I came across an article recently that got me thinking. It was such a simple idea and yet made huge amounts of sense. It was all about enclosing some sort of direct mail with an offer in the same envelope as your invoice – a sort of mutli efficient, targeted, direct mail marketing campaign.

With postage costs on the rise and advertising budgets on the decline, why not use existing channels to ‘cross sell’ and/or ‘up sell’ to your clients?

An extra offer

Here’s an idea for people in my line of work – marketing. When invoicing a client for their new website, why not include a flyer in the envelope offering SEO, SEM and/or social media? The automotive industry are a very good example at using this sort of tactic where they tempt existing clients into doing more via things like redeemable vouchers for a service etc. Who knows, you migth be able to build up a very loyal client base who actually look forward to your next offer!

Additional tips on using this idea are to please consider using a large statement insert. Packing your mailing full of smaller inserts may seem more logical but research indicates larger inserts have higher response rates. Three panel lauout is most popular, followed by two panel. Order forms must be easy to fill out as well if you use them. Be careful to watch the weight of your mailing too.

Bath Marketing Consultancy works very hard to add value to the marketing process and utilising exisitng initiatives like this seems like a very obvious, but probably very underused route. Although I cannot take full credit for this idea and it is probably not original, it may well just remind you to use it!

Be careful of the Black Hat

A malicious SEO poisoning attack, also known as a Blackhat SEO attack, occurs when hackers manipulate search engine results to make their links appear higher than legitimate results. As a user searches for related terms, the infected links appear near the top of the search results, generating a greater number of clicks to malicious Web sites.

SEO poisoning can be used to drive traffic to an intentionally created malicious site, or it can take advantage of existing and popular Web properties by using cross site scripting (XSS) on a legitimate site. One common SEO poisoning method used today is to take already existing Web pages where a file has been uploaded to redirect the user to a malicious site. As the site is known and has often been around for years, it appears legitimate when it comes up at the top of the search results. The cybercriminals exploit the input and display vulnerability on these sites. This malicious site could be anything from advertising cut price Viagra or offering to ‘scan’ your computer for malware for example.

By targeting the top Google searches, hackers are able to drive traffic to sites using highly popular search terms. The average number of malicious sites in any Google search using hot/trending topics (as ranked by Google), by the end of last year (2009), stood at 13.7% for the top 100 results. This means that for every 100 results – around 14 of the links suggested to you may be to a malicious site and not what you were searching for at all.

SEO poisoning attacks are successful because they move in quickly and move on just as fast. As soon as a malicious campaign is recognized and removed from search results, the attackers can automatically redirect their botnets to a new, timely search term.

In my time I have come across 2 examples of Black Hat SEO and in both occasions, the website owner was days away for being black-listed by Google. As both website owners ran their respective businesses online, this could have meant a complete loss of business for 6 months.

Be VERY careful when finding cheap SEO companies out there offering ridiculous promises such as ‘top of Google’ for £100pcm. They may well perform miracles initially, but can cause your site could irreparable damage. If you need advice, please get in touch with me via my website.

“Content is King” is something that is said with great frequency in the marketing world so I have put together a quick check list of things to keep in mind when you are writing for social media…

1. Who is likely to be most interested in my content?
2. Who do I want to communicate with and why?
3. What kind of audience does this social community have?
4. What are people currently saying about my website or business?
5. Which type of person is likely to purchase my product or service?
6. What tools or online services do my target audience use?
7. Which websites does my target audience frequent on the net?
8. What do my target audience have in common with each other?

Yes or no?!

There has been huge ongoing debates about social media and whether it is a marketing initiative that business simply have to implement in order to succeed or something to scare mungering businesses into doing  and I would like to outline, what I believe are some of the key benefits.

By being active on social networking sites, a company is able to increase its awareness and hence its brand recognition. Familiarity with a brand or company helps breed sales.

You can improve your businesses reputation via your profile and contributing to relevant sites like online forums.

Social media DOES improve your businesses position within search engines. An example to check this is to create a ‘Google Alert’ for your company name and see how many times you are mentioned/picked up over a monthly period as a result of your social media activity.

Social media also means that you can attract the right sort of traffic to your website via the topics you post on sites like Twitter. Post links to your Tweets so that people can see what you are talking about; maybe even make a direct offer to your followers or ask them to re tweet.

All these bi products of social media activity can open more doors to your business and hence improve sales.

Surely this is what we are all working for in the first place?!?! Do you have any comments on this?

Networking has been used as a marketing tool for generations of business owners and I find it is a good profile builder for my business. However, if you are a business providing a unique service and hence, have little or no competition, networking can be a huge part of new client acquisition for you.

This form of traditional networking has evolved as the Internet has grown and developed into an online version of online networking. This form of online networking is called social networking and I feel that is has become one of the most effective online marketing tools available.

Social networking refers to online sites where people gather together to learn, share ideas and socialize. When considering the opportunities for word of mouth advertising, social networking online is the best opportunity for referrals when leveraged effectively.

