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Would your business make good television?
March 16, 2012
Would you like to be part of a documentary series focusing on Britain’s small and medium-sized firms?
The makers of fly-on-the-wall series such as One Born Every Minute and The Hotel tell us that they are looking for independent businesses to feature in a new series.
Dragonfly Film and Television is a BAFTA award-winning documentary company searching for “Britain’s most colourful and unconventional workplaces”. Could this be you?
Sarah Faulds, researcher at Dragonfly, says they are looking to produce a “feel-good documentary series that profiles remarkable businesses to find out what working life is like in a 21st century British workplace.” The working title for the series is The Business.
Sarah continues: “We are looking for colourful bosses who make their own rules and don't care what other people think. If you are passionate about your business, and feel tremendously loyal towards the (sometimes long-suffering) staff you employ – we would love to hear from you. If your workforce is like an extension of your family — full of laughter, honesty, and graft — please do get in touch.”
So, if you think you are “the business” or know anyone that might be suitable please get in touch with Anshu Ahuja on 0207 033 2267 or email anshu.ahuja@dragonfly.tv with the name of your company and a brief description.
Many happy returns - why you should celebrate a business birthday
February 29, 2012
A business birthday is a perfect excuse for a celebration —and a valuable marketing opportunity too.
Business anniversaries can be important milestones for your small business. They are a good way to mark progress in your growth, reinforce your trading credibility and track record, and they also help to build your business and personal brand. So it’s well worth recognising and celebrating them.
My own business, Orchard Marketing Associates, was five years old in January 2012 and I marked the occasion by celebrating and promoting it. I am very proud to have been trading for this amount of time, especially as much of it has been during a very tough period of recession. Unfortunately, not all small businesses have been so fortunate. Starting your own business is never easy and we should all acknowledge and celebrate these achievements for our businesses.
Keep your celebrations in line with your marketing
The key thing is always to re-visit your marketing objectives. Don't just throw away money on random ideas that don't support your broader marketing goals — for example, common mistakes would be giving away something of high value like a holiday and yet not supporting your marketing objectives such as increasing your website traffic, boosting your search engine rankings, building your mailing list, getting quality Twitter followers, downloads of your e-book, generating online sales, boosting footfall to your retail premises or getting more readers for your blog.
Remember to maximise your birthday PR power by issuing a press release online and distributing this information across all of your available channels — your blog, website, email marketing campaigns or e-newsletters, free online press release distribution sites, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, et al!
Five ways to celebrate your business birthday
1. Run a competition
You could give away a number of items that reinforce your birthday message, such as ten bottles of champagne for the best ten comments on a blog post, or five winners drawn at random from email sign ups or e-book downloads.
2. Discount code or voucher
Why not create a special discount voucher, promotional postcard or code to be redeemed in your online shop or in person when visiting your shop to boost customer footfall. If you offer a service, you can still offer a discount without undermining your brand.
3. Throw a party
A bit of birthday cake and some champagne goes a long way to create publicity and a buzz about your business. Invite your existing and potential customers, influential contacts and suppliers in your network to help celebrate your business milestone.
4. Recognise the efforts of your employees
If you employ staff, recognise their role in making your business and organise a staff party or meal, team reward or incentive, or even a gift for every staff member, to help boost their feelings of company pride, loyalty and motivation. After all, keeping and motivating great staff is important, particularly in the current climate.
5. Customer gifts
Send your valuable customers a personalised gift that carries your birthday message. Again, try and make it fit the theme and offer them a discount if they continue to use your service or reward them for increased spend with your company.
Sarah Orchard is an expert contributor to Marketing Donut and a consultant at Orchard Marketing Associates.
Happy christmas from Marketing Donut!
December 22, 2011
We’ll be taking a short break from blogging over Christmas and will be back in the New Year, bringing you more news, views and advice to help your business grow in 2012.
2011 has been another great year for Marketing Donut. We’ve published 170 blogs and over 400 news stories about issues affecting small businesses.
And the Donuts continue to grow — we launched Tax Donut in August and our combined Donut Twitter following has reached almost 35,000 followers.
Thank you!
We couldn’t have done it without all of you — it’s your insights, comments, blogs and tweets that make the Donuts such a fantastic resource for small businesses in the UK.
We’d especially like to thank all our experts that have generously shared their knowledge with us. We’d also like to say a big thank you to the small firms that have told us about their experiences.
And thanks to everyone for tweeting and retweeting, for commenting on articles, posting on the forum, blogging and for joining us on LinkedIn and Facebook.
In praise of our bloggers
We are especially fortunate to have a growing band of bloggers who continue to inform and delight us in equal measure. We know you love our blogs too, judging by the number of tweets they attract.
But what do you want to see on Marketing Donut in 2012? Tell us below which areas you’d like us to cover. Do you need more information, guidance or resources to help you with your marketing strategy? Let us know and we’ll try to help.
Have a great Christmas and a fun New Year. We’ll be back on 3 January with more news, articles, blogs, tweets, offers and advice — everything you need to help you run your business better.
Happy Christmas!
Rachel Miller, Marketing Donut Editor
How PR can help SMEs
September 01, 2011
When it comes to marketing communications, today’s SME manager has a wealth of tools, from classic print advertising to viral marketing. Whether you are looking for awareness or increased sales, you are spoilt for choice. But each tool is different. Effectiveness, in turn, means using subtle combinations of the toolkit – not just more of one or another.
