Sales & Marketing Consultant, Bestselling Author & Business Motivational Speaker

It’s hard to believe, but 2012 will be upon us within 3 days. This is a perfect opportunity look at the direction of your business, where you’ve been in 2011, and where you want to be in 2012.

The best way to do this is with an end-of-year marketing analysis and report. Don’t worry, you’re not giving the report to anyone other than yourself!

Identify Three Successes

It’s always easier to take criticism when you start with the positives. To this end, identify 3 things that’s you’ve done successfully with your marketing this year. And I don’t just mean that you should say “I worked harder this year.” Look for:

• Measurable improvements over 2010 (click-through rates, ROI on campaigns, etc.).
• Successful new campaigns implemented.
• Higher sales volume, new clients won, or costs lowered.

Look for the things that you did best in 2011. Now, the key is to identify what you did to achieve your greatest successes in 2011, and then try to repeat them for 2012.

Identify Three Failures

This can be a lot more difficult than identifying the three successes. Look for things that you did, which didn’t work out as well as you had hoped, or actions that you didn’t take, which would have been good in hindsight. Consider:

• Moves that you didn’t make, or delayed on (making your site mobile-friendly, kick-starting your social media campaign).
• Clients that you lost, or more importantly, existing client relationships that you let stagnate.
• Unsuccessful marketing moves (failed campaigns, ill-advised advertisements).

It’s always said that a mistake is an opportunity to learn. So don’t just dwell on your mistakes from the past year. The purpose of identifying them is so that you can make sure you don’t repeat them.

Identify Where you Want to Be Next Year

This is the most important part of the analysis. Taking your successes and your failures from the past year, identify where you want to be at this time next year. Put these in concrete terms, and make a plan for how you’re going to get there.

So rather than telling yourself that you want to have a considerable social media presence, tell yourself that by this time next year you’ll have 500 fans on your Facebook page, 5,000 followers on Twitter, and at least 5 highly-rated videos on YouTube.

Happy New Year, and make sure that 2012 is your most productive year ever!

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

So you’ve been working hard all year to increase your social media efforts and maintain a solid online presence for you and your company, and you’re now at a stage where you want your social media interaction to run automatically and become an on-going and long-term activity.

So, what can you do to give your social media strategy longevity in 2012? Here are a few tips to help you consolidate your social media activity for the New Year and beyond.

1. Stop saturating and build your brand

Once you have really got to grips with using social media as a business tool it is very easy to overdo your efforts and start to saturate your social media platforms with lots of content, from each department of your company, and for each separate product or service that you offer. Whilst you might think this gives you a broader reach and a better web presence, you are probably just confusing your followers by making it too overwhelming to receive all the content you are putting out there.

So instead of saturating your social media platforms, start branding all of your company’s departments and products or services under one main name. You can still keep separate accounts for marketing, management, sales etc but ensure you only have one contact from each department and include the company name in all of their usernames. This will help to consolidate and group together your team and products under your main company brand.

2. Post for the platform, not for your own benefit

Each social media platform is different. The way your followers use Facebook in comparison to the way they use Twitter is different, and the reasons some of your audience chooses to interact with you on LinkedIn rather than on Flickr will be different as well – they are looking for different content and are expecting different interaction with you depending on which platform they are using.

You probably already know how to use each of the platforms for your own benefit, but use 2012 to really tune in to what your followers want from you on each platform.  If they’re friends with you on Facebook then they probably want to see a more personal side of you, if they are following you on Twitter then they probably expect regular and consistent updates about your new content and if they have connected with you on LinkedIn they are clearly looking to engage with you in a more professional way.

Consider what each platform is used for and research the way people on the site interact and then tailor your involvement to these conforms – you’ll be amazed at the results.

3. Schedule your posting in advance

It’s always good to think about what you’re going to say before you say it, and the same rule applies with posting. Is what you’re posting really relevant? Will it be of interest to anyone? I would hope it would be otherwise why would you be producing it – but it doesn’t hurt to ask the question every now and again!

Scheduling posts in advance also stops you from overwhelming your followers with massive amounts of content, or ignoring them completely due to the fact you’ve had no time to create anything that day. If you schedule a weekly or daily plan for what you will be posting about and what content you will be distributing on which platform, you will soon find you have a nice on-going structure for each site making the whole process much more automated and easy to follow.

