How do I decide where to spend my marketing money?

There are hundreds of ways of spending your money and the next few articles look at some of these.

Online or traditional?

Probably a bit of both. The internet has had a huge impact on the way people find products and services, so get an online presence as soon as you can. This doesn’t mean you necessarily need to spend thousands, but people will find it odd if you have no web presence.

Websites

If you can’t afford to pay for a website you can always look at free methods of having some kind of web presence. Join Facebook and set-up a page, use BT Tradespace or start a blog; all of these will cost you nothing and with some effort can be made to look very professional.

The most important thing is to create something that’s relevant to your audience and they find easy to use.

If you can afford a designer, there are hundreds to choose from, so make sure you put together a brief, outlining what you want, look at some of their previous work and obtain a few quotes. Make sure they know something about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and they make the site with a Content Management System (CMS) so you can update it yourself.

What’s my message?

Businesses often send a mixed message to their clients, claiming high quality products for example but then present them poorly. Or they make up some pointless strapline about themselves and their ‘fantastic solutions’ and repeat it everywhere.

You only have a few seconds to grab people’s attention so a well developed marketing message is important.

Avoid clichés

“We give our clients 110%” and “customer satisfaction is guaranteed”.

It’s amazing how many times you hear people repeat the same old phrases. Avoid clichés when describing your business or products. Customers are switched off by them. Use simple straight forward language, it is far more effective.

USP

What do you do which makes you different to your competitors? Often described as your Unique Selling Proposition or USP this can be difficult to create but is worth the effort. You need to quickly let people know why they should consider you first before the competition.

Write a single sentence and then a longer description of around 100 words that describe your organisation. Once you’re happy with these, try them out on friends and colleagues and see if they understand them.

Another good test is reading them out loud to someone. If it sounds like rubbish it won’t read any better.

Core values

Along with your actual description, write down a few key values that you want your business to encompass. Are you environmentally friendly for example? By making sure your marketing methods reflect and build on your business values, you have the start of a brand image.

Movember

Guy is growing a mo in aid of the Prostrate Cancer Charity during the month of Movember. to fond out more click on the image below:

Regular mo updates will be shown on the blog!

What’s my market?

If you watch Dragon’s Den, many of the companies pitching for money often come unstuck because the Dragons don’t believe they have any clue of their market size and likely success. They often ask the unlucky entrepreneur if they’ve plucked these figures from the sky.

It can be very difficult to have an exact figure for your potential market but you must at least make some effort to estimate it. Here are some ideas on how you might go about it without spending lots of money.

Create a Customer Profile

Research who you think will be buying your product, where they live and what their shopping habits are. This will help you clarify your plans. If your market is potentially worldwide but your budget isn’t, decide who you’re going to target first, second and so on.

Do your customers shop online? Are they in a certain age bracket? Are they a special interest group? Are they only in one town or area?

Look at some lists

There are dozens of companies selling contact data lists. Give them your customer profile or use their website and they will give you a count of how many people or businesses they have that match it. Try several different vendors and you will start to get a ball park figure for how many customers are out there.

You can also contact business link and trade associations who should have an idea of the market size for an industry.

How much do customers spend?

How much is each customer likely to spend with you? Do they buy once a week, a month or is it a one off purchase with no likely repeat. Once your business starts DON’T ignore your existing customers, they will provide the bulk of your future sales.

How much of the market do you need to win?

If you’re new to the market are you likely to win 1% or 10%? The competitors there won’t just lie down and let you take it. If you need a big % you will need a big marketing budget to make an impact. If the market’s huge and you need a tiny amount then you may well be OK.

It was a close shave but the gap’s been filled!

Manchester based PR agency GAP PR and Marketing, has won the public relations contract to promote Max Skincare’s range to the male grooming, beauty industry and general public.

The range’s newest and most innovative product is their self heating shaving balm. When used it actually heats up on the skin, opening up pores and softening the hair follicles to help provide an extremely close shave. It was initially created for men, but has proved extremely popular among women for use on their legs!

Guy Parker, Managing Director of GAP PR and Marketing comments, “Max Skincare is an exciting addition to our growing client-base. We are currently preparing to reveal the celebrity who will be the face of the brand.”

All Max Skincare products are paraben-free, made in the UK and never been tested on animals. The range features: active face wash, hot face scrub, self heating shaving balm and cooling moisturizing crème. More information can be found online at www.maxskincare.co.uk

Guy set up GAP PR and Marketing three years ago, and it has become one of Manchester’s fastest growing Marketing and PR consultancies, with clients including Peter Marcus Hairdressing, Blemish Clinic and The Jahan Group.
GAP PR and Marketing will be working closely with creation adm who have been appointed to carry out Max Skincare’s marketing campaign.

What is marketing and why do I need it?

Marketing is defined in the dictionary as “the business activity of presenting products or services in such a way as to make them desirable”.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a shop on the high street, a dentist’s practice or a manufacturer on an industrial park, you have to make your products or services attractive to potential buyers or your business will fail.

A large part of marketing could also be referred to as ‘common sense’.

Market, Message, Media

These are the only three things you need to think about:

Market – who are you selling to? Where are they located? What are their buying habits? (web based for example) What choices do they have (your competition)? And so on.

Message – often referred to as a USP or unique selling proposition, (a phrase invented by marketing people to enable them to sound clever) your message must say ‘why should people buy from you?’ as opposed to the other business around the corner.

Media – how are you going to deliver your message? An attractive shop window? Direct mail? Radio adverts? This is the area where most of your money will be spent and where there is a huge amount of choice.

Most people approach these three things in the wrong order; they first decide on the media, then write their message and often don’t think about their market at all.

This usually means they get to spend a lot of money achieving very little and being disappointed with their results. Working through the marketing process the correct way around will save you money.

Learn to say No

Another important skill will be the ability to say no. Many people will approach you with ways to spend your money on all different kinds of marketing; some of them will be very convincing and some will be very wrong for your business.

Try and think how you will feel if you’ve spent your money but had less business from it than you wanted. Will this sink your business or put you in real difficulty? Don’t take big risks unless you’ve thought them through, spread your money over several different activities. Some of the most effective marketing methods are free

Common sense should prevail in all of your decisions.

TV and Radio presenter joins Manchester PR and Marketing company.

Journalist and Radio Presenter Polly Winder is joining the PR team at one of Manchester’s fastest growing Marketing and PR consultancies.

Polly joins GAP PR and Marketing as a PR Consultant – creating and managing existing campaigns, but also with the aim to expand the company further, by gaining new business.

The Manchester market place is something Polly knows well having previously working within the news and presentation team at radio station Galaxy Manchester, and more recently on local TV Channel M.  Before that Polly worked as a broadcast journalist throughout the North West since graduating from The University of Leeds seven years ago.

Polly says ‘I’m excited to join the team at GAP PR, I love working in the Media and moving to the PR side is a very exciting challenge. My on-air role at Galaxy also involved working closely with the station’s marketing team arranging events and ensuring media coverage. I look forward to taking this to a new level by working for a fast growing Marketing and PR firm.

Guy Parker set up GAP PR and Marketing three years ago, and the expansion of the company shows its success. Guy comments that ‘Polly’s TV and radio and experience will be of great benefit to us and our clients.’

Polly grew up in the North West in the Lake District, and has lived in Manchester for over two years.