Happy New Year... Have You Reviewed and Planned?

Well 2010 is nearly over and done with and 2011 will soon be here. So make time now to look back and review your marketing of 2010.

What have you done in 2010 that has worked for you? What business do you think that you may have missed by not promoting and marketing correctly?

The first thing I would suggest that you do is to take a look at all your marketing material that you use at the moment. 

Does your logo and branding look fresh and professional? 

Do your business cards, letterheads inform customers about what products or services that you offer?

Are you brochures up to date or do they have images of products or staff that are not correct?

When did you last review your website? Is the information up to date? 

Are you wasting money on advertising that does not work for you? Have you monitored the response from adverts? Do you get your staff to ask "how did you hear of us?"

The above are just a few ideas, if you need help just ask us.

Now for 2011 get a year planner and the look back at 2010 and look at your peaks and troughs in sales. Now put the troughs on the planner so you can try to plan to increase sales with offers and promotions etc.

Look at key dates and events in 2011 ie Sporting, Royal Wedding etc and look at planning events or offers. ie Do a "Not a Royal Wedding event" eg make your bar a wedding free zone.

Use the power of Twitter etc to increase lines of communication with people.

Look at different ways of promotion ie reverse graffitti advertising, etc.

These are just a few quick ideas if you need help to plan, design and develop your branding and marketing then just pick up the phone and let's meet up.

Happy  Christmas and have a great 2011.

Regards

Mike

New Window Poster.

Health,work,life,business,& most important family, we have made a major change

On the 5th of March 2010 my car was serviced. So what has that got to do with health,work,life,business and most important family you may ask? Well that day it made me wake up and understand what is important in life. 

What happened, was I used Liz's car as I had to go to Chesterfield. So I dropped Liz off in Belper. It was a beautiful Spring day, the sky was clear and blue and I then dropped off Jack & Lucy at school. They ran off full of the joys of Spring, waving and shouting 'see you later Daddy'. I then got back into Liz's car and said to myself 'what the hell am I doing?'... this was the first time in about 18 months I had dropped off my children at school.

So we had gone from having a work life balance, to one that was not working for us. Some time before this I went see a nurse at my doctors for a minor issue. When I was there she said 'we have not checked your blood pressure for about 10 years', she tested it and then went to get my doctor, the result of the test was a BP of 110/220. This was very, very high. My doctor put me on a high dosage of tablets to try to get it under control. 

We had got on a big 'hamster wheel' and lost track of what is important. We had gone from one branch in Belper to having another one in Chesterfield. Some of this was the 'hamster wheel' of thinking that growing your business is the best way forward. How often do you hear 'grow your business' or expand? There is nothing wrong with that, but don't fall in to the trap of losing sight of what is important. 

Ask yourself some key questions. Why did you set yourself up in business and what are you doing it for?

Liz and I have had massive guilt trips about the children and the school holidays. The children many times have to come in work with us when it's obvious they'd rather be doing something else. The guilt is that they should be at home playing with friends. Liz has been running Belper and dealing with all the issues meaning has been spending more time managing rather than designing.

So on that evening in March 2010, Liz and I made up our minds to sell our Chesterfield branch. On the 1st of December 2010 we finally sold it. This is going to make a major change for us all. We can now start to get my health, our work, life, business and most important family balance right.

So what I am saying is to keep focused on what is important to you and your family. Don't loose sight and jump on the big hamster wheel and loose track of what is important. It's not how rich you are, but how rich your life is.

From January 2011 we will have the right balance, we will be able to share the school run, so no more of the children in the office until 5pm plus. Most of all Liz and I will be sharing time off for all the school holidays.  

Remember your health and family are the most important things in life so remember to review what is important to you and your family. We wish Dean and Ben all the best in Chesterfield.

12 months Of Twitter.

Cannot believe that 12 months will be here soon on twitter.

Over the last 12 months have had the chance to chat with lots of great people. Twitter has helped us to add new customers and has generated a steady flow of work for our business.

It has amazed me that so many businesses still do not use Twitter or Facebook to help to promote, market and add value to their business.

Here are a few ideas that I have come across or thought about in how Twitter and Facebook can help.

One twitter user who has real embraced it has to be www.twitter.com/Loulouscafe What they have done is that they use twitter not just to promote their offers but to use twitter for face to face networking by arranging meet ups. One key thing is that meeting up and having a coffee is a great way to build up trust and business.

