Newsletter October 2013 Welcome to our first printed newsletter.
What’s
It’s been a long time coming!
It’s an exciting time in the marketing industry. New methods of marketing keep us on our toes and create even more opportunities for personalisation, however, traditional marketing methods still do have their place and the challenge is to understand when it’s best to use one, the other or both. Knowing your customer inside out has never been more crucial to the success of your marketing to take advantage of the opportunities that creates. The team has been working on Christmas campaigns for clients since the summer so our heads are well and truly focussed on activities for New Year. Hopefully some of the ideas here will prompt you to think about where you want your business to be in 2014 and get your plans into action. Happy Marketing! Jo Sealy “Knowing your customer inside out has never been more crucial to the success of your marketing.”
HOT
Facebook Advertising If you are already promoting your business online with pay-per-click advertising, you should definitely give Facebook ads a try. Ad types include: Marketplace Ads (standard ads) Marketplace ads are the standard Facebook ads, these ads typically appear on the right hand side of the newsfeed/app/event page. When you create an ad, you can determine your target audience by using demographic factors such as age, sex, geo-location, even down to specific interests and have your ads appear to people who have are interested in topics that match your business. Facebook then estimate the size of your target audience and tells you how many people will be potentially exposed to your advertising. Eventually, the number of Facebook users who actually view your ad depends on your budget. continued on page 3.
Design Directions
How to get the most out of your designer by writing a good design brief
A good design brief is beneficial, and a key part of the design process, saving both parties time and money. Always start your design brief with a synopsis of your company. What are your goals and who is your target market? Good design can have a huge effect on the success of a company’s marketing strategy - but for a successful project, clear goals must be set.
www.to-market.co.uk 020 3284 1978
What is your budget and timescale? A budget will give your designer an excellent idea of the type of solution they will realistically be able to provide. What do you like? Perhaps more importantly, what don’t you like? Provide examples of what you consider to be effective or good design.
For design enquiries contact: tash@to-market.co.uk
Advertising & Marketing for creatives, food and small business
Client Study Brochure Wins Award Adams Catering Hire ADAMS CATERING EQUIPMENT & FURNITURE HIRE
Adams Catering Hire is one of Essex’s premier catering hire companies. MD Stef Lowry has been working in the events industry since 1986 and has steered the business to one that is respected and trusted by London’s top corporate clients venues and caterers. The company has won many industry awards over the years but one had eluded the company – the coveted HA Company of the Year Hire Award. Stef was determined to make their application this year different. So they asked To Market to help create an application that would make them stand out. The result was a document that conveyed a dedicated team that understand their industry inside out, care about the company that they keep and where nothing was too much trouble for their clients. This focus was reinforced by testimonials from their clients and delivered in a relaxed but professional design style. “Hi Jo - I just wanted to give you the fantastic news – we won! The judges said that ours was one of the best entries they had received. It portrayed what Adams stood for and showed the passion we all felt for our job. I said that I felt that I had cheated a bit because although the thoughts were my own you had put them into an understandable document that people would want to read. I’m over the moon – thank you!” www.cateringhire.co.uk Elements: Copywriting, Design, Photography
www.to-market.co.uk 020 3284 1978
COMPLETE CATERING HIRE FOR YOUR EVENT
HAE AWARDS 2013
EHA COMPANY OF THE YEAR (SINGLE OUTLET)
www.cateringhire.co.uk T: 0870 300 6000
5 GOOD REASONS WHY WE DESERVE TO WIN...
www.cateringhire.co.uk T: 0870 300 6000
1. Our Commitment • Adams is committed to providing the highest level of service to all of our clients whether they are organising a small event or a conference for ‘00s. • We understand that our clients appreciate good service and know how we differ from some other suppliers. They stay with us because we get the job done. • Our clients appreciate our positive and cheerful sales staff, helpful delivery drivers and specially designed crates for glassware and plates to ensure items arrive in perfect condition. • Our customers come back to us time and again and many of our original clients from when we started in 2000 are still with us today. • We are committed to being as environmentally sustainable as possible and recycle all of our old pieces of equipment.
THE THING THAT SETS ADAMS APART FROM THE OTHER COMPANIES IS THE FANTASTIC STAFF... I WILL ALWAYS RECOMMEND ADAMS TO ANYONE THAT NEEDS ANY OF THEIR SERVICES
DAISY TERRY, 86 FOOD + EVENTS CATERING
HAE AWARDS 2013
EHA COMPANY OF THE YEAR (SINGLE OUTLET)
www.cateringhire.co.uk T: 0870 300 6000
INTRODUCTION Over the last 13 years of running Adams Catering Hire I’ve learnt an awful lot. When I took over the business it was relatively small and relied on a few corporate clients. My vision was to build a family company with customer service at its heart and to work with our customers - not for them. I’m very happy to say that that’s what I’ve achieved. As soon as I took over I started writing handwritten thank you cards to clients. Other people thought I was mad but I knew that without doing an excellent job and showing how much I appreciated our customers I wouldn’t have a business to run.
It’s rewarding to see that within this time turnover has trebled and the workforce has quadrupled. The team prides itself on getting the job done and making our client’s experience with us as stress free as possible. I hope you agree that our commitment, our approach, our support, our success and our vision make us a deserving winner. The best way to demonstrate these qualities is with real examples of how we solve problems - do take a look at the next couple of pages.
WE VALUE EVERY SINGLE CUSTOMER WE WORK WITH AND OUR JOB IS TO SOLVE WHATEVER NEED OR ISSUE THEY COME TO US WITH...
STEF LOWRY, ADAMS CATERING HIRE
HAE AWARDS 2013
EHA COMPANY OF THE YEAR (SINGLE OUTLET)
“To really get the most out of Facebook ads, you need to have a vibrant community of fans first. ”
What’s
HOT
Facebook Advertising
continued.
Page Post Ads Page Post Ads are a newer form of Facebook advertising, ideal for increasing engagement as well as promoting events and special offers. These ads appear on the newsfeed just like regular status posts, and they can include links, photos, videos, offers, events or even questions. Targeting works the same way as Marketplace ads. Posts that appear in people’s feed are generally more successful than standard marketplace ads. Sponsored Stories Sponsored Stories can help you extend your reach to a target audience by showing people’s interactions with your Page to their friends. The way Facebook works, whenever a person engages with your Business Page, only about 10% of their friends receive an update about it. Sponsored Stories increase the likelihood that a fan’s friends will know about this engagement, by distributing it to a greater percentage of their friends. Promoted Posts Promoted Posts are activated from within the post itself. Similar to Sponsored Stories, Promoted Posts act on the fact that ordinarily, only ~10% of your fans actually receive your posts on their newsfeed. With Promoted posts, you can select a greater percentage of your page fans to show the post to. Unlike the other pay per click options, with this ad method, you pay Facebook a flat rate per given number of fans and friends of fans you want to receive your update. Tips for getting started with Facebook Ads Start small and grow slowly. Facebook ads meet the user in a unique state of mind. He or she are browsing through their newsfeed, getting the latest news from their friends and the pages they follow. On Facebook, an advertiser’s greatest challenge is to use their money wisely, and the budget can run out very quickly. This is why starting small and growing once you get positive results is the best way to go.
October 2013 A solid community is the foundation. To really get the most out of Facebook ads, you need to have a vibrant community of fans first. If you are just getting started with Facebook for your business, begin by creating engaging and interesting activity that can expand your fan base. Remember your goals. When you publish regular non-paid page posts, your aim is to have engaging and hopefully even viral content. This is not the case with posts you actually invest money in. Page post ads need to have messaging that’s straightforward and leaves little room to the imagination. Their goal is to get the relevant audience to buy or share with other people of similar interests. A creative but sophisticated paid post can become viral and be shared by many people, but if it does not make a sale, then it’s a lot of money wrongly spent.
World of Mouth - Social Media Perhaps you’ve dabbled with Linked In and wondered what all the fuss was about? Considered by many to be the “grown up” social network, LinkedIn was launched in May 2003 and now has over 238,000,000 users worldwide – with over 13 million in the UK! LinkedIn is a great platform for putting your own expertise out in the public arena – with status updates, company pages (currently there are over 3 million of them on the site) and joining in with discussions on one of the 2.1 million Groups listed on the site.
TOP TIP Make sure your profile information is up to date and choose your profile pic wisely ….. remember, it’s B2B, not Facebook! For social media enquiries email: cheryl@to-market.co.uk
Advertising & Marketing for creatives, food and small business
In our view... Accounting Online
Featured in Print
Fed up with a less than pro-active accountant? We can sympathise. In a bid to get across all of our figures and bring our invoicing together to see ‘real time’ information, our Office Manager Sunita has been exploring online accounting services. Here’s what she found: Xero.com – described as an online accounting software for small and medium-sized businesses, sold by subscription ranging from £12 - £24 per month. It was easy to set up once populated and provided at a glance information. But without the additional support of things such as end of year accounts preparation, updated tax info, etc. it wasn’t for us. But for accountants using the system with their clients we reckon it’s a good thing. Superaccountant.co.uk- Annette Ferguson who runs the company came highly recommended. The business represents the newest switched on type of accountant – using technology to its best advantage, is marketing and commercially aware, encouraging growth for her clients and present in all the right places. Annette was prompt in her response and the company uses xero.com (see above) with its clients so systems are clear and transparent. Prices are by subscription, and we were quoted £150+ vat per month. Not for us at this time, but we’re still considering them for another company. Crunch.com – Billed as ‘online accounting for small business, freelancers and contractors’, it has an all in price of £64.50 + vat per month. The whole financial year is included in the price, there’s a demo to try and you are assigned your own account manager. It’s easy to raise invoices, record expenses, everything is in real time. When we first approached them we weren’t quite ready to make the move and they kept in touch but without being pushy. We liked their approach and have signed up. The handover has been smooth and we’re looking forward to informed and trouble free accounting ahead.
Wildes Cheese We get to work with some great businesses here at To Market Towers and one part of the service is to tap into journalist contacts to secure editorial for our clients. One recent success was for Wildes Cheese, an artisan maker based in North London. Our contact was writing a feature on cheese makers for Great British Food magazine and looking for makers who had taken the leap from the rat race to do something they love. “We decided to take up the opportunity offered by To Market to feature in a forthcoming editorial piece on cheese makers. To Market liaised with the journalist, organised our interview slot, got images to the publication and generally made sure that the article was a good fit for us as well as for the publication. The resulting double page spread article was brilliant, positioning us amongst the UK’s quality artisan makers and has proved to be a great publicity spinner for us.” www.wildescheese.co.uk Like to be featured in print? Call us on 020 3284 1978 or email julie@to-market.co.uk to find out more.
sunita@to-market.co.uk
www.to-market.co.uk 020 3284 1978
Advertising & Marketing for creatives, food and small business