Category: Sales & Marketing

Business events can be hugely important for loads of different industries. They can be decisive periods, where crucial decisions are made, and important relationships created.

That’s why when you’re planning your business event, you need to consider things from every angle, and make sure you’ve thought of absolutely everything. Don’t worry though, that’s why we’ve come up with four key points to think about when it comes to planning your event.

Location is Important

You need somewhere convenient, but capable of conveying the style and essence of style of event which you are trying to create. That means if you want a classy affair, hire an older building, with more ostentatious architectural style. If you’re after cutting edge modern stylings, look for that. Hotels can be a great place to start when it comes to picking the perfect location for your business event.

There are a lot of different hotels out there though, so make sure you pick somewhere capable of holding all the visitors and guests, as well as one capable of catering to them, whether that’s food or drink.

Don’t forget, you’ll be able to stay in the hotel too, which is perfect for guests, clients and visitors coming from further afield. Hotels can make a lot of sense. What’s more, there are some spectacular options out there.

Do You Need a Speaker?

Does it make sense to hire a public speaker? Is yours the kind of event that would benefit from having an inspirational or expert speaker address your guests? These are the questions you’ve got to ask yourself. Here are some questions to throw at your public speaker, in case you find yourself drawing a blank.

When you’ve decided you’re definitely going to have a speaker, then you’ve got to think about who to hire. You want someone experienced and talented, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re limited to the big names. Smaller, more unknown speakers can be just as captivating and enlightening, but substantially cheaper, so it’s well worth looking around.

Are You Going to be Serving Food and Drinks?

It can be a great way to inject some class and goodwill into an otherwise dry or dull event. Making sure all your guests are watered and fed can really boost the potential of the overall event, and get people warming up to one another. It makes it something of an occasion people look forward to, instead of begrudgingly attend.

Having said that, if serving food or drinks at your event isn’t really suitable, don’t stretch yourself and do it regardless. It could prove to be a waste of money, if it’s not the right call. Eating and drinking together can be a great way to found relationships though.

What’s the Purpose of the Event?

A crucial point when it comes to planning any big event is knowing the actual purpose and aim of the whole event. Without that, you’re flying blind when it comes to making big decisions. If you know what the overall aims and designs are for the convention or event, you can gear the whole design towards your goals, which is only going to prove helpful and beneficial.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), when implemented strategically, is one of the most cost-effective local marketing strategies within the digital landscape, perfect for your SME. SEO pursues audiences actively seeking a specific product or service and achieves cut through by ranking and displaying your business or services to those looking for it at a time when they are most likely to take action on your marketing message.

But What Is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.

SEO in its simplest form, is the process of optimising web assets in a means that is complementary to Google’s search algorithm. There are two factors that come together to facilitate successful optimisation: on-page and off-page properties. On-page elements are those that are placed on your website. Off-page link building undertakings are those that exist externally on third-party websites.

11 SEO Factors To Keep In Mind To Drive Traffic To Your Website

Are you ready to increase visitors to your website and get them to subscribe, buy or call?

We asked a reputable and leading SEO agency what factors were important for driving quality traffic to your website when implementing SEO. These were their recommendations:

Web Page Titles: A vital element for both user engagement and search engine algorithms, web page titles briefly and accurately describe the topic and theme of the landing page.

Meta Descriptions: Not only are meta descriptions CTA driven, they assist search engines when indexing your web pages through relevant keywords to the content they describe.

Header Tags: Critical in assisting search engines in knowing what your page is about, header tags need to be fully optimised in conjunction with a pre-agreed SEO strategy.

Domain Level Links: This is simply a quality link from a third party site to a website’s home page. Over 150 SEO experts surveyed said DLL’s are Google’s most important ranking factor.

Page Level Links: Equally as important as a domain level link, third party PLL’s point to an individual webpage increasing the authority of this page on your website.

URL Structure: SEO experts ensure that both users and search engines are able to easily understand what is on each page just by looking at the URL. Say ciao to outdated URLs, such as /digital-9589=marketing

Internal Link Structure: A website’s internal links assist Google in establishing a hierarchy of importance. This enables you to have complete control over which pages you want to provide the most amount of link value towards.

Landing Page Content: Content on your site devised to appease both SEO algorithms and simultaneously is engaging for visitors.

