This evening I stumbled across what I could only describe as a bombshell for the so called “professional marketing” world.

You see there are just far too many businesses trying too out do one another using overly creative marketing produced by these vary same companies and all they end up with is more confusion and empty pockets.

If these so called “marketing professional” were any good at what they did they would be able to use their own marketing skills to win new business right ? WRONG!

They are in fact so questionably effective that they need another company to hold their hands and help them to do it.

Here is a quote from their special hand holding partners website;

Many companies in the creative and marketing services industry find that marketing themselves, ironically, is not the easiest of undertakings.

If that’s not a wake up call to all businesses to instantly fire their marketing agencies if they are still wondering what they get back from their marketing spend then nothing is.  And if that’s not enough to push you over the edge then try this on for size.

The company describes itself as;

Rainmaker is the most influential new business consultancy to the professional services sector; providing strategic counsel, direct representation and sales communications.

Now, if you’ve read any of my material you will probably have a good idea about my feelings on selling and marketing. They are one and the same, just a different medium.  Your marketing should be able to sell for you, that’s what its for, unless of course you are in some mass commodity market where image is everything and your prepared to spend a lot of money creating it.  I strongly suggest you avoid this like the plague, especially in the business to business (b2b) marketing arena as you marketing should be a sales tool first and foremost.

If you don’t understand what I mean by this then the Triangle Of Change white paper may shed some light on this or in future blog posts to come.  Needless to say its not what you probably think it is.

I have no idea how good or bad this company is and make no claims either way.  Its the end customers that are choosing these marketing agencies on the basis of their improved sales communications, which are not even created by the marketing company they have selected that I feel sorry for, and why I wrote this post.

People you need to know this, you need to spread this and you need to fear this as the marketing company you’ve just hired probably couldn’t sell toffee to an apple.

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Where Growth Comes From

Growth occurs where you have a very simple equation that describes the coming together of demand and supply.  The greater the demand and the weaker the supply the faster the business growth develops, similar to the simple equation to calculate force which Newton describes in his second law, Force = Mass x Acceleration or F=ma.

There are however other factors that will impact the trajectory of growth in your business which come from shifts in the market that alter what is now deemed in demand and ultimately where supply comes from.

For example just before the last financial crisis, otherwise known as the “credit crunch”, everybody wanted high return investments and accepted the associated high risk, but due to recent financial failings everybody now wants limited risk investment.  So although the product that people are now seeking still remains an investment it has evolved  from being a high risk type to a low risk one.

Suppliers and advisor’s of these high risk investments are now considered to be untrustworthy, so customers seek alternative sources of supply to go with their new style of product.

So its not just about getting your product and service right in the beginning, its also needs to be adapted to suit market demands and ensure you continue to supply or you run the risk of turning what was a high growth business into a plummeting growth business as that demand shifts away from you and moves elsewhere.

Demand Meets Supply

The discovery of demand may come as a results of you falling into a new market through circumstance or by the opportunity of chance (right place, right time) triggered by a customer request or a specific event occurring.  Sometimes its through careful planning using market research which purposely uncovers hidden demand.

To fulfil this initial demand you may develop a product or service from either a technical point of view to meet that demand and evolve your business operations to allow growth to occur, or you recognise the market needs and create the business infrastructure and if required the means to develop a product or service to meet that demand, or find a suitable source.

Either way you you have identified a need in the market with high enough demand that you can fulfil and you are now at the beginning of your growth cycle.

Moving To A New Plateau

For start-ups & younger business who have growth potential, an effective commercial strategy will make a world of difference in the results you achieve both long term as well as short term and will ultimately govern the speed your business develops.

Established organisations who have already gained a foothold in the market and growth has either reached a plateau or needs assistance to move it towards new goals typically has many hidden sales and marketing assets that if uncovered and realigned correctly can bring about rapid changes in growth trajectory.

For the businesses in turmoil that has a fundamentally sound model, it is often a disconnect with its market or an over reliance on sales and marketing strategies that are not measurable and proven which need to be identified and addressed quickly and systems put in place to improve stability.

Sales and marketing is also a critical tool for taking your business into new territories as it can identify live market changes in demand and provide a closed loop feedback mechanism to your R&D department or product development and supplier selection teams.

Avoiding Sales And Marketing Waste

In the modern world, nothing happens until somebody sells something and that is true of every business, organisation and individual.  Without the selling of ideas, concept, visions and beliefs there would be no identify, co-operation or future of any kind as everything would just grind to a halt.

Most businesses recognise the importance of selling and marketing, however the strategies they end up adopting are fundamentally based on traditional approaches that cost most companies an excessive amount of time and money and in turn creates a risky business environment.

Just asking business owners what their advertising does for them in terms of sales results and you will find that most could not tell you.

For reasons I described above a business can find itself in a place without the right strategy which is probably based on sales and marketing ideas that don’t provide the kind of control, insights and financial return that a sound sales and marketing strategy will deliver.

In an attempt to resolve the situation a business may bring in trainers or marketing partners that advise them to select an approach which appears to make sense on the surface, usually because everybody else is doing it that way, however more often that not it is mainly a cosmetic fix up that does not deliver and real longevity.

What you actually end up with is expensive advertising or promotion or being forced into dealing with complex and inefficient sales processes.  Worst of all you start becoming reliant on just a few good people or paying for sales and marketing infrastructure that you just don’t need or constantly educating confused customers that just don’t get what you do or trust your company.  So just hall ow is anybody supposed to sell anything with this going on ?

Sadly, and in many cases much more could be achieved with far less or as manufacturers would say it can be done faster, better and cheaper.

These problems can eventually lead to the untimely death of a business and the numbers detailing business closures are indeed staggering .

Growth No Longer Has To Be Elusive

The problem is that many of the methods still being employed for selling and marketing just don’t belong in the modern world. Not because of technology, but simply because people are more sceptical and overwhelmed with choice while being more informed than at any other time in history.

Sales and marketing has become separated and disjointed. In many cases it’s wrapped around the suppliers business and not around the customer.

The sales and marketing functions should be treated like the human body in more effective medicines and therapies as a complete system. Where you get down to the root cause of the problem and treat it directly, not just the visible outlying symptoms.

This will enable you to focus on what really works and delivers results which directly affects the growth of your business.

Looking at your business like a system will help you to uncover hidden opportunities and by using a systematic approach to develop your sales and marketing as a whole, activities can be compounded generating larger and faster returns over traditional methods.

Employ A Systematic Approach Based On Proven Formulas

In manufacturing systems are used to guarantee quality and cost. In distribution logistics systems are also used to guarantee supply. So why in business are we not using sales and marketing systems that can deliver real leads and customers ?

One of the biggest steps you can take towards achieving sustainable growth is systematising your sales and marketing approach, so that you have repeatable and predicable outcome that keeps the business focused on results, enabling staff to spend time where you biggest return for both the customer and you as the supplier.

Sounds simple, yet its the one step that is mostly overlooked, avoided and misunderstood because its creates transparency and accountability that most sales and marketing approaches try to avoid.

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No matter how good your sales and marketing is, it will become ineffective in the long run if your products and services are a pile of tut.

Even Sir Alan Sugar, who’s been labelled himself for producing some questionable products said (and rather well) during one of the apprentice shows:

“I sent you out on a mission to France, to sell quality British products. I gave you a list of organic farmers, people who use tender love and care to create something special, that they take a pride in. And I wanted you to take that product and say “This is what us British produce, this is not mass-produced tut…” and what you do, is you go and buy a breeze block-load of bloody cheddar cheese!”

Your Product Or Service Is Not “Tut” Because YOU Think So

Just because you think your latest product or services is great or whizz bang doesn’t mean that your customers will agree and serving up any old tut because you think you can is not a strategy for growth.

Having the right product or service is AS essential as being good at selling and marketing.  It won’t be long before your customers find out that what you say is not the way and they will vote with their feet and leave.

If your constantly looking for new customers to fill this gap because your products or services don’t meet with your customers expectations then you are going to have a pretty tough life in business.

How To Avoiding Having “Tut” Products Or Services

The right product or service is one that that customers need, want or desire.  It has to fill a gap that is not currently being filled either well, or at all, and it must be done consistently.

Good sales and marketing can be an essential part of the innovation process as your market is usually the best source of ideas as they will be the ones that ultimately have the problems or desires that your innovations can address.

If you don’t treat them right, they are unlikely to tell you anything, especially ways that you can badly treat them again.

When you truly take the time to understand your market, opportunities will continue to open up before you, but failing to do so will close the door in your face.

It’s insulting to anybody to be fed a pack of lies about a product or service or presented with something that is just so ordinary and boring that its not worth their time and effort to be bothered with, so why would you do that ?

Why is it that so many companies think they can get away with supplying tut when the premise of business is based on serving your customer.  How long would a restaurant last if its food was tut, if the clothes you bought from the same shop kept falling apart because they were tut would you go back ?

Create Value Before Your Products And Services Becomes “Tut”

I remember working for a software company that charged premium (hefty) maintenance fees for an excellent product, yet customers were beginning to complain because they didn’t see any value in the maintenance fees as all they were getting was a CD with the latest revisions on it

So we decided to add some considerable value and made more effective use of the application and support engineers on the team by building in a series of regular visits and live project development assistance with customers on contract.  This enabled us to work more closely with the customer and was a win win for both of us.

