M & A Rainmaker

Sometimes I look at all the information that I see via the Internet - emails, social media posts, blog posts etc etc and I think - well all these people are preaching to the converted ( or partially converted ) !!

Everyone that is communicating with me or whose information I see knows ( more or less ) about the Internet, websites, social media and many of the related topics. They range from the gurus to the newbies and everywhere in between.

I suspect ( strongly ) that the people we really need to communicate with and educate are not seeing all of this information.

Why? Well basically they are barely on the Internet and probably not on any social media - or if they are, only casually. I can think of 2 businesspeople that I know - one in New York and one in Leicestershire U.K. - right off the top of my head. One is a V.P. in an IT related company the other owns garages and other businesses.

I have not talked to them in detail about this but I think we can assume that their businesses have websites but that most of their sales and marketing is done using more ” traditional ” means - advertising, cold calling, mailshotting etc etc. I could be a bit wrong about this because they may have marketing departments that are using e.g. social media but what I am right about is that they themselves ( and they are decision makers ) are not communicating or hearing what is being said by ” all of us ” !!

What they are interested in though is Return on Investment and building their businesses.

To start with: What was the investment into their website and what was the return ??

and this is where it all starts to get difficult because they probably know what they spent ( and are spending ) on their website but they probably have little idea of the return that they are getting. To know what return they are getting they are going to need to know:

- How many leads did they get ( in the same time period as the costs ) ?

- How many of these leads turned into actual orders ?

- What were these orders worth ?

Now they can do Return on Investment !!!

Getting a lead implies a couple of things:

1. That somebody found their website.

2. That they took some sort of action as a result of doing so ( signed up to an email list; took up an offer of some kind ; phoned in etc etc )

For somebody to have found their website they did one of a few things:

a. They knew the name of the company website for some reason and put this into their browser. ( They might have see it on a van or an advert ).

b.  They Googled something. ( The company name or a search term that the website came up for )

c. They went to another website which referred them to this website.

d. They responded to an email marketing campaign by visiting the website.

e. They were referred to the website from a social media post.

f. Some other source.

Source: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/16759/3-Tips-For-Better-Lead-Management.aspx?source=Blog_Email_[3+Tips+For+Better+Le]

So you can see from this that the first thing is for the website to be FOUND.

Then for the person finding it to TAKE SOME ACTION ( creating a lead ).

Then for this action ( lead ) to result in an ORDER. ( Which may require some ” nurturing ” )

How do you get FOUND in the first place ??

Well you must understand what you want to be found for and these words, phrases and terms must be in the titles, ( Meta ) tags and content of your website and blogsite.

That is how you will get FOUND in the first place.

If you are a Cisco Partner looking for support and guidance  to drive engagement and accelerate both activity and results with Cisco then I would recommend talking to Channel Intellect who have a client list that includes many of Cisco’s highest achieving and award-winning Partners and also delivers the much-heralded Comstor Mentor Programme. Additionally, Channel Intellect has engaged with Cisco on a number of projects and is, as a result, uniquely placed to provide a comprehensive understanding of how Partners can make the most out of their investment in Cisco.

What Cisco Says….
Bernadette Wightman - Operations Director - UK & I Channels - Cisco

	Channel Intellect has provided a vital and excellent service to support and guide many of our developing Cisco Partners in the UK and Ireland. They have also been able to assist and advise a number of Cisco teams within the organisation in constructing Partner-centric programmes and initiatives. The insight that Channel Intellect provides to our Partners in developing a profitable and sustainable relationship with Cisco has made a positive difference to both Cisco’s and the Partners’ engagement and performance.

Channel Intellect engages with Partners around the “Six Pillars” – a series of best practice disciplines centred around the following focus areas:

• Certification/Specialisation
• Cisco Programs (VIP/OIP/SIP/etc)
• Support
• Market-Specific Initiatives (PSPP/SMB)
• GTM & Marketing
• Relationship Management

Cisco Health Check

The Channel Intellect Cisco Health Check is based on a day’s analysis with a Partner, in order to assess current engagement levels and to advise on how this can be complemented and refined in order to ensure an appropriate ROI is delivered against the cost of maintaining an effective Cisco relationship.

Based around devising an activity plan which embraces the “Six Pillars” disciplines, the Health Check comprises:

• A pre-engagement briefing
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Establishments providing food to the public in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland are starting to see food hygiene ratings from the local council and associated websites ranking on Page 1 of Google searches.  To put it simply when someone Googles your food establishment name ( shop, restaurant, hotel etc etc ) they are likely to see a star rating ( these ratings start from 0 to 5 and range from ” urgent improvement necessary ” to ” very good ” see http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/webpage/moreabouten for more information.

