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Blog posts in Advertising
Affordable advertising for small businesses
May 14, 2012
The majority of small businesses are owned and operated by a single person with a very limited amount of capital. In fact, many small business owners start their firms with life savings. So, money for advertising is in short supply. However, there are cost-effective ways for SMEs to promote their products and services.
Here are six back-to-basics advertising ideas for small firms:
1. Special offers
Sites like Groupon allow small firms to offer coupons and discounts. Another way to spread the word about special offers is to distribute leaflets in your local area, either door-to-door or by giving out flyers in shopping centres.
2. Cross promotion
It’s a good idea to partner with businesses that offer complementary products in the same target market as yours. By creating an attractive cross promotion, you can capitalise on the goodwill each firm has built up within their own customer base.
3. Word of mouth
Make sure you always go the extra mile for your customers. Good feedback and customer satisfaction goes a long way in getting new and repeat business and word of mouth is still one of the best and cheapest ways to advertise your business.
4. Online presence
Make sure your website is effective and easy to navigate. Hire a good designer who can also advise on SEO. It’s vital that your website ranks highly in major search engines for important keywords related to your business.
5. Social media
Promote your business online by using social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. It’s also a good idea to create a short video about your business and put it up on YouTube so potential customers can get a glimpse of your products and services.
6. Press releases
Getting mentioned in the press is not easy but PR can be cheap and positive coverage in both print and online media is a fantastic way to drive sales. Write press releases to spread news about your business.
A word of caution…
You need to be careful in the approach you take. When you try a new advertising method, assess the results before you invest more money. Avoid false advertising methods like bait and switch, misleading facts and deceptive pricing. Above all, remember that your target audience may be quite small and any negative reviews about your business could spread fast.
Keith Allen runs a website for SMEs, Advertising for Small Business.
Five ways to get the most out of marketing on voucher sites
April 26, 2012
Voucher sites have grown in popularity over the past five years, and the market has grown significantly. Whilst some businesses have overlooked them in their marketing plan, voucher sites can be good for business...if you choose carefully. Below are some tips to help you to get the best out of marketing on voucher sites.
1. Place deals locally, as well as nationally
Local deals help you to generate repeat business, which is essential for building good, long-lasting customer relationships. National deals are good for generating an influx of customers, which may increase your revenue during a short space of time. However, the local customers are more likely to return.
2. Negotiate on the commission per sale
Most voucher sites charge you a commission per sale. Never take the commission quoted at face value, and always try and barter them down to the lowest price possible. Although most won’t admit it, there is a degree of flexibility — especially if they believe your deal will sell well. Alternatively, look for a site that charges a flat fee.
3. Look for a site that specialises in your niche
Do you run a hotel? Are you a shop that sells fitted shirts? Or maybe you are a lawyer? Whatever you sector you work in, ensure the site attracts your ideal customer. Most sites specialise in B2C customers, but there are a few that market B2B services.
4. Don’t forget to up-sell
When people feel like they are getting a good deal, they are more likely to spend more — especially if it was under their initial budget. Create add-on services and deals that customers can purchase directly from you.
5. Prepare your staff
Voucher deals tend to be hugely popular, so ensure that your staff can handle the demand. Confirm the dates that your deal will be running, where the point of sale takes place (i.e. on your website, or on the voucher site), and how long the deal will be running. Most voucher sites allow you to put a cap on sales so you can handle the volume of sales, but confirm this beforehand.
Denis Kondopoulos is the senior technical project manager of everdayoffers.co.uk, a B2B and B2C voucher site.
Branding: Good news or old news?
April 25, 2012
Branding - It's a word that’s bandied about a great deal these days. But what does it actually mean and what's changing within the world of branding? The Design Council defines a brand as: "a set of associations that a person (or group of people) makes with a company, product, service, individual or organisation.
These associations may be intentional - that is, they may be actively promoted via marketing and corporate identity, for example - or they may be outside the company's control." (Source: The Power of Branding: A Practical Guide, The Design Council)
While the value of branding is growing, many small businesses still overlook the relevance of its role in helping to increase leads and revenue.
Much more than a logo
In an increasingly visual world, it's surprising that so many businesses still view branding as being purely about a logo. While a powerful logo is still important, bringing branding to life in business means ensuring that the look or design of a company matches its overall strategy. Linking brand and design with your overall value proposition and business strategy is the way to make it work for a business.
How can businesses bring branding back to life?
Almost half of UK businesses believe that design contributes to some extent to increased market share (46%) and turnover (44%)
So why is it that many companies continue to miss out on the full benefits of branding? Is it possible to build a company brand that actively connects with customers and delivers a real return on investment?
The secret is not about having a big budget, but about taking a well considered approach. Integrating branding within an inbound marketing approach allows companies to achieve this because inbound marketing uses technology that allows companies to research the demand that exists in their target market.
