Off the Edge

Following on from my last blog on the 1-page marketing plan I did promise to give some extra help on how to go about developing your plan - having warned you that it's the thinking that goes into creating the one-pager that is important, not the time to write one page! So here we are.

There is a simple 5 step process that I use to help me organise my thoughts when planning:

1. Where are you now?
2. Where are you going?
3. How could you get there?
4. Which way is best?
5. How will you know when you've arrived?

I'm going to use these as 'chapters' to help guide you through the marketing planning process, but they work equally well for any plan you have to make.

Say, for example, you need to make a plan for a trip to London. How do you do that?

1. Where are you now? Obviously if you don't know your starting point then it's really difficult to get any sort of plan together to get you to London! Let's assume it's Canterbury.
2. Where are you going? Well, we know it's London but some additional detail will be useful here. Not just where exactly you need to be, but at what time and on what date. Let's assume Piccadilly for a meeting at 11.30am.
3. How could you get there? Being creative you can identify a number of different options: train, coach, bus, car, bicycle, hitch-hiking or even walking! or maybe, more likely, a combination of those.
4. Which way is best? Here you get to select the best option to achieve your objective - which is to get from Canterbury to Piccadilly for an 11.30am meeting. Additional information may also need to be brought into play, i.e. budget, availability of services, resources (access to car/bike), and skills (can you drive). Taking all these things into account you'll eventually decide the route you will take.
5. How will you know when you've arrived? Maybe not such a daft question if you're going somewhere you've never been before! My guess is that you will use data such as external signs to tell you where you are on the journey (to check you are heading in the right direction) and to tell you when you are at your final destination. Failing that maybe you'll ask a policeman!

We're all used to planning simple journeys and can move quickly through each of the steps, hardly aware of the analysis and filtering that we are doing to guide our decision-making. But when it comes to make a plan for our marketing activity we may need to take a bit longer and act more consciously.

I mentioned before the article that said that smes trust their gut over data - when it comes to your marketing plan I suggest it is fine to start with some instinctive assumptions but that you should then test those just to make sure. The closer you are to something the more difficult it can be to see it objectively. Take some time to stand back, look around and double-check!

So next posting we'll consider step 1 - where are you now? And we'll look at some useful, easy to apply tools to help you get your location pinpointed just right!

I recently spent a day creating a training course on marketing planning that I was to deliver for another organiser. Unfortunately the course was cancelled (whether it was the subject or poor selling that put people off I don't know for sure) but, more fortunately, my time was not wasted. I may well use the content in another event but, more importantly, it encouraged me to do something I had been meaning to do for a long, long time - create a one-page marketing plan!

Not an earth-shattering invention you might say, and certainly not unique. But it's my own take on the idea of simplifying the whole marketing plan output and creating something that ultimately fulfils its objective because it gets used. So I'm going to put it out there, run it up the flagpole, and see what you loyal blog readers have to say about it.

If anyone has any refinements to suggest they are more than welcome - as long as they have the 'KISS' factor (see Jim's earlier blog)! It would be great to be able to evolve this tool through real testing and feedback.

I have one major health warning to add at this point, before we get carried away, - creating a one-page plan is not as simple as it sounds. Sorry! The hard fact is that, although you may be able to put your conclusions and actions succinctly into one page, the real hard work in planning is in the process. You will undoubtedly know a lot about your own market and products, but you need to sort that knowledge, filter it, fill in the gaps and then draw appropriate conclusions in order to have a sound basis for your planning. Tough, but there it is!

Nevertheless, I figure that some of what puts people off doing a marketing plan is the idea that they have to write a report that will run into several pages. And that thought stops them even getting started. As I said, you can't get away without the thinking but you can get away without the writing - that's what one-page planning gives you permission to do.

Only this week I read a Real Business article that said that small businesses trust their gut over data when it comes to decision-making. According to a survey only 10 per cent of respondents associate business decisions with hard data. And less than a third of SMEs are using reporting tools (i.e. sales forecasting, financial, business analytics or business intelligence) when making a business decision. Mind you, it doesn't worry them, because 75% reported being very confident in their decisions.

Now I'm a big fan of gut instinct but it's always worth checking out your instincts and assumptions. On one of our coaching courses recently an attendee had an epiphany when she realised 90% of her business was coming from the people she was concentrating on only 20% of the time! Data can do that for you - and believe me her action plan from then on looked quite different.

