Data brings all aspects of your business together

Marketing Ideaology is delighted to present Simon Daniels – Director at Percassity Marketing Data Solutions – who has provided an invaluable guest blog post on understanding marketing data in your business.

The management of customer information is generally regarded as a crucial area to get right in order to be successful. So-called “customer relationship management” has moved from over-hyped fad to a mainstream marketing discipline in many organisations, but making effective use of this data has been the preserve of large organisations with matching resources. Their activities have raised expectations and now all businesses are expected to interact with their customers in a consistent, coordinated and streamlined manner.

Punch above your weight in getting the most from information about your customers and prospects.

All is not lost for the small business manager, as simple techniques and new low cost tools allow you to punch above your weight when it comes to getting the most from what we’ll call “marketing data”.

Here are a few ideas for that can be implemented in your business straight away.

1. Gathering information

Give up-front consideration to what information will be obtained and stored. Increasingly, data is collected online via website forms but is also likely to be gathered by other processes such as offline order taking or enquiries. It’s important to coordinate these collection points and ensure the purpose for each one is properly understood.

• Collect data from websites using a form rather than simply providing an email address. This allows key information such as full name, location, contact details and the nature of the enquiry to be requested, rather than relying on the individual making an enquiry to volunteer these details.
• Keep in mind what data is being collected for and why it is needed. Is a full address required for an enquiry? Perhaps just a region is needed in order to pass the enquiry to a local office or depot.
• Use pick-lists for questions with a set number of options such as product type or, again, region. This will ensure consistent answers that are easier to sort, summarise and act on.
• Don’t ask too many questions at once. Often, there are lots of things you’d like to know about your prospects such as industry, age, area of interest and so on. Trying to collect too much information at once can put people off though. Obtain the information you most need and then ask further questions in subsequent interactions to fill in the gaps.
• Use an inexpensive address completion solution (such as Postcodes Anywhere) to collect addresses based on Postcode. This will improve the quality of addresses entered on your website, which will help ensure deliveries are more reliable and make it easier to complete the web form.

2. Storing

A variety of solutions exist for storing marketing information, from Act!, installed on your own PC, to Highrise, which holds data on a central server accessed via the web. The benefit of the latter is easy access for multiple users and there’s no need to set-up a server. Regardless of the solution chosen though, proper planning of the information to be held and how it will be structured is crucial.

• Ensure your database is set-up to hold the information being collected through your website and other routes. This means not just the right fields, but field types (date, numeric, text), length and pick-list values.
• Investigate whether it’s possible to hold transaction information in your marketing database. This means information about orders including products and services, the value and when a purchase occurred. This can be used to build a picture about your customers (see next section).
• Where order information is held in another system, see whether you can use a shared reference number between the ordering system and marketing database. You might need to manually copy this between them and it might require a little expertise using a database tool, but once the link is in place, it will be much easier to match up data across the two systems. And once the link is there, it will be much easier for someone to do this for you.

3. Understanding

The point of structuring your marketing data is to gain a better understanding of customers and prospects, which can be used to win new sales with much less effort.

• Use the information that has been collected about customers and prospects together with past orders to group together those with similar characteristics or who have bought related products. This is known as segmentation, and allows much greater relevance in the offers and messages that can be sent to each group to be achieved. Buyers of product A may have no interest in product B but might be receptive to product C. Equally, different groups might find one feature of more interest than another one, so your could perhaps send different emails to each. A bigger discount could be offered to higher spending customers only.
• Enhance the information held about customers and prospects, by having your database matched to an external source (such as Dun & Bradstreet or Experian ) that holds additional details like industry or income. This information can be added to your database and included within your segmentation.
•Take this analysis further using either familiar tools such as Excel or more advanced software. This becomes most worthwhile where there is a large amount of transactional data, although specialist skills will be required for more sophisticated approaches.

4. Quality

As your database grows and is maintained over time, you may start to find certain issues creeping in that affect the quality of the data. These may range from duplicates (more than one version of the same contact or company), missing information, invalid names and so on. Keep an eye out for these problems as they can affect the success of marketing activity and create a lot of work in the long run.

