Ideal Marketing Company Blog

One of The Ideal Marketing Company’s oldest clients is the ski company Redpoint Holidays www.redpoint.co.ukThey are run by Nina and Greg and although we only meet up with them once a year (because they are based in Austra) we work on the company all year round.  This year we’ve been able to place a good number of stories for them in various newspapers.  The most recent one is in a specialist website that is for single parents. 

One of the great things about working for Redpoint is not only their enthusiasm for the business, but that they have holidays for all sorts of niche areas.  In skiing alone they have holidays for single people, women only, disabled people, first time skiers and families.  This theme carries on through the summer and in the article Nina talks about holidays that they run for single parents as well as activity holidays to keep teenagers busy.  

See www.oneupmagazine.co.uk/index.php?page=9&article=249  for Nina’s latest article. And if you are thinking of skiing next winter you MUST have a look at what Redpoint offer!  They have incredible re-booking rates and wonderful feedback from their customers.   And they are also lovely people to work for which has to count for something.

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How important is getting name recognition?  Just have a look at this clip of Welsh Culture Minister Rhodri Glyn Thomas announcing the wrong winner before correctly naming Dannie Abse’s The Presence Wales Book of the Year. (I can hardly look)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7485572.stm

Here’s some good news for a change!

For a limited time, government funding has been made available to help Leicestershire businesses with their marketing. The Marketing Mentor Programme has been launched for business owners / directors who have small marketing budgets – but want big results.

Running over 18 months, the programme offers help, inspiration and ideas in the critical marketing areas that will lead you to greater business success.

There are a few catches, but essentially, as long as enrolment commences by July 25th, you are entitled to 50% funding.

With tougher economic conditions already here, it makes sense to make your marketing budget work harder for you. This comprehensive programme will show you everything you need to know across the key marketing activities. At full price the programme only costs £720 (plus VAT) – but if you claim quickly you can receive the complete 18 month programme for the astonishing price of just £360 (plus VAT).

Please call me on 01858 44 55 43 or e-mail alastair@idealmarketingcompany.com to find out if you can claim this financial assistance for your marketing today.

Finally - as well as being half price, this programme comes with a 100% money back guarantee. If it doesn’t do what we say, then you pay nothing. So there is no risk to you – just the opportunity to dramatically increase your marketing success rate.

At my weekly networking goup working breakfast (www.workingbreakfast.com) I met up with a long standing friend of mine Rose Garwood.  She told me about a new course which is part of the management workshops that she runs (which are excellent by the way). This one is designed to help team managers and business owners get the best out of their people, improve communication and raise performance.

She’ll show managers how to predict behaviour, overcome tension, cope with the complexities of team dynamics and focus on success in the business. The next half-day workshop is Wednesday 18 June, in Nottingham. There are 3 places left! I’d love to go but have some stuff on that I can’t get out of that afternoon.

You can reach Rosie at www.reflectionconsulting.co.uk

If you go I’m sure you won’t be disapointed.

I’m delighted to be speaking twice on Saturday’s East Midlands Franchise Show at the Leicester racecourse. My origional morning slot after 11am on low cost PR ideas is now going to be followed with a 3pm slot on the 9 Levels of successful marketing.  Both talks are new presentations containing lots of low cost marketing ideas. For more details and to find out how to get there see:

http://www.eastmidlandsfranchiseshow.co.uk/

Predictions of an economic slowdown or even a full blown recession have been rumbling for months. For the business owner this inevitably means a time to re-evaluate budgets and tighten up on spending. The first casualty in a recession is often the marketing spend – but this may prove to be a short sighted approach. Advertising Guru David Ogilvy asked question in his book Ogilvy on Advertising “What should you do in time of recession, when you need every penny to sustain your earnings? Stop advertising?

He points out that if you stop advertising a brand which is still in its introductory phase, you will probably kill it — forever. Studies of the last 6 recessions have demonstrated that companies which do not cut back their advertising budgets achieve greater increases in profit than companies which do cut back.

In a Morril survey of 40,000 men and women involved in the purchase of 23 industrial products over five years, it was found that share-of-market went up in bad times — when advertising was continued.