I cannot understand why more pubs, restaurants, cafes etc do not use Twitter etc to promote their menu's offers and guest beers, events etc.

Another sector who are missing business are the likes of hairdressing, health and beauty etc, if you think they can promote offers etc but more important they can use Twitter to promote appointments ie if they have a cancellation they can Tweet it with an offer. Is it not better to get 50% of something than 100% of nothing.

 www.twitter.com/dealdrivers who sell cars at a discount use Twitter to promote offers and also Tweet what is happening out there in the car market. As you think we do not buy a new car everyday but what they are doing is building up trust so that when you are in the market for a new car they are only a phone call away.

The tourism sector can use Twitter to help engage with their customers. A great example has to be www.twitter.com/CrichTramway who use both Twitter and Facebook to promote events, news and to create a following by informing people about their history and heritage.

Websites like www.smarta.com use Twitter to inform followers about new blogs, offers etc.Many more sites should use Twitter etc as this helps to drive traffic to the website.

Twitter and Facebook is about engaging with people and building up followers who are interested in what your business offers or does. 

So in 12 months and about 2000 followers and generating business has to be a great result.

So if you want to add twitter marketing to your business please give me a call on 01773 599159 and let's see what we can tweet about.

Regards

Mike 

The identity we have designed for an iphone app for Rachel Elnaugh

This is the logo/identity for the Nine Star Ki iphone app for Rachel Elnaugh www.rachelelnaugh.com

X Factor, Twitter and Organic Yogurt

X Factor, Twitter and Organic Yogurt

Last night in the first adbreak for X Factor  I saw for the first time an advert for organic yogurt produced by Yeo Valley. (To see the advert visit http://www.youtube.com/Yeotube ) This for Yeo Valley must have been a big call to book that slot as this must be one of the most expensive ad slots going. The impact of the advert was quite amazing as at the start of the evening Yeo Valley ( www.twitter.com/yeovalley ) had  just over 400 followers on Twitter. During the evening the amount of comment about the advert on Twitter meant that Yeo Valley started trending, at one point they were number 2 /3 trending word/phrase on Twitter in the UK even higher than X Factor, what great free marketing. What Yeo Valley did well last night was to interact well with twitter users. As at this morning they now have 623 followers and have gained great exposure. Great result Yeo Valley.

Well Twitter is working well for us, over the last few months we have gained new customers and generated penty of business. It has helped to increase the business profile and my personal profile.

So what I have learnt about twitter also works with LinkedIn and Facebook, it's all about chatting to build up trust and relationships, in other words it's networking.

Besides picking up new customers I have made some great contacts who are helping us as a business.

Many business' have embraced the likes of Twitter as part of the communication and marketing. A great example of this is how the MD of Starbucks uses Twitter to communicate with his customers and staff. A very bad example are one of their competitors Costa Coffee who joined Twitter in October 2008 and wrote "We've finally arrived on Twitter!" but have not communicated since. In my opinion this is very poor for Costa Coffee.

Many business' are missing out, an example of this are "East Midlands Trains". Over time I have read so many bad reports about their service on Twitter but they appear to not use Twitter. On Twitter "East Midlands Trains" could be seen to manage customer feed back and take the right actions to rectify issues. They could use it to post information about offers, train delays and news.For example "East Midlands Trains" had a great green news story the other week about how the trains switch the engines off when in the station.(Read more here) That would have made some good Twitter PR.

In the SME sector Twitter can help pubs to promote themselves, an example of that is the Cross Keys near Belper who have recently had a refit, they now use twitter as part of their marketing.

Did you know that that Twitter now gets more than 1 Billion tweets per month. 

So here are a few tips that may help you.

In you profile and twitter back ground tell people what you do, may be your interests etc.

Provide value, share interesting information, help others, if you read something interesting on the web, share the link and information.

Participate in conversations. Make it fun.

Be you and be original. Don’t be afraid to say what's on your mind. Express your view point. Remember people buy from people.

If all you do is talk about what you do and about yourself or if you only promote your product all the time, people will get bored of you. Good idea is to mix what you post i.e 1/3 about you and 2/3 helping others, retwittering interesting stuff etc.

Tweet regularly, try to do it every day. If people see your profile was last updated say 1 week ago, they will probably not follow you.

Search for people who share common interests etc.

