One of the tricks in marketing is to always learn from what is going on around you. This year’s unusual festive season (marked by interesting times) presents some learnings for a startup or small business to take into next year, and if any of these particularly speak to you, then perhaps our on-demand marketer service would be ideal for you to action them in 2010.

Festive marketing memorables to apply to your business:

1. Create the occasion. If Christmas with all its traditions of buying gifts etc. didn’t exist – if you announced that you were going to make a day that globally would spur a massive drive to purchase gifts for friends and family on the same day every year, people might lock you up – at the very least they may laugh. But yet, we have one. How could you create this on scale with your market? Could you create your own version with some carefully selected partners?

2. What do people want now? This year they wanted fast delivery, easy ways to review price, find what they were looking for or get idea for what they want without leaving their homes. They didn’t want to be bustled and bothered in crowds – Amazon took a nice slice of the pie as a result, as did many others. How good is your delivery mechanism, and are you providing your product or service in a way that reflects how your market wants to consume it – online or otherwise?

3. Watch out for the weather. Mother nature has a glorious way of reminding us that even though our own created problems, like the recession, seem enormous and all consuming, a little bit of well placed snow can make everything stop. How are you prepared for the unforeseen in your business? If something crazy happens, are you tuned in enough with your business to turn it into an opportunity or adapt to get your way through it? How quickly can you act? (Be careful what you wish for, white Christmases aren’t that fun if they cancel sunny holidays, prevent families being together or cause accidents. In the UK at least, where snow is our Kryptonite).

4. The right marketing message, in the right place, at the right time. All credit to Mr Cowell for his creation, a marketing machine, but the ‘Rage against the machine’ competition for the number one spot on the UK Christmas chart is proof that people aren’t just media slaves (maybe just that they are social media slaves?). The right marketing message in the right place can make a serious impact.

5. Be more than one step ahead. Are you getting all the work or sales you should at this time of year? What are you going to do to make sure you do next year? When do your products have to be available to be considered, what sort of marketing will you need? There are two seasons, the buying in advance, and the sales season over Christmas. DFS is trying for the advance sales season too, I see. (Dear DFS: We all know you are always on sale, so if you are starting now, why wouldn’t you be even cheaper in January?)

6. A little personality can go a long way. Be positive. Be decisive. Encourage.

7. Help your employees to love their jobs. Everything you do to make your business work could be lost in an instant with a poory trained, disengaged employee who is facing your customers. During the festive season, the faster your till operators can work, the more money you will make. Nothing like a slow moving queue to turn people away. Smiling at frustrated Christmas shoppers can do a world of good too. Who answers your phone?

8. Know the habits of your market. Last minute gifting advertising messages are big this year. ‘Still looking for a gift, or missed one? Here’s an easy alternative for you’…help your customers to buy from you.

9. Get the most you can for your money. Don’t by it for the sake of it. Spend wisely. This year has taught a lesson to a lot of people who spend without thinking. Why should your marketing be any different? Choose carefully, know what impact you are looking for, and how you are going to measure it.

10. What do you do when things go wrong? Do you shrug your shoulders or offer a muffin like Eurostar? When something goes wrong, the better you are at dealing with it, the more impact you can have on that customer. It’s easy to make everything work when things are going well. How do you look after a customer with a problem? Just think of the word of mouth you are investing in…

Happy festive season to readers of Marketing Ideaology and to all partners, friends and Clients of JupiterJasper on-demand marketing. May 2010 be a wonderful year for you all.

Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Ideaology blog for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing.

10 Festive season marketing memorables is from Marketing Ideaology, a blog by Bronwyn Durand for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing

She’s Ingenious!

Cally Robson

As founder and owner of She’s Ingenious! Cally Robson’s niche is in supporting women inventors and new product developers in getting their products to market.

With a firm foundation of international experience with major companies and brands, and a keen sense of how to turn an idea into reality, Cally set about evolving a concept of how to best support those who are inclined to innovate, invent or create new products. Over 6 years, Cally has refined her idea to address a niche with what is now the unique and special community – She’s Ingenious!

Cally’s approach to the business of commercialising ideas is rooted firmly in the reality of it, warts and all. It’s one thing to have an idea but something else entirely to confront that ‘great unknown’ which is understanding what you have to know and do to get anywhere. And that’s before you figure out how to sell any. Understanding the inventor-ly mindset is crucial. Stepping away from the inventor in you and looking at your idea from 7 different mindsets – including salesperson and customer champion – will enable you to establish commercial viability.

But why ‘go niche’?

Cally has focused on women, who may or may not be entrepreneurially minded to start with, but who are certainly of the inventor or innovator persuasion. Many would argue that the business opportunity of providing a subscription based resource, workshops and coaching is reduced by limiting to one gender. But in reality, making the decision to market to a niche could be the best decision you will make for your business. With it comes an intensity of focus, driving a better product or service, better knowledge of who your customers are and what they need. You can become the best at meeting that very specific need, and the undisputed expert. Naturally it follows that it’s then easier to sell what you are offering. Why would you choose the role of being all things to all people when you can thrive at being something something special? Going niche can give you a sustainable marketing advantage and a real point of difference.

It’s all grown out of experience rather than just theory.

You don’t necessarily happen on a niche. Cally went through the process of appealing to a wider audience, refining her offering, and had even set up a brand, domain and built the goodwill to go with it. But knowing the market you play in is what makes the difference. When you find the opportunity and can see the niche, you then need to break the fear and go for it. Cally has endured the pain of rebranding. But a good idea became an exceptional idea, with a strong brand and an easy simplicity that makes it feel like should have always been there.

Laying claim to your niche is the beginning. Building credibility in a niche is a process – and is ultimately all about the knowledge you gather. Cally set about developing her own innovative crockery line – and then sought a way to make her subsequent coaching business not only a sustainable business, but one that played to her strengths in taking ideas to market. Research and insight are the springboard to position you in a niche.

