Category Archives: Small business

Retailers greatest new e-tool

Want to show prospective customers your range, layout, this weeks specials, or the new greatest design? Google business view uses the same technology as streetview to give browsers a view of the inside of your business. The most obvious immediate … Continue reading

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Mapping Social Media

Most Aussies will probably recognise the diagram above, the London Underground. The first time anyone arrives in London, an underground map is  a vital piece of paper, even in these days of mobile phone enabled GPS tools. The underground system … Continue reading

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3 points to measure e-marketing productivity.

When looked at from the “helicopter perspective ” there seems to be three points of threshold competitive activity that you simply have to get right, or all else is irrelevant. Having a few meaningful measures at those three points is … Continue reading

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5 practises for successful blogging

  Over the weekend, my sister, a writer, called me a “blogging machine”, recognising the challenge of producing 3 or 4 worthwhile posts a week. Caught me a bit by surprise, because I just blog, write about what seems important … Continue reading

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2 vital and connected KPI’s for SME’s

Share of wallet, share of attention Share of Wallet is, very simply, your share of an existing customers total purchases in a domain you service. You can fiddle at the edges in the way you define the domain, but it … Continue reading

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Business of Social Media.

The business function of Social Media is to spread the message, and make sales. Each platform differs in the balance between the “Social” and “business” focus but nevertheless, they are essentially the digital equivalent of a social gathering. Some are … Continue reading

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6 imperatives for effective SME email marketing.

Cold emails are usually no more welcome that a cold phone call. However, For small businesses, the emergence of email marketing has transformed the opportunities they have to communicate, but so many fail to do some pretty simple things before … Continue reading

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5 classic marketing steps that still work.

In 1968 a seminal Book called “Consumer behaviour”  Engel, Blackwell & Kollat described the 5 steps in the marketing process that dominated marketing thinking for the next 45 years. It is clear that they are still as valid now as … Continue reading

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6 ingredients for SME success

The post on the 2 tools SME’s need  in early August  led to a comment that, whilst the headlines of focus and discipline made sense, the challenge is in implementation. Fair comment. So, how do you build the needed focus … Continue reading

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12 key success factors for SME’s

Small businesses make up the vast majority of business numbers, make a huge contribution to economic activity and health, but most do not last 5 years. Over  20 years of observing small businesses as a contractor and consultant, I have … Continue reading

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9 tips to crafting effective headlines

David Ogilvy said many things that have gone into the marketing lexicon, one that is particularly relevant to the ways we are communicating today: “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. … Continue reading

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6 Really simple steps to increase the effectiveness of your website.

The blokes I saw as a youngster who had outrageous success with the girls were not always the best looking, or the most interesting, or had the best cars (although all these assets did seem to help) they were the … Continue reading

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6 vital elements of a marketing story that sells.

  As everyone will tell you, (including me here) marketing is about stories, stories that resonate, are remembered, that generate empathy, and lead to an action, and hopefully if your effort is to be rewarded, a transaction. So what are … Continue reading

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7 tips to improve your marketing.

Marketing has changed very rapidly from the mass outbound marketing upon which all the marketing theory and practice until about 2000, to what is often called “inbound” marketing, or in other words, finding ways to attract customers to you. There … Continue reading

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5 ways small retailers avoid failure

Small retailers see themselves as under siege, and many just hunker down and work harder to survive, for many, it is too hard. For those that survive, some are doing really well, and there seems to be a few common … Continue reading

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2 tools SME’s have to have

  Most SME’s I see are run by a single person, without the benefit of any sort of advisory board beyond those with whom he/she has dinner sometimes, when they get the time. The hats they wear  make Josephs coat … Continue reading

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7 essential sales tips for SME’s

Most of us recognise that the best sales lead you have is a satisfied existing customer, so why do SME’s so often fail to capitalise on them?. It seems to me that there are a number of reasons, usually they … Continue reading

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6 challenges (and 3 rules) of content creation

The single biggest stumbling block I see to successful digital marketing is not the technology, or the money, desire, or need, it is simply the unwillingness or inability to create relevant, engaging content of value that suits the context in … Continue reading

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The value curve

As a young marketing graduate in the 70’s I was given a scholarship to attend  an intensive marketing management program in Boston, run by Harvard professor Jim Hagler. He changed my life. One of the many things he rumbled to … Continue reading

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Contrarian strategy

The complexity of the world these days demands an approach to strategy that is counter intuitive, perhaps even a contrarian approach to the accepted best practice. For decades managers have sweated and planned, and set out to execute, just to … Continue reading

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