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How to Use Marketing in Summertime to Your Advantage

marketing in summertime-pop up shop on beach

Summertime and the living is easy. At this time of the year, businesses might be tempted to relax their marketing activity for a couple of months. For some small and medium enterprises (SMEs), there’s even a perception that marketing in summertime is pointless.

They look on the summer months as a period of slower business and fewer opportunities for growth. Unfortunately, the perception can become a self-perpetuating prophecy.

“Everybody is on holidays” is the common refrain. That statement might hold some truth here in Ireland, in that if we get a hint of a heatwave, we are distracted by what’s rare and wonderful. Worried that the heatwave will not be a recurring experience, we want to seize the opportunity to rejuvenate the batteries in this rare and relaxing environment.

What’s more, in the absence of such heatwaves on this Island, many people decide to travel abroad to get their ‘fix’ of Vitamin D. This adds to the SME perception that marketing in summertime is a waste of time and money i.e. when nobody’s around new business is harder to find.

We in O’C&K like to look at this in another way. If a business owner is to have any chance of new business, their company has to be front-of-mind, or at least more so than their competitors. So to reduce marketing communications at any stage, never mind the summer months, could result in competitors gaining an advantage.

I would suggest that using marketing in the summertime is actually a smarter business move rather than a wasted activity.

I will use the rest of this post to outline some ideas for how you might go about this.

Use Marketing in Summertime For Your Business Advantage.

Think about it, if many businesses do slow down during July and August then there will be less competition for your promotional efforts. There would also be fewer people attending networking events, which means your relationship building can be more focused. And, if the aforementioned inertia exists you should get more bang for your marketing buck.

If nothing else, summertime is also a good time to check your progress against your start-of-year business plans and to stockpile some fresh ideas.

Summertime is a good time to check your progress against your start-of-year business plans and to stockpile some fresh ideas.

Here are some ideas for using the summer months to build competitive advantage:

  • Write blog posts, take videos or do interviews and create a stockpile for future use
  • Audit the content on your website and if required, update for better SEO
  • Catch up on your industry related reading – those ones you placed in Evernote for reading later
  • Bookmark content that may be of interest to your existing customers
  • Identify previous content for repurposing on industry specific sites
  • Audit your social media presence for branding and professionalism
  • Have a look at how your competitors are promoting themselves (online and offline)
  • Brainstorm with staff in relation to marketing in summertime initiatives
  • Write a thank you note to your top customers. Not selling, just showing your appreciation
  • Plan for the back-end of the year, based on performance to date

Of course, we all need to take a break every now and then, but if you use your summertime constructively, you just might sneak ahead of your competitors by the pool.

8 Ideas for Marketing in Summertime

For instance, summertime is a particularly good opportunity to run online contests. People are more relaxed (on holidays perhaps) and are more open to entering relevant competitions for fun. Here are some tips if you are going to use a summer giveaway in a contest:

  • Make sure the headline includes the benefit of entering (i.e. the prize)
  • Prizes could include: tickets for a local event, a shopping spree, a night out, a day trip or clothing
  • After a person enters, prompt them to share the contest with friends (if they do they can enter again)
  • Run an advertising campaign. Organic reach won’t be enough, so you might invest a little money
  • Share-to-enter contests (on Instagram and Twitter only) – increase reach to common audiences
  • Give away your product, a gift card or a joint-promotion coupon with a similar brand in your industry
  • Set up a Facebook group and host an online summertime sale
  • Host a photo contest with a summertime theme

I believe that the warm summer months definitely offer opportunities for smarter marketing. Even if you don’t sell items that relate to the summer, chances are that you can still build a summer-themed campaign.

Boosting Summertime Sales

Let’s presume that the weather, on the whole, is better during the summer months. This allows business owners to try on-street marketing initiatives in the local market. Examples would include: handing out flyers with coupons, using street artists or entertainers, providing free samples or relevant giveaways. Giveaways would include, beach towels, sun cream, water, coffee, picnic samples, ice cream etc. The idea is to make the giveaway relevant to the audience and if possible, to your brand.

You might offer discounts if customers share the love by sharing a picture of their purchase on social media.  You could link discounts to the actual temperature outside. Open up a pop-up store on the beachfront or at a local festival. Any activity that gets your brand to where the audience is – is worthwhile pursuing.

Finally, not that you should limit your showing customer appreciation just to the summer months, but summertime allows you say thank you in novel ways e.g. host a BBQ, or offer free outdoor classes (wine tasting, craft making etc.).