Back to the plan. It has the basic building blocks of analysis and planning, including dependencies and resources:

• Business objectives (why you are doing this)
• The offer (value proposition)
• Target market (who are you talking to)
• Marketing objectives (translated from the business objectives)
• Marketing budget (an essential factor)

Most importantly it then identifies what is going to be done, by who and when across the marketing mix: product, price, place promotion (the 4ps).

In forthcoming blogs I'm going to tackle each of these sections in turn, looking at some tools that will help in analysis (or checking gut instinct), so don't worry if this seems overly simplistic at this stage. I think if you worked through each section at an hour a week creating a marketing plan would seem much less painful - and less of a slog to fit into a busy working week.

In the meantime please download the template, try it out (or imagine using it) and let me know what you think. Would a one-page plan help you - or is that still too much of a stretch?

We didn't exhibit at Kent 2020 this year. Sharon was manning the Chartered Institute of Marketing stand so I took the opportunity to wander freely around as a visitor. My objectives: 1/ to conduct some market research on behalf of our clients; 2/ to see if I could get more leads than last year when we did exhibit; 3/ to collect freebies (come on we all do it!) and 4/ to conduct an informal survey on how exhibitors tried to engage with a visitor.

Was I successful? Well yes, pretty much: 

1. I got lots of information on our client's competitors which will definitely help with our plans going forward.
2. I didn't get more leads but I didn't get less either so for me the jury is out on the value of exhibiting.
3. Overall the standard of freebies left much to be desired this year. Clearly the recession is taking it's toll. Apart from the sweeties, my kids were most impressed with the pen with a torch in the end from UPG Print Group and the 3D business card from Cascade. Well done guys!
4. Very interesting and the main subject of this week's blog. Read on......

With my hessian carrier bag in hand I strolled casually into the hall. My plan was to walk slowly enough to give the stand-jockey time to make his/her move and to make sure I looked at each stand. Long enough to show interest but not so long as to be obvious.

The results of my qualitative and completely unscientific research are quite startling.

I would say that the most common  approach, exhibited by about 50% of people, was to make no effort at all to engage with me. Some of this group were on stands with several people who were clearly enjoying chatting with each other too much to waste their time on the punters.  Come on guys don't make me make the first move. Us visitors want to be woo'd!

The next biggest group, about 20% I'd say, were those who did say hello but so quietly I could hardly hear it. Almost as if they felt obliged to make an effort but either couldn't really be bothered or are so terminally shy that the idea that I might reply took their breath away. I know your mum always told you not to talk to strangers but really, if you're working on an exhibition stand you have to take some risks!

Next come the open openers. The bright and breezy "Hello there!" followed by something like "How are you enjoying the show?". They broke the ice and could move the conversation on. Maybe 15% fell into this category.

Around 10% of people gave me a big smile but left it too long to say anything so I'd moved on.

The remainder was composed of two main groups. The first were the "crazy" people who dragged me onto the stand and had my card in their prize draw before I could say iPad 3. The second, and thankfully smaller group, was those who did engage me but with an opening line that caused me to stop in my tracks through confusion rather than interest. In my case it was the man who said "What brings you to the show?" I felt like the evil computer on Star Trek that is fed an insoluble logic problem by Spock. I froze. My eyes boggled, I stammered. I'm sure my voice went increasingly high pitched and smoke started to appear out of my ears. What should I say? A car? My 4 objectives?  Material for a blog? By the time I'd made a decision he was off confusing someone else. I have no idea what he was offering.

Of course once the ice is broken the next stage begins. What approaches to qualification and close were employed? The strategies are as varied as with the openings. I have to say once people get going they were OK at getting their message across. The biggest fault I noticed was that people were so keen to tell me all about how great was the thing they had to offer, that they spent next to no time trying to understand me, my business, my challenges etc. They could never know whether I would be a good customer or not.

