The Yellow P-P-P-Pages? What the Google?

More Apprentice Inspired Tips for Small Businesses

Week 3 in the Apprentice saw the now familiar buying task. Their job was to buy a specific list of items, negotiating the best price possible.  As the tasks have all been designed to challenge the candidates within a genuine business environment and assess their skills in the gritty realism of the corporate world they had access to nothing but a stack of big yellow books (whatever they were), had one day to find all the items, had to deal with high street retailers (as opposed to B2B trade suppliers) and had no prospect of future business to use as a negotiating tool, hmmm no wonder they were excited to get a penny off! This is something I have to contend with on a regular basis: when buying Polo’s (after sourcing my supplier through an ad in the Post Office window) I always tell them in no uncertain terms they are to freshen my breath in advance of a meeting with a very important client and they soon crumble under my Jedi-like negotiation skills.

Those Who Fail to Plan…

In all seriousness though, both teams were a shambles, failing to understand the kind of price they should be expecting to pay, where best to source the products and, in some cases, even what the items were (a ‘closhay’?).  I do realise here that I am teaching grandmothers to suck eggs by saying that the most important lesson we can learn, as small businesses, is that you cannot underestimate the importance of planning: find out the list price, research suppliers, make contact to ascertain availability and negotiate on price and THEN go and procure the product – and don’t send your team to the 4 corners of the largest city in the UK and expect them all to split themselves, Harry Potter style, into several pieces in order to get the products and return on time!

Effective Use of Resources

Of course we have the advantage of the single source of all knowledge (aka Google), trade status, continuing relationships and not being dimwits, sorry I meant an understanding of the products we are sourcing (and if we don’t we can always pump our Twitter network for info!). It also shows us the importance, as suppliers of products or services, of being able to be found by those with a requirement for them but I’m not going to get side-tracked into search marketing (see my previous blog post on that subject!).

Mind Your P-P-P-Ps

Week 4 (as you’ve gathered I’m playing catch up due to having been away) was to select and sell beauty treatments and products. This task was intended to test their ability to recognise an attractive proposition, their delivery of it and their salesmanship. Both teams failed to capitalise on the significantly higher profit margin of conducting treatments as opposed to selling products and the criteria necessary for their location (footfall, proximity to delivery area and the fact that few people would be happy to be half naked having a massage while someone else is getting some Heidi style plaits sewn into their hair in the corner!). If you look at the age old marketing principle of the 4Ps (price, product, place, promotion) that’s at least 2 Ps (arguably 3) they’ve failed to consider (and price was pre-determined!).

Mix it Up

As small businesses we can make sure we consider all elements of the marketing mix – not only the standard 4 Ps but the wider reaching 7 Ps which includes people, processes and physical evidence. Consideration of all of these essential pieces of the jigsaw will not only help you to make sure you cover all bases but can help you define your competitive advantage.

Favourite quote of the week: Susan to Leon (spray tanning a buff young semi naked man) “It doesn’t make you gay you know”!

The Apprentice’s Apprentice

Lessons Small Businesses Can Learn from Lord Sugar’s Apprentices

So, The Apprentice has started again. I do love the programme but it never fails to amaze me that these people were selected from thousands to represent the best business talent of the nation. OK that may be a little unfair but I do think that some have been placed in there so we can marvel at their extreme naivety, arrogance and, in some cases, stupidity!

I’m sure like me, many people sit there thinking ‘I could do better than that, what are they thinking’ and you can see the blunders coming back to bite them on the bum as they make them. However, in reality I’m sure that you are thrown into very difficult situations and they don’t have the benefit of seeing it play out objectively from the comfort of their sofas as we do!

So, how can ‘corporate level’ tasks apply to small businesses?

