Gremlins take control of Five-id website
By Natasha | July 9, 2008
You may notice that there are a few features and pages missing from the Five-id website. Somehow, Gremlins rampaged through the site and pages miraculously dissappeared. We would appreciate your patience as we rebuild parts of this site and apologise for any inconvenience
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3…2…1… Happy Financial Year!
By Natasha | July 9, 2008
What better way to celebrate the start of the financial year than with a review of your marketing goals and objectives.
Here are three simple steps.
- Review your 07/08 marketing activities. What was successful? What was not? Did you conduct your marketing activities according to plan? Did you have a plan? What was the impact of your marketing? Did it create greater brand awareness? Did it generate new business or leads? Did you measure your marketing campaigns.
- What would you change? What would you do differently in sales, marketing or client relations if you had that time over again? What did you learn from last year?
- Plan and change. Revise your marketing plan, make sure that it fits with your organisations objectives. Be prepared to change your activities and be creative.
If marketing is a daunting task for you, step back and relax. Your goal for 2008/2009 should be to focus on three marketing activities to deliver on and do well. These activities as compared to those from last year should be remarkable. difference to how your business you achieved last year. These activities are going to help you get closer to your goal. Don’t over commit yourself, but make sure you follow through and measure your chosen activities.
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Drive Customers Your Way
By Natasha | May 30, 2008
When starting a small business with a limited marketing budget, how do you possibly compete with the bigger players in the market in terms of promotion?
- Tell everyone you have arrived. Get your name out there. Word of Mouth marketing is the key to getting more and more people to know who you are and what you do. The more that do, the better.
- Contact your local media. Let them know what you are up to. Be sure to share your skills and knowledge with them.
- Get your message heard online. You need a business website, but it needs to be search engine friendly. Make sure you plan what you want to get from your website - what do you want your customers to do? Search Engines are the key. You can be searchable through organic listings to optimise your website or consider buying google keywords or adwords to get customers to find you. Speak to your web designer for their advice on the best method to suit you.
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Evaluating Advertising Effectiveness
By Natasha | May 16, 2008
When evaluating the potential effectiveness of different advertising, use the following questions:
- Does the ad clearly identify your brand? Does it do so immediately and throughout the ad?
- Does the ad feature a tag line that reinforces the brand’s promise?
- Does the ad reinforce your brand’s identity?
- Does the ad connect with the reader on an emotional level? Does it win the reader’s heart or capture his or her imagination?
- Is there something about the ad that makes the reader admire the brand?
- Is your ad significantly different from that of your competitors? Does it look and feel different from anything else featured in the same media?
- Does the ad reinforce the positive value and values of your brand?
- Could no competitor make the same claim? If you inserted a competitor’s logo in the ad, would it make no sense or be unbelievable?
- Does the ad lead the reader/viewer to believe that he or she will be better off in some way for having interacted with your brand? Does it create a more favorably perceived end-state for him or her? Does it leave a vivid picture in his or her mind?
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Three Tips for Developing an Effective Marketing Plan
By Natasha | April 4, 2008
I came across this Blog by Drew McLellan on effective marketing planning. An effective marketing plan can keep you focused on your goals and caution you to spend your marketing budget on the wrong things.
So you need a marketing plan, but where do you start? Here is some advice from Drew McLellan:
- You can be too ambitious. Most small businesses make the mistake of launching too many marketing initiatives when they don’t have the resources to follow through on each one. You’re better off doing fewer things, but doing them frequently and well.
- Don’t depend on a single medium. Says McLellan, “No matter how much you believe in word of mouth, direct mail, e-newsletters or an interactive Web site, one of your goals should be delivering key messages through a variety of media.” It isn’t called a marketing mix for nothing. With a more diverse campaign you are likely to increase your reach and your number of impressions.
- Remember your core audience. You want to attract new customers, and there’s a natural urge to invest all of your marketing resources in doing just that. But, warns McLellan, it’s a shortsighted strategy. “The two most important audiences are your employees and your current customers,” he says. “Be sure your marketing plan gives them enough attention.” These groups deserve at least half of your time and budget.
Source: Drew’s Marketing Minute. Read the original blog post here.
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