13 Activities for Marketing in Summertime

  1. Use outdoor banners at festivals for hashtag competitions
  2. Place postcards at tourist centres and flyers at shopping centres
  3. Run social media photo sharing contests
  4. Host an event that relates to your business and issue invites to the public
  5. Partner with non-competing businesses to package attractions
  6. Use sponsorship for awareness and product sampling
  7. Use street side teams to distribute product samples
  8. Try professional graffiti branding in unexpected places or chalk drawings on pathways
  9. Piggy-back on unique holidays
  10. Leave business cards in leisure facilities or hotels (with permission of course)
  11. Generate summer newsletters full of summertime activities and news
  12. Write a summer themed blog for the local press or be interviewed on local radio
  13. Use table tents, with holiday tips, in your own premises (if applicable) or other agreed venues

Conclusion

Marketing in summertime can really help to boost sales or build the profile of the human side of your brand. Most people are in a positive mood during the summer so cash in on the sentiment with your marketing. It is a time of year that you can try out new marketing tactics (which can also be a test for future use).

The main thing to remember is to have fun, be smarter about your marketing – and don’t burn the hamburgers.

“Thank you for reading our blog post today, we hope our pointers will help your business grow.

Cheers –  Aidan & Jim.

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How to Boost Your Efforts and Get the Most Out of Trade Shows

Trade-Show-sign-in-lights

Trade shows, conferences, seminars, meet-ups etc. are very powerful marketing mediums, because they can bring together hundreds or thousands of people, in one place and in a short space of time. They do mean busy days though, with lots of people milling around and lots of conversations.

Whether you’re an event planner, a trade show veteran or attending your first event, we have tips below that will help you engage with people and make connections. If you haven’t time to read on, here’s a simple spoiler:

Maximise your time at a trade show by ensuring that all of your conversations are as meaningful as possible . Thereafter, if you are set-up to nurture leads, back at your office, then the trade show will have been a success.

Speaking of success, what’s driving me to write this particular post is the forthcoming www.bizexpo.ie event. Not only because it is imminent (26th April – City West Hotel, Dublin), but because I recently met with the owner/organiser, Barbara Gordon. When asked, she explained to me, why she is involved in something outside of her comfort zone i.e. she is not a formal event planner/organiser.

When the first shoots of Ireland’s economic recovery started to appear, Barbara, herself a small business owner – www.whatswhat.ie – felt that small and medium enterprises (SMEs), should be able to benefit from it as well as the large corporates. Her idea was to organise an inexpensive platform for Irish start-ups and surviving SMEs, to showcase their wares and attract new business.

True to her word, Barbara organised (with no professional help), the first BizExpo in 2011. Next week’s event is the culmination of six years’ experience, support from a team of friends, loads of stress and hard work.

There will be over 135 exhibitors and just over 1,000 people (no admission fee) have registered to attend next week. “I remain true to my original goal of attracting small to medium sized businesses, from around the Country, to showcase their work, to grow, prosper and engage with people outside of their normal networking area”….says Barbara.

What strikes me about this event is Barbara’s selfless rationale. She runs the event on a breakeven basis and on her own time. That being said, she has become very adept at securing ‘voluntary’ inputs. Her only mission is to ensure that Irish SMEs have a platform to grow and, oh yeah – she runs her own successful business as well. Congrats Barbara.

Register here and get yourself out to the City West Hotel on the 26th April and experience the optimism for yourself. Sure, you might even do a little business, while you’re there.

Trade shows, confer­ences, seminars, meet-ups etc. are very powerful marketing mediums. This blog post is full of tips for planners, exhibitors and attendees.

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We Love a Good Lanyard – Don’t We?

Lapel-badge-for-trade-shows

Whether as an organiser, an exhibitor or an attendee, I believe that we all love a good lanyard. It can be a symbol of exclusivity, access behind the scenes, a VIP, a guest speaker or indeed celebrity. Right here, beside my desk, I have a box full of lanyards from all of these roles (not celebrity, I might add). I was thinking to myself what is it about this simple piece of plastic that binds people at an event together. With www.bizexpo.ie, in my mind, I thought a recap on investing your time at trade shows, might be opportune.

I intend breaking the post into three sections (types of lanyard) that will address tips for a) the event organiser, b) the exhibitor and c) the attendee.

The Organiser’s Lanyard for Trade Shows.

Trade Shows VIP Access

Events are constantly changing, driven by technology and attendees’ expectations. As a result, organisers need to stay on top of current trends. We have all attended events that have a stale feel to them, which I believe is due to the organiser using tactics that no longer work.

