over, it’s nice to be able to sit everyone at the same table (including children). I like square edges, Mr B likes oval or round tables … and don’t even get me started on the materials – wood, plastic, glass, veneer, dark, light and so on.
Finally, we decided to tackle the buying decision head on and go and get a table. Hurrah!
