Swim for All event in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support

… Yes it’s that time of year when I announce my annual charideeeee endeavour! Having done countless Race for Lifes and last year’s Midnight Walk I have set myself a real challenge for 2012 and entered Swim for All; a 1500m swim in open water taking place at Pugney’s Country Park in Wakefield on 17th June.

Nervous about swimming the distance? Not really, I’m a pretty strong swimmer.

Scared about squeezing myself into a wet suit? A bit, it’s a sight not for those with a nervous disposition!

Frightened about swallowing the water/swimming with eels/getting tangled up in a discarded shopping trolley? Absolutely terrified!

Worth a few quid?

Hey ho, if I make it out the other side without any embarrassing wet suit incidents or contracting Weil’s disease AND manage to raise some money for Macmillan I will consider that a success! You can sponsor me via my Just Giving page where you can also keep up to date with all my latest training photos and news (though some have been doubting the authenticity of said photos, mainly those envious of my newly athletic physique!). You can also sponsor me by text by texting TALC88 plus the amount to 70070.

Wish me luck!

Forgive me blog readers for I have sinned; it has been *ahem* quite some time, OK flipping ages, since my last blog…

“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!”

Yes, those words were mine on a blog on this very site offering tips on how to make your website work hard and yes it seems I have been a bad blogger; neglecting my blog and failing to heed my own words of wisdom (and wise words they are, if I do say so myself!). What can I say; I feel I have let you down, let my blog down and let myself down.

So, why has it been so long since I last posted? Have I been tempted back into employment and given up my business? (good god no!); have I become jaded and sceptical of the power of blogging (not at all); or have I become overwhelmed with the demands of running a business and being a mother to two small ladies and lost my mind? (well perhaps a little but nothing new there!). No, the reality is that I have been so extremely busy with client work that I have taken my eye off the ball when it comes to my blog. It’s slightly pathetic and dull but that’s the truth.

The Blogger ‘Behind the Scenes’

I have, however, still been a busy blogger. I fact I’ve never blogged as prolifically, just not for myself! I am now blogging regularly for several businesses; a development that has required me to turn my writer’s hand to quite a diverse range of topics – breakdown recovery, women’s business support, terms and conditions and debt recovery. Some of which I already had an interest in, some I’ve had to dig deep and with and start from scratch (who knew that the Consequence of Default Clause could be so interesting? No, really!). Here are some of my favourite blog posts from the last few months:

What’s the Worst that can Happen?  – blog post for EC Credit Control. This client writes bespoke T&Cs for businesses and they understand that many companies put off having their terms done properly due to cost, time or just underestimating the value of having them. This blog looks at the potential consequences of not having terms and demonstrates why they are important.

Don’t Be A Fool Over Fuel! – blog post for Road To Recovery. This client offers national breakdown cover and is keen to engage with UK motorists. We capitalised on the issues caused by the recent threat of a fuel strike by creating this blog that offers advice for motorists should a strike happen as well as add a little humour. Road to Recovery is the UK’s cheapest breakdown cover so we know that its customers are cost conscious but want peace of mind so fuel is a topic that they feel strongly about.

Come one come all, join the Forward Ladies Community – blog post for Forward Ladies. Forward Ladies is a support network for professional women and this post was created as part of a larger campaign to reinforce the key benefits of becoming a member and the values that make the organisation different to other networks. This particular post focused on the inclusivity of Forward Ladies and how women don’t have to meet criteria to join. Others in the series looked at value for money, being non pressurised, their approach to networking and the benefits beyond pure networking.

Hello, hello, it’s good to be back….

While I have certainly kept my blogging ‘hand in’ on everyone else’s blogs, and that will continue for the forseeable, I do realise that I must practice what I preach. A blogger who neglects their own blog is like the builder who never does home improvements so I repent of my sins and pledge to blog as I should be blogging so watch this space…. the prodigal blogger returns!

Niche Legal Practice

APP Wine Law is a small law firm that specialises in legal services to the wine trade and in that is quite unique in the UK. This site was a revamp of an existing site and the main objective was to position the firm as a niche specialist, reinforcing its expertise, experience and unparalleled knowledge of the wine industry. In addition, Principal Andrew Park wanted to provide valuable content to visitors via a range of resources that can be accessed through the Knowledge Bank. The site includes a membership only area and a client survey which can only be accessed by invitation.

Boyd Butler, a leading legal marketing expert has already praised the site:

“Let me congratulate you on your website – a brilliant example of a niche website with great content.”

As well as writing the page copy I also conducted client interviews to create case studies and testimonials.

Protecting Businesses Offering Credit Terms

EC Credit Control creates bespoke Terms & Conditions and offers debt recovery services. While an international organisation, the UK division wanted a site that was specific to the needs of clients in this country. The brief was to create something that stayed within the specifications of the international brand while having a distinct UK feel in the way it communicated. As the only UK credit management company that also offers bespoke T&Cs the site also needed to reinforce this key selling point.

