Have you had to reduce your marketing spend?

Are you trying to build the profile of your business on a budget?

Do you want your business/you/your products/your services to be featured in newspapers and magazines that are read by your target audience?

This is how I did it with my company Garrendenny Lane – a small company that was selling interior design consultancy plus designers fabrics and wallpapers and is now creating a new website to target UK, US and Irish customers with home accessories, wallpapers and fabrics, and gifts.

Towards the end of 2009, I decided I needed to put more work into offline marketing.  Since commencing my blog in January 2008, I had estimated that blogging brought in about 40% of business in 2008 but it was more difficult to monitor its effectiveness in 2009.  During 2009, the unique visits to my site had increased from 2,500 per month in January to 10,000 in December – largely as a result of writing blog posts, using Twitter from March 2009 and Facebook from September 2009.  I was happy with my online publicity campaign, yet acknowledging that it needs tweaking and changing from time to time, I wanted to improve the offline profile of my business.

Step 1:

Find a unique selling point – your USP.  If you are finding it hard to come up with something, look at what is being said about other businesses – do you do it better or differently?  We often see a USP as something that is unattainable whereas with some brainstorming and some research, it could be right under your fingertips.

I negotiated exclusivity with two up and coming wallpaper and fabric designers, both of whom design and produce high-quality products.  The reason I asked for exclusivity was simply so that I could use it in a press release.

Step 2:

Use Media contact, Przone or Irish Press Releases or send the press releases directly to the editors or journalists in your preferred publication

I actually won (on Twitter) a voucher to send a free press release through Media Contact which also meant I could target particular publications.  I featured one of my exclusive ranges within the press release. The result was that 5 journalists contacted me looking for more high-res images and all five featured the wallpapers – hence Garrendenny Lane got coverage in House and Home, Image Interiors, the Home supplement of the Sunday Times, Munster Interiors and the Sunday Business Post.  The editor of House and Home magazine even emailed me and came for a chat and a cup of tea one afternoon.

Step 3:

Keep those contacts – use them again when you have something new. Make life easier for the journalists by providing them with news of innovative or new products and trends.

Whenever I have new products now or a new exclusivity deal, I email these journalists. 3 of them have repeatedly featured my products within their pages or their publications. I always send a quick email too to say thank you!

Step 4:

Let your offline and online marketing complement each other.  Celebrate your offline mention by scanning it onto your Facebook page.  Create a press page for your website and insert all the press features there.

I always highlight my offline features on my blog, face book and twitter. I find that journalists sometimes contact me for images or information having read one of my blog posts or having seen an offline feature elsewhere.

Step 5:

Don’t expect miraculous results from one mention. In my opinion, PR is about keeping up the profile, keeping the business in people’s minds too so that when they do need your service or product, they will think of your company.

Keep working at it.  It is easy to let it slip when you see lots of coverage but remember that the lead time means that publication is often 2-6 months after you have sent the press release. Allocate some time to your marketing each week – it will pay off.

During 2010, Garrendenny Lane Interiors has been featured numerous times in Munster Interiors, Image Interiors, House and Home, UR Dream Home, Homes Supplement of the Irish Sunday Times, Friday’s property pages and the Mothers and Babies supplement of the Irish Independent, Sunday Business Post, Irish Interiors.

Lorna has also been featured in the ‘People in Business’ slot in the Sunday Business Post.

I would like to emphasise that I have no experience in PR or marketing.  I worked hard at it because my budget for advertising was virtually zero.  My next challenge is to raise my company’s profile in the UK interiors magazines!

How do you build PR for your business?

VOTE for this post HERE and also Leave a Comment to win great prizes!

This post is part of the HP SugarTone contest: “Making your business amazing”, sponsored by Hewlett Packard

“Sweet Business Blogging Contest” Making Your Business Amazing

Reached the point where your online presence is positively dull and lacks luster?

