Taming your inbox

Taming your inbox

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3 weeks ago
by Angie in ,

Taming your inbox.

Does your heart sink when you open your inbox every morning?

If so, here’s how to tame it:

Be ruthless – you don’t read all the newsletters you subscribed to, do you? So unsubscribe from those that you don’t read, or only give a cursory glance to.

Control your urges: don’t keep your inbox constantly open. Close it down when you have dealt with your email.

read more…
(from our sister site Task A Day Marketing)
Frustrated Businesswoman on the Phone

I hate, you hate, we all hate prospecting!

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1 month ago
by Angie in

Most people hate prospecting. Hate picking up the phone to make those important phone calls introducing you and your services to an unknown prospect.

But most of us have to do it at some time or other.

You need to build a prospecting habit.

All successful prospecting starts with a plan.

Every day – or at least twice a week – calendar it in.

Plan it all out before that time – what you are going to say, do, how you are going to start the conversation, how you are going to continue it, how you are going to deal with objections, how do you deal with people not being available to talk.

Have a list of people to call, with names, telephone numbers and email addresses if you will follow up with information.

Then sit down, in a place where you won’t be disturbed, with paper and pen in front of you (or computer if you use a computer based CRM system) take a deep breath, put a smile on your face, pick up that phone…..and start.

The first call is the hardest. The second is easier. By the tenth – you may even start to enjoy it.

So stop procrastinating.  Get yourself organised, then pick up the phone and make that first call!

Hot Air Balloon

Up, Up, UP!

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2 months ago
by Angie in

I’ve just doubled the prices of my marketing services.

THIS IS NOT AN APOLOGY.

I’ve doubled my prices because I know the value of the services I offer.

I’ve reviewed all my material and the individualised marketing plans are still worth far more than the £195 I now charge for them.

And I want to work with business owners who are serious about building their businesses.

I ONLY want to work with business owners who are serious about building their businesses.

If you are not serious enough about your business to invest £195 on a 12 month marketing plan that, if put into action, will at the very least double your profits, then I don’t think we are right for each other, and I don’t think I can help you right now.

If you are the sort of business owner that makes a decision based on price instead of the added value it will bring to your business, then I don’t think that we are right for each other, and I don’t think I can help you right now.

If you have decided that I am too expensive as an investment for your business I wish you the best of success. I’m still happy to provide you with lots of free information, links, blog posts and resources, so please stick around, I’m still here for you :-)

And you might want to consider our other service: Task A Day Marketing

Businesspeople Working on Laptop

Men vs Women

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2 months ago
by Angie in ,

Last night I attended an event at the Chateau Impney, held by Andy and Mary from ‘‘the best of Worcester’ : an online directory promoting the best businesses in Worcester.

One of the speakers was Peter Sylvester from the Referral Institute. Peter gave an interesting talk on ‘Business Networking and Sex’.

Contrary to many of the attendees beliefs (and perhaps hopes?) the talk didn’t provide instructions on how to mix business with pleasure. Instead the talk centered around a book called (not surprisingly) Business Networking and Sex, which looks at the difference between the ways men and women network.

The talk was lots of fun (thanks, Peter!), and informative. Peter pointed out that in a networking environment men are more focused on the sale, whereas women are more focused on building a relationship prior to the sale, and how these different techniques can cause conflict (and more to the point, lost sales).

Obviously, this is stereotyping in a massive way, but we’re going to forget all the psychological theories that would argue about gender differences, and go with it as  ’reasonably common traits for a majority of men and a majority of women’.

Interestingly, before the event, I had networked with several men. So I had recent experiences still fresh in my mind.

And the research matched my experiences. 

Several of the men talked AT me, rather than with me. Several of the men talked ALL THE TIME about themselves and their business. In other words, the conversation consisted on them giving me a sales pitch. A one-way, self interested conversation.

And then it struck me. It’s not just at networking events that men act in this way. 

Check out many male profiles on LinkedIn, and you’ll read – me me me, corporate speak, me me me.

Check out many male owned websites, and you’ll read – me me me, corporate speak, me me me.

Check out many male tweets, and you’ll read -  sell sell sell (or should that be buy buy buy?)