One of the driving factors was to create a blog that would allow us to post added value content – tips, advice, comment etc – to use as a basis for a new monthly e-mail newsletter which we will shortly start to distribute.

Inspiring Interior Design

The Design Team is a small interior design practice based in North Yorkshire. The brief for this site was to create a site that was largely visual due to the nature of their work but that offered enough content to demonstrate their expertise and inspire the target audiences as well as be optimised for search engines. Again, we incorporated a blog that the designers can use to express their love of design and reinforce their creativity.

The Role of the Marketer

My involvement in all of these sites was to set direction, create the right structure, write compelling, optimised content and, in the case of The Design Team, project manage the design and build of the site. All 3 sites were developed by different web designers.

Involving a marketing expert in the process of developing a website can have substantial advantages over working directly with a web designer. A marketer will set objectives and develop a structure and brief to meet those objectives. They will then develop the content, taking the burden of copy writing away from the client, and work closely with the web developer; driving the project through to completion which can reduce the need for the client’s involvement significantly. Many projects of this kind fail to get off the ground because the client has neither the time nor the skills to give the designer what they need. To get your web project moving just get in touch.

At a basic level in business you need to do two things to survive: attract new customers and retain the ones you already have. When competition is fierce and markets are shrinking the latter becomes doubly important and because it is estimated that it costs 4 times more to attract a new customer than retain one it makes economic sense as well to build customer loyalty and keep them happy.

However, judging by the examples of poor service I have witnessed recently, some companies have so many customers and apparently limitless pools of new prospects to draw upon that they don’t need to hang on to the ones they have by wasting their time on meeting an acceptable standard of customer care. What a lucky position to be in eh?

How To Lose Your Customers

The first such example is a national chain of health clubs (closely linked to a Dragon!). A friend of mine is a member of the club and has been unable to use the facilities due to undergoing treatment for cancer. She wrote to the manager, with a sick note, to explain and see whether it was possible to receive a refund for the last 3 months when she had been too ill to attend and to put her membership on hold until she was well enough to come back. The answer came back – NO. Upset by their lack of compassion she responded by saying it made her inclined to cancel her membership. Did this make the powers that be question their decision on an ethical level? Did the risk of losing a member make them reconsider on a business level? No. Their response was to charge her £75 for cancelling her membership early. And for that reason, she was OUT!  It seems this so-called ‘health’ club is neither concerned about the health of its members or the health of its long term business. Shocking. (As a former member, I receive flyers and calls from this same club on a regular basis with offers to re-join so clearly they don’t have so many members that they don’t need any more).

Another example is a courier company who were tasked with the job of delivering something to me. This did not seem like too much to ask from a delivery company but it seems my expectations were too high. This formerly 3 lettered courier that now goes by a name akin to an Austrian singing technique failed to deliver my parcel. While this was disappointing these things happen; I am not at home 24 hours a day and so I can accept this. However, trying to track the parcel and get it re-delivered has proved to be difficult, time consuming and extremely frustrating because they have made it as hard as they can for customers to do this. Firstly they never left a card to say they’d tried to deliver, I only know through tracking it online. Secondly they don’t publish a number to call on their online tracking site, I had to ring several to find the right one and thirdly they don’t feature enough  tracking details online to be able to use their automated system. After calling them all week and being promised that it was on the van and due for delivery every day I was eventually informed that it had been returned to the sender. In America. Not much use when it was intended to be given as a birthday present the following day. The only advice they could give me at that point was to ask the sender to return it and gave me an e-mail address that I could forward a complaint to. The e-mail bounced back because it was an invalid address.

There are two issues here. Number one is ‘get it right’. Number two is if you can’t get it right, and sometimes things do happen, then deal with the problem efficiently and demonstrate that you actually value your customers. Both of these so-called leading companies failed to do this and therefore they don’t deserve to retain their customers’ loyalty.

How To Keep Your Customers

A great example of good service is from Asda (credit where it’s due). I regularly order my groceries online (hey, I am a busy working mum!) and one time I received multiples of several items that I had ordered, far more than I thought I had ordered (eg 6 multi packs of the same crisps!). It could have been a website glitch or it could have been my error but I told them about it and they refunded the cost of all the extra items without asking me to return them. They evidently recognised the long term value of my business and extended a gesture of goodwill without hesitation. Now that is what I call good service and I still continue to use them every week (and we all know the cost of a weekly shop for a family of four – no small change!).

Creating Great Customer Experience

Customers are far more likely to complain about bad service than praise a provider for good service so the impact could spread wider than those few you lose. The moral of this story is don’t be complacent, give your customers a reason to keep using you and consider the long term benefit of keeping those customers happy. In other words, make customer loyalty a key part of your marketing strategy – a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush!

