Top five SEO tips for your online marketing plan

Your marketing plan should have a section relating to online marketing – if it hasn’t yet, start with a list of key online marketing channels as a starting point. 

Main areas should include:

• Your website
• Email marketing
• Online advertising (Google Adwords, advertising on others’ websites)
• Social media (including blogs, YouTube and other popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Pinterest)
• Online PR

And last but definitely not least, search engine optimisation (SEO).

Your website is top of my list for a good reason; all of the other marketing activity you do online leads visitors and search engines back to your website.  Making sure that your website is both visitor and search engine friendly should be a marketing priority.

But you already know this!  So what would I recommend today as the top five SEO tips for your website?
 
1. Define your best keywords.  Whilst SEO constantly evolves, some of the basics remain the same and this is one of them.  You should know which words your customers/potential customers are likely to use to find your products or services.  Start with these then use the Google keyword tool  to see what the volume of search is and view suggested synonyms.  Well worth doing and will help to formulate your content plan.
2. Content, content and more content.  Not just creating website pages once but updating copy regularly, blogging, providing added value information and content on your website.  Give other websites a reason to link to you.
3. If you’re a location-based business, make sure you’ve got a listing on Google Places (now also appearing in Google+ but at the moment you have to continue to manage a Google Places account separately.) www.google.co.uk/places/.  Doing this means you can appear at the top of search results for local search terms:



4. Social media.  Even if you’re B2B social media has a place, think about your target audience and where they might engage with your business.  LinkedIn is a must for most of us, but Facebook brand pages, YouTube and Pinterest can work really well.  Google is beginning to look at social media activity and remember those valuable links back to your website.
5. Measure and test.  Use Google Analytics to see which keywords bring traffic to your site, where your traffic comes from (referrals and sources) and seriously consider Google content experiments, used to be Google website optimiser (now in Google Analytics.)  This means testing different pages and seeing what the results are.

If I had to pick one of these as the absolute essential for today, it would be content, that’s the one to give some serious thought to you in your marketing plan.


Karen McNulty

How to write a social media plan

Yes, there's a plan for everything! If you create a marketing plan it's likely that you'll include a section on Internet marketing anyway, but social media as an area of internet marketing is big enough to warrant its own strategy.

We're defining "social media" here as online social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, social bookmarking websites such as Delicious and Technorati, YouTube and other video sharing networks, picture sharing sites such as Flickr, also blogs and podcasts.

One of the reasons for writing a social media plan is that it's so easy to start using these media, because they're quick to set up and before you know it you've lost momentum or direction. Social media is like any other marketing, a set of marketing tools to help you achieve your objectives but there's a lot of choice so a strategy is advisable. This becomes critical when more than one of your team is using social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn to promote your brand.

A social media plan will also enable you to establish how you will measure the effectiveness of your social marketing activity. Measuring social networking is quite possible but using different sets of criteria to traditional marketing, such as "engagement".

Here are our tips on how to put together a social media plan (our version, so please feel free to add your thoughts and experiences by commenting):

1. Where you are now, a brief analysis of what you're already doing (if anything) with social media, and successes/failures using stats if you have them. This not only helps to set the scene for anyone using the plan but makes it clearer in your mind where to start from.
2. Social media objectives. This is valuable and helps to define why you're using social media as a marketing tool. Typical objectives can include: Engaging with your customers, reaching potential customers (raising awareness), positioning your business as expert in an area, enabling customers to talk to each other, a platform for enabling or encouraging reviews, building brand awareness and credibility.
3. The approach. How will you adopt social media, what will the tone of voice be, core messages and policies?
4. Positioning. Define how your online social marketing activity will sit compared to competitors. The key here is to differentiate yourself if you can. For example, the business arm of Dell chose to set up a social media forum on Facebook for small businesses to help each other rather than use it as a direct selling platform. And the Compare the Market "Meerkat" social media campaign engaged a phenomenal number of followers. Sometimes a bit of lateral thinking will provide a much richer method of engaging with your customers.
5. Specify the social media that you will use. By this point you'll have a fair idea of what's available that will fit with your objectives, approach and positioning. Here is where you can define the list of media such as a blog, Facebook page, YouTube channel and so on. Under each medium, outline how you will use it such as the theme, topics, direction.
6. Listening. I make a point of including this because engaging with social media properly means you have to listen as well as post. How will you monitor what others are saying about your brand in the social networks? Also listen to find out what's trending as this could provide good foundations for your next blog, and think about commenting on other blogs and social networks - engagement should always be a two-way process.
7. Dealing with comments and feedback. Outline a procedure for doing this, especially important if there are several people in the business involved with social media. Drafting a policy is useful if this is the case so that you can be consistent and avoid PR disasters. Above all, do plan to respond to comments and questions on your own social pages as they should never be left unanswered as that sends out the wrong customer service message.
   