Always remember that what you post is posted to the world so be careful what you say.

If I can help you with Twitter please get in contact.
Thanks for reading.

R = RECOVERY AND NOT RECESSION.

Well we all know it has been very bad out there. Times have been very tough. We all agree with that.


However in my opinion the media have talked us all into a downward spiral. All we hear are bad news stories. There are some great good news stories out there but the fact is that good news does not sell newspapers.


So it's so important to make sure that your business stands out, as those who can ride the store will be well positioned when the business recovers. Here are a few tips and ideas to help you ride the storm.


First of all don't let the suits kill your business. What I mean by that are people like your accountant, your bank manager by suggesting that you cut back on your marketing and advertising. At times like this you need to market your business harder so that it SHOUTS louder.  Cutting back on your marketing will have an instant saving on your bottom line but this will have long term consequences on your business.


If your competitors follow the suits advice and cut back on their marketing then they will start to whisper. When the market starts to recover your business will be in a SHOUTING louder than your competitors. 
This will mean that your business will reap the long term rewards and win more business.


So here are a few ideas to help make your marketing spend work harder.


Recovery Checklist


First of all take some time out of your business to review what you are doing with your marketing spend.


Ask yourself some questions like:-


1. When did you last review your marketing material or your website?


2. Does your logo look like it's past it's sell by date?


3. Is your brand or message that your business portrays strong, professional and consistent?


4. Do your customers realise all the services and products you offer?


5. Are you communicating frequently with your customers? i.e do you send out newsletters or your latest offers?


6. Do you go networking both physical ie like www.4networking.biz or use the power of social media like www.twitter.com/graphic_results etc.


When you have taken a bit of time out and reviewed your marketing then make a plan of "who you want to target, when you are going to do it and with what".


We have many cost effective, creative design and print solutions we know that will work for you.


Don't think of good design and print as a cost look at it as an investment.


Try the shoe leather challenge...


Think of a couple of offers that may appeal to new customers, ie 25% off with this leaflet or buy 1 get 1 free.
Then let us use our skills to design and produce some great leaflets.


Round up some family and friends and then go for a walk on a Sunday putting your new leaflets through local letterboxes.


Why Sunday you ask? How much mail do you get on a Sunday?  Exactly! People are more likely to pick up your leaflet and read it, as you're not competing with other mail. 


So lets look at the shoe leather challenge as investment... if the leaflets cost say £149.00 to design and print for 5000 leaflets and you run a Gastro Pub business for example you would not need to get too many new customers through the door to cover the cost.


So if you need help to do a marketing review then give us a call and see what we can do for YOU.


P.S Please remember R is for recovery and not recession.

Fly by the seat of your pants and learn from your mistakes.

Over the many years that we have run the business we have made many mistakes, but if you think about it if you don't make mistakes then you are not taking risks.

If you were to ask any successful business person they would admit to making mistakes but it has helped them to move forward.

Often in business we have found that you make decisions by "flying by the seat of your pants" , I think thats it's more fun! But this is often when mistakes are made.

The key thing that we have learnt is that you need to keep reviewing what you are doing.

Question yourself about what you are doing and is the result what you want to achieve. That may be from a financial point of view, a staffing view point or quality of life view point or something else.

Don't be proud if you are making a mistake ask for help from friends, professional advisors, staff or even using your extended group of contacts i.e from networking etc.

Don't try and put it off "by burying your head in the sand", the issue does not go away.

The sooner you review your actions the quicker you can take action to sort out the mistake.

What we have found that it's often best to take time out of the business ie have a weekend away, go for a walk in the fresh air and talk about the issues. Then you can do a full review and an action plan for the future.

It may sound sad but one thing that we have learnt duing the recession is to work out how much profit we need to make per hour, per day and per week. The great reason for this is that it is easier to take action if you have not achieved the profit in a week than leaving it to the month end.

Another thing is not to look back on the mistakes but focus on the future. 

Remember always look at reviewing your business on a regular basis to make sure that you get out of it what you want your lifestyle to be, but most of all keep smiling as one day it will be worth it.

The only beach in Derbyshire!! Branding for Pottery Beach at Denby Pottery.

Printed bunting with branding.

Branding as a very large banner.With in the background the signage we designed several years ago.

Jack and Lucy playing with the branding in the back ground.

With the branding we have designed press adverts and leaflets to promote the beach.

