by fmadmin | May 12, 2020 | Strategy, Training
Online word of mouth can be automated to link together potential and existing customers in an infinite loop of recommendation and reward with almost no effort from the marketing team. Once this function is setup the customers become your marketing team making this perfect for businesses of all sizes. You can make this work for you by:
- Think of a small incentive that works for your business that could benefit your customers such as vouchers, free subscriptions, gifts, discounts or waiving of fees.
- Add a ‘Share’ button to then end of your customers purchasing journey to help them share their experience with their friends on social media.
- Create a ‘refer a friend’ campaign for your business that sends rewards to your customers when their friends purchase from you online.
For more information on online word of mouth marketing or how it can be used to help your business please contact us at [email protected].
Reference’ *1 invespcro.com
by fmadmin | May 12, 2020 | Strategy
by Kasey Rainbow, Administration Assistant
Have you ever walked into a workshop expecting knowledge, tools and insights, only to walk out with a receipt and an empty bank balance? It is something that is far too common in this day and age and I can’t help but wonder why.
If you are anything like me, when you purchase a ticket to a seminar, workshop or conference, you expect to learn. You expect to gain valid insights into a topic that you are interested in, hence why you bought a ticket in the first place. However, something that is becoming more common (and annoyingly so) is that while you do get some minimal tips and tricks from said seminar, you are hit at the end with a kick to the guts.
The sales pitch.
We all know the one. They offer you a product, program or life changing pill and lure you in with the promise of wealth, success and steak knives. If the salesman is good, it can be easy to throw your credit card at them or even your first-born child for the right price.
Now, if you wish to do this, that is your choice and that is totally fine. But ask yourself this question. If I attend an event that I paid for and at said event am asked to pay for MORE events, doesn’t this mean that I will be asked to pay for something else at the next event?
Unfortunately, such events are fast becoming the norm and it is getting harder and harder to find helpful and informative knowledge without the downfall of a large cheque attached. We have witnessed this happen too many times and are determined to help by setting you on the right path, before you take the wrong one.
Follow our simple guidelines to become a more informed and sensible entrepreneur:
- Do your research.
This one is simple – research everything. An incredibly easy task with the internet constantly at our fingertips.
- Be patient.
Do not throw your money at the first opportunity that comes your way, unless you have followed step one and feel comfortable with said opportunity.
- Start conversations.
Join a networking group, attend free skill sessions or find a forum online that is in line with your goal. You will be amazed at how much you can learn just from talking to people.
That’s it! Follow those three easy steps and you are already on your way to becoming more knowledgeable about your target market, your business goals and quite possibly the world!
Now, if you can just provide me with your first name and email, I will send you our �?How to Make a Million Dollars a Minute’ brochure for the TODAY ONLY price of your soul. �?�
by fmadmin | May 12, 2020 | Tenders
By Kerri Eckart, CEO
There are several elements required to create a winning bid. Possibly the most important is getting your ducks in a row. By that I mean ensuring you have robust processes in place to increase your chances of success. A system that ensures you are meeting all of the requirements.
In my 20 plus years working and advising on tenders, I have seen it all. From badly written submissions to great submissions that fall over because a vital piece of information wasn’t included.
Here are the three biggest mistakes people make when tendering and tips on how to avoid them:
- Generic responses and not providing enough detail
Time and time again I’ve seen content that was not tailored to the client or the bid itself. The information provided in the submission is just too generic or worst still, the focus of the content is all about you rather than the company whose business you are trying to win. Examples include:
- Focusing on the features of your product/service rather than the benefits
- Not referencing the client’s name until well into the document
- Including a generic capability document that is not tailored to the bid
- Writing ‘not applicable’ but not stating why the question is not applicable
- Not tailoring answers to the client from the very beginning of your tender response
When you make the above mistakes, you are basically saying to the client, “I couldn’t really be bothered.”
Your submission not only needs to be compliant, it also needs to present the information in the right format. Think about the process of your submission when it is being assessed. The client needs to compare apples with apples. If you submit any old fruit they can’t score you!
- The bid is not the right fit for your business
Bids are incredibly time consuming and time equals money. You need to be selective about which bids you pursue. Having an assessment system in place takes the emotion out of the process and allows you to deal with the facts alone. Facts that determine if you should be bidding including:
- Do you know the client?
- Did you know the tender was being released or is this the first you have heard about it?
