Creating more relevant personalised communications

Receiving messages from a company you have never spoken to can be annoying and intrusive at best, often referred to as spam. Therefore, gaining permission to speak is a critical element in building a relationship with your customers, but using this right to broadcast the same communication to all customers will eventually turn your message to “noise”. Having a conversation is not a one way speech, but an interactive communication which listens and speaks to, not at the customer. Within the travel and tourism industry the need to provide the personal touch is a key differentiator of single and smaller hotel chains, with the service and attention to detail making the experience memorable and distinctive. This unique and distinguishing service is often carried across to the digital world, with some very elegant, evocative images and…

5 Franchising Q&As with a look at opportunities in Australia

Becoming a small business owner has grown into one of the hottest topics in the world business news in the past few years. With an over 90% prosperity in the franchise sector, running your own business is a one-way ticket to success. Yet, the unlimited power which franchise enterprises hold is often deeply buried under a messy pile of obscure researches and heavy statistics. Understanding the basics of franchising is the first step towards starting a successful business. This article will give answers to the top most asked franchising questions helping you improve your organisational and personal management skills.

Q1. What is a Franchise?

Franchise is generally an authorisation granted by a company or product owner which gives a person the right to market a specific service or product by using the trade name or trademark of another business. The authorised person is…

Essential techniques for making your communications more customer-focused

It’s no secret that effective timing is an essential ingredient of successful marketing. Spotting seasonality and maintaining frequency are the easy things to manage. Getting people to want to spend time with you is more of a challenge. This doesn’t just mean showing up at the right time, it means earning the right to person’s precious time To pull people through the buying decision, you need to understand how much time they want to give to the process. Then, ensure that you have the right tools and techniques of an appropriate duration, available when they want them. Grabbing someone’s attention is something that’s done in seconds. A person will either notice you, or they won’t. Then the moment has passed. If they then start to consider buying from you, they will gradually increase the time that they’re happy to devote to finding out about your products…

Research on UK SME usage and attitudes to online marketing

Over 188 UK small and medium business responded to Browser Media's survey at the London Business Show, providing insight into how SMEs are using and investing in online marketing today. We think you will relate to their findings.

79% felt the website was critical to their marketing, yet 28% are happy with their Google rankings and 4 in 10 are investing in their websites!

The survey highlighted:

SME managers and owners are familiar with social media marketing, email marketing and SEO. Over 50% manage their digital activities in-house and one third have Agency support. The least familiar online marketing tactics are content marketing, affiliate marketing and inbound marketing.

Summarising the research, Joe Friedlein, Founder and Managing Director at Browser Media said:

…

Our interview with Michael Welch of Blackcircles.com

Michael Welch created Blackcircles.com as a new way for consumers to buy tyres at competitive prices either over the Internet or on the telephone. From the site, consumers can find the best deal from a network of over 1,000 local dealerships. Blackcircles.com now has a turnover of £18 million and is growing rapidly, so we thought it would be interesting to learn the approaches its founder, Michael Welch has used to grow and sustain the business. Thanks Mike for sharing your story!

Key success factors for the business

Q1. Which factors do you put the initial success of Blackcircles.com down to? At the very beginning it was mainly about hard work, determination and not ‘taking no for an answer’. If I’m honest there was no real difference between me…

E-retail own goals that gift victory to your rivals

There are lots of common mistakes that I still often see made on a frequent basis when I review e-commerce sites. Sure, you're unlikely to see these on John Lewis and M&S, but some are made irrespective of the size of the project. Having seen many of these mistakes being made so often and particularly when so little work is required to rectify or prevent them, I have created this list of some of the common e-commerce mistakes to avoid:

Getting the basics of product marketing wrong

Surprisingly, one of the most common mistakes that companies of all sizes have made and will continue to make comes down to viewing the build of a website as a technical exercise only. In fact nothing could be farther from the truth. An e-commerce website has to position your…

How to create an inbound marketing strategy - some case studies of tools and tactics

I've found setting up and running a small business is both daunting and exciting in equal measure. The combined economic downturn and increasingly crowded competitive landscape mean the need to promote your business and get your message ‘out there’ is as important as ever.

The small business marketing challenge

Marketing is a huge challenge for small businesses, particularly start-ups with no established customer base or community around them. Traditional advertising is an absolute necessity to let people know who you are. But if you’ve limited money and resources, what other options do you have to get your message about your fantastic new business out there? Inbound marketing is one strategy I would highly recommend.

An introduction to inbound marketing -  ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’

For any business, large or small, there are three key media types you can use to connect with consumers;…

How to promote your company blog to reach a larger audience

Writing a blog doesn't end when you hit the publish button. Far from it. In this third part of our series on business blogging, René Power reviews the best approaches to seeding and distributing your blog content - giving it the best chance of being seen by the people you're targeting.

1. Promote it on your website

Add a snippet to your home page. It provides a sign post for visitors and also offers some additional search engine optimisation benefits if you have considered your keywords carefully.

2. Index your blog with major blog directories

Ensure your blog is listed in as many blog directories as possible, particularly those with specialist sections. Why? Backlinks to your blog are still one of the most important factors in determining how visible your blog (and…

Tips on Marketplace Conversion Rate Optimisation from Matt Ogborne

We all know that Amazon and eBay are the powerhouses where almost everyone now shops at some point or other. I've no data to support that, but I imagine, every web user has at least visited these sites once. We also know that they both have very successful marketplaces where many retailers, particularly SME retailers sell their products, often in parallel with their own retail site. Given this, it's always surprised me that relatively little is written (beyond the Dummies guides) on how companies can optimise their sales on these sites. Especially since conversion rate optimisation (CRO) for retailers is such a hot topic. Dan Barker recently introduced me to Matthew Ogborne, a specialist who helps small and medium businesses sell more on Amazon and eBay when I was sourcing someone…

I'm hoping to offer some insight into how a small but growing and ambitious multi-channel retailer intends to use social media to promote our online brand, The Emporium Direct - I am by no means an expert in social media nor is my organisation's present social media activity up there in comparison to the big brands.  But I do run our marketing, therefore I can share hands-on experience on what has worked for us and what we're planning. Before I get to how we're using social media, here is a brief snapshot of our organisation.

Company Background

We have a large High Street store in Maldon, Essex and a growing e-commerce business, The Emporium Direct.  Like many, we originally started trading on eBay, then moved onto Amazon and eventually our own website. Marketplace tips Our success has been down to the following: (more…)…