Yesterday someone I know was googling a restaurant and one of the first things they said to me was ” oh dear, it has only got a 2 star food hygiene rating ” .

Let’s take a random example of a food outlet Google  :

” The Tweedale Arms ” ( I mean the one in Tamworth - Google asks if I mean the Tweeddale arms in Scotland ).

No website for the Tweedale Arms appears in the first few Google listings ( either they don’t have one or it has not been optimised - SEO’d - to come up ).

There are a couple of listings from Beer in the Evening and Tamworth Heritage Pubs and then you have the listing from the ” Scores on the Doors ” website

http://www.scoresonthedoors.org.uk/business/the-tweedale-arms-tamworth-427869.html

This website describes itself as

“ Scores on the Doors is the No. 1 national food hygiene rating scheme where you can find the official local authority hygiene ratings for food businesses - now the largest in the world! “

Further down the Google there is a listing from Rate my Place

http://www.ratemyplace.org.uk/view/3061/The-Tweedale-Arms.html

which is the official website for Food Safety Inspections in Staffordshire.

ie the 5th and the 8th front page Google listings for The Tweedale Arms are Food Hygiene Ratings listings.

Owners of food and hospitality establishments typically concerned themselves with e.g. TripAdvisor and Booking.com listings and reviews and comments alongside with the ranking of thier own web and blog sites but now they must consider another couple of websites - “scores on the doors” and ” rate my place”.

Obviously the easy and most appropriate answer is to ensure that you get  high food hygiene ratings by having a clean and well run establishment. Food establishments have been undergoing random food and safety inspections for years.

These 2 websites will have massive, changing content and they will rank high with Google searches - as long as what they say is good then no problem.

However, I think this is also a wake up call to hospitality venue owners to not only get websites and blogsites up and running but also to get them recognised by Google ( and other search engines ) and search engine optimised.

If you are looking for a company that can provide Marketing Services in the Ironbridge, Telford and Shrewsbury area then I would recommend that you contact Claire at CSL Design.

CSL Design offers professional and honest marketing services in Telford, Shropshire. They offer a full solution for your business from Internet Marketing, Graphic Design and Print to Event Management, Photography and PR. They can also provide you with a free initial marketing overview to measure the effectiveness of your current marketing and show you where improvements could be made to make your efforts more cost effective and successful.

Marketing Services Provided:

Internet Marketing
Websites
Search Engine Optimisation
Social Media (Facebook/Twitter/Blogs)
Email Marketing
Branding/Re-Branding
Graphic Design & Print
Event Management & Marketing
Photography
PR & Copy Writing
Marketing Plans & Reviews

Contact Claire on:

Contact: Claire Windley | Email: claire@csldesign.com | Mobile: 07891 285514

TripAdvisor is a monster that is out of control and you know what happens to out of control monsters ??? They get shot !!

More and more people are joining the movement against TripAdvisor which allows people to post defamatory comments on it’s website and then denies any responsibility for them doing so.

Duncan Bannatyne is one of the more recent victims,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/8277098/Duncan-Bannatyne-to-campaign-against-cowardly-TripAdvisor.html

and it must have come as a bit of a shock to him to find that even with all his money you can do very little to move TripAdvisor when it is on the rampage.

In general the comments on TripAdvisor are polarised towards those that are either trying to damage the business in question or those that are trying to defend it.

People only actually take the time to write on TripAdvisor when they have something they really want to say - whether good or bad.

Blackmail is commonplace with TripAdvisor would be posters threatening hospitality venues with ” a bad review ” unless they get ( whatever it is they feel like demanding - a discount, a free meal etc etc ).

However, when everyone realises that the comments on TripAdvisor are worthless pieces of make believe then what is the value of TripAdvisor ??

I feel sorry for all the hospitality business owners who can do nothing against the TripAdvisor monster.

When they try to respond to defamatory posts TripAdvisor delays or fails to post these responses. ( This is implicitly giving control and ” right ” to the defamers ).

Complaining to TripAdvisor  ( as Duncan Bannatyne found ) is next to worthless as they simply defend themselves like cornered rats.

My advice is to invest in a blogsite that complements your main website ( or is part of your main website ) and to understand how to SEO your blogsite to get it ranked for e.g. Reviews about ( The name of your establishment ).

As a powerful website TripAdvisor will always get ranked high itself by Google etc but this does not mean that you cannot rank alongside or ahead of it for certain search terms.

With your own blogsite you can respond in detail and in the way you want to to any posts put on TripAdvisor in a timeframe that suits you.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g652382-d191629-Reviews-Bannatyne_s_Charlton_House_Spa_Hotel-Shepton_Mallet_Somerset_England.html

Internet and Traditional Marketing specialist, Claire Windley, has been shining her light around Shropshire and the U.K.  from a hill above Lightmoor near Ironbridge.