People using the software got extra support and help to get projects done and we got to understand what worked and what didn’t and to build more effective case studies and stories which helped to sell more software and to keep more customers on maintenance contract while we delivered more value.

So lets stop trying to force feed customers with breeze block-loads of cheddar cheese products and services and start creating something with real substance and flavour that addresses the needs of a market today, something that suppliers and customers care about and are passionate about, something that will make your customers love you.  We all want to be loved.

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Well, I’m not going to say much here except that today I received a piece of outbound marketing from none other than…..GOOGLE.  Yes one of the worlds biggest online inbound marketing forces and they are sending me an outbound marketing piece to promote Adsense.

Why are they doing this ? Well, not everybody is online, nor are they online all of the time and good outbound marketing still works well if done properly and it helps to create a true closed loop environment.

I’m not going to comment on the piece itself even though I think it could have been improved, but the sheer fact that they recognise the need for a multi channel strategy and to reach beyond their digital space is enough for this post.

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1. Is Outbound Marketing Still Effective ?

Right now the whole world seems to be running for the hills into the digital sales and marketing inbound yonder, which is no surprise given the “possibilities” that lay ahead.  However many are running blind, taking with them what they have always done into the same digital space which will lead to further confusion if their “other” sales and marketing strategies were or are still ineffective.

A new medium does not translate into success if your message and market just don’t match.  What and where your market is and where it goes to look for sources of information will be important to where and how you should start marketing your products or services.

Putting all your eggs into one basket online will lead to more difficulty, while spreading your wings into other channels not only  reduces your risk but also tells you more about your market and how it reacts.

Only recently I’ve been working with a company in the advanced manufacturing sector who had a basic website but no offline marketing materials.

We focused first on getting the core message right and building that into existing offline sales and marketing channels to see what impact it had.  This also gave us some kind of starting reference point.  The results were very interesting and it made a major difference which we confirmed by analysiing the traffic to the existing website which was actually coming from search terms related to the companies name or directly to their web address.

Less traffic was actually coming form search relevant keyword terms for the product or services itself so if you had built a website expecting to capitalise on traffic you may have been dissapointed. However there are opportunties to do some search relevant inbound markeing work but it will not be the only source of leads and customers.

This confirmed what we thought was happening in that most people had either asked somebody else, or had read something from a press release or some of our direct response style teaser marketing and went online to find out more using either the web address or by typing the companies name directly into a search engine.

This was import as it told us that relevant and effective outbound marketing was AS important and influential (if not more right now) as inbound marketing and analytics on the existing website helped to confirm that.

Not only that but we compared current letters which had received little to no response with the new teaser pieces and in just sending out a handful we had one potential customer tell us they wanted to pre-order 2 machines AND an invite to display the technology on this potential customers stand at a relevant industry exhibition all in an account which they had been struggling to connect and do business with.

So, outbound marketing is still as relevant as it always was.  It’s not the medium that is the problem it’s the ineffectiveness of the strategies being employed. By combining the outbound and inbound worlds you get a much better idea of what is happening and why.

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Following up with customers and interested prospects is an area that probably most marketers are actually poor at, as everybody is trying to avoid annoying people on their database.

What I think it really comes down to though is not having enough value to offer your customers or prospects in exchange for making contact other than just trying to push them along towards a sale.

Contacting people a few times is just not enough and many of the statistics I’ve come across say it actually takes at least 7 positive contacts just to grab attention before making an actual sale because modern life and the modern buyer are dealing with constant need and desire changes as internal and external factors affect what’s important to them or their business at any given time as well as a barrage of continuous sales and marketing messages.

Sellers cannot control when a buyer is going to be ready for a solution but they do need to be there when they are.

Just the other day I decided that I needed a dictaphone as the constant note taking and information brain farts was becoming a struggle to keep up with and document as I didn’t always have pen and paper to hand. Argos had a great offer on so I walked in and purchased the day I was visiting a local town that I was shopping at which was actually further away than my own town which also had an Argos.

If the right deal is there when you need it, you get it, it’s that simple.

Have you every been travelling on the motorway and you start to feel a little restless right around dinner or lunch time so you stop off at a service station and while you’re walking around you get an attack of the munchies.

You think to yourself, “No, I’ll just wait until I get to….” and then you come across the sign that says “Coffee and Pannini To Go”, you walk by and the stomach churns a little, but you feel sure that you can make it to your next stop. On the way back from the bathroom you get hit by a second sign “Don’t Go Hungry! Food Court Entrance” and a nice aroma wafts out of the food area and suddenly you find yourself saying “Well, I could just as well get a bite to eat here, lets have a look”.

If that second sign had not been there you may never have stopped to look and eat. So being there are just the right time was enough to tip the balance in the favour of this service station instead of the next stop.

So how do you make contact with customers and prospects and avoid annoying them at the same time ?

Revealing Questions

Send out a list of Frequently Asked Questions that shows more sides to your products, business or service than just your own. This is also a great way of overcoming objections.

Solid Justification

Just think of a number of REAL reasons that people should buy from you which are justifications that they may be struggling with themselves.  Keep them short and sweet.

Let Your Audience Speak For You

Send comments and testimonials from real customers.

Almost Gone

If you have a limited number of something then let your customers know and by when.

Mistakes Happen

Own up to your mistakes and make them part of the conversation and make sure they are real mistakes not just some ploy.

Last Chance

Resend a mix of the above with the most compelling elements and a special offer with the title “2nd and Last Chance”

Don’t be fooled into thinking that your marketing is some magic brush or wand that you can wave over your business and just by sending out one campaign it will fix everything. You need to have a sequence of follow up’s that clearly builds on your theme and reinforces your message, not just some fancy generic advertising campaign that’s full stuff that nobody understands or needs.

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When faced with difficult or seemingly impossible situations most think about giving up, but its often those that are prepared to face their fears and to keep on, keeping on, that go on to reap the rewards from their efforts.

Fear cripples us all in some shape or form.  I remember fearing public speaking, so I joined Toastmaster International which helped a great deal.

What did you fear and how did you overcome it ?

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Recently I’ve seen numerous companies make contact with people saying they were interested in how somebody could help them but during the lead up to the discussion they started dropping a ton of hints that they were really only interested in exchanging services or getting somebody to buy from them. Wanting to sell is not the problem, it’s the lack of honesty in the first place that is.

So they have the discussion and I can see a disconnect (I’ve been selling and marketing for a while so I recognise the signs or sense them), they show interest but it just looks false. Afterwards you test them with a few emails or tweets and get the expected response confirming your belief that this was an attempt to sell without selling and if the other person is not buying they don’t engage.

Just think for a minute what kind of message you are sending into the market, is that an honest trust worthy approach ? Is anybody likely to buy from you or refer you ? Nope!

Similarly you see people come on-line saying how new they are to the on-line world (internet), yet they some how know how to use html to get text links (unfortunately in the wrong place), or they’ve been working on a website for 9 months but pretend to act like they know nothing about it all so they ask you for your opinion on this and that and then tell you that they would be happy to provide you with this and that and all you need to do is ask.

They rarely want your opinions, instead they are only interested in selling you something without appearing like they are selling. Its not the fact they are trying to sell, it’s the way they are trying to do it that is annoying and is actually turning these people into a commodity with little value.

Face to face or club based networking is just as bad as both parties are ultimately trying to “sell” something while avoiding doing any selling at the same time and it’s like watching a cat and mouse game of story exchanges and other blah and guff that leads both parties to eventually find little value in continuing any further.

It’s especially prevalent in social marketing where I see a lot of confused soft selling approaches where a blog or website does not clearly stand for anything in particular. No potential customer could understand what they could do for them because they are too scared to actually tell anyone.

Instead they ramble on about a bunch of weakly connected topics to a theme that’s difficult to understand in the hope that people will “get” them. But if people don’t know what you stand for (you have to sell and market your message) then how can anybody buy into it ?

Influence is selling and marketing. Everybody has to make money and that comes from a business or a job. It’s not the money that is the problem, it’s what people do with it. Money, selling and marketing are not bad, they are essential and should be at the core of every business.

Why should a business providing great value to their current or potential customers be frightened about selling and marketing in a way that builds trust, openness, value and a worthwhile long term relationship.

Stop sneaking around and start being really honest.

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One of the companies I’ve been working with recently landed a £70K+ contract to design and build a customised piece of advanced manufacturing technology, after they were told that the buyer was going to place an order with another supplier just before Christmas last year because they were too expensive.

Now, most companies at this point would have given up, or started to panic, but I knew their was a deal waiting to happen and it just need the right moves.

The reason I felt confident was because we had done some objective analysis of the situation which included how the supplier compared to other alleged suppliers (competition) alongside the needs and habits of the prospect (now customer).

First this customer was a technology leader and was releasing a new product into the market which required a part of the process to be automated. There was no alternative but to automate to ensure throughput, quality and consistency and they had to automate using a system similar to the one that this supplier (my customer) had proposed as it had to meet certain process conditions.

The prospect was already buying in product which had already been processed from another supplier but the cost was high and they were at the mercy of the suppliers capacity and capability to ensure they could meet market demand which was risky and costly.

