Often we develop a business presentation format (content, tone, style, format etc) and expect to be able to replicate delivery of this set presentation. The challenge – You cant deal with everybody the same way

So how does this manifest itself in the business presentation situation

• Firstly – individuals listen / follow differently. This is a really simple example "No Problem" could mean there is no problem or could mean "No; Problem" i.e. No we cant do, that it would be a problem. The challenge exists of miss communication where I say one thing and you interpret something completely different
• Listening abilities; apparently we think at 500 words per minute.
• So we start a presentation,
• In presenting ideas the recipient is processing the ideas and information provided and working out what you said.
• During this processing stage they miss some of the key content
• The process of persuasion varies i.e. what gets the Financial Director excited, possibly wont excite the Sales & Marketing Director. The challenge being "Whats in it for me" and if there are different people involved appealing to them all

Sequence of persuassion for business presentation

4. Once the business presentation has finished what do you want the person to do

• How will you respond to questions
• What support information do you have
• How do you establish the next steps.
• How do you establish that the person has fully understood

Marketing Nuggets for Innovative Marketing

The importance of innovative marketing

How strong is your brand

For those of a certain age can you remember Cadburys Milk Tray Man (and all because the lady loves milk tray). The power of having a strong marketing brand probably means that you can recall the adverts even after 30 years. (Just type in ‘Cadburys-Milk-Tray-Cliff-Dive’ to check out in you tube)

Your Brand Challenges

Marketing Training does it provide any golden nuggets

Is Marketing Training a good use of time?

An observation on marketing training

• Over the past couple of years I have noticed a significant increase in the number of FREE 'marketing related' training events that are available.
• A continued de valuing perception within companies in relation to marketing activities
• Non professional / Non expert delivery relating to critical marketing issues
• People using marketing training events as a mechanism to sell specific marketing products – Social Media Services / Graphic Design / Branding / Advertising –  print, radio and web etc
• In summary events purporting to offer marketing training but in fact just providing a platform to sell
• These marketing Training events are possibly not a good use of time

What Constitutes Useful Marketing Training

Having been involved in marketing for over 20 years and been fortunate to watch some truly great marketing professionals deliver some great marketing training. Marketing professionals such as Professor Malcolm Mcdonald, Nigel Piercey, Robert Craven, Bob Hogg, Joe Polish, Richard Groom, Mike Koenigs, Howie Jacobson, Paul Fifiled you leave an event

• With practical nuggets of wisdom that you can apply immediately
• With knowledge born out of sound research or thorough implementation within industry
• With questions in your mind as to how you can apply this 'marketing' wisdom
• Remembering that you don't know , what you don't know
• That business is developing rapidly and you need to be constantly learning and adapting to keep pace

What to look out for from marketing training

If you would like more information on professional marketing training then talk to Bob Hogg at Marketing Ability on 01778 561484 or visit www.marketingability.co.uk

With almost 40% of new businesses failing in the first 12 months, setting up in business can be a gamble.

If you are you a new start up business then the FREE New 2 Business event on Wednesday 14th September could be just perfect to help you further develop your business

To book your FREE place click New2Business Free Event 14th September

New2Business is a unique approach to help you:

• Generate Sales
• Resolve Problems
• Develop New Ideas
• Link up with other new businesses
• Develop your entrepreneurial skills
• Develop your problem solving and decision making

All of which you need if you are to succeed as a young business.

More information on New 2 Business can be found at www.new2business.org

The short 6 minute video below explores

• The nonsense of not concentrating on selling more to existing customer's
• The energy sapping and inefficient activity of going for new customers
• How new products or services get developed without knowing if there is a customer need
• Why sometimes the best thing to do is something completely different
• How you can significantly improve your marketing activities

Cambridgeshire marketing activities can be improved by

1. Clearly segmenting their existing customer list
   • Which existing customers would you benefit from sacking (that's right, are there customers that would actually be beneficial for you to lose or give to your competitors)
   • Which type of customers are the most profitable – not all customers are equal, are there certain customers where you should be providing a higher level of service
   • etc
2. Targeting and profiling which new customers they want to gain
   • If you know the reasons why existing people use you it makes it easier to work out who to target
   • How to target them
   • When to market to them
   • etc
3. Identifying from existing customers what additional products or services they have a need to purchase
   • Especially if they tell you about shortfalls in current supply
   • Pains that they have that aren't being met
   • The value that they would be prepared to pay if such a product or service was available
   • etc
4. Knowing how well their existing products or services matched the needs of their existing market
   • Sometimes the product you were making just isn't relevant any more Analogue Televisions, Slide Rules etc
   • What if you come across a unique product that is suitable for a completely different set of customers
   • etc

You will see there are lots of etc's above. The issue of marketing is a subject way bigger than can be covered in a 5 minute video.

Marketing Stimulation

That's why we have created Marketing Stimulation a unique programme to improve Cambridgeshire marketing activities. With four half day sessions, internet research, 1:1 mentoring it provides the perfect way to get practical marketing help to grow your business.

