Which marketing practices generate the most results

In my usual search for marketing news and insight, I stumbled across a report with some very interesting stats on business marketing practices. Here at, Igneous Marketing, we are often asked which of the millions of marketing practices, strategies and techniques give the best result and why. This is obviously impossible to answer in generalist terms but a report from MarketingSherpa seems to provide a few answers on this topic.

The report itself focuses on SEO but also offers some interesting insight into what other organisations (B2B) are using and what is bringing them success. According to MarketingSherpa, the top concerns of B2B Marketers revolve around getting more value and revenue out of limited resources – all in a fast paced world of increasing competition. Prioritizing resources for maximum impact is critical.

The graph below provides some interesting insight

The report also highlighted that obviously combinations work more effectively than single practices in isolation. The report also advocated regular activity, refinement and measurement.

Does this sound familiar? Have a look here!!

Follow up - THE small business marketing tool

Follow up is THE tool of the small business

Most of us will agree that quick response times to potential customers are vital. Delaying making that call allows your competitors to beat you to the punch. Speed is essential in the world of small business response.

This really is the tip of the iceberg though and as a small business you need to go further and make professional, rapid “follow up” the mindset of your entire business. One of the small business owners biggest tools is it’s speed of response.

So let’s talk how to enhance your follow up and become true masters of it:

Prospect Follow up

• Use auto responders to send a series of emails or snail mails to prospects over time. This is a fine way to stay top of mind and continue to build trust. Several email services such as SwiftPage and Infusionsoft can change the path of emails based on the recipient’s action so you can deliver the right information.
• Connect your prospects into your CRM software and add their social media activity. Few things allow you to start connecting faster than follow-up that’s informed. Don’t forget to connect with these same prospects in networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn

Customer Follow up

• Create an auto responder email series that provides additional training for products and services purchased.
• Follow up with additional company information in the form of an orientation package
• Create a follow-up process that allows you to assess with your customer the results you were able to bring
• Bring small groups of customers together to allow them to network and discuss business challenges
• Send handwritten notes of thanks to every customer

Hope this helps

Is your Small Business Green Enough?

Amazon has launched a new category called Amazon Green a little while ago. Amazon has always been good with following high demand trends in online shopping world. In most cases Amazon is the first to implement those.

The behavior of both offline and online shoppers in the US are changing, and going more towards Green Shopping. This is great news for the environment, and for our future.
Many small businesses are following the green shopping trend for a while but the big shots in online shopping game are jumping onto the board recently, one by one.

Amazon Green is a category/section within main Amazon site. You can pick 3 products from Amazon’s catalog which you believe are green, then they get rated higher in the Amazon Green Section.
eBay has launched WorldOfGood.com for green shoppers. With the new site, I believe, eBay’s ultimate goal is to target increasing Etsy.com customers.

Amazon‘s Green Model within their main site, or eBay‘s Green Model with a separate site. Time will show which business model will be more successful.

Is Your Small Business Still NOT Green?

Amazon, eBay or other big online stores will make their share of £££ from the green shopping trend. But how can you increase your sales or bring new customers to your small business by going green?
Every niche is different. Some niches are more suitable to offer environmental friendly products than others. You don’t have to offer a large selection of green products. You can do little things to let your customers know that you care about the environment.

Tips to Go Green For Small Businesses:

• Try to use as much recyclable supplies as possible.
• Run campaigns to support environmental friendly non-profit organizations.
• Try to find new green products which would fit into your product line.
• Let your customers know that you care about the environment.

I have been hearing more and more success stories of small businesses which go green. So, don’t miss the “Go Green” trend, and both increase your sales & help the environment.

Fear is the Killer of Small Business

Company failures are set to increase. And although this may sound like terrifying news to many small businesses, bankruptcy is not the end of the world.

Times are tough and no one knows this better than the small business owner. Debt, bankruptcy and failure are rife in our world and keep many of us awake at night but is it really the end of the world?

