With only a few weeks left until the end of the year, now is a good time to look at how you fared against your 2011 business targets and where your 2012 business is going to come from. The easiest way to look at the options available to you is to write a simple marketing strategy. Start off with your turnover target for next year and put it at the top of the page. Now work out which different target groups you think you will be selling to. If you’re a retailer these might be different age groups of people. If you’re a service provider then they might be different business sectors.

Now think about each of these groups and if necessary, do a little research into what their 2012 looks like. For consumers, think about the events taking place in the year/their life that affect their buying habits (Golden Jubilee? Olympics?). For B2B sectors think about what they will be trying to achieve and what their challenges will be.

Now try to make an assumption about how much business you will need to get from each group to meet your targets. It doesn’t have to be cast in stone, it just needs to put things in perspective so you’re not spending all your time on a group of buyers that will make a minimal impact on your sales. Although this sounds obvious it’s really easy to get caught up and distracted if that particular group is very time-consuming or ‘needy.’

Now you should have a page with a figure at the top which you want to achieve, with a series of buying groups below it, labelled with the percentage of that total amount you expect that group to contribute.

The next step is to think about how you will reach and engage with those different groups, which is where tailoring comes in. Think about what marketing messages might work for each group – they could be very different from the other groups. Think also about how best to get those messages in front of them based on their characteristics – website, email, flyers, posters, text messages, newspaper ads etc.

So now you should have a very basic description of your buying groups along with a brief overview of how you might engage with them and get them to buy. Now all you have to do is work out when you’re going to do what, so that you stagger your marketing activity and work around any seasonal or event based buying behaviour for each group. Put this into a calendar so that each week or month you know exactly what you have to do to maintain a consistent tailored approach to each group of buyers.

You can allocate any marketing budget you need to put in place at this stage so that there won’t be any nasty surprises along the way, and also you can avoid buying ‘last minute’ ads in publications just because they are on offer. If it doesn’t fit with your marketing strategy then don’t buy it!

If you work through this then you should be much clearer on where your 2012 business will come from and how you’re going to make it happen.

If you need a hand, then come to 19 Marketing for a chat (www.19marketing.co.uk and 01325 4632178) and we’ll be happy to advise you on how a strategy might look for your business – We’ve also got an offer on our VIP Marketing Strategy days so give us a call!

We are very busy organising festive events for our lovely clients and pulling together a press coverage pack for a snow boarding clothing brand.

Not sure if its the horrible weather but our phone lines are down!! Please call our mobiles if you need us – Claire 079200 94943 or Jess 07990 736064.

Also we are getting very excited about the arrival of the REAL penguins…… at Queen Street on Sunday from 11am!!

This is another marketing tool that should fit into your marketing strategy. You need to look at who you’re trying to attract and work out what they would want from you – then tell them why you’re the best and demonstrate it.

This will bring all sorts of benefits – from increased brand awareness and exposure through media and PR, to attracting new business and

1.      Article marketing.

It’s the strangest thing…but as soon as someone sees your name in print, your ‘expert’ status automatically leaps up! Write some articles – they don’t have to be long, just enough to be interesting and helpful to readers and start to publish them. You can put them on your website, on sites like www.ezinearticles.com and on your blog. Post links to them from Linked In, Facebook and Twitter. If they’re good, people will start to share them and you’ll get a following. Every article should include a short bio at the bottom with a photo and a link to your website and social media accounts.

2.      Radio & Newspapers

Local and regional radio stations are always looking to fill airtime with interesting pieces that will keep their listeners tuned in. If your expertise is relevant to the general market then think about creating a short press release to send to your local stations on a current topic, along with your expert views. If you’re an accountant then see if you can get on a business slot to talk about interest rate rises and what they mean for small businesses. If you’re a cleaning company, talk about the latest links between winter snuffles and germs on door handles! If you’re a boarding kennels, talk about what to do with your pets over the Christmas break and how to choose a pet boarding service. Use your imagination and think laterally about seasons, legislation, news articles, TV programmes – anything that you can easily link your expertise to in some way.