While I love it for entertainment value, and yes I admit it: being able to laugh at their ridiculous soundbites and blatant jostling for position, one of the main issues I have with the programme is that the tasks often seem to have little relationship to corporate business management. Can you honestly convince me Lord Sugar that selling soup on a market truly assesses your skills to create a multi-national corporate business strategy? Hmmm

Yes yes, I know – the principles are there: people management, planning, tactical delivery and closing sales blah blah blah so how does that translate to REAL business, and by that I mean the kind of businesses that you and I run ie small enterprises with often limited resources? Each week I will aim to blog about the lessons we can learn from The Apprentice that apply directly to the small business (and no doubt have a good laugh as the halfwits emerge and show their true colours!).

Applying the lessons to OUR businesses

Being a double episode I’ve lumped the two together, oh and I’m on holiday next week so that will have to wait until I come back but hey, it’s my blog!

So what can we take from the first two episodes? The first task was to invest a budget into buying produce, manufacture something from that produce and sell at a profit – simple, no? Melody, despite being a bit of a scary lady, did pretty well and got the girls organised. Edward’s strategy, on the other hand, seemed to be to retain power by not telling anyone what the plan was thereby making himself indispensible (if indeed there was a plan at all!). He failed to communicate with his team or assign clear roles, spoke in barely more than 3 word sentences and deliberately did not use his own accountancy skills. For small businesses, we can take the following from this:

● Create a clear plan and make sure that everyone understands what the objectives are, what the strategy is and who is responsible for what. In a small business where many business functions are outsourced this is particularly important as the people responsible for delivering different elements of the plan may be from different companies and in different locations making communication both more difficult and more important.

● Use your skills! It seems obvious but apparently not for Edward. He wanted to show he was ‘more than an accountant’ and actually just demonstrated that he was ‘not even an accountant’ through a distinct lack of financial control, spending a massive proportion of their budget on one item (oranges) which they then failed to maximise because they simply didn’t factor in enough time on the production required for that product (juice). Key to the success of a small business is to understand your strengths and use them as well as recognise your weaknesses so you can either address them or outsource the tasks to those who have the skills.

Quote of the week: Edward – “I am not only the youngest, I am the shortest”. Therefore…..?!

The second episode tasked the teams with creating an app for the global market. Both teams actually did quite a good job (though it always makes me laugh when they celebrate that they made a £500 profit but it’s taken 10 senior level people 3 days to work on it – the figures would be significantly different if they had to factor man hour costs in!). The downfall of the boys’ team was in failing to appreciate the global nature of the audience: their app, a parody of local accents, made little sense outside the UK. We may think as small businesses that this doesn’t really apply to us, after all most of us are working at a very local level. However this really isn’t true, particularly when our businesses have an online element (and actually, whose doesn’t these days?). Even if we don’t necessarily trade globally, we still have a global reach through our websites, blogs, social media etc and the people that we engage with on these platforms, while not necessarily customers, can be key influencers and advocates so we would all be advised to address their needs in some way. We can therefore take from this:

● Understand your audience and be relevant. If yours is a niche audience then tailor your messages to them and don’t worry too much about mass appeal but if you have a potentially global market do your research and ensure your product crosses those cultural boundaries

● Seeing Alex get fired from this task for a completely unrelated reason to the issue highlighted above also shows us the importance of pulling your weight and being prepared to challenge – there’s nowhere to hide in a small business!

Quote of the week – Lord Sugar: “You come across as a good talker but I’m not thinking of going into the business of writing speeches.”

I’ll be back with more Apprentice inspired lessons after my holidays: the key lesson we can learn from this? Even business owners need holidays!

Discover v Disrupt: Why Search Marketing is Overtaking Interruption Strategies

Become the Pied Piper of Your Industry!

Traditionally marketing has been all about pushing messages out, actively shoving your materials under the nose of your target market and (hopefully) forcing them to notice you. That’s absolutely fine and marketing will continue to operate in this way but trends are changing. Savvy businesses are starting to recognise that success lies not in forcing their messages onto people but in allowing themselves to be easily found by people who have a genuine need for their products and services. In other words ‘find me’ rather than ‘look at me’!