So what about PR? Although versatile, PR in its broadest sense (off and online), almost alone, helps SMEs manage complexity and campaign over extended periods. Its extended editorial formats allow firms to deliver multiple messages and handle “shades of grey”. Meanwhile, its ability to spin a narrative over many months creates sustainability: more novel than short story.
Here are three illustrations: agenda creation, agenda subversion and market re-positioning.
Agenda creation
It’s no accident that Silicon Valley start-ups hire PR firms first. Unless they can explain (PR) their new technology’s competitive advantage quickly and successfully, everything else — from funding to market channels and logistics — will founder. So, if you’ve invented the next-generation potato-peeler, created a roast beef fast food formula or identified the next hairdressing “killer app”, start with PR. It will make your case to all interested parties including media.
Quick litmus test: if you’re struggling to explain your next business idea to your best friend, let alone your mother or, heaven help us, the bank manager, call for PR. It will help make your story simple and compelling.
Subversion
Conversely, imagine you’re on the defensive. Your local rival has seized the moral environmental high ground. Coverage of the firm’s special efforts is everywhere. By implication, and unfairly, your firm is the dinosaur. You’re dangerous. And you’re losing business.
In this context, getting angry, issuing blanket denials or — worst of all — making legal threats, digs an ever-deeper hole. PR helps you step aside and research and identify a solid evidence-based agenda that will overturn your rival’s position. It will make you the winner on a different, stronger dimension. And, be reassured, you will almost always win on something. Creative PR will find the angle, subvert and change the game.
Re-positioning
Finally, complexity and time come together in re-positioning. Imagine you own a solid mid-market well-groomed pub with an ageing, declining and low-margin lunchtime food trade. You want to extend your market appeal. Not to youth which would require huge investment and lack credibility but to nearby market segments like middle-aged business customers and upmarket shoppers. And all without causing your loyal “silvers” to defect. It’s tricky, but this is home turf for PR — a likely mix of carefully chosen language, apparently different menus, special promotions, easy online access/bookings and business networking.
So if you’re thinking, “I need a bit of PR” and you’re mentally seeing a pile of general press releases, pause for a moment. Be clear about what you really want to achieve and the toolkit that you may require. And if you fancy a little subversion...
Dr Bill Nichols is a Senior Lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University and former Chairman of international communications consultancy Whiteoaks.
You can find out more about PR in these articles:
Why you should openly share your genius
August 25, 2011
We don’t hard-sell now, it simply isn’t the “done” thing and it not only smacks of desperation, it’s downright rude. Nowadays it’s far more fun to be helpful.
We’ve moved to a much more tactical approach to new business marketing where we openly share wisdom with other well-matched business targets and offer to help them with their (marketing) challenges. Sharing knowledge also makes us feel good. This is a far cry, and so much more refreshing than the old ways that were laden with guilt.
My list of reasons for openly sharing your genius grows regularly, so I thought I’d post a few of my main points.
1. It really does enable you to develop relationships more readily and places you in good stead to win business faster.
2. People are more likely to come to you for help. Your giving nature makes you approachable and therefore initial barriers have already been overcome.
3. Your thoughts and opinions are a demonstration of true experience, insight and passion in your marketplace.
4. Offering up your expertise and general market advice stands you apart as an influencer and industry leader.
5. It’s easy. We have a multitude of social platforms we can access and build a community of like-minded types to engage with. Regular contribution and involvement will also enable prospective clients and partners to find you easily.
Sally Danbury is the founder of Cake Business Matching and an expert contributor to Marketing Donut.
Powerful photography: the absolute essentials
July 05, 2011
Now I am no photographer. But when it comes to graphic design I know my stuff. And I know which images work and which don’t. I’ve lost count of the number of times a client has sent over the much anticipated images (fully briefed and confident that the friend of the family that has promised to take the photos is up to the job…) and we have realised that we need to do some swift disaster recovery.
Sometimes poor images can be rescued with a bit of Photoshop work. But do bear in mind that this is far from ideal, usually takes time that you’ll need to pay for, and should only ever be used as a last resort. Sometimes said family friend will reshoot with a bit more expert guidance from the off. Sometimes the client accepts the need to invest in decent photography (Hallelujah!). Sometimes we resort to stock photos.
It pays to just get it right in the first place. But what does that mean? What are we looking for when we talk about powerful photography?
Powerful photography is aspirational. It creates a mood, tugs at the heartstrings and increases desire. They say a picture paints a thousand words — photography gives you that power.
Powerful photography is well lit. You can cheat at this (I’ve recently learnt) with Curves in Photoshop. But nothing can make up for bad light, shadows in the wrong places and a dull pallor. The pros know how to look out for all of this stuff. It comes naturally to them. I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Leave it to them!
Powerful photography has the right thing at the centre of the focus. You need to look at the image and know what it’s about: know what it’s trying to show you. Take a look at your images: do they communicate clearly?
Powerful photography is well styled. It goes back to the aspirational thing. Styling helps tell a story, create a mood and sell a lifestyle.
Powerful photography works with the design. We have a handful of photographers that we love to work with because they listen to our brief, bother to understand how we want to use the images and take into account where we might want to place copy and how we might crop down the images.
We will always offer to brief a photographer if a client is taking care of their own images. We don’t do it for free, but it’s a darned site cheaper than Art Direction – or the downside of having to reshoot!
What else do you think makes for powerful photography? I would love to hear your thoughts.
Fiona Humberstone is an expert contributor to Marketing Donut and managing director of Flourish.
Read more in our guide to graphic design.
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