Ideal Marketing Company Blog

Marketing Seminar sponsored by Barclays Bank

Free marketing seminar for Leicestershire businesses organised by Barclays Bank

Local businesses are invited to a free marketing seminar to be held in Leicester city centre next month (March). The event will feature a talk by Leicestershire based marketing consultant Alastair Campbell of The Ideal Marketing Company and is sponsored by Barclays Bank which has 13 branches in the Leicester area.

The event is being held on Wednesday March 24th from12.00 pm to 2.00 pm at Mem-Saab Indian restaurant and champagne bar in Highcross Street in the city centre. Alastair will be giving a talk which focuses on the 4 critical marketing activities to grow a business and increase profits.

Monica Mendez, Area Manager for Barclays Business Banking Team in Leicestershire feels that the event is one not to be missed. “Marketing is one of the areas that many business owners forget as often they are so involved in the actual day to day ‘running’ of the business,” she comments. “Alastair will be discussing some simple strategies that businesses can apply, that might just help drive more customers through the door. This event will also provide an opportunity for networking – another invaluable and cost effective way of introducing new business.”

Alastair Campbell is Managing Director of The Ideal Marketing Company and gives talks on low cost marketing solutions for SMEs across the UK. He also runs the Marketing Mentor Programme, a fully funded 18 month support and training course designed for small businesses.

Businesses from across Leicestershire and the surrounding area that are interested in attending should call Pragnesh Sadadiwala from Barclays Bank on 0116 206 2184 or email pragnesh.sadadiwala@barclays.com to reserve a free place for this free marketing seminar in Leicester.

Free Marketing Seminar in Lutterworth

Free Marketing Seminar at The Greyhound Hotel, Lutterworth, Leicestershire.

How to Grow & Protect Your Business in 2010

Tuesday 16th February 5.30pm – 7.30pm at the Greyhound Inn, Lutterworth

With the start of the New Year, you may be wondering about what 2010 holds in store for your business.  Would you like it to great off to a great start? You are invited to a seminar and networking event which offers practical ideas on how to grow & protect your business during the year ahead and beyond.

Part 1 - What are the best ways to grow your business?  The first part of the session covers low cost marketing ideas on the 4 key areas of business growth.  Attracting more leads, converting more prospects into customers, selling additional services to existing customers and keeping customers for longer.

Part 2 – How do you protect the business that you have grown? It’s all too easy to let the wealth and value slip away or to expose yourself to unnecessary risks.  The second part of the seminar looks at how to protect yourself financially and how to use your business to build yourself a financial fortress.

The seminar starts at 5.30pm with presentations commencing by 6pm.  The event is free of charge and you are invited to attend and bring up to 3 people with you. We are anticipating a good level of attendance so PLEASE reserve your place in advance.

To reserve you place please call 01858 44 55 43  e-mail seminar@idealmarketingcompany.com

Marketing Seminar

Thanks to all the small business owners and marketing managers who attended my latest marketing seminar at Hothorpe Hall.  Judging from your feedbackforms and the e-mails I’ve since received you got a lot out the day.

Hear what one of the delegates had to say about yesterday’s event by clicking on these links:

Marketing Mentor Feedback

Marketing Mentor Feedback- part 2

Who do you know?

I’m a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘The Tipping Point’  which partly talks about how people’s behaviour can lead to large surges in the popularity of a new product.

In 1967 Stanley Milgram performed an experiment called “Six degrees of separation” which showed that average number of personal contacts standing between you and any stranger is six people. Duncan repeated the same experiment in which 60,000 people across 166 countries were asked to forward an e-mail via personal contacts to one of 18 target recipients. The results were astonishing. The majority of cases required only six steps and the message chains “did not rely on a few highly connected individuals”.

This partly goes against Malcolm Gladwell’s theory which states that different types of people have different types of influence: “Mavens” – experts in the field; “Connectors” – widely networked individuals; and “Salesmen” – passionately persuasive people.

Word of Mouth advertising is one of the oldest and most effective ways of communication as borne out by the 1967 Stanley Milgram and Duncan experiment, but I believe in Gladwell’s point that some people are key to making a message travel quickly and efficiency.

penny wise - pound foolish?

Marketing ways out of recession

I read a YouGov survey recently which showed that small businesses plan to increase their marketing budgets over the next 12 months inspite of the current economic climate.

Marketing is important for SMEs in UK as in a survey of nearly 1,000 small business owners found that 38% plan to invest more in marketing.

SME’s can be shielded from recession by reducing external costs and consolidating suppliers. Further protection can be given by bringing in-house traditionally outsourced speciality tasks, such as production of marketing materials.

