What is Marketing? What does marketing mean to you?

March 10, 2020 ~ nicolepinpointmarketing ~ Leave a comment

For some it means advertising.
For some it evokes fear and overwhelm?
For some it means something very expensive and only for big companies.

What is marketing?

☑ Creating a product or service that is needed/in demand

☑ Setting a price

☑ Providing a “place” to sell

☑ Promoting

Put simply, marketing is about advertising your product or service to the people who want to buy it.

Marketing is getting potential customers interested and made aware of. After all, if you don’t have customers or potential customers, you don’t have a business!

Marketing helps you identify who these people are they could or should buy from you. It also helps work out the words to say to these people to advise them on what you have buy. These words will include your USP and features and benefits.

Marketing is telling people what is available, why they need it and how much it will cost. This is brand awareness.

Marketing is about finding ways to reach people using forms of promotion – eg physically as in a place in shops, cafes, networking events and exhibitions etc as well as virtually through websites, social media, advertising, press releases, email marketing, direct mail, videos, podcasts etc.

Its simply letting people know about you/your business. You will do this daily I’m sure intentionally and also without knowing eg chats at the school gates, at networking, by sharing social posts and so on.

Marketing is about increasing sales, through promotion

Marketing is all about consistency and regularity

Other words for marketing are advertising or promotion or presenting or publicising.

What marketing isn’t

☒ Something to do sporadically.

☒ Expensive (if it is done properly, see it as an investment!).

☒ Only for the big companies.

☒ Waste of time for small businesses.

☒ Something to be scared of and to avoid

☒ Optional! It is essential

Examples of marketing:

Having a conversation at a dinner party or at the school gates
Running an advert in a magazine
Facebook posts
Linkedin articles
Blogging
Phoning someone
Emailing someone
Networking
Running an event
Talking on local radio
Entering an award
Using Twitter or Instagram
Setting up a Google me Business profile
Launching a website
Uploading videos and podcasts
Creating keywords for your site
Running pay per click campaigns and so on

These are ALL examples of marketing!

How do marketing properly

☑ Get organised and don’t adopt the as and when approach. Market your business even when you are busy.

☑ Plan your content and your activities. Get a plan!

☑ Do what is only suitable for your business rather than trying to do everything!

☑ Use an expert to help do what you can’t do.

☑ Review, measure and evaluate.

☑ Budget.

Find out more about marketing

Top Tips: How to Stand out from the crowd on social media – guest blog from Claire Fryer

March 10, 2020 ~ nicolepinpointmarketing ~ Leave a comment

Recent stats show that Facebook has 2.5 billion active users and that 5.5 million people use Instagram stories every day. There are 145 million daily active users on Twitter and LinkedIn has over 500 million members.

If you’re reading these stats and wondering how on earth “little-old-you” can stand out from the crowd, don’t worry. Claire Fryer from One to Three Marketing shares her top tips on creating engaging content that won’t get lost.

NEVER (ever, ever!) post on any platform without a supporting image or video. If you just post a quick text update on any platform it will get swallowed up by everything around it. The eye is so much easier drawn to an image than just words. 80% of people remember what they see, compared to ten percent what they hear and 20 percent of what they read.
A couple of my go-to sources for imagery are: pixabay.com – a royalty free image and video bank that allows you to search by keywords. Unsplash.com is another favourite.

Don’t choose an image from page 1 of the results – go a bit deeper into the library and you’ll likely end up using an image that is more unique (these image banks are well used and often people grab a picture from page 1.)

Try out the slideshow feature in Facebook. It’s a nice way to share images with the movement of a video. When you want to add a new post hit the ‘picture icon and choose the slideshow option. Add your photos, set how long each image should show for and hey presto. A great little rolling slideshow is created.
Create collages. There are many free apps out there to create picture collages. Two of our favourites are InstaCollageand CollageFactory – collages allow you to tell a story in one photo and look really effective.
One more image tip – get creative with tools such as Canva and create your own infographics.
Go Live! Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all have ‘live’ options where you can video in the moment and share what you’re up to right now with your audience. Give them a go! The functionality of the live tools is really user friendly and you can just start with a few seconds of what’s happening in your world and build up to sharing pieces to camera or more detail. Read more about Going Live in our blog
Tell your story! Instagram stories are HUGE this year – more and more people are relying on stories alone to find out what their favourite influencers, businesses and friends are up to. Stories appear at the top of your Instagram app, and are live on Facebook too, and last for 24hours. They’re a great way to engage with your audience so give them a try. We’ve written some tips on creating a great story here.