- Do you have real experience in this area?
- Do you know who the incumbent is or who their preferred suppliers are?
These basis questions may signal that you don’t know enough to pursue the bid. Alternatively you might decide to submit an amazing tender that will at the very least get the client’s attention, allowing you to build a relationship moving forward. Either way, companies with no process in place end up with a low success rate due to their scatter gun approach.
- Leaving it too late
Starting a submission three days before it’s due is a guaranteed way to fail. By this point it is too late. Instead you need some simple and strong bid management tools in place to ensure a winning tender each and every time.
Make sure you leave yourself enough time to review the tender document – I suggest reading it at least 3 times to truly get a feel for what the client is after. You then need to determine who will be responsible for responding to each section. Assembling your team takes time. It’s important to get your team together and run a kick-off meeting to agree as a group what the strategy is to win the tender, including the technical minds whose input will be crucial. Key questions to cover off in this meeting include:
- Why has the submission been released?
- What do we know? What’s missing?
- Which CVs and case studies will be included in the submission?
- Is it a printed submission or electronic? Printed requires more production time.
- Who will review the draft and signoff the final document and how much time do they require?
Avoiding these three common mistakes will significantly increase your chances of bid/tender success.
by fmadmin | May 12, 2020 | Tenders
by Kerri Eckart, CEO
You’ve spent endless hours on your tender and with 24 hours until submission time, you believe you’ve given it all you’ve got.
But have you?
Take the time to sit down and read through your tender submission (yes, again!) whilst asking yourself these questions:
- Do you have a go/no go process in place? Yes? Good. And you followed it? Awesome.
- Do you have a bid management system which allows for at least 1 draft for review/feedback and then a final which is approved prior to submission? Brilliant! Well done.
- Do you have an agreed win theme/strategy? Have you created a tailored executive summary at the beginning of the response document, answered all the questions and clearly articulated ‘why you’? This one is important. If you haven’t done this, there is a strong chance they won’t know why to choose you. If you only focus on one thing in the next 24 hours, focus on this!
- Have you scanned the environment for any information that may help you to tailor your submission? You have? Nice work.
- Have you used clear concise and interesting language – easy words, short sentences and limited use of jargon, abbreviations or acronyms? Regardless of what the techies say, the evaluation panel will include technical and non-technical evaluators, so it is wise to cater to the full spectrum of possible readers.
- Does your tender speak in benefits, not just features? Does it ask the question ‘So what?’ If it doesn’t, you better get editing!
- Do you have clear indexing and cross-referencing? Excellent!
- Have you proved everything you assert? Ensure you have used relevant case studies and testimonials. Don’t take anything at face value — the readers won’t. Challenge your authors to provide you examples of why this solution works, where it’s worked before, why it’s better than competitive solutions.
- Is the presentation aesthetically pleasing and the document easy to follow? It is? You’re nailing it!
If you answered yes to all the above, then congratulations! You have most likely written an excellent submission. However, if you have found yourself saying no, or even if you aren’t 100% confident on your ‘YES’ then reconsider your content and make the most of the next 24 hours!
by fmadmin | May 12, 2020 | Strategy
They say you have to spend money to make money, and that’s certainly true of marketing. But if you’ve only got a small budget to market your business, these ideas can help you get the best marketing bang for your limited buck.
1. Content – create, curate, recycle
I don’t think I even need to say this, but it’d be neglectful not to mention the importance of kick-ass content. If you can create it yourself, all the better (isn’t free always better?). Even if writing isn’t your strong point, you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting someone on your team to crank out some articles for your blog. Try top 10 lists, tip collections, best practices for your industry, etc. Remember content comes in many forms so try different mediums that engage your audiences (infographics, video, webinar, podcasts, blogs)
And if you can’t CREATE – CURATE! Curating content that others produce is a great way of cross-promoting other businesses that service your customers. Publish with comments on your social media channels or seek permission to link their article on your website or include it in your newsletter. (Be smart; choose content your customers are interested in.)
Don’t forget to also recycle your content. Turn a webinar into a video tutorial. Transform a collection of blog posts into an ebook. Never be afraid to mash-up your old content – chances are there will be a ton of people who never even saw your old stuff, so it’ll be a fresh, 100% new content piece for a large segment of your audience.
- Ask for referralsReferrals are one of the top ways to grow your business. Remember, word-of-mouth is powerful stuff, so friends telling friends about your business is incredibly valuable.