Building a network of the right kind of contacts and working with like-minded institutions like the British Library, in particular the Business and IP centre, helped to create the right conditions for business growth and the eventual development into the brand She’s Ingenious! this year. Says Cally, I looked at the marketplace – everyone is starting a new business, in particular, women. The web provides the ultimate resource in researching and marketing globally. The combination results in She’s Ingenious! – a content-rich and interactive environment. Like-minded women can find the right practical information to support them in taking their idea to market, and a network of women who are going through varying stages of the same process. She’s Ingenious! is a flourishing source of personal experience rather than just theory. Members are advocates as they are getting real value from their ongoing experience.

She’s Ingenious! members have had a significant success appearing on Dragon’s Den. Sharon Wright with Magnamole, Nathalie Ellis with the Road Refresher – the non-spill pet bowl, Sue Bell with the patented butterfly technology to get the last bit from inside a tube, Jane Rafter with her Slinks Sandals. Watch interviews Cally has captured with experienced inventor-entrepreneurs here. Cally helps shape the commercial proposition for a business idea long before anyone gets in front of the Dragons.

Cally on:

Customers

Members are enterprising women mid-thirties and upward, most likely have  family commitments and want to create an alternative income stream or business asset. She’s Ingenious! aims to provide just what they are looking for – relevant, current and convenient sources of information backed up with actual experience.

There are resources to help enterprising people, but rarely do you find information that provides a clear picture on what you have to do. If you find worthwhile information, it’s rarely detailed enough to be of full use. Many great ideas suffer the fate of stumbling from one expensive professional to the next, while the innovator tries to find the right questions to ask. She’s Ingenious! steps into the gap – the niche – to give the detail, the whole picture, backed up with business savvy.

The brand She’s Ingenious! is summed up: Savvy. Independent. Creative. Practical. Supportive. That truly reflects the women who are members.

Cally advocates creating a people-facing personality for your brand that people can relate to, and attach values and credibility to. This is especially important when your business lives on the web as it helps to cross the potentially impersonal distance between you and your customer.

Marketing

Having a great brand can make the process of marketing your business so much easier. It can work on all levels – simply communicating in an instant what you do.

People aren’t really aware that we are living a revolution – there are no longer any hard and fast rules. Don’t think that you are going to get on top of what is happening in marketing by reading books – it’s happening way too fast for that. We are living the change everyday. Beware of sticking to old-school marketing. The internet has changed everything. If you are strategic, you can do your marketing for next to nothing.

With respect to email marketing – newsletters and email marketing are a fantastic way of engaging your customers and prospects on an ongoing basis. But don’t be wasteful of a customer’s attention – treat an email address like the gift that it is and provide a considered marketing message. Is it worth reading?

Find that unique thing to be memorable or stand out.

Web

Measurement for She’s Ingenious! is based on number of subscriptions. Customers who are paying members sign in and engage with content, how long they stay and consume the content is a good measure, as is their movements through the site. A conversion rate of 1% for new customers to the site is acceptable, with about 10% overall taking up the newsletter. Cally: I’d rather have 500 website visitors who are interested than 5000 who bounce. I aim for convertable traffic. She’s Ingenious! has been doubling traffic each month since launch.

Cally inspired thinking to apply to your business:

• Learn from being a mumpreneur: be clear on your priorities, openly acknowledge what you can and can’t do, know what kind of people you want to work with and are best working with.
• Don’t do things that aren’t going to give you benefit – value your own time.
• Develop a solid business model to be your platform.
• Fear is what keeps us from going niche – the little voice that says you have to appeal to everybody. Even once you have taken that first step and said ‘this is my niche’, you will probably find that overnight that little voice has talked you out of it, saying that you should rather play it safe and hedge your bets.
• Knowledge allows you to get focussed.
• Be disciplined about setting your business goals and monitoring your progress towards them.

The full interview with Cally Robson can be read here.

Sign up for the She’s Ingenious email newsletter (averaging monthly) which contains a free tip, technique, or strategy for developing and marketing new product ideas and inventions. And managing yourself through the process.

Contact:

She’s Ingenious

Cally Robson

Cally Robson on Twitter

Contact via the She’s Ingenious! contact email form

Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Ideaology blog for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing.

Is your success hiding in a niche? is from Marketing Ideaology, a blog by Bronwyn Durand for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing

Do you think about the tea you drink?

Do you ever stop to examine the paper tea bag, or what is inside it? Tea evangelists Nick and Louise are teapigs, and if you have any interest in drinking great tea, you may well be a teapig too.

These tea pioneers have really taken on the category of tea and created a brand that is infused with their passion for terrific tea. teapigs offer a limited but comprehensive range of whole leaf quality tea, presented to you in a convenient temple bag format. Their focus and single-minded branding is delivered to you right from their unique packaging, quality product and throughout your experience of any aspect of their business.

This company loves what they do.

teapigs took an undying love affair with quality tea and sought to disrupt the market. Says Nick: tea drinking has been so boring. Any movement in the market has not created any innovation. Tea has been commoditised by promotion – a cup of something hot and wet rather than anything special. People don’t think about the tea they are drinking – it’s become simple thirst quenching exercise rather than an experience. The culture of tea has been lost with it’s instant accessibility.

teapigs tea

The category has been stuck – so now is the perfect time to introduce a fantastic product that appeals to anyone interested in drinking tea.

Most people simply haven’t tasted tea this good.

In launching the business teapigs fell straight in with key consumer trends, calling for authenticity, a brand to engage with, provenance, choice. Tea could be the new wine.

So what is the teapigs success mix?

