At the start of the last school year, my mum and I went to Clarks Shoe Shop to buy both children new school shoes.

We arrived to be told that we had at least a 15 minute wait. That’s 15 minutes for two adults to entertain two bored children, which we could just about manage (my mum being a pro at these matters!). 15 minutes turned into well over an hour in the shop by the time two children had their feet measured, tried on various pairs of shoes, interrogated the sales assistant over which shoes came with toys (that was the kids, not my mum or me), and then repeated the exercise with plimsoles, although at least there’s only one design of those!

In that long hour plus, I did manage to spy a nice looking handbag (anyone who knows me personally, knows I can’t resist a new bag, even though I have plenty already) and some great looking purple shoes (although, admittedly, I would have to buy a new outfit to go with them).

Unfortunately though, given that we’d reached the absolute limit of the kids’ attention spans and boredom threshold, AND given that the shop was heaving with other children in the same state, there was no way that I could ever have spent a few peaceful minutes looking at the bag in more detail or trying on the shoes, and considering whether I did actually have anything in my wardrobe at home that might justify the purchase. (Girls…I know you’re with me on this one!!)

However, the Clarks’ marketing team have thought this through. I will even forgive them for coming up with the idea of putting cheap, tiny plastic toys in school shoes for this one. And that is they give all the mums (parents!) a leaflet with 20% discount off adult footwear and bags as long as you bought before the 2nd of the following month.

Superb! So, as soon as the kids are back at school, I can go in and shop in peace and quiet, and spend my hard earned cash with them. And as I’ll have then got over the shock of the second mortgage that’s required to pay for school shoes, then I will probably spend more with them!

OK, so in reality, I personally may not: I was looking forward to getting back to 5 days a week work, and I don’t really need another bag (do I??). However, there are plenty who will take Clarks up on this offer, and will help boost their sales in what, I suspect, could otherwise be a quiet month.

From a marketing point of view, Clarks have thought about the mindset of their target audience, and instead of trying to get a sale when the parents are in the shop completely stressed out buying school shoes, they’ve incentivised them to come back when it’s quiet. Which means the spend will be higher, and they’ll get an additional purchase out of the customer without having to spend anything on promotion, other than the printing of leaflets and some attentive staff. In my case, the manager overheard me pointing out the bag to my mum and gave me the leaflet, and told me about the discount.

So, the [marketing] moral of the story here is really understand your customer and how and when they buy. It is also to encourage existing customers to come back and buy more from you: it is, on average, about eight times cheaper to get existing customers to spend more with you, than to acquire new customers.

Marketing often gets talked about in terms of “getting new customers” (or “customer acquisition” in marketing speak), but you should spend a great deal of your marketing efforts on keeping your current customers and encouraging and incentivising them to spend again with you, also known as “customer retention”.

So, I will finish by asking you – where does all your marketing effort and spend go? Is it now time to think differently?!

Have a great week!
Dedicated to yoru success,
Kim.

I have a long standing “friendly discussion” with a sales coach about whether “sales” can stand alone without “marketing”, and vice versa.

The two often get lumped together – as in “sales and marketing”. When I first started working in Marketing, the Sales Department and the Marketing Department of an organisation were often on separate floors, and generally didn’t speak! In fact, in my first job, the marketing department was on the 5th floor of a building in Canary Wharf, whilst the sales department was actually the sales force, who were spread around the entire country!

These days, businesses are bit more forward thinking and the two departments work alongside each other.

The two disciplines bring a different skill to business, but the desired outcome is generally the same (ie to increase the amount of the right kind of customers buying more of your product or service).

The job of marketing is to identify the right kind of people who raise their hands in interest in what you have to sell them. It is also to find out what they need so that you can sell them the right product or service in the first place.

The job of sales is to help that person to buy and to create the actual financial exchange: someone receives your product or service in exchange for giving you money. OK, it could be something other than money, for instance in a bartering situation, but if you want a successful business then profit is king, and so money it has to be!

Yes, you can sell without doing any marketing.

And, no, there’s no point in doing any marketing if you’re not actually going to sell anything.

But when you align your marketing AND your sales, you get a powerful combination.

You see, marketing makes the job of your sales department a whole lot easier by driving them the right kind of people who are already interested in buying.

