Marketing plans don't need to be complicated. Here's a simple 5 step marketing plan that you can use to great effect to get the ball rolling…
- Build a database of customers – capture their details on a feedback card, or by running a prize draw once a month
I was in a fabulous restaurant last week, talking to the owner. The food was exceptional and prices reasonable, so it was great value for money. We got chatting about the impact of the recession on his trade.
The fastest way to get your business to the top of the search engines is to use pay-per-click advertising. Since Google accounts for around 70% of all searches done online, the Google Adwords service is the obvious place to start.
When times are tight you want to cut your fixed costs and make the most of your sales opportunities. There are two ways you can cut costs – first, if some part of your business is broken beyond repair, extreme measures may be the solution.
Do you need a marketing calendar?
Are you one of those people who has lots of great ideas, starts them but then they trickle out?
Or perhaps you're just really busy and forget to do things that you know are important, but that never quite make it to the top of the To-Do list?
More on Keeping In Touch With Customers – Stand Out From The Crowd
Last week a recruitment and temp agency told me that demand for telemarketing staff has massively dropped in the last few months.
I don't know about you, but with things being tighter at the moment, I have increased my marketing rather than cut it. I've also paid a lot of attention to doing more of what works, and ruthlessly eliminated things that don't.
In a fascinating report on the BBC News website, deaths after surgery have been reduced by over 40% after using a checklist before and after operating.
Now, around the operating tables of hospital theatres we have some of the smartest brains around. I'm sure if you told them to sign a box to say they've done each step they would laugh at you and say, "That's all the obvious stuff".
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After a nightmare day on Monday when my laptop power adapter gave up the ghost, I was delighted by the help I got from Lee Collins, the MD of Cambridge Laptop Repairs. While he didn't have an adaptor in place, he told me where I'd get one. That kind of help is priceless – so I have no hesitation in recommending them.
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Yesterday I met a man with a manufacturing business. He was really fed up with business – he makes great quality product and even supplies the trade, who label it up with their own name. But he's seen falling sales and from his body language is feeling pretty depressed and fed up with his lot in life.
As a business owner, your marketing goal is to get people interested in your products. The best small business marketing ideas come up with an "angle" or approach to your marketing message to help people understand the value of your services or products. Let's see what we can learn from three separate Ford adverts…
I'll bet that there are other firms in your town, who you don't compete with, that have customers who would also make great customers for you.
One business coaching client has a restaurant and since August we've worked on increasing sales, with great results – a solid 30% increase now. This has been by a combination of different tactics and we're really pleased with the results. Now he wants to fill the restaurant over Christmas lunchtimes (he's normally closed at lunch). So how can he do it?
There's no shortage now of TV programmes to watch and learn about business development. In the last week alone, there's been…
- All Over The Shop with Geoff Burch on BBC2, where a business coach helps retailers in various cities to improve their shops and hopefully increase sales
Even the best idea without enough follow-through will end in failure, but a poor idea with total commitment to follow-through will get good, or even great, results. Hence business success is so often 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.
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On Tuesday this week, I posted a blog entry that explained to improve business, you have to take tough steps sometimes. Pulling people through these tough decisions is a part and parcel of business coaching.
Last week an old friend, Nigel, told me he wants to know how to improve business. After talking for a while, it was clear that he is shooting himself in the foot.
This has to be the most creative use of billboard advertising I've ever seen – really clever and very effective too – respect to Drew McLellan for picking it up for his marketing blog . It's a love story played out over several weeks on a roadside billboard to the general public and turned a bar into the talk of the town.
When a rabbit strays onto a road and gets caught in the glare of the headlights, it freezes on the spot. It hopes that by standing still it won't get hurt by this strange predator with shining eyes.
One day, there will be robots to do the tough jobs. Imagine Eva – a real robot in the video below – handling your sales for you, saying the right things every time to make the sale…
Bertie is working on getting more customers for his business. He's recently cut back on newspaper advertising, because he found that when he measured the response from it, he was spending more than he was getting in return.
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Yesterday I heard a remarkable story from one of my clients.
They are on track to equal, or even beat, their best ever month in terms of sales. Not so remarkable, you might think.
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Two years ago, I was the business coach hired in the final few weeks as a last-gasp desperate move by a company that was terminally ill from bad credit control.
They had allowed their biggest customer to get away with late or missed payments for so long that they were owed over £30,000. They had not paid the rent for months either.
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Do you need more small business marketing ideas to bring in more enquiries? Often, lead generation is the biggest challenge that small businesses have. We've got smaller budgets, fewer people and no specialist knowledge to make the most effective use of our marketing spend.
At school you were taught to write properly. That's properly as in old-fashioned, dry and deadly serious English. In your small business, it's the equivalent of pouring cold water over your client as you're talking to them about your products and it's just not going to help you sell.
As I've just created the free Guide To Writing Your Fast Growth Business Plan I thought it might be helpful to put something out for those who get stuck for marketing ideas. There are literally hundreds of different ways to market your business, so I put down my basic top 10 marketing tips for small business as a starting place for you.
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In communist Russia during the cold war, the Government would create a 5 year plan for the country that was their blueprint for producing food, employment, clothing, housing and everything else that goes into running a country effectively.
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