Teapigs on:

Customers

teapigs tea drinkers cross income barriers. The basic qualification is to be an interested tea drinker. teapigs put themselves in the minds of the customers and make sure that they treat their customers the way they want to be treated as customers. As a product, the tea is a small luxury, the price justified by the taste and the experience of drinking their tea. Even the tea temple – the prism shaped bag – is a sensory experience. One look at the whole leaves inside and you know it is going to be different taste experience. Given their confidence that they will convert you based on taste, sampling is a powerful driver of business.

Marketing

A challenge has been issued to those who stick to convention. This is a brand that polarises. teapigs doesn’t mind. They like it. People who love great tea, want to be teapigs too. Says Nick, People who get us, get us straight away. Simplicity is key. A strong brand and product proposition makes the work of marketing so much easier. We are consistent in delivering our brand from our packaging, through product experience, through our people, our website, our trade shows. Our brand values are: Quality. Contemporary. Quirky. Friendly. Approachable. We don’t use a hard sell approach, but we do ask everyone what they think of our product. We are proud of it, so aren’t afraid to sell it. We’ve done the cold calling as part of our seeding strategy and now get trade enquiries consistently. We are completely confident in the product we produce and that translates into a consistent, strong message through any of our communications.

You can join teapigs’ drink real tea mission by signing up here.

teapigs inspired thinking to apply to your business:

• Not everyone should like you and your product. Serve the needs of your chosen customers exceptionally well. Don’t try to be all things to all people.
• Love your product and talk to everyone about it. Sales is about matching customer need to your product benefit (at a basic level), and you can let your passion for your business drive it, rather than a hard nose approach.
• Invest in your brand. Even the smallest of businesses can create a powerful brand through association and the actions the business takes. It starts with a strong and simple idea. Then make it work through everything from your customer service, website, blog, and product itself.
• Put yourself in the mind of your customer and deliver a terrific experience.

Please read the full teapigs interview here.

Buy tea direct from www.teapigs.co.uk

Contact Nick Kilby, tea evangelist or Louise Allen, tea addict

0208 568 5511/ 1200

louise@teapigs.co.uk

nick@teapigs.co.uk

Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Ideaology blog for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing.

Turn your passion into your brand (how to go from tea drinker to teapig) is from Marketing Ideaology, a blog by Bronwyn Durand for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing

Does everyone have a directory these days?

It seems that everyone is looking for the best list to be on, and everyone is professing to be the best list to be on.

In the case of online directories it typically all begins with a free listing. If you get pursued for a paid listing, you may respond like I do –  why should I spend money with your directory? Invariably the response is about number of hits. So it would seem to be useful to have a list of evaluation questions to review when sizing up yet another pitch for a paid-for-listing for your startup or small business.

Apply it to your business by considering the following aspects:

• The site as a destination

Are the hits as a result of search or a direct visit? Search would indicate a good google page rank, whereas direct hits imply that the directory is well known.

• Perception of the site as a useful resource

How many repeat visits does the directory get? If people come back, chances are the site is useful to them.

• Investment in marketing and branding

Professional design and a solid marketing base will indicate the directory may have a reasonable lifespan and growth potential. How does the directory attract visitors?

• The clarity and thought behind the categories

Heavily populated categories (compared to others) would indicate that more time is spent recruiting those listings, or users of the site seek those types of businesses. If it is difficult to categorise your business in a way that properly defines who you are, then potential customers may have trouble finding you.

• Site visitors

How certain are you that the site is one that your intended audience or customers will use? Does the directory have any idea of the profile of their visitors? Does it have any resemblance to your target audience?

• Age of the directory

• Competition

How many of your competitors feature? A lot could make it a given that you need to appear, not many may prove that they don’t know about the directory either. If all other points point to the directory being a good one, then it may be worthwhile to dominate. Look generally at the sort of businesses who are paying for listings.

• Search functionality

How well does the search work? Can a potential customer searching for your kind of product or service in their local area, find you? How user-friendly are the displayed results (for the user)? Are the results returned relevant to your query?

• Geographic focus

Does the directory focus locally, regionally, nationally or other? Does its focus suit your aims for recruiting customers?

• Cost

How many sales or customers do you need to obtain from visitors to the directory to not only cover the cost and effort, but become worthwhile?

If you have useful indicators of how good an online directory is, then please share them below.

Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Ideaology blog for JupiterJasper Practical Marketing.

10 Considerations before paying for an online directory listing is from Marketing Ideaology, a blog by Bronwyn Durand for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing

Affordable marketing? That’s easy. It’s marketing that makes you more than it costs.

Or is it marketing that you can afford? It certainly doesn’t guarantee success simply if it’s something you can afford.

Aaah, you say, it’s the old piece of string argument. The more you spend the more you gain.

Er, no. Spending a fortune on marketing just because you can, won’t necessarily deliver the results you are looking for. There are so many examples of wasteful marketing. If you can afford it, but it doesn’t produce any helpful results, then it’s hardly marketing.

So, really, affordable marketing is about being able to measure the value or results you are able to get for whatever you can invest. It’s affordable marketing if you get more out of it than you put in.

There really isn’t much point in paying for cheap business cards if what you get is flimsy cards with poor color consistency, and the odd smudge. You may have made a better first impression if you had written on the prospect’s hand. Spelling error on your leaflet? Nevermind, it was cheap and cheerful. Pretty expensive actually, having to do them again and repair your reputation. Cheap data lists always sound like a good idea. Until you have to staff up customer service to handle the complaints for mailing or cold calling people who have previously asked for their details to be removed from the list, having to pay someone to correct your data file, or uncomfortable questions from data protection bodies. Have you had the displeasure of receiving the pile of undeliverable returns from the postoffice? Not paying for good design or sound marketing advice can result in a wasted effort – a piece of communication that your target audience won’t see or isn’t compelled into action by.

