Ideal Marketing Company Blog

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.  

Redpoint holidays www.redpoint.co.uk have been clients of The Ideal Marketing Company for 3 years and offer a wide range of ski holidays in the winter and activity holidays in the summer.  They are a wonderful friendly company with personalised service from Nina & Greg who own and manage it (I’m not just saying that because they are clients, I’ve seen the feedback they get from the people who travel with them).

I thought you might find this article written by Greg of interest if you are a solo traveller.

Go it alone – and have the time of your life

Greg Moffat of Redpoint holidays talks about how going on holiday alone could be the trip of a lifetime.

We humans are sociable animals – it is in our nature to seek out other people to spend time with, and this extends to going on holiday. However, the make up of society is changing, and going on holiday alone is an increasingly popular trend – an indication of the fact that we are more travel minded, independent and adventurous than ever before. According to a recent Mintel report, an estimated15.4 million Britons holidayed alone last year; an increase of 40% over the past decade, with the greatest surge in demand for solo holidays within the 25-34 age group, who have a high disposable income and the freedom to travel.

Not surprisingly, research suggests that men are happier to holiday solo than women – often for practical reasons such as safety. But women are increasingly breaking with the traditional perception that holidaying alone is solely for people who have no other choice – and are also branching out into increasingly exploratory activities.

Greg Moffat of Redpoint Holidays has been in the travel industry for over 15 years and has noticed a change in the type of experience that people are looking for. “Leisure time is hard earned and people are usually pretty clear about what they want. There is now a real demand amongst our female guests to holiday solo within the confines of an organised group,” comments Greg. “The misconception that people holiday solo because they have no one to go with is slowly changing, whereas in my experience, the opposite is often true. Many people choose not to go on holiday with others; it may be that their partner or friends don’t share the same interests and don’t want to go hill walking or sit sweltering on a beach in the Mediterranean. Work commitments can also be an obstacle, whilst the increase in divorce rates combined with the fact that people are marrying later means that there are more single people around now. In addition to this, the nature of both people and travel has changed. People of all ages are more willing to travel alone. Instead of sitting at home twiddling their thumbs, today’s more adventurous travellers are getting up and going off by themselves. Travelling alone has lost its stigma.”

However, Greg believes that, whilst increasing numbers are happy to go on holiday without a friend or partner, many do like to have the company of like minded people at some point during their trip. “One of the things that our company, Redpoint does is organise activity holidays, but some of these activities can be a little daunting, or even dangerous if you are doing them alone so we have dedicated activity weeks for solo travellers. Many of our clients aren’t actually single and they don’t come looking for romance: it’s purely an opportunity for a group of people to get together and have a go at some exciting activities like river rafting, mountain biking or canyoning. We have been running these weeks for a couple of years now and whilst each group has its own different dynamic, the overall feeling of camaraderie and support is always fantastic.”

Although the singles travel market has rapidly expanded during the last decade, the solo traveller often gets a poor deal from the industry: most hotels still charge supplements for single occupancy and guests may be crammed into smaller rooms despite paying over the odds for the privilege of sleeping alone. However, Greg believes that that there are ways of ensuring that holidaying on your own is an enjoyable experience – without breaking the bank. “If anyone is considering holidaying alone but is a little apprehensive, I would thoroughly recommend a well run solo break,” he comments. “Most reputable companies who offer these holidays are simply aiming to gather together groups of like minded people to have a good time. You may well also find that they have done away with the ubiquitous single supplement which can add considerably to the cost of a holiday.”

Five reasons to go solo

1. You will have loads of opportunities to meet new people. Activity holidays such as skiing, walking or rafting are great ice breakers and give you common experiences to talk and laugh about together.

2. Dining alone can be daunting for some – going on a solo week ensures that there are always familiar people you can sit with and have a drink or dine with – if you feel like it.

3. You have the opportunity to try something you’ve always wanted to do. If inner tubing is your partner’s idea of hell, you can get your adrenalin fix without worrying about a bored partner twiddling their thumbs back at the hotel.

4. By joining a special solo week, you avoid the costly single supplement – the bane of solo travellers everywhere!

5. For many, a holiday is a social situation: a solo holiday gives you the opportunity to socialise with like minded people during an action packed day, or over a glass of wine as the sun sets.

“There are more opportunities for solo travellers than ever before,” comments Greg. “So if you’re thinking of taking the plunge and going on holiday alone, go for it! Do your research and choose the right kind of trip for you. Who knows, you might even enjoy yourself so much that it becomes a habit!”

For more information about the solo summer activity weeks or solo ski weeks, visit www.redpoint.co.uk or call Pauline on 0845 680 1214.

I wouldn’t normally do this but my 11 year old son has insisted that I mention the new series of Dr Who on my blog.  I must confess to being a fan of the origional series so when the new series started 4 years ago I was keen for both my sons to watch it.  Little did I realise just how good it was going to be.  This is down to several factors.  The scripts are first rate, but a budget far bigger and first rate cast and state of special effects certainly do their bit.  But you have to hand it to the PR and marketing team at the BBC as well.  They do a great job of keeping the series in the public eye and the trailers are a wonderful example of selling the sizzle and not the sausage.  It all seems to be a case of ‘why didn’t the BBC bring it back years ago? As sure sign that they have got is almost spot on.

Click here to see my favourit trailer – truly and epic that was actually shown at cinemas around the UK

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/videos/?episode=&character=&action=videostream&playlist=/doctorwho/playlists/s4_01/video/s4_01_trl_03.xml&video=1&date=&summary=Originally%20screened%20exclusively%20in%20cinemas.&info=&info2=&info3=

It all start again this Saturday at 6.20 on BBC1 and I for one will be glued to the TV for the next 13 enthrawling weeks to see where the adventure will take us all.