Ideal Marketing Company Blog

Pleased to say that I’ve been asked to run a marketing seminar at the WalkersStadium this October (October 1st).  I did a talk last year, so it’s nice to asked back. Here are full details of the event

 

Beating the downturn means turning up your networking.

With the current downturn in the economy and businesses fearing a possible recession, it is more important than ever to be networking with prospects and customers. 

 

Visibility is the key

 Research has shown that 91 per cent of decision-makers find exhibitions an ‘extremely useful source of purchasing information’. This statistic speaks volumes about the potential opportunities that exhibitions and business conferences can offer. In the wake of the credit crunch, many businesses will be thinking about tightening their belts, re-assessing costs and bottom line expenditure. But cutting back primary tactical activity such as marketing will ultimately be detrimental to a business.

These budgets are often one of the first to be cut during hard times, but are actually key to ensuring a steady pipeline of business leads.  Businesses cannot rely on existing customers alone and must continue to create opportunities to network with prospects face to face and remain visible in front of a target audience. Being visible at trade shows and exhibitions is an excellent way to achieve this. According to Research, 80 per cent of trade shows exhibition visitors are personally involved in buying the products or services on offer. This just shows what a captive audience exhibitions provide and how hot leads really can be generated from having a presence at these kinds of events.

 

Build long-term relationships

Attending these events also gives visitors the chance to meet new people and build up a network of contacts. With the explosion in social networking sites and online business communities, many organisations are taking to the web in order to conduct their business networking.

However, when it comes to building effective and long-tem business relationships, there is no substitute for meeting people in person and networking face to face. During slower trading periods, meeting prospects is essential.

Conferences, exhibitions and trade shows present an ideal opportunity for networking and meeting new people in your industry sector and new markets. Networking is not just a one way street, either, events provide an excellent platform for selling products and services, they enable businesses to meet potential suppliers and contacts, whether these will save an organisation costs, compared to current partners or just share ideas and information that can help take a new perspective on a company.

There is no doubt that face to face networking is an essential business tool that can also help provide inspiration motivation and ideas to drive business forward.

 

One step ahead

In today’s ever more competitive marketplace, businesses need to stay ahead of their competitors. Business exhibitions and conferences are an important part of the marketing mix, that shouldn’t be forgotten about, but rather combined with other techniques to make an effective marketing strategy.

Check out the top tips below on how to get the most out of a business show:

 

Getting the best out of an exhibition

Objectives – work out what you want to achieve at the exhibition and put a plan in place for all actions that need to be completed before the event. This should include all deadlines for getting the stand designed and all information across to the organisers.

Preparation – this is vital if you’re exhibiting at an event. Follow the show guide carefully when you receive it. Don’t forget you will need to let the organisers know about what you need on your stand (e.g. lighting, electricity).

 

Prepare your messages – make sure you know what your key messages are for the event and what your business wants to communicate to prospects. All messages should be consistent across your stand, company literature and how staff are communicating verbally with prospects.

 

Stand preparation – produce company literature and any documents that will be handed out on the stand. Also make sure that demonstration products are fully working and ready to be showcased.

 

Contact customers and prospects in the run up to the show to let them know you’ll be there. 83 per cent of the most successful companies at a range of exhibitions were the ones that mailed their prospects and customers before the show.

 

Maximise your presence with other marketing techniques. Use direct mail, e-newsletters and PR to raise your profile ahead of the event. Check the event website to find out who the media partners are. These publications will normally run features and articles about the event.  

 

Know who’s manning the stand – have a rota in place so that there is always someone on the stand and be sure to factor in breaks.

 

It sounds obvious, but take plenty of business cards. Events are all about networking, so talk to as many people as possible and make sure you give them a business card.

 

Remember that the event doesn’t end when you’ve left the venue. Make sure that you follow up with all the leads you’ve generated and the people you spoke to. This will ensure that you remain visible with prospects and increases chance of converting your leads into a deal.

 

Network at the Leicester Business Event on 1^st October at Walkers Stadium.

 

Visit www.leicesterbusinessevents.co.uk   email info@hi2events.co.uk   or Tel Elaine Vandelli Event Director on 07802 492348

 

The headline

You cannot sell to people if you haven’t got their attention. The headline is there solely to catch people’s attention. Newspapers use headlines to communicate what they stand for and the type of stories that you will find inside. The headlines actually sell the papers: once you have bought the paper, each story headline sells each individual story.

If you don’t have a clear benefit driven headline at the start of your letter you can wave goodbye to about half of your readers, so spend time getting it right. It has to appeal to your perfect customer so think up a series of headlines that sum up what the letter is about. Create at least 10, but you may write as many as 100 before you find one that perfectly sums up what you want to say.

The offer

What do you want to say? Why are you contacting these people in the first place? You should always have a reason for writing to people. Is it something new that they can have? Is it a special offer or a reduced price, a new item in stock for a limited time? Whatever it is, the offer is probably the most important area. If you get the offer right then you are off to the best start.

Make your offer as eye catching and imaginative possible. Make it time sensitive and difficult to say no to. Make it believable and above all make it easy to understand. To assess this, show your letter to a stranger: they should be able to say what you are telling them about in about 5 records if you are to have a chance of winning over people with your direct mail letter.

What to say in direct mail?

There are various things that you can write in your letter that will make it more widely read, but bear in mind that about 50% of people will never even open your letter – it will go straight in the bin or will be partially looked at and then thrown away. The more you can make your letter look like a personal communication from one person to another, the better.

Having said that, there are certain ideas, tips and techniques that you can use to improve readership and response rates.

 

 

 

 

Here are some areas of direct mail that are worth testing:

The list of names it is sent to

The headline

The time of year / month / week

The offer

The copy inside the letter

The supporting material

References quoted

The envelope

The follow up method

Timing of the offer

When to use direct mail

Direct mail is great for launching something new to targeted groups of people. If you are launching a new finance product aimed at small companies which you have identified as having cash flow problems, then direct mail is perfect. It allows you to write to the appropriate person within an organisation, at the right time and be very specific with the information that you tell them.

For e-mail, it is best used as an opt in service. That means you give people who visit your site the opportunity to ‘opt in’ to receive updates and information about what you have to offer. Cold e-mail campaigns are far less effective that these warmer ‘opted in’ prospects.

 

 

 

 

 

I am preparing a new marketing seminar for later in the year.  I want to know which aspects of marketing you find the most difficult!  Tell me, and I’ll do my best to include them in the seminar.  I may even be able to answer your problems here and now.  If I can, I’ll e-mail you an answer or a link to a book I’d reccomend.  But for the moment, just tell be about the 3 things that currently FRUSTRATE you most about you marketing activity.

 

 

You won’t see many large companies letting their branding decline during tougher ecconomic times.  But smaller companies often cut their marketing spend at just the time that they should be expanding.

Pleased to say that the IOD Institute of Directors Magazine has recently published and article I wrote on how to market your business even during period of ecconomic decline.  Hope you find it of interest

http://www.director.co.uk/ONLINE/marketing_11_06.html

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to everybody who was able to attend the Marketing Seminar at Hothorpe Hall in Thursday night.  I got a great deal of positive feedback from the evening and more questions that normal about enroling on the Marketing Mentor programme.

Hope that everybody left with lots of positive ideas.

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Thought you might like to see this recent marketing article I contributed to the New Business website…

http://www.newbusiness.co.uk/articles/marketing-advice