After the stage of doing your market research, the next step is to market your company and what it does, you need to consider how you are going to target potential customers and how much money are you willing to spend doing this.
Depending on your business here are the top five ways to market yourself.
1.) Word of mouth. Happy customers are happy to recommend you, and it’s free.
2.) Mail shots. Quite expensive on paper and postage, and consider three per cent successful sales a bonus. However, it does work, so long as you’ve carefully thought who to send the information to.
3.) Your own website. This is now very cheap and easy to do and gives you a presence on the internet, and it’s one more weapon in your marketing armoury.
4.) Press releases: A well-written press release can get free coverage in newspapers, TV and radio and can tell millions of potential customers about your product or service. Free give-aways are always very popular, especially at business events or shows, samples of your products of competitions and prizes are a great way to get mentioned and noticed.
5.) Be a media expert in your field. Local radio stations and papers are hungry to fill their airtime and pages. If you have an expertise, offer yourself as a pundit to the local media.
Posted by admin on November 18th, 2008 :: Filed under
MarketingTags ::
Advertising,
Branding,
Marketing,
Promotion
A Belfast retail marketing agency who specializes in shopping centres has won new contracts this week worth more than £3m. Spirit Marketing Group said it would help its new shopping centre clients — all located outside Northern Ireland — through this tough time of the credit crunch and in the lead up to the time of year where they are supposed to be at their most busy.
Its new business includes Gorey in Wexford, Gullivers in Ballymun in Dublin, Blackrock Shopping Centre in Co Dublin, Ashbourne in Meath, Southside in London, Kingsgate in Dunfermline and Cameron Toll in Edinburgh.
Spirit provides marketing services for more than a quarter of all retail space in Ireland, including Belfast’s Victoria Square, Craigavon’s Rushmere, Londonderry’s Foyleside and in the Republic, Liffey Valley, Whitewater and Mahon Point retail complexes. The company recently appointed Stephen Kelly, former chief executive of the Federation of Retail Licensed Trade in Northern Ireland, as its chief executive.
Mr Kelly said: “With the retail and leisure market now faced with the impact of harsh economic conditions, an increasing number of shopping centres are looking to Spirit because of our proven track record in delivering results in difficult environments.”
The marketing company have promised to deliver a innovative marketing approach and the main aspect of this is to help to build relationships with customers and deliver a product and service which adds value and help shopping centers to increase sales and benefit shop owners and retailers.
Posted by admin on November 18th, 2008 :: Filed under
MarketingTags ::
Advertising,
Marketing,
retail
Braveheart is a UK-based technology commercialization and investment management company and it has appointed Richard Nunneley as its director of marketing. This position is new for company Braveheart and has been created to help fulfill the group’s growth strategy outside Scotland. Nunneley will be based in Braveheart’s London office.
Nunneley has already had a successfull career and he worked for BZW training as a fund manager early on in his career and joined the army in 1974 and retired from the Black Watch in 1991, after this he returned to fund management, starting at Brown Shipley Stockbrokers and going on to become a director at Mercury Asset Management and Cazenove. He now joins Braveheart from Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander where he served as a director since 2006.
In addition, Braveheart’s legal counsel, Stephen Hart, who has been on secondment at Braveheart since April, has now joined the company permanently, he studied European & international trade law at the University of Leicester and then trained with Maclay Murray & Spens in London qualifying as an English solicitor in September 2001.
Posted by admin on November 13th, 2008 :: Filed under
MarketingTags ::
Investment,
Marketing
Due to the recent news about Jeremy Clarkson and his comment about truck drivers, a games developer has decided to take advantage over the situation and create a game called “Run Clarkson Run”. You basically control a cartoon version of Jeremy Clarkson and run through the streets avoiding angry truck drivers who try to run you over, you have to jump over them and collect as much cash as possible.
The managing director of the company that created the game stated that Jeremy is a loved character but he has stepped over the line this time. The game will give angry truck drivers a chance of getting some revenge.