Newspapers are a bit trickier as they are overwhelmed with press releases and as a result can be really choosy. Why not try some of the really small local papers to start off with so that you build a bit of a portfolio and get your name known. Try some online publications too, in the sectors you’re targeting, and see what their policy is on publishing articles. Also, if they won’t do that , try compiling ‘10 top tips’, or ‘7 secrets’, or ‘3 mistakes businesses make’ types of articles and see if they are accepted.

3.      Speaking Gigs

Lots of organisations need a speaker every month, from business clubs, to Round Tables, Women’s Institutes to Networking groups. There are also trade specific and sector specific organisations like the CIM, CIPD and that sort of thing. So, having established that there are many, many opportunities to speak, why not get in touch with your local groups and see if you can get a slot. Remember to tailor your approach. A group of retailers will want your talk to be relevant to retail. A business club will want something that applies to any type of business. A Round Table group will want general interest and not necessarily related to business.

Work on a 20 minute talk, with or without PowerPoint (our next top tips article is going to give you some pointers on content for speaking gigs so watch out very soon!) and aim to cover 3 things. Remember to consider your audience and gauge the level of detail/technicality accordingly. Keep it simple, DON’T just read off the slides and practise it first so that you’re relaxed. And don’t use it to sell, sell, sell. This is about engaging the audience, teaching them something and helping them enjoy what you’re passionate about.

If you carry it off then word will get around that you’re a good speaker and you’ll be welcomed at other organisations. This will build your credibility and build your reputation as an expert. If you’re clever you’ll get someone to video you so that you can use snippets on your website. If you have other ‘products’ like books or CDs then have them on sale there. If not, then just make sure you take plenty of business cards.

4.      Events

If you can’t find any events that are relevant, or you’ve already spoken at them all, then why not create your own events? Not full day, full on workshops, unless they are part of your strategy already. I’m talking about free 1 or 2 hour workshops, briefings, tutorials or seminars – either free or really low cost. The objective is to get your name out there as an expert and build your database, and possibly cover your costs but if not just treat the investment as a marketing cost.

If your expertise is very niche then you’ll have to come up with a really good topic that is current, topical and preferably new.

Don’t get too hung up on ‘giving away’ your knowledge. Remember that you can tell people what and why but you don’t have to tell them how. Or you can give them a top level of information but make them pay for the detail. If you’re credible and come across well then people will remember you and will come to you when they need your services.

For the price of room hire and some refreshments this is a really good way to get a group of your target audience hanging on your every word. It’s also a great reason to go out to your database and ask people to send it to theirs.

5.      Videos

As I mentioned earlier, videos of you speaking at events are a good thing to put on your website as long as the quality is ok. If you don’t have these then don’t let that stop you. For short, ‘chatty’ videos to put on your blog or website, a video filmed yourself is usually fine. Find somewhere well-lit and find a willing volunteer so stand in and talk so that you can check the sound and visual quality. Have your ‘talk’ prepared and then just record it. There are lots of cheap/free video editing options around to do basic editing and that’s all you need.

Stuck for ideas on what to film?

• Top tips on any number of topics
• Explanation of the impact of new legislation
• Q&As
• Book reviews
• Interviews with guest speakers
• Anything that positions you as an expert!

What do you get asked to do by clients? What are they struggling with? What is costing them money? What’s causing them pain or hassle? Tackle it in a video!

Not only will people see that you know what you’re talking about, they will also start to build a relationship with you, albeit remotely. You can post it to YouTube, embed it on your Facebook Page, link to it from Twitter, add it into your blog and feature it on your website. Then you can talk about it in your e-newsletters and send people to your blog/website/FB page to watch it. Simple really.