The survey by YouGov reveals that only 40% respondents will bring professional quality marketing material production in-house and only a quarter said they’d be unlikely to do so.

“The survey results highlight how businesses are looking to reduce external costs through bringing printing requirements in-house, with the ability to produce professional quality print material themselves, rather than through an external supplier,” said Officejet Brand Manager, HP UK, Beth de Avila.

The survey also reveals that 79% of those businesses that advertise rely on printed and online advertising as their primary means.

Added to the information given by the same survey 40% used print as their primary form of advertising and 7% were with event based advertising.

“These results highlight how UK business owners are not panicking in their attitudes to marketing during the current economic downturn, and are budgeting for the long term as well as the short,” added de Avila.
“Previous recessions have shown that those businesses that market themselves well during fallow periods are significantly better positioned when the good times return.”

It also showed that 13% respondents spend more than 80% of the company’s marketing budget on print advertising and 27% spent more than half.

The research was conducted by YouGov and surveyed 943 micro, small and medium sized business owners from 10th – 12th June 2009.

Sales Growth

Direct Marketing simulates Sales: Survey

With majority of recipients making a purchase, Direct Marketing remains one of the best ways of generating sales as figures suggest.

Almost three-quarters of people who received direct mail advertising from a business responded while the success rate for television was ten per cent lower according to ExactTarget’s 2009 Channel Preference Study.
Print media channels such as direct mail is more popular among younger people.

Robert Keitch, chief of membership and brand at the Direct Marketing Association, told the website: “Direct mail has long been the most effective of all direct marketing channels, which explains why the medium still accounts for 25 per cent of all direct marketing spend.”

Also the consumers are more likely to respond to direct mail promotions.

PMDG Marketing Communications is launching a direct mailing campaign to encourage more Mexicans to cross the border to shop in Texas, according to Business Wire.

I still think that direct marketing is the most effective of all marketing channels and is still popular among the youth. This survey shows further proof that it still works for improving sales.

Marketing Seminar at the Angel Hotel

Free Marketing Seminar – November 2009

What can you do to minimise the marketing mistakes that can happen when you launch a new product, run an advert or send out a direct mail campaign? ‘12 Reasons Why Marketing Fails’ is packed with simple ideas that will help you to avoid the 12 most common errors that spell disaster for your next marketing campaign.

If you want to avoid the wasted money and missed opportunities for growth that can result, book your free place today.

You can also find out more about the ‘Marketing Mentor’ programme and how you can enrol in it for no charge as it is currently fully Government funded.

Details about the free Marketing Seminar at the Angel Hotel, Market Harborough

Date: Thursday November 12th at 5pm

Location: The Angel Hotel, High Street, Market Harborough

Duration: 5pm for a 5.15 start till 6.30pm

Parking: Free in The Angel car park behind the hotel

Please e-mail Helen@idealmarketingcompany.com to reserve up to 3 places or call 01858 44 55 43

Market seminars leicester

Special Seminar on Brand Development and Protection

The most valuable brand in the world is google with an estimated value of $100bn (source: Millward Brown report 2009), this is a staggering sum and google relies almost exclusivity on brand awareness to promote its business.

In the current economic climate customers are increasingly turning to trusted and well known brands whether they are seeking cheaper products at supermarkets such as Aldi or for new and exciting technology such as Apple.

As a business your brand is essential in a competitive market. This is why our second seminar in the series looks at how to protect your brand and how to develop your brand.

The Seminar will consist of the following two presentations:

Alastair Campbell, The Ideal Marketing Company:  Creating a Powerful Brand – What are the simple lessons that every company can introduce when looking at the critical area of branding?

Jason Hathaway, Edward Hands & Lewis Solicitors: Protecting your brand – trade mark registration, passing off and other related legal rights.

The seminar is on 24th September at the Leicester Space Centre starting at 8.00 am and will finish at 10am.

I would urge you to book early as we are expecting a good turnout.

To book a place please e-mail alastair@idealmarketingcompany.com

Thanks to Tara Carlile-Swift who sent me the following feedback from yesterday’s event:

“Once again Alastair’s speaking style captivated, inspired and challenged our audience who ranged from start-up businesses to established SME’s. His down to earth approach to marketing is refreshing. Our delegates left with real advice they can implement straight away - which is why Alastair’s style is so relevant in the current climate”

Tara Carlile-Swift

Tara Carlile-Swift
Founder - East Midlands Business Live! & New business live!

www.embusinesslive.com

We all like to complain about things from time to time.  This BBC page has a summary of the past 12 months most controversial and complained about adverts.

What I always find interesting about these lists is how some things which seem harmless to me WILL cause offence in others.  Also how some very uncontroversial products of service will rely on sex or violence to sell. Judge for yourself at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8020881.stm