50% off a Marketing Diagnostic in December

This post was last edited by Alex Cohen, on the March 8, 2010 @ 10:39 am

As a Christmas gift to you we’re giving everyone 50% off a Marketing Diagnostic when booked in December. So get ready to start some marketing or give your marketing a turbo boost in 2010.

Find out more about the Marketing Diagnostic here. Simply mention this offer when contacting us.

Tags: Marketing Diagnostic

How much should you spend on marketing in 2010?

This post was last edited by Alex Cohen, on the March 8, 2010 @ 10:40 am

With 2010 just around the corner it’s time to start thinking about what marketing you should be doing next year. Our last blog post highlighted the marketing trends we predict in 2010, this blog focuses on what your budget should be.

Of course the answer is as ambiguous as how long is a piece of string? It depends on your size, industry and money available. Here are 4 things to consider:

1. Start with the end in mind

What are your objectives from marketing? At the end of 2010 what do you want to have achieved from your marketing? More sales, a new website, a refreshed brand, coverage in the media, a product launch? Define your ‘marketing vision’ for the year and this will help define the budget.

2. What have been the most effective strategies to date?

Look back over 2009 and beyond. What marketing has worked? What hasn’t? What aren’t you sure of? It may seem obvious but do more of what worked. Anything that hasn’t worked either stop it or look at taking a fresh approach to it. If something is more effective do more of that.

3. If You’re getting an ROI spend as much as you can

If for every £1 you spend on Google AdWords you get £2 back why give AdWords a budget? You have a licence to print money – if You’re getting an ROI put as much money as you can into it as you will get it back.

4. Remember the time cost

The tools are getting easier and easier. It’s simple and cheap to use email marketing software. It’s free to be on Twitter or network on LinkedIn. But how much is your time worth to you? If you charge £50/£75/£100+ an hour; for every hour you spend writing an email marketing campaign you can’t bill that. Will you get that ROI back? This time cost needs to go into your budget. You may want to outsource it.

So, how much should you spend?

This is all well and good but you want an actual sum…well there’s no hard and fast number but we do have experience which can act as a rough guide:

• The average B2B business that believes in marketing will budget 5% – 10% of turnover on marketing
• B2C professional services may spend a bit more as it needs to reach more people
• A B2C product/website based business will spend up to 100% of turnover on marketing as it needs marketing to get it going and to grow

Whatever you do, remember if you’re marketing with a fairly static annual budget, You’re viewing marketing as an expense. Good businesses realise it is an investment.

Tags: 2010, Marketing

2010 Marketing Trends for SMEs

This post was last edited by Alex Cohen, on the March 8, 2010 @ 10:42 am

2009 was the year of Twitter, selling ‘value’ and a further shift towards digital marketing, here we look ahead to what we believe may be the marketing trends in 2010:

1. Online Integration: Many people have ‘played’ with Twitter in 2009, they’ve continued to do the same style of email campaigns and websites have been refreshed. It’s time to integrate these activities taking a strategic view of social media, search engine marketing and your website.
2. Direct mail to email to social media: Postal strikes, rising postal costs and being unable to measure the return from direct mail has meant many businesses have turned to email marketing. Businesses will continue to do this in 2010. They will also look at moving on from email and communicating through messaging platforms on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
3. The growth of Bing: 2009 saw a big shake-up in the search engine market with the partnership of Microsoft and Yahoo. Bing is the offspring of this partnership. In the past Google has had the majority of market share so optimising your site for Google and advertising on Google was the thing to do. If Bing starts to take market share you will have to consider optimising your website for Bing and buying advertising space there.
4. People talk: Social networking and exchange of information outside of the brand space will increase. Look for more websites using Facebook to share information with friends from those sites. More companies will become members of LinkedIn. Twitter users will spend more money on the internet than those who don’t tweet.
5. Analytics to customer intelligence: As more marketing moves online it’s easier and easier to measure campaigns. In 2010 this will be taken to the next level. Analysing data and using trends to drive future marketing campaigns. In 2010 businesses will be gaining more intelligence on individual customers, segment and target.
6. Customer experience: Customer’s are no longer buying products or services, they want an experience. You don’t go to Disney World for the rides, you go for the magic. Give people a reason to buy from you, make the experience enjoyable and this could revolutionise your business model in 2010.
7. Relevance: We’re getting more emails and seeing more adverts and marketing messages than ever before. People don’t care about what You’re selling. They care about what it can do for them specifically. If You’re targeting professional services, break this down. What problem does this solve for a lawyer? An accountant? Marketing that works in 2010 will be relevant.
8. Personalisation: Building on relevance, personalising marketing and making it 1-to-1 not 1-to-many. People like to see their name, talk to the individual, if your market is only a handful of customers create each customer their own personalised campaign. PURLs will continue to grow within direct marketing in 2010.
9. Mobile: Mobile marketing will grow. How does your website look on an iPhone? Is there an iPhone app that can complement your offering? What about using Bluetooth to send  messages of an offer in your shop to people walking past or texting customers who have given their permission special offers?
10. Marketing budgets will increase: Many businesses cut their marketing budgets in 2009 because of the recession. Despite all the statistics saying businesses who market throughout the recession will come out stronger, many businesses cut back, either shifting activity online or cutting out activity all together. As we come out of the recession in 2010 and money starts flowing again budgets will rise. Your competitors will spend more and you will have to do the same.

Tags: 2010, SME, trends