Business Vitamins are pleased to annoucen the launch of the new Hardcastle Burton (.eu) website. Specially designed to target prospects in Germany and Holland, the new site has been crafted to appeal directly to the northern European market.
Business Vitamins designed and built the entire website as a bespoke website design, specifically tailored to our clients exact requirements.
Do you need to outsmart your competitors? Contact us now on 0845 310 2457 to discuss what you want to achieve and how we can help you meet your goals.
Why not find out more about Business Vitamins, Strategic B2B marketing agency Suffolk.
Or follow BizVits on Twitter? Or Like us on Facebook?Or +1 us on Google+?Or see the Business Vitamins channel on YouTube?
Once your business is up and running how do you move on to the next stage, bring in more customers and increase your profitability?
So you're pretty sure that the initial hard work is all done. Your business is up and running. It has a name to be proud of, rather than an embarrassing innuendo and you've got a handful of happy customers. Some of them are even returning for more so you must be doing something right! Fantastic! So it's all plain sailing from here, isn't it? Well maybe not. There are several business experts that frequently state the first year in business is hard, but the second and third years are the hardest.
Just when you thought you could sit back and have a well-earned rest, even if it's only for a day or two, that's actually the time to pick up the pace. You should be re-visiting your initial business plans & looking at your objectives. Are they still relevant to your blossoming business? If not, now is the time to consider some revisions to help you move on to the next level.
For many companies, the initial projects that go hand in hand with establishing a new business include finding premises or vehicles, setting up a website, printing business cards, sending out flyers, the list goes on. So whether you realised it or not at the time, you were starting to market your business. You wanted to tell the world you'd arrived and were ready to start trading. And that's all important activity but once it's done, what next?
First, take a step back and re-visit your initial marketing projects. Chances are, you set up your website in the early days of your business and printed your stationery as soon as you'd settled on a company name. But is everything on display still relevant? Do you provide the same products and services as you did on Day 1 or have you added to your offering? Are your flyers still generating new customers and are they the type of customers you really want? You should look at these points in a logical order to make sure that nothing is left out of your review.
If you didn't generate a marketing strategy at the outset, now is the time to create one. If you did, now is the time to re-visit it. You wouldn't organise a wedding without arranging a ceremony, sending out invitations, or choosing the flowers. So why would you run your business without any research and forward planning? The very business that probably puts a roof over your head and food on your table needs to be carefully nurtured to ensure its continued successful development. Without a comprehensive marketing strategy, reaching your business goals will be much harder than you'd ever anticipated. But where do you start?
First things first, carry out a marketing audit. This will give you an accurate snapshot of how your marketing looks today. The audit will provide you with the fundamental building blocks for the next step - developing your marketing strategy.
When putting a strategy together, think about such questions as whether there have been any changes in your industry that impact upon your business. Does this mean you need to change anything? What do you want to achieve? What about your competitors? Could you improve your customer service? How does your pricing fit in with those around you? If you change your products or services will you see an increase in profitability? And how will you measure any of this?
If undertaken properly, your strategy will highlight your strengths and weaknesses and give you a clear direction as to where your future marketing efforts should be concentrated. This in turn will enable you to write a comprehensive plan that allows you to play to your strengths and seize new opportunities. And why wouldn't you want to do that!
In the current economic climate starting a new business is difficult enough. Making it succeed is even harder. By following these few simple guidelines, you will greatly increase your chances of success. By having a clear marketing strategy, you will be head and shoulders above everyone else that does not. You put everything into starting your business, now is the time to make it grow and stand out from the crowd.
Do you need to outsmart your competitors? Contact us now on 0845 310 2457 to discuss what you want to achieve and how we can help you meet your goals.
Why not find out more about Business Vitamins, Strategic B2B marketing agency Suffolk.
Or follow BizVits on Twitter? Or Like us on Facebook?Or +1 us on Google+?Or see the Business Vitamins channel on YouTube?
I’m not a Wayne Rooney fan.
This stark outlook has nothing WHATSOEVER to do with football, which I regard as nothing more than a noisy, slightly irritating distraction at best. I’m sure our Wayne is a very good footballer and well worth every penny of the £squillions paid for his services by whoever he plays for. (Seriously, I’m not making this up; I actually don’t know who he plays for).
The reason I’m not a Rooney fan boy is because a certain red-topped Sunday newspaper chose to splash 5 pages about Rooney’s (alleged) dalliance with a “woman of easy virtue”.
This highly important news, deemed significant public interest by the news editors, was the major reason the story we WANTED to be featured toward the front of that same paper in that very edition, only made it to page 35! Don’t get me wrong though, the public affairs consultancy who “leaked” the original story did a genuinely fantastic job and the client was delighted with the resulting coverage we spun from the original story.
Sigh, I need to get over it. It’s not Wayne’s fault really. I should remind myself that the world of PR is subject to the vagaries of “news” (or in this instance, meaningless drivel about a 25 year old sportsman that may or may not have had sexual relations with someone other than his wife).
In other words, breaking news will affect the publishing schedule of newspapers (red top or broadsheet).
One thing is certain though. Whatever the news today, it’ll be fish and chip paper tomorrow!
Do you need to outsmart your competitors? Contact us now on 0845 310 2457 to discuss what you want to achieve and how we can help you meet your goals.
Why not find out more about Business Vitamins, Strategic B2B marketing agency Suffolk.
Or follow BizVits on Twitter?
Or Like us on Facebook?
Or +1 us on Google+?
Or see the Business Vitamins channel on YouTube?
Over the last few weeks, we seem to have come across an increasing number of companies whose name really doesn’t tell us anything about their business activity. Whilst not a crime, it could present a problem when that business is trying to get their message heard. What amazes us more however, is the number of companies that don’t have a strapline either.
