Inbound Marketing

Posted by Chris on January 10th, 2010

A couple of important links for Inbound Marketing:

http://inboundmarketing.com/

http://mcdn.hubspot.com/Hiring_In_The_DARC_Ages_HubSpot_eBook.pdf

http://www.hubspot.com/

I will come back to these sometime.

The Targeted Researched Cold Call

Posted by Chris on January 10th, 2010

This blog is about targeted, researched cold calling. It is looked at from the perspective of an ICT reseller to the SMB market.

This is what I call the sniper rifle approach rather than the shotgun approach.

It is about targeting the types of company that you can ( easily and effectively ) provide solutions for. Actually, you are looking for prospects where your strengths and experience help you to outshine or get an edge over the competition.  

This requires at least 2 things:

 

1.       That you understand the prospect as far as possible both initially (  even before you have spoken to them ) and after you have met with them.

2.       That you understand the strengths and weaknesses of the solutions that you are selling.

 

So, this might lead, for example ( if you were a ICT reseller ) to you looking for companies with an  inbound and outbound calling requirement  ( say small sales departments or small customer support departments ) because you have good CRM to telephony integration. Or it might lead to you avoiding other prospects with say, warehouses,  because you don’t have cordless phone facilities
(    eg DECT )

 

 

What are your target markets and how do you describe them??

 

There are a number of ways to describe your target markets:

 

Horizontal size

 

You may be aiming at “ SMB “ but what does this really mean ??? 1- 10, 10 – 50, 50 – 100, 100 – 250, 250 + ???  ( A 10 person company is very different to a 250 person company )

 

Geography

 

You may only be interested in a particular geography or it may  be practical and efficient to deal only with a particular geography.  

 

Verticals

 

Where have you got references/case studies/testimonials ?? ( In other words so that when you talk to prospects you can say that you have worked with that type of firm and provided them with effective solutions ).

 

If you segment your existing database by customer/prospect and by industry you can see where your strengths lie at the moment.

 

You may have eg legal firms and accountants appearing to come to top of the pile of your preferred verticals. Are there any more verticals you should focus on ??

 

Structure

 

By structure I mean are they single site or multi-site ?? What departments do they have ? sales ? admin ? customer support ? manufacturing ? financial ? This is going to tell you eg if they have or need a WAN and also whether they are likely to need things like CRM/Telephony Integration or cordless phones etc etc

 

 

 

Financial Strength

 

Some companies are more profitable and cash generative than others. They can afford to spend more on ICT systems.

 

 

Growth Rate 

 

Some companies are small but rapidly growing and if so they need flexible, expandable systems and keep coming back for more.

 

 

Mindset

 

Some companies are forward thinking in terms of their use of ICT and some are not. ( If they have a good Internet presence this may e an indication of thier attitude to Information Technology.

 

 

 

Cisco’s classification

 

Interestingly Cisco recently proposed   a classification of “Elite “ users, “ Open to suggestion “ users and “ Basic “ users.

 

 

Your best customers

 

Another way of identifying your target market is to say “ Well we want more customers like …. one of our existing customers “ and we could describe them as being … ( use the above classifications ).

 

 

What I am suggesting  is that you get to the point where you can say  – these are our top targets. You can  then develop supporting collateral to help sell to those target markets. By analysing your existing database of customers and perhaps getting testimonials and case studies from and about some of them you will be able to build on a strong foundation.

 

 

You can then either acquire data for these targets ( N.B. Once you know who your targets are you need only buy data for those particular prospects – this saves a lot of money )  or  apply the internet search approach outlined below.

 

 

 

 

Lets say that you decide to target lawyers in Dorset

 

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=lawyers+in+dorset&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

 

We Google them and we have a sort through.

 

Which ones are tiny, small, medium size ??

 

Do they have multiple offices ( ie they have a WAN and a LAN ) ??

 

Which ones have a good internet presence ??  ( ie they are high tech ?? )

 

Is there any news about any of them ??

 

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=lawyers+in+the+news+in+dorset&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

 

eg they are expanding,growing etc etc

 

we can usually get the partners names or a contact.

 

Maybe we can get an idea of numbers of staff ??

 

What can we predict about them ??

 

We can then make a warmish cold call ???? (or we could do a ” targeted mailer ” and then follow up ?? ) 

 

 

So you don’t really need lists of data to get started. 

