FIFTH EDITION | PRODUCED BY FILL THE GAP MARKETING
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FIFTH EDITION | PRODUCED BY FILL THE GAP MARKETING
A note from the editor Welcome to the fifth issue of Marketing Matters Magazine, a monthly online magazine that is full of practical marketing advice from specialists across the UK. Happy New Year everyone! Feels strange to say that after nearly a month into the year, but what a start of the year it has been. We started 2017 off with a bang with two new employees joining the Fill the Gap team, and we are very busy writing and delivering marketing plans for a variety of businesses across the UK. How was the start of your year? Are you on track to make it your best year yet? In this edition of Marketing Matters Magazine, we have some great advice to help you jumpstart your marketing, including a great article from Susan Marot from Succeed at Selling on why cold calling is not dead, and how you can make it work for you. Stay tuned for the next edition of Marketing Matters Magazine, which will be released on the 28th February 2017. We hope you find it just as useful. Wishing you every success,
Rachael Smith Managing Editor
The Editorial Team
Editor-In-Chief
Managing Editor
Joanne Wilson 01522 581 911
Rachael Smith 01522 581 911
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FIFTH EDITION | PRODUCED BY FILL THE GAP MARKETING
How to cold call prospects without being pushy . . . Susan Marot, Succeed at Selling If you don't cold call your prospects, your competition will! Do you know what? I used to really hate cold calling. I hated it with a passion. It is repetitive and you often feel like you are wading through mud. However... COLD CALLING WORKS!
Cold calling is a simple process If you want to stand out from the competition and close bigger business, then you need to cold call. It is quicker and easier than emailing. However, the big secret is when you do it well, it can be a lot of fun too.
7. Call that person back when they tell you.
Follow this ten-step process to get in front of the decision maker, without being pushy or too salesy!
9. If they don’t describe the pain you can solve, then get off the phone quickly and politely
1. Decide on your objective for the cold calls.
I have won a lot of business where the relationship started with me picking up the phone and calling them. I have shared how to do this with my clients and guess what...they are making it work for them too!
2. Make a list of prospects to call and research each one.
One of the reasons cold calling is getting my clients the right results, is due to the techno friendly world we now live in. Too many people use email and social media to sell. What they should be doing is getting a lot closer to their potential clients. Cold calling gets you closer and it does it quicker too.
5. Only say your name and the business you represent then ask for help.
One of my clients contacted me after only 10 weeks of working with me to say that she had just won a contract for her company worth over ÂŁ350k. The deal started from a cold call. She had heard a whisper in the industry that the company might be in the market for her product, so she picked up the phone and cold called the decision maker and the rest is history. Her big fat commission cheque is on its way and she has probably booked a luxury holiday in the sun. I know I would!
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3. Prepare what you want to say and practice it first. 4. Pick up the phone and call.
6. Ask who would be the person you need to speak to about XYZ and when it would be possible to speak to them.
8. If you get to speak to the decision maker, then ask questions to identify if they have the particular pain your solution can solve.
10. If they do describe the pain you can solve then ask when would be good to discuss how you can take that pain away. If after trying this approach you are still struggling to make those calls matter, then call me. Trust me I can help! Susan Marot's book 'The 9 Day Sales Challenge" is available to buy on Amazon
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Our Experts
Digital Media Edge
Fill the Gap Marketing
Fill the Gap Marketing
Richard Mawer 01522 837259
Rachael Smith 01522 581911
Sarah Wisher 01522 581911
Fill the Gap Marketing
Succeed at Selling
Tall Lime
Jo Wilson 01522 581911
Susan Marot 07831 973522
Ben Atkinson 01522 300729
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FIFTH EDITION | PRODUCED BY FILL THE GAP MARKETING
How do you determine the best location for a business event? Rachael Smith, Fill the Gap Marketing When it comes to running a successful event, you need a lot of time, a lot of energy and more importantly, a lot of patience. However, the rewards of hosting a well-received event outweighs the effort you put into running it, especially as business events can be a great marketing tool, allowing you to meet with prospects and demonstrate your company’s expertise. Whether you’re hosting an all-day exhibition, or a small seminar, one of the most important aspects you need to think about is where it is going to be held. Sure, a lovely country manor in the middle of nowhere will look amazing, but will it be easily accessible for your guests, and does it represent what your business stands for? Here are my top tips for determining the best location for your next business event: 1. What type of venue do you require? Your venue needs will vary depending on the type of event you’re hosting. If you’re planning a training session for 20 people, do you really need to hire out a huge room that caters for at least 100 people? Not only will this cost you more, it will also make attendees think a lot of people didn’t turn up. There are a variety of venues available out there, from hotels to football stadiums, but it all comes down to choosing the venue that caters the best to your needs, and the needs of your attendees.