Blog Content: If content is king, the context it sits within is queen. Increase your website’s long tail keywords and supporting contextual density with inspiring, educational blog content from experienced SEO writers that resides either on your site or on third party sites with backlinks back to your site or webpage.

User Engagement: With search engines constantly striving to improve their worth, prove to Google that your page is the thought leader in the industry with quality, engaging and resourceful content.

Website Speed: Page speed is important for SEO rankings and of course, positive user experiences.

Where Can I Get Good Help For SEO? What Does Good Look Like?

SEO is a specialist marketing activity. Therefore, you should seek a trusted SEO agency who can create bespoke SEO strategies according to your business’s objectives. A credible agency will conduct a thorough analysis or audit of your website, complete a competitive analysis, understand your unique selling proposition (and ensure it’s clear to your intended target audience) and asses your site’s online authority relative to the competition. With this information, the SEO agency will then develop a solution that is effective and delivers a sustainable, short and long-term ROI whilst being transparent with you along each stage of the process.

A credible agency will also deliver insightful monthly reports for you, ensuring you are clear of your progress and where improvements can be made to enhance your SEO success. Why? Because the SEO landscape is forever evolving.

SEO can be utilised as a localised, cost effective advertising method which should be considered by all SMEs.

As the media keep telling us, more and more entrepreneurs are taking the plunge and starting their own company. Unfortunately, if you are a firm believer of statistics at least, many of these are at risk of going under in the first year or so of trading.

One of the biggest reasons behind this is that they simply can’t get customers through the door. Whilst perhaps one of the more interesting departments, few would disagree that marketing can be one of the most challenging. Bearing this in mind, let’s now take a look at some of the best marketing approaches for those businesses who are looking to get off the ground.

The power of email

In comparison to some of the other channels we mull over, there’s no doubt that email is a lot older and some people therefore look down on it somewhat. However, they should do this at their peril.

Email marketing is one of the most tried-and-tested methods out there. It’s something which converts higher than pretty much every channel out there, so if you can build an email marketing list it should be at the top of your priorities.

Search engine optimization

If you are all for playing the long game, this next suggestion might be something that you tap into. Sure, SEO isn’t quite as simple as it once was, but in some industries you don’t need to possess huge budgets to make a real go of it and ultimately drive customers to your website.

There are now plenty of guides on how to carry out SEO, and the basic premise tends to be making your website as simple as possible for crawlers, like Google, to go through. If you can obtain some good backlinks as well it can help your cause, and help you tap into the huge market that Google has created for businesses.

The paid alternative to SEO

If you are looking for faster results, albeit at a cost, consider the paid alternative. Going by the name of PPC, this allows your business to immediately appear above the natural listings on Google’s platform. You will be paying on a per click basis, and those businesses who pay more will tend to find themselves at the top.

Considering how much money you could spend with this, you will certainly need to keep an eye on things and you can’t leave it to work by itself, so to speak. However, it can work out to be very effective and some businesses make a very good return on their initial investment.

Traditional marketing can still work

Following on from the above online options we have mulled over, let’s now turn our attention to traditional marketing. It might not be as effective as it once was, merely because it can’t target users in the same way as online alternatives, but it can still work to some extent. If you are a local business, the old tactics like handing out leaflets or posters can pay dividends – at least getting your new brand out to the local community.

Marketing campaigns don’t always work; sometimes even the most brilliant campaigns fall at the final hurdle. In 2017 alone, we saw dozens of high profile marketing fails, with the Pepsi/Kendall Jenner “Black Lives Matter” attempt topping the list. The campaign that was supposed to convince more black people to purchase Pepsi, the campaign which featured Kendall Jenner magically settling a standoff between protestors and public policy by offering an officer a Pepsi backfired big time, becoming a laughing stock on social media and attracting widespread public backlash.

And that’s just one example. There were many other high profile epic failures in 2017, costing marketers millions of dollars.

It’s possible that you too have experienced similar failures, even if not on a similar scale. Perhaps you dedicated the chunk of your marketing budget to a TV commercial and all it did was embarrass you with zero returns on investment. Or, if you haven’t, you could experience such a failure in the future.