6.      E-marketing

Use your e-newsletters or ezines to inform people. If you read our Top 10 Tips on Successful E-Newsletter Marketing, you’ll know that it’s about creating a dialogue and not just broadcasting. Taking all of the principles we’ve mentioned so far, tell your audience what they need to know. Whether it’s upskilling them, showcasing new products or services (not necessarily yours), advising on relevant news stories and how they impact on business/sectors or simply tackling some frequently asked questions, show people that you know your stuff.

If you over-deliver on what they expect from a free e-newsletter, they will keep it and maybe pass it on to people. You can still sell but very subtly and only for 10-20% of the email if at all. Best to have one series that is purely informative and contain your sales emails separately – send the informative ones more frequently than the salesly ones.

Offer to tackle reader Q&As too and then use that as content for the next ezine. It all helps to showcase your expertise. Again don’t worry about giving away ‘free’ information. Those who were going to buy will still buy, with even more certainty that you’re an expert. Those that were never going to buy, still won’t!

7.      Write a book!

This feels like a huge project but it doesn’t need to be. If you’re already writing blog posts or producing top tips, articles or workshops then think about how you can structure them into a book. You don’t have to worry about finding a publisher because these days the way to go is self publishing. From lulu.com to ibooks, there are many ways to get your book out to your fans.

You can opt to stay as an e-book or you can get physical copies published – either is great. You can use books as giveaways with a perceived value. If it’s a good book then it will get circulated. Make sure you have your biog, contact details and web/social media links on the bottom and stake your copyright too.

Once you’ve gone ahead and published it, you’re an author. So take excerpts from your book and put them on as Facebook Posts, or see if any trade magazines want to review or reprint it. There’s nothing quite like the title ‘author’ on your biography to hoist you up the ‘expert’ scale. Just do yourself justice and produce something you’re proud of.

Copyright Claire Mitchell 2011©

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About the author

Claire Mitchell

Claire is a marketing expert whose career has spanned 20 years across a range of sectors. She is co-founder of Consultant Launchpad with Clare Fenwick, and she is also MD of marketing agency 19 Marketing. She has worked in marketing and business development for blue chip companies including Courtaulds Aerospace, PPG Coatings, RBS and The Institution of Engineering and Technology.  She has also consulted across sectors including engineering, manufacturing, membership organisations, retail and professional services, pharmaceuticals and not-for-profit. Claire’s varied background and extensive marketing expertise guarantees that she can introduce an impactful marketing solution to any business.

Then you send it out and wait in anticipation for an hour or two, while you get all the bounced/wrong email addresses back in your inbox. Then you look at the statistics and find that only 2% even bothered to open it and no-one clicked on any links. Unsurprisingly it doesn’t achieve anything but you’ll do it all again in a few weeks when you can’t put it off any longer. Sound familiar?

You’re not alone.

This scene is played out in businesses across the world every day. And yet it could be so simple. It could even be fun! This is email marketing from a marketer’s perspective. It’s good – you should read it!