Overall my day's research allowed me to categorise stand-jockeys into 5 groups based on characters from Disney's The Jungle Book: 

• Shere Khan - Watchful, alert, prepared. This guy is a pro. He know what he wants and he's going to get it. He can sense any hesitation in the passer-by and pounce ruthlessly and without mercy. The chase is brief and effective. The opening line cuts straight to the bone and you quickly give up any resistance and accept your fate. Most likely to say: "You'll have a quote waiting for you when you get back to the office."
• Baloo - Chilled and relaxed, he's here to have fun. If business comes as a result then hey that's great. If you're happy he's happy. Most likely to say "Of course you can take four pen, torch, bottle opener, stapler gizmos for your kids!"
• King Louie - One of a big buzzing group on the stand. The gang are lively, even frenetic. There are lots of fun and games and Louie will pull you in and make you part of the action. He'll convince you that you stand a great chance of a major prize but you suspect that he's really only interested in your email address. Most likely to say ".. now if you can just fill out this form..."
• Kaa - A smooth operator. Knows just what to say while maintaining slightly too much eye contact. Calm and convincing he knows what makes you tick and  what rings your bell. How could you not have realised that what is making your life incomplete is the absence of a one cup coffee maker? Especially when the little cartridge thingies are so cheap when compared to a Costabucks Republic bucket of latte. Most likely to say "..and here's your receipt."
• The Girl - Male or female "The Girl" is demure and shy. Never speaking the girl just goes about the business of sorting leaflets, stocking shelves and filling the jelly bean jar. The girl may stop occasionally and look longingly in your direction before returning to paper shuffling. You don't know what the girl's company does but you have the vague notion that it may have been the most interesting stand at the show if only you had plucked up the courage to talk to her!  Most likely to say "...." 

What were my conclusions at the end of the day? If you're going to be on a stand at an exhibition give some thought to how you are going to start a conversation. Have a few ideas and try them out to see which ones work best. Then have a clear idea about how you'd like the conversation to go. What do you need to find out about the person and his business? How will you qualify? How will you leave him feeling positive about your company.

Of course, I haven't even touched on what happens the day after the exhibition! Another blog maybe.

You can help us all by contributing to the debate. What's the best opening line you've heard at an exhibition?

Just a short blog this time, but one that if you take to heart will be worth its weight in gold. That's a big promise I know but really, this is important.

Working with people from a wide range of sectors with a wide variety of experience and backgrounds, there is one thing that we see time and time again. It's a problem that can cause them to waste money, time and energy and it can turn off prospective clients in a flash.

I'm talking about garlic breath.....No I'm not. I'm talking about linguistic gymnastics.

This is not a new event for London 2012 where supple pre-pubescent girls dance around rubber mats to an accompaniment of Brian Blessed reading the complete Shakespeare sonnets. No, this is that pastime that seems to be very popular these days of transmuting quite straight forward messages into gobbledygook.

I don't know why people do it. Perhaps it's because they lack the confidence to write straight forwardly. Maybe they think that if they use long sentences and words with lots of syllables it will make them sound incredibly intelligent. Often I think is because people don’t give themselves time to plan out their writing properly. This is always a mistake - you may have heard the quotation (attributed to Mark Twain) "I did not have time to write you a short letter so I wrote a long one instead."

The reality is that if you make your writing complex what happens? 

1. Your reader loses the point you are trying to communicate
2. Your reader has to concentrate on the individual words and phrases rather than the message
3. Your reader starts to focus more on your verbal contortions than your message
4. The reader gives up

Remember that you want to get your point across. The onus is therefore on you to make sure that the reader can easily understand it, not on the reader to figure it out. Don’t make him have to work at it – why should he?

Just because there are 1,013,913 words in the English language you shouldn't feel obliged to use all of them in your leaflet, brochure or website (unless you’re the Oxford English Dictionary of course in which case you probably feel that it might be quite appropriate).

The conversation usually goes something like this:

Jim (after reading impenetrable 6 line, 175 syllable sentence): “What are you trying to say here?”

Writer: “Well, I’m trying to say that our widget is faster.”

Jim: “And? So what?”

Writer: “Because our widget is faster it saves the user time and cost. They get out of their client’s office quicker, which means less disruption, and they can do more jobs in a day.”

Jim: “So why don’t you say that then?”

Writer: "Umm. Yes. Good point!"

Pause.

Jim: "What does hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian mean?"

My advice if you have to produce some written material would be:

• Plan out what you want to say. Be clear about each point you want to make and think about how the argument will flow
• Write so that a 12 year old could understand it. You may have to include technical terms but you don’t have to wrap them up in verbiage
• Let someone who doesn’t know the subject read it and say whether it’s clear to them.

In short – give it a KISS.  Keep It Simple Stupid!