You need to know that what matters most under such circumstances is what you learn from the experience. In order to avoid a repeat of the same mistake, you need to take a close look at the failed campaign and extract useful information from the experience to help you make better decisions in the future.

The following are five common lessons you’ll learn from failed campaigns;

1. Failure isn’t the end of the world

Seeing an entire campaign fail miserably can feel like the end of the road. Yet, it isn’t. After the failure, you’ll learn that there is life beyond any campaign; that irrespective of the magnitude of failure, you’ always have a second chance.

2. You learn that priorities are everything

One of the main reasons we often fail is getting our priorities wrong. Perhaps you’re beginning at the wrong end. Maybe you’re trying to focus on traffic without first working on your marketing messages. When you fail, something truly strange happens; you’ll begin to rethink your priorities and put things that matter most at the front of the queue.

3. It improves your perception of finance

Often, especially when you’re getting started, you could be tempted to go all in and commit every cent to that big dream. This isn’t bad at all. But it’s extremely risky. And, again, you’ll only get to better appreciate the risk when you fail. You’ll learn that you have to use your money more wisely, and, as www.ChadFocus.computs it, develop an entrepreneur mindset.

4. You understand the need to delegate

Another common reason businesses fail is trying to do it all alone. This is especially true for small businesses owners. Pressed by the need to cut costs, you may find yourself trying to run the business on your own. Failure will open your eyes to the importance and benefits of delegating responsibility.

5. You learn when to quit

Finally, and most importantly, failure will teach you that not all ventures can be successful; that sometimes it’s better to just count your losses. More importantly, you’ll learn whento call it quits.

So, Don’t Quit Now

It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. If you can always learn these five lessons and take them into your next project, your chances of success become much greater.

 

As entrepreneurs, we’ve ready plenty about marketing. We know that marketing is the life’s blood of our businesses. After all, without customers, there’s no money and without money, well a business is nothing more than a hobby.

One of the lessons that I’ve learned along my journey of entrepreneurship is knowing who your audience is just as important, if not more important, than knowing how to get to them. The reality is that the blanket marketing approach that most take is the same reason they fail.

What’s Wrong With Marketing Today?

Today’s form of online market is what I like to call blanket advertising. Advertisers generally look for lower costs per click to get their ads in front of as many eyes as possible. The idea is that as more people see the ad, someone is likely to click. So, the more we spend, the more eyes we cover, the more we make. The truth is that this is a broken model.

I recently came across an interview featuring Russell Ruffino, a quickly rising star in the world of entrepreneurship. Russ Ruffino’s interview suggested that instead of dragging a fishing net across a the bottom of the ocean trying to catch a big fish, we learn about the audience and target that specific audience. When talking about this exact scenario, Ruffino put it best when he said:

“So, even in the best case scenario, you’ll have to deal with many low-profit clients, which, in turn, will translate into a ton of issues to solve, complaints to sort out and details to micromanage. You will have no free time left, and you’re going to be a slave to your own work. There is a saying in Italy ‘work to buy a car you will use to go to work.’ Also, with these obsolete models, you’re definitely not going to buy yourself the expensive car you dreamed of.”

What Needs To Change For Marketing To Be A Success

At the end of the day, a successful marketing campaign is all about knowing your audience. Blanket marketing says that if everyone sees your ad, some interested parties will buy. However, if you’re a shoe manufacturer, would you rather sell a pair of shoes at a time or reach out to retail outlets that will buy in bulk? Essentially, we want to go for the big fish, and the first step is knowing who those fish are.

Once you know who the big fish are, it’s time to find out where they hang out. Chances are that there are plenty of them on Facebook. With 72.4% of the world’s population using the social network, just about everyone is on facebook these days.

Now, using the tools that are available to dial down the audience, do so. Dial your audience down to exactly what you’re looking for by advertising to people of specific ages, sexes and with specific interests. By doing so, not only will your ad likely be more successful, the cost per click for your ad will probably fall too!

What You Should Take From This Article

There are tons of articles about marketing and what you need to be successful. This isn’t like that. I don’t want you to use my system, buy my tool, or pay me for an eBook. I want you to be successful, and to do that, you need to take one thing away from this article. Ultimately, being successful in online marketing is all about knowing who you are marketing to. If you keep that in mind, you will likely find the success that it took me years to track down!