Cheap doesn’t mean its something you can afford to do.

On the flip side, a free entry into a reputable online directory may be all that you need to start with. Get listed with Googlemaps for your area. Or try the postcard mailing rather than the full colour A5 brochure. A paid-monthly ecommerce website package inclusive of support and hosting. If you have a list of previous customers that could be buying from you again, then you should really be considering email marketing. Consider the affordability from all angles, not just the upfront cost.

Apply it to your business:

How do you determine what an affordable marketing mix is for your startup or small business?

• Think of affordability as the answer to how much value will you get in return for the effort and the amount you spend, and ask yourself these questions when evaluating its potential:

1. Will you be able to measure the effect it has? (it’s made me 3 sales with a profit margin of 40%) or I’ve gained access to a new circle of credibility, putting me in front of x amount of new leads that I need to follow up.
2. How much additional work do you need to convert the lead into a sale?
3. Does it serve you repeatedly, or is it a once off?
4. How long before you should or can see the result?
5. Does it meet a set objective or is it driven by a (pushy) salesperson, vanity or competitive pressure?

• Can you afford not to do it? If you operate in a highly competitive environment and all of your direct competitors are already doing it, then your exclusion may count against you. On the other hand, if you stumble on an opportunity to address your target market where none of your competitors have already been, or have failed, then it may be an opportunity you can’t afford to miss. Ask yourself: how would your results be effected (sales, leads, enquiries, new or retained customers) change if you simply did not do this marketing?

• Is it hard working marketing? Does it help your branding and reputation, help to clarify your offering, as well as achieve a single-minded message? That may sound contradictory – single minded and multi-purpose – but that is the power of good thinking underpinning the marketing you do. This does not advocate posters loaded with copy or 10-page letters in direct mailings. Let the content work in the best way for the medium, but as hard as possible to further your goals.

• What is the upkeep like - how much effort and resource is required to maintain the marketing, and ensure that its up to date and quality?

• What is the cost per acquisition – per acquired customer or sale? This includes all the extras like staff, time, trade to get the marketing in place.

• If the marketing is effective, what is the quality of the customer or sale you obtain? A high cost per customer for a customer that only buys once, at a low value, may not be the best result for your spend. For instance, if it means choosing only doing one form of advertising, rather than two in order to get the better quality customer, or more guaranteed hit rate.

• What is the risk? Give it a rating based on how confident you are (based on evidence if possible) that it will succeed. When budgets are constrained, you may need to invest in the more likely to succeed, at least in the short term.

• Who is it targeting? What percentage of the target audience is actually your kind of potential customer? Will the distributor actually have your customer type amongst their buyers? How many names on the list have you got segmentation details for to identify who is a good prospect?

• Will it give your customers something they want? A well-though out loyalty or discount programme may seem expensive, but in reality equates to a much smaller cost than trying to get a new customer. A happier customer could recommend you making the effect of your marketing extend beyond your initial contact.

• A refer a friend campaign or open discount offer may increase the reach of your marketing substantially.

If you are looking for a some ideas on how to make the marketing you are currently doing more affordable, then here are a few suggestions:

• Hold every marketing initiative accountable, and don’t do it just because it is in the plan.

• Be ruthless at taking out marketing that isn’t delivering, but be sensible about allowing the marketing to have a chance to prove itself – it does not happen overnight.

• Ask yourself how you can give the marketing communications you are already doing a better chance of success – is the design, targeting, message that are to blame rather than the type or marketing?

• Look beyond the obvious – could you partner with a complementary business to share marketing costs on a campaign? What possibilities exist within your current network of suppliers and related companies that could be turned into piggyback opportunities – allowing you to address their customers who are a good fit?

• If budgets are tight, look internally first. What improvements would have the best effect on your customer experience, staff engagement, or normal communications with existing customers, including customer service. These operational things are a type of marketing and can have a dramatic effect on your marketing who you are as a business.

What is the most affordable marketing that you have done?

Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Ideaology blog for JupiterJasper Practical Marketing.

What is affordable marketing? is from Marketing Ideaology, a blog by Bronwyn Durand for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing

Personal branding is a serious business these days. Social media has catapaulted the average person into centre stage, making the associations they surround themselves with and way they conduct themselves much more available for public scrutiny. Twitter is an interesting case as the very nature of what you tweet about is so very revealing. As with all social interactions, codes of conduct emerge. In the Twitterverse, the reaction to expect if you don’t tow the social line is ‘unfollow’. Company Twitter accounts are not exempt. So in the mix of individuals and small businesses, how many of the following Tweeter types have you unfollowed? In no particular order…

1. The one hit wonder

One outstanding tweet in the history of all tweets. Make sure you get the one hit before hitting unfollow.

2. The I’m-selling-something-moderately-useful but really don’t have much more to say type

Guilty of repeat the same url/ short url in between random babble.

3. The ‘two word and @ type’, closely followed by ‘1 word conversationalist with 1000 tweets and counting type’

No concept of audience – try instant messager, you’ll be much happier.

4. The eat sleep and I said and I watched and I phoned type

Boring. Even if you are a celeb. Most of us are not fanatical fans.

5. The short url repeater or include your url on everything type

Believe it or not, we can tell that you are repeating yourself. It works the first time, but do you think people want to see the same tweets all the time?

6. The I’ve written a blog with a catchy headline and no real content just to show you my ads type

Of course the ad is bigger than the content of the blog entry. Very convincing. Nice work on the headline though.

7. I obsessively RT those I’m stalking

If they tweet it it must be good. Yeah. Good luck to you.

8. You’re pretty awesome

Instant unfollow.

9. Get quazillions of followers

Buy followers, join here to get followers, get followers instantly. Not everyone is interested in followers for the sake of followers. Conversation and relevance make Twitter much more interesting. Decide if you are after a mass medium or a targeted conversation.

