What Makes Your Company Stand Out?

Being different is good as it helps your firm, product or service stand out in a crowded market place. 

Potential buyers need to know why they should buy from you and not your competitor who's down the road or on another website. 

Take the time to really identify why your current customers come to you (ask them if you are not sure). This will help you to understand your 'Unique Selling Points' or USPs as they are known in marketing speak. 

Be proud of what makes you different and promote it!

Sookias Media helps businesses gain the most from their marketing through consultancy, training and marketing mentoring. We'll help you identify what makes you different from your competitors and how you can use this to your advantage when marketing your company, products and services. 

To arrange an informal, no-obligation chat with Hannah on +44 (0)1283 808460 or email hello@sookiasmedia.com. 

Why the key to marketing is... passion!

I'm often asked what the secret is to successful marketing. 

Of course, many factors influence the effect of campaigns but in my experience, people and companies with passion for what they do are the ones who see most return from their investment of both time and money into their marketing.

• Passion means marketing feels less of a chore -i.e. it's worth it to see the company / product / service succeed. 

• Enthusiasm is infectious. It will shine whenever you are talking to customers, through your adverts, marketing communications and follow-up. 

• Passion develops into evangelism - the more people you can get enthusiastic about your company, products and services, the bigger the team championing them to new potential clients. 

Ignite the passion into your marketing:

• Remember why you joined/set up your company. See how you can translate these reasons into  your marketing.

• Ask your best customers why they are like your products and services. Ask them to be your champions through customer reference calls, video testimonials and quotes. 

• Keep up the momentum so your marketing continues even when you're having a less passionate day!

Sookias Media helps businesses gain the most from their marketing through consultancy, training and marketing mentoring. We help you remember what's great about your company, products and services and give you ideas, tips and advice on how to promote them effectively and injected with passion and enthusiasm! We help you plan effective campaigns and keep the momentum going. 
Start to reignite passion back into your marketing by arranging an informal, no-obligation chat with Hannah on +44 (0)1283 808460 or email hello@sookiasmedia.com. 

How to stop photo tagging in Twitter

Twitter's new feature of photo tagging has been much celebrated. But what if you don't want to be tagged in other people's photos?

It's actually very simple to disallow this by a quick change to your settings:

1. Login to Twitter
2. Go to Settings > Security and Privacy
3. Tick the "Do not allow anyone to tag me in photos" option
4. Save Changes.

Undecided? Here's a quick recap of what the Twitter tagging feature allows you to do:
Tag up to 10 people in a photo.

Tagging doesn't affect your character count (ie you can tag and still have the full 140 characters for your tweet.
If you're tagged in someone else's photo you'll receive a notification.

Sookias Media helps businesses gain the most from their marketing through consultancy, training and marketing mentoring. We keep abreast of the developments on social media sites such as Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn so you don't have to.  For more information, contact Hannah on +44 (0)1283 808460 or email hello@sookiasmedia.com. 

Marketing briefs

"Carefully written marketing briefs will help you gain maximum ROI from design, website builds, PR, and more."

This was one of the most popular marketing tips I posted on Twitter this month; probably because it mentions the term Return on Investment (ROI).

Many companies invest a great deal of money with firms supplying new websites, advertising, public relations, social media and other marketing tools without really thinking through what they expect from that investment and documenting it in term of a brief.

Briefs come in all shapes and sizes and of course in this case I am not referring to the underwear variety!

A well-written brief helps you define what you want and gives your supplier/agency a clear indication of your expectations. It helps both sides know what's expected and ensure each penny is used wisely.

Typical things to include are:

Company overview - set the scene on who you are and what you are trying to achieve from this project.

Who are you targeting - define your target audience. In non-marketing speak, this means the people you are trying to talk to. Be as specific as possible!

What you need - for example a new website, press release, advert, social media campaign etc. Are there certain features, benefits or functionality that must be included?

Why you need it - what are you hoping to acheive e.g raise awareness, collect data, generate on-line sales, etc.

When you need it by -outline the key milestones and deadlines for the project's completion.

How success will be monitored - what will you be measuring? How will you all know if it has been successful?

Budget - however large or small, this is essential to understand what you can achieve from the amount invested. Agencies and suppliers want to help you achieve a realistic return on your investment, but to do that they need to know how much that will be.

Details and facts - include as much detail as possible. When quoting, it's easier for suppliers to ignore what they don't need rather than fill in the blanks! Use facts wherever possible and avoid assumptions.

Plain English - try to avoid using abbreviations, acronyms and technical terms (although if these are necessary, provide a glossary).

Including these elements will help you to ensure that no penny is wasted. Outlining your requirements means that suppliers can let you know what you can reasonably expect from your budget and you will be able to monitor that you do gain a return from your investment.

Hannah Sookias is a marketing consultant and trainer who works with many different companies helping them implement effective marketing campaigns and generate a return on their marketing budgets. For more information, contact Hannah on +44 (0)1283 808460 or email hello@sookiasmedia.com. 

Lessons from India

On a recent trip to India, I realised that both street vendors and multinationals over there can give us some valuable marketing lessons. 

With fierce competition, everyone selling something had to work hard to get themselves seen and noticed. 

We went to three very different places - Kolkata, Goa and Mumbai yet in each they followed these five important principles:


1. Pro-actively promote what you do
2. Become familiar names
3. Explain the benefits of what you offer over the competition
4. Display your wares
5. Don't give up, even after a lost sale

So how did they do this?

Pro-actively promote what you do
Sellers in India don't wait for customers to come to them. They call out to potential customers, make their offers known and try to attract their attention. They mostly do it in person - but we can use networking, phone calls, email, social media, advertising, direct mail and more!

Become familiar names
In India, families have their favourite stalls and shops. Regular customers are known, greeted warmly and given preferential prices. Those who can afford advertising make sure that their brand is displayed as prominently as possible in places where their potential customers will see them. We need to find ways to build our brands so our potential customers get to know who we are, what we do and trust that we will deliver. We need to look after our customers so they come back to us time and again because not only do they get what they need but feel valued. 

Explain the benefits of what you offer over the competition
From fresher, bigger fruit to the craftsmanship of gifts and clothing, wherever we went, vendors were always eager to share with you what they were selling and how their offering was better than the competition. We need to stop selling and start sharing the benefits of what we do, and share what makes us different by answering the 'why should I buy from you?' question. 

Display your wares
Even in the poorest market stalls care was taken to display their wares as attractively as possible. In shops stock was displayed so you could quickly and easily see your options and the wide variety of things on offer. We too need to make it easy for our customers to know about everything we do and the options available to them. Avoid them saying, "I didn't know you did that!"

Don't give up, even after a lost sale
I admired the perseverance in India. Even if a vendor sees you buying from elsewhere and know you won't be visiting them today, they'll still take the opportunity to remind you of what you've missed out on with a reminder to 'visit us next time'. We should view lost sales as a future opportunity. Keep in touch with them so when they are ready to buy again they know you are an alternative option. 

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 these lessons from India or would like some advice on your company's marketing, get in touch with Hannah on +44 (0)1283 808460.

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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