8. Timing and regularity. Now that you know which media you will adopt, it's time to decide how often and who. Using Twitter for example should be at least daily, preferably several times a day whereas blogging might be once a week.
   
9. Measurement and evaluation. Include the methods you will use to track the success of your social media activity. There are a variety of ways to do this such as engagement - how many followers/fans/comments; traffic statistics using Google Analytics on the blog so you can see where traffic is coming from (referrals); tracking mentions using feedback from Google Alerts can also provide a picture of the reach of your activity.
   
10. To Do List. I find this useful at the end of any marketing plan. After you have decided on the strategy, what are the priorities, who is doing them and when by? You can add costs here too if appropriate.

You can find more tips on putting together internet marketing plans on one of our previous blogs, "10 reasons to put together an Internet marketing plan".

Happy planning!

Karen McNulty
MarketingPlanWiz and BusinessPlanWiz

Ten Marketing Tips for Attending Exhibitions and Events

Despite the explosion of online marketing tools now available to us, there are times when face-to-face is simply the best way to reach your target audience. In the UK, there are around 1000 national business exhibitions up and down the country each year and many more local and regional events that are on your door-step. You can find them on websites like exhibitions.co.uk - a real eye opener as there is an event for everything!

Marketing at an event is often outside of our usual marketing plan, probably because it tends to be a once a year or less type of occurrence, especially if you're a small business. For that reason it benefits from its own mini marketing plan, and these Event and Exhibition marketing tips might help.

1. Plan well ahead if you're exhibiting especially if you need a display stand. Event organisers will provide dimensions for your exhibition space to help. It's very hard to exhibit without a professional display unless you want to stand out for the wrong reasons, so it's worth spending the money on something you can use again.
2. What can you giveaway? Anything that's free, including gadgets, samples and even value added content like reports and white papers (good if you're a service-based B2B) - in exchange for email addresses, business cards and any contact details. Then you've got a database of interested parties for your next e-newsletter or communication.
   
3. Take plenty of your own business cards. One of the best things about business events is the opportunity to network with other businesses in your sector, even potential suppliers and of course any potential customers.
   
4. Organise in advance for producing special offers or specific information for the event. This could be a flyer, coupon or discount for a limited period around the event date.
   
5. Create a plan of action for the event. If there's more than one of you, who does what on the stand e.g. one to greet, the other to talk through product information. Always make sure there's little or no barrier to people coming into your stand. If it's unavoidable, one of you can stand in front of the table or barrier to engage with passers-by.
6. Before the event use your website and social networks to let customers know you're going to be there. Tell them where you'll be and consider offering an incentive for them to visit your stand. And think about taking a video camera for when you're there so you can post it onto your networks when you get back.
   
7. Find out beforehand if your event has already been allocated a Twitter Hashtag. This is a word or label on Twitter with a # in front of it so that Twitter users can follow a common thread. Find out more about Hashtags at Twitter. If there is, tweet while you're there so your Twitter followers can learn more and follow other delegates to get first hand reviews and thoughts as they happen.
   
8. If your space allows, target specific existing customers for some corporate hospitality before the exhibition to visit your stand for a glass of champagne/cup of coffee/whatever is appropriate and use the time as an opportunity to catch up with them.
9. Event "goody bags" and programmes - if the organisers provide visitors with a pack or goody bag, can you provide something to go in it (voucher/or incentive to visit your stand) or is there an opportunity to sponsor a part of the event so your name is on the programme? This is often less expensive than you might think but great for exposure.
10. Stand location. The earlier you can choose your space the better as it can make or break a successful event. It's often a higher cost to have a more prominent stand (near the entrance for example, or by the refreshments so you're the first stand visitors see when they come in) but worth considering if the footfall is likely to be worthwhile.
    