10. The persistent self-retweeter

Easily spottable. Why do it? The tweet is devalued with your ego attached.

11.The celebrity everything-i-do-is-amazing type

Twitter has been very useful in demystifying some of the obsession with celebs. Poor celebs get exposed for being the normal folk they are, and in some cases, the annoying idiots they are.

12. The everything I tweet has multiple hashtags type

The blur of hashtags has made your tweet unreadable.

13. The trending topic uberfan

The equivalent of this is walking around with a sign above your head saying “look at me”. Important to distinguish the single trending topic follower from the spammer who might manage to get all the trending topics in one tweet. Someone should do a study.

14. Please retweet

I’ll RT what I want to, thanks.

15. Join my mafia/mobster family

Stop tweeting about being irritated by the invites – it’s free advertising! All power to them for getting so many mentions. Not a way to gain friends and influence, however.

16. No name, no bio, no icon

No follow.

17. No tweets

As riveting as an empty page is, there really isn’t much point in following you if you don’t interact. But I support the idea that some would just prefer to listen and not tweet, in which case your bio will keep you around.

18. Auto tweet

Wouldn’t be so bad if it was relevant, timed, or not a bot pretending to be human. Identify when its auto, or risk the assumption that it is all an auto response. Bots aren’t that engaging. Unless you happen to be one of the plants, houses or other objects that tweet, in which case, the bot is your voice.

19. Multi-tweeter

Identifiable by the concurrent fairly useless tweets. It’s too obvious a tactic to get some visibility. Surefire way to ensure all the tweets are ignored.

20. Other language

Nothing wrong with different languages, love that its a global space. If I can’t understand, well, I’m not following you, if you will excuse the pun.

21. Swearaholics

It demonstrates a serious lack of language ability if you need to waste your 140 characters on swearing. It looks ridiculous.

22. Tasteless self exhibitionists (from the ridiculous to the nude)

No need for additional explanation.

23. Shameless follow me or else types.

OK, so you have 20000 followers. If you don’t tweet anything interesting or relevant, then I’m still going to unfollow. If you have followed me first, then I’ll follow you if doing so is in line with what I want – not just because you have followed me. Worth noting – just because someone does follow you back, doesn’t mean they are reading your tweets.

24. The salesman @mentioner.

You really do get my attention when you use my name to sell your products. Such a useful service – identifying yourself as a spammer. Reaction? It’s wild – I do absolutely nothing. Thanks for the mention, though.

25. The followfriday follow me

There it is, the self-include somewhere near the end of the list. It’s ok to think you are great, but I can see that you think you are great. It actually shows a lack of confidence. You may get away with it once, but not if you do it everytime.

I hope you have enjoyed this tongue-in-cheek ‘unfollow analysis’ that I’ve compiled from various bits of evidence. If you are doing any of the above, it may help you to understand why you do get unfollowed. Focus on your Twitter strategy if you have one, be mindful that others are growing more impatient with the above, and are likely to become more ruthless at pruning their lists.

Feel free to share your personal unfollow tips.

Apply it to your business:

- Consider that you are likely to get a better conversion rate for time spent if you are targeted in your approach to Twitter, and everything else.
- Target audiences tire quickly of underhanded or insincere marketing ploys. Be genuine and upfront and your marketing may have a bigger and more sustainable effect.
- Step back and look at the marketing you are doing with an objective eye. Look at the sum of the whole too. How are you coming across? Would you buy from you?
- Have a strategy. Define what you want to convey, what you want to achieve and how you are going to do it.

Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Ideaology blog for JupiterJasper Practical Marketing.

25 Twitter tweeter unfollow behaviours is from Marketing Ideaology, a blog by Bronwyn Durand for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing

Cate Trotter, trendspotter and entrepreneur, is the Head of Trends for Insider Trends and Insider London.

Cate Trotter

Cate spoke with Bronwyn Durand about the excitement of building her businesses and the effect her marketing tactics have had on Insider-London (private tours of the best of modern London) and Insider Trends (the fast track to killer business ideas).

Cate and her team of passionate guides revel in showing businesses and travellers what’s most exciting in London:

‘Life. But better’.

Insider Trends is a trendspotting consultancy, delivering trend tours, trendspotting reports and scenario planning workshops to businesses. The bespoke trend tours can focus on themes such as innovative retail concepts, new bars and restaurants, product innovation and point of sale. Most of its trend reports offer insights from around the world. Global brands and renowned designers have used its services to take the lead or remain at the forefront of their industry.

Insider London delivers tours of modern London for visitors and locals alike. Tours are created and led by its coolhunters who know the city like the backs of their hands, taking visitors straight to the best that this world-leading city has to offer. The tours include cutting-edge retail concepts, design and its intriguing and hidden secrets, revealing the most dynamic sides of the capital.

Cate has experienced the frustration and patience testing that comes with development of a business on a shoestring. Growing by investing revenue is a long journey. Cate’s team are an inspiring example of how a small business can develop customer relationships and understanding from 1-2-1 interaction and making the best of the opportunities you create.

Says Cate: ‘In a nutshell, other London tour companies are just not as excited about London as we are’.

What is Cate Trotter’s perspective?

On customers

Our customers have experienced the ordinary, now they are looking for something that shows them more.

• We provide inspiration for businesses. In a way that saves them time and is sometimes unexpectedly relevant.
• We are able to treat each interaction with customers as unique – thereby heightening the personalisation and experience for that individual or company. We respond to individual needs, one customer at a time.
• The devil is in the detail, and experiencing a trend or concept first hand is much more powerful than reading about it, and certainly more inspiring.
• Insider London is a tour by means of conversation, not presentation.
• There is a feeling of liberation when taken on tour by a friend, an insider, rather than a one size fits all guide. That is the experience that Cate and her team seek to create for you – professional friendliness.