When my boss at BT, the Marketing Director, received calls from sales people (mainly marketing agencies) he would always say, "You need to speak to Sharon. She makes those decisions. Here's her number." When they contacted me I knew that my most likely response would be, "Thanks but no thanks". I was open to their approach, would listen and give it fair consideration, but if there was no real opportunity or likelihood that we would give them any business then I would very openly, politely and straighforwardly tell them so.

Why couldn't my boss do this himself? He was an intelligent guy of high integrity, but he was terrible at turning people down. He wasn't really worried about hurting their feelings or not being liked, what he hated was closing down opportunities. He saw the possibilities in everything even when, according to my more pragmatic and realistic view of the world, resources were limited and you can't do everything. 

If resources are limited in a big company like BT now, as a small business owner, they seem even more so - time in particular is a precious commodity. I am dismayed therefore to find so many people who find it difficult to say no - or is it just me that suffers from this problem? (If so I need to know!)

I'm talking about people who don't return personal calls or emails, not people who don't respond to direct marketing. If I'm feeling charitable then I choose to believe that there are lots of people out there who are just like my old boss and who don't want to give up on an opportunity. On my less charitable days then I get angry about the lack of courtesy and respect that one business owner is prepared to show to another.

If you prepare a quote or a proposal for someone and they never get back to you what are you supposed to think?

1. They are too busy?
2. They are too scared to deliver bad news?
3. They can't be bothered?
4. They want you to work harder to get their business?

When we put a proposal together for a marketing programme it entails a lot of work researching the opportunity and tailoring the proposal. It is therefore a costly exercise. I know not all proposals are going to convert to business but getting feedback on why the prospective client is not interested in going ahead, where you failed to demonstrate the appropriate value, or how circumstances have changed is invaluable.

This is a marketing issue - we all need feedback in order to improve the standard of our services and then, hopefully, our conversion rates. 

It is good business practice to follow up submission of quotes or proposals but after how many unreturned emails or calls should I be getting the message (choose which message from 1-4 above)?

I genuinely believe that there are times when it is better to be cruel to be kind - to deliver the bad news to someone quickly and directly rather than keep them holding on, hoping, wishing and wondering!

My personal values (as those of you who know me will, I hope, testify) are to be honest and straightforward with people. I don't like to lead people on and, I know, this can come across as harsh at times. But why waste people's time? Let's be supportive to each other and show appropriate respect!

Q  What do the self-employed call Bank Holiday Monday?

A Monday!

Right before the Easter break seems a good time to revisit this article (and joke) from a year ago. The pitfalls of pricing by the hour for services was a subject that struck a chord with many readers - and something that we know can be a challenge to avoid, given the expectations and norms that exist in the different markets.

How should the Easter bunny maximise his earnings given he only gets to work once a year?

If your business relies on your selling yourself or the services of others then the standard model is to set an hourly rate that you want to achieve for each individual, and use that as a basis for your pricing.

If you are selling expertise, knowledge, or skills then you will most likely say, "You can have me for £XXX per  .."  hour, day, week. And many clients we speak to believe they are being more open and transparent by giving their customers information on the time it will take them to complete a job.

But, let me remind you, there are a number of drawbacks to this approach: 

1.     It doesn’t necessarily reflect the value of your work to the client. If you truly understand the value you are creating for your customer and can communicate that value clearly and unambiguously you should feel able to ask a reasonable level of reward for creating that value. If you worked for a week with a client on a project that saved him £2000 should you be rewarded the same amount as if you had saved him £20,000? More importantly would the client be happy to pay you more for a £20,000 saving? I know I would.

2.     It focuses discussions on the time you spent doing the work rather than the outcome. No-one hires you because they like having you around. They hire you to deliver something. Do you want to be focussing the customers mind on hours and days of effort or the results he is going to see?

3.     It incentivises you to do more, add more, work longer. In a time based pay environment you are under pressure to do more work to generate more income. You may be tempted to add more into the job, stretch the job out, take on more work so that you can pay the mortgage. This isn’t necessarily good for you or the client.

4.     It limits your earning capacity to the number of hours you can work. Related to point 3. If you get paid by the hour then you can’t earn more than the hours you can work. Remember weekends? Remember holidays? What do you call Bank Holiday Monday?