And if they’re not ready to buy right now, then the job of both marketing and sales is to build a relationship with that prospective customer until they ARE ready to buy.

If they DO buy now, then the job of both marketing and sales is to keep that relationship warm and cosy so that your customer continues to buy from you, and not wander off to your competitors.

These days, in an age of automation, processes and systems, it is worth remembering that it is relationships that are key to a successful business, and both “marketing” and “sales” have the natural ability to do just that.

“Marketing” and “Sales” are just two sides of the same coin; neither is more important than the other – they are both as important AS each other, and both vital in providing the life blood to your business.

So, when you have your “Sales & Marketing” hat on in your business (actually, any hat come to that), keep in mind that there are two different jobs to do, but the key to success in both is to build those successful relationships.

Have a great week!
Dedicated to your success,
Kim.

Last week I asked you whether your business needed a tidy up: Spring being a good time to do just that.

But what about you?

The way I approach marketing is that successful marketing has to start with you.

Your marketing has to be a reflection of you and how you communicate yourself through your business. Your marketing has to be congruent with who you are and what you’re about, and your business in turn also has to be in line with you, your passions, loves, skills, values and so on.

Which means it all has to start with you.

If your business and/or your marketing is not going the way you want it, then look in the mirror!

What are you projecting out there?

Are you being who you want to be?

Does your business really reflect who you are?

Do you LIKE who you are currently?

Have you got yourself into some negative habits which are having a knock-on effect on your business?

OK, so this can be uncomfortable. If you work with me personally, you’ll know that the very first thing I do is to look at you – and normally this brings up emotions and tears, fears and disappointments, frustrations and lack of hope.

It can be difficult to change habits of a life time, but if your business is not doing what it is that you think it should be doing, then start with you – as difficult as that may be.

I’m a strong believer that success only comes after personal growth. And personal growth can be (should be?) painful.

A good coach will help you through this pain barrier and (if you want to) out the other side. Sometimes this journey is quite quick, sometimes it takes a little time. Either is fine (as are using up all of your coach’s tissues!).

I know that with my own clients, those who I work with to break through this barrier go on to achieve the greatest successes.

For marketing to work for you, the energy that you put out has to be right. It’s your personal energy field that people pick up on and respond to. If something doesn’t feel right to them, then they won’t buy. They won’t know why, nor will they be able to analyse it, but they will pick up on it. (And the reverse is true).

So it’s vitally important that, before you get to any marketing, you start with you. Put “your own house in order” first. Then make sure your business (including your clients) are a true reflection of who you are and what you’re passionate about, and makes the most of your skills and talents.

The “marketing bit” actually then becomes a doddle and starts working like pure magic!

Have a great week!
Dedicated to your success,
Kim.

 I’ve just moved house – for the second time in 9 months! – and in unpacking the boxes, it’s amazing the amount of “things” and “stuff” that I’ve kept over the years, for no particular reason. I chucked out loads whilst I was packing up and am doing the same at this end as I unpack. I’m a great believer in, that if you get rid of clutter, you allow new opportunities, people and magic to come into your life. (By the way – this is NOT a picture of my desk!!)

I think the same thing happens to your desk and office as well as your home: you accumulate “stuff” over time. So as we come up to Spring, why not take this time to have a good spring clean of your work areas?

Look at your desk: is it time for a tidy up? Do you really need that big pile of filing on your desk? Could it be filed? What about all those “bits and bobs”? (Yes, I know you have them!). Get a clear and clean desk and you’ll feel great!

Look at your clients: who are your top clients…and who would you prefer not to work with any more? Is it time to recommend the clients who drain your energy onto someone else who might be better suited to working with them? This leaves you to focus on your favourite clients: the ones who give you energy and are fun to work with.

Look at your business processes: do you need to sort out our finances? Do you need to automate a system for your marketing…and for your incoming sales leads? Systems create time and de-clutter your mind, allowing you the time to concentrate on growing and developing your business.

Look at what you do: Do the products and/or services you offer excite and thrill you? Do you love creating them and providing them to your clients – deep in the knowledge that your clients will get the maximum benefit out of them? Creating the business of your dreams starts with creating the products and services that you love to provide, so get rid of the products/services that you really don’t enjoy.