Eligible companies may be able to access up to 70%  grant funding towards the cost of Marketing Stimulation.

For more information on Marketing Stimulation visit or call 01733 785658

This video follows on from a 90 minute marketing taster session. The session covered

What is marketing  -

• a very big question and we summarised it by SCP (satisfying customers profitably)

Why do Customers buy from you

Looking at the 5 L model developed by Bob Hogg

• Live – those businesses / people you currently do business with
• Loyal – those who love to purchase from you
• Likely – the element that many focus on first – due to the thrill of the chase and naivety
• Lapsed – those who we fought hard to get but who haven't purchased again
• Lost – those who have dropped out of our radar and are buying elsewhere

Decision making process and influences

Is your product or service FIT for purpose

• Considering segmentation – the process of breaking the market into smaller groups of people who exhibit similar needs. So that we can identify what the exact needs of the segment are

• Considering what makes up your product or service from the perspective of

• Core benefit – problem solved for the customer
• Actual product – the physical design / functionality
• Augmented – warranty / after sales service / branding
• Potential – future developments

• Where is the product in its product life cycle

The importance of being different

• Are you just the same as your competitors or do you have a Blackpool Tower factor
• Looking at the issue of direct, indirect and future competitors
• Establishing where you are positioned in relation to your competitors against the factors of pricing and perceived user value

Why a marketing action plan is important

• the importance of having an effective strategy (doing the right things) and combining it with efficient tactics (doing things right)
• Looking at your business from a customer and product perspective in order to identify which approaches are market penetration – doing more with your existing customers
• product/ service development – identifying what new developments could be offered to your existing customers
• market development – which new customer segments could you target
• diversification – do you need to offer new products to a new target audience

How to get found on the web

• What is the search engine of choice – almost 100% use Google
• 4 key factors to get found on the web
• make sure its for a highly relevant term
• make sure that there is actually traffic for that search term
• choose a term that isn't massively competitive
• make sure that if you get found for the term it has commercial significance
• What happens when a visitor arrives at your website?
• Can you use offline activities to get people to your website

How to ensure your advertising isn't a waste of money

Far too much to cover in this summary so I will produce a separate detailed document. E mail andrew@bdolphin.co.uk and mark subject as 'Advertising a waste of money' and I will send you the report

In summary: An approach for marketing Return on Investment

1. Know your target customer
2. Make the offer and message relevant
3. Select the relevant media
4. Establish what action do you want them to take
5. Measure

Marketing Taster Session A Cocktail of Marketing Information

Marketing Taster is a 90 minute session providing an overview of selected key marketing activities.

For those companies with limited time Marketing Nuggets provides a series of 7 x 60 minute sessions whereby marketing activities can be covered in more detail more information can be found at Marketing Nuggets.

For those companies who are looking to grow there business Marketing Stimulation provides a great environment to look at key marketing issues and then develop them in a productive framework, with the ability to test assumptions. Click here for more information on how Marketing Stimulation.

Writing for the Web – CIM event notes

Following the recent CIM 'Writing for the Web' event please find the additional content. Within the video the following writing for the web points are considered. These notes and video should be used in conjunction with the core course notes.

Writing for the web – observations from the writing section

1. What are the objectives of your writing – ultimately what conversion are you looking for

• Clicks
• Calls
• Information request
• Linkage
• Authority
• etc

2. What’s the value of the information / content you are creating to the reader

• Information
• Hints
• Guidance
• Checklists

Is it strengthening your relationship and building authority
3. B2B as per B2C the power of emotion

• What is the pain that it trying to be resolved
• What is the pleasure looking to be achieved

4. Segmentation and the ability to be able to develop clear messages for each segment

5. What stage is your customer in their buying process

• With correct information can you help them in their customer journey
• Within the copy you can’t just say buy my stuff – but are there times when you can
• This page is for you if…

6. Great unique on topic content is really important and there’s never been a better time for it

• Both to help in the sales process
• To create authority on the web

7. Formatting sometimes to get noticed you will upset the style police –  text in red box

8. How do you write – first person / third person – Don’t ‘we’ on your customer

9. Thank you pages

• If somebody has signed up / registered is this a great opportunity for you to be different
• Similar opportunity for personalisation as per error messages

10. Make your content memorable

11.Writing for the web is different to print – you can make the page do stuff

• Are you maximising the way you create the page to convey your message
  • Charts
  • Diagrams
  • Links
  • Video
  • Imagery – zoom

12. Getting into the persona of your customer

• Scan reader / First time reader / Complete reader

13. Approaches to create great copy for the web

14. Tracking – at what point of your copy do you lose your reader – analytics

15. Are you clear about what your offer is and what you want your customer to do

The annotated slides from the event are attached and available for download

Writing for the web core course notes

For more information on writing for the web or internet marketing visit www.bdolphin.co.uk or call Andrew Goode on 01733 361729 or email andrew@bdolphin.co.uk or contact Richard Groom on 01733 891860 or e mail richard@marketingability.co.uk

Marketing Workshop Taster Session A Cocktail of Marketing Information

Marketing Workshop provides a cocktail of marketing information

Experience a 90-minute cocktail of practical sales and marketing information. Attendance at this FREE marketing workshop will provide you with a mixture of marketing ideas that you will be able to take away and apply into your business.

