Brand strategy

Begin with a clear set of objectives for your brand. What does it stand for? What is the one word which you would like customers to associate with your brand? What short phrase sums up your brand and sets it apart from the crowd? The key issue is to differentiate your brand – which may not be easy if you are operating in a crowded marketplace. (If you have a startling new idea for a brand, then your challenge may be explaining it!)

Successful brands are built on strong values

If you are creating a brand, it will be built on your values. Write a list of your values and include them within your marketing plan.

What’s the big idea, then?

Successful brands are underpinned by a central idea. What is the big idea which drives your brand? (If there is any difficulty in responding to this question – call me).

Do your products / services fit with your brand?

Are they aligned with your brand values? Do they support the brand or detract from it?

The customer journey

From initial encounter and awareness, to desire, purchase and advocacy – is there brand consistency? I am not just referring to your visual brand identity, I am talking about brand identity and character.

Visual brand identity

Are you using your logo, colours and typeface consistently? For example, I have used Arial for as long as I can remember. I use it within my website, blogs, emails and all of my printed matter.

Staff, colleagues, teams – do they get your brand?

Does everyone within your enterprise understand what your brand is all about? Gather them together and ask them to write down what your brand stands for. Compare the results. (Be prepared for a surprise). Incidentally, engaged staff create the best brands. (If you would like me to come over and do this exercise, you are welcome to contact me).

Promotional mix

Is your promotional mix integrated? Does it all have a consistent look and feel or is it all over the place?

The human brain and branding

People love stories. What stories are there to tell about your brand? How are you getting these stories out there? People learn through experience – what kind of experience does your brand deliver? Above all, how does it make your customers feel?

Brand results

An established brand is worth more money than a non-branded enterprise. Brands attract more customers and they deliver a higher level of profitability than their commodity cousins.

If you would like to talk to me about your marketing strategy and brand – by all means get in touch. This could be one of the most important and influential conversations you ever have about your business.

Nigel Temple

Nigel is a marketing consultant, author, speaker and trainer. He shows businesses how to get better results from 21st century marketing – starting with marketing strategy and brand positioning. He advises business owners, boards of directors and teams.

Nigel has taught marketing strategy since 1996. He has an honours degree in marketing and served as a Faculty Member and Course Director at CIM (the Chartered Institute of Marketing) for 12 years. He led over 500 Business Link workshops, focusing on marketing strategy and internet marketing. Today, he delivers marketing events for The Marketing Compass which provides impartial marketing advice for business owners.

To find out more about Nigel’s services email joanna@nigeltemple.com or call Joanna on +44 (0)1628 773128.

He welcomes media enquiries about 21st century marketing, social media and digital marketing. He has appeared within the national press and broadcast media.

Nigel is the founder of The Marketing Compass – join thousands of business owners, tell us about your business and ask some marketing questions!

Follow Nigel on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nigeltemple

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I often use Mind Maps when I am delivering internet marketing talks / presentations. I find that they help the audience to see the ‘big picture’. This Mind Map is all about internet marketing strategy and the branches refer to the following key points:

Internet marketing objectives

What is the primary objective of your internet marketing (i.e. website, SEO, newsletter, videos, social media)? To create awareness? To build relationships? To generate sales and revenue? I have asked thousands of seminar delegates this question. Interestingly, they are often hesitant in answering. How about you: do you know what the primary mission of your website is? If you are unsure, could this explain why you are not getting the results you are after?

Internet marketing skills

Are you technical by nature? Do you love to write? Are you a marketing professional? Successful websites are driven by strategic marketing thinking; they contain well written, compelling copy (website words); and they work seamlessly (i.e. the technology works so well that you don’t really notice it, in the same way that you don’t notice a car engine – until it starts playing up).

Online attraction processes

Are your website, newsletter and social media interactions engaging your customers, or failing to get their attention and interest? Are you educating them, when they are hungry for knowledge?

Content Management Systems

Which CMS do you use? Have you received any training, with regards to its features and functionality?

Social media campaigns

‘Social’ and ‘Search’ are merging. Now is the time to build your social media network. Don’t just be a ‘broadcaster’ (which is boring): be a conversationalist – you will be surprised by the difference.

Content production

As the old saying goes, ‘content is king’. My clients (and members of The Marketing Compass) tell me that the more they write, the more they sell. In addition to the written word, use videos and images (do you like the Mind Map? Mind Mapping was invented by Tony Buzan – Hello Tony!)

How to you spend your internet marketing time and resources?