OK, so I sound like a Pantene commercial, but you have to admit that they know how to put the ‘wow factor’ back into hair. Your digital self can shimmer and glow just as radiantly with an online makeover. All it takes is a few simple steps to snip away those rough ends and cover that grey!

1) Book an appointment

You’ve made the first step, don’t delay, set the date and get planning.

Collect inspirational information. Research online (and offline),  and all the time let an endless flow of questions joggle your brain cells:

• What don’t you like?
• What do you like?
• Where are changes required?
• Where can improvements be made?
• Whats your budget
• Whats your time-frame?
• What are your goals?
• How would you like to be perceived?

You might be asking yourself – ‘but why all the questions?’ – questioning starts the planning process.  It gets all those ideas rising and pouring onto paper. You can’t start until the begin, and you can’t begin without questions!

2) It’s all about the style

You know what they say – a good hairstyle is all about the style; the cut. the same applies to a website. If you get the style set, everything else will fall into place.  Style sets the order, the mood, the atmosphere of a website (Yes – websites have atmospheres).

Just like a worn-out hairstyle, a website can look outdated quickly. It might take one year, or three, but eventually every site will become staid. Keep reinventing your style and your site will be reborn!

Styling tips:

• Watch out for striking styles for inspiration
• Read up on the latest styles and modern twists. No time? Enlist someone who can
• Keep abreast of new technologies and concepts that your public will expect (2010 – Collaboration, sharing, interaction)

3) Colour me happy

Colour goes hand-in-hand with style. Donning a fresh lick of digital paintwork will lift your site instantly. If you have strict brand guidelines, why not recommend a new shade for the palette and highlight the benefits:

• Will rejuvenate the site (brand)
• Renewed appeal for visitors (and you!)
• Modernise your site

4) Co-ordinate and Integrate

That’s the website done, but what about everything else?

In marketing, co-ordinating means extending your style to all your activities (emails, brochures, social media, blogs). Embrace your new style – integrate it into all your digital channels and your offline activity.

5) Attention seeker

You’re looking hot (and you know it!). Now it’s time to flick that shine switch to max and grab some attention.

Flaunt that new look, here’s how:

• Email all your ‘friends’
• Share images and videos on social media sites (get friends to share)
• Add to forums and networking sites
• Promote with banners and sponsored adverts
• Blog the experience
• Add a mention to your email signature
• Print out some flyers for networking groups and events

Keep the shine bright by making regular tweaks!

Share your ‘makeover’ experiences …

VOTE for this post HERE and also Leave a Comment to win great prizes!

This post is part of the HP SugarTone contest: “Making your business amazing”, sponsored by Hewlett Packard

Where to start and when to review…

Pricing your product or service is an extremely essential issue that every single business owner and sole trader must address. Get it right and you should find yourself dealing with happy customers. Get it wrong and you’ll either create the situation where you have too many customers and not enough money to cover the overhead or no customers at all.

Even if you have started up in business with the right pricing range set by customer feedback and you’re making a profit, this is something that needs to be monitored on a regular basis to keep up with consumer buying trends or changes in your product line. Even rise in fuel prices can trigger a change whereas a lowering in fuel might give you the extra cash flow to inject into a marketing offer. But if you don’t review and keep track of every aspect you are going to miss out on these opportunities.

When setting a price the best place to start is with your product or service. Remember that the overall aim is to make profit- either to reinvest, expand or take home. To do that you have to break down and cover you overheads. This costing must include everything for the creation of your product or service including a percentage for marketing, delivery charges, production costs, website maintenance, stationery, staffing, your time if necessary, and the list goes on and on…

If you’ve kept on top of things this shouldn’t take you too long. If you’ve employed someone to take care of your money as it’s not your strong point, then you need to ask them to help you break the costing down. It might make you more money savvy to do so which is always better in the long run.

With it all written down, double check to ensure it’s completely current. If you’re marketing a product needs to be divided by the exact amount that you can produce. It’s then a good idea to include an amount for contingency on top of this price to reflect any likely changes in your own market costs over the next six months.