I’m delighted to have made the shortlist for the Forward Ladies Women in Business Awards in the category of Best Home Based Business! The awards recognise and celebrate the achievements of business women across the Yorkshire region. 3 women have been shortlisted for each of 9 categories and announced in the Yorkshire Post today; the winners will be announced at an awards lunch in Leeds on 14th October (a new frock is in order surely?!).

Having built my business up over the last 4 years, and particularly worked on growing and developing it since returning from maternity leave in 2010, it is incredibly rewarding to gain the recognition that just making the shortlist represents. To stand shoulder to shoulder with respected business women from around the region shows that businesses run from home are every bit as professional and valid as the largest corporations.

Watch this space!

Forget writer’s block: a copywriter’s greatest affliction is the ‘expert-ego’!

The downside to writing copy for lots of different companies is the tendency to sub-consciously inflate your own sense of expertise, you could call it an ‘expert-ego’! What I mean by that is because you immerse yourself so deeply in the subject matter that you are writing about you actually start to believe that you are an expert in it, at least for the duration of the project! For example, at the moment I am writing about a legal firm, a provider of terms and conditions, an interior design practice and a glass wholesaler so having studied these areas in great detail for all of a few months I feel, in my mind, that I am a leading expert on the Groceries Supply Code, retention of title, spatial planning and Lacobel decorative glass!

Of course, despite my delusions to the contrary, I’m not. That said, it is part of a marketer/copywriter’s job to get under the skin of their clients very quickly and really learn about their business. Often people will ask me “how can you possibly write knowledgeably about all these different subjects that you have no prior experience of?”. The truth is you will never match the expertise of your client, even I do not fool myself into believing I could represent a wine producer in court or write a bespoke set of terms and conditions, but what I can do is soak up key facts very quickly, using the client as a source of knowledge.

Marketer, 38, WLTM Industry Expert for mutually fulfilling business relationship…

I bring my marketing skills and my understanding of how to communicate benefits and engage with people through the written word. The industry expertise I get from my client and from conducting research on the subject. It’s not actually necessary to understand the legal ins and outs of the Grocery Supply Code to formulate a clear picture of how a wine producer can use it to their advantage. I don’t have to be able to write terms and conditions to understand that the client needs to protect their business from customers defaulting on payment. In actual fact, many clients are too close to their business to be objective enough to write their own copy; it often takes an outsider to come in and really get to the heart of what their customers need to know from a website or a brochure or a blog post.

Marketer of all trades

In my time I’ve been an expert on plumbing, IT, offshore asset management, design, professional singles dating, aromatherapy and massage, hairdressing, reprographics, breakdown cover and holiday parks. If anyone mentions the words ‘asset protection structures’, ‘ground source heat pumps’ or ‘digital flexo plates’ I can talk for hours (I go down very well at parties as you can imagine!) and don’t even get me started on ‘stay-cationing’!

To be a successful copywriter you have to be able to get up to speed on a client’s business very quickly and take on enough knowledge to communicate their key messages in a way that is relevant to their audience. As dry as some of these subjects sound you can find something interesting in ANY business (no honestly, terms and conditions are actually fascinating!) because it’s all about finding out how they solve a problem for something. Some information I forget eventually, some I retain to regale friends with at dinner parties for ever more (I find I get invited to fewer of those as time goes on…) but all intrigue me while ever I’m in the thick of it.

Have I ever told you how innovative patterned glass can transform any domestic or commercial interior?…

Thank you so much to everyone who supported me – I even stood by my word and upgraded to the 10 mile course rather than the 6 mile one I entered because of all the sponsorship I received so I want you to know that if you did sponsor me I blame you for the aching limbs and joints!

Sarah Ainslie is Walker #2 in the Wakefield Hospice Midnight Walk!

In homage to my walker number (which only indicates when I registered and not my anticipated finishing position!) I am asking as many people as possible to pledge just £2 for me to complete the 6 mile course on 16th July 2011. This time it’s all about volume and not value! If I can get lots and lots of people to donate £2 we’ll still make a great donation to the Hospice plus I will look really popular on my sponsorship page (always a bonus)!

Go to www.justgiving.com/Sarah-Ainslie to chuck your 2 quid into the pot. I have already promised to ‘upgrade’ my walk to the 10 mile course if I reach £100 so at the time of writing I only need 15 £2 donations to get there!

What’s £2? A sandwich, half a lager in a posh bar, a pint in a working men’s club?! You won’t even miss it.

(Bet you’re glad I didn’t get walker number 100!)

Can we really learn anything new from the Apprentice? Je dit NON!