Here are some of those tactics that might not work for you:

  • Not personalising the message. With today’s technology, there is no excuse for sending out the one-size-fits-all email message to everyone.
  • Choosing speakers that you like to hear. Attendees want maximum value for giving up their time. Listening to a speaker splurge about their own company is not what they want to hear.
  • Using social media as poster advertising. Whilst social media is a wonderful medium for engaging people, video and images should be the focus for engagement, not text.
  • Not staying connected with past attendees. For instance, there is no excuse for not undertaking remarketing campaigns or building online groups/communities to stay in touch.
  • Believing everybody still uses their PC for registrations etc. Adapt your web design and event technology to take account of this. Think mobile.
  • Cold Calling and Spam. If people aren’t interested don’t waste your time and money. Blanket marketing is rarely effective.
  • Registration Queues. Use auto-check- ins, scanners, apps etc. and avoid annoying the very person you want to impress.

Business Events Are Experiential Brand Marketing Platforms

If you are an organiser, and the event is to be a platform offering an experience of your brand, your goal is to ensure that the attendee becomes a repeat customer, again and again. The minute you take the eye off this ball, your attendees’ needs will be unmet and your event will fade into the noise of similar shows.

So, if you are never to fail your attendees again, here are 10 simple event mistakes that should be avoidable in this day and age:

  • The event website is the event’s front door, make it user-friendly and responsive
  • Excellent external directional signage is a must have
  • Good WiFi is as much a requirement as good toilets are
  • Communicate the event’s schedule in a clear and simple way (apps?)
  • Give advance notice of the event #hashtag and twitter handle (if appropriate)
  • Use a previous year’s video highlights to promote
  • Mix-up the speakers – male, female, topic, geographic etc.
  • Cater for people with disabilities
  • Have a wow-factor during the day – for people to remember
  • Have good food options and watch the alcohol availability
  • Protect your attendees’ data from spam operators

The Exhibitor’s Lanyard for Trade Shows.

Trade Show Access All Areas

Trade shows should form part of a business’s marketing activity. With the right event, a large portion of attendees will be your business’s target audience. Other reasons why an exhibition might prove to be worth the expense would be, nurturing relationships, generating leads, sales, or because competitors are there.

I believe there are three basic benefits to exhibiting. First of all, it facilitates brand recognition. The second is that it provides an opportunity for real face time and thirdly, it offers the potential to build a prospect list.

Like the list of mistakes outlined above, for organisers, there are sins to avoid for exhibitors but there are also things to do that will help your return on investment.

Here are 16 quick tips that we have found to be important:

  1. Have business objectives in place before the event so as to quantify your return
  2. Check the exhibitor’s agreement for what’s/what’s not supplied to avoid last minute panic
  3. Promote the event like you’re the organiser
  4. Consider your stand’s design/graphics so as to communicate effectively – you have about 7 seconds to attract a passer-by. Oh, and stand, don’t sit
  5. Dress professionally and appropriately for the event but be comfortable (no chaffed collars or new shoes)
  6. Do not put a shy staff member on the stand – they are your brand’s touchpoint. They must smile and make eye contact – no chatting with friends on the mobile
  7. Never eat at the stand
  8. You or your staff must know your elevator pitch, everything about the company and be prepared to listen. The visitor should always walk away with information (e.g.flyer)
  9. Do not discuss prices of your product/service with a nod-and-a-wink. Be transparent
  10. Use technology to capture leads – it’s more impressive nowadays
  11. Offer business cards to people who genuinely appear to be interested or will accept a call from you after the event (some exhibitors leave cards on a table – I’m not one of them)
  12. Focus on meaningful conversations with attendees – not other exhibitors (unless they are a prospect)
  13. If possible, avail of the opportunity to be a guest presenter/speaker
  14. Get back to new connections quickly and have a plan for follow-up
  15. Never pack up early – it reflects badly on you and the organiser. Anyway you need to milk your investment
  16. Enjoy yourself – being relaxed portrays your personal brand in a better light

Trade shows such as the www.bizexpo.ie are invaluable opportunities for networking, especially if you are a start-up or building your brand presence. Making connections with potential partners, new leads and nurturing relationships is the name of the game.

The Attendee’s Lanyard for Trade Shows.

Trade Shows Lanyard

Most events will provide a list of exhibitors on their website. We would recommend that as an attendee you go over the list in advance and decide who you want to see or talk to. You might even be able to arrange appointments.

If you research the schedule, you should plan what presentation, workshop or forum you would like to attend. Also, decide what you would like to learn from a specific exhibitor. For instance, I am aware that the www.bizexpo.ie is planning to have a ‘Knowledge Hub’ manned with experts that can answer a myriad of relevant questions for SMEs. Attendees should prepare questions in advance.