This is your baseline costing. Look at this figure- does it look fair to you?

Then the ground work begins on actually setting a price. Some people add a simple 10% to their baseline costing, others 25% and it works for them. Calculate what it would be to do this and is it enough to achieve your initial profit relate goal? Will you sell enough at this price?

For others it is more a game of regarding their target market and seeing how their competitors place their pricing. Then this is where honesty comes in. Real harsh honesty.

What are you offering in comparison to your competitors?

Is your product or service better quality; is it organic, recyclable or Fair Trade made? Do you offer customer service and aftercare? All of these things are unique selling points, what makes you different from your competitors and the reason for why you can charge more or less than them in order to sell more.

All of these reasons are why you went into business- you honestly believed that you can offer something a little different to the norm and it needs to be priced accordingly.

If after looking at your costs you’ve settled on a price. Do you feel happy knowing your target market- will they be prepared and happy to part with their hard earned cash for it?

If your pricing is too high and you fear that no-one will pay that much for it, you still have a few options and Rick Stein the gourmet chef known in Paidstow, Cornwall for his Fish TV series turned this situation around to his advantage.

Rick recognised that a large percentage of his target market would not pay for his “a la carte” menu all year round. So to ensure sales he devised a scheme of owning four restaurants to fit all budgets and tastes from the top end cuisine right down to the fish and chip shop. The quality in all of them has his Rick Stein style but the pricing means that everyone can say that they’ve eaten his food. The humble chip once again wins as it brings him good custom and regular income from the masses.

Analyse your product again and see if there is a way that you can diversify like rick and offer different grades of service and product to fit consumer budgets.

When you are marketing high end goods, interestingly enough you will find that when the psychology of consumers is taken into account, most will save that little bit extra and pay more for that extra quality and assurance of good service, or for a rare or limited edition product.

Now you have a baseline price, you’ll want to maximise your sales so you need to write on a calendar your absolute key selling periods and your consumer buying times. This will help you implement marketing strategies that will work because they reflect your consumer’s needs. Any market fluctuations will be taken in your stride as you’ve left the room for them in your price leaving you confident that you can then do your job until the next scheduled price review.

It is very difficult to generalise on each product and service needs to be analysed specifically but with time and regular reviewing sessions of buying trends you will know your consumer’s mindset inside and out and will be able to adjust the  price accordingly giving you the best start in business.

The benefits of content are three-fold; first off, SEO, secondly, branding + tone, and thirdly, interaction.

SEO

So SEO, how does that affect content?
I’m glad you (me) asked…
The criteria for optimising a website are – in a  word – complicated. It all might seem easy enough to learn, but strong consistent performance takes time, know-how and hard work. One thing anyone who ever learnt anything about anything in the world of SEO will tell you:  CONTENT IS KING.

But what does that actually mean?
Well, SEO is all about rising in the search engine results pages (SERP’s). To do this you need to align your website with high searches and relevant searches… and matchable searches. For this to happen, you need to work on your content.

Your content will consist mainly of images and text. This ratio needs to dip in favour of text because search engines LOVE text. The bots are great multi-tasking readers, quite adept at scanning, sorting and scoring (points fashion).
Your task is to provide them with chucks of keyword-rich content which is relevant to your audience and industry/topic. The more you do this, the better.
One word of warning however – there are plenty of sites on the web optimised for keywords that are completely irrelevant (trending topics for example), so think ethically – you don’t want to tease your audience, you want to tempt them!

Branding + Tone

Formal versus informal, cheeky versus professional, intelligent versus plain. I could go on forever, but you get the point. The way you write your content will influence your audience. Similarily, the style and design of your site will affect how visitors respond and navigate (but thats another post).
Your task here is to consider your audience and your business. How do you want them to see you and respond? What are your aims online? How will your tone influence their actions?
When branding, think up four-five words that describe your business and each time you design or write, keep these in mind.
For example: modern, fresh, friendly, edgy and creative.