Does anyone else have Apprentice fatigue or is it just me? (Perhaps just those of us who promised to post a blog on the subject every week? It did seem like a good idea at the time!). 7 weeks in it’s becoming clear that what we can learn about business from the programme boils down to a core of a few hard and fast rules that we can all benefit from applying. Unfortunately the candidates don’t seem to realise that and keep making the same mistakes time and time again! These rules are as follows:

1. Know your market and create your products and services with their needs in mind

2. Conduct, and act upon, market research

3. Recognise when to negotiate and how far you can go

4. Know your industry

5. Understand cost and value and that they are not always the same thing

6. The importance of planning

7. The importance of strong leadership and decision making

The mistakes of the losing team, generally speaking, boil down to a failure to stick to at least one of the rules above. This week Tom’s team broke rules 1, 2, 4 and 7 although Melody’s mistake was not so much failing to conduct market research but failing to conduct sufficiently representative market research (only speaking to 4 people, all of whom were in a train station and concluding that everybody in France travels exclusively by train!) and then deliberately feeding back misleading results to secure the product that she wanted!  Tom failed on Rule 7 but in his defence, had he railroaded every other member of his team into choosing a product that they didn’t like he would have been criticised for his dictatorial style of leadership so he couldn’t win (which seems appropriate for Tom!).

The winning team did so in such a spectacular style because they stuck to Rule 1. They knew in advance that they would be pitching to a massive retailer who was very well established in the family market and chose their product and targeted their pitch with this in mind. The result – an order worth over £200,000!

Of course, because of the way they edit the programme we never know who we’re supposed to be criticising and shaking our heads at until the end: whatever they’re doing could equally be defined as madness or genius – we only know which one to apply when we hear the result. Only at that point can we go back and say ‘yes I knew he/she was an idiot’ or ‘I said he/she was brilliant’. That is why the programme is so flawed from a business point of view and is in fact, [of course] just an entertainment show.

There, I said it. I realise that I promised to share with you lots of business tips and lessons from the Apprentice but I fear we may have learned all there is to learn from Lord Sugar and his cast of panto characters. I anticipate that the remainder of the run will just be a merry-go-round of breaking the 7 rules we already know about over and over again and using their own idiocy to play into the producers’ hands. I feel I’ve let you down in some way, promising the undeliverable. *sighs*

The Apprentice is not about business, it’s about entertainment and vive la difference!

It is for that reason that I’m out (sorry, confusing my BBC business shows there!). I am quitting the ‘Apprentice inspired blog’ business subject to them finding a new rule to break. I am in fact firing myself!

(Actually the things I did learn from this week were that you can get by in France by speaking like the policeman from Allo Allo – “good moaning” – and that scissor paper stone is a valid method of decision making – genius!). You know I love it really!

Jim engineers Glen’s demise in The Apprentice advertising sales task

So, Jim survived the chop. Again. He either truly has the luck of the Irish or he’s Lord Sugar’s secret love child and therefore untouchable. In my opinion he was clearly responsible for the failure of this week’s Apprentice task simply for his refusal to negotiate on rate card prices with the media buyers. Yes, the name of the magazine was awful and some of their content was a little patronising but overall all the media groups liked the concept and it was considered to be a high potential market. The same media group that was refused the discount spent £60,000 with the other team and their magazine was dire so it just shows what an opportunity they missed there.

The Art of Negotiation

The subject of negotiating on price isn’t straightforward. Personally I don’t ever do it. I don’t inflate the price to start with so that I have ‘wiggle room’ to reduce it if requested so I know it’s always a fair price for the services I’m offering. Negotiating on the quote therefore just de-values what you do. What I would do however, if what I’ve proposed does not fit the client’s budget, would be to find a different solution that does. In marketing there are always alternative strategies you can adopt and I offer a wide range of services so I can be flexible.

Pricing: Trade v End User

Media sales is of course a completely different proposition. I have been buying media space for clients for many years so perhaps I’m in a position of advantage but surely most would realise that the rate card is always subject to discount? In the absence of experience in the industry you should still realise that even if end user clients (the brands that are featuring in the adverts) paid rate card, the agencies who are buying on their behalf should at least get their agency commission to allow them to make a margin. Add to that the buying power and potential sales opportunity offered by such a large media group and surely that tells you to be generous with your discounts? Jim obviously realised his monumental error by offering a 50% reduction at his next pitch and that alone should have booked his place in the black cab. Evidently ‘Jedi Jim’ can not only control people’s minds but has some kind of impenetrable force field protecting his ass!

Unfair Dismissal

As for poor Glen, fired for being an engineer, surely Lord Sugar was aware of this before the process started? It’s a good job he’s not subject to employment law. What’s next? Firing Zoe because he’s just realised she’s a woman or Susan because she’s too short? Get me ACAS on the phone…