Yes, I know that you are busy. Yes, I know that you already have a great deal to do. However, let’s face it, the future is digital. Spend some of your time learning about the new technologies. Spend some time writing and creating interesting content. Delegate the stuff that you don’t love to do to somebody else.

Internet marketing metrics and results

‘What gets measured, gets done’. This certainly applies to internet marketing. Are all your efforts actually generating money in the bank? It’s no use having lots of traffic, hits, followers, likes etc if you are not making money.

Accept that change is not going to go away (in fact, change will continue to accelerate). This a fantastic time to be alive, if you love to learn. I wish you well with your internet marketing journey.

Nigel Temple is an internet marketing consultant, author, speaker and trainer. He shows business owners, professionals and teams how to get better results from 21st century marketing – including online brand awareness, improved search engine rankings, social media effectiveness, website traffic and sales enquiries / sales. He is often asked to deliver his website review service – for business owners, boards of directors and teams.

Nigel has taught internet marketing since 2000. He served as a Faculty Member and Course Director at CIM (the Chartered Institute of Marketing) for 12 years. He led over 500 Business Link workshops, focusing on website effectiveness, SEO and social media. Today, he delivers internet marketing events for The Marketing Compass which provides impartial marketing advice for business owners.

To find out more about Nigel’s services email joanna@nigeltemple.com or call Joanna on +44 (0)1628 773128.

He welcomes media enquiries about 21st century marketing, social media and digital marketing. He has appeared within the national press and broadcast media.

Nigel is the founder of The Marketing Compass – join thousands of business owners, tell us about your business and ask some marketing questions!

Follow Nigel on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nigeltemple

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Many of the most influential people on the planet are authors. They didn’t get there by saying: “Oh. I don’t have any ideas today.” They made writing a part of their daily routine. Ask any novelist and they will tell you that writing takes discipline. You have to make it a habit.

Early morning is a great time to write (before you open those emails!) Your mind is fresh. The house / office is quiet. The phones aren’t ringing. I say this because I am a ‘lark’ (early riser). I know that you may well be an ‘owl’ (someone who can work late into the evening). The important thing is to make writing a routine (no matter what time of day you do it).

It’s amazing what happens, once you get started. My advice is not to wait for a sudden bolt of lightning / inspiration. Remember that “little and often” beats “big and infrequent”, so write something every day.

You will find that once you get started, the ideas start to roll. At unexpected times, new ideas will come to you. Why not get started today, by jotting some topics down.

For business people, the writing could take the form of a blog, which can feed your newsletter. Regular blogging (about your area of professional expertise) helps to clarify your thoughts. In addition, when you write, you learn.

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Nigel Temple leads a Copywriting training seminar for The Marketing Compass.

Other blogs which may help:
* Copywriting tips
* Blogging tips
* Creative thinking skills

Via The Marketing Compass:
* How to write – five top tips for small businesses

To find out more about Nigel’s services email joanna@nigeltemple.com or call Joanna on +44 (0)1628 773128.

He welcomes media enquiries about 21st century marketing, social media and digital marketing. He has appeared within the national press and broadcast media.

Nigel is the founder of The Marketing Compass – join thousands of business owners, tell us about your business and ask some marketing questions!

Follow Nigel on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nigeltemple

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1. Work within your website

2. Work outside of your website

Working within your website
You will find it much easier to work within your website if you have a CMS (Content Management System) such as WordPress. This will give you control over your site and make it easy for you to add new content. Your content should be helpful, engaging, factual, relevant and interesting (in other words, you can’t bore people into buying from you). Content can come in the form of written words, still images, video or audio.

Remember that ‘the more you write, the more you sell.’ Within your website pages and blog entries, aim to write at least 300 words * gasp *. Yes, I know that this is quite a bit of text (and it certainly adds up, if you have many pages). However, Google increasingly likes to read long pages, full of well written text.

Ensure that you have a blog within your site. Blogging can have a dramatic effect on the number of website visitors you receive. Every time you blog, you will be adding to the size of your site. (Think about the world’s best known sites, i.e. Amazon, eBay, bbc.co.uk, Wikipedia – they have a great deal of content and a considerable number of pages, don’t they?)  By the way – a word to the wise – don’t write about yourself / your enterprise the whole time. Instead, write for your customers and help them to learn and improve their lives. Here are some blogging tips which may help you.

Do you love to write? Here are some copywriting tips which you may find useful.

In order to get traffic to a website it is (still) important to understand meta data (which helps search engines to understand what a web page is about). This includes the all important Title Tag. You have 65 characters to play with. Make them count! (If you are interested in SEO, you are welcome to join thousands of business owners within The Marketing Compass and check out the SEO group there).