Hot off the press: Twitter are trialling their own version of stories right now – called ‘fleets’ they’re in early trial stages but watch this space for a full roll-out.

Did you know you can amend the font in a Facebook post? Check out http://www.fbfontchanger.comfor access to all sorts of fonts that will make your posts that little bit different.
Don’t ‘sell, sell, sell.’ Your content should be 20% sales based – maximum! Your audience want to feel as if they are in a conversation with you, so ask questions, share your news, make them laugh and allow your personality to shine. Give away some nuggets of your knowledge and build your brand by being authentic and open.
Finally, share other people’s content. Retweeting, reposting and sharing other people’s posts can help to build relationships with like-minded businesses and it is a positive thing to support others by helping to spread their news too.

Enjoy getting creative – don’t be a wallflower…..smile, sparkle, shine!!

For more information and tips, contact Claire

Being prepared in business. Nicole shares her top tips …

February 3, 2020January 27, 2020 ~ nicolepinpointmarketing ~ Leave a comment

Are you organised and accountable when it comes to marketing and running your business?

Top marketing tips from Pinpoint Marketing.

What are the benefits of being prepared?

Routine
The way we think
Flexibility
Resilience

Here is what I do? Weekly – One other thing I do at the beginning of the week is message or email clients (using their preferred method of communication) and confirm the dates, times and locations of any meetings that week to try and avoid last minute cancellations on both sides. And Monthly – At the beginning of each month, I schedule in my monthly commitments for Pinpoint’s own blog, social media posting, newsletter etc. Plus I schedule in each of my retainer client’s work to eg reporting at the end of the month and writing their social media posts at the beginning of each month.

How can you be more prepared in business situations?

Diary management – don’t overpack the diary. Tempting I know.
Block time out – if you want to stay on top of things like your social media, marketing or admin etc, dedicate time in your diary on fixed times in the week/month and don’t let anything go in that space. Get into a routine of being prepared
1. REMEMBER to block time out for yourself too.
Delegate and outsource – being prepared is knowing what is likely to come up in your business situation wise. Outsource. Yes this will cost you but its worth it if it will save you time and stress
Make lists. This can be pen and paper or a CRM or an online app/tool. Whatever works for you
Make a plan. Aside from stopping the overwhelm, a plan helps to break down a large task and into smaller bite size sections. This makes it more manageable and easier to get your head around, step by step
Go prepared to meetings

BUT whilst you are busy creating this new habit and learning to be prepared, try not to overthink it!

We can’t pre empt everything, but we can try.

Read the being prepared in business tips in full

Is an upselling a missed opportunity?

How to upsell. Small business marketing advice and support from Pinpoint Marketing

November 19, 2019 ~ nicolepinpointmarketing ~ Leave a comment

I say yes!

I told the story today in the workshop I was hosting. I have recently booked a horse riding lesson for my daughter and a golf club birthday party for my son. Neither of these things were cheap but of course worth it. Maybe it is because I am a marketing consultant or professional, but by me booking the lessons and courses then it showed to the businesses/business owners that I am a caring mother and willing to spend money to make them happy and to bring joy.

What has surprised me, as an example, and I have many more examples that since the events took place, neither business has contacted me to ask about my experience and to upsell to me to book future lessons or courses or parties and events? Why is this? Are they just busy or is it a case of they have had my money so the story ends. I don’t know the answer, but in my mind they have missed a trick. Do you agree?

As a marketer I tell my clients about measuring and evaluating their marketing and about looking after their customers to make them into loyal and repeat business. So what could these businesses have done? They could of called me or emailed me after the event and asked about my experience. They could of taken it one step further and perhaps offered me a discount or time limited offer to buy more. Would I of done this, probably yes! Especially if I had to buy/book quickly as this would of meant firstly a discount and secondly I/the kids would of still been in the happy customer zone and therefore more easy to reach and sell to.

How many times has this happened to you? Businesses are busy I know and these two businesses probably are too and they don’t necessarily need more business but this is quite a short sighted approach. Upselling and cross selling to customers who have already purchased from us are in my mind, low hanging fruit. Thank them, treat them well and they will be ambassadors and trumpet blowers for your business. This is invaluable.

If you don’t ask them you don’t get. Don’t be afraid to ask customers for a review or to sell to them (in a non pushy way of course) or to ask them to refer you. Most people want to help but we don’t know how so when a small business asks then that is your cue to help.

For more small business marketing tips and advice, get in touch.