‘But where do I start?’

If you are new to social networking or you want to become an expert at it, the first thing to do is to research your market; have a look at what is being said by others on networking sites. Most social networking sites have good search facilities so you will be able to get a feeling for what works. Then I would try and put together some sort of strategy which will allow you to possibly measure what you do. This can be followers on Twitter, traffic numbers to your website, increasing meetings in your diary etc. All of these are areas that I have experienced and I have also been asked to write for other sites thus expanding the platform I use to market my company.

There are arguments for using the services of someone who really understands social networking by outsourcing it to someone. Alternatively, try and ensure there is someone in house who can spend dedicated time to manage the social networking activities of your business. Maybe even find a halfway house where in house and external marketing people work together. I do this for a number of clients like http://westcountrysolicitors.blogspot.com/ and http://employmentlawsolicitor.blogspot.com/

The fact is that social media is a proven and effective business tool. Use it wisely and you’ll have a new voice for your customers to engage with, and you’ll make more sales in the long run.

If you would like to talk to me about social networking in more detail, please email me paul@bathmarketingconsultancy.co.uk

Bath Marketing Consultancy is proud to post this Blog written by a friend, colleague and professional copywriter, Gail Gibson of True Expressions.

Do the words on your website, flyers or brochures truly represent and reflect a clear message about your business? Or do they disappear into obscurity and allow your professional business to just become “one of many”?

Whether you are a one man band, small business or large corporation good, compelling and relevant copy is vital to your organisation. Content is king. Why? To stand out from the crowd, be noticed and successfully drive more customers toward your business. Many business owners “know” everything about their own business and feel they are the best placed person to write the words to promote their own business. Agreed that you know about your business, BUT do you have the right skills, time and inclination to put together great copy to attract and inspire your potential customers to actually do business with you?

Take your website. What does it say about your business? Does it inspire people to pick up the telephone and call you or to email you for more information? Does it instantly tell them – What’s In It for Them? After all, your website is a shop window for your business. It should reflect who you are and what you are about in a professional and targeted manner.

Are you easily found in web searches? Is your copy SEO rich (not saturated) for local area content? What is the length of viewing time of your visitor – do they read your content and take action to contact you? There is no guarantee that relevant and compelling copy will guarantee successful results however without it your business could miss out on opportunities.

Together with SEO your web and marketing copy should create interest and be thought provoking, to encourage your visitors to want to learn more. Your words should convey information, personality and attitude, giving personality to your business.

Your options? Write it yourself or employ the services of a professional copywriter. You have sound knowledge of the detail of your business and what you are trying to achieve with your marketing strategy however a good copywriter can add something extra.

A professional copywriter will spend time with you, to get to know and understand both you and your business. The copywriter sees your business from an outside viewpoint and this should be reflected in the copy they provide for you. Getting your copy professionally written gives you back the time to develop and grow your business; to talk to your customers and network with other professionals. Utilise a copywriter’s expertise to prove to others why content is king and really make your business stand out from the crowd.

For more information and to see how Gail Gibson, Published Author, Writer, Coach and Trainer can help your business, contact Gail via her website.

Bath Marketing Consultancy came across this news snippet on Brand Republic and thought it very apt as I am an E.ON customer, am conscious of green issues……………and would like to pay them less……!!


Basically, as part of their ‘Go Green’ campaign, E.ON is offering free energy saving products to News of the World readers this Sunday.

Readers will receive three energy saving gadgets (worth £30) including plugs that automatically switch off electrical equipment and a shower save device, which regulates temperature and the flow of water to help cut utility bills.

The energy provider says the products can save over 26,000 tonnes of carbon from being released into the atmosphere a year, the equivalent of over 480 million kettles being boiled and savings to consumers are projected to be £9m.

Supported with TV, press and digital advertising launching today, News of the World readers will be able to pick up the products free, with a coupon, from over 500 Sainsbury’s stores.

BMC – I think this is a fantastic promotion and it is refreshing to see a brand in a competitive market being proactive and not just looking at a brand ambassador to boost customers. By actively offering free products that save money as well as help the environment, I really think E.ON will boost its brand in relation to competitors such as British Gas. As far as I can recall, this is one of the first campaigns where an energy supplier is not just marketing themselves by competing on price or after sales services. It will also be interesting to see what happens to sales & distribution of News of the World as well as visits to Sainsburys. A very clever campaign.

What do you think? Email me paul@bathmarketingconsultancy.co.uk or leave me a comment.

I dont know about anyone else, but Bath Marketing Consultancy is getting increasingly frustrated by the recent hacking of it’s Twitter account. It happened 3 times last week despite the password changes I made.

Fortunately, I received numerous direct messages from Followers as to how to deal with this problem and people have been very helpful. However, I also lost over 40 Followers as a result of the DM’s I was apparently sending out.

If you have fallen victim to the phishing problem, see this website.