1. Understand what you want from your e-marketing.Why are you even sending out e-newsletters in the first place? Ideally you’ll have a marketing strategy that outlines who you’re trying to reach, what you’re offering them, what messages you’re going to use and when you’re going to send them. Realistically many firms don’t have anything as detailed as this but you will probably have a good idea of who your target customer is.If you DON’T then don’t waste your time sending out an e-newsletter as it will be a waste of time and effort – better to spend your time getting the basics right so that your marketing is focused on the right people going forward. Also what are you expecting from your e-newsletter? More visitors to your website? More Facebook ‘likes’? Some direct sales? More phone enquiries? Be clear about what you want readers to do, and make it easy for them to do it.
2. Make sure that your ‘offer’ fits your target group.If you know who you’re trying to reach (is it local cleaning businesses? Mums with children of school age? One man band consultants?) then think about what will resonate with them. Whatever you’re trying to sell them needs to solve a problem, meet a need or add value – if it doesn’t do any of those things then you’ll probably not sell a whole lot. If you’re not sure why a certain group buys but you just know it does, then ask some of them. People are usually really happy to tell you why they buy something and sometimes the answers are a complete surprise – you’ll learn a lot and probably build some stronger relationships in the process.
3. Make it REAL for them.If you’re offering something relevant to them then tell them WHY it solves a problem, meets a need or adds value. Don’t expect them to work it out for themselves. DON’T SELL THEM WHAT THEY NEED, SELL THEM WHAT THEY WANT. If you’re selling insurance to consultants, they might not take any notice of something telling them why all consultants need to have insurance and how good your product is. If, however, you tell them that a consultant in the news (if you can find one) was recently sued for XX because of a bad piece of work, and that he lost his house – do you think they would take notice?
4. It’s about THEM not YOU.Even though it’s called an e-newsletter, really people aren’t that interested in your news. I’m sorry to break this to you but why would they read through 6 articles about how great you are? They want to know what you can do for them. You need to understand their issues and tackle them. If you are talking to children’s nurseries then reference issues that mean something to them – such as OFSTED inspections, intakes, staff ratios or whatever is relevant to what you’re selling. Find a way to show that you understand them and that you can help them.
5. Segment and Tailor.While we’re on the subject of children’s nurseries, you wouldn’t send them the same email as you would send a plant nursery owner, a teacher or a hypnotherapist. So why do so many businesses spend time writing their e-newsletter (all about them) and simply send it to their entire database?Just imagine how much more interest you would generate from a hypnotherapist if you showed why your product or service is perfectly suited to therapists and coaches. Maybe you even create a special product for them – it can be your standard product but renamed and with the description tailored to that type of business.  Where you can, include references to any topical items in their ‘world’ – statistics that have been published, news stories, case studies – anything that helps you be more relevant.
6. Make it interactive.Once you understand who you’re talking to and what you’re saying, it should be fairly easy to write your e-newsletter content. Remember in point 1 when we talked about what you want readers to do? Well now is the time to put it into action.Do you want them to visit your website? If so, just put an opening paragraph in the e-newsletter and then put a ‘read more…’ link that takes them through to your blog or website where the rest of the article is hosted.Do you want them to like your Facebook Page? Well put a big button on there saying ‘Like our Facebook Page’ and have it open up your Facebook page in a window so they can act on it immediately. Even better, give them an incentive to do it – run a competition or give a discount code which is only available for Facebook fans and make that clear in the e-newsletter.

   If you sell products and you want them to buy direct from the e-newsletter then again tell the readers why they need to buy your product right now (with the right offer and tailored message) and put a big offer box in the newsletter with a limited offer – offer only valid till midnight tomorrow, only available to the first 10 people, think of a version that will work for your business.

7. More helpful information, less sales!Structure your e-newsletters in such a way that you prove your worth, validity and credibility to your recipients BEFORE you start trying to sell them anything. Give them helpful information, review books or products, cover some common Q&As, highlight a relevant news story (I saw this and thought of you!) or share some top tips without expecting anything in return.You’re building a relationship with your readers and showing them that it’s worth keeping your emails rather than hitting delete. You can still showcase or sell products or services but in context and this element should only be 10-20% of the email rather than 90-100%. You can always send out occasional ‘offer’ newsletters that are purely sales focused but don’t let these be the only e-newsletters you send.
8. Time it Right.You finish your e-newsletter and press send, right? No! There are various statistics showing when the best time is to send out e-newsletters but it all depends on who you’re sending them to. The best way to find out is to send them out in batches, at different times and on different days, and see which combination achieves the best results in terms of opens and clicks. You’ll then find the optimum time/day for each of your target sectors and you can plan your newsletter schedule around that.
9. Looks aren’t everything.Of course you want your e-newsletter to be a thing of beauty but the content is the most import element. If it looks beautiful but the pictures don’t load, or the content is dreadful then you may as well not bother! All of the mainstream email newsletter packages such as mailchimp, icontact, constant contact and the like, have free templates included for you to adapt. You can pick a layout, change the colour scheme to suit you and upload your logo – that will be fine, don’t agonise over it for days. Just get it written and out there (at the right time for you) because you’ll achieve better results from a well written and well-presented e-newsletter than from a gorgeous, designer super dooper flashy e-newsletter that never gets sent.
10. Use the stats.All of the email newsletter packages we mentioned above have built-in statistics packages showing how many e-newsletters you sent, how many bounced (went to email addresses that were wrong or out of use), how many were opened, how many people clicked on links and which links they clicked on, how many people forwarded to a friend and how many unsubscribed.This is really useful information because if  you know that a particularly email got a much higher open rate than usual, or a particular link made lots of people click on it then work out why that was and replicate it. By the same token if a particular e-newsletter caused a high number of recipients to unsubscribe then again, work out why. Something was either really unpopular or really irrelevant so try to avoid repeating that mistake.