I was working with someone recently who was in the habit of quoting time in their proposals. He was initially reluctant to consider change but did admit to some problems. Firstly, prior to agreeing to go ahead prospects would pick at the time estimates, "why does it take you that long to create a design?" Secondly, if the time ran over he had no intention of passing the additional cost onto the customer but ended up feeling hard done by. So including time in the proposal only lead to sorrow!

Obviously it is important to you how long you take to complete the work - but this does not need to be a problem you pass onto your customer.

But what are the alternatives? How do you arrive at a fair price based on value rather than hours?

Realistically if you book someone for a treatment or coaching then you cannot get away without working, and pricing, to time. So there will always be scenarios where time-based pricing is the right option. But, for the rest of you, the better approach is to arrive at a fixed price against a fixed set of outcomes/deliverables.

When I'm trying to wean clients off pricing by the hour I make the following recommendations:

1. Start with your estimate of time for the job as you would normally.
2. Identify the tangible deliverables - a website, a plan, a report - and the value this will bring to the client, i.e. will your activity contribute to them earning more money or saving time or money?
3. Estimate the price using your usual assumptions on hourly rates.
4. Consider the total price in the light of the value to the customer - is it fair? Expensive? Too cheap? You need to be comfortable that it is a fair price for both of you!
5. Revise your price in the light of this deliberation.
6. When you pass the price you are happy with onto the client do not mention how long you expect it to take you - the aim it to deliver the value for the agreed price not to complete the hours!

Then, assuming you are successful in winning the business, you need to focus on your own efficiency. The faster you can complete the work the more profitable you will be. And if it takes you longer you either need to improve the way you work - or improve the way you estimate your jobs!

Let us know your experiences - and have a lovely bank holiday!

Today, to earn some useful CPD time to preserve my Chartered Marketer qualification, I attended a Chartered Institue of Marketing webinar about Facebook for Business. Regular readers will know that at The Purple Edge we consider ourselves healthy sceptics when it comes to social media and, as much as I like to stay in touch, I also find myself mildly irritated by the massive emphasis on these tools in the marketing community.

My scepticism was somewhat inflamed, as it happens, by having just read a Huffington Post article about the media obsession with social and viral. It's a brilliant article by the way, talking about the rapid changes in news stories as dictated by the ebb and flow of social media. And the obsession of businesses with 'going viral'. It suggests that little attention is paid these days to whether the news or content is actually worth the airtime: "nothing is too inconsequential to be made consequential." It's a sobering tale - but I digress. I recommend you read the article, but back to Facebook for Business.

The webinar didn't really cover any new ground, but reinforced some messages that I'm happy to share with you (and save you an hour listening for yourself).

Social media is big news

Well, we shouldn't be surprised, but a survey among marketers identified that 61% say they are aiming to increase their investment in this area in the coming year. More than in any other area and, for the first time, beating email. In a live poll on the webinar 38% of respondents identified Facebook as their most important social media platform, 27% Twitter, 26% LinkedIn and 9% YouTube. That suggests that a significant proportion of the attendees are focusing on consumer markets.

Acquire, participate, engage, share

This is the strategy recommended to develop your network relationships using Facebook. Facebook advertising was proposed as a key way to ACQUIRE new visitors to your page, this echoes other advice I have read (but is not free of course). You encourage PARTICIPATION by sharing great content, ENGAGEMENT means creating offers or seeking opinions, SHARING is what happens when friends of your fans see what they are up to on your site.

Something new I did learn was the way Facebook decides what to show in the newsfeeds these days. It used to be simply the most recent posts but now is a combination of factors: recency, edge weight and affinity score. It's all getting very complicated, but 'edge' refers to content and some types of content have more 'weight' than others. For example video is most 'weighty', photos less so, status updates less again and 'likes' least of all. How much your followers choose to interact with you (by commenting or liking for example) gives them an affinity score and Facebook will show them posts from people they have greater affinity with before others. Keeping up?

Old rules, new tools

I was most heartened to hear this message! Don't get so carried away with new tools and the technology that you forget that the message is more important that the platform. Be clear about who you're speaking to, what you have to say, why it is valuable, and how you say it.

The most successful brands on Facebook are those with a brand personality that lends itself to this new medium. Yo Sushi did part of the presentation and explained how they use Facebook to drive more business through their restaurants and to encourage loyalty (they made a lot of offers both national and local). Their brand personality was described as humorous, helpful, exciting, intelligent, playful and fun. All of which lets them push the boundaries on the content and interact in a lively way with their customers.