Reverse Graffiti Advertising Campaign For Specsavers & Ashfield Council

Reverse graffiti uses high-pressure cleaning machines to wash brands, logos and adverts onto pavements which are both eye-catching and effective but also friendly to the environment as it's only water.  

Street Advertising is a proven and very cost effective form of advertising.

The campaign for Specsavers and Ashfield District Council went down over night and created a great amount of local interest.

Call us if you would like us to create a bespoke reverse graffiti advertising for you on 01773 599159. We can plan a advertising campaign locally or nationally.

Happy Christmas Charity Opportunity!

 Raise £4,000 for your charity funds!

What could your charity do with an extra £4,000? Update your facilities? 

Buy some new equipment? Maybe send people on a great dayout?...Whatever you’re aiming 

towards, we can help.

Calendars are a high quality item and cost effective way to raise loads of cash for your 

charity.

Our full colour 14 Month Calendars have a month to view per page. Decide what you 

want on each page – they’re personalised completely for you. 
Other charities have included  photos, children's artwork and photos of their local area. 
Our designers will do the rest.

E.g. Say you order 1,000 of our A5 14 Month calendars. You pay under 60p per calendar, 

then you sell them for around £5 each (or for whatever you can). 

Do that and you’ll add over £4,000 to the charity funds! Sell them at your Christmas Fayre, 

to friends and relatives or sell them to business' - make them feel like they’re doing their 

bit.

If you would like help to raise funds give me a call on  01773 599159 or pop in and see me. I’d love to chat to you about how I can make you the darling of the charity with your amazing fundraising skills.

Let’s help you get that much needed £4,000. 

Kind Regards

Mike Handley  

Why are so many pubs closing, a few ideas to help....

First of all these are my experiences of the pubs. Everyday more pubs are closing and in my opinion a lot of them are not getting the basics right, they are still living in the 1960's.

The first and most important thing is for a pub is to look welcoming, clean and offer the right mix of products. Many times I go past pubs with litter outside over grown gardens, tacky looking banners etc. 

The other week I was in Derby with Liz and the children, we just wanted to get some lunch. We were in what's called the Cathedral Quarter and were put off going into one of pubs (owned by a big pub chain) as they was a large crowd of people all stood outside the entrance all smoking, even a member of staff. Nothing wrong with smoking but first impressions count. That pub lost a sale of about £40.00 as we went across the road to another pub.

 

Some of what I am rambling about may seem very basic but I have seen this so often.

As for first impressions tables need to be clean and not full of empty glasses, staff welcoming, clean toilets, no stale smells of food or worst of toilets!

I feel that a lot of pubs are failing as they have lost touch with who their customer is and what market are they aiming at. For example, if they do food is it value or gastro, is it the family market, local beer (camra), sports market etc?

So here are a few ideas and tips which may help pub owners market their business.

Get the basics right first ie clean, welcoming staff and the right product mix.

Get a website that you can update with events, offers, guest ales etc, on the website ask people to subscribe their email addresses for you to use for email marketing ie newsletters, offers.With the website link it to your twitter account, facebook or blog etc so that you can build up a following and post offers, news and events. Did you know we can design websites form just £299.00 plus vat.

Get bums on seats!!!! Use networking to get people into your pub ie set up a breakfast networking event.( ie www.4networking.biz) Set up morning coffee clubs ie mum  and baby, book clubs etc. The reason for this is that it will bring people into your business when you are quite also It will make people aware that your business is there so when they want to go out in the evening they are more likely to come to you.

Get the message out there, make sure that your branding, logo, printed material etc looks and feels professional. 

How often do you see menu's with rubbish clip art and most of all no photos to create appetite appeal. People buy by sight and smell.

Have some offer leaflets designed and produce to drum up business with for example offers like buy 1 main get a free pud, a free taxi home if a group of 4 dines and spends say £80.00. Buy a meal on say a Monday evening and get a free drink. etc. Do a leaflet to promote an event ie beer festival or family fun day etc. 

So once you have the leaflets printed get out and about, go into town centre and give them out, also if you can offer food samples to passers-by. 

Do a door drop in the area where the type of customers you would like live. As for the cost of the leaflets look at them as an investment, 10000 leaflets designed and printed cost lets say £250. 

At that price for the 10000 leaflets you would only need to get say 15 new customers spending say £20 each on food and drink, if you look after them right they will come back and recommend your pub to friends and family.