Why the branding agency is adding to the problem
Business-owners looking for a brand with commercial impact may ask ask a design or branding agency to do the job for them. But in return for their fee they often recieve only a one-off logo or website design along with the significant level of consultation and cost associated with the rebrand. On its own this misses out on the bigger picture of branding, which is to make money for the company. Instead, it is very likely that the agency will focus on:
Good logo design:
Great, you have a new logo, but does it reflect what your company stands for and your marketing strategy?
Good branding and design:
Even better, your branding agency or design agency is focusing on creating a powerful, joined up brand and overall design. But before you go there, take a closer look at what these companies are offering.
Do they link branding and design directly with Return On Investment (ROI)? With 7,099 design businesses in the West Midlands alone (Source: The Design Council), it's important to select a design or marketing agency that actually aims to look at what your customers want.
What separates the branding winners from the losers?
Despite the popular myths, your brand, your logo and your company look and design is not intended for you - it's intended for your target audience and, most importantly, aimed at generating visits, leads and sales. Here are some ways to build branding that actively boost company performance:
Make sure your branding is shaped around the demand in your existing market. Inbound marketing technology allows you to research the demand that is already out there.
Align your branding with your company's value proposition. This provides a better ROI and ensures that your branding shows what differentiates you from the competition. Combine the online research into your market with marketing persona research where you interview your existing customers, potential customers and even competition to find out what your target audience really want, what their business plans are and how your competitors sell.
Use a range of resources. Why leave your entire brand in the hands of a design or branding agency when you can have access to a wider range of resources to make it work harder for you? From heat mapping that allows you to see the demand for your services to mystery shopper facilities, inbound marketing gives you the insight to shape and create a more meaningful and profitable company brand.
Sookie Shuen is the community manager at Tomorrow People, an inbound marketing consultancy. Read her Inbound Marketing Blog.
The changing face of sponsorship
April 04, 2012
Sponsorship is a unique industry, one that is growing as well as dramatically shifting. At the moment, there seems to be an inertia amongst sponsorship agencies and brands at one end of the scale, while at the other end there is an active driving force pushing the industry into a more grown-up and sustainable form of marketing.
Put simply, sponsorship is a form of marketing. And just like good old-fashioned direct marketing campaigns, sponsorship needs to be measured, creative and deliver results for the client. Somewhere along the line, sponsorship campaigns have stagnated, which has created an industry that bases success on logo views making it no different to advertising — except lacking the creativity. This was caused by the reasons sponsorship was signed off initially — typically the CEO who was boosting his own ego and basing brand positioning on access to hospitality boxes and exclusive tickets, rather than marketing ROI.
However, sponsorship is so much more than that and for the brands and sponsorship agencies out there who are willing to work a bit smarter, the returns can be significant.
My favourite example of smarter thinking is with the Direct Marketing Association who dramatically shifted their involvement with sponsorship enabling them to provide more value to their members at no additional cost (view case study here). Rather than just being an add-on, this membership organisation now counts sponsorship revenue as core to their business processes and integral to their overall income.
Another smarter thinking client we have is the What Car? Awards, which saw an increase of 1032% on sponsorship revenue this year simply by shifting some of their current activities in order to create value for their sponsors (view case study here). For example, instead of just having sponsors involved with the presentation ball itself, What Car? created new promotional channels including promotion of the shortlist through media sponsor The Metro; providing sponsors a significant amount of national exposure. Neither additional resource nor expense was needed as the shortlist was always part of their programme, but by changing the promotion and involving partners, this dramatically changed the value derived for the What Car? Awards sponsors.
Jackie Fast is an expert contributor to Marketing Donut and managing director of Slingshot, a specialist sponsorship agency.
Nine ways to market your business with an Olympic theme without breaking the law
March 22, 2012
I recently discovered that I was infringing trademark law on my website. We make homewares from recycled and vintage fabrics, and like many craft-based companies, one of our products has a Union Jack-inspired design. We had written: “Celebrate the Olympics in style with our Union Jack cushion”.
Having read the guidelines, I promptly took down the text in question and quickly removed every other mention of the Olympics on my website.
You can read my blog on what these regulations mean for businesses on Law Donut.
But how do you mark this massive occasion without breaking the law?
Traditional business advice for small businesses regarding PR and product marketing advises us to be “on trend” — getting the right messages out at the right time to the right people and engaging with our audiences and customers on the issues and events that attract and concern them.
For example, if we at OriginalStitch didn’t find ways to ensure we had promoted our products for Christmas, Mother’s Day, Easter and Valentine’s Day, hadn’t followed cues from the weather and the seasons; if we didn’t jump on Back to School, or take advantage of the Golden Jubilee, we would be missing a trick — and that has a direct effect on our bottom line.
Staying within the guidelines
Most of you, like us here at OriginalStitch, have no desire whatever to be on the wrong side of the law — but clearly, being terrified away from the most significant world-stage event to occur on our shores in most of our lifetimes would be a shame and a waste. Many of us, far from wanting to mercilessly exploit the Games, want to feel that we are part of it; and most of you, like us, know that it is laughable to imply that your products are in any way endorsed by the Olympics.