There is a lot you can do to make your marketing campaigns very targeted, demographics, research, segmentation criteria etc, but at the end of the day there is always a certain amount of guess work and ‘finger crossing’ involved, particularly when marketing to cold prospects. Even if your target market may potentially have a use for your services, if your campaign isn’t timed to land when they actually have a requirement it may be wasted. Consider then how valuable it is for your target market, who has a genuine need for your products and services at that precise time, to actively come and find you. That’s pretty powerful stuff is it not and that is the premise for search marketing.

Search Marketing Online

As you would imagine, the biggest arena for enabling search based marketing is the internet. Search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies are designed to bring traffic to your site but it’s not about the quantity; it’s all about the quality. Forget SEO campaigns that aim to bring in vast volumes of visitors to your site. If they aren’t relevant or you don’t engage them when they get there it’s all wasted effort. The key is attracting smaller numbers of RELEVANT visitors and you do this by being clever with your keywords.

There are lots of really clever ways of doing this and I’m not an SEO specialist so won’t attempt to explain them here. What I am however is a marketer and copy writer with a specialist interest in web content writing. All my research and experience (and talking to really smart, techno-geeky people!) points to one activity that can make a big impact on enabling relevant people with an immediate interest in what you offer to find their way to your site and that is consistently populating it with good quality, keyword rich content.

Back in February this year Google changed its algorithm to actively reward sites in the search engine rankings that feature high value content: original, non copied content, analysis, research, reports etc. (See Google’s blog for more information). Conversely that also means it penalises sites that don’t so how does your site stack up?

Capitalise on SEO Opportunities via your Blog

The best opportunity you have for taking advantage of this is by keeping your blog up to date and ensuring that the content is of high quality and is original. This of course requires a time commitment, copy writing skills and a good understanding of the use of keywords and other SEO techniques. If you have that resource in house, fantastic – use it! If you don’t, you might want to consider outsourcing this, as you would any other element of your marketing mix. A professional blogger will work with you to generate ideas for topics, create posts, add content and use the medium to its maximum effect. It will also ensure that the blog remains up to date long after the ‘best intentions’ have died a death!

Not only will your blog help boost your search engine rankings and bring in high quality traffic, it will engage them when they get there and drive them towards your desired actions: sales, contacts, referrals etc. So before your commit your budgets to PPC or even traditional ‘interruptive’ marketing campaigns, consider the power of your blog and the professional help you can access to maximise the opportunity.

For more information on the blogging packages that I offer see my Blogging Services page.

Sarah Doctor In The House?

The Facebook Marketing Clinic from Sarah Ainslie Marketing

On 24^th February I held a free virtual Marketing Clinic via my Facebook page. The idea being simply that I would offer anyone who wanted it professional marketing advice absolutely free and without any obligation or ulterior motive. Marketing questions were posted onto my Facebook page throughout the day and I answered them as fully as the medium, and my lack of in depth knowledge of participants’ businesses, would allow. So, here they all are:

The first question came from Anthony Williams from graphic design agency, United Graphic Design.

 Q. How do you think the relationship should work between a Marketing agency and Graphic Design agency? We find that many people involved in marketing like to have a huge input into the design process, which can be annoying. What do you think?

A. The marketer in the equation should act as a central resource for both designer and client to draw upon. It is their role to take the client’s objectives and translate this into a brief for the designer. They should give direction, if they don’t they are not adding any value for the client and they may as well work directly with the designer, but they should also allow the designer space for creativity because that is their area of expertise. Any brief that is too prescriptive will never produce anything creative but a designer also needs to remember that the marketer has the bigger picture in mind and is considering not just the design but the content, the objectives of the piece and how that fits into the wider marketing mix and overall strategy.

At the end of the day it has to be a consultative process between all 3 parties and if the balance is right each person should make the lives of the other people easier.

The next question was from speaker, blogger and author, Nadine Hill.