Another time-saving method, I have used when attending trade shows, is to map out your initial route to ensure that you get to the most important exhibits (that you’ve identified) first. This saves time walking around looking for exhibits of interest.

Many people feel bad about walking by an exhibit without engaging the smiling person behind the table – don’t. Just like you, they are attending the event to generate new business and don’t want to waste time talking to somebody who isn’t a potential customer.

It can be difficult to lug around a plastic bag full of brochures etc. so choose wisely. Only take those that you actually want – and you definitely do not need 50 promotional pens. Go one step further and bring your own bag to carry brochures, catalogues and product samples, if that’s what you’re there for.

Use your time wisely to meet potential customers, get intelligence on your competition and make industry contacts. Here are some top-of-mind reasons to visit a trade show:

  • Interact with peers in your industry and discover trends
  • Get new ideas for your business
  • Evaluate competitive products, suppliers and prices
  • Place orders / negotiate contracts
  • See novelties / latest innovations
  • Get specific products/services
  • Deepen your knowledge
  • Nurture existing relationships with customers
  • Generate new business contacts
  • Attend workshops, networking or panel discussions
  • Get away from your office/place of work to a neutral environment

Conclusion

I have referred to the www.bizexpo.ie from three different points of view, symbolised by lanyards. There are many tips included above and I didn’t really get into the marketing of events, as such. So, to finish, I will address an organiser’s scenario of having only one week left to an event and a need to promote it.

We recommend you continue to use normal promo channels such as email, flyers and free listing sites. Here are 5 other tips that may be used to bolster activity:

Social – change your social media profile pics to the event logo

Website – Put a big banner on your own website to catch visitors’ attention

Sponsors – Get your sponsors to spread the word through their own channels

Competition – Develop an online competition (e.g. tickets for retweets)

Video – distribute a video of a previous event or create an animated one

Remember, today, a great event and location are not enough to guarantee return attendance. You have to make sure that your event remains top-of-mind throughout the year and pitched at the right price to keep attracting attendees.

See you at the www.bizexpo.ie

“Thank you for reading our blog post today – Aidan & Jim.

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18 Useful Smarter Marketing Tips You Might Want to Know

useful-smarter-marketing-oc&k-scrabble-tiles

As a marketer, you know that the concept of useful marketing is still about connecting people with a brand in the hope that they will buy something.

If you have been a marketer for many years you probably use a marketing approach that has worked to-date. This post, therefore, may serve as a checklist for you or hopefully will give you some ideas to try. For people new to the industry, start-ups or SME owners I’ll include some tips that can start you on the road to success.

There are plenty of useful smarter marketing activities that are being lost in the sea of buzz words such as – content marketing, digital marketing, strategic marketing etc.  It is becoming more and more obvious, to us anyway, that despite the description of the method used, successful marketers realise that people will always have different relationship needs.

If marketers want to be able to focus on these needs, they really need to be much more flexible in their approach and thinking. This requirement is even more pronounced in our ever-shifting digital world.

In addition to traditional one-to-one communication, this flexibility also means having the ability to adapt to social media insights, behaviour analytics, personalisation, big data, etc. You could argue that never before has it been so easy to deliver the right kind of messaging to the right person at the right time.

So yes, building relationships are nothing new, but it has never been as important as now if we are to create a positive experience for our brand (or that of our client’s brand).

Marketers need to be much more flexible and this requirement is even more pronounced in our ever-s­hiftin­g digital world.

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In many of our previous posts, we stated that the smarter option for success is to link marketing objectives to business objectives. The challenge for marketers, however, is not to get caught up in the trap of only focusing on quantifiable business results. In doing so, we forget that regardless of the result, marketing remains about the one thing mentioned above – relationships.

Here’s one more complication, relationship types don’t remain fixed. Depending on outside factors people may change their relationship needs daily, hourly, weekly etc. especially when they encounter your marketing message. No, it’s not as easy as it used to be but if you get your focus right – you will be successful with your marketing activity.

Useful Smarter Marketing and Business Priorities

So what am I saying here? Firstly, we don’t have to learn and undertake new types of marketing. We just need to be smarter about what we currently do and use the tools available. Some specialist skills might be required but these can be learned or outsourced. Secondly, if we are genuine about building relationships, we have to think about people’s priorities and not put our own first.

If you can message people according to their priorities, you have a better chance of being successful. Caution is required when engaging people many times with the same messages because most of them will not be at the same part of the buyers’ journey. The danger is that while your messaging can be establishing or cultivating a relationship, it may also be damaging it.