During numerous meetings this potential customer had also told us how they had recently invested in a number of new injection moulding machines which happened to be one of the most expensive and reliable on the market. There were site expansions going on and big investments, so this was a company that was committed to making investments that would help it to gain a competitive advantage and maintain its position as a leading manufacturer.

Price was not the issue, but reliability and capability to deliver was.

We had also worked on developing relationships in the market with various complimentary manufacturers, especially the consumable materials suppliers that these machines applied and through discussions with them it confirmed our beliefs about the company, the people involved and some of the misleading information being fed back.

So, just before Christmas the prospects sends over the alleged competitive quotes. One was from the USA which when you ran the numbers actually worked out more expensive with transportation, VAT and duty costs and was far more riskier than a more localised investment.  Neither was it a customised machine, more of  a “this is what we do that is near to what you want” and we knew the prospects specification was tight and this proposal was not a good fit.

The other quote which was indeed a lower price and came from a design house that had no specialist expertise in this area of automation and build.  On closer inspection they were unable to meet the process conditions and demands of the prospect and from experience we knew that most of these companies got it wrong.

Having seen numerous projects scrapped and lay dead on the floor, it was just unbelievable that a company like this would waste £50K worth of their money along with the wasted time in trying to make it work only to eventually be forced to relegate it to the factory floor and later the scrap head just because somebody said his mate down the road could do that job.

That’s a painful lesson that prospects and customers do not want to repeat.

So their price (my customers) was actually in-between the alleged competitors but their value was considerably higher as they had over 100+ successful installations, therefore the risk of a system not working was very low, invested over £100K in research and development, meaning they produced the most effective and reliable systems, the design could meet the processing conditions and they had been finalists in the BEEA (British Engineering Excellence Awards) meaning their engineering skills were recognised as being amongst the best.

This prospect was not going to make a decision to buy elsewhere as it just did not make sense but needed to feel in control. We gracefully bowed out as the price reduction they wanted was too aggressive and then re-entered the game to see how the new investment had gone……it hadn’t and with some additional discussions and demonstrating them how they could help ther prospects business with other automation needs a deal was closed Jan 2010.

Never walk away from an opportunity unless you are sure you are not in the running, but don’t pester your prospect if you cant truly meet their needs.  Being a clear leader in your field make a massive difference if you position it correctly.

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For some time now I’ve been extending my own social media activity, slowly. When you don’t have lots of staff and massive budgets and you are focused on helping your customer its a tough thing to do and get right. You know what it should look like but creating and engaging amongst everything else you are doing is a tall order indeed.

Just being in a position to “listen” or watch the conversations unfold can be very eye opening and you begin to get a feel for what people are saying, doing and why.

It’s always been said that people buy from people and social media IS the real time marketing equivalent of that as people prefer to read and listen to opinions about products and services from fellow consumers and peers which is great if you have a business with the resources and capacity to create that presence and your customers are using social media to discuss what you do for them.

None the less, simple tools like twitter can have an immediate effect with little technical skill or masses of content creation if you are willing to find and connect with people, contribute and share and sometimes the most random connections turn out to be vary valuable.

Instead of just wading in with haste in reply to something or making statements that don’t necessarily reflect your mutually held beliefs and instead of just touting corporate policy, take the time to take the “corporate” out of the conversation and realise that through value, trust and authenticity, which means real people with real views, you can get heard above the crowds and word spreads.

Be open to the truth, no matter how much it hurts

Exposing your business to social media will attract the good and the bad. People will share with you their views and be pretty direct about it. In fact Dell discovered to its horror what customers really thought about its service from Tweets on Twitter and Facebook comments. Dell worked on acknowledging and understanding the problem and find a resolution. The end result was a $6.5m global revenue increase attributed to Twitter alone. Wow!

What’s strange is that people have been complaining to businesses for a long time but the message did not seem to get through, probably because the internal communication systems were even worse than their external ones, so businesses can even benefit from adopting social media methods internally to connect people and teams together and allow them to share their voice and to do away with the old draconian structures. Almost like an ordered chaos.

Don’t just spend blindly, engage and create (mash up)

When times are tough and you are either faced with a recession or limited marketing funds, channels like social media can become even more important as there is a very low, if not almost zero direct cost of entry, just your time and effort (which has indirect costs of course).

It’s easy to see what your efforts bring as you can monitor traffic to your site and see what activity occurs and conversions such as people taking a defined action like downloading something.

Free tools like google analytics are a good place to start if you have a limited or zero budget and you should start small and grow you activity gradually, and remember to keep at it and be consistent.

Let real people, with real personalities share your values

To make social media work you need the right people who are impassioned about using social media and yes that could be you the owner if you are a small business. If it’s new to you then there will be a bit of a learning curve, but start with the simple platforms like Twitter and go from there into either your own blog or use established networking and social media sites such as Facebook, or for business eCademy.

ComCast in the US has done a great job of putting a real personality in touch with its marketing as it actually offers friendly Twitter customer support with real staff along with their profile and photo of the person instead of the company logo. This makes for a very friendly and personal interface, just the sort of open customer contact point that can create shared value.

Think before you communicate, ask does my response reflect the above points

I’m sure like me you’ve written the odd email and hit the send button, then realised that if you had waited for your feelings to settle down a little and leave the room you would have had more clarity and probably would have replied in a different way avoiding upsetting or offending somebody in the process which was not the real intention of your response, just the knee-jerk reaction we all naturally suffer from.

In one extreme case a representative from Ryan Air waded into a Twitter conversation giving them the “big I am” corporate cold shoulder which as you can imagine was not well received. Soon after the Tweets were pulled and I’m sure somebody had their legs slapped or indeed fingers removed (joke btw).

Be willing to test, and be willing to focus where you meet your market

Its easy to get caught up in all this stuff and be everywhere and get nowhere. I’ve got accounts all over the place, some of which I gradually learn to use and build, some of which I have focused on more because I could see better potential, others just languish. There is nothing wrong with that.

However it is impossible to be everywhere, touch every conversation and have worthwhile exchanges so you need to find what’s right for you and spend time communicating with your audiences in that place, developing your presence and what values you will be sharing.

Whether you realise it or not every business these days is being discussed on the web, like it or not, so you may as well take part and learn from it.

Find your own social media voice

In the beginning you may struggle to find your own voice in all of this, but like all good musical artists or painters and writers you start by reusing what you aspire to be and in doing that, and exploring it and pushing boundaries you begin to define who your are and what your relationship with your world is and your own voice will find itself.

There are a ton of gurus and experts out there saying it has to be like this or like that, the bottom line though is its different for everybody so step into the playground and find your own place, in your own way.

It might be worth giving giving some thought to why your voice should be there in the first place and I found these interesting points on escaping mediocrity. Its like doing some market research on the conversations currently taking place in your market to understand how yours might fit in.

1. How are they talking about this niche?
2. Are they speaking in broad theoretical terms or very tactical terms?
3. What’s their personality?
4. What needs are being unmet?
5. Is my voice needed?

Still unsure about social media marketing

A survey entitled ‘How Do Small to Medium Businesses Market Themselves?’ from Daryl Willcox Publishing has revealed that 27% of those questioned used social media platforms such as blogging, Twitter, Facebook and online forums as part of their marketing activity. More interesting facts can be found on UtalkMarketing.

I thought you might appreciate this nice piece of work which illustrates the point nicely.

What part of social media do you need to do better ?

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One of the reasons that stops businesses from measuring their marketing effectiveness is they believe its too early in the process to start when creating or developing their new marketing channel and its especially so with the internet or web marketing because the technology feels so new for many businesses.

The reality is though that you should be designing in the systems for tracking your marketing both on-line (web) or off-line (direct mail, catalogue, adverts etc.) as methods exists for both.

The web provides a more integrated or automated approach where as off-line marketing may require some manual work to generate the numbers.

The REAL reason though that you should be marketing is to generate leads and new business, so justifying your marketing expenditure should be mostly, if not always if you’re a small business, based on the revenue your marketing produces. In my earlier career as a sales guy I always believed that this should have been the case and now there is no escaping it, especially in tough economic climates.

When you look at it like this it seems simple but most marketers get lost in data that does not support any profitable business generation and at the heart of every business their must be profit.

Determining absolutely what your lead generation and customer acquisition statistics are is essential to understanding whether a particular activity is profitable and therefore worthwhile doing again or not. Marketing is not an exact science and does require some testing.

To get your marketing effectiveness measured correctly you should do the following:

Audit Your Current Marketing ROI

First use tools to separate you marketing. For off-line you can use separate phone numbers, email addresses, voucher and offer codes or other web sites and mail order coupons as examples to distinguish where leads are coming from. For on-line you should use marketing analytic tools to understand who is visiting your site, from where they came, what activity and leads are generated and later what sales are made. You can measure SEO or natural (organic) search, pay per click (PPC), blogging, social media, email, affiliate, webinars, articles and any other paid or free sources.

Once you have handle on this you can work towards closing the loop to determine how your leads generation and sales orders are relating to one another which gives you insights into sales cycles, which events triggered a prospect to become a customer and which sources generate the most customers. With your monthly sales figures to hand you can get indications of what your visitor-to-lead and lead-to-customer conversion ratios are.