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2. Where should the venue be? When it comes to planning your next event, location is so crucial, as the venue not only needs to be right for the event, but it also needs to be easy to get to for both your attendees and your staff. If the event starts at 9am and the venue is accessed via a busy road, are your attendees likely to get stuck in traffic? Would weather make it difficult for your venue to get to? Are there any planned roadworks or disruptions that could prevent noshows? Are you near public transport? These are all things you need to consider. 3. What facilities do you require? High quality Wi-Fi. Meeting rooms. Audio & visual equipment. Food and Drink. On-site parking. Overnight accommodation. Do you require all these facilities to make your event run smoothly, and if so, does your venue provide them? 4. Does the venue represent you? Imagine if the venue you hired out had a bad reputation or doesn’t fit in with the culture of your business…what would that say about your organisation? It is important to look at variety of venues and ask business associates
and friends their opinions about venues before making a definite decision. 5. Does the venue fit your budget? As much as we would love to host an event in a lovely hotel by the beach in the Caribbean, you need to be realistic with your budget. If you’re charging people to attend, what do you need to charge to make sure you at least break even? If it is a free event, you need to budget effectively to ensure you achieve a good return on your investment. Need some assistance with your next event? At Fill the Gap Marketing, we have successfully organised a variety events across the UK. We can help you find the right venue, work closely with suppliers, manage the event on the day and ensure the event is effectively promoted to your target market. We can offer you the complete event package. For more information about our event management services in the East Midlands, please call 01522 581911.
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FIFTH EDITION | PRODUCED BY FILL THE GAP MARKETING
How to target 'Generation Z' with mobile apps . . . Ben Atkinson, Creative Director, Tall Lime Limited We all know the digital world is changing at a rapid rate and businesses both small and large have a duty to keep up with latest advances in digital technology or else risk being left behind. When the first iPhone was introduced in 2007 and for a number of years after, the smartphone was considered the ‘hip’ new thing and a piece of technology which at that point was unproven. Fast forward ten years to early 2017 and the mobile phone is now ubiquitous in our daily lives and our culture. There isn’t an area of society that hasn’t been impacted by the rise of mobile devices, from the iPhone and iPad, through to Google and Samsung’s android devices, sales of mobile devices are set to exceed 25 million in the UK by 2018. Such a massive figure presents both a problem and an opportunity for business, how can companies best prepare themselves to target an ever more mobile market and one that is increasingly governed by the next generation of consumers.
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In the past two to three years mobile apps (smartphone applications) have become the way to attract young users. Known as Generation Z, rarely has the world experienced so much change, socially, technologically and economically as during the lifetimes of today’s teens and tweens. According to a Mintel Report, these consumers already have a purchasing power in excess of $44billion. This trend will grow as Generation Z increases their selfawareness, placing greater emphasis on their role in the world and their responsibilities to help improve it. For businesses that wish to target Generation Z the time is nigh, with this generation already entering the workplace and taking on a consumer power of their own. This reality challenges all sectors to change their way of relating to young audiences. Viable change must allow those audiences to better interact with business brands in the way in which they feel most comfortable i.e. using smartphone technology.
The opportunities offered by a mobile app are manifold. Imagine having your brand in the client/customer’s pocket 24/7, with unlimited, immediate access to your chosen market. An app might be information based; providing details of your location or services, or ecommerce based; providing a point of sale for Generation Z and beyond (they could order a delivery from you, book a taxi or make an immediate purchase right from their mobile device). There is no doubt that a mobile app which targets the two leading platforms, iOS and Android, would fit seamlessly alongside your current offering and integrate with your marketing plan. Further information about Tall Lime's app development services can be found at www.tall-lime.co.uk or please call 01522 300729 for more information.
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FIFTH EDITION | PRODUCED BY FILL THE GAP MARKETING
7 tips to help you generate leads using email marketing Joanne Wilson, Fill the Gap Marketing People are dismissing email marketing. Calling it old fashioned. Saying that no one does it anymore. Don’t make this mistake. Email marketing is vitally important for your marketing content strategy and can help you engage with your customers. If you are in doubt of it working, think how many emails you receive off big companies each week e.g. eBay. The amount of marketers who use email marketing has been rising each year and SMEs who use email marketing say it has an significant impact on their sales. Here are 7 helpful hints and tips on creating an engaging email marketing campaign: 1. Your List If your list of contacts are not accurate, then your email campaign won’t work. Make sure you have the correct details by carrying out an
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audit of your contacts and make it easy for people to sign up to your list with links on your website. 2. Your subject line
5. Include contact info Make sure you put a telephone number and your website where people can easily see it.
When people receive your email, the first thing they see is the subject line. This needs to draw attention and it is a good idea to include a benefit/discount in your subject line to increase the amount of people who open it.
6. Make it mobile friendly
3. Know your audience
7. Keep it short
Email platforms such as Constant Contact and Mailchimp allow you to track your views and see which people have looked at what content. This means you can tailor your future emails with content that people enjoy.
People don’t want to constantly scroll through your email. Keep it brief and if it includes news articles that are on your website, link to that. This will increase traffic to your website and help generate leads.
4. Include a call to action
If you would like to know how email marketing can grow your business, please call 01522 581911 to arrange your complimentary marketing consultation.
It is important that you have a call to action within your email so people will get in contact with you. The whole point of the email is to create leads so don’t just put at the bottom, put it throughout the email.
Half of emails are now opened on phones so your content needs to be easy to read with your contact details easy to see.
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Introduction to Inbound marketing - part five . . . Richard Mawer, Digital Media Edge Step #4 – Measuring The Metrics That Matter In Inbound Marketing Once you’ve done the hard work of setting up your inbound marketing and promoting it across the web, you need to find out if it’s been a success. To do this you need to measure your metrics and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to check the effectiveness of your callto-actions on landing pages, your written content and social media efforts. A good place to start will be to get an overall look at what is going on with your website using analytics. By using sites such as google analytics, you can see where you are going wrong and what metric needs to be improved. Measuring your conversion rates allows you to see just how many potential customers are taking action on your website. Look at metrics such as the number of views on a landing page, whether people are downloading your whitepapers and if the traffic you are receiving are tuning into leads. Metrics such as these will show you what is and isn’t working. For example: If the number of page views on your landing page is low, you need to promote the offer more often to drive traffic to your landing page. You can do this using social media and paid advertisements to spread the word. If the conversion rate of a landing page you created is low, it could
mean that you need to create a more gripping offer that viewers will want to use. You may even need to optimise your landing page to stop people from holding back. There are two metrics to measure your calls-to-actions (CTAs) to improve their effectiveness. The first is to check the view-to-click rate of your CTA and if it is low it consequently means that you need to make your offer more compelling. This will in turn entice people to click through. Secondly, checking the click-to-submission rate of your CTA allows you to focus on optimising your landing page if the rate is low. When it comes to social media, you can’t just look at your reach and assume that the people who follow or like your page are engaging with the content you are putting out. By measuring your metrics you will be able to see which posts had the most engagement, how many likes or shares you had and how many of those became leads. Another way to measure if your inbound marketing efforts are working, is to check the performance of your emails, as this kind of metric overlaps with that of lead nurturing. When you send out an email you want to be able to check just how many recipients are engaging with your content. By checking the click-through rate, you can see if the offer you have included is appealing enough that they are clicking through to your landing page. It is much more reliable to measure the click-through rate than the open rate.
It is extremely important to have a strategy before tactics mindset to achieve success that is stable and scalable. If you are putting in the time, energy and resources into strategizing your inbound marketing efforts, the metrics will confirm your success over time. And like they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Next Month – Developing Your Inbound Sales Systems – Turning Those Leads Into Customers & Revenue For Your Business It is now time to build yourself a sales process to take full advantage of the relationships and leads your Inbound Marketing efforts and remarkable content are producing. A sales process built around nurturing those leads and converting them into customers. But don’t forget your existing customers, we will also share some retention secrets to help you encourage greater customer loyalty and increased spend from those customers. Make sure you don’t miss this final piece of the puzzle – it is the secret sauce that will turn good profits into great profits.
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Should print be part of your content marketing strategy? Sarah Wisher, Fill the Gap Marketing Digital marketing is booming and plays a key role in helping businesses to grow profitable. However, we must not forget traditional techniques such as print advertising that can still capture an audience, help increase brand awareness and contribute to sales. In fact, UK companies are still spending over £1bn a year on print based advertising. When it comes to digital, there will always be new and exciting trends that will pop up and disappear. That’s the great thing about digital, there will always be new inventions. However, just because it’s new and stimulating, doesn’t mean it’s always the best marketing method to use to attract the right people. Here are 3 reasons why you need to consider using print based marketing as part
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of your marketing strategy: 1. It is easier to share complex information Research has shown that people prefer to read from paper, rather than a screen. This means they are more likely to take in the information you are telling them if it’s on paper. Therefore, if you have to share complex information, it is likely to be understood better by your target audience if it is read from paper rather than a screen. 2. Attention grabbing The average person receives around 147 emails per day, and it is getting rarer to receive marketing communications through the post. By using print as a marketing technique, it is less likely to get lost through a mass of emails, meaning it will get the attention it deserves. It
also allows you to be more creative, helping you get to the right person, and warm up your prospects. 3.Print is still exciting Anything and everything can be added onto the internet. Receive something as a printed feature, and it feels more important and personable. Your customer will see a variety of different adverts everyday, grab the opportunity to place something in front of them that they weren’t thinking of. If they are on a digital piece of software, they are more aware of digital marketing being exposed to them, and are likely to ignore it.
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