Learning how to ask for referrals can exponentially increase the number of referrals you get and therefore dramatically increase your client base.
Don’t be shy about asking for customer referrals. The majority of people say they are willing to provide a referral if asked, but very few take the initiative to do it on their own.
Referrals make it easier to get in the door with new customers. If you aren’t asking for them, you are missing opportunities.
- Network – in personDon’t neglect the opportunity to market in person. You’ll meet great people in person whom you may never come across online.
Every person you meet is another marketing possibility. Obviously, you don’t want to go around shoving your business into people’s faces, but as the issue of work comes up in conversation, tell them about it.
Be prepared though, don’t go in without a plan. Learn how to tell prospective customers or clients about what you do. Develop an elevator pitch – rambling or being flustered won’t win you any converts. Research shows the average attention span of an adult is about six to eight seconds. That’s all the time you have to grab someone’s attention.
If you successfully engage them, then you only have a little over a minute to really sell them on your product or service. Invest the time to craft a killer elevator pitch. The return on your investment will pay huge dividends in terms of creating business opportunities.
Then learn the most likely places to find your new clients – and go to those places. Simple.
The down side – networking requires a time commitment and it doesn’t provide instant gratification, but a strong network is one of the greatest assets any business person can have.
- Create/update a marketing planNow this might seem obvious but it isn’t.
Have you even looked at your marketing plan lately? Haul it out. Have a look. Are those marketing objectives still what you’re trying to achieve? Do you have new ones? And what are you doing to achieve them now? At the very least it could be time for a new marketing campaign or it could even be time for an entire marketing makeover.
And if you haven’t got a plan create one and make sure you implement it and measure the results – how do you know if you are being successful if you don’t measure it? Linking your marketing activities to revenue generation is always a good start too!
- Leverage your communityYou don’t have to think big when it comes to your marketing efforts. Think locally. What’s going on in your community?
Sponsor a local junior sporting team, a school event or a 5k charity walk/run. Print bookmarks and leave them at the local library. Get to know your ideal customer and think about how and where they spend their time.
Then search for opportunities to get in front of that customer with your marketing message.
- Collaborate
Put together a group of synergistic, non-competitive businesses in your area and agree to cross-promote.
You can use offers, flyers, reciprocal website links, bundled promotions or social media platforms. By collaborating with each other, you can expand your customer base because you’ll be reaching new people. (see number 1)
- Create buzz
If the idea of writing a Press Release fills you with dread and even if you wrote one you wouldn’t know what to do with it other than post it to your website – take a look at resources such as www.sourcebottle.com..
You can respond to journalist’s queries that are looking for story ideas and resources. Some are small media opportunities, but others are major media outlets that use this service too.
- Build relationships
It is a lot less expensive to keep a customer than it is to get a new one. That’s why establishing strong relationships with your customer base is crucial. One of the ways you can do that is by keeping in touch with people through email marketing.
Ask customers for their email address when they visit your shop or website. Then, make your communications informative, helpful and professional — something your customers will look forward to receiving.
- Spring clean
Now this might seem like a strange one but what I mean here is audit your marketing collateral both printed and online. Make sure it is all still relevant and details are correct – like your address and phone numbers.
Google your business and see what comes up, if you rely on local customers make sure you have a Google My Business account. This will make sure your business is not only visible on search, but on Google Maps as well.
Check your social media accounts and ensure your profiles and settings are all still relevant. We often build our social accounts and then start posting but forget to review and update the information pages.
Check review sites as well and ensure that all feedback has been responded to – the good and the bad. Try to take the bad offline. Often I have seen negative reviewers remove their comments after a personal phone call to rectify a problem.
- Budget
I have left this as my final tip and one that many businesses don’t do well. They have a plan but don’t develop a budget to implement the plan. Or they under budget so they can only afford to implement half the plan.
Whilst marketing doesn’t have to be expensive there are still costs involved so make sure you budget for them and then measure their success to determine your return on investment.
Conclusion
Marketing doesn’t have to break your bank, blow your budget, or cost you thousands of dollars. These ten inexpensive marketing strategies will help you engage customers, build relationships, and ultimately keep your brand top-of-mind. It’s not always about the money you have to spend on marketing, it’s about the time and effort you put into it and above all, the relevance it has for your customers.
