He told us that he hardly had any wedding bookings before Andrew got in touch and introduced the possibility of a campaign centred around wedding venues, targeted to his local area of Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds. In terms of bookings, Mr Lindsay has sold every Saturday date that he wanted for the next 15 months!

Mr Lindsay now relies on Andrew to bring in enquiries for Westonbirt School and has 6 wedding viewings lined up over the next few weeks. Mr Lindsay was quoted as saying, “The value of Internet Marketing for weddings is clear and with Townpages help there’s no need for us to spend elsewhere”.

Westonbirt School are now offering a 25% discount off mid-week bookings as Townpages have completely filled their weekends! For further information visit the Westonbirt School’s Wedding Venues page or call 01666 880 333.

Below are five tips for doing just that…

Think local

The only way to grow is from the ground up. As should your marketing skills! It will do wonders for your business to find networking groups and events that are local to you, rather than large scale functions for greater areas. Having a close-knit network is the best way to start a larger, tighter web of like-minded people in your industry. Plus, local events are often much cheaper and far more relevant.

Sum up and stand out

First, drill down exactly what your business does and how it does it better. Then, reduce that into one or two sentences that flow nicely. When you introduce yourself and the obligatory question is asked, “What do you do?” you’ll be prepared. Being able to pinpoint your business’ strengths and offerings easily and confidently will surprise people more than you think. How many times have you received a long-winded presentation in answer to that question? And by the end of it, were you still baffled? Exactly.

Remember your reminders

Not only will the above make you memorable, but handing physical reminders helps too. You guessed it, business cards. But – is there something different you can do (shape, graphic etc.) with yours that will make them stand out even more? How many run-of-the-mill business cards do you get given? How many do you keep? What makes you keep the ones you do? These are all questions you should be asking when you design your own.

Be confident

Sure, this one is a ‘given’, but if you haven’t prepared yourself in your own way, you just won’t be confident or comfortable. So, are you confident that ‘winging-it’ will work for you? Great, go for it. Or, does really preparing for a social networking event help you feel as strong as you can? Whatever helps you to feel most confident about yourself and the business you are representing, do it. But remember – it’s still just about meeting and enjoying conversations with people. Don’t take it too seriously!

Mind your P’s and Q’s

These days, the nice guy never finishes last. People like nice people! The more considerate you are, the better. Work on listening more and speaking less, make sure you are asking more questions than you are answering, and try not to get too carried away talking about yourself and your business. Often, when we’re nervous, we let this happen and can ruin a potentially fruitful relationship. A conversation involves at least two people – keep that in mind.

There are your five simple, yet effective, basics for good communication and great networking. Sometimes we forget that the most important things are to remember who we are, what we do, and why we do it. It also helps if you love doing it – your enthusiasm will shine. So, here’s to a February full of rubbing elbows and tapping glasses!

The thing to remember when using a social networking site to represent your business is that by building relationships with prospective customers you have the potential to gain loyal customers for life. Now, when using online tools for this purpose, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Be nice

Yes, sounds silly to be reminding you this – but if you appear to be pompous or a ‘know-it-all’ on the Internet, no one will want to engage with you.

Know your client base

Are your customers using Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? Reading blogs? Newspapers? You get the picture. Find out where your customers are having conversations and go there – don’t waste precious time and effort where it won’t get any response.

Seek out your next conversation

Try sites like socialmention.com and find people who are talking about your industry or related keywords. Then comment, retweet, share links, answer questions – add value to their network and a relationship will naturally be formed.

Realise the importance of relationships over ‘leads’

Building a trusting relationship with potential consumers means creating customers for life, as well as leads to more of the same – their friends and contacts.

Have conversations – don’t sell

Whether you realise it or not, by providing solutions to peoples problems (your product or service) and also offering suggestions as a friendly expert, you are selling without having to sell.

Consumer behaviour has changed. People don’t want to be shouted at, and they don’t have to be. Build great, trusting relationships with your audience, and you’ll have loyal customers for life. In a way, by using the latest networking platforms, you are actually harnessing the oldest advertising trick in the book: word of mouth. Priceless, and free!

So, you probably did some promotional work over the holidays to fatten up your email list… well now is the time to get it together and get it organised. Build a list of contacts willing to receive your email or newsletter, and keep it up to date. And remember, your ‘hunting’ phase doesn’t need to stop when the Christmas season does – websites are a great place to get on-going sign-ups too. Add a click-box to a side frame of your site, and viewers will have the opportunity to sign-up on every page.