Another massive stereotypical generalisation of course ;-)  

So guys, if you listened to Peter’s talk and decided to change the way you network because of it, it’s worth not only changing the way you network face to face, but considering how you communicate online.

Now, onto women (you didn’t think I’d have a go at men and not at my gender, did you?!)

Sometimes, especially with men, we need to get to the point faster: instead of waffling on, we need be more direct. When we talk to a man at a networking event and notice his eyes starting to glaze over or wandering away from us and towards other people, get his attention back fast by getting down to business.  You can close the deal faster with (most) men, so never be afraid to ask for a sale earlier than you would with a female prospect – after all, the worst they can do is say ‘no’.

I’ll leave your with a clip from Friends, which shows the gender difference in action:

Flock of Sheep near Hills

It’s sheep we’re up against

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2 months ago
by Angie in

It’s a tough world out there for businesses at the moment. What can you do to stand out from the crowd and be more successful?

Let me tell you a couple of stories.

I used to part-own a leaflet delivery business – my job was to market the business locally and to bring in new customers as well as keeping the existing ones happy.

Now I’m going to make a confession.

I’m a little odd.

You see, I like making cold calls. Yes, really like making cold calls. (But my cold calling techniques can be the subject of another post, because that’s not what I want to talk about today.)

I used to sit at my desk with a copy of the Yellow Pages in front of me, and phone listed businesses.

One day I decided to call a driving school.  The response I got?  ’I'm not interested, I advertise in Yellow Pages’.

‘I know,’ I said, and slowly and very audibly flicked through the 11 pages of driving instructors all listed in the Yellow Pages, ‘and so do all your competitors. Do you think it would help to try something different?’

He disagreed vehemently.  I asked him his response rate from his Yellow Pages adverts, and he didn’t know.

Now, let’s think about this a little. The target market for a driving school is 17-20 year olds. Most of whom have never even opened a Yellow Pages – they Google for information, not ‘let their fingers do the walking’ as the old Yellow Pages ad used to tell us.  Is his response rate likely to be amazing?

Obviously not, because 3 months later, he had gone out of business. 

Now, I’m going to tell you another story – a story about me, blindly following my competitors, just like that driving instructor.

Still in the leaflet delivery business, we noticed that our competitor had bought out an A5 folded leaflet, with about 20 adverts for local businesses.

My reaction was, ‘we have to do this!’ and I got on the case, and sold the advertising space.

MISTAKE. BIG, BIG MISTAKE.

I should have known better, and I have no excuse for acting the way I did.

I should have phoned up every single one of those businesses and asked them if the ad was successful and whether they would place another.

But no, I blindly followed.

I should have asked householders what they thought about the leaflet and whether they kept it or binned it.

But no, I blindly followed.

I should have asked the printer for his honest opinion of what we were doing.

But no, I blindly followed.

It turned out that his A5 leaflet bombed. It appeared once and never again.

It was exactly the same for ours.

And for the next business that tried it (although I did warn them).

The moral of these stories is that you shouldn’t blindly do something just because your competitors do.

Instead, be different. Be seen where they aren’t. When your competitors act like sheep and all advertise in the same place and do similar marketing don’t join them.

If you want to win more business be a wolf, not a sheep.

And in case the headline got you thinking: it’s from here:

Meeting people: as important as all that social media stuff you do all day.

Is social media a waste of time?

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2 months ago
by Angie in , ,

Meeting people: as important as all that social media stuff you do all day.

Or should I say – is social media a waste of YOUR time?

I’m online most of the day – I use cloud computing, so I write articles online and prepare marketing plans online. I also flick between various social media and my email inbox every half hour or so.

And I notice things. I notice that there are certain people who are on Facebook and Twitter all the time. All day. Every day.

It makes me wonder – are they like me: working as well as checking or adding to their social media? Or are they using social media instead of actually meeting people in real life?

Face to face selling is difficult for many people. And many business owners avoid face to face selling (especially the universally dreaded cold-calling). Instead they use social media to make soft connections, and share articles, blog posts and advice.

BUT THEY DON’T ASK FOR A SALE.

They spend all their time being busy, busy, busy with social media. But they don’t make money. Instead their time is wasted every day by the lure of adding another tweet, another post on Facebook, another comment on Linkedin.