Working outside of your website
In general terms, this is all about getting more links pointing at your website. There are several answers to the question “how do you get backlinks?” One way of doing this is to list your website within directories, such as www.dmoz.org (which is the largest human edited directory on the web), however, you should be aware that the search engines are getting more sophisticated in the way in which they work. For example, Google now takes into account your social media footprint, i.e. the social media platforms which you belong to and are active within. Interestingly, this ties in with blogging. If you are a frequent blogger, you will find that more people share your blog and you will also receive more backlinks.

In conclusion, the primary answer to the question “how to increase website traffic” is to become a recognised expert in your field and to demonstrate this, within your website. This is easier than ever before, due easy to work with website software.

The Marketing Compass runs half day events on the following subjects, which are relevant to this blog:

Social media training (held in London and other locations)

SEO – How to make Google love your website

The secrets of professional copywriting

By the way, if you are looking for a WordPress specialist for website development or WordPress training click here.

Nigel Temple is an internet marketing consultant, author, speaker and trainer. He shows business owners, professionals and teams how to get better results from 21st century marketing – including online brand awareness, improved search engine rankings, social media effectiveness, website traffic and sales enquiries / sales.

Nigel has taught internet marketing since 2000. He served as a Faculty Member and Course Director at CIM (the Chartered Institute of Marketing) for 12 years. He led over 500 Business Link workshops, focusing on website effectiveness, SEO and social media. Today, he delivers internet marketing events for The Marketing Compass which provides impartial marketing advice for business owners.

To find out more about Nigel’s services email joanna@nigeltemple.com or call Joanna on +44 (0)1628 773128.

He welcomes media enquiries about 21st century marketing, social media and digital marketing. He has appeared within the national press and broadcast media.

Nigel is the founder of The Marketing Compass – join thousands of business owners, tell us about your business and ask some marketing questions!

Follow Nigel on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nigeltemple

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STRATEGY
*  Begin by working on your marketing plan (if you fail to plan, you plan to fail).
*  Add value to your products / services. Keep adding value.
*  Set sales targets and figure out your conversion rate (i.e. “we close 1 sale for each 4 enquiries). This will give you a good idea of the number of sales leads you need.
*  Increase your promotional mix (i.e. the different ways in which you ‘get the word out’ about your business).
*  Spend more time on marketing (including working on your marketing plan, website etc).
*  Add contacts to your CRM (Customer Relationship Management system), every day.
*  Join The Marketing Compass and learn more about sales, marketing and attracting more customers.

POSITIONING
*  Don’t just talk about being helpful. Be helpful. Don’t just tell us how great you are – demonstrate it by sharing your knowledge in helpful and useful ways, i.e. via the internet and at events. Here is a list of our marekting events: www.marketingcompass.co.uk/events/
*  Stop pushing so hard. Whatever you push against in life, pushes back against you.

BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
*  You will win more business from people with whom you have a prior business relationship. Whether they are existing customers, networking contacts or newsletter subscribers – relationships count.

WEBSITE
*  Have a professional looking website, based on a Google friendly CMS (Content Management System) such as WordPress. Make it easy for visitors to engage with you, via your site. (Discover how to build your own WordPress website in a day here).

SOCIAL MEDIA
*  Login to your favourite social media platforms every day. Don’t just be a ‘broadcaster’ – be a conversationalist.
*  See how I go about this, by following me on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/nigeltemple

REFERRALS
*  Always ask for referrals. (I know that this can be hard, due to fear of rejection – however – you must do this).
*  If you want more referrals, give more referrals. (By the way – this works for anything. If you want more love – give more love).

RESPONSIVENESS
*  Always respond quickly to sales leads in a friendly, professional manner. This is a message, in its own right. Even if they don’t buy from you this time, they’ll remember you.

FEEDBACK
*  Have someone to report to, with regards to sales leads / sales.  Talk everything through with them once a week. This works, even if it is your mother and she doesn’t say much, whilst you are talking; well, OK, you get my drift, don’t you?)

You are welcome to contact me, if you would like to discuss your sales and marketing strategy.

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Nigel Temple is a marketing / internet marketing consultant, author, speaker and trainer. He shows business owners, professionals and teams how to get better results from 21st century marketing – including online brand awareness, improved search engine rankings, social media effectiveness, website traffic and sales enquiries / sales.

