Here’s an innovative, relative and unique piece of marketing that just dropped into my inbox.

It’s an email from a recruitment firm:

“Dear Sean

Let the England Team pay your invoices today!!

Place your permanent vacancies today (18.6.10) and however many goals England score tonight (England v Algeria) we will deduct £100.00 from your fees!

1 goal – deduct £100.00
2 goals – deduct £200.00
And so on…..

If you want to place temp bookings – we will knock £0.10p per hour per goal off the hourly charge rate for the duration of your booking!

Place your vacancies by calling David Stew or Dawn Lawson on 02476 230800 or email

david.stew@irweb.co.uk  or dawn.lawson@irweb.co.uk 

With the exception of the above deductions usual terms of business for fee structure and rebate period will apply.

Interaction Recruitment – supporting you and the England team!!

Regards
Dawn Lawson
Branch Manager”

I’ve left Dawn’s email address and contact details on there because I want to promote this to you guys too.

Well done Dawn, a very effective piece of marketing.

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

Here’s a great piece of free publicity and marketing.

20 year old student Nathan Wybur made a lasagne to look like Engalnd World Cup Boss Fabio Capello.

Now he might not have done this on purpose to get free publicity but he certainly got it!

To get free publicity you need to have an angle that the press, social media sites and people pick up on.

With this example the story was:

TOPICAL – everyone’s talking about the world cup at the moment!

UNUSUAL – whoever makes a lasagne to look like someone’s face!

CELEBRITY – ……and the face was that of Fabio Capello – Englands manager! So that’s a double whammy!

LIKEABLE - Nathan’s just a down to earth, 20 year old student

VIRAL FACTOR – people are talking about it

Add all of those 5 factors together and you’ve got a great story.

So what can you do along these lines for your business?

Sometimes the best ideas are very simple, topical and unusual. The press pick up on the them and then you’ve just created yourself a whole load of free publicity!

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker - Internet Marketing Consultant

The thing is, marketing need not be expensive as long as you know what you’re doing and for the small business I recommend that you try out different marketing mixes and test, test, test until you nail a marketing approach that works best for your business.

No matter what any “marketing guru” may say, no one really knows how effective a marketing campaign will be until you’ve tried.

The first thing you need to do is work out what budget you want to play with. And it is to play with.

You need to go into this with the mindset that you’re going to use this money to see what works and what doesn’t. You’ll then modify, refine and test some more until you nail it.

So many small businesses start with a budget, they implement some ideas and then because they do not get an immediate return they just bin what they were doing when all it took was just a couple of changes and bingo! A winning formula.

So your mindset is really important when going into this.

So you’ve got a budget. Now you need to work out what to spend it on.

If I were you I would really get to grips and understand everything there is to know about your prospects and clients first. Who are they? How do they make ther buying decisions? Where do they “hang out” on the internet or otherwise?

Armed with this you will be better informed as to where to advertise, what campaigns to run and how to split your marketing spend. 

Then select some marketing approaches and do everything that you can to measure the response that you get. Direct marketing works best for small businesses rather than just brand awareness so bear that in mind when conducting pay per click campaigns, direct mail and when running adverts.

Then it’s a case of testing, measuring and tweaking. There’s lots of advice on this site but my biggest piece of advice is to just do something! And then modify what you’re doing as you go.

Happy marketing

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker - Internet Marketing Consultant

Now many business owners just implement a set of tactics in a very haphazard way with no planning or well thought through outcomes.

These same business owners then give up as soon as the results do not go their way! 

Instead, what you need to have in place is a solid internet marketing plan.

Here are 8 factors you need to take into consideration as you complete your internet marketing plan:

1. Set Your Objectives

What do you want your website to achieve? To sell your products? To create leads? For positioning? To educate your visitors?

2. How Are You Going To Make Money?

What’s your business model? Do you have a funnel in place that offers low end products first and then over time you sell more expensive products to them? Do you know EXACTLY how you are going to make money?

3. Marketing Budget

 How much do you want to spend up-front and then each month on advertising, content product etc

Many business owners go into this blind. Instead, work out how much you’ve got to play with and then cut your cloth accordingly.

4. Target Market:

Get to understand your target market very closely. What their pains and desires are. You need to know everything about them.

5. The Competition:

Who are they? What do they do? What are they better than you at? What are you better than them at? How do they market themselves online? What’s their online profile like? What’s their business model? Keep you friends close and your enemies even closer!

6. USP’s:

 Be very clear on what your Unique Selling Propositions are. Sometimes you think they are unique when they are not!

7. Assess Your Current Website:

Does your website match up with points 1 to 6 above? Conduct a thorough audit.

8. Traffic Generation:

Based upon your available budget, what internet marketing methods are you going to use to drive traffic to your website? There are countless ways to do this: SEO, pay-per-click, banners, text ads, ezine adverts, link swaps, social media, joint ventures, articles, content generation, posting blog comments on others sites – the list is endless! Work out which ones you’re going to use and then test them.

There are other factors but this is a good start!

Happy marketing

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Internet Marketing Consultant - Motivational Speaker

If you’re a business owner, currently use FLASH and want your sites to have full functionality on Apples iPad, iPhone et al then listen up!