Look at what you’re missing: When you’ve done the de-cluttering – stop and think: are there any groups of your target market that you’re not servicing in any way? Could you create a product or service for them? Could you diversify into new target markets? How could you add extra value to your existing clients? What are they asking you for? How could you give it to them?

Take a weekend or two to have a good Spring Clean of your business and you’ll approach the rest of the year with renewed energy and vitality.

And that’s gotta be a good thing!

Dedicated to your success,
Kim.

What if….you didn’t scare yourself out of your potential? (Dan Hollings)

A while ago I attended a tele-seminar run by Dan Hollings. He was the one behind the marketing of The Secret. It was a webinar teaching a particular marketing technique, and to promote his new programme on that very subject.

This marketing technique could be seen as quite techy, but it WILL take the marketing world by storm. I suspect the very idea of it might put a lot of people off, but he said a very interesting thing towards the end of his presentation, and that was:

“What if you didn’t scare yourself out of your potential?”.

From my travels I meet many people who could achieve SO much more in their business if only they went just that little bit further.

But fear holds them back.

Fear of the unknown.

Fear of not knowing.

Fear of not knowing who to ask.

Fear of not knowing whether it’ll work or not.

Fear of the technical stuff that is seemingly taking over the world.

The thing is, it’s only this one little word that stands in the way of so much achievement and fulfilment of potential. You’ve probably heard that ‘FEAR’ stands for “False Expectations Appearing Real”.

And that’s what’s really in your way: False Expectations.

And if it IS fear that’s holding you back – how do you feel about “false expectations” holding you back?

There’s another quote that I came across recently which says “Don’t let what you’re being get in the way of what you might become.” (Unknown).

It says the same thing – and both quotes give you the same message: that actually it’s perfectly OK to feel fear, be scared, not know how it’s going to work out, to not know how to do something.

But the difference between those who “make it” and those who stay where they are, is that those who make it battle those fears and move on regardless. It doesn’t make them any less afraid, and they still have to fathom new skills out, but they still move on. Their dream is big enough that it helps them to overcome the obstacles in their path.

The climb to the top (wherever that is for you) shouldn’t be easy: the climb should grow you as a person, should increase your skills and knowledge, and give you the abilities and strength of character that you need when you do reach the top.

So, embrace the fears. Embrace the changes. Tackle the challenges.

Get a big dream and move towards it.

But don’t let fear hold you back!

Dedicated to your success as always,
Kim.

A while back I watched a programme on early humans. Evidently there were many species of humans, and this particular programme focused on Homo Sapiens (us) versus the Neanderthals.

The Neanderthals were much bigger and stronger than us, with a lot of muscle. Both males and females caught their food by wrestling it to the ground and overcoming it, forcing a spear in at close quarters to kill the animal. They lived in small family units, caring for their sick or injured. However, they eventually died out (I haven’t spotted any in Gloucestershire, so I guess that must be true).

The Homo Sapiens, on the other hand, threw their spears to kill their food. They developed ways of throwing them further and straighter. The difference here is that they divided their labour: the males went off to hunt and kill the animals, whilst the females stayed in the villages because they were either pregnant or looking after babies and young children. It was the women who went looking for nuts and berries.

Small groups of Homo Sapiens joined forces with other small groups, resulting in larger, stronger – and safer – groups of people. They then worked out a further division of labour, this time by skill set. Some people were better at hunting, and some were better at fishing. And so the hunters went hunting, and the fishermen went fishing, and they then swopped their meat and fish.

This developed so that people who specialised in a particular skill area became very good at it, and thus became “the” people to go to. The Homo Sapiens started to grow in numbers and explode in population because of this joining forces and making these strong groups, and swopping their specialist skills. The expert commenting said that the more specialised us humans got in a particular area, the more successful we are.

The Neanderthals, on the other hand, didn’t specialise or share skills, and they died out.

Let’s bring ourselves forward a few thousand years to the modern day: how specialist are you? Or do you have a generalistic approach? Do you work solo? Or do you collaborate with other specialists in your area?

It certainly makes your marketing a whole lot easier if you are very clear about what exactly you do and who you do it for. And from working with my clients, I know that the more they specialise, the more successful they become.

So, I encourage you to spend a few minutes today to think about that very question: what DO you specialise in, and for whom?