Cate does view the journey of customer conversion as a funnel – offering an introduction at one end by means of something irresistibly free – like her hidden gems document (available from the Insider tours website). ‘This enables potential customers to try us out in a risk free way. Once on board, if you are doing your job as a guide, you are taking time to understand your customer and offer them any cross sell options that really will meet their needs (an emerging interest in eco would be a prime opportunity to sell a green tour of London, or a customer excited about the strangest of London may revel in a quirky tour)’.

On marketing

Observe the 80-20 rule. 20% Of what you do will give 80% of the benefit. 20% of your customers will bring 80% of the profit. Take the time to work it out.

Cate has a written down business building plan and believes everything they do is marketing.  Each customer gets to experience the brand for 3 hours at a time – so maximising the experience during that time reaps rewards of word of mouth or customers that become advocates. Cate’s strongest marketing action is in the delivery of her service.

• Do your search marketing – clearly describe what you offer in such a way that customers who want what you have can find you.
• Seek relevant PR coverage – a little in the right place can go a long way to bringing in customers.
• Test – try new things, experiment in small measured ways, achieve mini-goals and then do what works on a bigger scale.

Web

Being web literate is a considerable advantage to a startup entrepreneur or small business owner. It means that you can make best use of the free resources available to you, and best focus the ones you pay for.

Attend free classes – apply the 80-20 rule here too – learn 80% of what you need by paying for 20%.

Become an expert on search – help your customers to find you.

Inspiration

Read obsessively. ‘4-Hour Workweek’ by Timothy Ferriss, anything by Anthony Robbins, ‘The E-Myth Revisited’ by Michael E Gerber, and ‘Get To The Top on Google’ by David Viney are some of Cate’s recommended reads. Cate believes that as long as it helps her to be happier or more focused and confident, then its worth a read. Don’t restrict your access to knowledge.

Become a master of free resources.

What next

Cate is going to set up a self-funding blog with invited authors on a profit-share basis.

Building relationships with customers is always going to be about their perception of how you treat them as an individual, understanding their needs, continuing a conversation.

Cate inspired thinking for your business

• Get to the top of Google. Obvious? Well do it then.
• Really understand where the most benefit to your business lies in deciding what marketing to do.
• Experiment on a limited risk basis so that you can find what works (and have fun while doing it).
• Spend the time with your customers actively understanding their needs and marketing your business to them in a relevant way, whether its face to face, over the telephone or interactively.

Contact

Insider London & Insider Trends

www.insider-trends.com

contact@insider-trends.com

www.insider-london.co.uk

contact@insider-london.co.uk

+44 (0) 844 504 8080

The full Cate Trotter interview and extra information can be found in the full article, here.

Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Ideaology blog for JupiterJasper Practical Marketing.

Building customer relationships 1-by-1, Cate Trotter is from Marketing Ideaology, a blog by Bronwyn Durand for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing

I’m fortunate to have a family that crosses nations – South Africa, France and England. I find the insight you can gain experiencing the differences and similarities to be invaluable.

This past week was spent in the company of my husband’s rather large family in France. I was faced with some marketing truths that resonated for small business marketing.

Often exceptional marketing is in the simplistic foundations of the day to day.

1. Take pride in what you do, and have manners

This may be contrary to many a popular belief about the French, but dig a little deeper and the intensity of the pride in what is produced is something to be marvelled at. I don’t come across businesses in the UK everyday that really are behind what they do with their own hearts and minds invested (and it shows). There are exceptions, but on the whole it doesn’t matter where you go – whether its a lowly roadside cafe’ selling baguettes and coffee, someone’s home, or a big enterprise, the French are serious about delivering the best possible product. Poor quality is not tolerated as a customer. Your name attached to what you produce is a matter of pride and quality. My husband pointed out to me that even in a restaurant, the clientele have the same manners towards the waitering staff as if they were invited to someone’s home for dinner. Serve your customers with grace and respect.

2. Remember its about human connection

Somewhere along the line, whatever you make, do, sell or serve, it is about people. Don’t market to things, numbers, segments. Market to people as people. The French connect. Even when ‘kissing’ cheeks (2-4 times) by way of greeting, you cannot avoid acknowledging the other person. There are many complexities to the politics of French relationships, even in families, but in greeting (and saying good-bye!) you cannot hide. For many businesses where employees barely manage eye contact, a little effort to realise, hey, your customers are actually people (!) who like a little interested human contact could go a long way.

3. Celebrate seasonality

I don’t mean Valentine’s, Halloween and Christmas. Without exception, everywhere we went, the fruit or vegetables of the current harvest were used. Apricot tarts, tomato salads, melon starters, potato gratin. The produce tastes amazing and so it should – it is in its prime. In the main, the UK pays little mind to the benefits of seasonality (although there are efforts to encourage). Don’t think for a moment that seasonality is only about harvests. Most businesses understand that there is an effect based on peoples’ seasonal movements – summer reduces sales and increases sales depending on what you sell. What I mean, is find the seasonality in your own business. Or in a complementary business that could benefit from a partnership with you by sharing customers.
And if you do sell food, for heavens sake, celebrate seasonality. Perhaps there is a lurking competitive advantage in simply being better about working seasonality to your advantage in parts or suppliers you use.

4. Leverage your community

French communities make best use of the talents within it. Everyone knows which baker makes the best bread (if you don’t the queue out the door may be a clue), everyone knows who can best handle an issue or provide a product or service. Businesses, like families, grow by virtue of the associations and contributions of a wider community. Opportunities to gain new customers or offer new or better value to your customers may be waiting for you in the community network of suppliers or processors you already talk to everyday. Understanding their wider business connections and simply having an interest in hearing what else they do may provide you with some very useful ideas and partners to share cost and effort.