If I have just described you (c’mon, you know who you are!) by all means continue to use social media: it is a great way to increase awareness of your business, to connect with people, and to show others what you can do. Just don’t use it as an avoidance technique.

 

MY ADVICE:

Make a list of all your social media connections who you think might be interested in your product or service. Then work down the list, phoning or calling every single one of them. Set yourself a target – speak to 10 people a day, for example (start with 2 and work your way up, it can be tough if you’ve never done it before).  Turn your social media connections into REAL connections, and watch your business grow.

 

 

Price isn't everything....

Research 101: how to research your competition online

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2 months ago
by Angie in , ,

Price isn't everything....

Having talked with many small business owners, I know the truth: most of you have never fully researched your competition, apart from taking a cursory look before you started the business.  And if you didn’t even do that, you need to learn the importance of competitor research.

When you start a business you need to position yourself in the market place: you need to have an answer to the questions ‘ what makes you different?’ and ‘why should I buy from you?’  If the only answer is because you are cheaper than your competitors then you’re on dangerous ground – what happens if someone comes along who is cheaper than you? Do you lower your prices and both descend into an ever decreasing profit spiral?

From a marketing point of view, you should be checking out your competition regularly. You should know what they do, how they get business, how much they charge, why their customers go to them and not you, how they position themselves. How do they use social media to connect, and how successful are they with that.

Get a piece of paper (or 2, or 3) and start your research.

  1. Firstly make a list of each business that is your competition.

  1. Starting with their website, make a note of their tagline (if they have one).

  1. Study their website – how professional is it, do all their links work, are they offering valuable information? Make notes not only on what they do badly, but more importantly on what they do well (hint: that’s why their customers are going to them and not you).

  1. Do they have a newsletter, and a gift for signing up (a free ebook or sample, for example)

  1. Are there photos of the business owners and managers on their website – does the business have a human face? (this is especially important in the service industry)

  1. What products and services do they offer?

  1. And at what price?

  1. Do they have an ‘about me’ page – and how useful is that to a potential customer?

  1. Do they have a Facebook page, how often do they update it and what with – pure promotion, or useful information for their fans?

  1. Do they have a Twitter page, how often do they tweet, and what do they tweet – pure promotion, or useful links for their followers?

Now you are in a position to begin comparing your business with theirs.

  • What do you do better than your competitors?

  • What do your competitors do better than you?

  • What aren’t you doing that your competitors do well?

  • What do they offer (product/service) that you don’t?

  • What do you offer (product/service) that they don’t?

By now you have compiled some useful information.  But how do you use it?

Carefully.

Remember that it is no point becoming a clone of your competitors, so if they offer services A, B and C, and you offer C, D and E, doing this comparison doesn’t mean that you should also offer A and B (although it is possibly worth considering if it is something that you can do well, and have time to add to your services without diluting other offerings).

You now need to spend some time differentiating yourself. I’ll use myself as an example: I provide marketing solutions for small businesses. Not medium, large or any-size businesses, just small businesses.

I also differentiate myself by pointing out that I don’t have a marketing qualification (my degree is in psychology, the study of  human behaviour, which is also very useful in the marketing environment). I point out that I have never worked for a large marketing agency dealing with multi-million dollar clients: instead my marketing knowledge has been gained on the ground – running several successful small businesses myself.   And this is a massive positive to any small business client – because I have learned how to market my own businesses on a limited budget, so now I can show others how to do the same.

Now go through the checklist above again in relation to your business, starting with 2:

  1. How good is your tagline (a tagline can help you differentiate your service from others, so if you don’t have one, start thinking one up. And don’t  be afraid to change it, to tweak it when you come up with something better.

  1. How professional is your website – if necessary, get someone to re-do it for you – or even learn how to do it yourself, using a platform like WordPress (if you struggle reading your email let alone designing a website and have only a little money to spend, try to find a smart internet-savvy teenager who will do it for you. But be clear about what you want - colours, design, copy etc.

  1. Do you have a mailing list? You’ve probably heard the saying ‘ the money is in the list’ – now is the time to take that seriously and realise that if you can drip-feed information regularly to people, they begin to know, like and trust you (as long as you are giving them quality information of course) and are far more likely to buy off you. And consider what you can offer free, as an enticement for signing up.

  1. Big businesses are faceless. Show your human side, and people are more likely to trust you.  Have at least one photograph of yourself on your website.

  1. Products and services: are you offering what your customers want? I used to run an ironing service, and constantly had customers asking me if I did cleaning as well.  So I set up a cleaning business on the side – and 80% of my ironing customers became customers for my cleaning service as well. Make sure your products and services match your customers wants and needs.

  1. Price – we have talked about the dangers of having the lowest price – but make sure what you are offering matches the price you charge; and make that clear to your customers. If you are 50% more expensive than most of your competition, you’d better be offering 50% value to them.

  1. Your ‘about me’ page – this is a page where your customers and potential customers get to know you. Use this to tell them a little about yourself, why you run the business, your passion for the business, the experience you have.  Make it interesting – tell your story. If you’re feeling really brave, you could do this: http://www.clay-collins.com/blog/about-clay-collins-my-story/

  1. Facebook – update this regularly, and don’t use it as a channel for selling – use it as a channel for your customers to see what you have done (for example, if you are a landscape gardener, you could show them before/after photos of the gardens you are working on – with the owner’s permission of course!)

  1. Twitter – ditto for above. Share interesting information that you have found, and keep the sales stuff down to 25% maximum. Social media is all about building trust and respect and not about selling.

Spend some time with this. Keep checking your competitors, and keep refining your prices, your products or services, your taglines, your marketing….everything that you do to reach and keep customers.

 Aim to be the best you can be – but above all, be different.

Don't let spam fill your comments section!

Comments on comments

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2 months ago
by Angie in ,

Don't let spammers fill your comments section!

I’ve been on several blogs recently where comments are unmoderated, so as well as a handful of real comments there are several (sometimes many more) comments that are trash, there purely to provide in-bound links for the poster.

Apart from this being annoying to your blog readers, what does it say about you?

The main thing is says is that you’re not interested in feedback and two-way conversation: you don’t want to engage with your customers or potential customers, instead you just want to tell them what you think.

The world has changed. No longer do we have sales people who talk and talk about their opinion: most sales people have learned to listen, to find out what their customers think, and what their customers want.

If you are not deleted spam comments (or stopping them from getting through in the first place) it tells me and your potential customers that you are not listening.

And we’ll take our business to someone who does.

Don't get caught out by spending a lot of money because of marketing clap-trap.

Beware of clap-trap from marketing gurus.

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2 months ago
by Angie in

I recently heard some marketing advice: the way to be successful in your market is to spend more money than your competitors.

Don't get caught out by spending a lot of money because of marketing clap-trap.

Wow. I was blown away by this piece of advice, which incidentally comes from a ‘marketing expert’.  Because it’s rubbish, absolute tosh (the word in my head that I’d like to use to describe this advice is a lot stronger than rubbish or tosh: but we’ll leave it in my head for now to save offending the delicate ears of my audience).

IN THE RIGHT HANDS, the advice might (possibly) work. Or at least might not cause the business too much harm – after all millions of dollars of marketing money is wasted or badly spent by corporate businesses every year.  But in the hands of a small business owner dabbling in marketing it could be catastrophic, leading his business very quickly into extinction.

So – what’s wrong with the advice?  After all, it’s common sense, isn’t it, going back to biblical times: ‘the more you reap the more you sow’?

What’s wrong with the advice is that it doesn’t get you to consider the importance of WHERE to sow. Or how to check your seeds are growing. Going back to the biblical metaphor, if you were sowing lots of seeds on concrete, whereas your competitor was sowing just a tenth of your amount in quality soil, who do you think would be the most successful?  Where you sow, and how and when you track the results are far more important factors in successful marketing.

Spending more marketing money without testing the results of that spend and knowing your ultimate return-on-investment is the way to failure, not success.

There are so many ways to cheaply advertise and market your product these days: far more than there used to be when the main advertising media was newspaper, TV or radio and billboards. There are so many other ways to get noticed by your market; so many other methods to build your brand, and sell your products. Information on how to do that can be found easily online.  Yes, it will take time to learn. Yes, it may be frustrating when it doesn’t pay immediate dividends. But it could save you a fortune, if not save your business.