The BBC have now received around 1,950 complaints about his comment during last week’s episode of Top Gear, he said that driving a truck must be a hard job. You’ve got so much to do such as “change gear, change gear, check mirrors, change gear, murder a prostitute, change gear, check mirrors, murder another prostitute, change gear…”
He did claim in his defence that he was referring to the Yorkshire Ripper and the Suffolk Strangler who were both truck drivers. The BBC stated that the number of complaints was mainly down to the media broadcasting his remarks opposed to people who actually saw the show. It was a similar effect that Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand received.
A Labour Party MP, Chris Mole stated that Jeremy Clarkson should be dismissed. He was the MP that represents the constituency of the Wright murders (Suffolk Strangler) and they were horrendous and dreadful events. For him to make light comments such as this will have a serious effect on many people so should be dismissed without any thought.
Has Jeremy Clarkson stepped over the line or has the epidemic of complaints just over the top?
Posted by admin on November 7th, 2008 :: Filed under
Interactive,
Latest News,
MarketingTags ::
Computer Games
A North-East SMS and mobile marketing firm landed a contract to run the text messaging service for Hillary Clinton’s Democrat nomination campaign and the company may have played a major role in the outcome of the US election. Mrs. Clinton made reference to the success of the service in her first speech on the campaign trial, and this led Barack Obama to employ text messaging during his successful presidential election campaign.
Colin Stewart is the UK account director for Interlinked Media and has said the contract came about when the company had opened an office in Dallas and met members of the Clinton campaign team. Colin has said “Having seen what we had achieved in the UK, we had some backing because mobile marketing wasn’t widespread in the States at that time, and with our previous track record we were able to negotiate the contract, we got a lot of positive feedback and it had an effect on the Obama campaign because they had seen it was so successful and started their own text marketing”
Mobile phone marketing is a major method and not just a form of communication, but it is perfect for marketing to the public as it is communicating to the public through a device that people have in their pocket 24/7 and is always switched on. 95% of text messages are read, and only 25% of e-mails are always red.
As campaigns were sent overnight, the team managed and analyzed responses during UK working hours and subsequently provided the Clinton camp with real time reports at the start of their working day. “Winning the pitch for the Hillary Clinton election campaign was a massive coup for our business.
Posted by admin on November 7th, 2008 :: Filed under
Business & Finance,
MarketingTags ::
Barack Obama,
Hillary Clinton,
Media,
Text Messaging
Jerry Yang, Yahoo! SEO has stated that a partnership with Microsoft may be coming up as Google knocked them back in an advertising deal. The reason the Yahoo! Google partnership didn’t happen is because it received notice from the US Department of Justice stating they would be filing an antitrust lawsuit if they went any further.
This is because they account for number 1 and 2 in their market so merging together would result in them holding over 90% of the market share making it almost impossible for any competition to rise and prevent any from starting up.
Based on that, Jerry Yang stated that he would be happy selling the company to Microsoft if they were interested. He refused the bid from Microsoft about a year ago as they wanted to buy the company last May so this may have an effect on the current deal.
Microsoft offered $31 per share last year which has been dramatically reduced to $13.92 per share. Yahoo! stated that they still believe in the benefits of the agreement and is disappointed in Google for refusing it opposed to trying to defend it in court.
They did try to negotiate with the US Department of Justice by reducing the minimum length from 10 years to 2 years and by having it possible for Google advertisers to opt out from appearing in Yahoo! if they wished. They also suggested a cap of 25% of revenue that could be accumulated from Google.
David Drummond, Google’s senior vice president stated that they were disappointed that this deal will not go any further but they feel it’s better to opt out than have what could be a lengthy legal battle which could take the focus off of their own plans.
Posted by admin on November 6th, 2008 :: Filed under
Advertising,
Marketing,
Power BrandsTags ::
google,
Yahoo!
The recent credit crunch has forced Marks & Spencer’s to review their marketing budget for next year as they are taking a plunge in their profit levels. It has been said that their £144 million marketing budget will be slashed by up to 20% in the year 2009 to account for the loss of profits. This budget reduction could mean that the top models currently in their campaigns such as Erin O’Connor and Twiggy could be dropped.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the profits levels have fallen by a huge 44% taking them to £307.8 million per year for the high street chain. It has not been finalised that the drop in marketing costs will result in high profile models being dropped first, Steven Sharp, the executive director of marketing stated that they have a lot of options which need consideration.