Again, tempt them with your imagination and style. Stay consistent and focused. Don’t cross the line or adopt a stern tone. Without knowing or meeting you, a visitor could misunderstand your meaning and click away. Remember – people build relationships with people, which is more difficult without a face-to-face meet, however many brands  (Lastminute being one) are masters at communicating personality and brand online.

Interaction

The king of all content has an element of interaction. What you want is for your audience to communicate directly with you, your site and third parties. Think along the lines of blogs, social wikis, widgets (Like this), share functionality, product feedback etc.
In an ever-increasingly social web, we need to be, well… sociable.

We need to consider how our visitors will use our website and make it nice and easy.
Here’s a blog post:  comment, share, like.
Here’s a product: enquire, buy, leave feedback, you might like this.

It sounds so obvious, and it’s crucial! A strong social element that considers visitor behaviour wins every time.
Tempting keywords, tempting content – now tempt them to stay, navigate and interact!

Here’s a list of ten content considerations and tips:

1. Research your keywords and have a list to hand when planning/editing content
2. Map out your website in terms of structure and address navigation at this point
3. Have a style (remember – descriptive words!) that showcases your brand
4. When planning content, keep it interesting – engage your audience
5. Make sure your content is relevant – this will also curb bounces
6. Ensure content is easy to read and understand
7. Provide clear call to actions for your visitors what what to do next
8. Keep updating and adding to your content
9. Keep it fresh and current
10. Involve your visitors in your content

Can you think of anymore?
How do you use SEO, branding + tone and interaction to tempt your audience?

On the always excellent podcast For Immediate Release – there was a recent discussion about Metro Bank, the first UK bank to open its doors in over 100 years. The discussion centred on the bank’s decision to focus on established media, i.e. newspaper, direct mail, billboards, radio etc, and not to incorporate any use of Social Media. Are Metro Bank missing a trick here?

The way I see it, there are two places where they are going to get new customers – people setting up an account for the first time, and people switching accounts. In both circumstances surely Social Media could play a huge role. In the group who are setting up accounts for the first time, by far the largest demographic is going to be the teenage/student market. Given the volume usage of Social Media by this age group, having a presence on sites such as Facebook would seem to be a must. However when I do a search for Metro Bank UK and Facebook, I get nothing.

When I think about people changing banks, then one of the most powerful ways of this happening is by way of peer recommendations. We’ve all seen how Social Media makes it easy to make and receive recommendations with your network, so again

I’m surprised Metro Bank is not exploiting this. What are your thoughts on this? Are you or any of your colleagues in Metro Bank’s current catchment area (Greater London), and if so have you heard about them? Do you think they could get value from using Social Media, and if so, how? Why do you think they’ve ignored Social Media to date? Looking forward to your comments

One morning, I was listening to Ray D’Arcy and his team discussing what to do when your blouse won’t stretch across your chest. It just so happens that one of my clients stocks a gadget that solves that very dilemma. I texted into the show and the team made several mentions of her business. Later, I rang the client and asked had she received any extra interest. She had noticed a spike in the number of hits to her website and she also received an order.

In the rush to grab the headlines or build an online presence, businesses often forget about radio as a marketing medium. Yet JNLR radio listener statistics regularly show that between 85 and 90% of Irish adults listen to radio, many of them daily. Though they may be listening with half an ear, they’re a captive audience; radio is part of their daily routine. Radio gives you a ready-made opportunity to communicate directly with your customers.

Advantages of Radio

People are often a little afraid of radio, because they think of all the thousands of people listening. Radio is the most intimate of all mediums. You’re really only talking to one person at a time, while they’re in the car, at work, doing the washing, or lying in bed. A good broadcaster will add to the feeling that you’re having a one to one conversation. They will ease your nerves and give you a chance to show off your expertise. And who doesn’t enjoy an opportunity to demonstrate what they’re passionate about.

