Overcoming the most common marketing mistake

In my experience, the most common marketing mistake made by all sizes of organisations is trying to aim your marketing at everyone.


This is because there's a ungrounded fear that by targeting just one group of people or companies means you'll miss out on business from others. 


However, by selecting carefully who you target, you become the top choice for 10% of your potential market rather than being one of 10 options for everyone. 


This is because you start understanding in more depth the needs and problems of that smaller segment and in turn develop your marketing to talk to them. This includes tuning your messages to demonstrate how you can help them as well as using the methods and frequency of communication they prefer.


The result is that you attract their attention, increase your brand's appeal and develop healthy margins based on the increase in perceived value. 


Hannah Sookias is a marketing consultant, trainer and speaker who works with many different companies helping them implement effective marketing campaigns and generate a return on their promotional budgets. If you'd like more information on how who to target with your marketing and how, please contact Hannah on +44 (0)1283 808460 or email hello@sookiasmedia.com.

What arrived in YOUR post this morning?

Remember the days when the postman came laden with piles of junk mail each morning? Chances are you only spend a few minutes sorting your letters but considerably more time wading through the spam in your inbox.

Now don't get me wrong, I really like email marketing and used correctly it's a really effective marketing tool. 

However, with more businesses cutting costs, direct mail is once again a way to surprise, delight and attract customers. 

As ever, you need to use it wisely and think about what you are going to say and why. 

When we decided to launch our marketing club earlier this year, we decided to make our initial contact with people through the post. We selected bright orange envelopes and square cards to make our mailing stand out. We used premium quality cards and took the time to handwrite personal notes to the people we invited to our launch event. 

We decided on this approach to show our guest list that valued them and taken the time to invite them personally to our event. When asked for their feedback, they confirmed that the envelopes intrigued them and by personally writing to them they felt both appreciated and committed to the event. 

Of course, you don't need to use the same approach but the best things I receive are (a) a little different and catch my eye (b) acknowledge I am a valued (potential) customer and (b) have a clear message that encourages me to take action. 

What caught your eye in the post today?

Hannah Sookias founded Sookias Media in 2005. As a marketing consultant, trainer and speaker, she works with many different companies helping them implement effective marketing campaigns and generate a return on their promotional budgets. Hannah is also the co-founder of the Effective Marketing Club  which gives business owners the opportunity to learn new ways to market their business and the time to put into practice what they've just learnt with experts on hand. 

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The number 1 marketing tool

Your diary - whether you use it in paper or electronic form - is your number 1 marketing tool.

Surprised? Whilst it isn't the most obvious answer, for me it is the key to running effective marketing campaigns. 

That's because taking your marketing plan and putting the key actions as appointments in your diary means you become more effective at getting them done. 

The act of scheduling them in means you are acknowledging that they are as important as your other work.

And by giving them a time to be completed affirms your commitment to getting them done. 

So try it - take your marketing actions for this month and schedule them into your diary. As you are writing, promise yourself that they are as important and commit to keep them by considering them as a you would a meeting with big group of potential clients. 

Add an additional entry at the end of the month to review your progress and schedule the following weeks' actions. Then prepare to be amazed at how much more you've achieved!

Hannah Sookias is the founder of Sookias Media and co-founder of The Effective Marketing Club. She works with many different companies helping them implement effective marketing campaigns and generate a return on their promotional budgets.  

Protecting Your Brand & People on Social Media

With organisations worldwide promoting their products and services on social media sites, how do you protect the brand you've painstakingly built up and the people who work for you?

Step 1: Know who is officially representing your brand
It's very easy to select an office junior to look after your companies' social media sites, "because they understand it". However, using social media for personal use is very different to using it to build and protect a brand as Kent Police found out in 2013: http://bit.ly/ZGIdKj.

Whatever the age of the person/team running your social media activity, understand their previous use of social media sites and ensure they know your expectations (see steps 3 and 4).

Step 2: Determine who else is representing your brand
As well as official social media activity, there will be other people in your organisation who use these sites for personal and/or business use. To protect your brand, you need to know who they are, the types of information they are posting about your company and then work with them so your messages are strengthened by what they say.

Step 3: Know how you want to be seen
As with all marketing, understanding why you are using particular social media sites and setting clear objectives from it, makes your time spent much more effective. For example, XYZ Company decides that in the next financial quarter it wants to engage with 30 new potential customers of their new fancy widget. This allows them to profile who they want to be following on the social media site, understand what will encourage them to find out more about the new widget and what will encourage them to buy one. The updates used will then be more focused and any conversations joined or initiated will support this aim.

Step 4: Set the boundaries
All employees need to understand what's expected when they use social media sites in order to protect the company's reputation and brand.