Introduce a customer suggestion box. Name and email required (to add to database). Winning suggestion wins a free meal. Customers can come up with great ideas.

If your hands are not tied up your back with a supply contract, look at local mirco breweries and develop marketing links ie joint offers etc.

These are my rambling's re pubs and food, I hope you found them of interest. If you need help to promote your business please get in contact.

Win more business with folders.

First impressions count, right? 

Would you attend an important meeting wearing a coffee-stained t-shirt and scabby shorts? We didn't think so. 

Do you frequently send quotations, estimates, tenders or proposals? 

If you could increase the odds of winning, what's that worth? Seriously improve how professionally your business is perceived. 

Laminated Corporate Folders have masses of space to get your message across and they are the equivalent of power-dressing for your documents. Without the shoulder pads.

Call us to find out more on 01773 599159 printing.com @ Graphic Results

Prices are also on our NEW website www.graphicresults.co.uk

*All prices are plus VAT.All images and text must be supplied in the correct format for us to design the folder if not extra costs will apply

 

Good design sells....Fact.

Good design sells....Fact.
If you are starting out in the big world of running your own business, yes it's scary, but also very exciting. One thing that we have come across is a number of people setting up their business who don't invest time and effort into their logo, branding and marketing material. That may be business cards, letterheads, leaflets and even a website.

I will call this start up "The Hard Work and Cheap Joinery Company" (HWCJC for short).

Often what we'll hear is this: "...well, I have a mate who can knock me something up in Microsoft Word, using every colour in the rainbow and a font like 'Comic Sans'." or "My son who's at school has done it for me".

This will then be followed by a strict and detailed process as follows:

1) The logo gets printed onto some card thats just thin enough to go through the printer for the business cards, but will add nice smudge marks to them.
2) Then, they are cut out by hand with blunt scissors.
3) The Letterheads, to maintain a Corporate Identity, are printed onto 80gsm (Toilet) Paper. But hey, it's cheap paper.

On to the website, which again, is to be handled by a mate who's good on the PC. First of all, he's purchased you the following domain name:-

www.freespacesomewhereinspace.com/my-new-business-setup-by-my-mate.

The site design is then handled by your "web-savvy" mate, who will maintain your corporate style with numerous colours, text saved as images (Search Engine Friendly? No.), neglecting to insert any META Tags or Keywords. The finished article will be placed into Google's top 1,000,000 results, just below "Betty's Ironing Service".

Then you start your business and wonder why you are not winning on quotes......

As a well known advert say's "...there has to be a better way". This is what another person who understands the power of creativity would do...

First of all, they would set a budget of let's say £500.00 to invest in their branding, letterheads, business cards and website.

Lets call this business "Cool Looking Joinery" (or, CLJ for short). CLJ will first of all meet up will with a creative and professional design company. Between them, they would work out who CLJ's customers are, what their target audience is, and what image and branding is needed to attract the right customers. After the initial meeting, the Designer would come up with some great creative ideas, using the right colours, a quality font, relevant and appealing imagery. These are then worked up into business cards and letterheads, linked together by a fresh and implemented Corporate Identity.

CLJ are very happy with the designs and then look at having them printed. The designer recommends printing the business cards on a high quality 400gsm board, printed in full colour, with the letterheads being produced on a 115gsm white bright paper stock which adds to the look and professional style.

The designer and the chap from CLJ progress onto the website, and the options available to best suit the need. As CLJ are Joiners, all they need is to have good web presence as they don't need to sell direct to their client base. The designer recommends work on a small, 3 page web brochure, to be produced in the same corporate style as the printed material.

They get the right domain name in "www.coollookingjoinery.co.uk" which helps customers find CLJ. Then, the Designer creates the site using relevant keywords and tags so that the little spiders from Google can find you in a heartbeat. Betty's Ironing isn't even on the same page.

Both CLJ and HWCJC both get telephone calls from Mr and Mrs Needakitchen.

They both go and have a look at the job, then go away and work out the quote. Both CLJ and HWCJC are going to use the same kitchen units bought from a well known DIY chain, both will do it in the same time frame and both have the same basic quote price.

The quotes arrive in the post. HWCJC's quote is printed on cheap paper, with a poor logo and a business card that looks like a dog's eaten it. CLJ's is printed on quality paper, is well designed and comes with a professional business card with the photographs reminding Mr and Mrs Needakitchen of the high class workmanship that CLJ have done before.

