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Thank you.

SMEs and micro businesses feeling optimistic

A recent Chartered Institute of Marketing 'confidence barometer' study has found that:

...SMEs (are) in a more optimistic mood than their larger counterparts. Micro and small businesses are notably more confident than medium and large organisations in their ability to meet financial and growth targets over the next 12 months, compared to the last 12 months. The research found that 45% of micro and 42% of small businesses are more confident, compared with 35% of large businesses.

How confident are you feeling about the next twelve months?

Make your 'Contact Us' webpage work harder for your business

Three lovely new clients have asked me to help them develop their web presence. When I started to analyse their websites, I found that they all share one characteristic that I'll be looking to change: their 'Contact Us/Get in Touch' page doesn't work nearly hard enough.

This page is your last chance to impress your web visitors. Don't waste it by simply posting your phone number and email. Even an enquiry form doesn't go far enough.
 
As well as providing a variety of contact options (different prospects will have different preferences for how they interact with you), why not use it to:

• Reiterate your key message - what's the most important 'take-away' you'd like them remember, the main difference that you can make to them or their business?
• Reinforce the impression you want to create of your business personality and brand
• Outline the next step in your sales process - a no-obligation friendly chat? a free initial consultation? - and encourage your prospect to take it. But be careful not to leave yourself open to giving away too much free consultancy!

And, by the way, you don't have to label it 'Contact Us': friendly, less formal alternatives might be:

• What could we do for you? 
• Say 'hello'
• Pleased to meet you
• Let's connect

It would be hard to find a website that doesn't contain a contact page. It is, after all, the main - or even only - gateway for your visitors to get in touch with you. Give it a little love and care and it will reward you. 

Please contact me at margaret@m2cc.co.uk if you'd like help with making your contact page work harder for your business. 

Seeing red

December's 'Business Life' has an interesting feature on the use of colour in negotiation scenarios: 

"The colour of your office walls could influence how good you are at negotiating. A series of studies examined negotiation behaviours in various settings, including online auction sites. In auctions the colour red can lead to more aggressive bidding and people can end up paying more. In a negotiation the person competes against the seller and red influences them to make lower offers. 

So if buyers are competing for your services, the primary colour used on websites and marketing materials should be red, but when trying to avoid a buyer's aggressive instinct, you should use a more neutral, calming colour."

Inspiration!

I was delighted to be able to support Ute Wieczorek-King in running a highly energetic workshop for solopreneurs this week in central Berkshire.

Ute, the power behind Success Network (www.successnetwork.org.uk), took a diverse group of business owners - from accountancy services to wine-tasting - through an insightful 7-point healthcheck. Ideas were shared in a dynamic and mutually supportive environment.

Consumers (still) prefer email

Despite the rise and rise of SMS, email evidently still has a part to play in mobile communications...

According to a survey by Forrester Consulting, around a third of smartphone users are likely to make a purchase after opening a promotional email (a staggering 32% to be precise), but only 9% do so if they receive an SMS.

The conclusion is that marketers should optimise their emails for smartphones.

Personal or promotional? Tweets masquerading as personal comments get the chop

Nike has had the dubious honour of becoming the first company in the UK to have a Twitter campaign banned by the Advertising Standards Authority. Wayne Rooney failed to make it clear that an apparently personal tweet was in fact a marketing communication/advert for Nike. Both player and advertiser have received a firm smack on the wrist.

While your budget may not run to footballing superstars, it’s worth remembering the distinction in your own Twitter campaigns and not try to pass off sponsored endorsements (or employees' comments) as impartial comment.

For more on this story:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jun/20/nike-twitter-campaign-banned

4 top tips for writing a winning award entry

It's the awards season, presumably so that the organisers can host the awards ceremony in the autumn, before the Christmas rush. Several clients in different sectors have asked for my help in preparing an entry for their specific industry award.

Here are my 4 tops tips...

Entering an award is little like taking an exam, so remember:

1. Constantly refer back to the 'questions' (the criteria) to ensure you give the judges exactly what they want
2. Rather than making vague claims, supply hard evidence in the form of statistics and customer quotes
3. Keep to the wordcount - judges do notice if you go over! Give enthusiastic colleagues a strict wordcount and ask them to highlight what is and what isn't a 'must include' in their contribution
4. Don't make any assumptions - avoid jargon, product names and technology references that the judges may never have heard of - easier said than done, of course

Contact me for more help with copywriting a (hopefully) successful award entry.