Over the last 6 month period the overall local sales actually rose by 0.8% and rose 23.9% for international sales although other areas of their trade took a massive plummet. On a like for like basis general merchandise and food sales fell 6.2% and 5.3% respectively.
Marks & Spencer’s chief executive, Stuart Rose said that the current economic situation is making retailer’s face the hardest time they’ve seen since the early 1990’s. He also stated that he has no concerns for the long term growth of M&S as they have a number of ideas in development, including the improvement of international sales.
In related news is what reported that the retailer Primark has been on a constant rise since the credit crunch and have stated a profit rise of 17% taking it to £223 million per year. This is probably due to the fact people are beginning to be weary of their spend and are choosing the cheaper brands to save money.
Posted by admin on November 5th, 2008 :: Filed under
Marketing,
Media,
Power BrandsTags ::
Profit Loss
New research has shown that companies are ignoring the hidden costs when it comes to email marketing, it’s been said that the constant growth of the email marketing industry is expecting to reach £274 million by the end of this year.
An average in house marketing team will spend around 19 hours on each campaign they do, this costs a total of £800. If the company was to release a weekly newsletter of some sort that amount comes up to just under £42,000 per year.
You have to be cautious about marketing because you need to ensure it will bring a good return on investment, Adestra stated that companies are spending far too much time on the initial tasks and not enough on the monitoring and improvements which is costing them tens of thousands each year.
Experts have claimed that it’s the hidden costs, such as spending the time creating campaigns when it can be used elsewhere which will provide a better ROI that is severely affecting the outcome and the benefits from email marketing.
When it comes to email marketing it’s hard to keep up to date with the latest technologies that are out there to help you, you can spend forever researching the best tools to use and how to get the best from them. The basic concept remains the same and by spending too much time on each campaign is reducing the amount of profit you are making from it.
Research have proven for the best results you have to have a process that will allow you to get the required tasks complete in a timely manner, if you are struggling with any section then you would often get a better ROI outsourcing the work to other companies/people.
For the best results you have to focus on the optimisation, targeting and personalisation of your campaign.
Posted by admin on October 28th, 2008 :: Filed under
Marketing,
MediaTags ::
Email Marketing
A recent incident involving Kerry Katona appearing live on the ‘This Morning’ for an interview with Phillip Schofield and Fern Britton has led to believe Iceland maybe reliving Kerry of her £250,000 contract.
During the interview Kerry was slurring her words which led the 2 presenters to ask about her health, she stated it was due to her medication for her bipolar disorder. She also accused Phillip Schofield of purposely ambushing her live on TV, however he claimed that no one had the chance to asses her prior to the interview as she arrived late. If they knew that she was on any type of medication that affected her incoherence they would of not allowed her to be live on TV.
Iceland have defended Kerry saying that it’s just a case of her medication kicking in at the wrong time, shortly after, the effect had wore off she would of been fit to carry on with the interview. They have been loyal and supported her through various periods of her life, for example when she got caught taking cocaine or smoking whilst pregnant.
Iceland refused to reveal any more information regarding this case but have recently renewed her contract in April for 12 months which contradicts any statement about dropping her by the tabloids.
The company actually received complaint letters from customers who saw the interview promoting her new documentary about how she spent £15,000 to recover her figure after 4 children. They basically revolved around the idea how asking how they can use her for a campaign targeting mums and why they should shop at Iceland.
One person actually stated that they will be no longer shopping at Iceland while Kerry remains working in their advertisement campaigns.
Posted by admin on October 24th, 2008 :: Filed under
Marketing,
TelevisionTags ::
TV
Dairy Crest is launching a £2 million Clover Lighter campaign. A reduced-fat alternative to it’s Clover spread range. The existing Clover spread products contain up to 70% more fat that the new Clover Lighter brand. Advertising will comprise of TV and radio campaigns, backed online, on-pack, sampling and targeted direct activities.
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Posted by admin on September 23rd, 2008 :: Filed under
Advertising,
MarketingTags ::
clover,
dairy crest