Claire’s Internet Marketing business is known as CSL Design after her initials

http://www.shantay-emerald.co.uk/netshows.html

Claire , who has ridden horses from a young age, is organising the Netley Hall Shows and Events for 2011

http://netleyhallevents.co.uk/contact.html

These shows will take place in May, July and August 2011. These are BSJA events and the second two will be filmed by Sky Sports.

Claire has created an Internet presence for Netley Hall  using, for example,  a website, blog, Facebook and Twitter page.

Claire has been trained by U.S. Inbound Internet Marketing phenomenon, Hubspot, to help her customers get found on the Internet, convert website visitors into leads and analyze the results in a continuous closed loop process.

Claire has also been providing Traditional and Internet Marketing advice to Cisco FutureLine which is one of Cisco’s key partners for the provision of communications solutions to Small and Medium Sized businesses. Shropshire is home to many rapidly growing small and medium sized companies and these companies need to expand their markets beyond Shropshire to the rest of the world.

Claire has extensive experience with the hospitality industry having guided Smith & Williamson’s British Country Inns in their marketing strategy over the last year or so and working with a number of exclusive ” gastro pubs ” and restaurants around the U.K.

Internet Marketing should not be viewed in isolation but should be part of an overall integrated marketing strategy and for that you need someone like Claire who understands all aspects of sales and marketing.

Here are 3 must watch marketing videos for #smwf

http://www.youtube.com/user/HubSpot?feature=autoshare

http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/sales-marketing-machine-webinar

http://www.lewishowes.com/marketing/inbound-marketing-plan/#more-2030

This blog is based on a recent  interview with Mike Volpe

http://www.mikevolpe.com/

by Lewis Howes - Author, Speaker and Entrepreneur.

The full transcript and  video is here, which I recommend you look at

http://www.lewishowes.com/marketing/inbound-marketing-plan/#more-2030

Why would you put your effort into Inbound Marketing ??

Inbound Marketing Budget & Results

Lewis: So, what I hear from that is that:

You spend more energy, time and resources or money on creating content, or creating free software, free downloads, free webinars.  So you’re putting that paid advertising money into the free stuff, which is converting twice as well as the paid stuff.  Correct?

Mike: That’s exactly right.

The cost is lower per lead and the conversion rate is twice.  So the cost per customer… it’s 3 or 4 times better. It’s fantastic.

And you’re right.  I think… so we spend some money on creating content and the way that you typically do that is that you end up hiring people.

So I think that in the long term we may have much more as the percentage of marketing budget going to the team and, you know, the people that are blogging and doing webinars and creating content versus buying media.

Building Versus Renting

And I think the interesting… you know, the other analogy if you think about it that way is that:

• If you’re buying media or advertising from someone else, you’re really renting the capability of attracting an audience because you have to pay them every time you wan to do an ad.

• If you’re building up your own blog, if you’re becoming your own media company, you’re building something.  You’re purchasing real estate and building your own real estate.  And obviously what you typically want to do is own those assets over time and things like that.

So just like you do with your blog and everything that you do, you’re building up yourself as this media agency, right?  And if you were to take a month off, you would still get a ton of web traffic because you’ve built this up over time.  If you stop paying that bill to that company you’re advertising with, you get nothing the next month, right?

So I think, again, you should want to build and not rent, and that’s another way to sort of think about it.

How would you start with Inbound Marketing ??

How To Start Inbound Marketing

OK. So let’s give them a good example.

• Say I’m a tech startup company.
• I’ve got 10-25 employees.
• I’m trying to grow.
• I’m trying to get more leads.
• I’ve got a free software, or a free service, but there’s a paid model as well, but I’m looking to get those free leads in to use the service first.

How do you guys collate the information through your blog, your books, your webinars, etc?  Do you hire… if you’re this company, do you hire someone externally?  Do you have members of the team who are doing different things; developers, CEO, running content?  Do you get all the members of the staff involved?  Or do you use one person?  How would you go about that?

Mike: That’s a really good question.

I’m a huge fan of getting the entire company involved in the effort.  I think we’ve had a lot of success and seen the best success among our customers if there’s more than one person.

Maybe you can have a leader, or a manager for your inbound marketing program, but unless you have multiple people contributing… you know, it needs to be the whole company.  You just sort of change your company philosophy to some degree to really make these things effectively.  We’ve seen the best success with companies that have multiple people contributing to the blog.