• Issue guidelines to everyone using the database on how to enter standard information, especially abbreviations, company endings (Ltd, plc etc), addresses and so on.
• Every so often, perform a data extract, consisting of the main fields from the database, and open it in Excel. Here, you can undertake some simple data checks like sorting to see whether any ‘odd’ values appear at the top or bottom of the list, looking for empty fields where you wouldn’t expect to find them and using the filter option to group values in a field together to ensure there isn’t any rogue data.
• More advanced data manipulation can be performed in Excel with add-ons such as ASAP Utilities which provides a range of text manipulation and error correction tools.
• Pay particular attention to the age of data. Contacts in a database can go out of date at a rate of 25% per year or more, so data which is more than a couple of years old may well be out of date. Aim to keep track of response to previous activity and don’t “flog a dead horse”!

5. Privacy and data protection

No discussion of marketing data management would be complete without mention of privacy and the Data Protection Act. A good source of information is the Information Commissioner’s Office. For a good source of updates on privacy matters (and anything relating to marketing law) try Marketinglaw.co.uk.

The rules relating to whether an opt-in is required can be complicated, but in fact the best approach is always to get opt-in anyway. That way you know that the recipient actually wants to hear from you which will have a big impact on response rates and “conversion” – the act of buying something having received a message from you.

Conclusion

Managing marketing data can be a big undertaking with many different things to consider and opportunities to exploit. Good planning and careful thought to what you are trying to achieve though will be rewarded with greater customer loyalty and more engagement from prospects, which ultimately adds up to a successful business.

Simon Daniels
A specialist in marketing data strategy and operations, Simon’s experience spans a number of sectors, working across Europe and North America. Simon has been responsible for data strategy development, CRM and marketing automation system implementation, analytics and data quality initiatives.

A co-founder of marketing operations consultancy Percassity Marketing Data Solutions, Simon also assumes the guise of “Marketing Insight Guy”, an independent website and blog with thoughts and information on his experiences working with marketing data, systems, processes and analysis.

Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Ideaology Blog for JupiterJasper, an on-demand marketer service for startups and small businesses.

Know your data, improve your marketing results is from Marketing Ideaology, a blog by Bronwyn Durand for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing

Marketing Ideaology is pleased to present our first guest blog post by Jackie Mitchell of JM Communications, a PR specialist and copywriter who has compiled the insights below on getting your press release published.

Placing an article about your business in print or online media raises your profile and helps to generate sales. It gets your message in front of literally thousands of people. One of the advantages is when these articles appear they have the endorsement of the journalist who wrote the article and the media in which it appears, so the value of this is considered much higher than the equivalent advertising space.

Have you been trying to get an article published without success? Or do you think you have nothing newsworthy to shout about? Every business has something to say and although you may think it’s boring and mundane, the secret is to present it in an interesting way.

Do you need to draft a press release summarising your business and its services, which you can send to journalists?

When you think that journalists, on average, receive 100 press releases a day, the material has to be short, snappy and to the point.

To whet the appetite of the journalist, what you need are ten magic ingredients to make your story newsworthy

1. Avoid ‘sales speak’
One of the biggest turn offs for journalists is to read that your business is “unique and brilliant”. Avoid ‘sales speak’ and exaggerated words. You can use those in paid for advertisements.

2. What are the benefits of the business?
State in the first two paragraphs, what the benefits of your business are. Answer the questions “where, why, what, when”. For example if you’re opening a nail bar in Hampton, we need to know why and what are the advantages. So you could say something like “Hampton has its first nail bar opening on 19 May, offering busy mothers and career women late opening hours and Sunday opening.”
This already has a newsworthy angle – that Hampton will have its first nail bar.

3. Unusual businesses
If you run an unusual business like training clowns or anything to do with animals (cat whisperer perhaps), obviously it will be much easier for you to interest journalists with your story.
Perhaps your business is more “ordinary” – you’re a will writer or a solicitor, then you need to find something else newsworthy that will attract journalists’ attention (see below).

