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

How often should I blog?

What’s in a blog?
 
Blogs come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Individuals can blog their thoughts and advice; companies can use it as a diary, introducing new products, clients or events or start discussions with their readers. Some, like mine is a way to share information and knowledge.

Blogs are less formal than a website, and the personality of an individual and the culture of a company can shine through. After all, whether buying face-to-face or over the internet, people still buy from people so blogs are an ideal way to build rapport and start conversations with your target markets.

How often shall I blog?
How often you blog really depends what you want to get out of it and the resources you have to write it and keep it updated.

 Individual Blogs 
 If your blog just to share your personal thoughts, then there are no hard and fast rules – in other words, blog as and when you feel the urge!

Business BlogsCompany blogs however, do need consistency and regular entries. In effect, your blogs are like another website, and an additional opportunity for their keywords are picked up by the search engine spiders, helping prospective clients and current customers to find you and click-through to your website.

Keeping up the momentum
I decided that my company's marketing mix needed at least 1 blog posts per month, to tie in with our newsletter and the regular talks I give at different events, exhibitions etc.

Now, at this point you are probably glancing at my blog history and thinking, "Hmm, good intentions, but you had rather a gap until earlier this year!"

Well, here is where I hold my hands up – I’d unconsciously slipped into the 'I'll do it tomorrow' habit as so many people do when things get really busy... clients come first and our own marketing has taken a bit of a back seat.

Whilst the odd blip short term is OK, longer term, our lack of focus on this part of our marketing means that we have been missed by potential clients who looking for the type of information I can give them.

I still believe that my blogs, and sharing my knowledge and information through them is a major part of Sookias Media's marketing. So having slipped for a while, I have reminded myself to follow the Top 5 Tips for successful blogging that I give to our digital PR clients.

5 Top Tips for Successful Blogging

1. Decide your strategy. In other words, how are you going to use your blog? Is it for personal thoughts, as a promotional diary, for sharing thoughts and knowledge, etc?
2. Decide how often you will blog. Be realistic here. It is better to decided on 1 blog per month and achieve that, than trying to blog once a day and losing momentum after the first week.
3. Keep a list of blog ideas. I have inspiration at the most unusual times and places. By writing them down means you will remember them – it is so much easier to write a blog when you don’t need to think about what to write first. Also, ask clients and prospects what subjects they would like to read about and incorporate them as part of your sales process.
4. Set time aside to work on your blog. Write several posts in one sitting. Then, publish one and set the others to be automatically posted at later dates and times.
5. Let people know when you have posted a new blog – add a comment on your website, send a tweet, publish a message on Facebook and include it in your LinkedIn status. Make sure your blog allows people to subscribe to an RSS feed so they can choose to be informed of your updates automatically.

Happy blogging!

For more information on how blogs can work for your business, contact us today on +44 1283 808460 or email hello@sookiasmedia.com. www.sookiasmedia.com

Marketing: cost or investment?

All companies want to market their business as cost-effectively as possible. But by whilst costs need to be kept at a minimum, purely viewing marketing as a cost may mean you are missing out on a return on investment (ROI).

Let me explain this another way. First, think of your ideal customer. How much would their first order with you be worth? And subsequent orders? How often would you receive repeat business from them - once a month for a year?

Then, work out how much business that one customer would bring you through the lifetime of your relationship. It may be £100, $500 or even 1million Euro.

Now, decide how much you would be willing to spend on getting that lifetime business.

Whatever the figure, that is the investment you are willing to make for each new, ideal customer and this should be the basis of your marketing budget.

Marketing works over time and regular reviews are needed to ensure that marketing you investing in is effective and producing a return.

If you'd like more information on marketing budgets and evaluating return on investment, call us on 01283 808460 for a no-obligation discussion.

Written by Hannah Sookias, founder of Sookias Media www.sookiasmedia.com

Silly marketing questions don't exist

An important part of any marketing cycle is reviewing progress. This is to understand whether the activities being undertaken are producing expecting results and meeting their objectives and a return on investment.

The review process also gives a structured time to determine why results are more or less successful than anticipated. It can identify new opportunities; early changes in market conditions and spark new ideas.

It’s for this reason that there is no such thing as a daft question. When I worked for a manufacturing firm supplying the car industry, we often had multi-functional teams involved in review meetings so that all sorts of questions would be asked.

Often the ‘Why do we do that?’ type got the product development and manufacturing teams looking at their processes to see how they could improve methods that had been the same for years just because they’d always been done that way.

Who/what/when/where/why type questions enable marketing teams to drill down to understand the results of their activities; generate new ideas and evaluate the ever-changing array of marketing tools.

These can typically include:

• Why isn't our marketing engaging potential clients?
• Are we getting the wrong type of business?
• How do we open up new markets?
• Where do we find new customers for our existing products and services?
• How can we improve our marketing?
• Will social media / advertising / email marketing / PR / direct marketing help us to gain more customers?
• Who should be responsible for our marketing? Are we using the right person? Do they have the right skills?

When I undertake marketing consultancy and training sessions, I ask many questions to gain a full understanding of a company, its market place, customers and the people who make it happen. In my experience, seeing something from a different perspective allows the companies I work with to objectively evaluate what they do and why.

Often, this process verifies it is the right thing to do. Sometimes it  hightlights a new range of customers to consider or a need to reconsider objectives of the budget allocation between different marketing tools.

Top Tip! Invite team members from other departments to review marketing campaigns before they are launched. A different point of view is invaluable to highlight an angle that needs to be addressed; wording that could be improved and if something isn’t as obvious as you thought.

If you’d like to know more about the questions to ask in marketing review sessions, call us on 01283 808460 or email hello@sookiasmedia.com.

Written by Hannah Sookias, Founder of Sookias Media www.sookiasmedia.com

The Unwritten Rules of Social Media #4 - How to increase your followers

So far in this series, we have discussed profiles, how to write updates and why you shouldn't sell via social media.

Now, we turn our thoughts to Unwritten Rule #4 - How to increase your followers.

But before we think about attracting people to your Twitter, Facebook and other pages, you need to think about what they will find when they get there.

Just like a website, they need to find something of interest to attract them to you, browse a while and then decide to follow you.

Be prepared! So, fill in your bio/profile. Add a photo. Post regular comments. Your profile description is the only place that you can tell the world who you are and what you are about. So make the most of it.

Publicise your pages
People won't look for you unless you tell them where you are. Add your twitter address or facebook page to your website, your email signature and your business cards.


Link up your on-line presence
Make sure your followers on one social media site, such as Bebo know where to find you on Facebook and Digg. Ensure you tell your LinkedIn followers who you are on Twitter and where to read your latest Blog .


Retweeting and Forwarding
Just as emails get forwarded, so can tweets and facebook posts. Encourage your followers to forward what you say. This gets your messages to a whole new set of followers, causing a ripple effect across the internet. On Twitter, set and follow trends by using the #hash tag


Talk about your interests outside of work
We all love having a common interest with someone. So finding out that you are a fan of baseball, a passionate cake maker or a supporter of a particular charity will help those with similar interests to follow you and forward your posts to their contacts.


So to summarise:
Be prepared, so people know who you are and what you are about. Publicise your social media addresses on-line and in your other marketing so people know how to find you. Encourage your followers to find you other followers by forwarding and retweeting your posts and find common interests by talking about your passions.


Next time: Unwritten Rules of Social Media #5 - Top tips to make it work for you