Who will benefit from attending the FREE marketing workshop

Small business owners and managers in small to medium organisations with a sales and marketing responsibility. This marketing taster session is ideal for those looking to implement improvements to their immediate sales and marketing activities.

Subjects covered at the Marketing Workshop Taster event:

1. Understand why customers buy from you. One of the simplest marketing questions but also one of the most difficult
2. Is your product or service fit for purpose? Are you supplying a Rolls Royce quality product or service when in fact your customer only values Mondeo quality. Or are you offering lower quality when in fact your customer would happily pay lots more for a better level of service

3. The importance of being different. – What is your answer when your customer asks "So why should I buy from you?"
4. Why a marketing action plan is important. We are not just talking about a plan, or a lengthy document that ends up being filed. This is an ACTION plan that focusses on customers and what you sell to them.
5. How to get found on the web. All organisations need a website but will it get found and it does get found will it convert. In fact what do you want your customer to do when they land on your site?
6. How to ensure your advertising isn’t a waste of money. Advertising can be a great way of communicating to customers but how do you improve your chances of generating sales from it

Event date: Tuesday 14 June 2011.

Event time: Registration is at 8.00am and the workshop will start at 8.30am.

Event venue: The Eco Innovation Centre, City Road, Peterborough, PE1 1SA

To book your FREE place:

• Call 01733 785658 and talk to Judith who will book your place.
• OR book online at www.bdolphin.co.uk/marketingtaster
• OR email your booking requirement to training@marketingability.co.uk.

Marketing Workshop Taster session summary

The marketing workshop taster session should appeal to anybody who wants to be challenged on their perceptions of marketing and who is looking to grow or develop their business.

Below is a short video showing the conditions we will be facing

We are going with the organisation called Soap Box Communications Trust (www.soapboxtrust.com) who is well established Christian organisation that also believes the families in the Kibera slums deserve a better life than the one they are currently having.

Whilst out there our main project will be helping to build a school so they aren’t learning in the horrendous slum conditions. We will also be sharing experience with the families in the slum and growing a relationship with these people, as their way of living will be totally different one to ours. I truly believe this trip will be life changing for everyone involved as we all experience something we haven’t experienced before.

To cover the costs of the trip and building material for the school  we need to raise £1500 each.  Any donations will be greatly received from the company, not only by us, but by people whose  lives we will be affecting. Please click on the link below…
http://www.securio.net/modules/soapbox/index.cfm?fa=account.list
Click on the 'not registered' section on the left hand side of Existing Members Login – and complete the details (Soapbox use this information for registration purposes)
Input the amount your would wish to Donate
Select Rebecca Goode from the Drop Down box…
Or Alternatively forward donations to -
Rebecca Goode, 43 The Gannocks, Orton Waterville, Peterborough,
PE2 5DZ, and I can then forward these to Soapbox.

Went to very interesting Chartered Institute of Marketing event in Cambridge where the subject was marketing to a mature audience. The presentation started with a discussion on what age does youth end and old age begin? A very challenging quandary but the average answers were available!

When does youth end?

but crucially when does old age begin

When does old age begin?

With such wide variances how can one and should one use age as a segmentation characteristic? From a sales and marketing perspective we appear to focus on youthfulness, A great example of this is featured in the following article

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1202399/The-faces-Twiggy-59-How-airbrushing-Olay-ad-hides-truth-skin-shes-in.html A great example of the power of photoshop, just what would happen to the brand, to sales if a natural stance was projected?

So how can a brand relate to an older audience? The following advert from Coca Cola makes me smile even if it does portray some strereotypes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j9KWEGmq9Y

The challenge appears to be that with an ageing population and a shift from a youth culture to an aged culture as marketers we need to start revisiting or reconsidering how we market to what is an ageing audience. All of this is occuring whilst we are going through a technical revolution and with more marcoms activities occurring than a full time marketing professional can keep up with.

As marketers we have so many on line activities to use Twitter, Facebook, Linked in, SMS, Foursquare, E mail, Websites etc all of which make our lives so much easier that sometimes we forget that 43% of the population without internet access don't want it! So as our population ages it has never been as important to practice safe and efficient Online and Offline marketing. If you would like more information on Online / Offline marketing we call it Collaborative Marketing then please call Andrew Goode on 01733 361729 or e mail andrew@bdolphin.co.uk or visit http://www.bdolphin.co.uk/training/create-your-sales-generation-machine-workshop/