Web Video Production Ireland – Free Guide
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If your website is looking a little lacklustre you can bring it to life by adding some video.
We have been using video for our clients for the last 18 months and been getting some good results. We decided to put together this Free Guide to bring you up to date with Web Video and to show how it can be used to help market your business. To get your Free copy or to review some of the videos we have produced for clients then have a look at our new Irish Web Video site. |
How to Easily and Automatically follow-up with Prospects and Keep in Touch with Your Customers…
Filed under: Ireland Marketing Tips, Irish Business Tips, Our Marketing services
Phew! After over 8 months development I’m delighted to be able to announce that our new Marketing Automation Software is now live.
Designed with small business owners in mind it allows you to you to integrate online and offline marketing and setup multi step campaigns across 4 different media – Email, Postcard, Letter and SMS.
For example imagine that you own a restaurant and are looking to maximise revenues by keeping in touch with past diners and sending them timely special offers.
You could use autopilot marketing systems to do all this for you. Your diner would complete a table top comment card and fills out their contact details and birthday.
These details are entered into autopilot marketing systems the following morning by admin staff.
You would set up a number of marketing campaigns.
Now your customer will automatically receive the following:
- Birthday letter – Sent 5 days before contacts birthday with a special birthday offer
- Birthday SMS – Sent on contacts birthday to wish them happy birthday
- Valentines postcard – Sent on 07 Feb 2010 with a special offer for valentines day
- Halloween offer email – sent 5 days before Halloween.
You can use autopilot marketing systems to set up drip marketing campaigns or date driven campaigns for any different type of business.
To find out more and to sign up for a free trial then visit autopilot marketing systems
Ideas and Plans won’t pay the bills. 4 traps to avoid.
Ideas and Plans won’t pay the bills. 4 traps to avoid.
So you’ve come back refreshed after the Christmas break with lots of good ideas and plans for your business in 2010. This can often be the case, time away from the daily tasks and interruptions of running a business can be when a lot of the brainwaves occur.
So should you pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself on coming up with these new ideas?
Well yes and no.
To be brutally honest ideas and plans on their own are worthless. What you really need to do to put money in the bank is to IMPLEMENT.
It may seem obvious but you’d be surprised at how many people come up with great ideas, ideas that could generate huge income or big improvements in their business. But for whatever reason they fail to implement.
The traps that people can fall into when trying to implement include:
1. Wanting Everything to Be Perfect
How often have you fallen into this trap? I’ve seen it time and time again. For example you decide to put up a new website but in doing so you realise that your logo is looking a bit out of date. So rather than just getting the site live you go off and get the logo redesigned and this pushes out finishing the website. Then you procrastinate about whether the sales copy is quite good enough so that delays things further and before you know it 6 months has past. Well guess what even if it isn’t 100% perfect put it live anyway, you can tweak it as you go and improve it. But just be getting things done you far increase the chance of getting results. In the case of the website example 6 months of missed traffic waiting for a new website to be perfect could cost you a lot of lost sales. More often than not ‘Good Enough is Good Enough’
2. Being easily distracted
This is the second biggest killer of getting things implemented. Rather than just getting on with the task at hand you get distracted by other tasks and ideas. You start these as well as they seem like a good idea. Before you know it you have loads of tasks all at different stages with nothing actually getting completed. This can be exhausting and a huge waste of energy. Identify a small number of tasks and focus yourself on getting these implemented. Only when these are done should you start the next ones.
3. Always looking for the next big idea
Related to the previous trap this is when you start working on something only to stop and ask yourself if perhaps there is a better idea or opportunity you are missing out on. What happens here is that you end up abandoning the original idea for the new one. Then when you start working on the new idea another one comes on the horizon. Well guess what there will always be lots of ideas. Picking one and sticking with it until completion is going to give you far better results than continually chasing the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
4. Not being able to delegate
The final trap I see people falling into is the feeling that they should be doing everything themselves. Often we look at those who are very successful and wonder how they get so much done. Well the secret is delegation. You will get much more done by investing your time in delegating tasks to others, particularly others who may be suited to those kinds of tasks than doing them yourself.
So now I’ve given you a heads up on the potential pitfalls it’s over to you. Are you looking for better results this year? If so you will need to do things differently. Implementation is the key. Just put your head down and get things done. Sure some things might not be perfect and yes there may be better ideas out there, but really what counts is putting things into action and making your ideas and plans actually happen.
Pay Per Results Search Engine Marketing Ireland
Are you looking for a way to get your companies website listed on the front page of Google?
Are you concerned that hiring a search engine marketing company could end up costing you a lot of money with no Guarantee of results?