Business to business use of Facebook was acknowledged as more of a challenge than if you are targeting consumers. If you're targeting businesses and have to prioritise where you spend your time then spending a lot of it on Facebook may not be your best bet!

At the end of all that I have 1 hour towards the 35 hours that I need annually for my CPD, and a blog post. All in all time well spent!

It was announced this week that Richard Brasher, Tesco's head of UK Business, is to step down. He will be replaced by the big cheese (don't worry this blog will not be littered with grocery references) Phillip Clarke. The news follows the revelation that Tesco was the Christmas turkey (sorry!)  of the supermarkets, posting its worst festive season performance for 20 years and a shock profit warning.

There is, to some extent, an inevitability about the drop in Tesco's performance - you can't be at the top of the pile for ever. In the highly competitive food retail business every player is constantly struggling for an edge. It's possible that Tesco will get their mojo back and resume their place as market leader for growth.

The blame for the poor performance was laid at the door of the economy. Shoppers were moving to economy brands and cutting back on luxuries. It sounds plausible at first but why weren't Sainsbury affected in the same way? Why was Waitrose pulling in the punters hand over fist?

There are lots of opinions flying around about why Tesco has suffered and the reality is there are probably lots of reasons, but I think there are a couple of things that even small businesses can learn a lesson from:

1/ Value does not mean cheap 

In autumn Tesco launched their "Big Price Drop" promotion which was supposed to reduce prices by about £500M. They cancelled double Clubcard points to pay for it. The promotion is widely regarded as a flop. The promotion coincided with general rises in food prices which meant that customers often saw no benefit in their total bill. There were suggestions that quality and customer service levels were not being maintained (according to Kantor retail analysts). So the customers were expecting value but were perceiving similar bills for a worse service.

Value doesn't mean cheap - it means the customer is happy that he gets a good return for his spend. In this respect it seems that Tesco's customers didn't feel that they were.

2/ You can't tell customers one thing and deliver another

Added to the Big Price Drop (or Big Price flop) promotion failure it was reported in the press that Tesco reduced the price of their frozen turkeys by 50% in the run up to Christmas. Sounds great but it was discovered that competitors were selling them for the same price without a big reduction. Again customers were lead to expect one thing but were presented with something very different.

You have to live up to your customer promises. If they don't trust you you'll lose them.

Now pretty much all this article was written based on what I've read in the press - I don't shop at Tesco very often at all. In fact I am a supermarket tart (oops!). I'll triffle (yeeks) with all of them and I don't  give a fig (yikes).

With that in mind let me know what you think. Where has Tesco gone wrong and, more importantly, what do you think we as small businesses learn from it?

I came across this question posed in a LinkedIn discussion group recently: "How would you persuade a struggling business owner that doesn't believe in marketing? What would be your main arguments?"

Of course I could not resist answering - being a business owner and not believing in marketing makes no sense at all! How can you possibly have a business and not be carrying out any marketing activities? Sadly, however, it's not so rare a situation. I'm regularly told that "we don't do marketing" or "our marketing doesn't work."

Whether you 'believe' in marketing or not, I can guarantee that if you are in business you are doing marketing. And I can guarantee that if your business is growing then you are doing marketing that is working. Although 'doing marketing' is not enough - you have to be doing the right marketing! If your business is failing or stagnating then your marketing is failing too!

On another LinkedIn group someone posted their blog entitled: "Marketing Doesn’t Matter If Your Customers Aren’t Served", which was basically advocating great customer service.

Now this one really shocked me as it was in a forum for members of the Chartered Institute of Marketing who should know better - customer service is a key aspect of marketing!

The mistake made by both parties was to make the definition of marketing they used far too narrow. If you say 'marketing' when you really mean 'promotion' then you miss the 80% of the marketing discipline that makes the promotion most effective!

So what should 'believing in marketing' really entail?

How about:

• Understanding the market - customer, competitors, and the environment that you all operate in
• Creating value for customers - ensuring you have a product or service that delights customers and that they are willing (even pleased) to pay a fair price for
• Being easy to do business with - make it easy to find you, easy to buy from you and then give customers reasons to stay 
• Constantly reviewing performance - identifying what is working well and what needs changing

You may choose to call it something different but if you are doing all or any of the above you are tackling marketing issues in your business. The trick is to do it better, consciously and with determination, to get the results you are after.