Here is a useful checklist that we put together that may help you reconsider your business priorities. The idea is to put relationship building front and foremost in your objectives.

Useful Smarter Marketing Priorities Checklist

As marketers, we should realise that how each time we touch a person with content is important because it forms part of building a relationship. If you are doing this right, therefore, it means that marketing campaigns would change, in real-time, to individually fit/ respond to the customer’s needs.

On this point, here is a link to a related article on just-in-time marketing that’s well worth a read.

The downside of this relationship building is that there is no definitive way to measure the impact of relationship building. From a sales point of view, we can check metrics such as leads generated and conversions but this can’t be directly quantified to the nurturing element of our engagements.

What is becoming the norm though is that people want to deal with a brand that is human-friendly. They do not want to be seen as leads, opportunities and in-the-pipeline. No, they want to have a relationship just like every other aspect of their life. For an established brand this is a challenge and for start-ups, it really needs to be up front and central in their planning.

6 Useful Smarter Marketing Approaches for Start-Ups.

  1. Market your product/service before it is ready
  2. Explain why you’re different (the benefit), don’t compare
  3. Listen to your customer (sometimes they defy logic but are usually right)
  4. Test fast. Fail Fast – think outside the box (live streaming etc.)
  5. Connect multichannel advertising and PR activity (builds credibility)
  6. Provide a place for customers to engage with you (website etc.)

Useful Smarter Marketing Essentials to Grow Your Business

I’ve often been asked at networking events, to provide a quick list of essentials in a marketing approach, for start-ups and established organisations alike. Here are 5 main marketing approaches that I suggest they should really be using.

Create a Marketing Plan

We have mentioned the importance of a marketing plan in many posts before e.g. ‘Marketing Plans: Who Needs Them Anyway‘ and the main reason for it is consistency. Sending out flyers, using social advertising and building a website on separate occasions do not make for a concerted effort – results will be unpredictable. Create a plan for 6 months at a time and keep the priorities in the graphic above, in mind.

Build a Mailing List

All traffic directed to your website or landing page takes time, effort and money. If you don’t secure people’s contact information while they’re there, you are throwing money away. Building an email list is the easiest way to stay in touch with your customers/prospects. Use a monthly newsletter or lead magnets so as to offer value in exchange for their email address.

Have a Mobile Presence

Every day we are seeing statistics on how using a mobile device is the main way that people are searching online. If your site or content isn’t mobile friendly, your business will not survive in the long term. Even if you are a bricks-and-mortar business you should allow your prospects shop from their mobiles.

Social Media

I don’t need to quote all the statistics for social media usage in Ireland here, but suffice to say that almost 50% of the population have smartphones and 700,000 of them use Twitter, for instance. People use social media for various reasons but from a business point of view, relevant automated posts and a presence for answering queries is a must to stay in the conversation with your customers and prospects.

Search Engine Optimisation

The blogosphere is awash with posts that delve into the specifics of Search Engine Optimisation. Whilst it can’t be gamed anymore, it should definitely be incorporated into any marketing campaign so as to make sure your efforts are recognised by the various search engines.

Of course, not all of your marketing ideas will generate a profit. In fact, you might lose money at the start of a campaign. But as long as you know what factors to measure, you will be able to adjust your approach.

Tips to getting your marketing plan on the road to success.

We believe that you can certainly be a better marketer in this day and age by working smarter and not necessarily harder. Here are 7 smarter marketing tips to contemplate, that might help you along you along the road to success:

  1. Be professional – have a unique and descriptive business name with the online domain to match.
  2. Don’t be boring – build your brand on being remarkable, authentic and realistic.
  3. Have professional branding – consistency is the key word because first impressions count.
  4. Deliver your message in different ways – use multi mediums (social, radio, referrals, online ads etc.).
  5. Make sure everyone knows you – ensure you/your business is the most recognised in your market.
  6. Out-serve your competition – market where your competitors aren’t
  7. Always improve your digital visibility – social media, website, landing pages, SEO etc.

Conclusion

No business can succeed really, without good marketing. While nobody has the ultimate cheat sheet that propels us up to the next level, being smarter about your marketing can definitely contribute to success.

Instead of copying everybody else in your marketing plans, be remarkable in what you do. Look for unique ways to appeal to and reach new audiences. If you are to build a relationship with your customers/prospects, it is essential that you talk with your customers and not at them. If they have a complaint, deal with it and if they have a question – answer it.