Have a great week,
Dedicated to your success,
Kim.

I’ve written before about the importance of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the weight they carry (i.e. they come down on you hard) when you don’t adhere to the British Codes of Advertising Practice (BCAP) and The UK Code of Non-Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (CAP) guidelines.

These codes cover pretty much anything – digital or printed – that you use to promote your business.

There are strict guidelines in place for you to follow so that you check out what you’re intending to do, before you do it.

“Ah…but I’m only a one man (woman) business, not forgetting the cat, and I don’t do any advertising. It’s just me and my little website…”
Nope, sorry – that won’t do.

One of the things I’ve said in previous articles is that the ASA don’t differentiate between you as a micro business / small business, or a big corporate. As far as it is concerned, you are promoting a product or service to the public, and they treat everyone the same.

So it’s a shame that this particular poor lady doesn’t read this blog because she might have avoided being named and shamed on the ASA’s website, and she probably would have been fined (a lot) too.

I don’t know whether she was aware of the BCAP and CAP guidelines, but she certainly fell foul of them by making claims that can’t be substantiated. She’s a reflexologist, and whilst I’m personally a great believer in complementary health, as far as the law is concerned, treatments can’t be proven medically, and so you can’t say that they help with various ailments, which is what she did.

The principals of the Codes are that all advertising and promotion has to be legal, decent, honest and truthful. This applies in the spirit as well as the letter of the code.

So, before you write anything, tweet anything, publish anything on your website, produce anything for radio, or create an advert, you need to make sure that it adheres to this ethos, and to the Codes themselves.

The good news is that you can easily access these Codes for free yourself by going here.

You can also buy them (not expensive) so you have a hard copy sitting in your desk (this is my preferred option…maybe I’m a sad marketer, but I’m well aware of the power of the ASA).

And the ASA offer a free copy checking service anyway – so there can be no excuse.

Please don’t think that “it won’t happen to me” – because it just might. And that could seriously damage your business (could you take being named and shamed on a very public website, AND be fined thousands??)

Enjoy your marketing (it is fun, honest!), but please keep it legal, decent, honest and truthful.

Have a great week,
Dedicated to your success,
Kim.

There is no such thing as failure.

You’ve heard that before, no doubt, but this is particularly true in marketing.

I get asked all the time what marketing methods will work for a business. And my answer is always the same – I have absolutely no idea!

OK, after 22 years I can make a good guess at what might work, but until you actually run a marketing campaign…until you actually put your marketing into action…then neither you nor I will have any idea what will work for you.

Marketing, you see, is a mixture of an art and science. The “art” bit is the nice creative stuff – the designs, the clever copywriting, the texture of the paper, the clever twizzly bits on your website.

However it’s the science behind it that makes it all work for you.

When you start your marketing activities – whether it be advertising, employing the services of a tele-marketer, sending out direct mail letters, running a pay-per-click campaign – whatever it is, you need to put in place ways that you can test and measure the results of each activity.

Then you use that as a bench mark to test other things.

Here’s an example: you run an ad in the Ambridge Review, circulation 6,000.

You put a code in the call to action (e.g. “call 0800 xxxxxx quoting ref AR06 to claim your free farming guide”). You count up how many calls come in quoting that code, and find you have 300 requests for your farming guide. Of those, 100 become new customers for your bright shiny new tractor.

And so we have a response rate of 5% and a conversion rate of 33%. So far so good.

Run another ad in the same publication with a different offer. Now you put a different code in your call to action (“call 0800 xxxxxxx quoting ref AR07 to claim your free tractor ride”). This time you find you have 150 requests. Ooh…so not so good then.

But wait…

…you find that 100 of those people go on to buy the tractor!

So that gives you a response rate of 2.5% but a conversion rate of 66%!

Fabulous!

Now what I might do is take that free tractor ride offer and place the ad in a different publication (different code again) to see if I can get a better response rate.

And herein lies the beauty and poetry of marketing.

Keep doing this and your marketing results will get better and better.

There is no failure in marketing, only results. The results show you what to do next.

Not everything works: not every offer; not every publication; not every message; nor every creative. In marketing, you will get things that fail…but that’s just telling you that particular combination doesn’t work. If you test the individual elements of the combination you will find out what DOES work and then (very simply) you just do more of that!

