Bsa Marketing Matters

Few, if any businesses can ignore the web. Virtually every business has an e-business element. In our new podcast series, we are talking e-business and how to make technology work for you. While e-commerce is about taking orders online, shopping carts etc, the term e-business is much broader. It's about how you leverage technology. Even if most of your transactions are offline, you will be using web technologies to benefit your company more than you realise. Starting with a focus on e-commerce, series five of out podcast looks at how to maximise the benefits, and minimise the pain of using technology in your business.

In the last of our step-by-step planning series, we look at how to make your process sustainable. Making a plan and implementing ideas can be easy but sustaining that process for long periods is one of the more challenging things in marketing. An advertising campaign, such as a mail shot or publication, is one individual event at a point in time, but covering an entire timeline, 2-3 months in advance, with regular and repeated events, is what makes it sustainable.    

Many small business owners state they are too busy working in their business to work on their business but, without that necessary management, success is largely down to luck. That brings us to the second M in our PIMMS process: managing. Managing on an ongoing basis is the essence of running a business and the heart of helping it grow. Instead of spending so long on the day-to-day tasks, time needs to be put aside to evaluate whether it's delivering what you want. You can only manage a plan if you plan to manage.

In the next step of the marketing process, we move on to monitoring. Looking from a long-term perspective, you need to track activity to ensure it's having an impact and going the direction you desire. Thanks to developments of the internet as a marketing tool, it's possible to obtain real-time numbers, check engagement and discover where your value lies. But delving into analytics can be a double-edged sword, with data overload potentially causing you to lose focus on your goals.

Looking at managing marketing processes using our PIMMS method, the I stands for implementation. There is a divide between planning and implementation as, so often, people are fixated on the former and never get round to the latter. It's very easy to believe a plan needs to be perfect to guarantee success but, as is the nature of marketing, some things are bound to fail and the key is making sure enough succeeds to offset those failures. Implementing a plan is not about the absolutes of success: it's about trying, learning then iterating.

We touched upon planning in our previous podcast, but we consider it so important, we're devoting an entire series on the subject. Planning is a very important part of the business management & development process, and we want to look at the concept of not only creating a practical plan, but its implementation and ensuring it materialises. It's incredibly easy to form a plan but there are dangers of focusing so much on its creation, that considering how it will be made into a reality, and therefore worthwhile, is oft-forgotten. This is why we created the acronym PIMMS (Plan, Implement, Monitor, Manage, Sustain).

In the final episode of our 'Bridging the Gap' series, we emphasise the importance of planning. As the old saying goes, "to fail to plan is to plan to fail", and without a focus or sense of direction, success often comes down to luck. And, despite plans being considered so crucial, people commonly sidetrack and forget about theirs. Why? Many might complain about being too busy, but sometimes time needs to be taken to work not just in the business but on it. To sustain your plan and monitor its progress, information needs to be readily available to the entire company - this is where technology can assist.    

As the essence of business, analytics allow you to connect your marketing objectives with reality. But, critical as they may be, not everyone uses them as effectively as they might. While businesses may be well-versed in the analysing accounts to monitor the performance of the business as a whole, Fewer take advantage of how marketing analytics give better control and management of your marketing process. In this weeks podcast we explore this issue and look at how best to use Marketing analytics.

In the age of social media, email has taken a backseat, with many considering it old-fashioned. When it first arrived on the scene email marketing was horribly spammed and has had a stigma attached to it ever since, however, like with any communication, when used thoughtfully and respectfully it can actually be one of the most powerful marketing tools.

Social media can be a fantastic marketing tool and needs to be taken seriously, but it is not a magic marketing wand. In this episode, we talk about how can you make the most of social media, and you make it work for you? Some think it's all about "go viral" and becoming an internet sensation. But for most, that will never happen. In reality any successful social media strategy is  about consistent, relevant content.

Since marketing began, the idea behind it hasn't changed: communicating and advertising what you do to your market. To achieve that, a steady flow of content reflecting your business proposition should be a significant priority. While websites and hosting can be considered the tools that allow for you to communicate, you also need the skills and resources to achieve an effective marketing solution.

Continuing our series on bridging the technology gap, we go behind the scenes and take a look at web hosting. Good hosting can make or break how effective your site is in the ultimate goal of driving your business. The wrong type of hosting can either give poor performance or, at the other end of the scale, you pay over the odds for something you don't need. While a website is important for your business, the hosting is just as important for your website.

A website is a very important marketing tool and can be your single most important piece of marketing collateral, yet many people don't take advantage. The building of a website is considered a project and, once completed, sits there rarely to be touched again. Typically this is because of the "technology gap" between the experts hired to build the site, and the SME businesses left wanting to use it but not knowing how. A website needs to be used proactively, something only achievable if you feel full ownership of it.  

Over the next several episodes we will be exploring the way technology and the real world of business should fit together, Over the series, we will be considering a wide range off business issues including websites, promotion and content. Our aim is to help you to think differently as to how to approach technological challenges.   

This is something I was told when I did some Sales Training at the start of my career back hen Adam was a lad, and its stuck with me. This week we discuss the importance of listening to and understanding your customers.If you want to add value to your offering, then understanding your expertise and applying it to make your customers lives easier or more fruitful is a sound strategy.  

During lockdown, most retailers are shut and prevented from regular sales. While they waited to officially re-open, many have gone with a barebones "click and collect" system across social media but are they missing a trick? What can they do to improve business and make it stronger post-pandemic? Marketing is not just something on the backburner for when you're short on work, it's an on-going process that continually needs to be addressed.

When presented with a task, your first objective is to achieve your goal. However, with the incorrect tool at your disposal, this can quickly morph into the frustration of just trying to make the tool work. Whether its hardware, software like a wordpress plugin or a relationship with a partner or supplier. If you can get the right tool for the right job, the investment will help not just now but in the future.  

In the tech world, it seems to be a more and more rare occurrence that you communicate with a real person. Automation is the popular way to go and, when it works and delivers what's required, is great. But when you're presented with a challenge you can't solve alone, access to a real person is invaluable. 

Creativity and innovation are the most important drivers in business... so why is true creativity now so rare? Today "new" ideas are either truly creative and backed up by big investment, or are more generic developments of existing ideas.In today's podcast we look at the creative process within SMEs, and examine ways that you can build creativity into your business without it costing the earth.

Over the past 6 months, "working from home" has taken a whole new meaning. The suggestion is that everybody wants to work from home but is that actually true or is it simply a case of they don't want to commute? Spending lengthy periods on public transport or sat in a traffic jam every single day isn't a good use of anybody's time but, on the other hand, always working from home can be an isolating and lonely experience. What people really desire is freedom of choice.