Finally, admit to yourself when something isn’t working. You have to make changes if your marketing isn’t creating the impact that you want it to have on your customers. If people didn’t respond to your first efforts, you can be sure they will dislike having you repeat the process for the second time.

Plan to be smarter about your marketing and you will eventually see some real return for your efforts.

“Thank you for reading our blog post today – Aidan & Jim.

By The Way: Can We Send You Emails During the Year?

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How to Build Your Business with Smarter Online Marketing

smarter-online-marketing-tablet-device

Smarter online marketing is something that any growth-minded business aspires to, isn’t it? The trouble is, with little experience and even less time, many business owners or marketing managers dive straight into digital marketing because they don’t want to be left behind!

In this post, I’m going to suggest some questions about online marketing that you should ask yourself before you prepare a formal plan. Plus, I’ll briefly list some basic online marketing concepts and finish off by providing you with tips on how to market your business online.

The pitfall of rushing into online marketing, just because everyone else is, risks a complete waste of time and money. Just like any other business activity, it is advisable to plan for it. Even before that, we would advocate standing back to ask yourself some questions about how embracing digital might impact your business.

Questions such as:

– Will it change the actual business that you are in or drive existing business objectives?

– Will it help you to be more competitive?

– Could it help you increase the value you can offer to customers?

– Will it improve the cost or quality of your existing product /service?

– Might it serve to change your target audience?

– Will you be adding digital capabilities or adding digital to your capabilities?

Instead of rushing into formulating an online strategy, we would recommend that you focus on how any new technology you use, can add something extra to the business strategy you already have in place.

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8 Smarter Online Concepts to Understand

In our experience, what seems to be happening these days is that many organisations are looking at their online presence as being separate to their other marketing activity. Some contact us and ask – “can you help us with our Twitter or Facebook?” or whatever.

In response, we explain how social media is just one digital element in the overall communications effort. Thereafter our job is to show how to integrate their digital objectives into their overall business strategy.

Every day, it seems, we come across new specialist roles in the online marketing space. In our opinion, unfortunately, these people, whilst experts in their field, are failing to grasp how their outputs fit into an overall business strategy. Their impact on business growth, therefore, is negligible.

Of course, digital experts are required but all people in business should have at least a basic understanding of what online activity might entail. Whether you are a business owner, a marketing manager or a not for profit, it is important to understand these 6, fairly basic, online concepts:

  • SEO – being findable and having the best answer for your customers/prospects questions
  • Content Strategy – planned content must be able to attract, engage and convert
  • Paid Social Media – social media algorithms means effective reach must be paid for
  • Pay Per Click – reduced organic search means paid advertising is required to reach your audience
  • Influencer Marketing – amplify your created content by using online influencers (e.g. bloggers)
  • Online Analytics –analyse your existing data and also measure success of your online activity

Do you add to your digital capabi­lities or add digital to your c­apabil­ities? This article will help you ponder…

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Be smarter about your online image and the tools you use.

Your Image –

At a very minimum, it should be understood that how you look online is as important as how you look offline. We are starting a new year, so it is probably a good time to refresh your online presence with an image makeover. Here are some quick fixes that you can do immediately:

  • Update your professional headshot – hair, clothes and even you can change over the years.
  • Use new images on your website – your homepage image, your team, your results
  • Ask your customers for new pictures of them using your product/service
  • Update your images on your social media channels and display advertising
  • Remove any images of promotions that are out of date

Some of your customers might only engage with your brand online so it really is important that your online marketing landscape is professional, consistent and reflects the authentic you.

Your tools –

As an SME, have you signed up for some time-saving online tools that you no longer use? Or have some of the tools you use, been surpassed by better ones? There are hundreds of marketing tools out there that can genuinely help you improve your effectiveness, way too many for us to cover. Here is a sample of some that we use and have found to be effective:

  • Open Site Explorer – check out your competitor’s domain authority and copy their links
  • Siteliner – duplicate content check and internal/external links view
  • Portent Title Generator – it might not find you a title but it will get you thinking
  • Grammarly – a must on your computer for checking grammar – even if you don’t blog
  • Google keyword planner – good resource when launching pay-per-click campaign
  • Buffer – schedule social media posts for optimal times
  • PostPlanner – similar to buffer but also has a content generation element
  • Pablo – free images for social media
  • Followerwonk – for analysing your twitter followers
  • Start a fire – places a link back to your website on shared content
  • Wisestamp – professional email signature
  • Adobe Spark – free graphic templates for whatever platform you are using
  • Evernote – store everything for later (free version is excellent)
  • Playbuzz – allows the creation of polls, quizzes etc. for social media posts.