Nigel has taught internet marketing since 2000. He served as a Faculty Member and Course Director at CIM (the Chartered Institute of Marketing) for 12 years. He led over 500 Business Link workshops, focusing on website effectiveness, SEO and social media. Today, he delivers internet marketing events for The Marketing Compass which provides impartial marketing advice for business owners.

To find out more about Nigel’s services email joanna@nigeltemple.com or call Joanna on +44 (0)1628 773128.

He welcomes media enquiries about 21st century marketing, social media and digital marketing. He has appeared within the national press and broadcast media.

Nigel is the founder of The Marketing Compass - join thousands of business owners, tell us about your business and ask some marketing questions!

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* Begin by deciding what you want the consultant to help you with, i.e. creating an internet marketing plan, increasing traffic, a website review, web copywriting review, an SEO audit and feedback, improving conversion rates, using social media, generating more enquiries / sales (or all of these!)
* Look for someone with a wide range of experience in different industries
* Does their website give you confidence? Is it well designed, does it look professional and is it easy to navigate?
* Do they display testimonials within their website?
* Does the consultant also teach? Where have they taught internet marketing? Do they still teach?
* Does the consultant understand web copywriting?
* Can they demonstrate a thorough understanding of SEO?
* Do they have professional marketing qualifications, for example a marketing degree?
* Has the consultant built any websites? How successful are these sites?
* How many clients has the consultant worked for?
* How quickly do they respond to your enquiry?

Choose three or four consultants and talk to them on the phone. Ask them to give you some initial feedback on your website. Request a written quotation for their services by email.

Nigel Temple is an internet marketing consultant, author, speaker and trainer. He shows business owners, professionals and teams how to get better results from 21st century marketing – including online brand awareness, improved search engine rankings, social media effectiveness, website traffic and sales enquiries / sales.

Nigel has taught internet marketing since 2000. He served as a Faculty Member and Course Director at CIM (the Chartered Institute of Marketing) for 12 years. He led over 500 Business Link workshops, focusing on website effectiveness, SEO and social media. Today, he delivers internet marketing events for The Marketing Compass which provides impartial marketing advice for business owners.

To find out more about Nigel’s services email joanna@nigeltemple.com or call Joanna on +44 (0)1628 773128.

He welcomes media enquiries about 21st century marketing, social media and digital marketing. He has appeared within the national press and broadcast media.

Nigel is the founder of The Marketing Compass – join thousands of business owners, tell us about your business and ask some marketing questions!

Follow Nigel on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nigeltemple

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‘Telemarketing’ includes all forms of outbound calls, including appointment setting and direct sales (‘telesales’).

* Use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system in order to store all of your contacts. A (cloud based) example is www.zoho.com (which we use in our office).
* Have a clear objective for your calls. However, be prepared to be flexible, as the call proceeds (otherwise you will sound like a robot).
* If there is a pre existing relationship, the whole experience will be much less daunting, i.e. via networking. It will help if you have a Customer Attraction System.
* Schedule time during the week to make calls.
* Put yourself in a good mood, by listening to some of your favourite music, before you call. Choose up-tempo tracks.
* Stand up, when you start to make calls.
* Introduce yourself, using your first and last name (no matter how well you know the person you are calling).
* Ask if this is a good time to talk. Most telemarketers don’t do this, so this will differentiate you. Once you have ‘permission to talk’, the conversation will proceed more smoothly.
* Depending on the nature of the call, you may wish to use a brief pre-written script (contact me if you wish to discuss this, as you can achieve up to an 80% success rate with the right wording).
* The objective of the script is to move you from the introduction phase (Part A) to the sales conversation (Part B).
* Ask open questions, as they can’t be answered with a yes or a no.
* Once you are talking to a decision maker, take your time, listen and build the relationship.
* People remember how you made them feel – not precisely what you said.

Within The Marketing Compass, we run a half day telemarketing training day.

Nigel Temple is a sales and marketing consultant, speaker and trainer. He shows business owners, professionals and teams how to get better results from 21st century marketing – including brand awareness, website traffic and sales enquiries. To find out more about Nigel’s services email joanna@nigeltemple.com or call Joanna on +44 (0)1628 773128.

He welcomes media enquiries about any aspect of sales or marketing. He has appeared within the national press and broadcast media.

Nigel is the founder of The Marketing Compass – join thousands of business owners, tell us about your business and ask some marketing questions!

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Smart companies realise that getting customers to come to them is way better than the old style ‘hunt and kill’ methodology. Broadly speaking, an attraction based approach includes customer education and knowledge sharing. It is co-operative, trusting, interactive and more female than male in nature. It also happens to be ideal for the world wide web – which was originally conceived as a way of sharing files amongst scientists.

