The Fifty Quid Challenge (our name for the Towergate Accumulator Challenge) launched this evening! Participating businesses will be given £50 each by the generous Towergate CEO Paul Whittaker – each business then seeks to get as much ROI as possible in the next 3 1/2 months. All proceeds will go to Bury St Edmund’s St Nicholas Hospice Care. Have a look at the first of our Challenge 2011 videos:
I’ve just taken the old video off our home page and replaced it with one that shows our new logo.
Here’s the older one for prosterity.
What is Google Places? If you use Google to do your searching, you’ve probably noticed a map in a prominent location and the local listings that go with it. These listings also tend to top the searches, beaten only by the pay-per-click ads. So, where are these results coming from?
Google Places is in essence free listing of businesses, allowing consumers to easily search for services or products in their local area. It is also an easy to place to find all the relevant information needed to find or contact a business.
The Places listings often dominate the first page of the results. Even where they do not push the standard results off the first page, they are still up there at the top. There can be as many as 7 Places listings and with that much choice there may be no need to ever to scroll further down.
However, there may also be as few as 3 or even none for certain searches. Does that mean those businesses don’t have to worry about Places? Not at all! You do! That’s because Continue reading
Google Places is that part that pops up on page one for many searches – it currently comprises:
A Places page is like a one page, one stop shop of your business. You can use it to show where you are, the area you serve, your opening hours, payment methods, and much, much more. People can post reviews on your site, and Google may also feature reviews from other sites.
Why do you need to be on Google Places at all? Continue reading
Poor Writing Lets You and Your Business Down
Read on to find out why – and to find out what you can do about it.
Poor writing can really let you and your business down for the reasons outlined below.
The corollary is, of course, true!
Good writing leads to better communication, time saved, a professional appearance, the vital messages getting across, and more money coming into your business.
Bad writing reflects poorly on your business
People think things like, ‘If this is the standard of their writing, what will their service/product be like?’ and, Continue reading
There is a tradition in marketing that says that you need an average of at least seven contacts with a potential customer before you get a sale. It might go something like this:
Which contact number do you stop at?
A typical seven step sales process may go:
It’s no good having a great USP if you don’t know much about your potential clients. Being the cheapest printer in the area might not matter if your prospects are well-off professionals: they may go for the printer who goes for a mix of quality and speed, for instance.
So, for a good marketing campaign, you need to know what your customers are like, what they like about you (this is where your USP will come in), what will be the most effective methods to bring them in, how you can contact your customers and prospects, the ways you can influence their buying, and lastly, how you can take control of all the processes involved.
In fact, ‘Think P’. Look at what’s important to you and your clients and decide which parts to concentrate on:
If you understand what it is that makes us respond, you can use the knowledge to develop your marketing approach. Here are a few pointers:
Your brain has three main areas. The outer cortex is known as the ‘new brain’ and is where rational thought takes place. The middle part of your brain deals with your emotions. The inner brain or ‘old brain’, shared by all sentient beings, deals with non-conscious decisions, actions and reactions. The trick is to reach your prospects’ old brains and get that to make the buying decision for them.
We spoke in the last article about three ways to market yourself in a low cost or free way. Here are four more.
There are many ways to get noticed by prospects and current clients for free or very little cost. Here are three of them.
Active Listening
A marketing friend said to people he mentors, “Can you ask a lot of questions?”
I think a good part to add to that must be, “Are you a good listener?”
It’s very easy, when someone has just started giving an answer, to assume you know what they’re going to say (and fill in the rest for yourself) and/or start planning your own answer.
When you’re working out what marketing you’re going to do when, keep in mind future scenarios, and play a ‘what if’ game.
If you have to pay for your advertising (say your news release didn’t get taken up, for example, but you really want to get the message across NOW), make sure you get the best ROI (return on investment) you can. One reason small business advertising doesn’t work is because people pay far too much for their advertising campaigns. This can apply to medium sized businesses too. Corporations can absorb the costs but if you are involved in one, why not make the ROI the best you can?
If you’re not using social media in your advertising, you’re missing out:
How could you adapt this tip to your business?
Not using social media marketing yet? Now’s the time to start.
Enjoy this helpful and succinct slide show!
(Remember, though, it’s just part of an overall marketing plan.)
Yup, watch this video on the placebo effect by Ben Goldacre (the famous doctor who exposes dubious science dressed up to look valid), and you’ll also find out out about marketing your product and customer care.
Enjoy.