marketing articles

A week in the life of a Marketing Consultant

People often ask me what I actually ‘do’ as a marketing consultant, and although I can tell you that I help people promote their businesses, it still leaves the question … “but how?”
It does vary, depending on the business so I thought I’d give you an insight into what I’ve been up to in the last week or so.

Why is consistency important?

I’m amazed at how many small businesses I come across who don’t pay attention to their professional image. There is at least one company I know that use one version of their logo on their shop front, a slight variation of this on their vans, and a completely different style in their printed promotions. Their reason for doing this? The fact that the sign-writer created the shop front logo – and the person who put the ad in the magazine designed it for them, and they didn’t know which font it was.

Why does it matter?

Annoy your customers at your peril!

One of my current bugbears is confusing pricing. When I look at prices for something, I want to know exactly what I’m getting, and how much it’s going to cost. I don’t want to have to get my calculator out to work out how it compares to something else. An example of this is the supermarkets. They often display an item next to two similar items. One might be priced per 100g. Another might be priced by exact weight e.g. 175g. Another might be ‘buy one, get one free’ – the end result is absolute confusion unless you are prepared to stand for several minutes working out the unit cost. Do this more than 3 times, and you’re extending the length of your shopping trip considerably!

Adwords as a lead generation tool

I’m often asked by small businesses if I know where they can buy a mailing list so they can try and generate some leads. My feeling is that this is a bit like throwing jelly at a wall and hoping some of it might stick. It’s so unlikely that anyone is a) going to open an unsolicited email and b)respond favourably if they do, that I would say ‘save your money and spend it on something more effective’. 

When was the last time you surprised your customers?

Whenever my family go on a long journey, we often end up stopping at a grotty service station, or we decide not to stop at all and plough on, arriving exhausted and hungry. Alternatively, we try and come off the motorway to find a village pub and drive round for hours looking for somewhere suitable with increasing grumpiness all round.

Why advertising doesn’t work

Placing an ad in a newspaper or magazine is often seen as a sure fire way to get enquiries, especially if that publication has a large circulation. But unfortunately on its own, that advert is not going to achieve much.

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?

Are you missing an opportunity that’s staring you in the face?

I have a watch that people often admire. It’s not expensive, but it’s very pretty with a beaded bracelet as a strap. Unfortunately, it’s quite delicate and the strap is prone to breaking – something which I realised (and accepted) when I bought it.

After I’d had it 2 years, it suddenly went ‘ping’, spraying beads all over the floor making it completely unfixable. I left what I could find in a saucer and debated whether to get another one – while I was debating, my lovely husband ordered one which arrived by post.

Referral marketing made simple

You may know the term referral marketing – people talk about referrals all the time. It’s just when somebody recommends somebody else.

I started using the system because it was recommended to me by Lisa from In a Pickle (a very efficient lady so if it’s good enough for her, it’s good enough for me!)

‘Don’t speak to me in that tone of voice’

Tone of voice is a term used term in marketing and advertising to describe the way in which your language comes across in your written materials. But why is it important?

Businesses spend hours, months or even years working on products and services, but potential customers decide at a glance whether they are interested or not.

Could you be an ‘award winning’ company?

Most industry sectors have some kind of awards or competitions. But a lot of businesses don’t bother with them, usually because they think they’re not likely to win, they’re ‘fixed’ in some way or it’s too much trouble.

But actually, they can be a great marketing tool. True, there’s some effort involved in putting the entry together, and yes … you may be up against some stiff competition. But if you don’t try, you’ll never know.