When you get back, don't forget to follow up leads and do some quick analysis on the return on your investment. Measurement this time will help you to make the right decision next time an exhibition opportunity comes up and help to plan ahead for future marketing activity.

Karen McNulty
www.MarketingPlanWiz.co.uk and www.BusinessPlanWiz.com

Tips for Putting Together a Successful Marketing Campaign

It's not so different from putting together a marketing plan, but if you have a product launch, event or any big promotion and you've never prepared a marketing campaign before, it can seem a bit daunting. The principles are the same whether you're a small or large business and if you follow these guidelines you won't go far wrong.

The phrase "marketing campaign" implies big budgets but that's not necessarily the case. Before you start, decide what you can afford and what you're trying to achieve. Internet marketing opens up many more cost effective marketing channels so with a bit of planning you can control costs very easily, whilst still reaching a large audience. It helps to break campaign planning down into chunks, and this is how I recommend doing it:

1. Set objectives
Just as you would with any marketing plan, set your marketing objectives first. Campaigns usually require their own plans because you need to achieve a specific set of outcomes for identified products, services or events. An example would be a product launch. Customers may already recognise your brand but you need to bring this new product to the market. In this instance, objectives might include sales targets, PR coverage and some sort of call to action results such as coupons returned, telephone calls received or "sign-ups" for more information for example. Add a deadline so you know when the results need to be achieved by.

2. Define your marketing budget
It will help to decide which communication channels to use, from TV advertising or developing a viral marketing campaign through to email marketing and literature. Put a ceiling on what you can spend now to keep your campaign planning realistic.

3. Target audience
For this campaign, who are you targeting? Can you pin down a profile of the customer in terms of age, gender, social behaviour and/or location? Once you commit to this your marketing mix will become more obvious again. If you're not sure at this stage, some market research may be required.

4. The marketing mix
Which tools will you use to reach your target audience? Think as broadly as possible to start with, and have a look at this list for guidance:

• Outdoor media such as banners, posters, billboards and signs
  
• TV and radio
• Direct mail (printed) and distribution
• Flyers, leaflets, coupons
• Branded giveaways
• Exhibitions, shows and trade fairs
• Websites - yours and other peoples'. What needs to be updated, or may a new website for the campaign.
  
• PR - public relations activity such as press releases, sponsorship, talks, tours, announcements
• Blogs, podcasts and social media channels
• Advertising in print (newspapers, magazines) or online advertising (pay per click, banner advertising, affiliate advertising)
• Online viral campaigns (viral videos for YouTube, develop a game, an App or email campaign)
• Mobile marketing (Apps, games, mobile optimised websites)
  
• Stationery - does any need to to be updated to include the campaign, adding a tagline for example or flash message?
• Email signatures - adding a call to action or website link
• Campaign literature and online tools for distributors if you have them
  
• Email marketing
• Telemarketing
  
• Search engine optimisation for keyphrases associated with the campaign in all web based promotion
• Events and launches

That's by no means exhaustive but I find it really helps when you've got some ideas to look at. You'll probably know quickly in most cases which of these channels you would pick for your campaign and then you're on to the next stage:

5. Calls to action and creative
The heart of your campaign and hopefully what will make it a memorable one. Whether you're outsourcing to a creative agency or doing this yourself, settling on the core message to engage target audience that you've picked is critical. After all that hard work deciding what you're going to do, the content has to be right. The good news is that if you've pinned down the objectives and defined the target audience this becomes much easier. What would they respond to?

And finally...

6. Timetable and action plan.
You can create the best marketing campaign ever, but without some actions and deadlines you won't get the best results. Commit the campaign to a simple spreadsheet or table with headings for "what" needs doing "who" is going to do it (responsible individual or team) "budget" and "deadline". It's amazingly effective!

For some creative inspiration, there are some excellent case studies on the UTalkMarketing website illustrating successful marketing campaigns.


Karen McNulty
www.MarketingPlanWiz.co.uk and www.BusinessPlanWiz.com

Branding tips for your business on and off-line

Much of our marketing is online now and we're getting the hang of managing our brand across the Internet, or at least I'm sure we'd like to think so. The challenge is managing your brand on and offline, consistently.

