Business Blog » Marketing

Retail a Bit of Everything but Internet Specialised

admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 17:34:19 +0000

Take a look at our retail shopping habits and you wouldn’t be surprised that most large retail businesses try to capture as many ranges of products as possible. Take food retailers, there was a time you went there for frozen food and fruit, now if you turn a different way you find yourself walking down a clothes aisle on the way to the CDs and books. Go to a DIY shop at Christmas and you might just find some flat screen TVs for sale as an add on option to the extension lead they normally sell. Even if you pop into your well known newsagents such as WH Smiths, you should not be surprised to see the latest games machines, right next to the business stationary. This all makes sense as recession suggest you should diversify into other business areas to spread the risk.

But with the exception of Ebay and Amazon the internet has moved in a different direction. Gone are the large shopping sites, instead you only see specialised sites that tend to do just one thing. This doesn’t mean they are small, just very specific in their capture of customers for example, chances are if you are looking for classic car parts, you are unlikely to find a general car parts website but a specialist classic car parts site and again, if you are looking for something like quality door and glass range, then you are more likely to find a specialist website first, not a general DIY website selling composite doors or doors in general.

Any SEO company worth their salt understands how search on the internet is very specific and as time goes on, search terms are becoming more descriptive and longer. Anyone starting a business should consider SEO Training, even if they do not intend to have a big internet presence as the learning in customer trends can be very powerful for any business. So the message is, if you have a bricks and mortar business you should diversify and spread the risk, but if you are an internet company, you need to be very specific otherwise you will not be found on the internet.

Cut business travel costs, the Crowne Plaza Denmark’s way

admin — Fri, 07 May 2010 20:25:22 +0000

Listen to this? How about this for a super forward-thinking marketing and Green business initiative by the Crowne Plaza Denmark “cycle for your supper” proposal to guests. Crowne Plaza, Denmark Hotel guests can have a main course free for their evening meal if they succeed to generate 10kw of power cycling on exercise machines in the hotel’s main lobby.

BBC Online has done a special feature “Denmark hotel guests cycle for supper”. Frederikke Tommergaard, Crowne Plaza, Copenhagen said that they dreamt up the idea as “bicycles are a symbol of Copenhagen, and emphasise the city’s green credentials”.

Business Hotel guests appreciate:

saving money
A supplier who thinks about nature
Marketing initiatives that are ‘Environmentally friendly’
Keeping fit.
Saving the planet
Helping the hotel – The power is channelled directly into the hotel’s electricity grid.

What would UK Accountants advise their business clients?

To save money on business travel expenses, and keep fit in the process?

It is a shame there isn’t a business tax saving angle to this as well, otherwise UK Tax Advisers could recommend the idea for your business.

Regarding your business, could a business marketing specialist help your business design and launch a comparable initiative for your clients? The business marketing case for the Crowne Plaza, Copenhagen is evident.

Is Google Insights Flawed

admin — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 22:50:56 +0000

The free resource programme from Google allows you to chart the rise ir fall of a search term from anything from a month to 5 years. First you enter a keyword or search term you would use for your business, in this instance “composite door” and the results show a huge rise in search volume over the last 5 years, representing the growth in popularity in this time. It also sows that compared to the UK, the USA only searches for composite door to a 8 to 100 ratio, proving that the UK is delievering the growth in tthis ype of business. This is all great stuff until you start researching customer behavior on the internet. a representive from MSN a few years ago claimed that up to 50% of search terms were new or very rearly used and that as time goes on. more and more of us use longer search terms (long tail).

So what has this got to do with Google insights? Well loads really, because when you use the tool for the search term “car parts” you see a drop over the last 5 years in volume of searches suggesting a decline in the industry. But being based in the car part industry we just know this is not true, so even though the Insights info suggests a drop, the market has increased.

What has really happened is that searchers are using more detailed search terms rather than generic terms like “car parts” and so insights only really measures search term usage, not growth in business.

With the composite doors market being so new, long tail searches are just now being used that much yet, but of course as awareness of the product increases, so will the varuation of search terms. So is Google insights flawes? The answer is no, if you know how to understand and use the information delivered.

For reference composite doors www.globaldoor.co.uk

Marketing is Key

admin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:21:39 +0000

Business is tougher than usual within the current climate with many that would rely on passing trade now needing to take their business to the world. This has meant that many marketing companies are busier than ever hopefully assisting getting the business message out.

Top gear the popular car TV programme did a feature albeit a tongue in cheek one, as a challenge to market the new VW Scirocco Diesel . The advice was to find a truth within the car and use that truth as a basis of a TV advert (something that can be used in all business marketing). The problem was when they came to test the car; their perception was that a car this beautiful should not have the slower Diesel engine in, but the faster petrol one. More advice came, do not focus on the car with a diesel engine, but focus on the diesel engine in a beautiful car. What followed was a catalogue of funny videos that we all know will never be used for real. But from a VW perspective they got a good 10 minutes of prime world TV. What was also understood, that even simple messages can be difficult to deliver.

Here are some more marketing challenges

Business Support

Most businesses leave it too late to ask for business support and have no idea where to go for the right help. One problem is that to be seen as a reputable business adviser or consultant you need a superb CV and qualifications to match. But if there is anything a small business owner does not like, is guys in suits with a fancy CV and loads of qualifications. It is a catch 22 situation. It is no wonder most business support comes from referrals. How to market this and to get business owners first to find you and then decide you are good for their business is an art. A solution is probably not from business advisers, but from business owners currently running their own business. Would they not be the best advisers, for those who are struggling? Something to think about.