Q. My business is as a speaker and author. As an expert on time management, I do motivational speeches, have worked as a media spokesperson for PR campaigns and I have a regular magazine column for a women’s lifestyle title. I do all this under my own name. A couple of years ago I purchased the domain names and secured the Trade Mark for JUGGLISTA. This is a word I created to describe modern busy women – women who juggle like it’s going out of fashion! A sort of twist on the word ‘Fashionista’ that has become so popular in recent years.

What do you suggest?

A. First of all what a fantastic name – Jugglista – love the strapline too! You are absolutely right when you say you want to create a brand around this name and the first thing I would do is consider your ‘brand values’ – ie what characteristics do you want your brand to have. This might be sassy, sophisticated, modern, organised, spontaneous – whatever it might be. Then fast forward a period of time, perhaps a year and ‘vision’ what that brand might look like – how it might be perceived, the associations it might have, the products it might represent, who would be attracted to it, other brands or celebrities that you would want to be aligned with in some way etc. Once you have your vision you can start putting steps in place to get there. You may need to develop a strong visual brand (logo, colour scheme, typography, ‘feel’ etc) as a first step to consistently apply to the brand personality you build up over the next few months.

You need to build credibility for the Jugglista brand so start getting it out there. Create a social media presence and start to populate your website with appropriate content. A blog would be ideal but I could see your magazine columns sitting comfortably in there as well. Can you bring the Jugglista brand association into your columns? You need to find a voice that is appropriate to the Jugglista concept. Create some strategies that will demonstrate your expertise in the area of time management and organisation that will be associated with Jugglista such as tips, blogs, Q&As, comment on topical items in the media that you can put a ‘Jugglista spin’ on, for example the royal wedding (‘how I would do that’, ‘tips for Kate’, ‘how I organised MY wedding day’ etc) and deliver via the site and your social media platforms. Anything that creates interaction with your following is fantastic.

Lastly, I would identify the kind of manufacturers that you would like to partner with and the product ideas you have now and make it your business to find out about them. Who are the key people in the organisation, what kind of products do they already produce and market, what are THEIR brand values. Once you are armed with this information you can work at creating a brand that will be attractive to them and demonstrate a ready-made following for the Jugglista lifestyle!

Anthony from United Graphic Design then asked another question:

Q. How do you write copy for websites keeping Google in mind? What’s the best way to gauge keywords?

A. It’s hard to sum up SEO copy writing in a couple of paragraphs but a good starting point is getting your keywords right. Use an online tool such as Google’s adwords keyword tool  to research your keywords and find ones that are getting plenty of searches but ideally that don’t have a high level of competition. When you write your content aim for a keyword density of 3-5% (no more or you could be penalised by Google) and you can check this using another tool. Obviously the keywords need to be relevant to your industry and your copy still needs to read well and flow so don’t sacrifice good copy for SEO (see a recent blog I did). You can also construct ‘long tail keyword strings’ which are sentences packed with your keywords that bring in traffic that is more specific to your business (remember you only want to drive RELEVANT traffic to your site – it’s all about quality and not quantity!) so these might include geographic references as well as specific product/service keywords.

As well as your page content include keywords in your titles, images, page descriptions and titles and tags. Of course the best way to make your content perform well is to make it interesting and engaging, use call to actions and update it regularly!

Kathryn Taylor from Canvas Factory then joined in:

 Q. I was recently commissioned to do a piece of Minis for Minis artwork for a rather famous sporting celebrity (from good old Sheffield) by his children’s godmother. I really want to shout about it but am not sure that’s the done thing) I do follow him on Twitter – do you think its worth a try contacting him and asking if he liked it/minds me mentioning his name??

A. I guess it’s potentially a tricky one as some ‘celebrities’ could see endorsements as an invasion of privacy or even something that people should be paying for! I would approach him for some feedback on what he thought about your work and whether he would be prepared to give you a short testimonial. I would also say that while you absolutely respect his right to privacy, if he was prepared to give you permission to use his feedback and name that you would appreciate it.  Perhaps emphasize that you are a small local business, personally producing your artwork, just to demonstrate that you’re not a multi-national corporate trying to piggy back his fame!