Set Lead Gen and Sales Goals

Without a goal its going to be difficult to determine where you are going and what needs to be done to get there.

Knowing the work involved should give you an indication of the time scales, costs and resources needed from which you can build a plan of execution and budget.

Determine What Steps You Need To Take

As well as tracking or analytics you will also need to do some research to determine what keywords will enable you to pull in prospects on-line or where to send your marketing off-line to generate leads.

You also need to review your marketing to see whether its following lead generation best practises and then follow a proven process to execute your plans in the correct order to generate the most effective results.

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I don’t know about you but I’ve noticed that whenever the subjects of Marketing and Sales come up it’s like watching the front row of a horror film at it’s most gruesome part of the show. Just the words on their own are enough to spin people into a frenzy of anger, even when the topic is essential to not just every businesses or organisation but to each and everyone one of us in our daily lives. Connecting and creating friendships, relationships and valuable partnerships is what makes the world go around and we all sell and market in some shape or form, whether we know it or not.

You see, its those very same stomach churning reactions that reduce the learning and earning power.

Who wants to learn or look at adopting a new strategy around sales and marketing when they’re getting upset and respond with knee-jerk reactions that downplay the whole thing?

Not many that I know of! That’s why it’s worth bringing those two belittled, battered and abused words back into our lives, yes the dreaded Marketing and Sales words. Exposing yourself to sales and marketing actually eliminates the irrational behaviour, which would in turn help more to understand it and discuss it, and see what was good and bad, ultimately meaning that more people and businesses would get more of it right and there would be less negativity toward it and more focus on learning instead of hating.

The one thing that I would like you to take away from this is; MARKETING AND SALES IS NOT ALL BAD, its not all lies, manipulation, conning people or getting one over on the other person or using them. I would agree that there are plenty of people out there that abuse the knowledge of effective sales and marketing and they take it to places that only seek to service their own greed, but even the most subtle and unappreciated methods of selling and marketing come from the belly of the same beast. Yes. there are two sides to every coin!.

So I am going to go out on a limb here and make a statement that just might upset a lot of people, responsible marketing and sales principles and strategies are based on EXACTLY the same strategies that those slippery, dirty spammy operations use.

So LOVE and HATE come from the same place. Just like the recent debates over whether the internet is a good or bad thing. Its not the thing itself, its how it’s used. With me ?

Whether your a hater of sales and marketing or you neither love or hate it, you should still see the benefits that learning about the art of proven and current sales and marketing strategies could bring into your business and personal lives.

Without sales and marketing EVERYTHING would grind to a halt and I mean everything. There would be no cooperation, no problem solving, no exploring new frontiers, no new, no good. The world and without doubt every businesses within it would fail.

If you don’t do marketing or sales you wont sell (get peoples BUY IN) on anything.

There is no question that you NEED sales and marketing, especially if you are in business.

Embrace the change, don’t resist it.

When presented with something different or new our natural animal instincts are normally to resist, dismiss or attack it, its the self defence fight or flight programme built into all of us.

One of the best strategies to overcome this is to develop reassuring patterns which requires effort or energy in exactly the opposite direction of what we are trying to hide or run away from. Just like people that hate their jobs but need them, need to pluck up the courage to change them.

Fear of the unknown stops us from achieving better results than we have now, because deep down we are scared of looking in the mirror and finding truths that we just don’t want to admit exist.

Avoiding loss may be even more powerful than the fear of the unknown because of the implied consequences of getting it wrong (there is no wrong by the way, only feedback) and it ensures that we stay firmly rooted in our beliefs and opinions desperately trying to hang onto the status-quo.

Is this how far the human race has come ? Come on people lets get smart, because we are smart creatures aren’t we ?

Lets stop fearing the unknown and share and learn about sales and marketing approaches that are commonly used in our everyday lives by both the best and worst sales and marketing operations in the word because integrity and honesty as well as mind blowing results lies amongst it all.

Sales and marketing influences behaviour, decision and most of all emotion whether its for the greater good or the solo slippery snake. It knows how to tap right inside your psyche and what motivates you to take action, how to pressurise you, frighten you, excite you and compel you. From the single transaction to building a long term relationship.

When we don’t embrace the change the outcome can be the untimely and agonising death of an idea, concept or business. Just look what happened to UK manufacturing because it didn’t change its attitudes and adopt new ways of doing things and in more recent times the music industry has suffered from the same erosion of business as it fought music downloads instead of embracing it. Even for some time television channels with the rise of the internet, but thankfully some of those guys seem to have learned from the past, but not all.

Not changing can bring about the exact dramatic results you tried to avoid by resisting it.

Change can and is good and we all need it.

You’re already a strategic manipulator of your own tribe

By now your blood may be boiling and your thinking about lashing out at sellers and marketers for making you do things that you thought you had complete control over.

The truth is though that WE ALL MANIPULATE PEOPLE around us every day. No one is “better” or more “superior” than sales and marketing people. What differentiates us is the way we each choose to sell and market ourselves, what we do and how we can help others and the methods by which we do it is mainly affected by what we find comfortable to do, driven by our likes and dislikes.

For those of you with children you will appreciate that ensuring your little cherubs clean up, wash themselves properly, tidy things away and do their homework can require a certain approach. You know that when your child refuses to do something and talking to them in a logical manner does not always work, the threat of losing privileges or a favourite item or positively motivating and rewarding them can mean the difference between something being done or not at all.

Husbands, wife’s and partners use exactly the same approaches with each other, exchanging chores, calling to tell each other that they love them, enquiring about their day or an event or reading them the riot act because of their absence down the pub.

Even single people exchange glances, move expressively, open with the right words and compliment each other to show their interest in another person. Choices like the clothing you wear, your make up and perfume aim to persuade and convince others, your mini strategy to getting what you want.

Business people, whether they are one man brands or large corporations all need to engage their audiences, create interest and motivate people into feeling that they are the right place for a potential or existing customers to invest their money to achieve a desired outcome. Creating appealing products or services, offering more choice, creating add-ons and up sells and special offers all seek to to achieve that same aim.

Become a truth seeker and open your eyes to the good in sales and marketing

What is going to make the most difference in your life and businesses is realising that your feelings about sales and marketing are created by beliefs and experience otherwise known as knowledge.

And its knowledge that will help you to lean more about how people motivate and influence you and others. The more you know the more you can avoid the traps and pitfalls and the more able you will be at seeing just how sales and marketing can truly help your business and life.

Its things like social influence and persuasive psychology combined with decision making processes that can both protect you and make you stronger and more capable.

Being informed and educated will make you more able to see what options are available to market your business. You can then choose which sales and marketing strategies feel right for you and your businesses and you can filter out what truly deserves to be hated and what deserves to be loved.

So, have you ever taken the bait and got sold on a loser ? Are their sales and marketing strategies that you are either unsure how they would work, or if they would actually work for you ? Do you think sales and marketing is complicated and tiresome and if so why ? What do you love and hate about sales and marketing ?

Go on, tell use how you really feel. Unleash the fury

Related posts:

1. 10 Sales & Marketing Predictions To Improve Your Business In 2010

Will Smith on developing a successful attitude in your business.

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1. A Successful Internet Marketing Plan – The Basics

Ok it’s Friday so here’s a nice idea to end the week.  If you’ve heard of the Mad Men series then you’ll love this idea (if not why not!).  Jump along to MadMenYourself and get a stylised version of your marketing Mad Men self.  What do you think eh ?

p.s. the music on the site is groovy man!

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What Are Strategic Marketing Consultants ?

Well as part of a strategic marketing consultancy I thought I should answer this question.

Having a strategy is an important part of developing a businesses and working out where you are going. Your marketing strategy is the route you will take to create customers and generate sales and therefore profits for the business.

Your marketing strategy not only states your goals, objectives and describes your routes to market but it also pulls together all of the different channels and media that can be used and ensures a consistent approach that connects, engages and converts customers which can be measured, tracked and modified for improvement.

Marketing has evolved into a very different animal to what it was 10 or even 5 years ago especially with the rapid adoption of technology, but the core principles remain the same which sadly many get wrong which only undermines their marketing and selling efforts.

Strategic Marketing Consultants Help Define Strategy

A strategic marketing consultant will help you to develop or even lay down a strategy (How To) that ultimately generates interest in your products or services, which will in-turn lead to need or desire and later enquiries or leads and finally profitable sales to meet the growth goals of your business.

Using a Strategic Marketing Consultancy Will Grow Your Business

There are a number of ways that you can stimulate growth in your business which may come from new or existing products, services and markets and ultimately becomes a mix of all of them. A strategic marketing consultant will help you to determine which of these strategies is the best place to generate the desired growth and achieve the goal and objectives laid out in your top level strategy.

Existing products and services in existing markets

Here your business is looking to expand its market share (the amount of business you do in the market) to similar or the same types of customers you are already working with. This can be done by selling more to your existing customers or attracting more of the same sorts of customers. Having a clear understanding of who you customers really are and why they will buy from you is essential to gaining ground. Eventually though you may reach a market saturation point (the growth return from your efforts slows down) and you will have to look elsewhere for business.

New markets for existing products and services

New markets can be geographical regions or segments of a market. For example you may be the best supplier in Wales and decide that you can take it nation wide across the UK. Or you provide an excellent service to Lawyers and believe that Doctors would appreciate the same services. The key here is to choosing markets that you are likely to succeed in.

New products and services for existing markets

Innovation combined with sales and marketing is the corner stone of business growth. Finding ways to improve the product or service you deliver to customers to stay ahead of your competitors and to continue delivering value to your customers is an essential component. Staying close to your market and understanding changes, shift and trends or the feedback from your customers will be the starting point for stimulating the development of anew product or service.

New products and services in new markets

In this category you are working from the outside in, which can sometimes be an advantage while at the same time carrying with it a higher degrees of risk. Sound market research that can be tested and proven where the balance of supply and demand works in your favour and a clear position for your proposed development can be identified will be essential to making this effort a success. It may take time to gain the initial traction and a little tweaking to get your ideas right but basing them on sound research will provide the confidence to continue your efforts, from which the returns could be very high.

Strategic Marketing Consultants Blend Together A Marketing Mix

Once a strategy has been defined you need to look at the tools which will be used to deliver results.

The most famous of these was referred to as the 4P’s but modern references have evolved into the 4C’s.

The 4P’s consisted of product, price, place and promotion which were very much focused on the supplier and their business. The problem with this approach was it didn’t connect the business with the reason it existed, and that’s its customers.

Where as the 4C’s actually focuses on the customer and replaces the 4P’s, describing customer needs & desire, cost, convenience and communication making it a far more customer orientated approach. This is not new however, its been part of the strategy used by successful direct marketers for years before it was formalised like this and I am sure it will evolve again, but the principles will remain the same.

Strategic Marketing Consultants Build & Execute Marketing Plans

So, you’ve got all these great ideas and now you need to get started. For most businesses they are not always sure where to start and how to implement or just don’t have the time or resources to make it happen. A marketing plan is your strategy (How To) combined with things such as resources, costs and time scales (The What). In the beginning your plan may be based purely on strategy until its been tested and the implications understood and for most smaller businesses it may only ever be based on strategy until the business grows further.

Strategy is no good though with out execution and delivery. So if you don’t have the resources to make it happen, nor the ability to service the extra demand you must think carefully before moving ahead.

Strategic Marketing Consultants Deliver Results

The bottom line is a strategic marketing consultant can help to build, plan and execute like having a commercial director in your business on a part time or interim basis without the permanent staffing overhead.

Related posts:

1. Consultants needed now more than ever
2. Granularity signals the death of strategic business leadership

Does Twitter Business Marketing Work ? – Yes, Even For Me!

First of all take it from me, once a sceptic (few years back now), that the twitter machine can and does open up new avenues, contacts and enquiries REAL fast and of a very high quality and relevancy.

Why ? Well your twitter channel is a micro version of a blog and allows you to find, follow and communicate with people in a “micro” way.  Its power is in the real time nature that these communications take place and how connections are made.  It’s a bit like an instant messenger and a chat room and bookmarker rolled into one.

A tweet is a short message like gossip on a grapevine.

Just the other day I got a retweet (a tweet re-broadcasted) on one of my posts on Analytics by Jamie from a local website development company.  I sent a tweet back thanking him and he replied saying they would like to talk to me to see if I could help them.

Now, I took the time to retrace the retweets to the source and got personal by sending them a message directly, and I was thanked for my efforts by the response I received.

How Can Businesses Use Twitter As A Marketing Tool

Breaking Barriers

Most businesses have people that are just not connected with their key audiences directly such as the Managing Director becuase they mostly don’t have the time to write long blog posts or get involved with Facebook.  As a results they are missing an opportunity to connect with their audience and learn a lot about the people they serve.

That’s where twitter comes in, as all posts are just 140 character in length so instead of writing war and peace you only need a small short meaningful statements that will engage or interest people.

Staying Connected

Twitter makes connecting and following relevant people in your “space” easy.  It’s not all about who’s famous or has the most followers though, its about relevant connections and even the little guy or girl can bring about some surprising outcomes.

Once you have assembled your tribe you can lead or follow as you choose deciding when to enter into the conversation or what conversation you should start.

Value Broadcasting

You can also use twitter to make annoucements about events or special deals.  Promote articles or interesting news, just about anything that people in your tribe might find interesting or useful.

How To Get Started Using Twitter As A Marketing Tool

First create your profile @ Twitter.
Next write some updates – you can add short links using a link shortener such as bity.ly
You can search twitter for interesting stuff and people or search online using a search engine.

For slightly more advanced communications

1. Hastags “#” are used to tag messages so #latestnews will get your tweet listed under latestnews.
2. Chats can be exchanged with people by using the “@” symbol followed by a username or using “D” followed by a username.
3. RT@username is used for retweeting which is re-broadcasting to your network what somebody else said on a peripheral network.
4. OH: is used for overheard.

You can connect with me on twitter @business_growth.

Happy twitter marketing!

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1. Twitter Launches Business Services
2. Why I Wont Be Swapping Search For Social Marketing
3. A Successful Internet Marketing Plan – The Basics

Email marketing is a powerful way of establishing credibility by drip feeding valuable information to your prospects and customers at little to no cost.

Unfortunately most people abuse it by sending emails to people they don’t know with information they probably don’t want, in a way they definitely don’t want it, otherwise known as spam.

The best way to avoid the spam trap is to have people “opt-in”, meaning they volunteer to receive information from you and your business directly to their in box by request.

Once you’ve go them you need to keep them and that’s continuing to deliver interesting and relevant information.

Establish Credibility & Develop Trust Over Email

If you use your marketing systems and more specifically your email marketing to deliver valuable information and build trust you stand a good chance of turning your email subscriber list into a buyers list.

By simply opting into your list they immediately identify themselves as “interested” in your product or services and want to get to know you and become familiar with you, until they are ready to buy.

Once you have established your credibility will also be open to future offers from you and your business.

Communicating regulatory will help you to earn trust and respect and once your readers trust and value your opinions and judgements then it’s highly likely that they will also buy from you.

They key to making this work is establishing credibility which in turn will have the affect of making your product or service attractive and make you stand out over and above your competition. Because you have gone the extra mile and worked to create a relationship with your potential customer they are most likely to choose you over anybody else.

Just consider two companies selling the same product or service but one supplier has developed their “Email Insights Into Your Favourite Topic” which gives readers in-depth knowledge into that favourite topic of theirs along with unique and interesting ways of doing it differently, or guides on make it better, improving the experience or getting more return from their efforts and you build on this along with market trends, motivational quotations and stories and real life examples.

Somebody who gets this regularly will have gotten to know you without question and will have understood that you are extremely knowledgeable on the “favourite topic”. This turns you into a magnet for your customers and key audiences who will be drawn to you when it comes to making a buying decision about a particular product or service that you specialise in.

Unfortunately I can’t give you “How To” as each business is different and will require a unique approach to creating trust, but getting people to trust you is key to ensure that they will be willing to pay you for anything.

Low To No Cost B2B Marketing By Email

What stops most people from getting done is that it looks difficult and complex to do.  However with the right software and their are tons of different systems out there, which I will talk about in a different blog post, sending an email newsletter today is in fact a technical cinch and you can even make it a hands free system that works on autopilot.

The hardest part is being committed to spending the couple of hours to sit down and write the content. But it soon gets easy once you remind yourself that its costing you nothing and its winning you trust and loyalty.

Try writing yourself a quick outline on a series of specific subjects with some music playing in the background or find a quite place if you prefer the peace and get to work building as you sip your favourite glass of wine, spend sometime to find the best situation to get the creative juices flowing. Focus, write quickly, edit later and you will be amazed at what you can achieve.

Building Your B2B Email Marketing Content

In getting you content right you should always stay on topic and never forget that your sole aim is to win over your subscribers and establish credibility making you the main source of expertise for that problem or need that your product or services can help to resolve.

What content you put into your emails depends on your industry but it could include topics such as.

1. Industry news and the latest happenings.
2. Information that builds support for your product or services.
3. Relevant guides, white papers or links to other sources of information and tools.
4. Special tips and insider secrets.
5. Announcements about products and services or useful changes within your business or to you website.
6. Questions and answers, reader polls.
7. Customer feedback and case studies.
8. Offers, discounts and deal for subscribers only.

It really depends on how comfortable you are with your writing ability and how close to the material you are or want to be.

If you are struggling for ideas yourself there are a couple of sources you could use to help generate your content and they include using free online content resources or hiring a ghostwriter to write for you.

Writing Your Own B2B Email Marketing Content

This is your chance to stand out and let your personality shine through.  Don’t worry, it might seem alien at first to be so free but traditional marketing which was “professional” or “corporate” or some other style was so painfully restrictive that it never really connected with people, so the modern business world is catching up and its now the current trend to be yourself and tell it like it is.  Nobody is expecting a masterpiece, they want to get to know you.

By doing your own writing you have complete control over the content allowing you to carefully craft your style and personality, blending it into the mix of your content.

Using Free Resources To Build Your B2B Email Marketing Content

If thinking about writing your own content has you running with fear of where to start, don’t worry help is at hand.

There are many sources online and by simply searching the search engines using keywords relating to the information you are looking for you may dig up some good ideas from which you can build your own content.

There are also huge libraries of articles online in places such as ezinearticles, articlebase or goarticles.

Using this method is a great kick start and idea jogger, but if you intend on reusing the work as it is then you must give the author credit and be aware that it will not be your personality but that of the original authors coming through.

Better still, use the article as research for writing your own if you can.

Have a Ghost Writer Build Your B2B Email Marketing Content

This is the quickest method if you are looking for original content but it does cost money.

You are hiring someone who will write a piece the way you want it without having to worry about the details.

If you are picky about the “voice” or style of your content it may take you some time to find the write writing partner.

Places like elance and guru and getafreelancer are example of writing services that allow buyers and sellers to connect with one another.  Always check a writers references and ensure you clearly brief them and have a timeline in place.

Present Your B2B Email Marketing Content Correctly

Whether you are writing it yourself or hiring a ghostwriter or even using somebody else’s content you should try and proofread the content and get the layout correct before sending it out as ultimately it will reflect on you.

You layout or structure is as important as the content itself and it be consistent to further create familiarity and credibility around you and your works.

Simple things like having a header and footer, use a table of contents and dividers or white space to break up your text really make a difference.

Logistics Of Sending Your B2B Email Marketing Content

So how often should you be sending out emails? Once or twice a month is a good place to start.  Some even go every 2 months, some every week.

Again it depends on your business and industry and how much content you have and the time you have available.

You must be able to deliver something NEW with every issue and remain a welcome guest and not an unwelcome pest.

Leave it too long and people may forget you, deliver too much and they may never read it.

Create a plan, stick with it, test it and and see how people respond and then change as necessary.

Get Your B2B Email Marketing Content Delivered

There are a number of ways that you can deliver your emails using either a service remotely hosted from your website or self hosting the application on or near your site.

It really depends on whether you automate some parts or manually process it.  As the numbers in your list grows you will need to give serious thought to automation to manage things like subscribers, unsubscribes (people who no longer wish to receive your email), bounce backs (mail that is not reaching its destination) as this can become very time consuming.

We use a hosted application here on our server which does the trick but there are some technical bits and pieces to getting it working.

You may also need to consider deliverability issues relating to blacklists and spamming.

Sometimes you may not be aware that your own clean site is actually listed as a spamming site because you just happen to be on and IP address (like an internet identification number) that was related to such an incident or your domain that you bought is flagged as a spamming source.

It can be overcome, however it does require some technical knowledge and patience.

A pay as you use service is responsible for ensuring that you don’t suffer from these issues so it may be your best option in the beginning.

Getting People To Sign Up To Your B2B Email Marketing Content

There are a number of ways to get people to sign up to your email marketing content which I will talk about in more detail in a later article.  They include and are usually FREE;

ebooks
Whtepapers
Software or Application Downloads
Courses
Members only access
Articles
Surveys

Promoting Your B2B Email Marketing Content

Again I will go into this in more detail in a later article but it includes using;

Websites & Blogs
Marketing activities
Hover Ads

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One of my customers finally gave up….doing what they had always done and decided they had no choice but to find an alternative way of doing things.

I had discussed this with them many times before, and they had resisted the change because they didn’t have to….it was (tough) business as usual.

Well things finally came to ahead when the “business as usual” approach drove them into the ground and almost wiped the business out. As a last ditch attempt they said go on then see what you can do.

This I find very frustrating because if they had listened to me earlier, this difficulty would have been avoidable and they may be in a very different position today. Things are now moving in the right direction.

The graph below is REAL sales data from a live customer. I have removed their name and the figures but would be happy to share certain details with interested customers that my current customer is happy with me to discuss.

Data is live as of today and has not been manipulated or any data fitting used or strange scales to force the results.

This is a company operating in the tough manufacturing sector and they have not reduced prices but INCREASED them.

1. Their lead generation is now on autopilot but needs more work.
2. They spend more time with REAL prospects instead of time wasters.
3. They are building up a series of sales tools which is strengthening their value.
4. They have a number of partners feeding them leads and new business.
5. Their forecasting has improved giving them more control over their business.
6. They are feeling more confident about the future and their attitude is forward looking.
7. Cash-flow is starting to improve and there are plans to invest for the future in more effective sales and marketing.

Applying the right sales and marketing strategies can and does have a dramatic impact on a business even in a tough environment, but it does require change.

Businesses that are willing to embrace this change are the one most likely to survive and thrive.

Related posts:

1. Grow Your Business With Referrals
2. You Can’t Grow A Business On Tut

The Business landscape is changing fast which for sometime now I have been predicting and talking about with individuals and businesses directly, and on this site, many of whom are just not ready but are aware that things are changing and the pain it brings.

The CBI have produced a report which confirms that change is indeed taking placing and that a new business model is evolving.

In fact the report starts by saying;

“The business environment of the next decade will be significantly different to what might have been expected just two years ago. The financial crisis and the recession that has followed have altered operating conditions by imposing new challenges and exacerbating existing ones. Businesses will respond across the organisation, moving to a more flexible, collaborative and leaner model.”

Not sure that last line is correct and think it should have read.

“Businesses will respond across the globe (nation), moving to a more flexible, collaborative and leaner model.”

The main points include;

1. Finance will be harder to obtain and more expensive.
2. The business landscape will become more volatile and riskier.
3. Trust in business and markets will remain at an all time low due to questionable profit motives.
4. Demographic change will have a big impact on employers especially where retirement is concerned.
5. Climate change will affect energy use and consumption and further affect social trust due to sustainability issues.
6. Technological developments will continue to change the way business is done.
7. There will be more collaboration and flexibility both inside and outside of organisations to meet market needs.
8. Debt financing will be much less popular and new forms of liquidity such as supply chain finance will be deployed.
9. Volatility in fuel, especially oil prices over the next 10 years will be disruptive for business.
10. The pace of technological change and how fast new technologies are taken up will continue to accelerate.

One of the main conclusions of the report;

“Taken together, the impact on the economy in the short term (the next 3-5 years) will be to create slower, but more sustainable growth.”

This is going to require dramatic changes in structure, management and directorship especially in terms of sales and marketing.  Smaller and more accountable operations with realistic deliverables. The use of technology and measurable systems and approaches driven by teams that really understand their market and how to reach it, all of which will be increasingly important as is having the back up of operations to ensure that the business actually delivers on its promises.

In fact in this Independent article they describe these new people as the “Clever” talent in modern business.

Your can read the full CBI report here.

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Recently I had a climeeting with Miles a local builder at a Pub in Belbroughton called the Talbot.

Miles was struggling, and needed some more business quickly and needed it fast. He was thinking about having a new website built but I was unsure that this was the best thing to do as he needed some quick wins and a website takes a bit of time to generate results.

As we were speaking it was evident that Miles had some happy customers and it instantly struck me that here was a hidden opportunity for some quick wins.

Miles said he always gave cards to people and asked them to give them out to people if they needed a good builder.

We all expect our customers to be looking out for us, but the fact is they are busy just like us and probably forget about us once we have fixed that big issue for them.  If you are dealing with the general public then it is unlikely that they will have your business card with them as they are talking to a friend so it gets left in the back of a draw.

So I said to Miles, “right tomorrow call all of your customers and ask them if they were happy with your work and why”. Now you might know the answer to this already but it gets the conversation going and helps to remind them about you.

Then I said “Tell them you need their help and would like the names of 2 or 3 friends that might need some work doing similar to the great work you had done for them.”

BANG! Hey Presto! Instant work……

I also told Miles “make sure you collect written testimonials from your customers to share with other prospects and let them call your happy customers if need be”. Make sure your customers know that this might happen and are also happy with this.

Miles now has 6 of these written testimonials which he uses as a sales tool for all prospective work and his job wins have improved as a result. There are also lots of other ways he can use those testimonials.

Not only that but Miles has saved himself some money to keep going by not having a website done and when his new strategy helps him to generate some extra cash he can invest the money on a new website for the future.

Easy, free and sometimes instant results, but you have to EARN and ASK for the referrals, and use them properly.

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Inbound, pull, magnetic or bread trail are marketing terms that describe guiding customers to your doorstep.

I find the term “Inbound” a bit confusing because no marketing can ever be purely inbound, because it has to go outbound first, put into the ether or outside world, before it can ever be found or guide people inbound to you. This is what Direct Response Marketing was always about in the offline world long before the internet came along so its not really a new idea just a blend of results orientated marketing.

We call it bread trail because what you are actually doing is leaving small tasty bites for somebody to follow, which leads a path to your product or service, but I will talk about that some more in a later blog post.

The use of the term “Inbound Marketing” has been primarily driven in recent years by the launch of an online software tool set from HubSpot based in the US a few years ago.

On-line Marketing History

Marketing has been historically a service driven offering, but with so much selling and marketing transitioning to the on-line stage and the need for more effective (results orientated) sales and marketing a new wave of “web experts” appeared on the scene.

The problems with those “web experts” was that they tended to be good at one thing, lets say Company “X” is good at SEO while Company “Y” is good at website design and Company “Z” is good at social media.

This leaves the business struggling to connect all these fragmented marketing pieces and processes together from different suppliers which resulted in lower than expected results.

Web Marketing Software – A Big Part Of On-line Marketing History

More software tools appeared on the scene, mostly aimed at helping the “web expert” do analysis and research along with content management systems and frameworks to automate and integrate the work involved to some extent.