But you always, ALWAYS, need to note the responses you receive. A free and easy way of doing that? Ask your customers. When a customer appears at your door, phones you up, emails you or buys online, just ask them ‘how did you hear about us’ and note the response. Keep a note of every response – that way you can build up a picture of what marketing you’re doing that your customers are reacting to.

And please don’t spend a fortune on marketing. For most small businesses, it’s a waste of money.

tesco

What you can learn from Tesco’s mistakes

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2 months ago
by Angie in
You may have noticed that the supermarket Tesco had media problems last weekend, caused by an (incorrect, they say)

 job advertisement, which made it look as if they were now taking on
permanent staff but paying them nothing for working 30 hours a week – the employees would receive just their Job Seekers Allowance (JSA).

The social media bods at Tesco were unprepared for the furore that this discovery created. They reacted firstly by blaming JobcentrePlus for incorrectly calling the job permanent; then by stating that the people who worked at Tesco for their JSA were volunteers and not mandated; then contradicted themselves by saying they would ask the DWP (who administered the scheme) to change the rules so that people would not be forced to work for them or be threatened with loss of benefits. Their Twitter and Facebook pages were ablaze with a constant stream of vitriolic comments from the general public asking them to withdraw from the scheme and informing them they were going elsewhere to shop. Tesco’s response? A set of 3 fixed replies which they trotted out again and again.  On Facebook they deleted adverse comments and blocked any users who were critical of Tesco’s involvement with work experience.

It is interesting that Tesco appeared totally unprepared for this.  They obviously viewed themselves as offering a valuable service for unemployed people with an attractive bonus for their business (i.e. free labour) and failed to look at it from the general public’s position. A definite case of a large corporation not listening to their customers, or evaluating potential issues from their customers viewpoint.

They have now decided that they will pay people to work for them on a work experience placement, so the issue has been resolved. But it took so long!  Years ago, news broke slowly. If people wanted to complain they could phone the business up and complain privately. Or they could write a letter to their local newspaper and complain publicly.  These days everything moves faster, and businesses need to be aware of that – a good reputation can be reduced to tatters in hours, not weeks.

So – what should Tesco have done, and how should you react if in a similar situation?

  • Take a deep breath, step back, and think about your customers. Think about the situation from their position. Think about what they will expect you to do. Gather together everyone in the team who has to make the decision to take corrective action, and decide on your solution. Then tell your customers what you are going to do. (Tesco stuck their head in the sand and hoped that the issue would just disappear. Instead it got worse, and went from social media to newspapers to radio and TV discussions.)
  • Own the problem. Stop trying to blame others and take responsibility. (Tesco blamed JobCentrePlus for the error, and have never admitted to any blame whatsoever.)
  • Apologise sincerely – across as many media outlets as possible, but especially the ones where you have been criticised. Tesco have yet to apologise even though they took corrective action. This lack of apology signifies that they have only changed their course of action because they were caught and were experiencing bad repercussions.  It makes them look arrogant and not sorry at all: just sorry to be caught.
  • Fix it. Do the right thing as soon as you can. Don’t let it drag on and on – a day is a long time when surrounded by a constant barrage of negative social media chatter. Make sure your customers know you are sorting it, how you are sorting it, when you are sorting it, and be prepared to provide evidence when you have sorted it. And be willing to listen to feedback about the solution from your customers. (Tesco took 4 days to come up with a solution, and when customers gave feedback they just resorted to replying with the same sentence – ‘see our press release’. There was no two-way communication going on at all.)
  • Move on – once you have done all of the above, move on. If there are steps that you have missed (i.e not apologising and not listening to feedback) go back and take the steps. Do it properly, or not at all. If you have followed this remedial procedure correctly you will find that some of your loudest critics turn into some of your staunchest supporters.

Implementing these steps will help you take control of the situation, and may even reinforce customer loyalty. But learn from your mistakes and ask yourself next time you start something new – what will my customers think about this? And if you don’t know, take a step back and don’t start until you’ve asked them. If they are not happy it gives you the time to tweak it until they are.

Tesco are still being blasted for offering a better solution than any other business who is or has been involved with the DWP work experience scheme: paid work for a month, followed by a permanent job.

Can you just imagine the kudos they would have received if they had insisted from the start that  they would be paying every person to do work experience with them? They would have gained a fabulous amount of positive publicity for their brand. What a PR opportunity missed!

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