Richard Hopwood wanted to pick my brains on whether he was on the right track with marketing his business, Entirely Art.  

Q. I run an art consultancy business, supplying bespoke art for the home or business It’s in its infancy at the moment and I’m just trying to build up interest. I use all types of social media, facebook, twitter and linkedin, constantly building my connections. I am also working on my SEO for the website. Is there anywhere in your experience I should be looking to advertise/build awareness that is more targeted towards my specific business?

A. Have you clearly identified your target audiences? This needs to be your first step so that you can match your products and services to the audiences that have a demand for it. Once you have done this you can determine what solution you provide for them and how you can best communicate this. I would then focus on those target audiences that have the potential to be most profitable for you, such as organisations who would order in bigger quantities such as interior designers/architects, hotels, bars, hospitality venues etc (based on a few assumptions I have made about your business) and work out the best strategy for raising your profile within this audience. Define your key strengths and what differentiates you from the competition and conduct activities that will take them through the AIDA principle – raise Awareness, create Interest, create Desire, make them take Action.

Lastly, Sarah Chapman from Seven Twelve PR asked a question about outsourcing social media management.

Q. Can you share your views on the benefits of having an external consultant (marketing or PR) advise and support on social media?

A. Social media is one of the newest forms of a company’s marketing mix but that essentially is what it is – a marketing tool. Because social media platforms are so accessible and in monetary terms, low cost or free (in time terms of course it is far from that!) it is something that many organisations get involved in doing themselves and there’s nothing wrong with that. Where a marketer or a PR can add value is in treating the medium in the same way you would treat any other element of your marketing mix – directed by a central strategy, communicated well, focused on the target audience and conducted in a timely, professional and efficient manner.

That’s not to say that in house people cannot do this perfectly well but there is a time factor  – social media can be very time consuming – and potentially a consistency issue. Obviously an external consultant can never have as much knowledge about the company as the company itself but they do have the ability to see things with an impartial set of eyes and empathy for the reader. There should be regular contact between the client and consultant to keep content fresh and relevant and for those who really can’t relinquish control they can opt for regular social media mentoring and support as opposed to a fully managed service.

You can see all these Q&As on my Facebook page as well as all the comments and discussions that went with them. If you are interested in participating in future clinics or any of the other ways I share marketing knowledge and advice then make sure you like my page and look me up on Twitter as well.

Facebook Marketing Clinic

Pose your marketing questions to a professional consultant free of charge for one day only!

Got a burning question about marketing your business?

Not ready to get a marketing consultant on board?

Don’t have the budget to bring in a marketing specialist?

Just need to run an idea past a marketing expert?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions put 24^th February 2011 in your diary. Given the opportunity what would you ask a professional marketer about your business? Consider this carefully as this week you will have the chance to do just that – absolutely free of charge!

On the 24th I will be holding a Marketing Clinic Day via my Facebook page. Between the hours of 9am and 5pm I will endeavour to answer any marketing questions posted on my business page free of charge, without obligation and with no ulterior motive!

So, want to launch a business idea but don’t know where to start? Tried a few marketing ideas but they haven’t worked? Want to target a new market? Want to improve your brand profile? Start thinking about what you want to ask now and consider your question wisely as I will be answering them on a first come first served basis and you may only get one shot (see conditions below). To get the most out of the opportunity I have put together a few tips below:

• Be specific to your business. You can read up on pretty much any kind of marketing strategy and activity online; this is your chance to get advice from a marketing professional on how to apply things to YOUR business

• Be specific in what you are asking. Ask a general question such as ‘how can I market my business?’ and you will get a very general answer which may not have a lot of value!