These tools were typically point tools as opposed to work-flow tools in that they were designed to be very good at a specific job as opposed to the whole process. In the past they were (and many stil are) licensed to a PC like most software tools, but many are now transitioning into the cloud (running on hardware in internet cyberspace) where they are offered as a service on-line.

Hubspot and their Website and Blog Grader are a set of on-line tools to automate some of this work and provide some kind of work-flow in the case of Hubspot itself. It is similar to a number of tools already established on the market, but where many of these tools were aimed at web experts Hubspot is aimed to simplify the process and make it more friendly for the less “web aware” and to provide some guiding force for the DIY web enthusiasts among us.

It can also be operated and run from anywhere in the world as its an online or cloud service.

Hubspot Website Grader provides you with an overall effectiveness score and some results of its actual site analysis.

I actually ran an analysis on this site and got a website effectiveness score of 90%, but what does that actually mean ?

On Page Factors Affect Your Websites Effectiveness

On page factors are the starting block in determine your effectiveness for the same reason that when two people meet there are certain factors they need to determine how to relate to each other and how effective a relationship maybe. Humans rely mainly on our senses which relate to sight, sound, touch and emotion. Based on these factors we can decide what sex, age, style, interests, religion, colour, creed and a whole bunch of other factors make up people from which we make a decision about a relationship in our business and personal lives.

Well first the Website Grader looks at basic on-page factors which are technical components that search engines use to determine what your site is relevant for and how it should be catalogued.

This starts with meta data which are blocks of code that signify and describe what your site is about to the outside world in terms that search engines understand.

Then it moves on to look at the use of headings and subheadings which should break your message up into easier to read slices of information and also looks at your use of images to support your text and their associated tags which describe them to search engines.

Next there is a scan of some of your interior pages (pages that are effectively below the main page, like chapters in a book) which link directly from the main or front page of your site, again to see whether basic technical factors are in place.

Lastly, it even tries to assess the simplicity of language used to determine whether your message is easy to understand.

But this is only one side of the equation.

Off Page Factors Affect Your Websites Effectiveness Also

Next it looks at off page factors which are the road signs that reveal more about your site and point the way to further determining the overall effectiveness of your website and how its seen by the internet world.

The age of your domain (your sites maturity and longevity), its google page rank (how relevant google determines it to be), the number of indexed pages (which chapters did the search engines like), when it was last crawled (when a search engine read it last), your Alexa rank (how much traffic you get to your site) – incidently this one is in the top 2.5% in the world.

Links which point to your site from relevant places are also important. This is quite complex and important as well as misunderstood and Website Grader gives you a taste (you can guess why), but it does include social media and directory sites.

It even gives an indication of whether your traffic is being converted (turned into an action or sales) by some mechanism such as providing RSS feeds for reading or forms for requesting and downloading information.

And finally it you filled in your competitors sites it will give you some indication of how you compare to your competitors.

All in all an interesting, stable, easy to use and quick insight into the basics of your websites effectiveness. It’s worth pointing out that some of this information can also be obtained from Googles Webmaster tools and a bunch of other places on-line if you care to search around.

Like all knowledge though it can be very dangerous and misleading in the wrong hands so don’t go making too many decisions based in this alone, but it should help you to dig out the crooks in the website and SEO world.

Or you can use it as a starting point for building a better website yourself using HubSpots work-flow tool-set which aims to make creating a more effective website easier.

Strangely I did try running the analysis on a number of other sites but Website Grader had problems with those which I think was down to some security implementation we had made.

Once you’ve done your research you can start building.

The main HubSpot software (an integrated framework) aims to keep you close to building relevant content and obtaining conversions (traffic and leads) and getting your website setup as quickly as possible.

It has a wizard for extracting content such as your logo from your current website and then guides you through the page building process which is kind of like many of the web 2.0 tools for page building from Squidoo or HubPages where you build a page from a series of modules which can contain text, graphics and video etc. so you don’t have to know the web html/php/java code required to get it to work for you.

Building pages that convert (getting traffic and leads) and tracking links and other components automatically, writing content that is related to specific keywords and spreading your content and getting back links while you measure your effectiveness is what it’s all about.  With the end results being a measurable return on investment (ROI) from on-line marketing activities.

There are two products; The first has its own content management system and is a closed system (does not integrate with other products). The other is a more open framework which does integrate with other content management systems and applications which is especially good for customers who already have a website built around a CMS already in place.

The benefit to all of this is empowerment, giving people more involvement and control over their on-line marketing.

It’s primarily aimed at B2B (business to business) service companies or B2C (business to consumer) with high sales value so may not lend itself well to e-commerce type environments.

There are some weaknesses in the areas of keyword research, data structuring and back-link building, but that is where you would need somebody who know what they are doing to get the most out of the software.

Bottom line is I like the idea of the software and see many of the advantages of making the whole process simpler and more effective and combined with other sales and marketing services it could be a powerful combination.

You may like this other Hubspot review.

Here is the reason you want to be using marketing effectively.

Don’t discount cold or warm calling all together as it can be a useful strategy.

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The business world is changing and especially so with selling and marketing.  What worked 20 years ago won’t work as effectively today…. why ? technology has advanced beyond recognition, selling and marketing is getting tougher, trust is being slowly eroded and choice and competition has exploded.

All businesses now have a whole series of hurdles and hoops to jump through to win new customers and we just don’t have the time for irrelevant, time wasting, unproductive and non measurable sales and marketing activity.

With all these changes going on in the sales and marketing world you really need to think long and hard about the type of person you take on board because to really succeed you need to do things differently yet you still need sound business acumen.

Ideally you should be looking for people who have experience in sales and marketing but have made the transition to agents of the New Business Economy and can embrace the digital revolution in sales and marketing.

Not every business needs a full time commercial manager or director, so why not get access to a high level of experience and expertise as and when you need it by making use of an Iterim, Part Time or Contract Commercial, Business Development, Sales or Marketing Manager / Director or a consultant that can act in the same manner.

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A picture can paint a thousand words especially when it’s a meaningful graphical representation of your performance, whether its a sales graph, profitability analysis or some other form of tracking.

Many businesses when asked what their website does would probably answer with some kind of “well it has our contact details on it” or “its an on-line catalogue” or something like that but they would be missing a big opportunity.

The web provides the kind of real time analysis that other forms of marketing and sales would find difficult to keep up with.

The analytical view above (from one of our sites) can show you how its performance changes with time and whether your traffic, visitors time on site and conversions are improving or not.

You can also tell what is driving traffic to your site as this graphs displays which sources got the highest exposure for a particular video.

More detailed analysis can also tell you what your customers are doing when they arrive on your site and if you have an e-commerce operation or some kind of definable goal, what types of conversions you are receiving.

This is absolutely critical, and can tell you so much about your sales and marketing process and what you need to do to improve it both on-line AND off-line.

One of the best places to start if you are looking to do this for yourself is using google analytics, which is free and pretty good.  You can sign up for an account here.

Using google analytics you can find out;

• Which items on your pages were clicked – using the onclick event.
• Which outgoing URL’s people followed to leave your site – by searching for “outgoing” in Content section, by URL.
• Get a breakdown of unique views, time on page and bounce rates – simply by clicking on a URL in the control panel
• Find what are the main source of traffic for your site using the “segment” section.
• Determine what keywords people used to arrive at your site.
• Track downloads using the onclick event.
• Track conversions by adding a tracking script to your sales or download confirmation page.
• Determine which traffic converted the best for you so you know where to spend wisely from the data matrix.

As well as tracking all the good stuff you can also see what errors were produced such as 404 pages (content or page not found) again by adding some nice tracking script to your 404  page. And remember, it’s FREE to use and google provides some excellent training and educational tools to ensure you get the most from it, so there are no excuses.

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This is an email I received from Mike Southon who’s column you can read at the FT.  I really liked it so decided to copy the entire email as Mike wrote it and added a few additions below. You can also see his blog here.

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Most entrepreneurs are very comfortable when offering products and services to friends and close associates. It becomes much more difficult when they find themselves in front of a seasoned professional: the purchasing director.

This is a natural consequence of entrepreneurial success for the size of sales orders to grow steadily to the point where the purchasing power of the person you are dealing with has been exceeded. Sooner or later they will have to refer you to purchasing.

This is a department used to dealing with salespeople. They have received formal training in how to ignore the clever persuasive and psychological tricks that are taught at sales workshops. They also have some advanced techniques specifically designed for turning complex commercial negotiations to their advantage.

Professional purchasers know exactly how to demand significant discounts, always backed up by indisputable logic as to why this is completely fair and reasonable. They also have convincing evidence of excellent relationships with suppliers of similar products and services, who they claim are ready and willing to offer higher quality at lower cost.

When I help early-stage entrepreneurs with their sales pipelines, it is common for them to talk about large potential orders that have been languishing in the system for a long time.

First, there was an initial meeting full of positive discussion and optimism; the prospective client was so impressed with the first sales pitch that the initial expectation of a modest order had been replaced by the promise of something much larger.

But since then there had been little or no progress. Calls and e-mails to the client have been ignored or referred directly to purchasing, who were intractable and unresponsive unless offered eye-watering discounts which would render the deal uneconomic.

