Who do you want to sell to? Small business owners, pensioners, young people or somebody else? Be clear who your CENTRAL audience is and make your message pertinent to them. If you catch other people at the same time that is great, but be clear about whom you focus your activities on based on the numbers, interest in what you do and ability to pay.

For more information or to find out how marketing can work for you visit our site or contact us on 01858 44 55 43 or email alastair@idealmarketingcompany.com

 If you were asking what people really want from a marketing campaign, most people would say generating high quality leads. 2-step marketing is designed purely to generate high quality leads.

2-step marketing is a good way of establishing your authority. I’m a marketing consultant like 1,001 other marketing consultants that are around, but say, because I’ve written a special report on how to double the sales of photocopiers, if someone in the photocopy industry is particularly interested in that report, I come across as having some authority within that area. I am not just “another consultant” but a consultant who’s written something that is very specific and of interest to that particular business. It is a very good way of quickly, easily and inexpensively establishing authority by producing a reasonably authoritative work which will be of interest to people.

You must remember that this is not about selling straightaway, but about getting a foot in the door. It’s about people raising their hand and gathering the names of people who have said that they are potentially interested in finding out more about what it is you’re talking about. They are not ready to buy but, they are interested.

We offer a 1 hour FREE consultation, if you would like to see what we can do for your business contact us 01858 445 543 or email alastair@idealmarketingcompany.com

Want to stand out from the crowd? Then don’t produce a marketing message that is the same as the crowd. A bold benefit led statement, strong visuals, consistent branding and a bright, simple graphic will help you be noticed and remembered above all the noise.

Do you need some free advice on your current marketing campaign? To find out more about our 1 hour  free consultation call us on 01858 44 55 43 or email alastair@idealmarketingcompany.com

2-Step marketing is designed purely to generate high quality leads. By that, I mean people who are in the market for buying the product or service that you have to offer. That is what two step marketing is all about. Even better than that, the leads tend to be quite warm.

Why does two step marketing work so well?

For those of you who haven’t read it, there is a fantastic book I would recommend called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini.  It talks about lots of different factors that influence people and help them make buying decisions. One of the key things that he talks about is something called the law of reciprocity.

An example that he gives is this: there is a temporary member of staff that goes into an office. He works quite hard, goes out to lunch, comes back from lunch, and says to the people who work in office “By the way, I’m running a marathon for charity, would you sponsor me?” He gets some interest from some of the people in the office, but not very much. Another temporary member of staff goes and works in the morning, goes out to lunch, and when he comes back from lunch he buys a bottle of Coke for everybody in the office. He says “It’s very hot outside so I just thought everyone would enjoy a Coke.”  Then an hour later he asks people if they would mind sponsoring him. The results are incredible.

If you give somebody something for nothing, they feel a moral obligation to return the favour in some ways. So it works on the basis of that. If you give somebody something for nothing that is of value and helps them, they feel obliged to return the favour in some way. That might be by passing on a lead to someone else, by writing a testimonial, or it might be by buying something extra from you.

 To find out more about the ideal marketing company, and what we can do for your business contact us on 01858 445 543 or email alastair@idealmarketingcompnay.com

Local business owners are invited to a free seminar in Leicestershire next month (February) to find out if they are eligible to claim back funds spent on research and development.

Figures show that 40% of businesses that have invested money in research and development fail to claim back the money they are entitled to. The government has a wide definition of research and development and the seminar, which is a being held on Tuesday 7^th February at Market Harborough’s new Innovation Centre, will assist companies in checking their eligibility for funding.

The event will include a presentation by HMRC (Leicester R & D Unit) on the research and development scheme, followed by Richard Cullum, Managing Partner of R & T Consultants who will explain how to make a claim. There are several other confirmed speakers offering their expertise and the event is being introduced by James Briggs, former chair of the Leicestershire Economic Partnership.

“Few people realise that you don’t have to be a multinational company to make an R & D claim,” explains Richard. “Many smaller companies who conduct research and development projects are entitled to claim. Unfortunately, most of these companies don’t realise that through tax credit schemes they can claim back a majority of the money they have invested.”

The seminar will give everyone attending the opportunity to find out if they are entitled to claim and will offer advice and assistance in putting forward a claim.

To book your place on the seminar contact 01858 414200 or e-mail reception.harborough@oxin.co.uk. Due to anticipated demand, places are restricted to a maximum of two per company.

How important is the front page of your brochure? Ask any magazine editor if the front page of their magazine is important. More time is spent on the look and feel of the front page of a magazine than on any of the articles inside. They’re competing for buyers, just like you are, and getting the right picture on the front can make a huge difference to the circulation in any given month. So take a leaf from their book: if you are using a picture, spend time selecting an interesting one.

People love looking at faces. The human brain is very good at seeing and remembering other people’s faces and is amazingly sophisticated at it. One of the reasons that so many magazine covers have close-cropped photographs of faces is that such an image is almost impossible for us to ignore. In tests of magazine covers, the close-cropped photographs of faces are looked at more quickly and remembered far better than any other image. Although this treatment may not be exactly right for your brochure, you should at least consider using a face somewhere on its cover.

This is one of the ideas covered in the book – “the Marketing Launchpad” by Alastair Campbell available now from Amazon – order your copy today.

 1.  Marketing message is too complicated

It is better to have one strong message that you put across in a direct mail letter, poster or press release rather than half a dozen weaker ones. People are more likely to remember and act upon one strong point as it is more likely to penetrate their busy.

If you have any questions about marketing and would like some free advice conact us for a free 1 hour consultation on 01858 44 55 43 or e-mail alastair@idealmarketingcompany.com or visit here  

This is probably one of my favourite marketing subjects because it gets to the absolute core of what people look for marketing to achieve. If you were asking what people really want from a marketing campaign, most people would say generating high quality leads. They want leads from a person who are potentially interested in buying from the company and that is exactly what two step marketing is all about.

Why does two step marketing work so well?

 It focuses on the right people. If you send out a direct mail campaign to a hundred people, which of those people are you going to follow up on?  By using 2-step marketing, if ten of them have replied to you using the reply mechanism that you’ve included and asked for their free offer, free report or CD then those are the ones to follow up. They are the ones that are clearly interested. Those who have not responded are probably less interested. If you’ve done everything right, you’re first going to follow up with the ones who have already raised their hands. Imagine you were talking to a room full of people and you ask the question “Who in this room owns a Mercedes?” The people who put their hands up are the ones that are interested in what you’re selling and that is exactly what two step marketing does. You ask people to raise their hands: they are not saying they want to buy a Mercedes, but they are interested in finding out more. Those are the ones that you focus on.

For more advice on PR & Marketing contact us on 01858 445 543 or email alastair@idealmarketingcompnay.com

Thanks for all the feedback from last nights marketing seminar with a focus on social media last night in Market Harborough.  Looks like we are going to run it again in January.  Will post details on here as soon as the date has been confirmed.

That is one of the interesting things about niche marketing: you can go for very specific audiences and areas quite easily because they are special-interest areas.

If, for example, if you identified a problem for anglers was their inability to obtain life insurance because they were engaged in such a dangerous past-time, you could quickly create a niche insurance company / product.  They are a significant niche area that is easy to target.  There are many angling magazines to advertise in and they even television programmes and entire TV channels aimed at them. All you need to do is come up with a distinctive and relevant product name – such ‘Anglers Insurance Direct’ and you’ve almost got a company established straightaway because you’re creating it within a niche market that is currently unable to obtain insurance.

This is one of the ideas covered in the book – “the Marketing Launchpad” by Alastair Campbell available now from Amazon – order your copy today.