He goes on to point out that the American Business Press that had pie charts of sales of companies which cut back their advertising expenditure during the 1974-75 recessions compared with companies that did not cut back. The companies that did not cut their advertising budgets had more than doubled their sales 2 years later while sales from the companies that cut their advertising had barely gone up 50%. Three years later sales were down for companies that had cut their advertising while it was up for those that did not. The net income for these companies also followed the same suit over the same period of years — those companies that did not cut their advertising had more than tripled in sales, while companies that did cut back during the recession had barely doubled.

Ultimately, you want your business to grow whatever the economic climate, and marketing is a key tool in achieving this. Instead of panicking, the small business owner should focus on these seven key areas. Get these right and your business should not only ride out the economic storm, but actively thrive throughout.

Here are 7 marketing areas that you should be focussed on over the coming months:

1. Remember you company’s most important asset. Your existing customers are your best bet for bringing in more business- and making more profit. Maintain good communication with your satisfied customers; let them know about everything you offer and what you can do for them. Reward their loyalty by offering new products or services at a preferential rate and give them a reason to spend more money with you.

2. Make your own headlines. Some companies seem to be forever in the newspapers or on the TV and radio. But this doesn’t happen by accident – it happens because they actively pursue publicity. If you have something that present or potential customers might be interested in, tell them about it. Surveys, predictions and articles that link into a topical issue are particularly newsworthy. If you sit back and think, you will be able to find something that you do, or make that will be of interest to an audience of potential customers.

3. Give it away for free – then reap the reward. Use the law of reciprocity in your favour: if you give a customer something, they will have the urge to give you something in return. Take food samples at the deli counter. You try the product, you like it so you are more likely to buy it. Following this principle, try offering special reports, insiders’ information, free talks or tips booklets - anything that may be useful to the prospect. Ideally it will cost you very little, but will be of value to the recipient – they now have an implicit obligation to give you something in return.

4. Become the ‘go to’ guy. Instead of trying to appeal to the widest market possible, develop a niche. In reality, the more specialist you are, the more people will seek out and buy from you. One way of achieving this is to create a specific brochure for every sector of your market. This rule also applies to direct mail letters, e-mail shots, sales presentations etc.

Work out what the problems are in your target markets and create a product to address them. This shows the customer that you understand their problems and have the solution to help them. Work out the specific benefits for your customers and you will unlock the real sales potential.

5. Make sure you know your customers. Put a reference code on every type of marketing that you produce and ask people to quote it when they call you up. Make it company policy that any new business enquiry is checked to find out where the person heard about you. Also, bear in mind you want to know how much a customer’s lifetime value is, not just how much they spent with you in one transaction.

6. Spend time online. It’s no longer good enough just have a brochure website – it needs to constantly be updated if it is to feature in the rankings and pique people’s interest .The simplest and easiest way to do this is to put a blog on your website and keep it regularly updated with news and views. By creating regular content and referencing articles from other sites that you think are of interest to prospects, you will find that you can increase your site’s Google ranking dramatically.

7. Don’t give up. If you have a product or service worth selling, believe in it. When someone says ‘no’, they may mean ‘not yet’ or even ‘I don’t know enough about the benefits of what you are offering’. Clients are not always ready to buy now and they don’t always respond to the same messages. Create a target group of good customers and hot prospects and keep in touch with them for months or years. If you’ve got your targeting right, they will buy from you – in the future if not now.

If the economic forecasts come true, many small businesses will not survive the next decade. I believe that those with the foresight to look long term and maintain their marketing activity will be the ones who most successfully weather the storms ahead.

Delighted to say that I have been approached to talk at the East midlands Franchise Show taking place at Leicester Racecourse on June 7th 2008.   I have created a special PR seminar for the event and will be available to answer questions at the end of my free seminar there.

Here are more details for the event which is back in Leicester for the second year.

www.eastmidlandsfranchiseshow.co.ukLeicester Racecourse welcomes a major UK franchise roadshow for the second year running in June.

The exhibition is the type of thing budding businessmen and women based in the Nottingham, Derby, Leicester and Peterborough areas would normally have to visit Birmingham or London to see.

However, this year, the event has attracted 40 of Britain’s most innovative and exciting franchise and business opportunities – and all of them are looking for people who want to run a business in the East Midlands region.

