Marketing & PR
Digital Marketing School is a free online video resource for anyone who has an interest in the world of digital marketing, from a beginners level, right up to seasoned professionals.
The aim is to help people with some of the basics, put some meaning behind the buzzwords, and give a broad understanding to newcomers of what is possible in the world of digital marketing
The school also looks at more advanced areas, new evolutions in technology, and where the digital marketing industry is going in the coming years.
Each month, they have a guest speaker from the industry, discussing a digital marketing campaign that really captured their imagination.
There are loads of ways to subscribe, so click on one of the links to receive updates as each new show arrives.
Importance of living Your Brand
Yesterday I had an interesting experience in Heathrow airport that made me realize just how much everyone in your organisation needs to live your brand.
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What’s Your Story? How to Get Publicity
Want to know how to get some free publicity?
As a new business owner, it’s easy to rush through publicity efforts in order to concentrate or core business activities and priorities. But before you contact the media or post a press release, ask yourself if the information you’re about to send is really newsworthy.
Will a reporter really care about what you have to say?
If you can’t answer this question accordingly, you need to rework your story angle or rewrite your announcement to focus on a specific benefit, current industry trend, or unique idea. This takes extra time and effort, but it can mean the difference between a successful, media-placement and the drawing-board.
5 Quick Ideas for Creating Your Own News
Here are some quick tips to help you get started:
1.Take part in a community event, or create your own. Give something back and encourage others to do the same.
2.Create a brief report or ‘top 10 list’ related to a big trend in your industry that will help others solve a problem. Provide your expertise without asking for anything in return.
3.Submit an opinion piece to your local newspaper about a current news item. This can help build awareness for your business.
4.Give a presentation at a local community college, business group or other organization where your target audience attends. Provide valuable information without giving a sales-pitch and invite pertinent reporters. You’ll establish yourself as an expert and meet potential new customers while increasing your chances of obtaining media coverage.
5.Find success stories and promote them. Talk to your customers and ask them how your products and services have helped them save time and money, increase productivity, meet deadlines, etc.
Media members like unique “before and after” stories, and you can always use these case studies to build credibility and market new customers.
By taking some time to develop unique story ideas, you’ll have a much better chance of garnering good publicity – fast!
As the list of marketing options grows to include social networking, email marketing and whisper campaigns, small- and medium-size businesses must have a solid marketing strategy.
But the truth is that more than half of new businesses don’t bother. A recent survey found that 58.9 per cent of small-business owners don’t prepare an annual marketing strategy or attempt to identify the benefit and cost of marketing. This could be why the failure rate of small businesses is so high in the first year.
The director of Marketing News, Mary Brennan is not surprised by the research.
“A lot of businesses don’t put much thought into a marketing plan and as a result, it’s often done ad hoc,” she says.
“Businesses need to realise that marketing isn’t an expense but a legitimate business-building activity.”
But a lot of small businesses don’t know how to develop a marketing strategy.
“Often they will try a marketing technique based on their own ideas or what may seem like a bargain only to realise it only reached a small percentage of their target market, by which time their budget is blown,” she says.
The classic first step for Irish businesses is something like a leaflet drop or taking an ad out in the local paper. Often this course of action is taken in the absence of any other ideas!
A marketing plan should look at how a business will promote itself to its target audience, usually over a 12-month period.
Brennan says a marketing plan should include a detailed budget and examine the best ways to promote the business.
“You want [it] to take in analysis of your competitors and to have specific goals,” she says.
“It also needs to break down how much you’ve set aside for marketing, how you’re going to spend it, look at who your target audience is and how you tackle internal and external communications.”
A marketing plan for a small business might be only a few pages long but larger businesses often require a more-detailed plan.
The plan needs to be revisited monthly – or, at the very least, quarterly, Brennan says.
Business owners can write their own plan or if they have no experience in Marketing should contact an expert, even having a chat with one or two marketing companies will give you new ideas and an insight into how professionals appraoch marketing. You may not end up hiring anyone but I guarantee you will pick up some valuable tips along the way.
“We found that companies are either too busy to stop and write a marketing strategy or simply don’t place enough value on having a plan in place,” according to Brennan.
Like other key aspects of developping a successful business your marketing activity must be relevant and effective. If marketing is an area of weakness for you find a solution / person to manage it. You may have the best product or service in the world but unless the right people (your target market) know about it you are dead in the water. Do not ignore marketing your business and if your efforts to date have not been succesful it means one of two things …your idea sucks or you are no good at marketing…so which is it?