You see, the fight continues and it will affect you in the end!

The constant battle between Adobe and Apple went to new heights earlier this year when Apple announced that the iPad would not support Flash and instead would look to HTML 5.

This is another kick in the “you know where” for Adobe.

Back in 2008 when the iPhone was launched it was rumoured that Adobe would produce an “enhanced flash application” that would support all of Apples innovations but Adobe could never reach Apples high standards of technology.

I think the time has past and the opportunity is now gone forever for Adobe to be partners with Apple and in a straight fight between the two, my money would be on Apple!

So bear this in mind if you are producing videos and applications in flash. If you want them to show up and play on the iPad, iPhone etc then you need to change to something like HTML5.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert – Motivational Speaker

Basically what it means is the level that you give away information, products or advice etc

Many people give away ebooks, audios and free reports as a way to generate leads and to get people on their email list.

Well, this “free line” is now moving.

Prospects and visitors are expecting more and more, even as a freebie!

It is now commonplace to receive free CD’s, free physical books and even memberships to exclusive online portals – and this is the example of “moving the free line”

What would you see as having the most value?

A free CD or a 30 page PDF ebook?

Most likely a free cd.

So what can you do to raise your free line?

Have a brainstorm and see what you can come up with.

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant | Motivational Speaker | Sales Expert

The cost per click is still low whilst it’s still very much a second to Google Adwords but I don’t know how long the clicks will be that low for!

The great thing about Facebook Ads is that you can use almost any of the data that members use in their profiles.

This ranges from location, age ranges, gender, interests, marital status – you name it!

So you can really drill down and be as specific as you can to find your target market and not have to pay $6 per click to do so!

So get on over to Facebook Ads now and check it all out. It might provide you with the low cost traffic solution that you’re looking for.

Happy Marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant & Motivational Speaker

7500 people were!

Answer this question honestly – do you read the small print when you order on the internet?

UK High Street retailing giant GameStation decided to put this to the test and inserted a new clause into their terms and conditions earlier this month that granted them legal rights to the immortal souls of thousands of their online customers.

Here is how they got away with it:

“By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and forever more, your immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamestation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions.”

GameStation’s fiendish clause specified that they might serve such notice in “six foot-high letters of fire” too, but also offered customers an option to opt out, rewarding them with a £5 money-off voucher if they did so.

Is it a surprise that hardly anyone noticed the clause, let alone the substantial bonus for spotting the joke smallprint. More to the point, the fact that it passed more or less unnoticed raises an important issue – too few people actually read the small print when they make online purchases.
According to GameStation, around 7,500 customers carelessly signed their souls away on the day. Were you one of them…?

Even if you weren’t, have you been duped by a message that you didn’t read thoroughly? Do you pay attention to everything you should? Is it possible you are missing things your customers are saying or not saying (i.e. insinuating through body language or ‘read-this-message-I’m-sending-between-the-lines)?

Although the joke by GameStation was an April Fool’s message, it just proves how gullible some of us may be. Sell my soul?

I certainly hope not!

Happy Marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultancy – Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

• Start by including your team members in decisions that affect the development of the sales team itself. Believe it or not, your team members may have ideas that would help to develope sales. In many cases, they just feel unheard.
• Make sure the goals you set for your sales team are challenging enough. Goals that are too easy to accomplish won’t encourage them to strive for success. On the other hand, goals that are unreasonable will only end up discouraging them.
• Ensure your sales team has the tools necessary to actually make sales. Do they have access to marketing materials, presentation equipment, and actual inventory? If not, make it appear.
• Trust your sales team to do what they know is best. The average sales person wants to do well and be successful. Monitor their progress and make sure they remain ethical, but don’t monitor each breath they take. Give them room to be individuals.

The more a salesperson feels trusted, the more confident he’ll be when it comes to doing his job. Are you stifling your team members, or motivating them towards success?

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant - Internet Marketing Consultant - Sales Expert

• When creating your sales website, try to avoid using Java script to create drop down menus or image links. If you do decide to use Java, make sure you put text links on the page in another area so that the search engines can find and follow them.
• There is a saying in the SEO industry – “Content is King.” The better the content on your website, the better your traffic will get. People are looking for good, quality content on a regular basis. Make sure what you’re dishing out is informative and helpful. People will begin to trust you, refer others to you, and revisit your site.
• When searching for keywords to use on your site, don’t forget to use not only single words but entire phrases as well.
• When building backlinks, remember that quality is always better than quantity. If a site with bad rankings or bad content links back to you, the search engines will not hold that link in high regard. A link from a site with lots of traffic, in a similar niche, on the other hand, will do you more good.
• Avoid keyword stuffing. Yes, keywords are what will get your site found, but if you use a keyword a zillion times within your content it will look unnatural and trashy – and, of course, people will notice and stop reading.

Keep the above in mind as you work to build your next sales page or website. SEO is huge – and if you follow the rules you’ll find your site flowing with free traffic on a regular basis.

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant - Internet Marketing Consultant - Sales Expert