Strip it back

When receiving emails, nothing is worse than a page so busy it becomes unreadable. Keep the design of your newsletters interesting – but simple! Break up big blocks of copy with relevant pictures or blocks of colour. Keep copy as short and sweet as possible, make bold positive statements that make your company and its products and services shine. Remember, viewers can go to your website for all the information they want, the email is just a taster of your business, and a teaser of the benefits you provide.

Keep it legal

Direct marketing can be tricky when it comes to the law and there are many guidelines we can forget to follow. For starters, check out the Wikipedia entry on email marketing for an overview of laws in various countries including the UK. Also, industry regulators like the Direct Marketing Association issue codes of practice, which you can follow. If you ever have any questions about legalities and can’t find an answer online, just consult with a solicitor – we always advise you do this before taking any action that you aren’t sure of.

Shout to action

Every good marketing email ends with a great call to action. A “Find out more”, “Buy now” or “Visit our website” is a must-have. Sending a fantastic newsletter is great, but if you don’t push your readers to take action, more often than not, they won’t.

Track results

How else will you know how well (or not) your email marketing has performed? Always remember to track actions and conversions. A great way to track how many click-through’s you’re getting to your website from emails is to use Google Analytics. With this handy tool you can also find out how individual emails or individual links within them are doing. For our ‘how-to’ on Google Analytics, see our previous blog post on the subject here and see what works best for your customers!

You could consider these ‘reminders’, rather than ‘tips’ as we know you’re probably aware of the basics to email marketing, but having a ‘basics checklist’ isn’t such a bad idea. The most successful email marketing campaigns out there will have been checked and checked again for things just like this. It can’t hurt!

LinkedIn really is the online networking platform for businesses and the people that build them. Here are a few nudges in the right direction when using LinkedIn for your company:

Testimonials

It’s one of our most common tactics, but it works! Customer testimonials. LinkedIn is a great place to request a written recommendation from a happy customer, which you can upload and display on your company profile, for your entire LinkedIn network to see.

Q’s and A’s

A great tool for giving and receiving, LinkedIn allows all members to post questions for anyone to answer or respond to. When using a site that other leaders in your industry are also using, this is a great feature to take advantage of to find both solutions to common problems and a place to position yourself as an expert.

Better your SEO

Link, link, link! Link your company portfolio, and all other social networking profiles, with your company website. The more links you have – and the more credible they are – the better your SEO will be!

Seek new talent

Recruitment can often be a tricky business. But good people generally know good people, and with LinkedIn you can view your extended network – your ‘friends of friends’, and see who’s available. You can view their online portfolios or CVs, and read any recommendations they may have.

There you have just a few ways to boost your business and its profile with LinkedIn. For some more ideas, straight from LinkedIn them selves, watch some of these kitsch films they’ve posted to give you more information on how to use LinkedIn to your business’ advantage: http://smb.linkedincreatives.com.

Don’t forget to check back next month, as we’ll have some spring-cleaning tips to freshen up your business approaches!

On his advice they chose 2 key phrases to promote their website for family protection dogs. This has resulted in a steady influx of enquiries, conversions and a healthy return on investment. They kindly also stated that they’d “highly recommend Townpages to anyone in a similar situation, who has a website that is missing the right type of exposure”.

More about Protection Dogs UK

Protection Dogs UK is run by Shaun Tutton and Robert Dye. They are expert dog trainers, specialising in owner protection.

Rob and Shaun at Protection Dogs UK have fined tuned their skills, working with some of the best trainers in the country.

Rob and Shaun work closely with their clients to ensure they are completely comfortable with their new dog and its abilities and are available at all times should they need any further help or advice.

Their dogs are carefully selected from the best available breeders and vet checked before being passed on to their new owners.

Please visit Protection Dogs UK for more information.

Google have been working to improve their reconsideration process for websites. Up until recently, webmasters (website administrators) could submit their website to Google for reconsideration if their website was not showing in the organic search results. They would be sent a notification when the reconsideration was received and also when it was processed, but communications stopped there. This left webmasters wondering why their site was not included and gave them no indication of how to solve the problem.

Google are now sending detailed reconsideration request responses that allows webmasters to see if they are in violation of their website guidelines. This feedback can be priceless in terms of finding out any underlying problems with your website’s structure.

If you want to request a reconsideration, follow these easy steps:

1) Sign in or Sign up to Webmaster Tools with your Google Account.
2) Make sure you have added and verified the site you want reconsidered.
3) Request reconsideration of your site.

Because with it, you can:

Join Groups

LinkedIn takes all of sorts of people and all kinds of businesses from all different industries, and places them in one room. Using the Group directory, you can search and connect with precisely whom you want, get connected with groups and associations, and even expand into new markets. If you see an area that you’d like to reach out to, LinkedIn provides the perfect platform to do so. Join industry groups, or even start your own network, it’s that easy.