If you are then you should take a look at our new results based search engine marketing service.
We can work to get your site to the top of Google on a no foal no fee basis.
To learn more have a look here Pay per results search engine marketing Ireland
Which advertising media should I use?
In response to a recent post on askaboutmoney.com the following question was asked:
“I have been thinking of buying some air time on the screens you see in petrol stations and various shops.
Has anyone used this form of advertising before and if so did you get a good response?”
Here is the response I gave. I decided to post a copy here as I often hear business owners ruling out a particular media based on a bad experience or an ill contructed campaign:
Like all forms of marketing you need to make sure that the following are all in place and aligned.
Market, Message and Media. If you have a great message but to the wrong market then your campaign will bomb e.g. Targetting pensioners with offers a all you can drink nightclub offer will bomb while the same offer to students could be a great success.
In this way people often blame the type of media they are using, saying things like direct mail doesn’t work, when in fact if you look more closely then perhaps the message was week or the market poorly targetted.
Therefore I’m not sure if there is much value asking if a type of media is good and whether it got a good response. What could bomb for one offer and market could be hugely profitable for another.
The only way to reall see if this type of media will work for your offering is to do the following.
Determine who your target market is.
Test an offer on a small scale to that target market and measure the response.
If the results are favourable then do more.
If the results are not favourable then tweak either the message, market or media and rinse and repeat. Simple huh?!
Anyway if you think this media reaches your target market then why not approach the owners of the screens and see if they will let you conduct a test. Spend a few hundred on a test and make sure you have some kind of tracking mechanism in your advert so you can see clearly the response generated.
As with all media don’t commit to a huge amount upfront without conducting a small test first. If they wont let you do this then move on to something else. If you buy 10,000 impressions and get no leads then buying 100,000 is not going to give you much of a different result.
Only cut the stuff that doesn’t work
Cutting marketing costs might be the first reaction to a downturn. But, those that thrive during tough times take advantage of the fact that their competition is cutting back. They actually forge forward and spend more on marketing (only on stuff they know works) in order to eat up market share while others are struggling.
I bring this up because I’m curious about what you are doing during the recession. What specific actions you’re taking to increase sales in these tougher times?
The recession can actually give you the benefit of lower advertising and marketing costs which allow you to test different marketing strategies more cost effectively so that when the recession ends you will be in a strong position to know what works for your business.
Note that I also said only to spend on marketing that works. All to often business owners are not aware of which marketing they are doing which produces a positive ROI. One part of gettting smarter with your marketing is learning how to properly measure and track what you are doing. It doesn’t have to be complicated but unless you do it you are shooting in the dark.
Starting Your Own Business in Ireland? Test Small First
A recent post on http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=114094 was from a PAYE worker looking at starting a business.
His post starts by saying “I am considering starting a small business. I have a business idea and i have spotted a premises that would suit.”
When I read or hear something like this then alarm bells start to ring. This sounds very much like putting the cart before the horse. Unfortunately it is all too common that people have an idea then spend a lot of money setting up the infrastructure such as leasing premises and shopfitting before really identifying if there is a demand for a service and what people will actually pay for it and whether it can be sold in enough volume to not only cover costs but also to return a profit.
Over the past 10 years with the booming Irish Economy some people might have been able to take this approach and get away with it. There was so much demand out there in the economy that if you had a half decent idea it could work. However no things have changed considerably.
When considering any business idea the number one consideration should be can I clearly identify my target market and can I reach them cost effectively?
In order to do this you need to carry out a degree of market research. The thought of this research also fills people with dread, you mean I need to stand there in the high street and ask people if they would be interested in this kind of service? Often people don’t like the idea and so decide to ask their family and friends if they think their idea is a “good idea” invariably this is totally meaningless and family and friends will most likely not be impartial and they may not actuially properly into the target audience.
In fact doing Market research in the form of a survey in my experience is of limited value. People often answer differently from what they would actually do. Saying they would hypothetically be interested in something and actually being convinced enough to hand over hard earned cash are not the same thing.
So how can you test a business idea to see if there is real demand without actually losing your shirt? The best way to do this is simulate what you would actually do to sell the product or service. Take out an advert, set up a website and drive traffic to it, take a stall at a market, send a direct mail campaign to the target market. In other words implement the same marketing campaing that you would plan to use once you had everything set up perfectly. From this you will be able to guage response.
If you are not in a position to actually fulfill the product or service in the research phase it doesn’t matter. How about measuring the response and then just telling would be purchasers that you are currently fully booked or sold out and taking their details for when you are ready to go properly.