Good luck!

I'm a 'word goddess' - or so I'm told...

"Margaret, you’re a Word Goddess. I have no idea how you converted my diatribe last week into this." 

Isn't that nice?

Chartered Marketer status

Good news! The Chartered Institute of Marketing has confirmed my Chartered Marketer staus for another twelve months.

That's good news for me - nice to have one's skills, experience and achievements noted - and good news for my clients, as it helps to keep my marketing knowledge current and gives me insight into top trends and issues for marketers.

Marketing by numbers - in a good way!

One of the really impressive benefits of digital marketing is the ability to measure exactly how many of the target audience have clicked on, opened, read and/or forwarded content.

It's very rewarding when clients can feedback precisely on metrics such as:

• The coverage received for press releases posted online
• The number of retweets
• The number of readers for a white paper
• The number of times content appears in Google News searches

For example, one client recently wrote...

"We published the new white paper in our newswires yesterday and we’ve had hundreds of leads - over 500 already, in fact. Great forward rates too so it seems the readers are really valuing the content and either opening lots of times or forwarding to multiple colleagues. All good news for us!"

Good to know that involving M squared achieves measurable results!

Shock Electrical fire up their marketing

I'm delighted to be working with Shock Electrical, who undertake large, prestigious electrical, lighting, communications and renewable energy projects across the South East. Shock Electrical have been successfully operating for ten years and now want to take their marketing to the next level.

First stop: a new website - and enter M squared.

Shock Electrical were referred to me by London-based Livewire Home Integration, for whom I helped to create a completely new website last year. Livewire do amazing 'automated home' installations (audiophile grade listening rooms, home cinema, intelligent security...) and working with them was a fascinating insight into how the other half lives!

Visit Livewire's website at www.livewireintegration.com to see the end product (with some cool design by Oculus Design of Reading).

Getting the brush off spurs Shaun on to success

An inspiring tale for any aspiring entrepreneur...

I was fortunate to be asked to interview the absolutely delightful Shaun Pulfrey by a client. They provide the software that Shaun uses in his highly successful Tangle Teezer business. Shaun was set to present at their annual customer conference and my article was to feature in their pre-event publicity.

Tangle Teezer is a revolutionary ingenious hair detangling tool specially designed to effortlessly and painlessly remove. Shaun drew on over three decades of experience as a celebrity colour technician and spent four years on research and development to create the Tangle Teezer.

Building the business hasn’t been all plain sailing. Back in October 2007, when Shaun sought an investor prepared to take a 15% stake in the business, none of the five Dragons on the BBC’s ‘Dragon’s Den’ could be persuaded to support him.

But all publicity is good publicity and, ever the optimist, Shaun remained resolutely upbeat: “It was valuable experience and gave the product some marvellous exposure. In fact, it made me even more determined to make a go of Tangle Teezer.”

The Dragons’ loss was Shaun’s gain and having the courage of his convictions paid dividends. Growth has been nearly 700% over the intervening three years.

Today, chiefly through word-of-mouth recommendation, the Tangle Teezer has become a phenomenon and Shaun is adding to the range all the time. It’s available in over 1,500 salons nationwide and globally and its following has spread beyond the hair styling community. Even the hard-to-please TV personality Anne Robinson enthuses, “Tangle Teezer is the strongest link!"

There's a message there about 'If at first you don't succeed...'

btw, Shaun said of our interview: "It's not often that I get to work so closely on an article about my business, and it has been been a very enjoyable experience."

And the lucky winner is...Close Protection Angels

I was delighted when, at a major Thames Valley business event, Gina Allsop, MD of Close Protection Angels Ltd, won the prize I’d contributed of marketing communications consultancy.

Gina has had a fascinating career. She set up the Windsor-based security company 2009 to meet increasing demand in an uncertain world for reliable, flexible security services. Her background includes a successful career in the British Special Forces working within, as Gina terms it, ‘the female equivalent of the SAS’ and managing security at Westfield London, Europe’s largest shopping centre.

Since opening for business, CPA’s client base has expanded to include major events such as Glastonbury Festival, commercial businesses such as Cammell Laird, and law enforcement agencies such as Merseyside Police. At any time, members of her team might be patrolling a public event or providing protection to celebrities and other high-profile individuals. Incidentally, ‘close protection’ is the security industry’s formal term for bodyguards.

CPA also provides organisations and individuals with expert consultancy to counter threats such as terrorist attack, organised crime, industrial sabotage and counter-surveillance. Exciting stuff!

I worked with Gina to equip her with professional copywriting for sales letters that would help her to reach out to major prospects in event and retail management. Along the way, we discussed the many issues involved in running a successful marketing communications campaign, among them:

• Creating the right first impression – keeping all messaging clear, accurate and simple
• Understanding where the customer is coming from and homing right in on their ‘pain points’ and motivations
• Establishing a dialogue by offering a ‘fulfilment piece’ of a white paper or top tips
• The opportunities presented by the new networking media, such as LinkedIn and blogging

Gina commented that: “This was definitely the best prize I could have picked!” We're now looking forward to working together on the CPA website.

Keeping it simple

A leaflet from the local garden centre invites me to ‘Grow your Own Month’. It’s set me thinking...wouldn’t it indeed be wonderful if I could grow my own month? What could I achieve with all that extra time?

Of course, that’s not what they meant at all and the ambiguity hardly counts as an error (though 'Grow your own' month or Grow-your-own month might have been clearer). However, it did bring home to me once again the importance of having someone take a fresh look at your marketing materials. What’s obvious to you, with your knowledge of your business, may not be so clear from the audience’s perspective.

One client of mine, the MD of a large technology-based company in Yorkshire, always asks me to: ‘write so my mum could understand’. Mrs P. might struggle once we get down to the underlying technical detail, but I’d like to think she’d get the overall message.

It’s a highly laudable aim. Even though the company markets to a technically savvy reseller network, it recognises that its partners are busy people and that they also need to have a clear message to take to the end user.

I’d like to see this approach catch on. Perhaps I should launch a National ‘Write for your Mum’ Month!

The case for case studies

Case studies, testimonials, success stories...call them what you will, showing what you’ve achieved for other customers is just about the most powerful marketing tool on the planet.

An objective, impartial third-party endorsement is worth its weight in gold and this is why I always advise clients with a limited budget to make case studies their priority.

Here are some ‘top tips’ to ensure your case studies bring best return for your business.

Choose your moment (the ‘when’)

The optimum time to produce the story will depend on the nature of your business. For example, technology solutions are best captured as a ‘new win’, talking about expected benefits, or when the solution is well and truly bedded in. The first few weeks after implementation, when there are bound to be teething problems is the worst time.

Once a case study is live, it’s worth scheduling in an update in a year’s time. This capitalises on the work already done and shows your ability to sustain a long-term relationship that meets your customer’ needs as they evolve – and that’s a real differentiator in the current climate.

Choose your subject (the ‘who’)

It may sound obvious, but do choose a customer who is willing to play ball, one who loves talking about their business and can spare some time to do so. However elegant the product, solution or service you have provided you’re best giving the customer who is just never, ever available a miss and also passing over Mr Grumpy who believes in telling it like it is, warts and all.

That’s not to say the content should be anodyne, all sunshine and roses. Showing how you turned round any glitches adds an appealingly real-world flavour.

Decide who in the organisation you’d like to tell the story. A good rule of thumb is to have the person who championed the purchase as the prime spokesperson. He or she will know the story inside out and can talk about the benefits it’s brought; but you can also ask the MD to contribute a quote.

Brief the customer (the ‘why’)

The customer needs a clear steer on why they have been chosen. Reassure them that it’s not a journalistic exposé of their weaknesses, nor are you intending to depict them as desperately in need of your rescue. They will look professional and gain some good publicity for their business. Pave the way by outlining the process and introducing your writer.

Once they’ve agreed to participate, keep in touch with your sales people or customer services team. If any major problems emerge with the relationship, it’s best to put the case study on hold until these are resolved.

Incidentally, some businesses offer customers who agree to do a case study an incentive in the form of a discount or a reward in the form of a bottle of the bubbly stuff. Recognising the power of third-party endorsement, others are building agreement to take part into their customer contracts.

Decide where you’ll use the story (the ‘where’)

A well written story has great value. You can use the finished piece in many ways – in your company blog, broken down into tweets, on your website, as a link from your email stationery, in newsletters, at events...

Brief the writer (the ‘what’)

Your writer needs to know your goals for the case study and have as much background as possible on the customer. I provide my clients with a questionnaire through which I capture all the facts and I apply a well-tried process for taking the project smoothly through to completion.

Having equipped your writer with the salient points, you can expect them to:

- Do their own research on the customer’s business

- Liaise with the customer up to final, formal approval, which you should gain in writing

- Treat your customer with the utmost courtesy

- Quickly identify and empathise with their business issues and goals

- Pose insightful questions that pinpoint the benefits of your product, service or solution

- Tell an interesting, engaging story without being flowery or literary

- Capture lots of quotable quotes

...all of which happens when you use M squared Corporate Communications, of course!

So, do contact me to see examples of different styles of case study and discuss which would best suit your needs.

Blizzard of information

According to a new report, we’re not just facing extreme weather. We're all being hit with a blizzard of information at a rate of 2.3 words a second. That translates into about 100,000 words a day - 27% of which are received via our computers.

The implications of the ‘How Much Information?’ study by the University of California, featured in the Sunday Times*, include:

• People so busy processing information that they lose the tendency to think and feel
• Disconnection from family and colleagues
• Rising levels of Continuous Partial Attention syndrome – trying to email, text and talk simultaneously (while possibly listen to your iPod!) is not conducive to ‘living in the moment’

Other, more optimistic, commentators suggest that we consume and process massive amounts of information in face-to-face conversations and, hey, hasn’t the human brain always had a enormous capacity to evolve and adapt?

Either way, there’s no doubt that business communicators face rising competition to get their message across. That’s why I always recommend to clients that they keep it short, simple and signposted. That is:

• Don't use 1,000 words where 500 will do the job just as well, or better
  
• Don't go into too much detail too soon - provide links for more information once you've captured your audience's interest
• Include subheadings and other pointers to guide the reader, especially when the text is for on-screen reading

Perhaps minimising the wordcount is an unusual policy for a writer to recommend, but as the article shows, it’s become more important than ever.

‘Data deluge will reboot our brains’ – Sunday Times 13.12.09.

Observations on marketing on the other side of the pond

We’ve just returned from a highly enjoyable trip to Texas, chiefly taking in Houston and Dallas.

We saw a tiny fraction of an immense country, but being a marketing person, one thing that consistently struck me was the focus on consumerism. Literally, every few yards there would be another ‘strip-mall’, what we’d call a shopping parade, but twice the size; while every mile or so there would be a large mall, easily of the scale and scope of Reading’s Oracle or even bigger.

With so many retail outlets, the degree of specialisation was notable: one chain sold mattresses, rather than whole bed sets; a small local music shop stocked only violins; while my husband was delighted to find, with no problem whatsoever, a shop that could sell him running shoes tailored to his gait.

And everything – but everything – can be advertised, on roadside billboards or on TV: churches, dentists, doctors, hospitals, legal services. There seem to be no restrictions.

Economic commentators such as Irwin M. Stelzer say that the US upturn will ride on the backs of consumers. Certainly, over the Thanksgiving week, we saw many doing their bit for America.

But here’s the thing...

Here in the UK, it’s a no-no to major on price – it cuts margins and your competitors can easily undercut you, even if only just long enough to see you out of business.

Stateside, prices are always included: either explicitly – “Help us celebrate 91 years in business with our 91 cents burger”, or indirectly – “Winning your [legal] case needn’t cost you your home.”

Why is this? Is it because Americans take factors such as service and quality for granted? We certainly became quickly accustomed to assistants telling us to have ‘a wonderful, wonderful day’ as if they meant it.

Or is it because with a highly mobile, dynamic population and no time to build customer loyalty, suppliers must focus on the lowest common denominator of price?

Or is it simply an effect of the recession? As the downturn affected the US first – had its roots there, in fact – will we see this price-focused trend in marketing hitting Britain in 2010?

Who can predict? One thing is sure; to misquote Wilde: “The English and the Americans have everything in common but their marketing.”

Exploring below below-the-line communications

I've recently been undertaking a communications audit for a major software company on the day-to-day emails they send out to prospects.

The good news was that the new business team are very on the ball when it comes to responding to online registrations and queries. However, different members of the team were writing and sending their own emails and there was inconsistency in the quality and messaging.

How could we maximise on the effort invested in the website and other communications in raising awareness and interest? How could we transform the enquirer’s first contact with a named person and fully exploit the opportunity to present the business as friendly, professional and focused on their needs?

Streamlined communications

Working with the lead marketing manager, I conducted an audit of current communications – turned out there were something like 26 emails being sent out – to see how we could streamline and simplify them. We reduced the number to just three, giving the team a mix-and-match set of options that they could easily tailor to the particular audience and situation to cover most scenarios.

The emails set the scene for a follow-up phone call and provided a small number of carefully chosen links for ‘in the meantime’ reading.

We also created a tailored service, whereby they could quickly have a customised email written for them if a unique situation arose.

Result!

The result is that the customer receives a prompt, well written response to their initial enquiry, while the new business team are now free from crafting emails to focus on the follow-up calls which genuinely need their skills and experience.

Commissioning a new kitchen or a marketing communications project...they’re not so very different

So the literal dust is finally beginning to settle on our new kitchen, the installation team have loaded up their van and all we need now is the time to unpack the boxes of china and utensils which have been scattered throughout the house and return everything to normal – only better.

Why am I sharing this entirely domestic and personal piece of news? Because it struck me that the same principles apply to installing a new kitchen as apply to clients commissioning me to carry out marketing communications projects.

Choosing a supplier
Initially, we tried one of the biggest names in kitchens (no names, no pack drill!). We found the showroom impressive and the salesman very positive. Unfortunately, when the designer turned up, he had a gloomy, ‘who sold you this then’ attitude. Most uninspiring. Could we trust him to handle a major investment in our home?

So back to the drawing-board, and we did what we should have done in the first place, ask around. One name kept coming up: a smaller company who could offer us personalised service.

Note: 100% of my business comes from word-of-mouth recommendation. I never have to advertise. I’d like to think that speaks volumes for the service I provide. Clients regularly comment on how helpful it is to be able to hand over their projects to a safe pair of hands, leaving them to concentrate on the job in hand. They often say, “I feel calmer already.” They know they can turst me to handle their end customers sensitively and courteously.

Sometimes they’ve tried large, expensive agencies first and been badly stung – and even treated with arrogance by the London agencies.

Achieving quality results
We knew that the layout and content of our new kitchen would be dictated by the space available and our budget, but within those limits we wanted a bit of flair and innovation. We didn’t know what was on the market and hadn’t time to research it.

Whereas our initial supplier only came up with ideas if pushed, Bob became positively creative. He has a keen aesthetic sense of what will work and, while we didn’t accept all his ideas, but it was great to have a fresh eye on our rather tired kitchen.

Note: as I’ve said before, I’m a firm believer in ‘we don’t see the water we swim in’. Working with clients, I find that they often take for granted the things they do well. I can suggest new ways to bring their strengths to the fore and capitalise on them. I’ve recently encouraged one technology company to focus more on the business benefits of their software, rather than its technical heritage. This is already paying dividends in resonating with the target audience.

Managing the project
Another thing we liked about our chose company is that Bob owns and runs the business, so he takes an active interest in the quality of work his installation team perform and can nip any problems in the bud. He’s been a guiding force throughout the project to keep it on track.

Note: I’ve been on your side of the desk. I know that while you don’t want to be bothered every five minutes, it’s good to have a regular update on how things are going, even when all is well. I also know that the last thing you want is a nasty surprise when I send in my invoice; so if we start to have ‘mission creep’, I’ll discuss any budget impact with you sooner rather than later.

So, in short, domestic and commercial projects are not so very different. Both demand:

• A supplier you can trust, who’s happy to work within your givens of budget and timescales
• Creativity in line with the objectives and audience
• Good project management throughout

We benefited from all this and I hope you agree that M squared clients do, too!