Today, we all search online to look for new suppliers at some time or another. So it goes without saying that our corporate profiles are very important. We need to tempt a prospect, particularly if they are online, to click through to our websites or call us for more information. When presented with the choice of let’s say 10 potential unknown companies, I know I would look at the company whose name and strapline told me exactly what they do.
We all have competitors and need to stand out from the crowd, so the use of a few little words after your company name can make all the difference.
For example, at Business Vitamins, we use "Energise your business through marketing". Perhaps just a touch more well-known examples would be:
- Carlsbergs "Probably…"
- HSBC’s "The Worlds Local Bank"
- Orange's "The Futures Bright"
- Hondas “The Power of Dreams"
- UK National Lottery "It could be you"
- ..and of course Nikes’ uber memorable "Just Do it!"
Having a strapline has many uses. You can also register your strapline as a URL and use it as a tracking device for specific marketing campaigns but that’s a whole other blog post!
Most importantly, your strapline is the key to your branding. It underlines your brand promise which if managed correctly, can improve customer loyalty. Your brand has the power to differentiate your products and services from your competitors - even when those products and services are exactly the same. Audi A3 or VW Golf anyone?
Research has shown 70% of customers are willing to pay a premium for their brand of choice, a strong brand is your most valuable asset.
So why wouldn’t you take some time out to come up with a great little line that could win you new business?
Do you need to outsmart your competitors? Contact us now on 0845 310 2457 to discuss what you want to achieve and how we can help you meet your goals.
Why not find out more about Business Vitamins, Strategic B2B marketing agency Suffolk.
Or follow BizVits on Twitter?
Or Like us on Facebook?
Or +1 us on Google+?
Or see the Business Vitamins channel on YouTube?
Business Vitamins publish another bespoke website, for Norfolk based NICE - Nationwide Industrial Compliance & Education. Simply, this company provides top level training and consultancy support to local businesses and authorities regarding industrial cleaning. They wanted a bespoke design that positioned their business as "a bit different" from the rest.
Business Vitamins provided all the graphic design and web building, as well as writing most of the copy. The client was particularly pleased with the partner logo cloud - an innovative way in which to avoid any political issues surrounding which of their partner organisations gets listed first!
Business Vitamins publish a new small business website today. Days Sports is a family owned and managed business, based near Bury St Edmunds. They offer a number of service lines including personalised sports clothing (for sports teams), and personalisation of gifts for corporate customers and also events such as weddings and christenings.
The team at Days Sports needed a simple but professional website that clearly communicated their value proposition to new and existing customers alike. Additionally, they had a number of catalogues (in PDF format) which we embedded in their website as page-flipper catalogues - this added an extra level of interest and interaction to the site.
Business Vitamins managed all the design and build of the entire site as well as provided all the copywriting too.
Peter Jones of Dragons Den fame has openly said ”networking is the most cost effective route to market there is.”
I’m not so sure…
Networking is very important indeed. It provides a very enjoyable way to extend your reach, get your name out there and meet potential new clients and suppliers alike. But I believe networking is simply part of a wider activity mix designed to reach a target audience in a number of different ways.
In the interests of pseudo-science, here are some numbers I’ve quickly calculated:
Let’s assume a networking event is 2 hours long. It might take half an hour to get there (and back), so the whole event ‘door-to-door’ is 3 hours. Sound reasonable?
Let’s also assume you’re unlikely to meet someone for the first time, for them to decide you’re brilliant and write you out a purchase order on the spot. Perhaps it takes a handful of times (perhaps 4 or 5?) of meeting people at a regular networking event to build a relationship (and trust) before you’re likely to get either a single direct lead or a referral, let alone close some business!
So, that’s around 15 hours of your time, in total. Stay with me…
The next bit is rather specific to each and every one of us, but let’s say you charge your time at £25/hr. Some people will charge more, some less, but at £25 that networking time has cost around £375.
What’s the alternative? We recently managed a direct mail campaign for a client - the TOTAL cost of which was £770, including design and distribution. That client received 67 leads. Of which, upon qualification, c60% were high quality, real, closable leads.
A one off perhaps? No. We’ve managed similar numbers three times in a row now for the same client.
So how cost effective does networking look now Peter? Who said direct mail was dead…
Do you need to outsmart your competitors? Contact us now on 0845 310 2457 to discuss what you want to achieve and how we can help you meet your goals.
Why not find out more about Business Vitamins, Strategic B2B marketing agency Suffolk.
Or follow BizVits on Twitter? Or Like us on Facebook?Or +1 us on Google+?Or see the Business Vitamins channel on YouTube?
So you're pretty sure that the initial hard work is all done. Your business is up and running. It has a name to be proud of, rather than an embarrassing innuendo and you've got a handful of happy customers. Some of them are even returning for more so you must be doing something right! Fantastic! So it's all plain sailing from here, isn't it? Well maybe not. There are several business experts that frequently state the first year in business is hard, but the second and third years are the hardest.
The reason I’m not a Rooney fan boy is because a certain red-topped Sunday newspaper chose to splash 5 pages about Rooney’s (alleged) dalliance with a “woman of easy virtue”.
Today, we all search online to look for new suppliers at some time or another. So it goes without saying that our corporate profiles are very important. We need to tempt a prospect, particularly if they are online, to click through to our websites or call us for more information. When presented with the choice of let’s say 10 potential unknown companies, I know I would look at the company whose name and strapline told me exactly what they do.
Networking is very important indeed. It provides a very enjoyable way to extend your reach, get your name out there and meet potential new clients and suppliers alike. But I believe networking is simply part of a wider activity mix designed to reach a target audience in a number of different ways.