5. Give your guests an experience to remember and commend

You cannot accuse a Frenchman or woman of lack of effort in preparing a meal. Guests are given an experience from beginning to end. Everything that you do as a business from the very first point of contact with a potential customer is in fact your opportunity to serve an unforgettable meal. Do you forget about the detail? Does the customer have to fight to get your salesperson’s attention or chase you for a quotation (aperitif)? Does the arrival of your product generate delight, or mild relief (main)? Do you forget to say thank you or offer an unexpected extra (cheese), or simply disappear into the ether without checking back on your customer or selling to them again (dessert)? In fact, do you forget the wine (complements each course), the bread (always available) and the digestif (typical of the region)?

6. Customers see value in different ways

So many viewpoints in France are different. The stars in TV series that feature on French magazines are not the same as the ones favoured here. Crisp flavours are just emerging – but you will undoubtedly always find cacahuète (peanut flavoured). Supermarkets have large family size in most things (invariably double the family size found in the UK). I believe that there is much to be learned from either side of the channel, but the point is that the very same idea, product or service may be more appealing to slightly different target audiences simply by changing the presentation of the marketing message. Different aspects of the same product should be highlighted to the audience it most appeals to. Know your customers needs and show them how your product meets that need, but weight the message differently when you talk to different parts of your target market.

7. Watch what your competitors are doing

Knowing what the neighbours are up to is unavoidable (or a hobby) in small villages. What is done with the information is up to the individual. As a business, your competitors are your neighbours, and you can learn a lot from them without being branded nosy. You should be watching what the competitors that do exactly what you do, do, but you should also watch anyone that provides an alternative to your product or service.

Apply it to your business:

- Is your own heart and mind invested? Your pride will show. There is very little paid-for-marketing that will do the job of bringing customers back for more as simply providing the best possible product or experience.
- Market to people.
- Take advantage of seasonality or create seasons that open opportunities for new ways to present your product or talk to your customers.
- Grow your business in a community. Support other businesses in your local economy and let them support you.
- Learn to see all the ways you are in contact with your potential customers as one marketing experience banquet.
- Is what you offer one-dimensional? Or does is comprise of a number of key features and benefits that have different importance for different types of customers? How are you communicating this?
- Know your competitors. Learn something, find what you can do to serve a customer need better.

Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Ideaology blog for JupiterJasper Practical Marketing.

7 Marketing lessons from a week in France is from Marketing Ideaology, a blog by Bronwyn Durand for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing

A recession reminds you of all the marketing fundamentals that are too easy to get lazy about when business is booming and money is there for the making. Which is why it is an opportunity. Its a wake-up call and a motivator all at the same time, and the carrot is in finding a way to thrive now to do even better once the haze clears.

Apply it to your business:

A recession is a marketing opportunity.

If the effect of the recession is frustrating your marketing plans, I say turn it to your advantage.

Target customers more effectively: direct your marketing campaigns to where they will be seen by the right kind of audience.

Result: better conversion rate.

Make sure every piece of marketing is doing the best job possible for you: Tighten that copy and make every word do the best job possible of presenting you to a potential customer. They want to know who you are, what you sell, and why it is the best choice. Get rid of the marketing clutter that isn’t working.

Result: cut costs by removing ineffective marketing.

Work harder to impress your customers. If you don’t your competitors will.

Result: impress customers. Better you than your competitors.

Give great service. I’m amazed how so many struggling companies still miss this one.

Result: a simple way to boost your retention rate and word of mouth referrals.

Thank your customers for choosing you. Conduct yourself humbly. Even if they have to choose you.

Result: repeat business, build reputation.

Choose your marketing for the ROI (return on investment). Take the time to best examine the benefit the marketing will have for you. And then follow it up by checking it against the results to see if you are on track. If you are doing it just because you have always done it, then it needs to be able to justify itself in the ‘current climate’.

Result: improve your cost per customer.

Make/sell more of the profitable products that customers want to buy. Not the ones that meet your needs. Focus your efforts on the best products or services for the current times.

Result: sell more. Sell more profitably.

Stop and check how the market forces, customer needs and competitive activity are shaping your business environment now. Stop looking at it as a recession, view it as a changing marketplace and revisit your marketing strategy as you would for any other change.

Result: step away from the hype and focus on making your business’ marketing work in any environment.

Innovate to meet changing needs of your target audience. This could be as simple as redefining a use for your product, or shaping your service to suit the current behaviour of your customers.

Result: a new opportunity?

Ask your customers what they think. They may not tell you what you want to hear. But they will give you something to think about.

Result: an opportunity to have a conversation with your customers and determine whether you are on track, or could be doing more, and doing it better.

Achieve more with less. Take less (no) loans.

Result: you will be boosted by the thrill of your own genius. And you will achieve more with less.

Find more efficient ways of operating. Address the complications in your processes and systems that are making how you work less efficient.

Result: profit, efficiency, less time spent doing ineffective things.

Take more time to hire the best possible people. Don’t settle.

Result: wherever possible employ people that will make a worthwhile contribution to your business. This is self- evident, and most business owners have amazing stories to tell about previous employees. Employing well takes practice. Market your employment opportunities better, and be clear about what the role is and what you want them to achieve. When there is less budget for marketing, your people should be your best marketing asset, especially if they are customer facing.

How has the recession improved your marketing?

Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Ideaology blog for JupiterJasper Practical Marketing.

Why the recession is a marketing opportunity is from Marketing Ideaology, a blog by Bronwyn Durand for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing

Ling Valentine runs LINGsCARS.com Ltd. This is a car leasing company that has taken marketing differentiation to a new level in an industry where professionalism is rooted in convention.

In an interview with Bronwyn Durand, Ling has given some great insight into how clear brand direction and giving your customers what they most want in a fresh way can be the path to your success.