And that is how you make marketing work for you!

“Failure isn’t about falling down, failure is staying down.”
(Marillion)

Dedicated to your success,
See you next week,
Kim.

PS – Hot tip: only ever test one thing at a time e.g. headline vs. headline, OR offer vs. offer, OR publication vs. publication.

A while back I sat down with the kids to watch a Disney film starring an ancient Egyptian called Kronk, who ran a restaurant (OK, OK, just bear with me….).

Kronk loved running this restaurant, was evidently very good at it, and his customers adored him. He’d wanted to be a cook since he was little and he was now living his dream, turning out a wide variety of delicious meals day in-day out for his regular patrons.

One day though, he received a letter. It was a letter from his father who was coming to visit. Cue panic.

You see, his father didn’t want him to be a cook, he wanted him to be something else entirely. Except our hero didn’t belong in that other world – he only ever wanted to be a cook. But, in fear of his soon-to-arrive father, he and his loyal customers spent the next little while trying to cover up what he was doing so that he could pretend to be something he wasn’t.

Except it didn’t work. He was very miserable trying to be something he wasn’t.

Eventually, via a few funny sketches and everyone bursting into song to sing “Be True To Your Groove” (obviously Ancient Egypt was the place to be!), his father finally came round, and everyone lived happily ever after doing what they loved doing, in a perfect Disney ending.

And so here’s my message to you.

Are you being true to YOUR groove?

Do you offer products or services in your business because you feel you “have” to, or because it’s expected of you? If you do, then get rid of them – fast!

True passion and purpose for your business doesn’t come until you love every aspect of what you’re doing. And if you’re absolutely passionate about what you’re doing for your clients, then your marketing will flow and follow with ease.

And if you ever feel like breaking into song, or seeing the effect that Kronk had over his town, here’s the soundtrack (enjoy!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzKgiRUcU5A

Have a great week,
Dedicated to your success,
Kim.

My son, aged eight, seems to have an aversion to anything involving keeping himself clean. I managed to persuade him that showering every day was a good thing by buying him his very own bottle of Lynx.

However….

Might I take this opportunity to mention teeth cleaning?

Asking him to clean his teeth gets the same reaction as asking him to lick the chimney clean. Actually I might have more success with the latter.

I get every excuse under the sun for why he hasn’t cleaned his teeth: “I always clean my teeth after my bath/shower”, “I cleaned my teeth before my bath/shower”, “I don’t like this toothpaste”, “That toothpaste is pink – urgh”, “Look at this Lego spaceship I’ve made”, “Martians have landed in the garden…..” and so it goes on.

Then he tries to pull the wool over my eyes by saying he has cleaned his teeth, when he very obviously haven’t (honestly, do I look as I have “stupid” tattooed on my forehead??). He’ll even say that when he’s stood in the bathroom and knows I will check his toothbrush!

It can take seven or eight requests from me (now exhausted by the whole process, particularly as this happens twice a day) to get him to actually put toothpaste on toothbrush, toothbrush into his mouth and turn the toothbrush on. (Nope – not even the lure of electronic gadgetry can get him cleaning his teeth of his own accord).

I’m hoping that the arrival of G.I.R.L.S in a few years might trigger the teeth cleaning-enthusiasm gene. In the meantime, I think I have a few years of seven or eight requests, twice a day, every day.

It’s an interesting observation though…this seven or eight times to get a message through….and to get him to act on it. In a marketing campaign you need to get your message across at least seven or eight times before your target audience will react and act upon it.

So you therefore need to be sure that you have a very clear message and a direct call to action.

That means that whoever is reading your advert/side of van/website/leaflet etc knows precisely what you want them to do, whether it’s to call a number, click a link, or put their details in the form and press “submit”.

That means you need to be very clear yourself. Just as much as I need to be absolutely clear to the resident eight year old that I want him to clean his teeth (strong call to action) and I have to repeat my message to him eight times before he acts on it (and I get the result that I’m after), you need to follow these principles in the promotion of your business to your potential customers.

One request isn’t going to do it. You need repeated, very clear, messages out there with a strong call to action so that they create the results that you’re after.

And if you every feel like practising, I have an eight year old who needs to clean his teeth twice a day….

Have a great week!
Dedicated to your success,
Kim.