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Your current customers are your assets

Your current customers are your assets - assets are generally long term, so are your customers.
You need a database of all your customers, their details, what they spend, what they buy, when did you last communicate to them, what have you sent them and if you have their birthday then how about sending them a card, free gift or a voucher at this special time.

A simple structure will really help. I love the sales ladder tecnique which takes your suspects through to the advocate stage.

What about your suspects? Understand where your next prospect is coming from. Who are your prospects? Set clear customer objectives and targets. Retain your customers - it is cheaper to retain and develop existing customers than it is to acquire new ones.Simple CRM (customer relationship management) systems are low cost and easy to use, bringing out the best of how you manage your customer.

You need to understand the laws of data protection. Today you simply can not just send people mailers, emails or even call them. They need to opt into your communications method and give them the easy option to opt out! You need to manage their data according to the Information Commissioners Office. The ICO has some easy to understand guides on the basics.



Good luck and we are also here to help. TWO Marketing.

Outsourcing Your Marketing

It is true businesses are facing tough times, the first thing most businesses do is pull their marketing budget. I want you to understand that I advise against it. Studies have shown that in previous recessions businesses that continued to invest in marketing saw growth in their businesses, while those that pull their budgets saw a decrease in sales.

In today's economy it's not uncommon for businesses to begin to look at the option of outsourcing their marketing rather than doing it in house. Outsourcing can save you the overhead of a marketing department, but what should you look for when contemplating this option to ensure that it's successful and you don't get financial burned?

It’s not a secret that many companies that downsize, re-prioritise or expand find outsourcing to be a cost effective decision to fulfil certain corporation functions.

Outsourcing has become an essential aspect of business strategies and this included the marketing function.

Outsourcing allows a company to put more focus on product development and overall operations. It eliminates the delay the need to hire full-time staff and avoids tasking overworked staff.

TWO Marketing help companies market their products and services without extending their in-house marketing staff. We can often provide the same service as an in-house marketing department, but at half the cost.

Some Strategic Thinking in 2010

When you build a new house, you need a solid foundation before you start building up the brickwork. Marketing is the same, set the foundation within a plan before you go and spend money on promotion. Don't waste money on impulse purchasing, set out the plans and stick with them. Everyone hear of horror stories where companies pay for advertising that don't even exist. A good plan will deliver good results...
Developing a marketing strategy is vital for any business. Without one, your efforts to attract customers are likely to be haphazard and inefficient.
The focus of your strategy should be making sure that your products and services meet customer needs and developing long-term and profitable relationships with those customers.
To achieve this, you will need to create a flexible strategy that can respond to changes in customer perceptions and demand. It may also help you identify whole new markets that you can successfully target.
The purpose of your marketing strategy should be to identify and then communicate the benefits of your business offering to your target market.

Set your companies vision

• What are your companies aspirations?
• Have you set your goals and objectives?
• What are your predicted sales revenues short, mid and long-term?
• Have you a clear strategic plan?

How will you achieve your vision?

• Do you want your existing customers to spend more?
• Do you want to acquire more customers?
• Are you looking to expand with new locations or new products?
• Have you segmented your customers by size, location, industry and buying behaviour?
• Do you have a customer database?
• Do you have a marketing plan?

Business Blogs – Should You Have One?

A business blog has a number of benefits. Through communicating and interacting with customers it can build loyalty as well as attract new customers because it’s an excellent way to illustrate your expertise in a certain industry, thereby establishing your credibility.

However, quotes such as creating a business blog will ‘turbo-boost your sales’ or ‘bring in huge amounts of additional income’ are extremely misleading. Building an insightful, interesting and ultimately a business enhancing blog is a long time-consuming process. Rarely updated business blogs can do more harm than good, as can blogs with incorrect or poorly researched posts.

The amount of time required to research and write each blog post should not be underestimated, and is the downfall of many new bloggers. If possible, dedicate the job to a member of staff with excellent writing skills; otherwise decide if you have a number of hours each week that you set aside to update your blog.

