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The Marketing Gurus This book is a collection of key extracts from some of the top marketing books around. Perfect for those who want to get to the key messages but don't have the time to read every text on the subject Buy on Amazon

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Customer Loyalty Will Drive Growth

Businesses large and small who have a loyal customer base out perform their competitors time and time again, but so many firms never take the time to understand what their customers think of their service and products.

We suggest you ask your customers one simple question – How do you rate our service from 1 to 10?

This one question will give you a great understanding of what your customers think of you, those who rate you 9 or 10 a loyal customers and advocates of your business. 7 or 8 is a moderate score these people are content but they won’t be shouting about your business to their friends and family. Anything below a 7 is the area of concern and where you should look to dig deeper. You should look to interview a handful of these low scorers and find out what is really hurting your business. Research has shown that you will gain more of an insight by interviewing in depth a handful of customers than surveying a vast number.

Once you have all your results build a plan based on the in-depth feedback and record your score (number of 9 & 10′s – number of 6 & belows). Keep gaining feedback track your score and adapt your plan to build customer loyalty.

If you need inspiration or motivation to take action and address your customer loyalty just take a look a the likes of Apple I-Tunes or Amazon for examples of businesses that have out grown their competitors off the back of customer satisfaction, just imagine your business could be next.

July 1st, 2009 | Tags: , | Category: Business Planning, Public Relations | Comments are closed

The 10 Second Business Pitch

“So, what do you do?” I think we’ve all been asked this question, but how should you answer this question in order

Its not an Internet idea, it’s not even a new idea but it’s possibly one of the most important tools a small business owner or entrepreneur can utilise in a networking situation. The 30 second pitch or ‘elevator pitch’ is a concise statement about you and your business that conveys to your audience what you are all about without losing their interest. However the concept of a 30 second pitch in our eyes is a little unhelpful, in reality 30 seconds is often much longer than either 1. the time you’ll get or 2. the time you’ll need. Plus a 30 second rehearsed speech often rings a bit sterile and forced.

This is where the 10 second pitch comes into play, we suggest you have a brief benefit statement ready to use when anyone asks the question. You can develop a unique benefit statement by answering the following questions;

1> What do I or my business do? – Try to answer this without using a job title or industry name.

2> What makes us unique? – What is your USP?

The answer could be as simple as “We help small businesses develop skills to create an online  presence, through a range of online resources and e-courses.”. Once stated anyone who has a genuine interest will question more, at which point you can elaborate more and even pitch if the situation feels appropriate.  By using the 10 second pitch you inform the person of what you do without allowing them to form any pre-disposed ideas. We didn’t say small business consultancy, or business coach and attach all the stereotypes that come with the titles. Nor did we reel off a long winded pitch before we qualified any interest.

The 10 second pitch is a quick and easy method that you can employ in an array of networking situations, it also attaches an element of filtering to your networking allowing you to find the people in a room with some real interest in your business.

March 23rd, 2009 | Tags: , , | Category: Public Relations, Training and Development | Comments are closed

Social Network Optimisation (SNO) is the new SEO!

Social networks, Blogging, Online directories, Web 2.0, micro-blogging,  Online forums, are just a few of the terms you may or may not be familiar with.

The terms themselves aren’t that important its the concept which they stand for that is, and that concept is of user interaction and user generated content. The idea that today’s customers and clients live in a connected world which they can control and that includes their perception of you company, brand and services. Whilst most of are aware of the many social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, etc, but how many really understand the impact that forums and bloggers can have on our businesses, positive or negative?

For many small businesses online marketing and PR through social networks can be a cost effective way of reaching your audience on a global scale. Imagine finding a forum which main thread of discussion surrounds your niche market, this forum picks up on your service through appropriate marketing and within days has a long list of reviews and discussions about your products and services. Imagine how powerful that user generated commentary about your business would be to potential new customers vs the standard sales literature found on a static website on in a offline ad.

The power of SNO is credibility!

Harnessing the potential of SNO can control and negate bad press and opinion, whilst maximizing your global web presence and customer base and creating credibility around your business and brand. It’s this interaction and credibility building is the key difference why SNO is so much more powerful than simple SEO and therefore its importance can’t be understated.

We recommend any business, web based or not, should start looking at how they approach SNO and suggest the following questions to ask when looking at Social Network Marketing;

  1. Where are potential customers discussing my industry/products/services?
  2. What are the hot topics/issues that these bloggers/forums are raising?
  3. What interaction does my business have with these forums and their issues?
  4. What opportunity do we offer to both our exsiting and potential customers to feedback to us and interact with us on the internet?

Find the answers to these questions and you can be well on the way to tackling SNO and influencing more customers than you ever imagined.

February 10th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , | Category: Marketing, Public Relations | Comments are closed

LimeMinds now on Twitter

LimeMinds has now established a presence on the micro-blogging website www.twitter.com/limeminds. You can follow our business advice snippets (or tweets) from your computer or mobile by clicking the link below and registering your details.

We will be posting updates to the website, links to useful business resources on a regular basis.

February 9th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , | Category: Marketing, Public Relations | Comments are closed