It's also important that everyone is clear on how they are expected to treat co-workers, customers and suppliers online. Cyber-bullying is sadly on the increase and should be taken as seriously as other forms of bullying in the workplace.


Having a social media policy means everyone knows how they are expected to behave - both on the company's social media accounts and any personal ones - to safeguard the company and the people within it. I always recommend taking professional HR advice to ensure you get it right (after all each organisation is different) - try talking to Krystine or Liz at HR Protected.


Step 5: Review and Improve
Regularly check what's going on. Use a neutral computer (libraries are good for this) and search your company name. Check that references to it on social media position you in the way you want. Confirm that social media updates are written in the language and style of your potential customers; check there are no damaging links, comments or inappropriate conversations/comments.

Review the types of leads your social media activity is generating. Determine if they are they right type of leads - and if so, go and do more of the same. If not, work out why; adapt what you are doing; communicate the revised expectations and try something else.

Summary
Social media is an ever-evolving media that's great for promoting businesses. However, care needs to be taken to protect your brand and employees within it, which can be done by following the 5 steps above.

If you would like more information on developing or reviewing your organisation's use of social media, call us for advice on +44 1283 808460, tweet me @HannahSookias or send me a message via LinkedIn.

Hannah Sookias runs marketing consultancy and training company, Sookias Media and is also the co-founder of The Effective Marketing Club. She works with many different companies helping them implement effective marketing campaigns and generate a return on their promotional budgets. 



Marketing - It's like a string can telephone!

I recently read a blog post about avoiding 'Death by Powerpoint' which got me thinking about how it's all too easy to blast out sales information to potential customers without really thinking about how it will be received.

Getting our companies 'heard' in an age where information is all around us, we need to start talking to the customers we really want, in a way that they hear us loud and clear.

As kids in an era before mobile phones, we used to see how far we could talk to each other using tin can telephones... 

There were three essential things we needed to remember - to know they were picking up the other can, to keep the string line as straight and tight as possible when we spoke and to speak slowly and clearly.

It's the same with our marketing as we need to know:

• Who we want to talk to
• Which is the best way of attracting their attention - ie what types of marketing do they respond to
• What they need to hear

and then, just as in my string-can telephone days, we need to:

• Focus our communications to them
• Keep tight  the method and media you use so you know they are hearing you
• Speak clearly and use both messages and language they understand

To discuss how you can develop your customer communications, try our marketing audit service. Simply call us on +44 (0)1283 808460 or email hello@sookiasmedia.com.

Hannah Sookias runs marketing consultancy and training company, Sookias Media and is also the co-founder of The Effective Marketing Club. She works with many different companies helping them implement effective marketing campaigns and generate a return on their promotional budgets. 

Marketing 'To Do' list syndrome

Every business knows it needs to continually generate leads. Without them, sales pipelines dry up and new business disappears.

But despite marketing being the lifeblood for new leads, many firms suffer from the Marketing “To Do” List Syndrome. This is where marketing activities get pushed to the bottom of the list and other things always seem to take priority. In my experience this is for a number of reasons:

Busy Bees

For many the pressures of day-to-day business, fulfilling orders and customer service take precedence so marketing gets pushed down the list. Whilst this is understandable and OK in the short term, leads start to dry up when time for marketing activities isn’t ring-fenced.

Gappers

Another reason is because people are unsure whether it’s the right thing to be doing or not sure how to do it right.  This skills gap means they put things off or try things half-heartedly to develop the excuse, ‘we tried that but it didn’t work’.

Ostriches

As the saying goes, if you always do as you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got. Sadly this is no longer true in the marketing world. With new technologies, a web full of information at your fingertips, companies can no longer keep their heads in the sand. They need to engage with their prospective customers and existing clients more regularly and in different ways.

The Prescription

Happily there is a solution for all of these syndromes:

1. Firstly, set a regular time to undertake your marketing. Book a slot in your diary and stick to it.
2. Be kept accountable by joining a marketing club or investing in marketing mentoring.
3. Set marketing targets to track your progress and unleash your inner competitiveness.

Hannah Sookias runs the marketing consultancy and training company, Sookias Media and is also the co-founder of The Effective Marketing Club. She works with many different companies helping them implement effective marketing campaigns and generate a return on their promotional budgets. 

Delighting your customers

My sister gave me these flowers the other day just because, "I thought you might like them".

It was a lovely surprise, even more special as she didn't need to but knew I would appreciate them.

They reminded me that often we just communicate with our customers when we want something (in other words we want them to buy from us) rather than giving them something just because we know they'll appreciate it.

One of our clients runs hockey coach education courses. They have a database of loyal customers and with their next round of courses starting until after the summer break, they wanted to do something to keep in touch. They wanted to engage rather than sell, so they emailed a detailed skills training paper knowing that many of them would be starting to prepare for the new season ahead. By giving rather than selling, many replied back to say thank you, ask questions and have in-depth conversations about how they can help them as well as receiving bookings on their forthcoming courses.