Ling is a shining example of how breaking the rules may just be better.

www.LINGsCARS.com is on track to achieve 40million in leased car sales in 2009, despite the 25% drop in new car registrations in the UK. LINGsCARS is an online car leasing company, providing new cars by contract hire to private and business customers across the UK.

The website had 612,812 unique visitors to the site last year, and based on last month’s figures, is likely to achieve at least a million unique visitors this year.

Why?

Ling says, ‘Because, clearly, I am the best at providing the correct mix of cars, prices, service and entertainment’.

To fully appreciate the interview, view LINGsCARS here. A written explanation wouldn’t do it justice.

So what is the Ling perspective?

Customers

The goal: To provide the very best personalised service to intelligent creditworthy customers; giving them a great experience while acquiring a new car; by the most transparent, cost-effective and simple method in the UK. Ling’s customers are ABC123 prime and creditworthy people.

Ling’s approach to customers:

• The focus is on people, not cars.
• Every customer will be dealt with in a thoughtful and a correct manner.
• Ling’s website demonstrates the customer response time (and its good).
• In a competitive space filled with faceless dealer groups, houses and brokerages, Ling stands out for quality personalised service and efficiency.
• Every website visitor is treated with equal importance, and their website journey is monitored on a live basis through another Ling ‘first’. Computer Shopper magazine spotted this and said about it: “Welcome to the future.” They called Ling “The leading evangelist of treating website customers with intelligence and collaboration”

The key effect of Ling’s differentiation is memorability. The interactive entertainment and sheer Chinese madness of the website create a powerful experience intended to optimise the chance to be first-to-mind over long buying cycles – Ling isn’t just concerned with the first sale, but the ones to come.

Website

The only car leasing company to have an entirely online business model, everything is done from the website: sales, marketing and customer communications.

Ling says: ‘My website is 100% up to date and alive. I monitor it constantly; I seem to live inside LINGsCARS. I have a database with over 10,000 car trims and over 250 tables. I have some pages, which if they were printed out would exceed 400 pages of A4 paper in length. I break all the conventional rules. My whole website is more advanced than any other in the UK car industry.’

This ‘live’ availability of great deals is very advantageous in an industry where speed of securing a deal is of paramount importance, and where competitors are displaying an outdated list of car deals.

Ling: ‘I used my energy to build the biggest and best website in the whole industry. There are no limits to websites’.

Marketing

Ling: ‘I consider everything I do to be marketing – its my number 1 concern’.

Marketing is planned each year, but in such a way to facilitate adaptation as marketing opportunities present themselves – like Dragon’s Den. A spend limit is defined and allocated to what will best take the business forward – often brainstorms producing the most remarkable or crazy ideas will get the budget.

Given that there is a mature customer management model in place, once Ling has sourced the best deals, everything is geared towards relentless marketing. Ling says: ‘You never know what will appeal to different people’.

While competitors are spending a fortune on paid adverts, including adwords, Ling has focused on developing natural search to be top for every strong search term in the sector, as well as a long tail of content-related searches.

Marketing is driven by the entertainment factor – Ling explains the approach: ‘Much in the same way that Top Gear does not “road test” cars on TV, but entertains the viewers in many different and quite crazy ways’.

Ling’s memorable marketing includes (there are many many examples on her website)

• “Rescuing” Northern Rock when it was collapsing: Ling invested £10,000 when everyone else was withdrawing cash and gained some big TV appearances on the news and GMTV.
• “Pitch and run” on Dragon’s Den: entirely intended to promote the business. Ling managed to be entertaining and secure offers from two Dragons before turning them down. Ling says: ‘That took a lot of planning to pull off. I practiced for weeks and it nearly killed me in effort. However, it was well worth it. Subsequently I was so successful I was featured in a BBC book and given a whole chapter “A lesson in sales and marketing”.’
• LINGsCARS is listed on EdExcel as an A-Level exam question alongside McDonalds, EasyJet, Boots and Sainsbury’s, for students taking business qualifications – demonstrating the belief that every activity is marketing, even when there is not necessarily an initial direct benefit.
• “Chop Gear” series of car road tests with Ling’s crazy sister Shan appearing as a Chinese Red Guard.
• Ling’s marketing assets include a Nuclear missile truck, a London bus, and Beijing jeep

Inspiration

Ling admires Michael O’Leary of Ryanair, and constantly watches for opportunities in the media. Ling says: ‘If it is difficult, we do it, because what makes things special is that no one else ever has the confidence to make the extra effort’.

Ling’s advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to have confidence in yourself and not to be afraid to make a fool of yourself. Take every opportunity presented to you and give it 200% effort. Always broadcast any results you get as you never know what can be gained from the extra publicity.

What next?

Ling is already bringing her unique approach to new ventures.

Check out www.lingsmobiles.com – an entirely automated site that runs without human intervention; used car advertising will never be the same again when LingTrader launches; and LINGsWINGS promises to find all those £1 flights you know exist but can never find.

Try this

If you type your first name into Google, what do you get? Try typing ‘Ling’.

Marketing differentiation is not about aligning yourself with your competitors and doing one or two things better or differently.

Ling inspired thoughts for your business:

• Don’t take yourself too seriously
• Make Google spider food
• Make it as easy as possible to do business with you
• Try something different, and commit to it

Contact LINGsCARS:

LINGsCARS.com Ltd
LING World Headquarters
Vance Business Park
Gateshead, NE11 9NE
Tel 0191 460 9444
Fax 0870 486 1130

sales@LINGsCARS.com

www.LINGsCARS.com

The full Ling Valentine interview and extra information can be found in the full article, here.

Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Ideaology blog for JupiterJasper Practical Marketing.

Marketing differentiation, Ling Valentine style is from Marketing Ideaology, a blog by Bronwyn Durand for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing