Grow Your Business Exhibition

Make sure your marketing investment counts this year...

Do you have an up to date marketing plan?
Have you clearly defined your position in the marketplace? Does all your marketing support that position?
Is your marketing literature is as effective as it should be?

In an economic slump you need to be careful where you spend your money. But marketing is no place to scrimp. In a recession, well-planned, well-executed marketing is more crucial to your business success than ever. Tough economic times provide an opportunity for you to steal the advantage on your competitors: but only if you work the opportunity carefully.

Plan carefully...
Taking the time to create a strategy, plan your approach and define your market positioning is essential. Ensuring that every piece of marketing literature, from your website and brochures to your posters, banners and emails support that market position is a part of this. You’ll not only spend less, your marketing will be more powerful for the consistent approach.

Create powerful copy and compelling design...
Making sure every piece counts with powerful copy and impactful design might mean spending more initially, but in the long run you’ll reap the benefits with stronger returns. And because you’re not getting sidetracked with last minute ‘deals’, there’s no need to bust your budget either.

Quite simply, homespun marketing that fails to appeal to your target audience won’t cut it in this marketplace. A shambolic approach to marketing based on the lowest cost option, however unsuitable, will just result in you wasting money.

Start with a plan: a clear plan. And a budget. Chances are, you won’t need to spend any more money than you did last year. But by planning where to spend it sensibly, you will significantly increase your return on investment. And in this economic climate that’s probably essential.

Guildford printing.com will help you make sure that your investment counts. We’ll help you formulate a plan, define your market positioning and attack the market with gusto. And with copywriting, graphic design, print and marketing services in house, you can be sure that you’re gaining the very best expertise at a price that you can afford.

Do you know it takes 7 times?

7 times to do what?

To get your neighbour to stop parking their car across your drive way?

To get a 5 year old to eat brussel sprouts? To get your partner to buy you flowers on your birthday?

No! On average, you have to communicate with a potential customer 7 times before they will buy something from you.

What! 7 times I hear you cry. If I want someone to buy something from me, I have to speak to them or send them something 7 times before they are willing to part with their hard-earned money?

Yup, that's right.

Now, obviously some people will buy on impulse and buy something or a service from you there and then.

But if the average figure is 7, that also means that it could take some people 20 times or more before they are willing to trust you enough to buy from you.

Think about your own buying habits. You are watching Ugly Betty on a Friday night and an advert comes on for a new moisturiser. You open the magazine supplements on a Sunday morning and there is a full colour page advert for that same moisturiser and you kind of recognise it but you are not sure where from.

On Monday you are chatting away to a girlfriend who mentions that she has recently bought this amazing new moisturiser. And so it goes it on until you find yourself at Boots on the high street and you are standing opposite a big display stand promoting that very same moisturiser.

What the hell, you think and you throw it in to your shopping basket.

If you hadn't had seen the TV advert, glanced at the newspaper or heard your friend raving about the product, there would have been every chance you would have walked straight past that promo stand.

If you are running your own business, there is a very high probability that you do not have the budget to advertise during Ugly Betty nor take out a full colour ad in the Sunday Times Style magazine.

But you can create a buzz and get people talking about you and what your business offers.
Communicating with a potential customer doesn't always have to be about advertising (although it can certainly help if you target the right publications) and as a small business, probably on a budget, there are dozens and dozens of ways of communicating with your potential customers.

From speaking at local events to contributing on online discussion forums. From sending people Christmas cards to forwarding them interesting and relevant emails. From talking to people at networking events to phoning someone up to ask their opinion on something.

Communication opportunities are open to you each and every day. And if you think it can take, on average, 7 times of communicating with someone before they are willing to buy from you, isn't it worth being conscious on how you can improve your communication opportunities?

One of the most effective and cheapest way of ensuring you are communicating 7 times is publishing your own email newsletter.

Karen Skidmore runs CanDoCanBe.com which helps women build successful (and profitable!) home based businesses. She'll be speaking on Email Newsletters Made Easy at the Grow Your Business Event on 30th April.

Email Newsletters - Get Personal

It may be tempting when you run a business from home to “pretend” to be bigger than you actually are. You may not want your customers to know that you work from the kitchen table and sort out your washing between answering emails.

However, when building relationships with potential customers, especially building relationships online, the more personal you make your email newsletters, the better.

You don’t need to share your stories about how drunk you got at your cousin’s wedding last weekend or how your daughter has just been awarded a prize for her mathematical ability. But when you write your articles and “talk” to your subscribers, show your personality.

Be fun, be creative, be serious. You decide – it’s your personality. By showing your personality you will be more likely to open up the doors of communication and start to build relationships with the types of customers you want to work with.

Make it personal. After all it is your business.

Karen Skidmore runs CanDoCanBe.com which helps women build successful (and profitable!) home based businesses. She'll be speaking on Email Newsletters Made Easy at the Grow Your Business Event on 30th April.

How to ruin your brand in 5 seconds flat

Your new letterhead and business cards are back from the printers; your exquisitely designed website is all ready to go. All you need now is some photos of yourself, your team and your products.