This is a really good infographic providing reasons why you should have a digital marketing strategy and steps to build one. Source – www.digitalvidya.com

12 tips on how to go about smarter online marketing

The first thing to remember about online marketing is that it is not a quick fix. Some actions will have a short term effect and others might take months and years. Being smarter about it means adding value to your digital journey and to that of your customers’.

  1. Website/SEO – your site has to be user-friendly, relevant and attend to your SEO in three elements based on the search impact i.e. tech SEO -25%, on page SEO – 25%, off page SEO – 50%.
  2. Post high-quality content on a blog regularly – adds value, drives traffic and creates authority
  3. Use social media purposely – LinkedIn groups, Facebook ads, Instagram influencers, YouTube tutorials and Twitter lists.
  4. Email marketing – Connect first and then sell. Use lead magnets and landing pages.
  5. Online Reviews – Accept them whenever you can and always answer negative posts
  6. Collaborate with bloggers – find the industry leaders and their blogs and collaborate
  7. Offer something free – a consultation, an audit, a review and upsell in due course
  8. Use business listing sites – google local, whatswhat.ie etc. and contribute to local forums
  9. Sponsorship – there are many online groups that would love to develop an awards programme
  10. Become an authority – use webinars, Quora, speak at conferences etc.
  11. Manage your email signature – link your website, blog, social media to your signature
  12. Use hashtags – create #smarter hashtags and use on Pinterest, Flickr, Instagram etc.

The caveat here is that none of the above tips is going to get you instant sales or perhaps not even instant traffic. The objective is to build a network of people that view you / your brand as being relevant, authentic and personable, and therefore somebody they want to do business with.

Conclusion

There is absolutely no point in jumping into online marketing at the deep end. It could cost your business time, money and even reputation. Understand the basic concepts of what’s required and if necessary outsource the work to professionals.

I was asked at a recent www.whatswhat.ie sponsored networking event to highlight some areas that will impact online marketing this year. In response, I suggested that online advertising will grow (especially Facebook), and off page SEO will be even more important. I stressed that search is not dead especially on mobile devices and neither is email marketing. Finally, I thought aloud that real online interactivity e.g. answering live questions will become an expected way to engage.

“Thank you for reading our blog post today – Aidan & Jim.

By The Way: Can We Send You Emails During the Year?

Twice a month or so we send an email with our best content. We never bug you; we just send you our latest piece of content.

Join others who love to get free smarter marketing tips –  right here, right now.

 

How to Realise Your New Year Ambitions for a Successful Business

2017-tablet-keyboard-successful-business

I remember reading somewhere that only about 10% of us stick to and achieve our New Year resolutions. Doesn’t that mean, therefore, that making them is ensuring a 90% failure rate at some stage? Luckily, planning for a successful business doesn’t usually adhere to the same statistics.

That being said, many people will use the start of 2017 as an opportunity to undertake a make-over, whether personal or business. Nothing wrong with that of course, but the 90% figure above hints that most of them are probably doomed to failure. Why is this? – We reckon it’s because of competing priorities, lack of simplicity or procrastination.

If this sounds familiar to you, don’t worry you’re not alone. Personally, each year, I have to remind myself to tackle these three pitfalls.

i) To avoid procrastination I try to change the way I think. We have all heard that we should start the most difficult tasks first, which is good advice. So, by saying to myself do-it-now, without weighing it up, I find works well. Do this for the month of January and it’ll set you up nicely for the rest of the year

ii) When trying to keep goals simple I have to remember to break activity into small bites. I think it is always easier to achieve small goals than one overwhelming one. Also, there’s a sense of accomplishment I find, as you strike them off your list.

iii) With regard to competing priorities, I make all my goals as tangible as possible by writing them down (or share with colleagues/friends). It makes it easier for me to prioritise my activity.

Realising your ambitions for a successful business in 2017.

The rest of this post will be for those people who have either been thinking about creating a business or want their business to be more successful in 2017. I suppose it is natural to look to the start of a New Year as the perfect time to plan guidelines for the year’s goals.

This post, however, won’t be a bullet point guide as to how you should plan for a successful business. Instead, initially, I’m going to focus on three outlooks that might help you with your 2017 business aspirations.

The foremost thing that I have learnt since setting up O’Connor & Kelly is that the purpose of business is to cater for people who will/can actually pay for the services provided. To do this there must be a complete focus on who the customer is.

For instance, we have recently launched a bundle of smarter marketing packs on our website. We based these on what we have learnt from various organisations over the last three years. We focused on different customer segments; SMEs, Clubs and Non-Profits, and have built up an understanding of what their needs really are.