Little extra tips for good measure…

• You MUST include an unsubscribe button to allow people to take themselves off your list and you MUST take them off the list! It’s their right to unsubscribe  – don’t take it personally, you’re just not right for them at the moment.
• If you’re using old, out of date lists, lists that you’ve bought or lists that you’ve ‘scraped’ from the internet you’ll probably get a high rate of unsubscribes. If this happens then your email provider might block your account.
• Some email providers won’t even let you use ‘role based’ email addresses like sales@, admin@, enquiries@ so if your lists have lots of these types of addresses you won’t be able to use them.

We hope you found our 10 top tips on email marketing useful – we’ll have more top tips every week for the next few weeks to get you up to speed on the key marketing tools. Please share this with your friends and colleagues if you think they would be interested. We also have an e-newsletter ourselves that goes out from 19 Marketing and you can sign up on our front page

Author: Claire Mitchell, MD 19 Marketing Ltd.

©Copyright 19 Marketing Ltd

Vampire Edward Cullen meets 19 Pumpkin Yasmin

It’s all going on at Queen Street Shopping Centre! We had a great time at our Halloween Spooktacular event. Children and adults thoroughly enjoyed getting their faces painted; we did everything from spooky spiders to wicked witches!

We had a brilliant trick or treat competition which kept the kids entertained and many of the teenagers and adults enjoyed getting their pictures taken with our special guest Edward Cullen from Twilight.

Lots more photos of our Halloween Spooktacular event are on our Facebook Page now!

Currently on display is:

The lovely display by Whimsey and Quirk!

Whimsey and Quirk hand printed wallpapers (printed onto FSC certified lining paper). Digitally printed wallpapers. Sweetie lamp – made using industrial waste and off-cuts of fabric. Sweetie table – also made using industrial waste and therefore saving on landfill. Lloyd Loom chair recovered with a whimsey & quirk design.

A great way to feed the birds by Mr and Mrs Downing

‘Feed the Birds’ Art Installation by Mr and Mrs Downing in Queen Street Shopping Centre as part of the Get Creative at Queen Street initiative. What a novel way to do it! They actually use these plates, cups and saucers on poles in their garden and fill them with seeds and cup cakes.

Lucky Faye Taylor from Darlington aged 2 and a half won our fantastic Peppa Pig goody pack!! All agreed that it was a fab day and we hope Peppa will be back soon for a visit.

Lots more photos of the Peppa Pig event are on our Queen Street Shopping Centre Facebook Page now or go to the Queen Street website for information on future events and to sign up for their fab newsletter!

Getting down!

Our Queen Street Dance event was a huge success! Around 40 children participated in our dancing demonstrations and lessons, from tiny tots to talented teens. From ballet to street dance, the team from Darrien Wright’s Dance Wright studio put on an amazing show and we were hugely impressed with their confidence and skill.

The dancing drew large crowds of passers by of all ages, with many staying to watch the whole performance! Our retailers enjoyed increased traffic through the centre even if they did need earplugs during some of the louder sets.

All the Dancers

Overall the event was a resounding success and was just the first of many events taking place at Queen Street over the next 12 months. Sign up for our newsletter to get advance notification of our exciting event calendar

Lots more photos of the event are on our Facebook Page