So, grabbing the digital camera you make a quick tour of the office, snapping everyone at their desks, take a few shots of your products and post the photos onto your website; maybe you even use some in your leaflets. That’s the great thing about digital photography isn’t it? Now, anyone can take photographs like a pro without having to go to the time and expense of hiring a pro, right? Wrong. If only it were that simple. Unfortunately, owning a digital camera is not the only prerequisite for taking professional-looking pictures; if it was, not only would everyone be doing it, they’d also be doing it well; which is certainly not the case, as a glimpse at many companies’ websites and brochures will show! As the photographer Ansel Adams said “You don’t take a picture, you make a picture”.

So, why should you use a professional photographer?

Your brand values are reflected in everything from the words you use to the design of your marketing materials. A mismatch between any of these will weaken your business image.

Whilst it’s tempting to go for the instant result at no cost, will that result send out the desired message about your business?

Don’t forget that it takes seconds for someone to make up their minds about you and your company. How many times have you looked at a website, business card or brochure and been put off by the unprofessional quality of the design, graphics or typeface?

Photographs speak volumes - if you and your people are at the forefront of communicating your business message, then it’s vital that your photos create the right impression first time. And if you have a great product, you should be doing it justice by presenting it in the best way possible. Using the services of a professional photographer will help you send out the right message about your business. Good photography can enhance an already great brand; poor photography can destroy that brand’s credibility in seconds.

Here are just a few of the ways in which a professional photographer can help you create the right business image :-
• By identifying the best locations and backgrounds and “designing” the shot
• Using professional lighting techniques at all times
• Matching the style of photography to your business image
• Advising on the type of clothing that will work best for a portrait session
• Posing subjects in the most flattering way
• Being aware of and sensitive to the feelings of those being photographed and being able to put them at ease within 5 minutes of meeting them
In return, you will benefit from:-
• A consistent style for all your marketing material which supports and enhances your business image
• Professionally lit portraits and product shots at all times
• An ongoing relationship with a fellow professional who, in effect, becomes another member of your team whom you can call on whenever you need to
• Professional presentation and post-production of all your images
• More time for you to spend on your business
Anna Saverimuttu is a Guildford-based photographer, specialising in portrait and event photography for businesses and individuals. To see more of her work, visit www.annasaverimuttu-photography.co.uk
Or, contact her for an informal chat and further advice on 01483 571119 or at annasaverimuttu@aol.com

“My Website doesn’t bring me any business!”

It’s a common complaint – one that as web designers, we hear all the time. Oddly enough, very often it’s used as an excuse by businesses not to spend time or money improving their website so that it does perform effectively.

Of course it’s these websites that need the most attention. Business websites that don’t make money - or fail to attract potential customers - make a few basic errors. All too often, businesses are too busy thinking about “the company website” from their own perspective, and fail to consider their customers’ needs and expectations.

When devising your website, the three questions you should be asking yourself are:

Who are your target customers? How will your target customers find you? What do you want your target customers to do once they are on your website?

Attract Hot Leads Before planning your website, you must identify and understand your target market. This is a must for driving hot leads to your website. You can be performing miracles in the search engine rankings, but if your all your visitors aren’t interested in your products or services, it’s a waste of time. Avoid industry jargon, and write content using your customers’ language. This will bring targeted customers your way, and match their expectations when they arrive.

It is no longer enough just to have a website, and hope that it adds something to your business. 50% of UK SME websites are invisible: they cannot be found unless your prospects know your domain name, or your company name – not very likely, unless your brand is a household name. Your site must appear in the first 3 pages of Google, preferably the first page. If you are outside the top 30 results, then your website is a waste of time, energy and money.

If you want your website to make money, or generate leads, you must either invest the time to find out how to improve your ranking in Google yourself, or employ a search engine specialist help you do this.

First Impressions Count
Being found via the search engines is only half the battle. Successful commercial websites convert their visitors into customers. Recent research concluded that visitors make a judgment about a website within 50 milliseconds of the page loading. That’s not a lot of time to make an impression. Before reading a word, your potential customers have already decided whether you are any good or not! Even more interestingly, whatever they see or read subsequently, visitors are extremely unlikely to reverse their initial judgment.

It’s vital that your site matches your visitors’ expectations, and instantly convinces them that they are in the right place, and that their needs will be fulfilled. It must recognise their pain whilst appealing to their desires and passions; above all, it needs to trigger an emotional response. This sounds like a tall order, but given the fact your competition is only a few clicks away, it’s an essential one.

A Reason For Being
To convert your customer, your website must have a “Most Desired Response”. In other words you must have a clear idea what you want your customer to do once they arrive, whether that’s buy a product, register their details, or even pick up the phone. Whatever it is, make it the focal point of your website, ensure that your message is clear and succinct, then design your site’s structure and navigation so it is completely geared to obtaining the Most Desired Response. Then discard any excess baggage. If something doesn’t contribute to the Most Desired Response, get rid of it.

So many websites fail in this regard, lacking any clear purpose, and failing to convert their customers.
Remember, keep your focus on your customers throughout the whole process, and try to avoid thinking about your business from your own perspective. Will your customers really want to read a detailed history of your company, look at photographs of your staff? Will these help sell your products and services?

Websites that are geared around their customers’ needs and expectations will ultimately succeed, and leave the competition for dust.

This article was written by Ben Neale of the Marvellous Media Company, who will be exhibiting at the Grow Your Business Exhibition in April. Bruce Hazleton of the Marvellous Media Company will also be speaking on the subject of How to Create a Website That'll Make You Money - find out more about this, and other free seminars at www.growguildford.co.uk.