Most early-stage entrepreneurs have limited sales experience, so I have to explain that this is the natural way of things, very familiar to salespeople experienced in the corporate environment. These hardened professionals have learned that it is much easier for a prospective customer to wax lyrical about how much they are impressed with your offering and make extravagant boasts about the size of their budget, rather than to explain the reality of the situation, which is usually much less favourable.

In the early stages of the sales process, the correct approach is to sidestep any grandiose promises of the potential buyer and instead to focus instead on the design and delivery of a small piece of work, such as a feasibility study involving a few days’ initial consultancy. The person across the table should be able to commit to this small order without referring the deal to purchasing. If they balk at this offer, then perhaps the promises of large revenues in the very near future was just talk.

Wise salespeople have a long-term strategy, which is to offer a number of small orders which increase in value over time. This develops both the technical and commercial relationship with the client until the inevitable day when the purchasing department need to become involved.

By then, you will have a number of people within the client organisation, who are very effective internal evangelists. They should be willing to explain to you the company’s purchasing processes and, if necessary, act as an advocate on your behalf with the purchasing department once the serious negotiation starts.

You will then find that purchasing professionals are human after all. They still demand discounts, but will be able to offer you terms of mutual benefit, such as much larger orders and better payment terms. This will be the reward for all your hard work in developing the client relationship.

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Mike makes some excellent points here about lowering the barrier to entry for your product or service.  I experienced a similar thing in my earlier sales and marketing career and with the consulting work we do here, in that not everybody wants the full consulting programme, some people just wanted bite size affordable chunks of “know how” while others want to do it for themselves but learn from our skills.

Another interesting point that Mike makes is the groundswell that can be developed by doing small pieces of work and winning the hearts of minds of the staff involved at your customers site(s).  We call them champions and they will help to fight your case inside the business.

Where possible though building a business case for what you are proposing can be a very useful tool and may involve you in dealing with business decision makers.

Having a check-list of the important factors that can affect a sale is really useful and one I’ve always found useful is MEDDICC.

M = Metrics – basically a financial business case for your proposed product or service.
E = Economic Buyer – having proximity or access to somebody with REAL buying power.
D = Decision Process – the steps your customer makes to finally generate an order.
D = Decision Criteria – the factors that need to be proven before a decision can be made.
I = Identifiable Problem – the need or issue you can help the business to resolve.
C = Compelling Event – change that will involve the company in having to buy.
C = Champion – the person that promotes you and your product and service internally.

All of this is made considerably easier though if your front end (marketing) is generating leads and qualifying prospects so that sales can focus on real business opportunities instead of tyre kickers.  The business world is changing fast so don’t make it any harder than it already is.

Dependency on the factors above may change based on the type of sale your involved in, some don’t need a real face to face sales person like on-line sales while larger deals probably do and whether it’s a “need to have” like the parts that make up a product that your customer supplies or a more value driven sale which impacts the bottom line of the business requiring a financial justification you need to pick and choose that factors that will affect your sale and make sure you can clearly address them and differentiate yourself at the same time.

It really comes down to being realistic about actually getting an order.  If there is no REAL reason to buy, then there is no REAL reason for an order.

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Growing a business using the internet comes down to 4 main factors.  And strangely these 4 main factors apply equally to any business off-line or on-line.

Opportunity

Being able to spot a gap in the market where demand exists, supply is short and competition is weak which you can capitalise on from a search, pay per click, social or other marketing method.

Workflow

This is a big one.  Developing methods that allow you to move faster and quicker with less effort is essential to gaining traction. What once took days to do can now be done in minutes with the right pieces of technology in place. And they don’t have to be complex and expensive either.  Its like the framework or exo-skeleton of your cyber self or business.

Leverage

Another biggie.  Realising that you can create something once and then reuse it in a different way many times over and still create something useful, unique and interesting for your audience and search engines to get the maximum return from your efforts.

Execution

Getting on with the building, writing, filming, researching, partnering and all that other lovely stuff that goes with building your business.

Of course you still need traffic, leads and sales but you’ve still got to get them and the tools above can help you do just that.

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The opportunities for getting your message to market are almost endless in today’s rapidly changing world.

Off-line methods such as radio, TV, billboards, magazines, newspapers, trade publications, events, sponsorship, public transport, strategic partnerships and give-away items are just some of the opportunities possible

On-line or digital methods have exploded the choice into websites, email, banners, pay-per-click, search or SEO, social, directories, articles, videos, blogging and more.

Today’s marketing approach is a blend or “mix” of commonly know practises called above-the-line (ATL) traditionally media such as TV, radio, poster, press and below-the-line (BTL) historically direct mail, point of purchase, leaflets and letters and when mixed together from through-the-line.

ATL methods sought to talk at you or what is now commonly known as interruption marketing. Biased towards “brand building” as a way of changing minds and creating a certain image.

Where as BTL seeks to talk to you and to develop a relationship, commonly know as direct marketing. It aims to set up a dialogue and to build a relationship or trust bond.

But it doesn’t stop with traditional on-line and off-line methods.

Field marketing uses people on the street that can be selling, sampling or demonstrating products and services to users and consumers or getting them involved in the creation and development of new products and services.

Events and experiential marketing aims to get people involved in the brand directly and to associate that connection with a positive emotional experience.

Have a look here for more examples of promotional marketing methods and products.

It’s fair to say that more money is going into direct, promotional, field, event, experiential, on-line and sponsorship types of marketing.

So where should you be spending your marketing money ? Simple, where you get the best return, but you knew that already. The fact is there are some well know industry statistics, and some which are changing rapidly especially in the on-line world. The only way to really know, is to start with with what already works for others or is working for you right now, as results vary from industry to industry.

Like developing your products, services or organisation in the first place it can take a little research and development, trial and error or in this case testing to get it right.

If you are going to test though you need to be able to track and measure results and compare that to the money you have spent or invested. The on-line world provides many tools for doing this and there are a number of approaches for tracking off-line marketing as well.

Start with what produces the best return in the shortest amount of time, and improving what you already have (arbitrage) is a great way of getting fast results. You can use the revenue or income from this to invest in other forms of marketing.

Other forms of marketing will require a more long term perspective such as search engine or SEO marketing. Even this though can be assisted by using pay-per-click to drive targeted traffic to your website on a small cost per interest basis before you obtain a good position in the natural or organic search results.

Where your business model is new or uncertain then making better use of short-term marketing opportunities can provide additional revenue for longer term strategies and tell you a lot about your business model and your message to market.

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When your selling an idea, words will be far more compelling than anything else you can use.

It’s true that an image can paint a thousand words and is a great way of supporting your content and conveying a part of your idea quickly but they will never be able to get across your concept on their own.

Images are a useful way of increasing response rates and readership so here are a couple of ideas for using them effectively.

Show a product picture ONLY if its interesting, different or essential.

Most people know what a standard can opener looks like so a picture would be of little value.

However when your selling your house, even though the general construction might be similar to others most houses will have different décor, finishes and landscaping which will be unique to that property so a picture can really help to get that across to buyers.

Show the interaction with your product.

As with words, the experience or emotion is very important as it allows people to imagine what it would be like for them.

Now, take the original can opener idea from above and add a special feature that makes it easy for the elderly to open cans. Showing how easy it is for an elderly person with arthritis to do that job would convey a very important message.

Show the results.

One of the best examples of this is in the plastic surgery or cosmetic dental (beauty) business where changes in appearance are what people are buying to give them self confidence or make them feel better about themselves. Being able to show dramatic and meaningful transformations would be powerful imagery indeed.

So make sure the pictures you choose to go with your words support your concept, idea or theme not just clutter it or ditract from it.

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1. Narrow Your Message – Talk directly to the desires of specific group(s) of people and in their language.
2. Customer Centric – Don’t talk about your business, talk about what you can do for your customer, it’s all about them.
3. Remain Ethical - Deliver on you promises and offer the kind of quality service or product that your customers expect.
4. Problem Solve – Stop trying to push and cajole customers.  Instead educate, entertain, inform and solve problems.
5. Measurable & Emotional – Create emotional marketing messages that trigger a response which can be measured.
6. Multiple Channels – Make use of all marketing channels such as targeted direct snail mail.  Yes it still works, done properly.
7. Strong USP – Attract buying customers by showing them quickly and directly why they should buy from you.
8. Multiple Steps – Build qualification steps that allow you to focus your time on pre-qualified customers or leads.
9. Personality – Give your business personality with a blend of direct, related and personal stories and opinions.
10. Mean It – Avoid scepticism and make sure your business is truthful and transparent.

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Making use of hidden assets is one of the core strategies we use to accelerate growth. One of the toughest parts of this strategy is being able to detach yourself from traditional constraints, and if done correctly can generate some amazing results.

While working in your own business certain mindsets, defences and walls are created based on experiences or incumbent knowledge (or lack of) which determine a way of doing things and working. Breaking out of that is very tough so a fresh set of eyes, ears and minds can have a dramatic affect, enabling you to see and approach the situation in a different way altogether.

Here is a nice video from Stanford University that demonstrates this idea where students were given a set of conditions which included seed capital and a time frame and by turning it on its head some students came up with some very interesting ways of generating revenue by seeing value in areas that the conditions may have unnecessarily narrowed most folks perception or focus away from.

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