Where Can You Broadcast Yourself

Business Programmes: RTE, Today FM and Newstalk have weekend business shows with slots for new businesses.  Newstalk tend to favour opinions about business best practise, or angles on current business news stories. RTE take a more lifestyle-oriented approach, featuring quirky business ideas and discussions on work- life balance.

Current Affairs Programmes: Have you got an angle on the latest business news? Are you good at spotting trends? Have you got advice on best practises for your sector? Programmes like Business Breakfast on Newstalk, The Last Word on Today FM and Morning Ireland feature experts every day on their business slots. These experts are people just like you.

Lifestyle/Light Entertainment: Programmes like the Tom Dunne Show or the Ray D’Arcy show may not seem the most obvious vehicles for promoting your business. But lifestyle-oriented businesses, like wedding suppliers and furniture shops, can work their way onto the shows by offering advice to listeners. The Derek Mooney Show on Radio 1 regularly features business success stories and innovative products.

Local Radio: You cannot afford to ignore local radio. Local radio stations consistently have the biggest market share of any radio station in your area. They all have morning current affairs programmes which regularly cover business-related issues. WLRFM even ran its own Dragon’s Den style competition. And they too often have weekend business programmes.

Have you featured on radio? Have you found advertising or publicity on a programme more effective? And how did your radio experience benefit your business? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

With more and more job seekers and business professionals using Facebook to network, build and nurture relationships online. Many of us are concerned about the blurred lines between business and pleasure. I appreciate that many people want to keep their personal life separate from business. However very often our friends (no matter how close they may be) do not fully understand what we do for a living. Without invading our friends personal space, I have an idea that can keep your Facebook page social and non business orientated, while also offering a window into the professional you. The idea? Simple – adding a LinkedIn Tab to your Facebook profile. Here is a quick video how to do it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Finally,  for those who want to network on Facebook another application that maybe worth looking at is BranchOut. It allows you to expand your career network through all of your friends on Facebook. You can search by Company Name to see all your friends that work there or did in the past. You can also see all of their friends that work there. However beware this application asks to access a lot of privacy settings and I am sure will have some serious teething problems before it starts to rival the likes of LinkedIn.

Aisling Foley has 23 years marketing experience in the IT industry. Before founding her marketing consulting business in 2007, Aisling worked as Head of Marketing for CR2 in Dublin and Dubai & prior to CR2, she worked as Marketing Manager in Sabre Holdings in Dublin.

Tell me about Aisling Foley Marketing?

Aisling: Aisling Foley Marketing helps IT companies with marketing activities. This can be on a short term basis – for example to launch a new website, write case studies or manage events, or on a long term basis to act as the company marketing department for a period of time.

I have been working in a marketing capacity with IT companies for my whole professional life. I spent 7 years in BT in London and 15 in US and Irish owned software companies in Dubai, Dublin, Brussels and Cambridge.

Why start your own business and  how did you get to where you are now?

Aisling: I have experience working full time for big and small companies with big and small marketing budgets and I much prefer working with small companies.  It’s easier to get things done in small companies and you are not so constrained by bureaucracy and red tape. Also, I love going into different companies and fixing things for them (marketing things of course).

There are around 500 small to medium Irish-owned IT companies and the vast majority of these have little or no marketing department. So, in May 2007, after returning from Dubai, I set up on my own in order to help these companies. I had my first few clients within a month.

My IT background and international marketing experience quickly got me to where I am now.

What would you say is the greatest business lesson you learnt along the way and how has it helped to develop your business?

Aisling: Probably the biggest lesson I have learnt is to be tenacious and never give up. It’s harder than ever now to get budget assigned to marketing activities in cash-strapped smaller companies so it’s important to put in a lot of ground work and target the right companies. I’ve found that if you continually work to increase your profile and build your contacts as well as using the satisfied customers you have to spread the word, the work still comes through.

Where do you see the new opportunities in your sector over the coming years & how do you plan to take advantage?