• Provide a little background about your business and your target market so that I can provide a relevant response

• Make yourself available on the day so you can read the responses to the questions and perhaps even take time to make plans for putting things into action!

• If you haven’t already, ‘Like’ my page now (see conditions)

There are just a couple of conditions. Firstly you must be a fan, ie you need to have clicked the ‘Like’ button by close of play (5pm) on 23^rd February. Secondly, you must be happy to post your question publicly on my page and for me to answer it in this way: I won’t be able to deal with questions privately on this occasion so don’t include any confidential information. Just to cover my ample behind I have to say that I will do my utmost to answer all questions posted but this will obviously depend on volume and nature so for this reason I may not be able to go into a lot of depth. If volume is high I may need to limit people to one question each so consider yours carefully! Also, of course, any offensive, non-relevant, spam comments or blatant plugs will be removed.

Get your thinking caps on and I will (hopefully) speak to you on Thursday!

Website: What have you done for me lately?

Ask not (only) what your website can do for you but what you can do for your website!

Any relationship has to have some give and take in order to be fulfilling and this is equally applicable to your relationship with your website. A relationship with a website? Really? Yes, I use the term deliberately because a website is quite different from many other elements of the marketing mix in that it is not static; it is a living, breathing entity that requires on-going love and attention. However, like anything that receives the time and TLC that it craves, it will pay it all back to you in spades in the form of relevant web traffic and client conversions.

Assuming you’re not the technical type and you are using a designer/web developer to create your website, there are many things that they should build into your site to make it work for you. It is however not good enough to assume that your involvement begins and ends with giving them a brief and paying your invoice. You need to engage with your site and ‘give something back’ and only then will you maximise your investment and really have a website that works for you.

The following tips can be used as a checklist for any website and I’ve broken it down, firstly into what you should demand from your site and secondly what you should be contributing to the process.

Gimme Some: What You Need Your Website To Do For YOU

1. Make sure your website is optimised for search engines. The most beautiful website is only of use to you if your prospects can find it!

2. Your site should feature optimised web copy. Choose keywords wisely, aiming for a keyword density of 3-5%. They should be relevant and specific to your business to try and beat the competition

3. Make content interesting and engaging and NOT enslaved to SEO: you should never compromise flow and message with blatant keyword cramming. Clearly communicate your benefits as visitors have very short attention spans!

4. Include a clear ‘call to action’ on every page. Understand what it is you want your prospects to do

5. Provide clear navigation. Allow your prospects to find their way around the site and locate the information they want quickly

6. Use images that reinforce and enhance your messages and break up the page. Use them in a functional way as well to aid SEO such as alt text and descriptions

7. Make it easy for your prospects to interact and engage with you. Feature enquiry forms, RSS feeds, e-news sign ups etc and clearly signpost them on the site. Data capture can also allow you to conduct permission based marketing

Everything I Do, I Do It For You: What YOU Need To Do For Your Website

8. Keep your content up to date, fresh and interesting through your blog and news pages. Update weekly if possible – neglecting your site once the initial page copy has been created is a big no no. Search engines love fresh content and so, in fact, do your visitors!

9. Share success via your site. Case studies, testimonials and quantitative results all send powerful messages to prospective customers

10. Offer free resources on your site, relevant to your industry. They will drive traffic and demonstrate your expertise and after all, everyone loves a freebie. Just give a taster though – you still want people to need your products and services!

11. Regularly review your page content to keep it fresh; blogs are not the only areas that benefit from being kept up to date!

12. Integrate your web content with social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to maximise exposure. People consume information in different ways. Some prefer smaller bites of information but you can still drive them through to your site if you whet their appetite sufficiently

Don’t panic! While your website does demand constant attention this is one relationship where you can actually get away with passing the job to someone else. If you don’t have the time or the skills to manage your site yourself you can outsource this to a professional who does – I’m always happy to be ‘the other woman’ in this type of relationship!

This blog post accompanies the #loveyourwebsite series posted on Twitter 14/02/11