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 | 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.
by fmadmin | May 12, 2020 | Strategy
By Kerri Eckart, CEO
You’ve heard it before, and we’ve said it before: You have to spend money to make money. But one of the biggest struggles we see from our clients is figuring out exactly where to spend their money to get the highest returns.
Properly allocating your marketing budget can be crucial for seeing growth within your organisation. Without the right budget you may not be able to appropriately execute the marketing strategies and tactics that you need to attract and retain customers and clients. Or putting it another way, drive revenue.
When developing your marketing, make sure you are viewing marketing and sales as an investment, not an expense. As such, investments are predicated on their returns.
However, with the number of marketing areas you could invest in, it can be difficult to know what the right strategies are. To help you identify where your marketing budget could best be used, here are a few tips based on our experience.
- Set your goals
As you enter the new year, think about what your marketing and overall business goals are. The direction you want to move will influence where you should consider investing your money.
If you are just getting your business off the ground it makes sense to focus the majority of your marketing budget on attracting and converting new leads. Your main priority should be building a customer base. However, as you become more established, those goals will change. You still need to focus on attracting new leads, but you also need to allocate some of your budget to retaining the clients you already have.
Before you start deciding where to spend your marketing budget, identify your priorities and what you’d like to accomplish. This should help you decide where to spend your money.
- Find the right marketing avenues
The next step is deciding which avenues are the most deserving of your budget. This is where things can get tricky. Your marketing budget is like a pavlova at Christmas, and each of your strategies is a hungry family member. Each person might easily consume the entire pav if you let them, but you want to make sure each of them gets a share. I mean it’s a pav, who doesn’t want some of that!
However, you shouldn’t just divide your marketing budget equally. Instead, consider which strategies can bring the highest return on that investment and bring you closer to reaching your goals.
Reducing customer churn and taking care of your customers is becoming more important than ever. Acquiring new customers costs more than nurturing your existing customers, so when you create your marketing budget make sure your focus is on both engaging existing customers and attracting new ones.
Here are a few areas to consider when determining where to allocate your 2019 marketing budget.
- Marketing software:Marketing automation and organisation software can make your life much easier. Email marketing tools or a customer-relationship management system can help you plan, track and implement your marketing strategies much more efficiently. Invest in marketing software first if it will help you execute your campaigns faster and cheaper. Having the right foundation can improve your return on investment throughout multiple campaigns.
- Content marketing:Your content can be the base of any and all marketing strategies. Whether you’re working with social campaigns or you’re running paid ads, you should have strong and compelling content to push your audience to. Consider making content creation a focus of your marketing budget. With the right information to share, your campaigns could run smoother. Your content should underpin your PR strategy too. And just to be clear, content includes blogs, whitepapers, infographics, video, podcasts, webinars.and the list goes on. So, make sure you also include production costs in this budget.
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO):Having the right search engine optimisation efforts in place can make a major difference in how you attract and connect with customers. However, SEO extends far beyond just keywords and content and should also include maintaining your website. It’s important to include SEO in your marketing budget to account for algorithm changes or website updates.
While marketing software, content marketing and SEO are only fractions of your marketing strategy, it’s important that they’re well supported within your budget. When you’re using the right software, you have strong content and your website is properly maintained, then social media strategies, email campaigns and paid advertisements can bring higher returns.
Don’t forget to incorporate the human resource costs into your budget too. It’s all well and good to spend money on technology and tools but they won’t run themselves – whether those resources are internal to your business or external (contractors, consultants, agencies) include it in your budget – it will make the ROI (return on investment) evaluation more accurate and determine the skills you require to deliver outcomes.
- Monitor your budget and adjust if needed
It’s not uncommon to create a budget and find that it just doesn’t work. Problems can arise, plans may become obsolete or you may meet your goals sooner than you expected.
If you find that your proposed marketing budget just isn’t getting the returns you hoped for or that you need to move some of your funds around, don’t hold back on making adjustments. While you want to stay within budget as much as possible, be flexible enough to continue moving toward your goals. Sometimes hard decisions need to be made to ensure you set yourself up for future growth and success.
Conclusion
Staying current on what is important to your customers and what keeps them loyal should drive all budget decision factors.
Properly allocating and spending your marketing budget is important for growing your company, but we have found that it’s better to treat your budget as an outline rather than a set-in-stone plan. Keep your goals top of mind throughout your planning process and do what you think is best for attracting and retaining your customers to ensure revenue growth.
by fmadmin | May 12, 2020 | Content, Strategy
We are often asked if there is a standard template to develop a marketing plan or what is the best template to use. When it comes to developing a marketing plan, substance over form is our advice. So, before you head off to Google to find your favourite format, here are some tips on what to include in your marketing plan and how to implement it.
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
– Benjamin Franklin
As marketers, we know Ben was on to something here. It seems like marketing budgets and resources for businesses of all sizes are being stretched to breaking point. As that occurs, expanding social media outlets and digital marketing platforms offer marketers seemingly limitless opportunities to reach target audiences. It’s an inverse relationship that compels marketers to choose their tactics wisely. That makes not only the planning of your marketing more important than ever, but the implementation, crucial.
You also want to prove return on investment (ROI) for your marketing spend, so you need an established plan in place to measure and show results. A successful marketing plan will address your biggest business and marketing challenges and deliver solutions via a holistic approach. It will also keep your team aligned and focused on the same goals — and, it’s instrumental in helping you establish your budget.
Far too often, though, the time and effort you and your team invest in marketing planning is either abandoned to fulfil last-minute requests, or wasted by resorting to tried-and-true tactics.
The case for a marketing plan is strong, so here, we offer 7 tips to help you and your team build a successful marketing plan for your organisation.
- Define your challenge(s)Begin with the end in mind—what problem(s) do you want to solve? What challenges must be met? What opportunities should be seized? What threats should be confronted? Yes, this is a thinly veiled SWOT but it’s important to address these issues as you move along with your plan…don’t get too tied down in tactics at this stage.
For example, a key challenge of your organisation could be a lack of leads for your sales team, or a company website that’s outdated and losing traffic due to the new Google algorithms. Whatever the issues are, identify them up front.
It’s important to know your business and your competitors well, as once you do this, you are better placed to determine or understand your target market.
If you are just starting out or launching a new product or service, your challenge could be understanding your target customer/client. Narrowing down and defining your target customer allows you to focus your efforts. Answer the question, “Who do you serve?” to help you identify your target market.
- Define your SMART goals and objectivesIt’s important to use SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Based) goals to keep you and your team on track and accountable. Once defined, they should be linked to your challenges, opportunities and threats outlined above.
Goals are generally broad in nature, while objectives should still be SMART and should clearly state the initiative to be accomplished (e.g., secure 10 leads through digital marketing efforts each month; build a responsive website in the next four months). By setting SMART goals and objectives, you are making it possible to show quantifiable evidence that the business’ marketing spend is delivering ROI.
- Set your strategyYour strategy supports the reasoning for tactics and marketing spend. This is where you will define how you plan to solve your challenges and meet your objectives. Try to think like your target audience here. What avenues should you pursue to get your message in front of them, and ultimately, how will you solve their problem? Your strategy should drive creative, messaging, channel selection and other key variables.
Finally, look back at past campaigns to see what worked and what didn’t.
- Outline your tacticsThis is where you hammer out the details of your plan. Your tactics are the steps and tasks you need to complete to achieve your goals and objectives.
One tip to consider: To assist with accountability, you should assign team members to manage specific tasks (e.g., develop a new e-book in Q1, launch a new AdWords campaign with a $500 monthly budget, develop a wireframe for our new responsive website).
- Establish time framesSet short- and long-term milestones to keep yourself (and your team) motivated, while still staying focused on the big picture. Be sure to set deadlines to non-tangible milestones as well, like meetings and distribution times. Finally, get feedback from your team on realistic time frames for certain tasks and keep them updated frequently on your progress as you execute.
- Assess your resources
These include people, technology and marketing budget. Questions relevant to each could include:
- People:Do you have enough people with the right skill sets? Do you need to look for outside resources for portions of your plan…like a PR agency, graphic designer, or maybe a full marketing agency to take items off your hands while you focus on other initiatives?
- Technology:Is your technology up to date? What technology is needed to make your marketing tactics successful and are the associated costs feasible within your budgetary parameters?
- Budget:Is your marketing plan driving the budget, or do you have to work within the constraints of a previously determined budget?
- Measure and analyse
According to inbound marketing and sales software developer HubSpot, 40 percent of marketers say proving marketing ROI is their top marketing challenge. There’s no disputing the need to quantify ROI these days or the challenge in doing so; but you can’t prove ROI if you aren’t measuring your results. Therefore, be sure to set key performance indicators (KPIs) to track important metrics to your business/campaign (e.g., number of leads, web traffic, revenue).
ROI is more than a one-time exercise. Rather, to meet your goals and objectives, you should be constantly analysing your efforts, and optimising and updating your plan.
- Don’t lose sight of the bigger picture
Always keep the bigger picture in mind by making sure your marketing plan is part of your overall business strategy. Don’t be afraid to re-adjust your goals and objectives if required. Your marketing plan is there to support your business growth, so if it is not doing that, change it and improve what is not working.
Always keep the bigger picture in mind by making sure your marketing plan is part of your overall business strategy. Don’t be afraid to re-adjust your goals and objectives if required. Your marketing plan is there to support your business growth, so if it is not doing that, change it and improve what is not working.
By Kerri Eckart, CEO
by fmadmin | May 12, 2020 | Strategy, Training
If I were to come into your workplace and ask the general question of “How are you?”, what do you think I would hear? Whilst Janet from HR might have my ear for 10 minutes updating me on her best friends’ nephew’s cousin, the other 99% would most likely respond something along the lines of “I’m so busy.”
So why exactly is this our automatic response? Well, generally, it is because we ARE! But there is also that cultural expectation that if we are not “busy”, we are bored. Or even worse, slacking off.
So, instead of saying you’re “busy” or “stressed” (which will, in turn, make you feel busier and MORE stressed), try one of these instead:
When your boss asks, say:
“I’m having a productive day.”
This response will let your boss know you are not slacking off, but also has a positive spin to let them know you are still enjoying work. Depending on your workload, you can also add a comment about whether you have the capacity to take on any new projects.
When a colleague asks, say:
“I’m working on {insert project} and I’d really love your input!”
Sometimes, you get stumped. When a colleague asks how you’re going, don’t automatically go into ‘whinge’ mode – this not only makes you appear negative, it may also prevent them from offering assistance. Instead, let them know that you value their thoughts and ask if they have a few spare minutes to review your work.
When a client asks, say:
“We have a lot on, but always looking for new opportunities and new quality projects to work on.”
This not only shows your existing or prospective clients that you are a reputable company, but that you are always willing to engage new work. It also highlights that you hold their company in high regard.
When a friend asks, say:
“I’ve got a lot on my plate right now, but I’m so excited to see how it all pans out!”
By replying with this level of positivity and excitement, you will automatically inflict excitement onto your friends, who will be more then happy to come along for the ride, especially if they get to see you succeed.
When a loved one asks, say:
“I’m really stressed.”
I know, I know – this isn’t exactly a positive substitute. But sometimes, it is the truth and it is important to remember to speak up and seek help when you are stressed or struggling.
In this day and age, it is becoming harder and harder to find someone who is not “busy”, so by choosing one of the alternative responses above, people will not only take you more seriously but you will also appear calmer and more capable of life’s “busyness”.
By Kerri Eckart, CEO
by fmadmin | May 12, 2020 | Strategy, Training
Recently, I read a comment about sleep deprivation.
“Sleep deprivation is an illegal torture method outlawed by the Geneva Convention and international courts, but most of us do it to ourselves.”
As business owners, we lie awake at night thinking over things we couldn’t find time to think about during the day.
On one of my own sleepless nights, I posed the question in my head “What is the one thing in marketing keeping you awake at night?” I surveyed some business colleagues the next day. The answers, while not surprising, made me sit up and start to think how we can help our colleagues in business answer these questions.
“I am not sure how to differentiate my business in the market.”
This is a familiar story from many small business owners. I am sure we know why we are better than our competition, but we are not sure how to clearly spell it out. You have a great product but trying to cut through crowded markets means spending some time trying to understand what it is you are best at. Where you are emotionally or financially invested in your business, it can be hard to be objective. Having someone to offer you a pragmatic view can be a great help.
“I am really busy with the ‘doing’ part of my business.”
More often than not, we forget we have to be bold enough to understand our niche, and to build our marketing efforts around it. The niche is often the reason we create a new business. We identify a market gap or believe we can do something better or differently. Having the temerity to be bold and really make the effort to stand out can sometimes be sidelined by making a living or paying the rent. Being reminded why you initially went in to business is important for success.
“I seem to struggle to find the time to do the marketing, to know what I have time to do and how to go about it.”
This is not an unusual response and we see it often. When you are busy making something, doing something or putting your very best skills to use, finding the energy to market really well is hard. Finding the right support is a wise investment in your success.
“Making the time to sit down and write content.”
When you are a one-man band, or a small business where time is limited, making the time to write content or creating a schedule and sticking to it can be challenging. When more pressing needs present themselves, or clients have new deadlines, we often put our own tasks on hold. Making the decision to bring in a marketing partner now can save money in the long run – you can get it right the first time.
“I don’t know if I can afford to pay for help.”
This is probably the most challenging of all questions. How much should you spend on marketing? There are many experts who suggest between 7%-20% of your annual turnover should be spent on marketing. We suggest you should consider a spend around 10% of your annual turnover. Some organisations benefit from a full audit and update of their marketing collateral and tools, others need a website update, while some businesses are better served by spending their marketing budget in the social and digital space.
We will be exploring these subjects more thoroughly in future posts. As a business, we have been through each of these challenges ourselves. Knowing you are choosing the right marketing partner is important. You don’t want someone to dump and run but a longer term, strategic relationship to partner with you. We choose to invest in our clients, to support them in the whole process. Whether you are a start-up needing good advice from day one, an established brand contemplating a brand refresh, or if you simply can’t find the time to invest in your marketing, we can help.
The solution to not keeping yourself awake at night worrying about marketing is simple. Pick up the phone and ask us how we can help you sleep better. We don’t charge for phone calls.
By Kerri Eckart, CEO