 

 

Dorsets Global Production defies snow with Asterisk Phone System and Microsoft SBS

Posted by Chris on January 8th, 2010

Dorsets Global Production company IPP Joules defies the snow with an Asterisk based Phone System from Poundbury Systems and Microsoft Small Business Server

 

That was the news from Poundbury Systems this week. With most of Dorset (and the UK) hit by snow and ice, what was the impact on local businesses?

Poundbury Systems have long understood the benefits of flexible working solutions for their customers and this week the foresight in this approach showed its true value.

‘Many of our customers had issues in getting some or all of their staff to their offices. The solution was simple. The Microsoft Small Business Server based remote working facilities that we had set up allowed staff to use their home PC’s to have quick, easy and secure access to their work files. No time was wasted and no business was lost. The picture was completed by diverting the Asterisk based phones to home and mobile numbers, something that is quick and easy to do.’ commented Clare Jenkins, Director at PSL.

Bob Cottell of ipp agreed “At ipp, much of our work is time critical and, as we deal with our clients around the world, guess what – they don’t care what the weather is like in the UK and they expect us to have contingency plans in place. During the current weather, we are able to work equally well from home as we can in the office, thanks to PSL putting ‘remote access’ in place. We can access information and documents on our servers as normal, maintain email contact with clients and use ‘instant messenging’ as an effective way to maintain internal communication.

PSL has given us the flexibility to allow staff to work from home, delay coming into the office until the roads are less icy or even leave early to avoid congested roads. We are able to spend less time worrying about the weather and road conditions and more time maintaining service levels for your clients, during these chilly times.

Many thanks to PSL”

With more snow predicted, if you would like any advice on how you can minimise business disruption, contact Clare and her team on 01305 259849 or enquiries@poundbury.com.

For Global Production and Distribution Solutions contact IPP Joules at http://www.ippjoules.com/


Finding Capital to Fund Growth or a Turnaround

Posted by Chris on January 7th, 2010

A useful article and reference in Fresh Business Thinking ( which is a great site )

http://www.freshbusinessthinking.com/business_advice.php?AID=4248&Title=Finding+Capital+To+Fund+Growth+Or+A+Turnaround+

What makes a good rainmaker, and does gender matter?

Posted by Chris on January 6th, 2010

Interesting article in the Law Gazette 

Friday 23 October 2009 by Sue Bramall

Princeton University defines a rainmaker as an ’executive who is very successful in bringing in business to his company or firm’.

I would like to expand that definition to define ‘successful’ as providing profitable employment for a number of employees within the business – they make business rain for their colleagues. To me, someone who generates sufficient business just to keep themselves comfortable is not a rainmaker.

Rest of the article here

http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/blogs/in-business-blog/what-makes-a-good-rainmaker-and-does-gender-matter-part-1

and Sue has added more to this in another blog here

http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/blogs/in-business-blog/the-dna-a-good-rainmaker-and-does-gender-count-part-two

Wikipedia on Mergers and Acquisitions

Posted by Chris on January 6th, 2010

Useful information on M&A

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mergers_and_acquisitions

Bring on the Rainmaker !!!

Posted by Chris on January 6th, 2010

An interesting article on David Wimers blog:

“Bring on the Rainmaker!”

imagesca3axevrM&A Transactions require one in 2010.

A Rainmaker is described as one who is known for achieving excellent results in a profession or field, or who is believed to be capable of producing rain, as through magical or ritual actions. And whether you’re the owner or another key person in your organization, you need to be beating the drum for rain these days after our year of drought. We all know the worth of water when the well runs dry. Certainly in the M&A Transactional market of 2009, the M&A Advisor has become Chief Rainmaker for 2010. 

more here..

http://davidwimer.com/?p=272

Great for sales – being one of the most connected pubs in North Wales and the North West

Posted by Chris on January 5th, 2010

Yesterday I was at my pub,  The Glan yr Afon Inn in North Wales, for the review of our sales over the Christmas and New Year period.

I was online using the BT OpenZone connection that we have in the pub when I heard the manager Ian guiding in some visitors ( if you follow your Satnav rigidly to CH8 8HE you just end up going up and down the A55 forever ! ). A couple eventually arrived with a young black labrador ( who was equally welcomed in ) and explained that they were travelling from Holyhead to London had been delayed between Holywell and Holyhead ( it looked as though there was an accident or something ) and had phoned thier son and asked him to find them a place to eat using the Internet somewhere near Holywell. He had found The Glan.

This was not a surprise as we come up on many different, relevant Internet searches eg

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=pubs+in+ch8&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=pubs+near+holywell&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=restaurants+near+holywell&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

and we do so via Google maps and various other natural listings e.g. via our website itself ( which has been SEO’d to some extent ) and pub directories and social networks.