This approach will give you a much better idea of whether the projections you have in your business plan are realistic. It also makes you think about how you are going to attract paying customers before investing large amounts in infrastrucure and premises. Far better to find out you can’t sell your idea to people before you have invested thousands of Euro getting it to market.
Don’t blame the recession for your business failure if you don’t have your house in order
With all the doom and gloom in the air and business owners complaining that the recession is killing their business. It surprises me that some of them seem to have just given up.
For example 4 days ago I sent an email asking for a quote to 5 different businesses. 4 days later and only one of them has bothered to reply to me.
This is not a unique experience. On the 21st April I submitted a web form enquiry for one company and they finally got around to replying to me on 3rd May! Either the businesses I am contacting are in the lucky position of having all the work they need and they don’t need to bother replying to prospects, or there are severe holes in their customer service processes.
So before you moan about the recession and how it is killing your business, you had better be sure that you and your staff are doing absolutely everything they can to maiximise the leads that you are already getting.
I know of plenty of busineses who are applying sound marketing and other business processes and are in fact growing their businesses in the current economic climate, when others all around them are dropping the ball.
Irish retailers how to cut thousands off your rent bill with simple marketing
On a recent family shopping trip to the Outlet in Banbridge we got some great deals on clothing and shoes for all the family. Coupled with that we found the service of the staff in just about all the shops to be streets ahead of their equivalents in Dublin.
Still the reason for this article is not to extol the virtues of the Outlet but to highlight a very simply step that one of these retailers took which can have significant impact on their bottom line. And it is so simple that just about any retailer (or other business) can adapt it for use within their business.
When I was in the Clarks shop buying shoes I brought them up to the cash register and the assistant asked me simply “Do you want to keep the shoes looking their best?”. I wasn’t expecting this question and so entered into a discussion with her and ended up spending and extra £3.50 on a small shoe shine kit.
With these 10 extra words she was able to upsell me to buying a shoe shine kit when previously I had not even considered this. This is a very simple and effective strategy and one similar to the fabled McDonalds phrase of “Do you want fries with that?”.
Lets look at the impact this can have to a businesses bottom line. Lets assume that this store serves 100 customers per day and out of this 20% agree to the upsell that is an extra revenue of £70 that day that the store wouldn’t have otherwise got. It may not seem like a lot but over the course of a year based on a 6 day week it comes to £21,000. Which I’m sure would go a long way to helping pay the rent or a staff members wages.
So how can you apply this to your business? When your customers are already about to buy and have their wallets in hand is an excellent time to ask them if there is anything else they need. After all you are there to serve them by meeting their needs, you owe it to them to make sure you have met as many needs as possible.
In these challenging economic times it is all to easy to admit defeat or whine that rents are expensive, but sometimes implementing a simple strategy, like this upsell, could make a significant difference to your bottom line.
Irish Spa and salon marketing course
Better Business Results have teamed up with ISSS and Uisce Day Spa with to bring you a brand new course designed to help you break through the economic doom and gloom and show you…
What Really Works in Irish Spa & Salon Marketing
Who is this course for?
This comprehensive 1 day workshop is for self employed Spa industry professionals and the owners of spa businesses.
Are you struggling to get new customers and do you find that your existing marketing is ineffective?
Are you frustrated because you are a really skilled therapist but just can’t seem to atract enough paying customers?
If the survival of your business in the current economic climate is keeping you awake at night then this course is definitely for you.
What does the course include?
The course is broken into 12 key areas:
1. The Misleading Myths and Lies You May have been told about Marketing
2. What Marketing Really is
3. The 3 Ways to Grow Your Spa/Salon Business
4. What is a USP, Why you need one, and How to create one
5. Understanding the Life Time Value of a Customer
6. How to Drive Low Cost leads into Your Salon
7. How to Win More Sales – Turn looker into Buyers
8. How to Get Customers to Spend more each time they visit
9. How to Keep your customers coming back for more and more often.
10. Why Your Customers are your quickest way to more sales
11. How to partner with other complementary businesses
12. How to Advertise for maximum response following a simple formula that works
You will leave with a detailed business growth blueprint which details specific tasks you and your team need to take to dramatically increase the turnover of your business.
You will also walk away with a marketing manual that contains many more marketing secrets for you to apply to your business.
What will I learn from the course?
- 9 low costs ways to get all the leads you will ever need
- 12 ways to increase the value of each customer
- Keeping your customers coming back for more
Course Details
Course fee: Normal price €350 special introductory fee of €250
Date: Sunday 10th May 2009 - starts 9.30am and finishes at 5.00pm
Location: Uisce Day Spa, Suite 2, Celbridge Town Centre, Celbridge, Co. Kildare
For bookings please call: 01 6279899
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