Marketing Articles

The best way to distinguish between advertising and marketing is to think of marketing as a pie, inside that pie you have slices of advertising, market research, media planning, public relations, product pricing, distribution, customer support, sales strategy, and community involvement. 

Advertising only equals one piece of the pie in the strategy. All of these elements must not only work independently but they also must work together towards the bigger goal. Marketing is a process that takes time and can involve hours of research for a marketing plan to be effective. Think of marketing as everything that an organization does to facilitate an exchange between company and consumer.

One call or email to Bath Marketing Consultancy could change your business forever!

Sometimes the following 6 tips can make the difference to whether you win the business or not.

• Have a great opening – you have less than 60 seconds to grab your audience so make it all about them
• Show that you understand your customers’ problems
• Show creative flair when you pitch; be interactive & show humour if you can!
• Engage emotions – look for things you have in common
• Ask lots of questions –did you understand me?
• Create urgency – end with a call to action, ‘sign up now!’

If you would like Bath Marketing Consultancy to look at your presenation, please get in touch with us.

…..£800m has been wiped off the value of the UK events industry over the last three years.The value of the UK events market based on direct revenue to venues fell from £8bn over the three year period from 2005 to 2007 to an estimated £7.2bn in the 2006-2008 period, according to the 2009 UK Events Market Trends Survey released today.
Eventia surveyed convention bureaux and venues throughout the UK to produce this year’s report. Among its other findings were that 44% of venues have postponed product investment and refurbishment work originally planned for 2009.

I know I bang on about this topic, but the global online advertising industry has witnessed the rapid emergence of social networking sites and is growing quickly despite the economic slowdown. The growth of this industry is being driven by increasing internet users, rising awareness and growing broadband subscription rate and ecommerce, which is playing a key role in this industry. In coming years online Ad spending is expected to overtake the TV advertising market.
If this is an area of marketing that you havent considered, please get in touch with Bath Marketing Consultancy!

Not following up is one of the biggest marketing sins you can commit. Here are some statistics which should scare the living daylights out of all of us!!!

48% of businesses never follow up with a prospect
25% of businesses make a second contact and stop
12% of businesses only make three contacts and stop
It’s a staggering discovery, but only 10 % of businesses make more than three contacts. It means they’re losing a small fortune – and you could be too.

Because…

2% of sales are made on the first contact
3% of sales are made on the second contact
5% of sales are made on the third contact
10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

So if you’re like almost half of all businesses and make no more than one follow-up to your prospects… you’re leaving 98% of your income on the table for someone else to come along and pick up!!!

Why not get in touch with Bath Marketing Consultancy to see what we suggest?

Any mailings you consider will fall into two categories: The first is mailings to your existing customers. The second is mailings to potential new customers.

If you do not currently do much direct mail – and you have a list of past customers, you should start by mailing these existing customers. Think of something you can offer these customers, send them a letter and measure the response. If it works, mail them again next month and measure the results. If it keeps on working, keep on doing it!

Then there is using Direct Mail to attract new customers. This is an art and science in itself – and you may want to bring in outside help – but again there are some fundamentals which you will want to follow. Here are eight of them to keep you going:

1 Remember to Test any Direct Mail campaigns for new customers on a small scale before rolling them out.

2 Consider testing renting mailing lists relevant to your target group. There are thousands of highly accurate mailing lists which can be a great way of reaching new people.

3 Always include a letter with any brochure you send – it will increase the response rate.

4 Make sure that the contents of your mailing focus on the benefits of your product or service. You want it to be about your potential customer and what you can do for them rather than just being about you.

5 Don’t limit Direct Mail to pure selling. You can use it to say ‘thank you’ to customers. You can use it to ask for referrals or to introduce your customers to a company you’ve partnered with. It’s only limited by your imagination.

6 If you repeat a successful mailing three weeks later you can expect a response rate around 50% of the original

7 Test mailing postcards – they are cheaper than a normal mailing and in some cases will produce a higher response rate

8 If you follow up a mailing with a phone call you can increase the response rate by up to 1000%

Growth in online spending in 2008 represented a considerable outperformance of the increase in total retail and in 2009 it is forecast to grow by 13.3%, despite the overall retail market shrinking by £1.7bn. But with growth slowing, retailers must work harder to stand out.

The AB shopping demographic offers retailers the most potential over the next two years .This group is now responsible for over half of all online spending.
Indeed, with their more robust finances, they achieved by far the biggest growth in 2008 and were the only group to increase spend per head – which now stands at over £1,000 per person.

There is major scope for women to spend more online – don’t we know it gents!
However, it is Men, surprising enough, that are the biggest online spenders, but the gender split of Internet shopper numbers continues to move towards parity.
Retailers must now persuade women to spend more per head online rather than the more traditional shopping activity that they currently undertake; perusing in person.

Maybe comparing online shopping habits of both genders shows men are happier to find what they want online and buy it rather than physically going to a shop. For example, in music and video, men now only narrowly outnumber women, but are still responsible for 70.6% of spend.

Bath Marketing Consultancy suggests that retailers learn how to manage their approach to utilising their websites in terms of the design, usability, delivery operations, online marketing etc in order to maximise Internet sales growth.

…….a question I was asked this morning.