Aisling: A report by Global Enterprise Monitor at the beginning of July stated that the Irish are almost twice as likely to set up our own businesses as our European counterparts.  That’s the news I like to hear, because a big chunk of those Irish start ups will be tech companies.  And they will need my international marketing expertise.

What do you see as the biggest external threat to your business?

Aisling: The tough times that all businesses experienced recently have affected everyone. Although the IT industry was less affected by this than other industries, companies still had to be very careful how money was spent.  Marketing is frequently one of those things that takes a hit when cash flow is tight. The truth is though; it becomes even more important to continue marketing your brand during recessionary times.

In fact, one of my clients found that business increased in the last 12 months because he continued with marketing activities. Persuading companies of this fact can be a challenge sometimes.

What’s your opinion on the role of social media for business and how do you see this evolving?

Aisling: Another recent survey, this time by Regus, found that 41% of companies in Ireland plan to devote a proportion of their marketing budget to social networking activities by the end of 2010.  I’m delighted to hear that because I really do think social media is an excellent way for B2B companies to market themselves.

From an Irish software company perspective, we still have a long way to go. Research I conducted in January this year showed that only 26% of software companies have set up a Twitter account. And only half of those actually use it.  I have seen some of these companies start to use Twitter since, however I am interested to see how much things will improve when I do the same survey next year.  I don’t think there will be a huge change.

I have noticed though, that IT start-ups are using Twitter and setting up Facebook pages from launch.  So it’s only the more established Irish IT companies that still need persuading.

Other than your website where can I find Aisling Foley online?

Aisling: You can connect with me on  Twitter, LinkedIn , Facebook , Worky & Weedle.

Thanks to Aisling for giving me this interview.

If you would like to know more about Aisling & her business, she can be reached by e: aisling{at}aislingfoley.com or p: 353 87 918 2986

If you would like to be interviewed & have an opportnity to showcase your business, please e-mail us here @ webmaster[at]bloggertone.com using the title “Bloggertone Interviews”.

Thanks

Niall

I was inspired to write this post after clicking on a link to a Harvard Business Review article that Greg Canty mentioned on Linkedin.

The article resonated with me as I have often been stuck for words in relation to comments from some of my friends and colleagues when I chat about my work in social media or about some of my controversial posts …

Often, as I am recounting a blog post that I had to stay up all night defending, I am met with a response

“Ah yes, but that’s not the real world, is it? ”.

OR

I will mention to somebody at dinner that I managed to get almost 10,000 fans on a facebook page in two months and they will respond with

“Ah yes but that’s just virtual world isn’t it”

OR

Many of you reading this blog will, most likely have been on the receiving end of this one before

“Yes, but I mean in real life” ….

Well, have I got news for them!

This is real life and anybody boxing it off into something separate from what they call “real life” is (in my opinion) in danger of

a) Missing out on meeting some fantastic people
b) Learning things about themselves that they never knew
c) Being unable to increase their social capital in a manner never before possible and ultimately
d) Not being unable to achieve things that would be impossible without this world that apparently isn’t “real”

Thankfully, as we advance our appreciation and enthusiasm for using online for both business and pleasure, the stereotypical image of the computer geek has been eroded year on year. It is my contention ( the latter being a word I stole from Sir Ken Robinson on TED) that much of this acceptance is due to fantastic advancements in Web 2.O technologies. However, what I find is that many who embrace these very technologies profess it to be peripheral to what they call their “real life”….

I’m not convinced it’s not real life, are you ? Before you answer check out the YouTube video by socialnomics if you haven’t already seen it.

Thanks for Reading

Click here to view the embedded video.

Do you read many blogs?

Are you an active blogger?

Do you share posts with your contacts?

I used to spend hours pasting URLs to various websites to sent my content to various sites and connections. The reason for doing this was to get as much exposure for my blog post as possible or to share a really good blog post that I felt would benefit my connections and ultimately raise my profile.

Then I discovered the “Share” button at the end of most job posts and discovered I could share content fast and effortlessly.

Click here to view the embedded video.