Also we now have about 40 reviews online some of which are fantastic like this one 

Rated 5.0 out of 5.0 By Young couple11 Aug 2009
Positive: Wonderful reception when we finally arrived (not until midnight!!), friendly and helpful staff. Lovely location and peaceful. One of the best places that we have stayed.

 

so in many ways we expect to be found by people searching the .net but there is still great satisfaction in doing so.

When people register to stay with us we ask then how they heard of us so we know that we get a lot of people from the Internet.

The Booking.com website is a particularly useful source of customers for us

http://www.booking.com/hotel/gb/the-glan-yr-afon-inn.en.html?aid=307415;tab=4

and we registered with this booking site after a global review of what websites came up when people tried to find eg bed and breakfast in Holywell from a foreign country like the USA.

We do use more traditional forms of marketing like advertising ( in local papers and magazines ) and we have particular success with postcards that we give away in the pub and are sent to people all over the world. We put up posters regarding events that we hold.

We also have a database of customers that we have collected over the years and we use this to send email and snailmail shots out. Here’s our latest newsletter which we send out by mail, post and have available in the pub:

http://www.glanyrafoninn.co.uk/Mailshot/Glan-xmas09.html

We also have video’s on the Internet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1YGFgQHsno

an online historical society

http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=club&c=5300

a blogsite

http://glanyrafoninn.wordpress.com/

a Twitter page ( with 494 followers )

http://twitter.com/GlanYrAfon

and a Facebook page ( with 152 members ) 

http://www.facebook.com/chris.windley?ref=name#/group.php?gid=25701627254&ref=ts

The historical society page, blogsite, Twitter page and Facebook page all need regularly updating with fresh news and pictures.

All of this is certainly great for sales and surely makes us one of the most connected pubs in North Wales, the North West and the U.K. !!

10 M&A deals that might happen in 2010

Posted by Chris on January 4th, 2010

according to

Top Ten Digital M&A Deals For 2010

Push Pull Marketing History

Posted by Chris on January 1st, 2010

Over Christmas and New Year I have been thinking about the history of marketing and in particular the growth of what is known as push/pull marketing . When Googling both subjects Wikipedia provided some interesting information here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_marketing

and here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push–pull_strategy

and in particular it provided the following ” Timeline of Innovation ” which was interesting because I was trying to build up a picture of how we have marketed historically, what technologies we have used and which are ” Push ” and which are ” Pull “. 

Timeline of innovation

Although Wikipedia talks about marketing emerging as a discipline in the 1900’s it was clear to me that marketing was going on long before the 1900’s and this is also clear from the above timeline.

As this article says

http://technorati.com/business/article/the-new-push-pull-marketing/

Push/Pull Marketing itself has been somewhat redefined or understood by marketers over time into something that is pretty simple – some types of marketing are about pushing information to the potential customer and some are about the information being pulled by the potential customer. This is my definition aswell.

What I was curious about was what historically we had done ?? Pulled information or had information pushed ??

I was thinking back to the days when ” business ” was a shop, place of manufacture or an office. It seemed to me that in those times the place itself ” Pulled ” customers – you could argue that thier very presence was ” Pushing ” but I don’t think so. Whilst some businesses may have monopolised the supply of goods or services in a particular area the potential customer essentially visited these premises of thier own free will – much like they now visit websites on the Internet.

It also occurred to me that Word of Mouth ( WoM ) was very important to the business owner and I will assume that these owners adopted mainly a pull approach as they met with various potential customers at Church, the alehouse or other local meetings. They could well have been rather pushy people but I like to think not !

I could also imagine them sending business and personal letters ( although I could not quite imagine a mailshot by stagecoach !! ), keeping records of clients names and addresses ( a database ) and perhaps even giving people ” flyers ” or  putting up ” posters ” .

” Flyers ” and ” posters ” sounds like ” Push ” marketing to me and it was interesting to tie this in with the first item in the timeline – mass ( machine ) produced  flyers and brochures. Then we have the emergence of magazines in the 1700’s and newspaper advertising in the 1800’s.

Clearly there were posters everywhere for them to be banned on private property in 1839 and ” Flyposting ” (  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyposting ) has been a problem from then until now.

In the 1860’s we have the emergence of the postcard ( http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/DSphotosea6G1.htm ). Advertising on postcards was allowed from 1872.

So, in the late 1800’s we have push marketing using leaflets and posters and advertising on postcards and in magazines and newspapers. This continues to this day !!