That's because marketing isn't just about selling. It's about understanding what your customers need and engaging them into a two-way relationship. Delighting them with something that's unexpected but truly appreciated will help to deepen their brand loyalty and ultimately build sales.

If you'd like our thoughts on delighting your customers, call us on +44 (0)1283 808460 or email tweet us @HannahSookias or @SookiasMedia.

Marketing Rule #1: Know your customers

Customers come in all shapes and sizes. They differ from one company to another; even those that sell similar products or services.

But how well do you know yours? 

Do you know which industries they are from? Or the typical job roles they perform? 

Are there influencers within their companies who affect the suppliers or products they select? Or are they are in a particular stage of company growth?

Every business relies on its customers. To survive and grow we must know who our customers are, what they buy from us and why they buy from us.

When successful businesses set up, they'll have done their homework on who they want to sell to; define their market place and develop a business plan of how they intend to grow their business. They are able to give a personal service to each of their clients and know that they need to find more people who are similar to their best customer.

However, as client bases grow, it is easy to stop reviewing with quite so much detail the mix of your customers and whether their profile has changed. 

To avoid missing changes in your target market, regularly review your sales to answer the following questions:

• What are they buying?
• Who are your clients? Who are your largest clients?
• What industry are they from?
• What are the buyers’ job titles?
• How long is the sales process?
• Who else influences their buying decision?
• How did they find out about your company and your services/products?
• How often do they buy from you?
• How can you increase the quantity / frequency / profit margin on what they buy?

In my experience, companies usually have the answers to the above points but struggle to know where to look for that information. So in our consulting and training sessions we work through a proven process to help clients understand who is buying what and whether they want this mix to change. We then look at ways to develop their customer base and structure their marketing and promotions to support them.

For more information and help on knowing your customers, do give us a call on +44 (0)1283 808460 or email hello@sookiasmedia.com. 

LinkedIn : Business Generator or Timewaster?

Do you use LinkedIn? 

• Is it simply an on-line address book for keeping in touch with past colleagues and current business contacts?  
• Do you regularly go on to find out what people are up? 
• Is it an essential business development tool? 
• Do you only go onto the site if someone asks you to connect?

 More businesses than ever are discovering that it’s a business relationship and development website that, with thought to how it’s being used, can be a key part of your marketing and business development activities. 

LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network and now has over 200 million members around the globe. Its mission is simple: to connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful. 

Since its launch in 2003, LinkedIn has developed to give access to people, jobs, news, updates, and business insights. It’s recently undergone a facelift and streamlined its offerings so it is a fast, dynamic business tool. 

It’s great for finding and connecting with the potential customers you want to be working with. It’s a hub of information from business thought leaders, industry experts and your own go-to people. 

As with any marketing tool, what you get out of LinkedIn will be determined by what you put in. Knowing why you are using it, understanding the features available using them effectively will ensure the time you spend there isn’t a waste of time but a valuable investment in your business growth. 

Gain More from LinkedIn in our next Masterclass:   
Transforming Contacts into Business, 20 March 2013   9.30am-1.30pm
Book Now 

For more information on how you can use LinkedIn for your business, call us to discuss our training and consultancy options +44 1283 808460 or email hello@sookiasmedia.com
  

Finding Your Ideal Customers

I'm a firm believer in people buy from people. I enjoy meeting prospective clients but how I make the initial contact varies: it's often through social media, exhibitions, conferences and carefully selected networking events.


It's easy to waste time, money and energy looking for your ideal customers in the wrong place. 

Let me give you an example. I enjoy networking but the groups I belonged to when I first set up are no longer appropriate. I can have a nice meal and talk to some interesting people but I won't be gaining any business from them because they have a micro business membership base who work with other micro businesses. 

So these days, I do network, but I go to events where I meet the decision makers from SMEs. I use Twitter and LinkedIn to engage with prospective clients, influencers and referrers.

I also use my speaking skills and regularly give Top Tips talks for the Federation of Small Businesses, at exhibitions and conferences in addition to emailing newsletters and running training courses on all aspects of marketing. 

I have a clear understanding of who is my ideal customer. This includes the types of company they work in, the positions they hold as well as where they go for help, what they read, how they like to engage as well plus an in-depth insight into their marketing needs. 

Top Tip: Review your marketing activities. Are they finding you your ideal clients? If not, take an in-depth view of who you want as customers and how best to reach them.

Need help? Contact me today to discuss how we can help you find your ideal customers. 
Tel: +44 1283 808460 Email: hello@sookiasmedia.com Twitter: @HannahSookias or @SookiasMedia