And don't say marketing when you mean promotion! Promotion is how you tell your target audience about what you can do for them - essential, but not step 1 in your marketing!

So how about you - do you believe in marketing?

Unless you've been hiding underground for the past couple of years you can't have missed the chitter chatter about all things social networking. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube get a lot of mentions in the mainstream media, but most recently it seems to be LinkedIn that is attracting most interest among local businesses.

I've been invited to give presentations and tutorials to several different audiences now - to people who want to know more about the benefits, but who also want to know more about the nuts and bolts of how you use it. To a large extent these are people who have resisted diving into the technology (partly through fear of the unknown) but now realise they can put it off no longer! Most people I talk to have created an account but not fully exploited it.

Well, if that is you, or if you're still resisting, here are my top 10 reasons why you should not delay getting LinkedIn any longer!

LinkedIn is now well established as the professional’s social media network. It complements and enhances all your business networking activities – think of it as being like a tradeshow but bigger and more powerful. 

1.       Increase your profile online

The time is coming when if you don’t exist online then you don’t exist at all! As a professional you must take control over how you present yourself online and ensure you are found for the right reasons. The size and reputation of LinkedIn means it performs well in search engines so you may well be obvious even by your absence!  

2.       Engage with your network

LinkedIn is a great way to stay in touch with all those people you meet in the offline world. After meeting someone for the first time look them up on LinkedIn and get connected. Then you can follow this up from time to time to maintain your visibility and reputation by sending information that you believe they will find useful and helpful.

3.       Grow your visibility and credibility

We like to do business with people we know and trust. And the more you can be visible for the right reasons the more your credibility grows. You can demonstrate credibility by asking and answering questions in groups. Just study what others do first and you’ll soon find a way to join in that suits you – pay special attention to the people you think are achieving the opposite (being annoying and idiotic) and resolve not to do it that way!

4.       Ask advice

While it’s great to be able to show how much you know about your subject, there are times when we need some extra help and advice to solve problems. You might be interested to know if others have experience of the issue you are trying to address or if they can recommend a supplier. Giving your network the opportunity to help you out can be a great way to build your relationships reciprocally.

5.       Conduct research

If you are interested in learning more about someone you are about to meet or about who works for which companies, for example if you selling or recruiting or looking for work, then LinkedIn is a good place to start. You can check out an individual’s profile, see who they are connected to and also what groups they are part of.

6.       Get introduced to target contacts

Targeting people you want to get to know is easier when someone else introduces you. You can research companies and find contacts with which you share connections. Then you can request an introduction and build up your new relationship from there.

7.       Promote events

You can create events on LinkedIn and promote them to your contacts. Your contacts can also share this information around their network – this is one of the ways that social media really stands out from 1-1 contacts. It gives you greater reach because it is so easy for people to share.

8.       Promote products & services

While LinkedIn is mostly about people you can also create a company page where you can give more information on the products and services you offer.

9.       Improve your search rankings

Including links back to your main website on LinkedIn will give you ‘link juice’ from a reputable site, i.e. search engines take it as a positive sign of the validity and worthiness of your website when they are calculating the algorithm that determines if your website comes up in keyword searches.

10.   Drive traffic to your website

Engaging in social media is all very well, but you really want people to come to your website and hopefully join your mailing list so that you can manage the contacts more directly. You can do this by putting links into your status updates that publicise your blogs, white papers or offers. Or by messaging people directly.

Getting going

As always you get out what you put in – you must be prepared to invest some time and effort in regular engagement on LinkedIn and the rewards should be worth it. The trick is to be consistent and persistent rather than do a marathon session then ignore it for weeks!

Your aim when you engage on LinkedIn is to join conversations, offer advice, tips and generally be helpful. In this way you provide value to others and establish yourself as a likeable, knowledgeable and credible professional worth doing business with. Don’t be too dry and stuffy – it is a ‘social’ network after all!

Start with making sure your profile is 100% complete and that it portrays you appropriately and professionally for your business and target audience. Then visit 2-3 times a week for 10-15 minutes – if you’re receiving emails then you have a natural prompt to dip into groups and discussions. Aim to grow your network slowly and steadily over time.

Good luck and please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn:  http://uk.linkedin.com/in/sharonwilding