Free seminars run throughout the day: examples include “mums mean business”, “asian business investor forum” and a “motor franchise theatre”. All the seminars include a Dragons’ Den style forum – allowing the franchises to pitch their idea to the audience, who can then fire questions in return.

But why are these companies all coming to Leicester? Mark Monument, of exhibition organisers Job Done, explains:

“Our exhibitors are a pro-active bunch. They see the value of making it easy for potential franchisees to meet with them. All the visitors are simply people who live - and wish to run their business - in their own local area. Therefore, the franchises are more than happy to showcase the territories/licences they have available in that same local area”

Mark goes on:

“It’s not all about making (or investing) fortunes. Most exhibitors are looking for dedicated individuals who want to carve out a pleasant living and lifestyle for themselves.

There’s a bit of everything here for everyone – for “petrol heads”, for tradesmen, for white collar careers, for those interested in property investing, for those looking at retail outlets, or catering, or care homes. And, for once, you don’t have to travel to the NEC or London to see it all”.

In summary, the organisers claim that there is a proven, road-tested, ready made business waiting “on a plate” for all manner of career backgrounds and aspirations - and that each of the exhibitors offer a licence local to the East Midlands.

The show takes place on Saturday 7th June in the main Conference Centre at Leicester Racecourse. There is no entrance fee; there’s plenty of free car parking and all the seminars and advisory sessions are without charge too. It seems you just need to be a free thinking, budding entrepreneur to benefit from it all.

www.eastmidlandsfranchiseshow.co.uk

Pleased to see that Kim Lewintgton - a Market Harborough based plumber - is offering a new solar energy service to his customers. They are also offering ground source heating which I’ve seen featured on Grand Designs a few times over the years! 

I’ve know Kim for almost 5 years now and he is always looking for ways to extend what he offers his customers.  That’s just one of the resaons that his business is so popular and has grown so quickly in the Harborough area.  Almost 2 years ago he saw that rising energy costs would create a commercial market for solar heating in Leicestershire so it’s good to see that it has now gone live on his site www.lewington-heating.co.uk �

I’m pleased (and sorry) to say that my May 15th Marketing Seminar is full and that we are now unable to take any more reservations.  I have however added an extra date on Thursday June 26th.  Full details will appear shortly, but at the moment it is planned to be at Hothorpe Hall, Leicestershire from 6pm as the previous events have been.  There is no charge to attend, but we must limit the number of delegates to a maximum of 60 places.  Please e-mail me if you would like more details or call 01858 44 55 43 �

Retail recruiter is named as

  Retailers looking for high quality management staff now have a new recruitment firm of choice according to the Recruiter 2008 Awards for Excellence held earlier this week (Monday 28^th April). Top Irish comedian Dara O’Briain handed over the award for Best Retail Recruitment Firm to newcomers McCarthy Recruitment at a packed ceremony held in London’s Grosvenor House Hotel.    McCarthy (www.mccarthyrecruitment.com) specialise in permanent management level recruitment in the retail industry, with a wide range of household names amongst their client portfolio. Despite having only been established since 2005, McCarthy now has satellite offices in London and Dublin in addition to their original Manchester head office with clients across the breadth of the UK and

As part of the award selection process, the company was praised by judges for its extensive retail knowledge and in-depth understanding of the sector and its clients. The panel was particularly impressed by the company’s ‘day in the life’ strategy which detailed a day in the life of a manager with potential candidates to ensure that the right person was placed in the right position. McCarthy’s Managing Director, was particularly delighted to win the retail award having been named as Best Newcomer earlier in the evening. “We began trading in 2005 from a tiny two person office in central Manchester,” she explains. ”Since then, despite a reducing high street spending, business has grown rapidly through a combination of hard work and specialised retail knowledge. To be acknowledged for our hard work and dedication to our candidates and clients is for us the best accolade we could have.”   The double win has come as the company has embarked upon its own recruitment drive fuelled by its growing number of retails clients.  “The slowdown in the economy has not reduced the need for management.  In fact it has highlighted the need to take on the right people to cope with more challenging times,” comments Kate. “As our award suggests, we feel we are the right company to help retailers find the right management teams to move them forward.”  

Kate McCarthy, MD McCarthy Recruitment Tel: 0161 828 8726

Well done to Kate and the team at McCarthy Recruitment on winning this top award on top and being named best newcomer in the industry.