In her excellent book Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and The World, Barbara Ehrenreich criticises the relentless culture of positive thinking, which contributed to the build-up of bad debts, dodgy loans and excessive risk taking in the pre-credit crunch milieu. Back then so-called self-help books encouraged people to believe that by simply concentrating their thoughts hard enough on positive ideas the universe would deliver them prosperity. A far cry from our new age of realism and austerity.

But while mindless optimism is undoubtedly a liability to business – and arguably the economy as a whole – SMEs should still take comfort in the fact that many successful people have either come close to bankruptcy or have gone bankrupt at some point.

For example, Henry Ford lost everything twice before founding Ford Motor Company in 1903, revolutionising the American car industry. Walt Disney ran up huge debts in his first venture and the company folded, five years later Mickey Mouse made his first outing in Plane Crazy, and the rest is history.

Michael Acton Smith, founder of Moshi Monsters, one of the UK’s fastest growing websites, is also no stranger to staring over the precipice. Having sunk around £5 million of investment in a failed venture he was on the verge of throwing in the towel. ‘We still had £1 million left in the bank, and I decided to give it one more roll of the dice,’ he recalls. In little more than a year the company went from burning money to hitting a projected turnover over of £10 million before 2011.

Now his optimism is boundless. ‘At the moment we’re riding a lot of momentum, now would be far too early to sell. We’re shooting for a massive exit. I’d rather do that and risk the whole thing, than opt for an early one. We’ll be looking for an exit on the scale of what you see in Silicon Valley and rarely get in London,’ he says.

Any entrepreneur worth their salt will tell you that the key to success is knowing when to see the glass as half full and when to take a half empty approach. Yes, the financial outlook for businesses is scary and SMEs should be doing everything they can to shore up cash flow. But without a measured degree of optimism the paralysis of analysis sets in – think how many businesses would never get off the ground if they took to heart the survival odds of new ventures. The same can-do spirit goes for giving it a second shot.

As the presider over another great financial crisis, Franklin D. Roosevelt, said: ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

Cheaper is not necessarily better

No one likes to over pay for things. The internet is a great leveller and gives us a quick way of gaining the best prices and services available. The dreaded “Credit Crunch” has also helped add to the price consciousness of purchasers but cheaper is not always better especially when it comes to web design.

The rise of out sourced web designers and independent consultants through sites such as eLance and Odesk have opened the market up further. This has tended to make web design almost a commodity and many businesses are treating as this. UK businesses need to recheck their perspective! It is no longer enough to simply have a web presence. You must remember what a website actually is. For many people it is the first contact a prospect has with your business and they can visit your competitor in seconds. If you were looking for a new TV and on your local street were 2 consumer electronic stores; one which was perfectly laid out with a great selection of TV’s all in one place and helpful assistants whilst the other was a little shabby, with a few gaps on their shelves and a bit confusing in its layout – which would you trust and choose? It is the same with your website!

Remember your website is your 24/7 representative, your PR agent, your business card – essentially it is more important than your premises, marketing literature and sales pitch –so you must invest in it and be sure it is 100% So here are a few tips when choosing a web designer or web design company:

·         Company Understanding: This is number 1. Whilst you may not have all of the skill to develop a website you need to be a major part of the process. This is your web site based on your business! You are the master of your business and its vision. Your web designer must show a keen interest in your story, vision and plans for the future. This means you are building a valuable brand and not just a website.

·         Market Understanding: Your web designer must also do his/her homework! I would expect and decent web design company worth their salt to look at the market you compete in and how the competition are positioning themselves to ensure the pitch is right and prospects choose you other your rival.

