As a Huntingdon independent retailer

• Are you looking to increase your sales and grow your business?
• Would you benefit from some practical training, support and advice focused around your business activities?
• Do you want to improve the effectiveness of your marketing activities both offline and online i.e. achieve more at a lower cost?
• What if you could test some of your Sales messages and Promotional materials before you committed to £ spend?

The Huntingdon Retailer Marketing Action programme is designed to help you develop the most effective marketing actions for your business.

  
What’s included in the Huntingdon Retailer Marketing Action

Huntingdon Retailer Marketing Action is a unique 3 stage programme of practical training, facilitated discussion, 1:1 action marketing and review designed specifically to help independent retailers improve their business performance. It is delivered by professionals in Marketing, Business Development and Internet Marketing

•  Explore which marketing approach will generate your business the most sales
• Review your existing Sales & promotion approaches to identify where you are wasting money
• Identify if online activities could generate additional business
• Identify opportunities for joint relationships with other retailers

 Proposed Timetable 

 * If you employ between 5 and 249 people (to include all staff / helpers / volunteers) you could be eligible for Leadership & Management funding to pay for the cost of training excluding VAT. All you will pay for the programme is the VAT a total cost of £87.50

 ONLY 16 places available

The intensive nature of the support provided means that a maximum of 16 will be allowed on the programme. Register your interest by calling Judith on 01733 361729 or e mail judith@bdolphin.co.uk

The following practical marketeers will be providing the support

Bob Hogg FCIM Partner at Marketing Ability	Lyndon Wright BSc Director at 2buy1click	Andrew Goode MCIM  MBA Director at Blue Dolphin

For more information visit www.bdolphin.co.uk/huntingdon-retailers or call 01733 361729 

Internet marketing tips for small business websites

1. Keeping Google happy

• Make sure your content is fresh - when was the last time you added some new content?
• Ensure you have incoming links
• Stickability – what will make a customer stay on your site

2. Do one thing but benefit twice

• Articles – provide fresh content and the opportunity for links
• Videos – provide the oppotrtunity for links and importantly conversion

3. Make sure you submit articles

• A good article should be informative (not self promotion) and approximately 500 words long
• It should hopefully have a long life
• Great article topics include
  • things you must know / avoid
  • reasons for choosing
  • Biggest mistakes

4. E zine aerticles

• Ezinearticles.com – set yourself up as an author
• Write an article and submit  to ezinearticles.com
• Modify say a bullet point – put on your website and "Fresh content"

5. Video – we now watch more video on the web than we watch TV

• video is a great medium so why not create a video of a happy customer
• A video of a before and after experience
• Your product in action
• Remember – if a picture paints a 1,000 words, a video is about 10,000
• Windows movie maker is great for editing, You Tube is great for hosting

For more information on internet marketing visit http://www.bdolphin.co.uk/making-the-web-work-for-you/

A current marketing project for a client has been to build them a website. Part of the project has been to develop content both to get found on the web and importantly to get interested parties to pick up the phone.
In developing the copy for the website it became clear that the selection of holiday accommodation is a very emotive decision. This brought home to me how when you tell a story from a personal experience it creates a powerful message. For example

• "When i first drove up the driveway to the cottages, I was amazed by the remoteness of there location"
• "I couldnt wait to sit down and relax by the log fires"
• "We were all excited about using the outdoor hot tub"
• "Its the best cottage we have ever stopped in"

True stories that reflect the needs of your customer will engage with them. If you are looking to engage with your customers through words, then stories could be the ideal medium. There is no need to glorify or exaggerate, just illustrating the examples, issues, problems that a customer has and highlighting how your product / service has helped the customer experience is enough.

For more information on creating marketing stories see http://www.bdolphin.co.uk/marketing-training-courses/how-to-write-for-the-web/

Events fundraising is on the increase, according to a number of surveys carried out by the Event Managers' Forum. Apparently 46% of charities claim that the recession has had only a small impact on their events fundraising, while 23% say that it has had no effect at all. Mass participation events are still regarded as the 'Holy Grail' of fundraising, such as the 'Race for Life' and challenge events are becoming more popular.
Third Sector, 20 October 2009, p35

London's The Evening Standard is to become a free newspaper, in the interests of achieving a wider circulation, despite the loss of £12m in revenues. The plan is to distribute the paper in London high streets, supermarkets and railway stations.
The Daily Telegraph, 2 October 2009, p29
The Independent, 5 October 2009, p45

According to research from the Advertising Association, buy-one-get-one-free (BOGOF) promotions don't necessarily encourage consumers to buy things they don't want. More than two-thirds of consumers see these promotions as a way of helping out with their finances and only one in five say it encourages them to buy things unnecessarily. However the Chartered Institute of Marketing has pointed out that it is difficult for a brand which has price promoted heavily to return to its former premium positioning.
Marketing Week, 1 October 2009, p7

Are young people the same in these two cities in terms of their needs and interests for marketing purposes? In fact they are probably more similar than they were ten years ago because of the ubiquity of communications and entertainment. However the use of geo-demographics and socio-demographics only allows for segments and sub-segments – one also needs to understand cultural differences.
Springboard, Autumn 2009, p31

An EU court has ruled that the clothes and jewellery maker, JOOP! cannot register an exclamation mark as a trade mark because it will be seen by consumers as just 'laudatory advertising or an eye-catching gimmick'.  The exclamation mark is not deemed distinctive enough and is unlikely to indicate to consumers the commercial origin of the goods, which is the function of a trade mark. JOOP! had applied to register a trade mark for both a single exclamation mark and a boxed exclamation mark!
Out-law.com, 1 October 2009

Coke Recycles
Coca-Cola has produced its first ad   encouraging consumers to recycle. 'The Keep it Going. Recycle' campaign will support the company's strategy to reduce its carbon footprint. Southampton will be the first city to benefit from the launch of Coke's recycling bins. Coke Recycling Zones have already appeared at Thorpe Park and Manchester Airport. Research by the Carbon Trust has found that packaging accounts for the greatest proportion of a drinks company's carbon footprint.
Marketing Week, 17 September 2009, p5

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) is introducing a social media resource to stimulate debate and understanding amongst its members. The IPA has identified Ten Principles of Social Media and would like agencies and brands to include social media in all marketing activity.
New Media Age, 17 September 2009, p6