So, let's say you have the to quotes in front of you. One looks and feels professional, the other looks and feels poor. Which would you take?

We know which one the majority of us would go for... it's the one that looks and feels professional. 

So lets say for example the kitchen cost £10000 an investment of say £500 in branding and professional material was an excellent return on investment. 
The key point that I am making is good design sells and is cost effective, bad design will eventually cost you money in lost sales.

If you are starting out, take advantage of one of our business start up packs. Our product knowledge coupled with concentrated creativity can help you hit the ground running.



Call us on  01773 599159, and let us help you to make the right start in business.
Graphic Results

Refuse lorries with graphics that we have done.

Part of a large project re Anti Social Behaviour.

Tips for Direct Mail.

Direct mail (aka as junk mail if not done right!) is an great tool to help market and promote your business.
A key point is to make the direct mail so it appeals to customers. It needs to grab their attention. Direct mail is a great tool to attract new customers and to keep existing customers informed of your offers and products.


A few tips.


Consider who the target audience is.
The target audience is so important  when developing a direct marketing campaign. A data list can be created by using your in-house data base of customers and contacts. This is great if your information is up to date and correct, if it is not up to date you can waste money with the mail out as the results will be poor. Another option is to buy a fresh up to date data list from businesses like www.whichlist.com. They can help target the list based on geography, business type, business size, etc.


What is the objective of the direct mail?
You need to make a clear objective to the campaign, you need to include all the information that will get the customers attention, the offer needs to be right so the customer takes the action to respond. Make sure you put on a method of contact ie telephone number, email, web etc


Effective design works.
The design of the mailer is so important, it must be eye catching, have impact and look professional. The design and finished quality of the direct mail reflects on  your business.Think about it if the mailer looks poor then your business looks poor!


Time the mailer right.
Timing of the mailing impacts its effectiveness and the result of the mail campaign. i.e Promoting barbeques in the start of the summer season is bound to be effective. Before you mail out just check that you have enough promotional stock or staff to meet the demand.


Keep track of the responses.
Tracking the responses to the mailing is so important. This will help to measure the success or failure of the direct mail campaign. By tracking this will help to justify another direct mail campaign.


If you would like help on a direct mail campaign please call us or pop in for a chat.

The first time we have used our new logo

Our new logo in an advert for web design.

The allotment and effect on business.

In late last year we had the chance to get an allotment in Belper, we had been on the list for about 2 years. www.lizmikelucyjackallotment.co.uk/ 

The allotment was in a mess and we are making slow progress.  So why "the allotment and effect on business" then? What the great thing that we are finding is that it is creating great family time with the children and time to focus the mind.

When I was there the other day the allotment brought back to me memories of a training course that I went on many many years ago.

The training course was about sales ideas and then thinking the allotment is very much like sales.

First of all you have to prepare and clean the ground, this is like in preparing your database, ie making sure that you have the correct information or preparing the right product or service.

Then when you have prepared the soil, you then sow the seeds. This in business is like doing networking events or sending out sales letters, what you are doing is sowing the seeds for future business.

When the seeds are sown in the ground you then to nurture them. This is like nurturing the slow building of trust and relationships in business, as people in general buy on trust.

As the seeds grow they then start to turn into the fruits of your labour.  As the relationships in business grow you then get the result in sales. You have to keep working the allotment and your business to harvest the long term results.

Old phase "you reap what you sow" so I hope we get some great fruit and veg later in the year.

A new website we have designed for Treetops

Take look at our latest web design project. www.treetopsnurseries.co.uk

Treetops are a top 10 countrywide nursery group, who offer compassionate, professional care for children in a fun and loving environment.

Established in 1990, the Treetops family has grown, meaning they now provide childcare to over 1300 children, with over 600 childcare professionals.

The site is cms with a bit of fun for the children as they can map Roarie's Travels.

Are you just relying on the printed Yellow Pages for business.

Do you rely on Yellow Pages advertising for getting your new business? Is it working for you lately? Discover how you can improve your results  and probably even save money on your advertising spend.


Many businesses today still rely on Yellow Pages ads for their advertising. They often keep advertising as "we've done it for years " but never monitored the response.

Can you remember when they used to say "let your fingers do the walking" well mine do -straight to Google.