Because you get those different perspectives: the perspective from the VP of Engineering versus the VP of Sales and the VP of Marketing or the Co-Founders.  It’s going to be a little bit different.  And that helps you attract different facets of your audience.

Lewis: So, what if a company is not willing to do that?  Do you think you’ve really got to adopt this philosophy? Or you’re going to be struggling if you don’t?

Mike: You know…

• It will still work to some degree if you have one person sort of dedicated to it and spending some time on it.

• You will get better results if the whole team is dedicated to it.

IQMS Success Story

I’ll tell you a story about a company called IQMS.  They sell, sort of in that range, or I think they’re around 200 employees.  They sell ear piece software to manufacturers.  They’re based in California.  And what the CEO did, is he decided to basically…

You know it was like when Cortez came to the New World he burned his ships so all the people with him would committed to staying and making a life in the New World.

• He did that.
• He fired their PR agency.
• He cancelled all of their print advertising.
• And he told his marketing staff of only 2 people, that you need to embrace inbound marketing and make it work and here are your lead goals.
• And they said, “Holy crap! What are we going to do?” Right?  And then they said, “Well, I guess we really need to make this work.”
• So they started blogging.
• And the CEO was great because they did have that leadership above.
• The CEO created some content.
• Some other people in the company started blogging and things like that.
• And they’ve actually seen their business, I forget if it was 10% or 20%, buttheir business increased after having decreased the past 3 years.

And you know, we’re still not in a great economic environment yet, and they were able to see an increase in 2010 after having declined in 2008 and 2009.

He really attributes all of their success to that program and being really, really committed to it.

So again, you’ll have some success if it’s one person, but I would really recommend to folks that they think about really transforming their company.

Lewis: Gotcha.

How would you get started with Inbound Marketing ??

A Simple Inbound Marketing Plan

What would be a simple marketing plan for any company trying to get more inbound leads?

Mike: Yeah.

#1: Website Grader

I think the first thing is, I honestly would recommend Website Grader. It’s totally free. I’d run my website through Website Grader. Usually for many of the smaller companies, there’s usually one or two small changes they can make to their site to improve their search engine optimization, or how they’re site is displayed in search engines.  That’d probably be the first thing.

#2: One Blog Article A Week

After you’ve made a couple of those changes, I think the next most important thing is just to start to create some content.  So I would actually say about one blog article a week is probably fine.

You know, someone like you, you’re passionate about the stuff and you create tons of content. You’re doing hundreds of webinars.  If you can do that, that’s fantastic.  But for many of these folks they’re really nervous about getting started so even one blog article a week will have an effect.

#3: Good Lead Generating Offer

And then I think the third component that you definitely need is:

• What’s that good offer that’s going to get people to convert and become a lead?

And usually I think a webinar is a great example of something that people can do.  And then you need to take that call to action, that offer to become a lead and put that on your home page, and put it on all of your blog content.

And I think that if you use just those 3 things, the blog articles and the SEO will start to attract more people to your site and you’re going to have that good call to action and you’ll start to get more leads through that call to action.

And then, you know, there are lots of ways to make it even better and do more with it, but those 3 things will get most people started.

FutureLine’s use of HubSpot Inbound Marketing Software in the U.K. has helped it to dominate visibility for UCExpo related searches and get some high quality leads from potential partners and end users.

A couple of weeks ago Cisco FutureLine increased it’s commitment to HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing software in order to be able to increase awareness of FutureLine for UCExpo 2011 and to dominate selected searches that related to UCExpo.

FutureLine was sharing the Cisco stand at UCExpo and was promoting a range of S.M.B. focussed products and services.

We started blogging a couple of weeks prior to UCExpo both here and on the FutureLine blog page.

The results have been stunning with total domination of searches like:

” cisco ucexpo 2011 ”

” hosted voice ucexpo 2011 ”

” hosted telephony ucexpo 2011 ”

and

” asterisk ucexpo 2011 ”

We also dominated the search for

” coffee ucexpo 2011 ”  !!!!!!!

Although the UCExpo show was not exactly packed out we had some great visits to both our stand at UCExpo and the website. In fact many of the leads were confirmed both through the Internet and physically by visiting the stand. This showed great commitment on behalf of the prospect.

We also got our Twitter page up and running prior to UCExpo (  @Future_Line )

and that really helped us to get up to the minute reports of what was happening at UCExpo.

Searc

The news is just out that HubSpot has raised another $32 Million in Venture Finance and I think that this will probably lead to U.K. , European and indeed Global expansion.Get the inside story from Brian Halligan of HubSpot:

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/10480/Inside-Story-Behind-HubSpot-s-32-Million-Investment-From-Salesforce-Google-and-Sequoia.aspx