I know that this approach does not appeal to everyone. “Why should I share my hard won knowledge?” they say to me. “That’s fine,” I reply. “Keep all of your professional knowledge locked up in a darkened room. Lock and chain the door. Let some large, angry dogs wander around the corridors putting the fear of God into anyone who enters the building. What will happen? The knowledge will shrivel and die, as it needs interaction with others to flourish and grow (just like you do). Mind you, you’ll have to go and bang on all of the doors in the neighbourhood to find new business. By the way, how will your neighbours know that you are so brilliant at what you do, as they can’t see your expertise?”

My advice is to share a little more. If you need any more encouragement, I am sure that your competitors are already doing this.

By the way my last book was entitled ‘How to get clients to come to you‘ so this is a subject close to my heart!

Nigel Temple is a marketing consultant, speaker and trainer. He shows business owners, professionals and teams how to get better results from 21st century marketing – including brand awareness, website traffic and sales enquiries. To find out more about Nigel’s services email joanna@nigeltemple.com or call Joanna on +44 (0)1628 773128.

He welcomes media enquiries about 21st century marketing, social media and digital marketing. He has appeared within the national press and broadcast media.

Nigel is the founder of The Marketing Compass – join thousands of business owners, tell us about your business and ask some marketing questions!

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According to the London Times, at the start of February, Billy Ray was homeless, lived under a bridge and spent his days in a square in Kansas City. Sarah Darling had accidentally dropped the ring into his cup.

The money is sufficient to buy a three bedroom house in Kansas City. Billy ray commented: “I don’t deserve it. What is the world coming to when a person returns something that doesn’t belong to him and all this happens?”

Within giveforward, Bill Krejci writes: “Billy Ray Harris returned my wife’s engagement ring after she accidentally put it into his cup. You may have heard the stories. A friend of my wife’s told a local Kansas City news station, KCTV. They ran a story, and it went viral big-time, eventually being picked up by many national and international news outlets. After friends expressed interest in helping out Billy Ray I put this site together to take donations for him. All donations will be given directly to Billy Ray at the end of the 90 day GiveForeward Campaign. Thank you for your generosity.”

This story reminded me of when I lost my wedding ring.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/americas/article3699289.ece

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*  Fill in / update your Twitter profile. Make it interesting!
*  Include a photograph of yourself looking at the camera and smiling (alternatively, for a business, use your logo).
*  Follow more people (quite a few will follow you back).
*  Ensure that Twitter opens up, first thing in the morning, within your internet browser
*  Tweet every day, at least six times *gasp*.
*  ReTweet interesting Tweets (this counts as a Tweet, in its own right).
*  A business should Tweet about its ‘professional knowledge’, i.e. your area of expertise.
*  Write a blog at least once a week within your website and share it, via Twitter. Here are some blogging tips.
*  Use a URL (web page address) shortening service such as http://bitly.com or http://goo.gl so that you can fit long URLs into your Tweets.  Insert the (shortened) link after about four or five words (as you will get more clicks).
*  URL shortening services also provide metrics – so that you can see how many people have clicked on your links.
*  Within Twitter,  click on @Connect in order to see who is mentioning you. Respond to these mentions.
*  Install the Twitter App within your smartphone and use this on a daily basis.
*  Check the profiles of new Followers and then thank them (via a public Tweet). Include a question, i.e. “What’s your top #coaching tip” (if they are a coach).
*  Use #hashtags. By putting the # symbol in front of  a word, it makes it clickable, within Twitter. People can click on hashtags to find things which interest them.
*  Share interesting items which you find on the internet (i.e. by using share buttons).
*  Read and then re-read each Tweet, before you press Send.
*  Don’t use automated systems to send Tweets. We’ll know that you are a machine.
*  Promote your Twitter account, i.e. within your email signature, website, business cards etc.
*  Join The Marketing Compass and ask social media questions.
*  Finally – you can’t bore people into following you. Be interesting and responsive.

Follow Nigel on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nigeltemple

Nigel Temple is a social media consultant, speaker and trainer. He shows business owners, professionals and teams how to get better results from social media – including brand awareness, website traffic and sales enquiries.  To find out more about Nigel’s services email joanna@nigeltemple.com or call Joanna on +44 (0)1628 773128.

He welcomes media enquiries about social media / digital marketing. He has appeared within the national press and broadcast media.

Nigel is the founder of The Marketing Compass - join thousands of business owners, tell us about your business and ask some marketing questions!

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