When we get a new copy of Yellow Pages it goes straight into the recycling bin. Therefore all the advertisers in Yellow Pages have wasted their advertising spend on me.

Most people now go online to look for services or products. This means that businesses need to be on the internet and be found on Google.

How can your business be found online?

An expensive way is to buy advertising from Google AdWords. If you search for your keywords, for example plumber or accountant, at the top and along the right side of the screen  you will see a range of adverts. The companies who are paying for those ads have placed high bids to show up on that first page, every click on their ads will cost them.If not controlled properly this can be come very expensive. If your business needs a quick result then Google AdWords may well work for you.

I think that instead of speading £1000's on a Yellow Page advert invest in making sure that your website works and is well optimized, so that Google considers it to be among the most relevant for the search results.

A well optimized website will cost  less than either Google AdWords or Yellow Pages advertising and in my opinion you will get more new business.

Ideas to help increase sales.

If you find that you lack sales here are a few ideas that work for us. 

First of all we have made this mistake in the past and I bet that many other business people have as well. The mistake is when your business is very busy you cut back on  marketing. Then when the work starts to slow you hit the marketing hard to fill the short fall in sales. What we have learnt is to always keep marketing even when busy as its easier to keep the work enquiries coming in.

Make sure that you get out there, the more people who know what you do the more chance of getting business, this is both in the virtual world ie on www.twitter.com , www.facebook.com 

www.linkedin.com and face to face with networking. Over the years we have picked up new clients from networking events held by the likes of www.dncc.co.uk  www.ecademy.com 

www.4networking.biz . 

With networking in general remember it is not about selling it is about building trust and relationships.

Networking in my opinion is like gardening, you have to plan what you are going to do, then sow the seeds.Then nurturing the seeds so that they grow into long term harvest of opportunities.

Advertising, well this is a massive area but you can spend a lot of money and get very little pay back. You need to first of all set a budget and look what customers you want.

We have found that in general advertising in printed directories ie yellow pages have had their day. This more so if you sell business to business, most people now use  www.google.co.uk for details of new suppliers, services or products.

If you sell business to consumer then in printed directories your advert can get lost. If you are selling for example insurance unless you have a very big budget your advert will be lost against all the big brands.

As for newspaper advertising, well most local papers are like "one night stands", ie one quick hit and gone. Most local newspapers are read by older readers and in general are losing readership.

Have you put a referral scheme in your business? If you have happy customers they can become a great sales force to promote your business. Don't be affaid to ask for a referral.

A good thing that we have found in getting involved in your community ie local football, rugby hockey clubs etc, or local charities.This helps build local trust and often you get to meet people who in normal business world you have no chance getting past the reception desk to talk to them.

A method that we have done and a lot of or clients have done especially if they are a startup business on a very tight budget is to do what we call "the shoe leather challenge".  So you ask what is that then? Well we design and produce say 5000 full colour flyers with an offer on them. Then the client with family and friends go out on a Sunday to distribute the flyers. 

The reason to do it on a Sunday that if you are selling to B2C market, people on a Sunday at home are going to be more receptive as they are relaxed, they are also not expecting anything to come through their letterbox. If you think about in the week they get in from work pick up all the post and any leaflets, so your offer or message is lost in all the bills and post.

Increasing sales is about having a long term plan based on good communication, building trust, relationships and offering the right products, service at a cost effective price. Building sales in my opinion should not be built on just price. As we have found you can end up having customers who are price lead are not loyal.

Hope you have found this of interest.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Mike Handley

Do your business cards work for you?

Do your business cards work for you?

Is it something that you're proud of? Does it clearly inform people what your business does? Are they stylish and visually appealing?

I have seen over the years at networking events, meetings, etc so many business cards that people have given to me that just do not work to enhance their business profile or brand. 

Often they have got the cards free from a website that are printed on thin board in the wrong typeface and with no style.

A business card is one of the most cost-effective marketing tools a business can have. A well-designed professional looking business card can effectively promote your business. 

Your business card design must inform people what you do. How often do you look in business card holders with cards that were given to you say 6 months ago and you cannot remember what that person does? 

The design needs to leave the right feel and clearly defines what your business does so you will not be soon be forgotten.

How many times have you seen a business cards when someone puts the title of say “consultant” but with explaining on the card what they do. They may be a medical consultant, a tax consultant or farming consultant. Would you want a farming consultant to see you for a medical issue?