What helped us with this is that we put ourselves in the shoes of the customer and asked:

-What is the trigger that would cause them to consider a purchase?

-What would deter them from going ahead with the purchase?

-Is the price matching the value that they perceive they will get?

When the customer’s needs become your focus – you can deliver value in a real way.

magnifying glass-value

The second outlook is to ensure that you are a customer’s preferred option. The main way to do this is to be relevant by providing outstanding value. If your value is not outstanding, you won’t have loyal customers, which means you won’t have repeatable business – which means higher costs looking for new customers.

Again, using O’C&K as an example, although we have targeted our smarter marketing packs as outlined, any organisation can mix and match. The point is that we have developed a good understanding of these segments based on customer insights. As a result, we believe that we can solve any particular marketing problem (flexibility) based on our experience, and can help those organisations with their growth.

Finding your own strengths to match customer insights is essential. The question to ask yourself is – are your services improving the life of your customer?

The third outlook we propose relates to marketing. If you want to realise your ambitions for a successful business in 2017, it is essential that you have a marketing strategy. In many of our previous smarter marketing blog posts, we have emphasised that marketing is an investment – which means allocating budget to it.

Look at it this way, if you have a great product/service, a great location and great staff but, nobody knows about it – you will never have a successful business. Here’s a simple, 2 part, strategy for you –  a) be seen by your target audience and b) convert that attention into business sales.

magnifying glass-strategy

Focus on these activities and avoid the other two other stumbling blocks of self-doubt and unnecessary spending.

It doesn’t matter what tools/channels you use (online ads, trade shows, social media, sponsorship, emails etc.) as long as you are showing how your solution can solve their problems. One final point on this, sales is a numbers game so you will hear a lot of no’s before getting a yes.

If you want to realise your ambitions for a successful business in 2017, it is essential that you have a marketing strategy.

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Personal New Year Resolutions Play a Part in Your Business Success

Whether already in business, a club, a non-profit or starting up a business, it is worth focusing on some personal resolutions also. This year why not try something new instead of adding the usually failed goals to last year’s list. It might be an idea to pick something that you would enjoy (rather than giving up something).

Here are some ideas – enroll in a certificate programme for a hobby, activity or ability you always wanted to try (learn a language, creative writing, song writing etc.). Listen to podcasts, audio books and become an expert in one topic – fundraising, for instance. Volunteer for the Board of a local charity. Mentor somebody and pay-it-forward. Try a life coaching or motivational speaking session (e.g. Howard Hughes International).

How about using social media at a personal level? You might have been building relationships online for your organisation, but how about your personal brand? You don’t have to post every day, but you can expand your own network with people that have similar interests. You might even enjoy it. 😃 As a bonus, from a brand point of view, it would be another way of allowing your personality shine through your engagement.

If you do any of the above, you won’t just be setting targets for 2017– you’ll be acquiring benefits that stay with you forever.

Tips about getting rid of those nasty habits

We outlined 3 outlooks earlier that will help you realise your 2017 aspirations whether you are setting up a new business or kick-starting an existing one. There are six mindsets that should be dropped before embarking on your 2017 odyssey.

  1. Don’t try to do everything on your own – ask for help or outsource if required
  2. Don’t try to be perfect – everybody fails sometime, making mistakes is OK as long as you learn
  3. Make it happen – don’t wait for business to come to you
  4. Procrastination – stay in the present by measuring your targets and your goals
  5. Don’t let competitors’ success frighten you – learn from them and do it better
  6. Keep focused on the mission – don’t spend money on things that won’t help you achieve it

There are plenty of things that can become obstacles in your business. Don’t let your mindset be one of them.

Plenty of things can become obstacles in your business Don’t let your mindset be one of them. #smartertips
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Conclusion

In this post, we suggested three outlooks that entrepreneurs and/or business owners need to have in order to realise aspirations for a successful business in 2017.  They were: a genuine customer focus. providing outstanding value and having a marketing strategy. We also mentioned that personal resolutions can impact on your organisation, so it might be worth planning for them as well.

Our tips above focused on some bad mindsets that business people should probably drop if they are to succeed in 2017. Our final caveat is not to focus purely on the science of marketing in 2017. Finding creative and smarter ways of delivering the message will always be the artistic side of marketing. We hope you will continue to be artistic and have a fun-filled and prosperous 2017.

“Thank you for reading our blog post today – Aidan & Jim.

By The Way: Can We Send You Emails in 2017?

Twice a month or so we send an email with our best content. We never bug you; we just send you our latest piece of content.

Join others who love to get free smarter marketing tips –  right here, right now.