Author: Paul Tagent

Marketing and the importance of planning and research

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Of all the functional areas of a business, marketing can well be the most pervasive and dynamic activity. In my opinion, marketing should lead all other functions as it is in the information culled and the analysis undertaken by the marketing company (or marketing department) where the decisions and planning can be made. For example, once you know how your website performs in search and/or which pages convert the most sales, you can then make a decision on whether to capitalize on this or improve on it. Similarly, existing clients can be the best source of information so the results of analysis into why they bought from you, when and how could again be expanded on and/or improved.

However, every department of a business is dependent on the organisation having clear, unambiguous and quantifiable objectives in order for it to succeed and, with more and more emphasis being placed on achieving a return on any investment made, it is the allocation of and administering of the marketing mix that will influence the long term planning.

The marketing mix consists of 4 key variables – 

  1. Product
  2. Price
  3. Promotion
  4. Place

Sometimes packaging is added to the list, but this can also be included into the “promotional” part of the mix. One key aspect to consider is that the mix elements are interdependent – alter one and another will also change.

So, what will be the “the marketing policy” of your organisation? My suggestion would be to try and look at the marketing mix in relation to –

  1. Determining the kind of product to sell
  2. Defining the customers at whom the marketing effort should be directed
  3. Defining the action and procedures to be implemented to get the products/services to the customer
If you or your business needs marketing help, then please let me know.

What makes up a brand?

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Bath Marketing Consultancy has been asked a number of questions recently about the word “brand.” These questions usually relate to whether a logo is a brand or whether a brand is more than that and if so, what?

Therefore, below is my take on what makes up a brand and, if you invest time, money and resources into your brand, you are very likely to reap the rewards. Branding, Brand, MarketingA brand will be made up of a collection of different perceptions that will have been built up after exposure to every aspect of your business. This can be a myriad of different things:

  1. Product design and experience
  2. Packaging
  3. Sales experience – your sales people or distributors
  4. Service experience – during the sale and after
  5. Advertising messages and straplines
  6. The way you look and sound – imagery, colour, fonts, personality and tone
  7. Your website, blogs or mentions on social networking sites
  8. The price, and how you discount
  9. Your reputation
  10. The shop, office or factory experience
  11. Uniform, badges, vans and trucks
  12. Your people
  13. The logo
  14. Your name

Bath Marketing Consultancy is an expert at developing, building and then marketing brands so please let us know if you need any help.

Managing business growth. What do you do?

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I thought that this subject was one that could well strike a chord with a lot of my readers and clients as a high percentage of them have been going for 18 months or so now and are experiencing what I have been experiencing for quite some time now – success and growth.

Growth and business success creates a dilemma. Do I staff up to cope with the increasing workload, do I restructure, do I put prices up, do I cull less profitable clients or do I continue to juggle things in house?

Bath Marketing Consultancy has been going for 26 months now and we have worked with over 60 different organisations in that time. Some of these clients have become regular clients and some were one off projects. However, the growth I mentioned has indeed presented me with the dilemmas above as, after all, there are only a certain amount of hours in a day, days in a week etc to manage the requirements.
Dilemma time.

In addition, it is not just managing the actual workload. I am finding that administrative requirements have rocketed; areas like banking, invoicing, reports and simple paper work and filing are taking considerably longer. In addition my travel has increased as have my hours.

But…..I am complaining? No.

These are incredibly tough times for businesses which put even more pressure on having a successful marketing strategy. I don’t know about you, but I feel the success of Bath Marketing Consultancy is down to us being passionate about marketing, having a clear USP (pay as you go marketing), being good at what we do and, above all, being approachable, professional and friendly.

Yes, I have staffed up. Yes, I have roped in my wife to help with the admin side of things and yes, I am considering a price hike. Ride the wave while it is here I say, but ensure that you have time for yourself. All work no play can become very dull!

If you want me to take a look at your business and how you market yourself, get in touch with Bath Marketing Consultancy for a free initial chat. 

Need marketing expertise, why not invest in yourself….and your business?