So a few pointers to think about on the design of you business cards:-

1. Use the right colours that are fresh and not dated.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Use a typeface that is clear and not boring, in my opinion Times New Roman is a big no no.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Make sure that you use both sides of the business cards, you are paying for the board so why have a blank back. On the reverse add may be photo images of products or a picture of the outside of you shop or bar. You can add key feature and benefits of what your business, products or services offer. May be add a map and directions to your company. What about adding a calendar on the back then at least it has 365 days of use. If you run a business that makes appointments add an appointment reminder on the back. You can add a discount offer or refer a friend voucher.
   
   
   
   
   
4. If you really want to make an impact go for a folding business card then you can create a mini brochure.

When you are happy with the design have the cards printed on the right board weight, 400 gsm is a great board weight as it feels thick and impressive.

Look at the finish of the cards, gloss laminated or matt laminated. At the moment my favourite finish is luxury matt laminated with a little spot uv varnish, it's like adding shiny highlights that enhance your message.

When you have got you business cards printed then get them out there. Leave them in bars, restaurants, garages, at client receptions etc. Stick them on notice boards. Give out two at a time and ask to forward onto a friend that may be interested in your product or service.

So please remember that your business card is your little secret sales and marketing tool. If you get it right it will help you win more business.

If you have a website when did you last review it?

Do you have a website for your business?

If you don't you may be missing out on new business and marketing opportunities.

If you do have a website when did you last review it?

Was it about 5 years ago when your site went live to the world. If so I bet that it has got incorrect and out of date information on the site.

So what do you do, re-design the site or start again with a new site?

Before you start you need to consider what you want the site to do.
Is it to be a simple web advert or a brochure of what your business offers. Do you want to sell products or services on line?

Are you going to update the site yourself? If so you want to have a user friendly back end CMS (content management system). This will allow you to keep the site up to date and add pages etc.

All the content, images and information on the site should be relevant, interesting and up to date.

Old information, products and offers send out the wrong message to your customers. In my opinion it shows that you are not bothered about your brand/business.

Your website layout should be user-friendly with the interface and navigation being simple and reliable. How often when you go to a site that takes along time to load so you just click and go.

The appearance of your site graphics and text should be professional, appealing and relevant. Include a style that flows and you need to follow all your other marketing and branding material. This will show consistency. 

If you write the copy for your website make sure that it has the right keywords that are relevant to your product or services that you offer. This will help customers find your site when they use search engines like Google.

When you are setting up the site add a news page, a blog, links to twitter and facebook etc. Keep the news, blog, twitter etc up to date as search engines like sites that are kept fresh with new information.

Add links from your website to other sites that are interesting and relevant. For example trade and professional bodies ie Gas safety if you are a plumber or local attractions if you are a hotel or B&B. Ask for links back to your site.

With links don’t make the mistake of just adding lots of links that are not relevant as this does not help with search engines and can send out the wrong message to your customers.

Make sure that you add your web address to all your stationery and marketing material. If you have company cars or vans put the website on them

If you would like us to review your site or design you a new site please give me a call. A content management system website designed to work for you start from £950.00 plus vat.

Thank you for reading this blog.

Regards

Mike Handley

Graphic results

01773 599159

Henry Cavendish display for Derby Cathedral.

We have just done this display board for Derby Cathedral, it is about Henry Cavendish.  

Henry Cavendish  (10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810) was a British scientist noted for his discovery of hydrogen.

A few years ago we did a project for Derby Cathedral which was to design the history boards for the Cathedral Centre.The Centre was opened by HRH Queen Elizabeth II. We designed the invitations for the event. However the most stressful job we have ever done was supplying the official plaque for the opening. In design most things you design have a short life ie an advert in a newspaper may be one night, a leaflet may be around for a month etc, but the plaque made from granite will be there for a very long time. 

The stress came as the stone mason fitted it and the curtain for the opening the night before the visit. I was lucky enough to be invited to the opening, the thing was that I had a vision of either the curtain not opening or worse of all the plaque coming off the wall as the Queen was looking at it and injuring her in front of all the press and television cameras. That would have been the tower for me! The great thing was that everything went just like clockwork.

Picture of the opening is here at http://www.bbc.co.uk/derby/features/2003/11/queens_visit/gallery_queen/pop_10.shtml