4. The human interest angle
All journalists like human interest stories. So tell them about yourself and how you started up the business. “Rags to riches” stories are always popular – how you sold your car, borrowed from friends and family to start up your dream business. Or how you overcame dyslexia, left school with two GCSEs and built a successful business. Perhaps you took a risk – you gave up your comfortable, secure 9 to 5 job to follow your vocation. You also have four children and manage to juggle family life and your own business – the media like to find out how you manage to do this, so you could write “my ten top tips” article. Family stories do well – if you’re a mother and daughter business, for example. Or you devised a business aimed at children, as you discovered a gap in the market from bringing up your own kids.
Extreme career changes are of interest – you went from running an interiors shop to being a freelance lifesaver!

5. Unusual hobby
If you’re an accountant or solicitor, it might be difficult to find something newsworthy to say about your business, although you could always comment about the Budget, issue advice and tell people about new services. Do you have an unusual hobby? Perhaps you’re a ballroom dancing champion or a karate black belt? This might help to interest journalists, but be careful that it doesn’t overshadow your business and what you want to promote.

6. Charity support
London Marathon runners always get plenty of publicity, so if you fancy a challenge, then go for it! It could be that your company supports a charity, so you need to issue a press release about it. Journalists tend to look favourably on charity stories or anything that helps the local community. Perhaps your company sponsored a local event or one of your employees abseiled down your building in aid of charity. These are both newsworthy stories.

7. Celebrities
Anything to do with a celebrity will get you press coverage, but of course this is difficult to achieve. They normally charge a large fee, but you may have contacts or a local celebrity genuinely likes your service and agrees to give you a testimonial.

8. Awareness Days/Weeks
The calendar is full of awareness days and weeks, which receive plenty of press attention. They vary widely from National No Smoking Day to Homeopathy Awareness Week, so it’s a matter of finding one to match your business. Search for the awareness campaigns on Google and then tailor your press release accordingly such as “During Homeopathy Awareness Week, Helen Brown, homeopath in Sheen, will be offering……”

9. Inviting journalists to try out the service
If you are a beauty therapist, restaurateur, hairdresser, homeopath, one of the best ways to encourage press coverage is to invite a local journalist to try out the service so they can write an article about it. It also means you meet the journalist.

10. Pictures
A picture can sometimes make the difference as to whether your story gets published or not. You need a picture which reflects the story of the press release you’re sending. So if it’s a nail bar in Hampton, a picture of you having your nails done, for example. Do hire a professional photographer to take the pictures, as these can also be used for your web site and leaflets.

Finding the magic ingredients for your press release is only part of the job. The other part is to send it to the right person at the right time, so phone up the office to check the name and when their deadline is so you can ensure the information reaches them in good time.

Best of luck!

Jackie Mitchell MCIPR runs Surrey-based JM Communications, offering public relations and copywriting. She has over 15 years’ experience in public relations in a wide variety of businesses, specialising in start ups and small businesses. For more information, visit www.jackiem.com

PR: Ten magic ingredients to get your press release published is from Marketing Ideaology, a blog by Bronwyn Durand for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing

Having spent time tinkering with ideas on worthwhile topics, my new blogging strategy is just about ready. The basic principle for Marketing Ideaology remains unchanged – share relevant marketing related information that you can apply to your business – a combination of observations of the world, real world marketing, and conversations with businesses. We have some interesting businesses to talk about!

Our new lineup will also include a variety of guest bloggers, who have been invited based on their specific skills sets and relevant information to share – again, with the idea of practical usefulness in mind – how can you apply it to your business?

Your feedback, comments and questions are welcome – you can always learn about marketing and, I consider myself a professional experimenter. I particularly enjoy addressing issues that I know matter to small businesses and startups, so feel free to engage in conversation.

Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Ideaology Blog for JupiterJasper, an on-demand marketer service for startups and small businesses.