Link emails

Another great feature on LinkedIn is the ability to link with your email service. This means that all the addresses you have in your customer database can be found instantly on LinkedIn. You’ll be connecting with consumers on a much more user friendly and exciting level than the norm of email marketing.

Extend an invitation

LinkedIn is a handy little platform for seeking out and connecting with the leaders in your industry. To make an initial connection with them, why not invite them to be a guest blogger on your website, or speak at an event you’ll be hosting? They’ll be flattered, and you’ll get the recognition – as well as a very valuable new contact.

Build relationships

Probably the most important of all, LinkedIn is such a powerful tool for your business simply because business really is all about relationships. With LinkedIn you can find, connect and build relationships with key experts in your industry, new customers, potential business partners, or even just related groups and associations.
Test out your relationship building skills on LinkedIn this year, and use it to increase your brand visibility, customer database, consumer following and bottom line!

Take time

First thing’s first, if you haven’t already planned everything out down to the very last detail, do so – but don’t rush it. Hold all calls, switch on the out-of-the-office email and prepare to be a while. Good planning can’t be done on your lunch break.

Identify your core customers

These are the ones you want to be targeting, for the biggest returns. Spotting your core customer shouldn’t be very difficult; who are the ones that are spending the most money with your company? How often are they making purchases? What are they purchasing?

Know who’s paying the bills

The bulk of your profits will probably be coming from one or two key areas. It’s good to know what these areas are if you, like most SME’s, have a limited marketing budget. Maximum returns come from putting your money where it will get the best response.

Focus

Giving out too much information all at once can often lead to confusion. Try to focus on one or two products or services that are your company’s key offerings. Then you can clearly and effectively tell your market exactly who you are, what you do and how you do it better than anyone else.

Understand the competition

Take in what ‘the other guys’ are doing. See which marketing approaches work and which don’t. Then, after reviewing how your competitors are marketing themselves and what they claim to do, you can position yourself differently – and stand out.

Keep it real

Now you know what you want to say, whom you want to say it to and how you want to say it – but be realistic. With this knowledge on board you’re ready to take action with your PR and marketing plan, but don’t set yourself unrealistic goals; make sure your plan is achievable within your budget and time scale.

Be consistent

Try and space out your marketing efforts; ‘little and often’ should be this year’s mantra. One huge shouting campaign followed by a year of silence isn’t going to wear out your receipt paper, but small and consistent messages every week or month will get picked up on the radar of potential customers. Your messages will be better understood if they are consistent and regular.

These tips may seem like given steps for most marketing campaigns, but you’d be surprised how important they are; knowing exactly who your target market is, precisely what you want to say to them, how you want to say it, and how often, are all integral parts of any strategy aimed at delivering profitable returns. Use them all, and this year you’ll be ringing in 2012 to the sound of customer footfall.

Here are our top 5 tips to make this New Year a prosperous one for your SME:

Take stock, make a plan

Now is the best time to have a look at how your company has fared over the past 12 months. Highlight areas of success, and areas that need improvement. This will make planning for 2012 easier, and much more effective.

Get your people involved

Sometimes it isn’t just your customers you should be listening to. Get together with your staff and discuss the state of business. Involve them in this year’s new plan; they may have some valuable insights that you’ve overlooked or not considered. Plus, chatting with your staff is the best way to know what’s happening inside your business, and what opportunities lay ahead.

Early spring cleaning

You might think it’s premature, but this kind of spring cleaning can be done any time of year; clean up the physical (shop/office) and the web based (inboxes!). In order to foresee a fresh new year, things shouldn’t be chaotic or messy; you need breathing room to be productive!

Make your job easier

This is a very important step, which is often overlooked. For many small business owners, the work is never done. That’s because they do everything! A great quality to have is the ability to delegate. If you are feeling exhausted, like most SME owners are, simplifying your job can really help. Assess what’s important for you to be doing, and what isn’t. You’ll more than likely have a workforce of at least one person who can pick up some of the jobs that you’re doing and don’t have to. Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Get away

This is the other most important step. It sounds easier said than done, but it’s often not. Take a trip, or at least a small break away from work. Most business owners fail to take this step and end up burned out. Often, a mini breather can make a world of difference. You’ll come back to the office feeling fresh and full of ideas!

Never underestimate the importance of setting goals throughout the year, or taking a step back to view your business as a whole. When you do, everything starts to work a whole lot better. Happy New Year and happy planning, from our bizz to yours!