There is no doubt that when done properly blogs are excellent marketing tools. They foster relationships, enhance loyalty, and can become ranked highly in search engines, but think long term - instant results will not be forthcoming.

The fundamentals of social networking differ to other forms of online marketing. Social networking isn’t about spending money to create visibility for your business. It's about participation, being part of a community and contributing to it – in essence the fundamentals of social networking are:

1. Creating Awareness – especially in the early days you must be an extremely active user
2. Developing Relationships – make contact and develop relationships with influential users
3. Creating Something of Value – only content which is fun, interesting or useful will gain visibility
4. Building your Reputation – be active, contribute to the community and avoid overly promoting your content

There are a number of different types of social networks – social networking websites (Facebook, MySpace), social news websites (Digg, Mixx), social bookmarking websites (Stumbleupon, Del.icio.us), and niche sites such as Twitter.

Each type of social network requires a slightly different marketing approach, although they all require the four fundamentals – creating awareness, developing relationships, creating something of value, and building your reputation.

The one aspect of social networking which is important to consider is that it does require effort and a huge amount of time. To create awareness and build up a good level of trust on social media websites means that you must actively seek high quality content which can be submitted, as well as reading and tagging those articles which are of high quality.

10 Websites for Local Marketing

Do you own a business targeting the local community? Are you looking to increase your online presence but you're not sure where to start? For marketing ideas check out 10 types of websites which are ideal for local marketing:

1. Classified Advertising Websites
Examples: Gumtree, Vivastreet
Description: Many classified advertising websites allow you to post ads in a particular local target area, and cover all types of products and services, from property rentals to plumbing.

2. Pay per Click Advertising
Examples: Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing
Description: One of the reasons why pay per click advertising is so popular is that ads can be highly targeted. You can choose to only have your ads displayed to those people searching within a specified area.

3. Online Directories
Examples: Yell.com, Thomson Local, Touch Local
Description: Using an online directory is one of the most popular ways to search for businesses and is ideal for advertising a local business.

4. Shopping Comparison Websites
Examples: PriceGrabber, Kelkoo, Google Product Search
Description: Not technically just for local marketing but you can list your products for free, with customers often able to search and compare products by location.

5. Online Marketplaces
Examples: eBay
Description: Users can search for goods close to where they live – ideal for putting your products in the shop window for local people.

6. Local Area Guides
Examples: Up My Street, The Best Of Buy Local
Description: There are a wide range of local area guides offering free listings for your business and highly targeted advertising.

7. Local Services Websites
Examples: My Local Services
Description: Similar to online directories except with an extra emphasis on everything being local.

8. Local Newspaper Websites
Examples: Type ‘AREA local newspaper’ into Google
Description: Traditionally the local marketing has centred advertising in your local newspaper. Today it’s no longer essential but many local newspapers also have popular websites which may be worth advertising on.

9. Pay per Lead
Examples: Approved Index
Description: If you have a business service pay per lead advertising can be a highly effective way of generating quality leads. The most popular sites also allow you to advertise and therefore only generate leads from customers in a specific geographical area.

10. Maps
Examples: Google Maps
Description: Millions of people search on Google Maps every day, so if you offer a localised service a free listing on Google Maps can help raise your profile amongst your local community.

All-About-Business NCFC

We are very excited to be exhibiting at the All-About-Business networking exhibition at the Norwich City Football ground at Carrow Road on 22nd October, organised by Norfolk business people for Norfolk business people.

The exhibition itself is open from 12 noon to 6pm. There are also two free seminars all about social marketing; at 11.30am, and again at 3.30pm; feel free to attend at which-ever time is most suitable to you.

The speaker is the renowned expert on social marketing, Ian McKendrick. If you’re puzzled about whether you should be “tweeting” or wondering what’s all the fuss about facebook, then Ian’s insights will be invaluable to you.

So please, do come and visit us on our stand and then enjoy the relaxed networking opportunities which will be there for you to make some new local business contacts.

You can just turn up on the day though it would help us (and the organisers) greatly if you could register your interest at http://www.all-about-business.co.uk/