So, my advice is to carry on with your marketing efforts, and join in the fun, but tread carefully. Hopefully, many of you will be adept at working on your company’s key phrases for SEO, marketing, social media or PR, so you now need to turn those language skills to the events or products you are looking to market.
Here are some ideas you could use:
• Use verb + time phrases such as “celebrate this summer”, “enjoy the events this summer”, “be a part of the sporting landscape this month”, “entertain yourselves in style at the events tonight”.
• Employ phrases and puns with a sporting theme, such as:
get a head start on your day...
be a good sport and buy the kids a...
don’t get stuck at the first hurdle....check out our...
avoid bellyflops in your business with our finance software....
race through your to-do list with our scheduling software
don’t get stuck on the back foot…
hit your target with...
lap up the atmosphere with our fabulous sausages…
everyone’s a winner with our...
• Be positive about the events, not negative: show support, be welcoming rather than jingoistic and share that enjoyment with phrases such as “Go, Team GB!”, “Welcoming all newcomers to Great Britain!” or “Flying the Union Jack!”
• Celebrate Britishness. If your products are made in Britain, ensure you’re telling the story; find a way of anchoring what your company does to a sense of pride in our hosting of a world event, even if you’re not a fan yourself. For example, our products are handmade in Britain; but it could be a supplier, a client, your local area or a local charity. Find a story and tell it.
• Launch or flag up a product with a patriotic feel to it; or consider renaming one of your offerings for the duration of the Olympics? If you make food products, can you top them with a Union Jack, or shape them into an oar, a tennis racquet or a bike? You have to be super quick to respond to events, but even a small line in fun products can work when you team it with social media, PR, and get local newspaper coverage. Our local butcher changes the decorative pastry leaves on his Chicken-en-Croutes to hearts for Valentine’s Day, and he sells many more! And, if you do this, ensure your SEO reflects this too.
• Make sure you’re being enthusiastic about other nations’ teams too. Look out for interesting news articles about the Olympics that reflect your ethics. If you specialise in products for women, turn your attention to individual women athletes who have overcome hurdles (no pun intended!) to be at the Olympics; if you have a supplier of products from another country that you’re proud of, flag up some of their athletes — maybe they come from the same town as your supplier?
• Use your social media strategies to enjoy the events. Use Facebook, your business blog or Twitter to share enjoyment of the Games with your customers. Use polls, ask fun questions, get your followers to post pictures of themselves doing sport, or jumping hurdles wearing something British — anything that’s fun and engaging.
• Find an innovative way of watching the Games with your customers. A pub we know has a promotion where they serve all pints half-price until the first try of all their televised rugby matches — it’s a great way of pulling in the punters, and results in both a cheer and a boo when the first try is scored, even when it’s the team they’re supporting!
• Avoid all trademarked phrases (see this blog on Law Donut for a full guide to the law). Use only your company insignia, and double check all your marketing activity to ensure you haven’t tripped up. Don’t be tempted to outsmart the law by using alternative spellings of clearly prohibited phrases.
Overall you need to shift your focus from “piggybacking” the Olympics, to engaging with it. But don’t be scared off. This is an event that belongs to us all, in spirit if not in the law, and your message calendar should include it.
So go on, knock yourselves out, but make sure you stay inside the safety ropes!
Catherine Lloyd-Evans is the founder of OriginalStitch and blogs at Stitches & Glitches.
Does your personality influence the colour psychology of your business?
November 14, 2011
I’m often asked by clients whether their own personality has any bearing on the colour psychology of their business. My stock, and immediate answer is no, it shouldn’t do.
Colour psychology is about using colour (and texture, shape, type) to support the key brand messages of your business. We’re very analytical about identifying those core attributes and they are what drive our decisions about colour. But it’s not quite as simple as that.
Your personality will probably influence your business
In my experience, the vast majority of entrepreneurs shape their businesses in line with their own values. You may do this consciously or subconsciously, but experience tells me you’ll do it.
This often means that both business and business owner will share certain characteristics and attributes. And I think this is more prevalent, though not exclusively so, in small businesses.
Small businesses don’t always feel comfortable about showing their true “personalities” through their brand. And I think that’s a shame. By being aware of your core brand values and creating a brand identity that supports that, you’ll gain more profitable, loyal clients and differentiate your business from your competitors. It’s certainly a benefit we see time and again with our branding clients at Flourish.
Richard Branson’s values
But I digress. Let’s think big for a moment. Do you suppose Richard Branson eradicated his personality when setting up Virgin? Of course not! It’s his very drive, values and ambition that many of his customers find so utterly compelling. And that message is very aptly supported by the Winter colour palette: exciting, vibrant reds, luxurious and strong black.
So to scale back to small businesses — if small business owners are prepared to embrace the effect their own personality has on their business brand, then the chances are that your business colour psychology personality will be very similar to your own personality.
My experience tells me it’s nigh on impossible to completely eradicate the influence of the business owner on their company, and that leaves a lasting, and positive, impression.
What do you think? Do you accentuate or dampen down your personality within your business?
Fiona Humberstone is an expert contributor to Marketing Donut and managing director of Flourish.
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