(Engage in conversation via Twitter, email or comments below)

Marketing Ideaology: soon to evolve is from Marketing Ideaology, a blog by Bronwyn Durand for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing

I’ve been invited to present on the subject of Linked In at an LG Networking event at Mercedes World on the 8th June.

The discussion will be suitable to anyone who is experimenting with Linked In, or considering its benefits.

LinkedIn – why is it so useful?

After a brief tour and look at the key features of LinkedIn, we’ll address three major reasons to be on Linked In, and how you can optimise them for yourself:

Be found
Connect
& Ask for help.

You can find event details on http://bit.ly/aUTnRd

If you would like to attend, please contact Catherine on catherine@lgnetworking.co.uk . I understand that non members pay a nominal meeting fee of £10, and as this is a networking event, you should be sure to bring your business cards.

Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Ideaology Blog for JupiterJasper, and on-demand marketer service for startups and small businesses.

Are you Linked In? is from Marketing Ideaology, a blog by Bronwyn Durand for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing

The Icelandic volcano afforded me extra time in South Africa, which is usually a brilliant idea. This time, the combination of being very pregnant, miserable cold weather and absolutely no chance of going to see anything remotely linked to what I love about Africa – baobabs, bush, animals, fantastic scenery, or even drinking great wine – made it downright frustrating. However, I did take the time to consider how an African approach to marketing, particularly how it relates to offline advertising, would be useful to capture. There is a lot of self-prepared signage in Africa, which is actually a simple, yet critical aspect of advertising your business. It naturally has greater impact based on your type of business – a consultancy is unlikely to subsist entirely off passing trade, for instance. As with all things marketing, it’s what you do with what you have that counts.

If you’ve not been to South Africa, or even Africa (as it’s hardly exclusive to South Africa) the quest for sustaining yourself and your family can be an amazing source of ingenuity. In writing this blog, I considered advertising for employment (as a self-employed person) on street drains, little sign boards attached to street signs, street vendors who flaunt  their wares at traffic lights, beggars with signs, outdoor and alternative advertising (like taxis, backs of toilet doors), curio stall proprietors, flea markets, and a host of other media that are possibly largely unconscious.

I’m delighted to state the following 10 basic principles of advertising that I observed that are absolutely worth applying to your business:

1. Say what you do in a way your audience understands. (For all your home painting needs).

2. Make your contact details clear. (Call Joe on 07X XXX XXXX)

3. Make your advertising readable – as per the medium. Don’t over-clutter a sign that needs to be read at 100 metres, or make the font too small, for instance.

4. Be competitive – why should it be you? There is always someone else waiting to take your potential business. (Approved with a 10 year guarantee).

5. Sell something that your target audience actually wants. Traffic light vendors are masters of trends – car mobile phone chargers, coldrinks on hot days, World Cup T-shirts, you name it.)

6. Your target audience must be able to see your advertising. Do they really read, watch, drive/ walk past, use what you are advertising on? (Billboard advertising on the highway may not work for pensioners. Cinema advertising is unlikely to reach many new mothers. and so on.)

7. Create standout. What is making you memorable? Does your ad have any personality at all? Something likeable is easier to remember. (a street beggar’s sign read – 5 wives, 10 children, 20 chickens, 17 cows, 4 cabbages and a tomato plant to feed. Please help.)

8. Say what is really important. Does it really matter to the customer to know ‘that’ first, or does it only matter to you? Does every word you use have a real purpose? Don’t add fluff for fluff’s sake.

9. Handle enquiries. What do you do when you get a response? Do you ask where an enquirer heard about you/ got your details from?

10. Be consistent. Use the same logo, catch phrase, colours that you use elsewhere so that the sum of all of your marketing is working for you – creating familiarity and convincing your potential customer to contact you.

Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Ideaology Blog for JupiterJasper, and on-demand marketer service for startups and small businesses.

10 Basics of advertising: inspired by a volcanic delay in Africa is from Marketing Ideaology, a blog by Bronwyn Durand for JupiterJasper On-demand Marketing

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