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I have always found that winning new business is something that is actually quite complicated as  marketing-expertiseit can come as a result of so many different marketing activities and initiatives and these initiatives are actually quite hard to locate as to which one worked. However, one thing to consider is that it is highly unlikely that you as a business owner, can keep on top of every one of these many initiatives yourself to keep the new business tap flowing.
Similarly, if you are a business that employs people, the people you employ are also unlikely to be experts in every field of marketing so I feel you have 2 options:

1) Invest in training yourself so that you can do certain initiatives in house
2) Outsource to a specialist

For example, if you want to take control of your companies’ social media then, in this Blog I have written some 25 odd articles that are all social media related so you may well be able to fulfill certain requirements simply by reading my articles. However, if you read my articles (or books from the library) and they do not give you the answers you seek then you have the option of signing up for a social media course or outsourcing to an expert.

If outsourcing is a route you might go down, be very careful before buying in services that will come into direct contact with prospects.

Whatever you decide to do, try and see any costs incurred or time allocated as an investment rather than a direct cost to your business and this investment should pay off over time.

Direct mail or do you mean direct marketing?!

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Direct Marketing

Let’s just clear up one thing to start with…do not get confused between direct mail and direct marketing! Direct Marketing is NOT direct mail! Direct marketing is a marketing method and direct mail is just one of the media available. It traditionally formed a large part of direct marketing, but it has now been overtaken by press and TV advertising who display a response device like a dedicated Facebook webpage.

I feel direct marketing is a key element to business growth and the main objective of the activity a business undertakes should be entice the prospect to emerge from your “warm prospect” list and respond so that you can start a conversation which will lead to a meeting which will lead to a problem-solving conversation, a first job and eventually a business relationship.

But….do not forget existing clients. If you have got something new to say, or something new to offer,  then they should be the people who hear from you first. After all, existing clients should be the fertile ground for your marketing and should be the group that are most likely to respond to a cross sell or an additional product or service!

Remember when you are trying to generate a response that there is not “ideal” per cent response rate – just the profit per reply calculation. However, if your direct marketing does elicit a  response, you must react promptly to the requests that come in.

But…..before you can even think about response and profit, prospect or existing client, you must face the biggest challenge of direct marketing – your own database/mailing list. 

If you are considering direct marketing and need some help, get in touch with Bath Marketing Consultancy.

To pitch or not to pitch

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When I left the advertising “agency” world back in 2009 after long stints in Fleet Street, The Channel Islands and Bristol, one thing I promised myself was NO MORE PITCHING. By that I mean that I decided that I was never going to do any more glamour parades where I was one of 4 or 5 companies being seen and sometimes there was more than 1 round.
Why? Because of the strain on resources each pitch took and in all honesty, I sometimes found the process a bit of a lottery as, on some pitches I have done, it didn’t seem to matter how good the creative I presented was or the marketing strategy I had put together, somebody in Procurement just turned to page x on the document as, that was the costings page, and they then based their decision on this.
Do the pitch!
Two years on and no major pitches done, I have now broken my promise. Yesterday I pitched a large prospect in the leisure/holiday sector as one of 3 companies in line for their account. Was it a drain on resources? Yes. Did it mean I was stressed? Most definitely. But…..did I enjoy it? Well…. masochistically, yes. It was actually great to be in a high pressure situation again, pitting myself and my business against larger, more established organisations and knowing that I had to be at my best.
Although I don’t know the result yet, I think I put together a really good team and the result may well give Bath Marketing Consultancy real feedback as to where my company is in relation to my sector and exactly how far it has come since it opened in 2009. Would I do a pitch again? Probably, although a lot depends on the client, their location, their fit with my marketing company and the possible return on investment.
So, when it comes to doing pitches, my suggestion has now changed to “never say never.” Sometimes the adage of speculate to accumulate is very true and putting yourself and your business in the firing line vs larger competitors can act as a real evaluational tool.
If you want some tips on what to do before a pitch, see my previous post here.