·         Business and Marketing Understanding: Whilst little Timmy can design a nice site from his bedroom on the cheap, what does this 14 year old know about marketing and business for that matter? Marketing does not work well in isolation, your marketing, sales pitch and outlook all needs to be linear to give a powerful, unified stance and not mixed messages which can put doubt into the mind of your potential customer. Your web designer might be exceptionally well skill and able to produce awesome 3D graphics but if people visit the site and don’t really get your business or see too many ideas jammed together they will think “nice site” but leave for your competitors. Your website has a purpose, this could be to sell, get people to call you, to inform or to capture opinions – it really doesn’t matter but it does matter if the whole site does not inspire the visitor to do what you want them to do. One of our customer sell high tech computer equipment. Before the worked with Igneous Marketing they had a flash site with every technical detail you could ever wish to see about the product they sold. They also had the price clearly marked. What they didn’t have was the customers. They had a great deal of traffic but people would simply use their site to learn about the products and then use the price and knowledge gained from the site to negotiate with the company’s competitors. Their site was a great sales tool.....unfortunately it was for the competition!

·         Commitment: This is another big point. Many of these independent web designers are essentially “box shifters” which sell websites then move on. So what happens if you need a few edits or changes to keep up with changes in your market? Where are they? Are they interested in helping or will they focus on the next big pay day by designing a new site for another business? You need to see your web designer as a partner for the long term. The closer you get, the more they will understand about your business and be able to tweak your site to be a true representation of your business.

Your website is crucial to your business and it’s future. A good website is never static, in fact one of Google’s new search engine ranking criteria is how often the site is updated and added to. You need to select a web designer that is committed to your business and understands your business, your market, your struggles, your successes and your rivals. A good web designer needs to see the bigger picture and have great business and marketing skills, not just the ability to create flashing images!

If you want a full, no obligation critique of your current site why not contact Igneous Marketing. We are offering a full analysis of your site for free as a loyal reader of our blog. Click here and get in touch!

Could you BUY the Competition?

One way to grow your small business is to buy another business and merge the two together. When the going gets though, i.e. a recession – many of the non-bootstrapping businesses will be for sale or in trouble. This is the time for you to sharpen your bootstrapping pencil and think about opportunities that present themselves.

If you do not know what to look for here are some pointers:

1. Customers complain about your competitor;
 2. Employees from your competitor apply for a job with your business;
 3. Competitors loosing the plot, i.e. unrealistically low prices;
 4. Court judgements against your competitor or disgruntled suppliers;
 5. Partners and directors resigning or leaving the business.
6. Is their online presence being neglected? Has it been ages since they updated their website? How does their social media output look?

Be aware of potential pitfalls, especially if you have never done this sort of thing before. Get your accountant to help you evaluate the competitor and then make a move.

Don’t loose your business focus, however tempting the opportunity. It is easy to damage your business with an uncontrollable acquisition.

Low Consumer Confidence? Arm your small business

Consumer confidence has slumped to the lowest level since the height of the financial crisis as the Government's cuts to public spending kicked in last month, according to a report.

The GFK NOP Consumer Confidence Index dropped to -31, down from -28 in March and a drop from the -16 registered a year earlier.

All measures - perception of the health of the economy, personal financial health and major purchase intent - that make up the index were down in the month.

So what can a small business do to boost confidence and close business?
Well this is a tricky one and often small businesses will suffer even more when consumer confidence falls. Well there are a few measures you could adopt if this is affecting your business.

Guarantee
A way to quickly remove the doubt in a prospects mind is to offer a guarantee. There is definitely a balance when offering a money back or service level guarantee. You do not want to offer it for too long or wear and tear can play a part. It is pretty much standard to offer a 30 guarantee and services businesses can offer a contract break if the customer is not 100% happy after their first monthly bill.

Free Trial
We love free trials. It is often that once a person starts to use a product or service they have a great “honeymoon period” and therefore will be very reluctant to relinquish this product. Again time is a factor; you need to give them enough time to see the benefits but not too long as this initial excitement level will inevitably drop.

Testimonials
A great way to increase confidence is to inspire the “me too” factor. Rather than just put testimonials onto your website, you need to actively push them to prospects. Try to create loyal “brand Champions” that love your product or service. You then need to put the 2 in touch – nothing inspires loyalty like a heartfelt recommendation.
Hope this helps and don’t forget to check out our new bundles – click here