Airworld Tours Limited are a travel agent/tour operator based in Edgeware with sales in the millions. They're a client I met in January 2009 who had run into a serious problem with their business – they'd hit a "perfect storm" with three issues causing them grave concern.
Read the full article on Proof: Another Business Doubles – In The Recession
Do you ever wonder why you're business isn't growing?
A 14th Century monk can give you a clue – he came up with Occam's Razor, which is the principle that when you're trying to solve a problem, the simplest answer is usually the right one. We can use Occam's Razor for business growth, believe it or not.
Read the full article on Use Occam's Razor For Business Growth!
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Client rings in on Monday morning.
Lee, something you said to me last week really struck a chord.
You said that we expect to do our marketing and sell right away.
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On Monday a client emailed this to me..
The Power of Lee's Loop Marketing!
Hi Lee
I thought you would like this!
39 emails sent on Friday morning to previous enquiry database (none of these have purchased before).
Read the full article on The Money Is In The List – Database Marketing
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This is an important business story about the law of the jungle.
I was reminded a few days ago of the story of two hikers in the forest who startle a bear.
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Use many channels to get the most "bites"
In the first two articles about writing a simple one page marketing plan for small business, we compared marketing to fishing and covered the need to choose the kind of "fish" you want to catch, plus putting some strong "bait" on your hook.
Read the full article on Core Marketing Plan Part 3 – Marketing Channels
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A juicy worm to tempt the "fish" you want to catch
In the first article about writing your marketing plan for small business, you were introduced to the idea of marketing being like fishing. That first step was all about choosing the kind of customers (fish) you want to land.
Read the full article on Core Marketing Plan For Your Business – Part 2
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Marketing Is Like Fishing…
If you struggle with marketing your business, you're not alone. I would guess that a full 97% of companies have no marketing that they have any sense of control over.
Read the full article on Core Marketing Plan for Your Business – Part 1
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Can you think of a tougher business to be in right now than the travel business? With people cutting back on luxuries and exchange rates at a real low, it's not an easy trading conditions.
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Differentiating your business from your competitors, so that customers will choose to buy your products and services instead of your competitors, is the job of your Unique Selling Point – sometimes called your Unique Selling Proposition.
Read the full article on Unique Selling Point – How To Stand Out In A Competitive Marketplace
Well, that's my first big goal of 2010 now achieved – to hold a free teleseminar about marketing.
In truth, I'm not happy with it as I was so tense I think it sounded like I'd just run a marathon! I'm always comfortable talking to an audience and so this came as a bit of a surprise to me, even though I'd done a few dry runs!
UPDATE
A couple of weeks ago, in a post called Improve Your Attitude, I noted that several people I work with, or had recently met, were achieving very different results and that their attitudes seemed to be reflected in their results.
There's a headline news story today that incenses me. It's a complete public relations fiasco for Maclaren, and will unfold over the next few days. It will cost them millions in lost sales in the UK alone.
Read the full article on Public Relations Failure – Maclaren Pushchairs
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200 years ago, it would take several days, maybe even a week or more, to communicate with somebody in another city or town. With the advent of email, the Internet and next day delivery (assuming no postal strikes!) we've now got that down to between instantly and 24 hours.
Read the full article on Grow Your Business – Think Smaller!
Had a fantastic week this week talking to a couple of clients.
First, The Riverside Restaurant in Barnard Castle have now officially grown to twice their original sales, with profits to match! When I said to Andrew what had made the biggest impact, he said no single thing, but a combination of lots of changes each building on the other to create a whole new level of business.
Recently I've been talking to a number of people in business who have got really depressed by the state of the economy. They're suffering from a bad dose of recession depression. We all have bad days, and it's OK to feel fed up occasionally, but when it happens most days, you've got a problem and you need to fix it.
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by Richard Pakey – guest author
Hi, my name's Richard Pakey and I'm a member of Chris Cardell's marketing club. I'm also one of Lee Duncan's 1-1 coaching clients.
I offered to write a blog post for Lee explaining why I decided to work with him, even though I was already a member of the Cardell club.
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Just out of a meeting with a client who runs a fantastic Sri Lankan restaurant in Balham – it's called Hop & Spice and serves the most divine curries ever to pass through my lips. In fact, TimeOut magazine voted it 4th out of their top 50 restaurants, so I'm not the only one who loves it.
Read the full article on Market Research Example – Imitation Is The Best Form of Flattery…
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Is your business at risk of doing a Woolworths?
Last year, Woolworths gave a last gasp for air before sinking beneath the waves of change, after a 100 year history. They were comprehensively beaten on just about every front by Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons and Asda.
Read the full article on Business Strategy – Is Your Business Dying?
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
Read the full article on Marketing Basics – Your First 5 Steps
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.
Read the full article on Internet Marketing For Small Business
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?
Read the full article on Keeping In Touch With Customers – Stand Out From The Crowd