Back to basics for a minute, what is a brand? It's not just a logo as we might commonly think but an identity such as a logo is certainly what links our brand to the outside world. What's more interesting is what happens when people see your logo as all of the associations they make with it really define your brand. These are things such as emotional response - what do you feel when you see the logo of a well known brand, such as Coca Cola for example? Chances are, when you think of and see this "brand" a succession of thoughts occur, based on what you believe their products and services to be, how you feel about them, quality and what you think they promise you as a customer. This is most likely based on past experience, and the general perception you have of the Coca Cola business ethos and service.

So the logo is the link or reminder to all of those things which makes it important, but perhaps not as important as the way you interact and associate with your customers and the outside world.

Assuming you have some sort of visual identity such as a logo and a corporate style, they still represent your brand and there are some golden rules on and offline for making sure that these are consistent.

Off-line. In many ways this is easier because you tend to have a lot of control:

• Make sure all stationery has your logo displayed in the correct way, using the right colours and fonts. Depending on how many of you there are, you may need written guidelines to keep this correct.
• Every touch-point with your organisation should be consistent, particularly your customer service
• Do you know where your brand is displayed? It pays to check that others are not using your identity as an endorsement or affiliation where you have not agreed such an arrangement. And where you do have an agreement, a responsible team member should check it's used properly.
• If you have social media pages such as on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, make sure their addresses (the urls) appear on your contact details, for example on your business card email signature.
  

Online, this can be more of a challenge as brand "mentions" are faster and potentially global. Using social media for business, such as Facebook and Twitter is great and means we can reach our target audience in more ways than before.

If you're not already, search these media to find out if anybody is talking about you or your business. You can usually search within the network, like Twitter Search or else set up a Google Alert. These are all free but well worth doing to make sure you're the first to know.

Communication is also now more often 2 way (also good) but there are a few golden rules:

• Your website is quite straightforward as you should have control over the copy and design, which will match your other offline marketing material
• Make sure you get there first! Create your own business pages so you have an official channel to respond to conversations about you as well as promote what you're doing. this is far easier to control and highlights that you're up-to-date and open as an organisation - all traits of marketing effectively on the Internet
  
• Social media, particularly if there is more than one person in your business benefits from a strategy and agreed style. As you expand or if you leave social networking to other members of the team, a social media policy may be appropriate. In fact, Mashable produced a great blog on just this topic last year, highlighting how Kodak, Intel and IBM manage their social media.
• What you do online will hang around far longer than anything offline. For this reason, it pays to communicate professionally at all times and remember that your working life is more likely to cross over with your personal social networking, as everything is searchable online. Well, not quite everything as we know there are privacy polices and security measures (particularly on social networking sites) - but how often is that in the news?!

Finally, we've put together some of our own golden rules for social media which you might also find useful.

Karen McNulty
MarketingPlanWiz and BusinessPlanWiz

Ten Reasons to Put Together an Internet Marketing Plan

If you're one of the enlightened and know that a marketing plan is a good idea, it will come as no surprise that an Internet Marketing Plan is also worth doing, or at least a section on Internet Marketing in your overall plan. Taking this a step further, you can include a social media strategy as part of this.

Back to basics first. The main components of an Internet Marketing Plan are:

• How you will use your website as a marketing tool
• Distributing news and press releases online
• Social networking (blogs, social networks such as Facebook, MySpace), YouTube, forums and wikis (such as Wikipedia).
• Online advertising (pay per click, banners)
• Email marketing
• Viral marketing
• Search engine optimisation

Even if you can't address all of these in one go, they should be on your radar for relevance. But knowing that these exist isn't enough - here are my top ten reasons to draft an Internet Marketing Plan:

1. The UK market for email marketing platforms and services was worth £254million in 2008 and was predicted to grow by an estimate 15% to £292 million by the end of 2009, a trend which is continuing - they do this because it works.
   
2. It's very low cost compared to traditional marketing in almost every case
3. All content that you put out onto the internet will still be there next year and the year after and that means it will continued to be found by search engines. Not like a printed advert, here today and gone tomorrow.
4. All Internet marketing is measurable and the stats don't lie. Use Google Analytics to see how much traffic came from your Facebook page or Twitter.
5. Our customers buying behaviour has changed - they use the internet now to research, learn, review and make buying decisions.
6. Google received 299 million search requests globally in just May 2009. In 2009 $58.1 billion was spent on online advertising across the world - that accounts for 13.2% of advertising spend worldwide. If you're going to use paid advertising doing it online is budget controlled, can be stopped at any moment - and very targeted.
7. Your website is your shop window. Even if your customers don't buy from it they will check you out here first. If you do nothing else, this must be up-to-date otherwise your competitors may get the business - can you afford to take that risk?
8. It's not just young people who use the Internet. Facebook's fastest growing demographic is people over 30.
9. The more places you publish information and interact online, the more links there will be back to your website - part of your search engine optimisation!
   
10. Your customers are there already: Of the 36.9 million UK Internet users in May 2009, 29.4 million visited at least one social networking website.

We know a good marketing plan tool if you're looking for a starting point...


Karen McNulty
www.MarketingPlanWiz.co.uk

Measurable Marketing is Easier Than You think

"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, the trouble is I don't know which half"

So said Jon Wanamaker, US department store merchant in the late 1800s. But you'll have heard many others quote this since, because advertising has been notoriously difficult to track, vexing even the best marketers for years. The reason for this is that data has been unreliable - even if you ask somebody where they heard about you, you're relying on them:

(a) Remembering
(b) Remembering it correctly

I recently put some thought to how much of our marketing can be measured now, so that you know what works and what doesn't. Having put together a good marketing plan, you need to know what got you the best results, ready for your next plan. If you do this with all of your marketing you should get better targeted marketing year on year and hopefully a better return on investment.

I came up with ten tips for measurable marketing activity in 2009:

1. Pay per click advertising, either on search engines such as Google, or social networking websites - as you have access to instant statistics for every advert that you run, including number of "clicks" and even "conversions" to sales or other activities that your visitor undertook.
2. Run a promotion or advertisement with a different telephone number then you know that all calls that come in on that number are related to that advertising campaign.
3. Start a blog...you can track the number of visitors to your website from the blog
4. Send a direct mail-shot and track it with a unique reference number or promotional code.
5. Tweet (Twitter) or join another public social network such as setting up a Facebook business page or LinkedIn public page. You can track referrals to your website and "mentions" of your business name or product.
6. Email marketing - find out how many people opened your email and what they did next.
7. Telemarketing - track every phone call, gather market intelligence and feedback
8. YouTube - are you an expert? Post a video on YouTube and track page views
9. Free online giveaway - collect email addresses to receive your free download/gift and count them!
10. Editorial - getting some press coverage either on or offline can be tracked with cuttings (offline) and equated to the equivalent advertising cost, or tracked online with Google Alerts.

I could go on... You can find some more good tips from Goris.com and some interesting info from Business Link about online marketing including the fact that it is so measurable. Meanwhile I'm pleased that as a marketer I can finally produce evidence and be more accountable for my clients. That's how it should be.

Karen McNulty
www.MarketingPlanWiz.co.uk

MarketingPlanWiz Available Now at the CIM

We're absolutely delighted that the CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing) is now offering MarketingPlanWiz in their Marketing Shop. You can see us here.

I took us a while to get it placed with them but now we think that their visitors have an excellent choice and a clear offer for small businesses who need an easy-to-use plan for day to day reference. We were talking about targeted marketing in our Marketing Tips this month and this is another case in point.

There's often enough room in your marketplace for more than one of you if you have a clear customer profile. In the case of MarketingPlanWiz it was developed with small businesses in mind and that is still the case. If we tried to sell this as a corporate marketing management product it wouldn't be right.

On the subject of niche marketing, it's interesting to read other views on customer behaviour during a recession. This article from the marketing magazine website on marketing myths in a recession explains how trying to predict what our customers will do is not always what you might expect...

Karen McNulty
www.MarketingPlanWiz.co.uk

Discount for the New Year!

We couldn't start 2009 without our own January sale so we're offering a 10% discount on our marketing plans at MarketingPlanWiz, until the end of February. To use it, when you register or sign in, opt to buy your plan and enter the code in the discount box presented when you enter your payment details.

Here's the Code: MPLAN09

We think that's extreme value for money but as we're (sadly) passionate about planning, what else could we do?!

Happy Marketing Planning!

Karen McNulty
www.marketingplanwiz.co.uk

A Really Quick Marketing Plan

I'm fortunate to know and work with other people in marketing but it always takes me by surprise when I'm reminded of something simple that I had either forgotten or perhaps not thought of before.

A case in point, when a marketing associate of mine, who these days is also a well known marketing speaker (www.geofframm.com) came to my area recently to present at a local business network. I always enjoy listening to Geoff and every time I see him I'm reminded of one of those gems. This time he had a great tip for marketing planning.

Marketing Plans are what we do best of course, so I'm always interested! But this tip is a such an easy way to get started...

Buy yourself a wall planner, a pack of felt tip pens and some gold stars. On the planner, choose different coloured pens for different areas of your marketing. Red for PR, green for events etc. and put the relevant marketing activity against specific dates. Use the gold stars every time you win some business and add them to the date that you won it. An excellent way to motivate the team and an easy way to follow a plan.

Karen McNulty
www.marketingplanwiz.co.uk

Poor Marketing Amex!

I know that times are hard and we've got to be ever more creative to stay in business and more to the point, continue to make money. But, there's the right way to increase your marketing and the wrong way.

I don't usually point fingers but this one really got to me: American Express.

I've got an Amex card which I diligently pay off each month and so for me, it works very well. I can earn cash back at the end of each year for the money I spend, so I think I've got a good deal. Then a couple of weeks ago I got a survey from American Express, asking what I was interested in, what I used the card for etc. Now, being a marketer I thought well, why not, I know how valuable customer feedback is. So I filled it in and posted it back.

Then I got a promotion through the post from them, offering me the chance to be awarded two lots of £15.00 John Lewis vouchers over two months.... provided I spent a certain amount of money on the card, both of those months. This would have "delighted" me if it had been what I normally spent, or lower, but no. They wanted me to spend around £3-£400 MORE than I would normally spend in any month. If I didn't, I wasn't entitled to to the vouchers.

How to get it so wrong!! I had told them that I liked to shop in John Lewis so that was relevant. But considering the uncertain economy at the moment, did they really think I'd willingly "up" my credit card spending to win a measly £30 of vouchers? No way. So now I'm annoyed with them and what a lost oportunity for them to win me over and stay loyal!!

Hrrmph.

Anyobody know of a good cashback credit card that will take me seriously? Have you got a worse story? Let us know if you have and we'll tell everyone!

Karen McNulty
www.MarketingPlanWiz.co.uk

Good Copywriting

I felt compelled to talk about this today as I saw a really interesting talk by a copywriting expert last night (Richard Groom from the Peterborough Copywriting Bureau). I think I'm fortunate in that as a Marketer, I like meeting other people in Marketing and always think I'll learn something new - we never know everything do we?

So listening to some excellent tips on getting your copy right, whether it's for brochures, websites, press articles or even your blog (no comments please) did refresh my view on the subject and remind me of the basics, which are....

• Keep it simple - don't use 42 words in one sentence and keep it in plain English!
• Think about your target audience before you even think about writing - this has a bearing on the whole style of your copy, logical really but easily forgotten
• Write from your customer's view point. What is is that they need, what are their issues that you might solve with your product or service? Addressing these first means that your reader will engage with what you're saying immediately.
  

I could go on, and frequently do, but I think that's a nice number of things to remember and pretty much covers it. So, keeping it simple I'm off to write some stuff for my own website now with a nice clear head.

Happy Marketing!

Karen McNulty
www.MarketingPlanWiz.co.uk

The Silver Lining

Following on from my comments about thinking laterally last week, I've had one of those weeks where it doesn't matter how good you think your planning is - it just doesn't work out. That's really annoying but we've discovered that those are the best moments because there's often another opportunity that you were meant to go for instead. There's always a reason and that's the law according to Karen and Fay. Well otherwise it would be depressing.

So from a business point of view how do you deal with a complete change of direction? If you've put together your business or marketing plan for the year you're hopefully using it - this is the moment to re-visit it and think backwards. Sometimes we get so single minded about following a particular track we forget what we were aiming for and that there's usually more than one way to get there. Fay and I do this regularly with food if possible (I'd like to add "and a glass of wine" at this point but unfortunately it tends to be coffee) or over Skype (not usually with food). We remind each other what it is we're trying to achieve and once we've got past holidays/new car/MORE SHOPPING (sorry Fay but it is really important), we invariably come up with a new idea for promoting our products. It's easy to add this back into our plan with a quick tweak and it's good to look again in any case as we always think of something else.

Anyway, this week we had to change our plan and now we feel better, hence the silver lining.

Karen McNulty
MarketingPlanWiz

Creative Marketing?

Speaking to some friends recently I was advised that blogging with a glass of wine might not be a bad idea. I'm not sure if this means my blogging is really bad when I'm sober or whether it might just need to be more relaxed generally. I'm sure I've said before that blogging doesn't come naturally to most marketers - we're far too used to writing perfect copy, proof-reading it and getting everything "signed off". Doing it in this easy way just feels dangerous!

Simon, our website developer, finds my blogging frustration particularly amusing - "don't worry" he says, "you'll find your mojo". I'm still not sure what a mojo is or where I'll find it, but clearly he wants me to chill out too.

So I started thinking (in a very long winded way, sorry) that taking a different approach is also good for our marketing. I've just written an article for our monthly newsletter on money saving tips for marketing and the message is the same - start being a bit more creative and you'll be amazed at what you can do. We particularly like the simple ones such as changing the shape of your sales literature or sticking your website address on a big poster in the back window of your car - very simple but quite effective.

So my next blog will be with wine (I promise Simon) and the next time Fay and I meet to discuss our business - we're doing it in the pub!

You can get a copy of our newsletter (Wiz e-articles) by signing up on our home page.

Cheers...

Karen McNulty

Ignore Social Networking at your Peril!

It's no good. I've discovered that no matter how much it goes against the grain, social networking is here to stay, and what's more it's good for business. Having spent the past year resisting these networks, reluctant to tell all about anything out there on the world wide web (well it's so public!) I've none the less felt obliged to learn more about them as a marketer. Well I can't miss any opportunities and besides it's fascinating to see how marketing online is changing.

So armed with lists of sites to look at, I've been trawling through them and learned that some are seriously scary until you master privacy settings and they're definitely aimed at different audiences. Facebook for example is increasingly used by businesses to raise awareness whilst Bebo is considered a "younger" network. I'm a fan of Linked In too, which is very much a business network.

Then there's social bookmarking, where you you can bookmark a website for other people to see. These also often allow "comments" like blogs do and the whole shared bookmarking thing is essentially about voting for your favourite websites. Then if enough users vote for a particular site it will appear in a "hot" list of the social bookmarking sites for its category.

All very clever and you can see how word starts to spread and of course more links are made to the original website that was bookmarked. There is, I discovered, a handy "add" tool which you can code into your website pages if you want to make it easy for people to bookmark your content. Have a look at www.addthis.com which provides an all-in-one button, very useful. Now we're looking at our online Marketing Plan Builder to add more of these options - internet marketing has become a much bigger part of the marketing mix and social networking justifiably counts as an important part of online marketing strategy.

Happy socialising!

Karen McNulty
www.MarketingPlanWiz.co.uk

Planning a website

I know I've got to produce a marketing plan if I want my marketing to work and that I'll be asked for a business plan by the Bank Manager when I need a loan.   We threw together a list of bullet points and general guidelines when we started the marketingplanwiz website but they were brief (we didn't think so at the time I have to say) because we'd written all the rest of our plans in the "business plan" that we'd laboured over and were justly proud of.

I was reminded today that producing a proper plan for a website is important.  Not just what we ask the web designer to put together (as we tend to think of our websites as a just another promotional tool) but the real purpose of building the site in the first place.  Of course we know it should look the same as our other marketing materials and show our products and services, "contact us" and the rest. Then we end up spending a lot of time building the site with ideas for navigation, functionality and "look and feel" (feeling very pleased with ourselves for remembering all of this), completely forgetting in the process that we haven't worked out the objectives of the site (is it for information or do you want people to buy?), how it will display our branding values? Who is the target audience?

I always think I know these things of course (I'm a marketer so I'm supposed to let's face it) so off I go and ask somebody to make a website somehow imagining that they'll be on my wavelength and just do it right.   Obviously they don't so it's back to square one - planning.  

Karen McNulty

MarketingPlanWiz