A great way to schedule social media sharing is to draw up an editorial planner at the start of each month, which gives you a chance to plan the bulk in advance and then add in more topical updates at times when you have less scheduled content going out. This will give your followers enough to keep them interested and ensure you don’t overwhelm them with information and scare them off.

The best advice I can give you for 2012 is to reassess where your social media campaign is at currently and where you would like it to be by this time next year – then simply put actions to your words and make it happen. Ask yourself these questions:  If you were a follower of your company on each platform, what opinion would you have of them? Are you getting what you hoped you would from engaging with them in this way? And is there more they could do to keep your attention? Then make 2012 the year you give your social media plan real depth and long term value.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert – Motivational Speaker

As the winter holiday season approaches, businesses need to make decisions about holiday sales offerings and how to best market them.  Price point is a big motivator for many consumers, but having the lowest price in town will not help much if consumers don’t know about it.  Take the time now to determine your deep discount items and plan your sale marketing strategy.

Determining Deep Discount Items

A deep discount item is one where the product is practically given to customers.  Stores make little to nothing on these items, and sometimes take a loss.  The point is not to sell many of the deep discount items, but rather to gain the upsells that bringing consumers through the door allows.  A sudden influx of new customers gives a retailer many chances to sell additional items that are not as deeply discounted.  Choosing the items for a deep discount is important, because if it is an item that is not particularly popular your store will not get the desired result.  Technology items are often a good bet, though discounts do not have to be on the latest models.  In fact, offering a deep discount on an old model can accomplish two goals in one.  It clears shelves for the next model and brings in new customers.

Letting People Know About Sale Prices

When preparing to advertise a major sale, banners are a must, but there are also other methods that are highly effective on a local level.  Even if you do not normally produce a circular, the holiday season may be a good time to print your first one.  It gives you a convenient place to put all of your sale offerings so consumers can add you into their shopping plans.  Depending on your budget you may want to include some radio or television advertising.  For those on a very tight budget, a coupon for sharing your sale link on a social media site can be a great way to get virtually free advertising.  Watch the wording on the coupon and make sure it is only for regularly priced items, and watch as consumers do your marketing for you.

Combining a deep discount sale with a focused advertising push is a great way to bring in the sales this holiday season.  Make sure to plan early to get the best deals on advertising, and send out press releases to the local media who may be covering sales for the season.  Start now, to ensure prominent placement in consumers shopping plans.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

A small business is highly dependent on local clientele and repeat business.  Without a loyal customer base, a small business will usually fail in the first five years.  Excellent customer service and a deep understanding of the products you sell are critical to keeping customers and brining in more by that most basic of marketing tools, word of mouth.  Regardless of whether you are opening a new business or advertising an established shop, marketing is essential to bring in new clientele.  There are a few great strategies that you can implement to encourage customers to try your shop that don’t cost a lot of money.  For the small business the best marketing tricks are inexpensive with a high rate of return.

Offer Incentives

One of the most basic marketing tools is to offer new and returning clients incentives to purchase.  If you are offering a service, a discount or small free service offered with a bigger order is a great way to drive sales in a slow month.  Coupons offering deep discounts on a single item, or freebie give-a-way of a small item can bring customers back in the door.

Get Referrals

Offer prizes to customers that bring in referrals.  If a customer brings in their mates, and they spend at a certain level, give the customer a store credit.  That keeps your costs low and brings new customers in the door.

Local Advertising

Flyers, banners and a great window display are all methods of advertising locally that help drive sales.  Flyers can, and should, be posted all over the local area.  A well designed flyer can help build awareness about your company and encourage those new to the neighbourhood to stop by.  Banner ads are a great way to notify customers about sales and new stock.  An attractive window display will pull in people walking by and get them to start browsing.

After you get the potential customers in the door, knowledgeable and friendly sales staff can help close the deal.  Pushy salesmen can be a real problem and it is important to train your staff to be client led.  Let the customer tell you what they want, don’t try to sell them on a product.  Responsive customer service will create more repeat customers than anything else.  Marketing brings people through the door, expert service keeps them coming back.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker