BSA Marketing Matters

Since our last podcast, the hype around chatbots has been growing with Microsoft and Google drawing up the battle lines with plans to integrate AI into their search algorithms. There is no doubt that AI could prove a game changer for search. Rather than the list of urls we're used to seeing, AI could to provide information in a more natural way, presenting both opportunities and challenges for those looking to promote their businesses via search. In this podcast we discuss what impact is this going to have on traditional Search marketing. We also consider how we think it's all going to ultimately unfold?

Recently, OpenAI launched a new version of their ChatGPT bot that can allegedly generate natural content. As Marketers are always looking for an edge using automation, it obviously generated some interest. As well as a number of questions! How good can the results be? Can it be useful as a starting point for writing? And what about the ethics? Whilst we discuss this and more in our latest podcast, we also decided to test it out on our blog. You will find the results here.

I recently read an article advocating the "Renting of Christmas" - Nowadays, you can rent anything!  It started with Software as a Service. Now you can buy pretty much anything as a service. But should you? The decision on whether you should head down that path is not always an easy one and depends on many factors. Whilst accessing something on a simple monthly subscription may seem attractive, it can become expensive, and usually comes with strings attached. In this episode of Marketing Matters we discuss whether it better to invest in capabilities in house or to 'rent them for a fee whenever you need them? Yes, you can have everything as a service, and suppliers would certainly like you to, but is it the right way to go?

In our latest podcast, we look into the real world issue of tech projects (Websites, Web apps and the like), For SME's they can be a huge draw on resources and cost effectives solutions can often be elusive. Often Having the idea is the easy part. The challenge is finding a cost effective solution that brings the idea to reality as out of the box solutions rarely deliver 100%. and going totally bespoke is usually prohibitively expensive. In this episode we discuss how to square that circle!      

In this episode, we look into the issues with planning when running an SME business and why for many people it is a continual challenge. To fail to plan is to plan to fail Benjamin Franklin But No plan survives first contact with the enemy Much quoted by military strategists throughout history! So why bother. Listen to the podcast to find out!

Google Analytics, the leading measuring tool for analysing & comparing what visitors do on your website, is having a major change over the next year as it switches from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4. While GA4 is available now, the data is not retroactive, so the sooner you switch, the better. Analytics is important but it's just another tool to help your marketing: you still need to know what questions to ask in order to benefit your business. What actions do you want people to take on your website? Where are you hoping to get them from and how can you measure how successful that is? A key improvement to GA4 makes it easier to answer these questions.  

While it is true that pretty much everybody uses a search engine nowadays, there is an oversimplified idea that if your business pops up at the top of a search page, people will flock to your site and business will boom. Being top of a Google search isn't necessarily what you should be aiming for. Start with asking yourself questions about your marketplace: what do I offer? Who am I benefitting? If you want to be effective, you need a good marketing plan that considers these things. Use of search is just one tool to help your strategy. Rather than a major focus on keywords, which may be a very niche subject in a very broad term, make sure your site's content informs and demonstrates what do you well and, in doing so, you give yourself an organically successful SEO method.    

It's great being able to be independent, running business yourself, but sometimes your skillset isn't enough, and the best choice is to get somebody else involved.  While it may be tempting to try and do everything yourself, to save costs or provide additional revenue, there are downsides. Getting the right tools and learning how to use them can be expensive and time-consuming, and using  an external service with the tools and experience can be more cost effective. But is there a way to work collaboratively to create a more satisfying way of operating?

In the final part of looking at tools that we use, telecom systems are at the forefront of our minds.  In the past, internet connectivity held back VoIP (Voice over IP) systems for early adopters: it was about having the technology rather than it actually being beneficial. While our existing telecoms had served us well, it was getting long in the tooth and, with internet speeds always improving, we made the switch to cloud phone system 3CX in December 2019. With a goal to be able to operate flexibly, even before working from home became a necessity, we have seen significant benefits and improved functionality, all at a lower cost! And, though reliability can be a risk, we never want to switch back.

Whether you like it or not, if you're running a business, you have to keep accounts. Bookkeeping and invoicing can be tedious and time consuming, but something that is entirely necessary. As a small business owner, keeping on top of finances and knowing your position is vital. Some years ago, we switched to Xero, a cloud accounting system. While there were some initial teething issues, like with most new software, we came out the other side wondering how we ever lived without it. Here we look at the pros and cons to cloud accounting.

Domains, email and hosting are critically important elements of the digital business world but are often forgotten because, when they work well, you never need to think about Them: But they are the glue holding an business together if they fail, everything falls apart! In this episode, we discuss these elements of the digital world that are often taken for granted, but that are actually at the centre of our work!

Building a website can seem like technical barrier for many people and take focus away from the real challenge of building a business. But given the right tools and working with the right partners, designing and hosting a website should simply be a part of running & building a business rather than a technical hurdle to overcome. Over the years, we've identified two key tools in website development and management that we have come to rely on: WordPress (an open source web builder) and Elementor a tool for building WordPress templates.  In todays podcast we talk about these two tools and why we use them.

In this new season, we're taking a glimpse “behind the curtain” at the tools used in web marketing. In most instances, you cannot run a business these days without the technical tools and support, so what do we use for websites, e-mail and even, looking beyond marketing, accounting and telephone systems? As we're surrounded by technology, a key thing to remember is the tool only aids in running your business: it isn't the be-all and end-all. For the right tools, you need to understand both why you want it and what you hope to gain.

On the back of our recent e-business series, we've had some real world examples of situations where a joined-up approach would have been useful. Legitimate suppliers selling legitimate products, but their lack of cohesion and poor communication led to a less than ideal customer experience, costing them potential further business. What were the big mistakes made and how should they avoid it in future?

Regardless of whether your business is conducted primarily on or offline, a solid digital presence is key to the way you interact with your market and customers.  Different businesses operate in slightly different ways but fundamentally they need to effectively engage with their marketplace and digital platforms are now a critical part of this process. In our final episode on e-business, we pull things together and discuss how a joined up approach to managing the digital elements of your business is vital to long term success.

Once you've had somebody sign on the dotted line, your relationship with them changes. They know you better, are more interested in what you have to say and, according to marketing wisdom, should be your most profitable customers. But do you make the most of this opportunity? Finding and converting new customers is expensive, but many companies focus their energy almost exclusively on this. Ignoring the potential opportunities from current clients. Many businesses fail to recognise the value of building on existing relationships even though it doing this can often make or break the success of a business.

After an enquiry is made, What next? Do you have a process to make the most of them and where appropriate, convert them? With a service-led business, a website is about building confidence and trust. The buying decision might take longer and need a little more help. Rushing to seal a deal may be tempting, but is rarely helpful: What's more, seem too keen, and it could make them question your motives. Different enquiries will move at different rates and you need a process to deal with these in the most appropriate way. In this weeks podcast, we discuss this and introduce the concept of the Boomerang e-mail - Trust me its worth a listen just for that!

The main marketing focus of many businesses is getting people to their website, with the priority on things like improving Google search rankings Whilst this is important, what happens when they arrive on your site is equally important. If your website doesn't deliver, then attracting people in the first place is a pointless endeavour. The more competitive a market is the more important it is to hold someone's attention. If it's not easy for visitors to find what they're looking for, they'll look elsewhere. In this episode we look at what you need in place to ensure their experience goes smoothly and delivers results?

The next step of our series on e-business looks at the visibility and effectiveness of your website. While getting people to your site is important, it's only worthwhile if they are interested in what you do and that you can convert them into customers. Having the right approach to attracting people, by knowing who it is you're appealing to and making sure the message is right, is imperative. You don't want to attract just anybody. One of the biggest mistakes made by marketers is not effectively defining the target audience, and casting the net too wide. Just thinking of gross numbers instead of narrowing the field means you're going to waste resources and struggle to convert people. You cannot and will not make a customer out of everyone.

With the odd exception, every business has some sort of online presence. Whilst this may not involve a full e-commerce offering, the web is critical to all businesses these days.  As a critical element in communicating with your target audience your use of technology needs to be a fully integrated part of your business rather than simply a technical issue. In this episode, we talk about the difference between e-Commerce & e-Business, and the importance of a joint up approach to technology throughout the sales & marketing process.

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, applying aspects such as websites, promotion and content, hopefully giving new ways of thinking how to approach technological requirements.  Technology suppliers may focus on how their solution can be applied to solve an issue you have but, in reality, it's only part of the problem. Rather than getting a lot of expertise from one, you need a little from many in order to deliver.  

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.

Social media business models centre on selling the attention of their users to the highest bidder. If there is an issue with this model, then are we as marketers, part of the problem? There is no doubt that the data collected by social media platforms allows well targeted marketing, so marketing should be more effective and feel less intrusive. That in itself has to be a good thing. But as with all tools, the real issue is not the tool itself, but what people do with it.

It's a struggle to finish projects and get them over the line, whether it's creative or artistic etc. The same applies to us as we struggle to make websites live or get blog posts signed off: there is always something you feel you can tweak and improve. However, it's key to remember we're not doing this for perfection, there is purpose behind publishing your content and it requires a 'deadline' - an idea no more true than in content marketing.

We often hear and quote the words "can we just", three simple words that can have major implications. The nature of marketing is that you plan and price based on experience and a few assumptions. But it is never certain that reality will play ball. When working to an agreed fee there is always the risk that if the job expands, you are putting in more hours for the same reward or the client end up paying more than anticipated. Neither of these are ideal.  The key is to focus on value. And the key to managing these situations is communication!

Setting up a WordPress site is easy and can be done by anyone, usually resulting in a "fit and forget" solution from a technical perspective. But to ensure a headache free experience with the platform, you either need to understand WordPress yourself or partner with those who do. This way, routine maintenance becomes just that - Routine!  Websites should just work and getting the right hosting is critical into making this a reality.

Producing good quality videos can be challenging and time consuming. Writing blogs can be cumbersome and long winded. However, with the right passion and content, you can find your niche via podcasting. Entertaining, informative and personal, podcasts can be an invaluable marketing medium, using a fraction of the time. Joining us is guest Clare Freeman, podcast coach from A Small Furry Bear Productions, to provide top tips for those who wish to start.    

We have previously spoken about the importance of measuring marketing and data, as well as the dangers of data overload. Now we're going further by exploring dashboards and the value of connecting data into your day-to-day business. Most understand the concept of Google analytics; they know it exists but don't understand its usefulness. Analytics & dashboards provide necessary information for business and this knowledge is power.. but only if you know how to use it.

A good philosophy to have as a small business is to surround yourself with those "who have knowledge and talents in areas where I might not be so well versed" (Richard Branson), whether it's regarding employees, suppliers or even customers. But, despite being a closer relationship that provides a more satisfying approach, working as a partner has its own challenges. If you're treating someone as a supplier or customer, there is a natural distance but, as a partnership, it becomes a bond that requires trust and confidence. 

As businesses are starting to reopen, many are having to adjust the way they operate. A shrewd company is not thinking about how they can simply survive through the next few weeks and months, but how they can adapt their business model to the new environment. As their old thought processes become sub-optimal, and with the market potentially changing long term, firms are having to ask themselves "what are we good at; how can we deliver that value?"    

Situations like the current predicament tend to give birth to innovation, and the technology that has come of age in this pandemic is the use of remote video . In the marketing world, this presents itself in the form of webcasts, a term we prefer to webinars, as it puts the emphasis on content (which is where the value lies) and not the format or as an advert. Regardless of software, issues such as video quality and connection should be non-existent, thus rendering the technology "invisible" to the user.

When it comes to effective communication, it's important to use a good mix of content and media to maximise viewability, rather than reliance on a single social channel. Any communication you have needs to sit well and reflect your business proposition in order to successfully spread the message. But a balance needs to be struck between saying the right things and getting them to your audience in the right way.

We've all been taking a philosophical view of life the past few weeks but what place should philosophy have in your business model? A while ago we explored 'the Power of Why' and the philosophy behind why you do what you do but today we're looking at it in more depth. What drives you in the morning? Why are you in business and what do you wish to do with it?