How fascinating to see that at the same time we have the use of the Telegraph ( http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/telegraph.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraph ) for the first case of unsolicited spam !!! So we ( mostly Americans ) have been suffering from Spam since 1864 !!!! and there we were thinking that it was a 21st Century plague !!

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s we have the concept of ” wired ” and ” wireless ” communications emerging with morse code over wireless signals giving way to voice radio and the first case of radio advertising in 1922 and morse over wired communications ( 1864 ) giving way successively to telex, the telephone and computers up to the 1940’s.

At the same time television advertising first starts in 1941.

We now see the various strands of Technology,Media and Telecommunications ( T.M.T.) being formed with Television,Radio and Newspapers/magazines normally described as ” media “. Media is defined as various means of communications such as Televison,Radio and Newspapers. 

Also forming are the strands of Voice, Video and Data where Voice emerges from the ” wired ” strand that begins with the cables laid for Morse transmission and Data develops from computers and Local Area Networks ( LANs ) to Wide Area Networks ( WANs ) that utilise the ” Voice ” infrastructure initially ( until Internet Protocol – IP  lines become available ). Video used seperate networks and protocols for a long time.

Mobile phone networks are an offshoot of wireless radio networks developing from about the 1950’s to First Generation phones in the 1970’s and Second Generation in the 1990’s.

Another development from ” wired ” communications was video conferencing that worked initially over the ” voice ” networks and then later over the IP networks.

The Internet and the Internet Protocol has become the great converger. All forms of communication, voice,video,data,wireless and mobile utilise the Internet now, wholly or partially.

It is quite clear that we have an almost insatiable desire to connect to one another, to communicate and to obtain or access information. No surprise then that Googles Mission statement is ” to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

It is also clear that what initially starts as a means of people communicating or of providing information or entertainment becomes a means of marketing pretty quickly. e.g. printing presses lead to posters and leaflets being produced; wired telegraph quickly led to spam being sent; wireless radio quickly had advertising as did TV; telephones were quickly used for telemarketing; computers and email again produced spam; Internet websites ( and Internet search engines ) carried advertising and mobile phones began to be used for SMS adverts and more spam.

It is quite amusing that in the first instance some people resist or just don’t believe the technologies mentioned will become important or main stream  ( e.g. telephones,computers,mobile phones     ) and then we resist or don’t believe that they will be used for marketing. It is quite clear that any and every form of communication provides the potential for marketing use and more than likely will be.

Looking at some of the current technology options we can determine if or to what extent they are used for push or pull marketing:

Telephone – originally a communications device , tele( push ) marketing has been going on since 1950’s, can be “pull” when used to take calls ?? 

Fax – originally a comms device, fax-spamming ( push )  widespread, not interactive though.

Video conferencing – communications and “pull” eg webinars ??

Computer based email – comms. and computer based spam ( push )

Video ( TV ) – informational, entertainment, adverts are push but you can ignore them and some are so good they are watchworthy ! & we have such channel choice and programme control now..

Video ( eg YouTube ) – entertainment, pull marketing

Radio ( Terrestrial ) – informational, entertainment, adverts are push – can be annoying. Programme control.

Radio ( Internet ) – better ?

Mobile phone – originally comms. SMS spamming but not excessive ( networks control ? ), Internet access widens scope.

Newspapers/Mags ( Offline ) – dying ?? adverts are push but non-invasive ??

Websites – in general pull ??? e.g. forums, directories, social networks, instant messaging, click to chat, click to call etc

Printed media ( Posters,flyers,postcards,snailmailshots ) – definately a lot of push in here !! ( but posters and postcards are pretty passive ?)

Word of Mouth – pull.

 So, what, historically was the situation with regard to push/pull marketing and what is it now ??

It seems to me that despite there being many push marketing applications today there are lots of pull marketing ones. Historically we might say that we used to meet or find people or businesses and then we would communicate with them and then perhaps do business with them. So it was historically a pull dominated situation. 

It seems to me that we are increasingly returning to our origins in that ( particularly with the advent of the Internet ) we find people and suppliers, we communicate with them and then ( maybe ?  ) we buy from them.  

Although there are still many types of push marketing utilised ( e.g. telemarketing ) some forms of push marketing have been so modified that they are fairly innocuous ( television advertising ) and even enjoyed whilst most Internet based marketing ( excluding e.g. spam email ) is pull based. It is also true to say that spammers are already at work in, for example,  social networks so the tradition established with telegraph networks in 1864 is still prominent.  

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

  

 

 


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