January 20, 2022
Regardless of whether your business is conducted primarily on or offline, a solid digital presence is key to the way you interact with your market and customers.
Different businesses operate in slightly different ways but fundamentally they need to effectively engage with their marketplace and digital platforms are now a critical part of this process.
In our final episode on e-business, we pull things together and discuss how a joined up approach to managing the digital elements of your business is vital to long term success.
December 2, 2021
Once you’ve had somebody sign on the dotted line, your relationship with them changes. They know you better, are more interested in what you have to say and, according to marketing wisdom, should be your most profitable customers. But do you make the most of this opportunity?
Finding and converting new customers is expensive, but many companies focus their energy almost exclusively on this. Ignoring the potential opportunities from current clients. Many businesses fail to recognise the value of building on existing relationships even though it doing this can often make or break the success of a business.
November 18, 2021
After an enquiry is made, What next? Do you have a process to make the most of them and where appropriate, convert them?
With a service-led business, a website is about building confidence and trust. The buying decision might take longer and need a little more help. Rushing to seal a deal may be tempting, but is rarely helpful: What's more, seem too keen, and it could make them question your motives. Different enquiries will move at different rates and you need a process to deal with these in the most appropriate way.
In this weeks podcast, we discuss this and introduce the concept of the Boomerang e-mail - Trust me its worth a listen just for that!
November 4, 2021
The main marketing focus of many businesses is getting people to their website, with the priority on things like improving Google search rankings Whilst this is important, what happens when they arrive on your site is equally important. If your website doesn't deliver, then attracting people in the first place is a pointless endeavour.
The more competitive a market is the more important it is to hold someone’s attention. If it’s not easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for, they’ll look elsewhere. In this episode we look at what you need in place to ensure their experience goes smoothly and delivers results?
October 21, 2021
The next step of our series on e-business looks at the visibility and effectiveness of your website. While getting people to your site is important, it's only worthwhile if they are interested in what you do and that you can convert them into customers. Having the right approach to attracting people, by knowing who it is you're appealing to and making sure the message is right, is imperative.
You don't want to attract just anybody. One of the biggest mistakes made by marketers is not effectively defining the target audience, and casting the net too wide. Just thinking of gross numbers instead of narrowing the field means you're going to waste resources and struggle to convert people. You cannot and will not make a customer out of everyone.
October 7, 2021
With the odd exception, every business has some sort of online presence. Whilst this may not involve a full e-commerce offering, the web is critical to all businesses these days. As a critical element in communicating with your target audience your use of technology needs to be a fully integrated part of your business rather than simply a technical issue.
In this episode, we talk about the difference between e-Commerce & e-Business, and the importance of a joint up approach to technology throughout the sales & marketing process.
September 23, 2021
Few, if any businesses can ignore the web. Virtually every business has an e-business element. In our new podcast series, we are talking e-business and how to make technology work for you.
While e-commerce is about taking orders online, shopping carts etc, the term e-business is much broader. It's about how you leverage technology. Even if most of your transactions are offline, you will be using web technologies to benefit your company more than you realise. Starting with a focus on e-commerce, series five of out podcast looks at how to maximise the benefits, and minimise the pain of using technology in your business.
July 1, 2021
In the last of our step-by-step planning series, we look at how to make your process sustainable. Making a plan and implementing ideas can be easy but sustaining that process for long periods is one of the more challenging things in marketing. An advertising campaign, such as a mail shot or publication, is one individual event at a point in time, but covering an entire timeline, 2-3 months in advance, with regular and repeated events, is what makes it sustainable.
June 17, 2021
Many small business owners state they are too busy working in their business to work on their business but, without that necessary management, success is largely down to luck. That brings us to the second M in our PIMMS process: managing. Managing on an ongoing basis is the essence of running a business and the heart of helping it grow. Instead of spending so long on the day-to-day tasks, time needs to be put aside to evaluate whether it's delivering what you want. You can only manage a plan if you plan to manage.
June 3, 2021
In the next step of the marketing process, we move on to monitoring. Looking from a long-term perspective, you need to track activity to ensure it's having an impact and going the direction you desire. Thanks to developments of the internet as a marketing tool, it's possible to obtain real-time numbers, check engagement and discover where your value lies. But delving into analytics can be a double-edged sword, with data overload potentially causing you to lose focus on your goals.
