The online marketing industry grew by almost 40% in 2007 according to new figures from the Advertising Association. With companies increasingly releasing the benefits of cost affective e-marketing.
With any winner there`s always a loser and in this case its direct marketing. The industry saw a drop in year-on-year growth of 6.5 per cent.
The Advertising Statistics Yearbook 2008 confirmed that digital marketing has now overtaken direct marketing as the third largest channel by market share. Digital expenditure represents 15.6 per cent of advertising expenditure while direct marketing now accounts for only 11.2 per cent.
The direct marketing industry was worth £2.17bn in 2007. Press advertising was still the biggest channel with expenditure of £7.71bn, and a 39 per cent share of the market. This was followed by TV at £4.6bn and a 24 per cent share.
The UK advertising industry grew by 4.2 per cent in 2007 to a total of £19.4bn.
We have a wealth of experience in e-marketing and offer a complete e-marketing service from website design to HTML e-mail campaigns. Talk to one of Diligences experienced professionals today on 01424 447858 or visit www.diligencegroup.co.uk and let us get your business moving in the right direction.
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
Data is King.
E-marketing is a really effective way of reaching your customers – and it can also be the cheapest option for a targeted campaign.
Some of your targets may not like receiving unsolicited emails, so it is important that you structure your campaign properly – enabling those who wish to, to opt out of any future communications easily. If a data subject requests to be removed from your email list, you are legally obliged to do so to avoid contravening the Electronic Communications Act.
Whilst spam is illegal, you are allowed to send unsolicited emails to business email addresses on business matters only. If you want to promote consumer services you must buy an 'opt-in' list.
Renting or buying a list is not always the most effective way of communicating. Certainly you could expect a much better response by targeting those businesses with which you already have a relationship. That’s why it makes sense to ensure you always record your business contacts.
If you are nervous about managing your own email campaign there are a number of online services available to help you – alternatively why not talk to Diligence and let us manage your next email marketing campaign?
The Marketing Manager has many years experience of helping companies market their services - why not get in touch if you'd like to know more?
Contact us now at www.diligencegroup.co.uk
Some of your targets may not like receiving unsolicited emails, so it is important that you structure your campaign properly – enabling those who wish to, to opt out of any future communications easily. If a data subject requests to be removed from your email list, you are legally obliged to do so to avoid contravening the Electronic Communications Act.
Whilst spam is illegal, you are allowed to send unsolicited emails to business email addresses on business matters only. If you want to promote consumer services you must buy an 'opt-in' list.
Renting or buying a list is not always the most effective way of communicating. Certainly you could expect a much better response by targeting those businesses with which you already have a relationship. That’s why it makes sense to ensure you always record your business contacts.
If you are nervous about managing your own email campaign there are a number of online services available to help you – alternatively why not talk to Diligence and let us manage your next email marketing campaign?
The Marketing Manager has many years experience of helping companies market their services - why not get in touch if you'd like to know more?
Contact us now at www.diligencegroup.co.uk
Monday, 14 April 2008
Where will you take your customers in 2008?
Looking for somewhere suitable to take your staff, your colleagues or your customers?
One of our favourite events is Glorious Goodwood - one of the highlights of the social summer scene. Indeed, King Edward VII once described Glorious Goodwood as ‘a garden party with racing tacked on’.
The meeting not only offers the very best in top-class racing - ‘Glorious Goodwood’ is a real English summer institution, where racing, socialising and fashion go hand in hand.
Goodwood is reckoned to be one of the world’s most beautiful racecourses. Set high on the South Downs with the most beautiful of views, it really is the perfect place to enjoy summer’s day. The Thursday of the Goodwood Festival is traditionally ‘Ladies’ Day’ and the feature race of the day, the Goodwood Cup, is Goodwood’s oldest race.
Our sister company, Nice Work, has been organising trips to Goodwood for some years now and are now taking reservations for a Glorious Goodwood VIP Package.
For more information, contact martin@diligencegroup.co.uk
One of our favourite events is Glorious Goodwood - one of the highlights of the social summer scene. Indeed, King Edward VII once described Glorious Goodwood as ‘a garden party with racing tacked on’.
The meeting not only offers the very best in top-class racing - ‘Glorious Goodwood’ is a real English summer institution, where racing, socialising and fashion go hand in hand.
Goodwood is reckoned to be one of the world’s most beautiful racecourses. Set high on the South Downs with the most beautiful of views, it really is the perfect place to enjoy summer’s day. The Thursday of the Goodwood Festival is traditionally ‘Ladies’ Day’ and the feature race of the day, the Goodwood Cup, is Goodwood’s oldest race.
Our sister company, Nice Work, has been organising trips to Goodwood for some years now and are now taking reservations for a Glorious Goodwood VIP Package.
For more information, contact martin@diligencegroup.co.uk
Friday, 28 March 2008
Give your website a kick up the pants!
It’s a familiar story.
You like your website. It has some good features and looks really good.
But you are not achieving very good search engine rankings. And you don’t seem to get many enquiries.
What’s gone wrong? It’s almost certain that your site probably needs a little kick up the backside.
Your site may look a little dated and, if so, there are a number of techniques you could adopt to help boost your organic rankings on the major search engines.
Naturally, a redesign of your site would help to freshen up the look and feel of your brand. But you can also build in some additional features to help generate not just additional traffic – but additional repeat visits to your site.
The inclusion of additional pages and some more search engine-friendly content will also help to boost your rankings – for instance, more relevant product information, an up to date News Page, the inclusion of Fact Sheets or an online archive library – all these mean you'd have more relevant content that could be picked up by the search engines. More to the point, the information would help project something of the personality of your company, its heritage and its experience.
What else can you do to help drive more traffic to your site?
· A Blog
A Blog can help you to position yourselves as a true expert. It also helps you to secure an additional presence on the web, by posting a substantial amount of additional online content, with a subsequent increase in the number of search results for the company.
You can position your Blog(s) as a forum for discussing issues that concern those in your industry. In addition to being stand alone sites in their own right, Blogs can be placed on a number of other internet platforms including popular and specialist trade Blog directories.
· Backlinking
You should actively seek reciprocal links with other relevant websites – the more links you can incorporate, the higher the probability of appearing more prominently in searches and, of course, securing more referrals.
· email address generator
Why not include devices to encourage visitors to your site to register their email addresses? There are a number of devices you could use ranging from a simple contact page through to more sophisticated and engaging devices such as offering Fact Sheets or a subscription to an e-zine/newsletter.
· Updated news and events section
The facility to add updateable news, photos or event information will ensure that repeat visitors to your site will have new content to read. News of your attendance at events can provide interesting content for the site as can the introduction of new products.
You like your website. It has some good features and looks really good.
But you are not achieving very good search engine rankings. And you don’t seem to get many enquiries.
What’s gone wrong? It’s almost certain that your site probably needs a little kick up the backside.
Your site may look a little dated and, if so, there are a number of techniques you could adopt to help boost your organic rankings on the major search engines.
Naturally, a redesign of your site would help to freshen up the look and feel of your brand. But you can also build in some additional features to help generate not just additional traffic – but additional repeat visits to your site.
The inclusion of additional pages and some more search engine-friendly content will also help to boost your rankings – for instance, more relevant product information, an up to date News Page, the inclusion of Fact Sheets or an online archive library – all these mean you'd have more relevant content that could be picked up by the search engines. More to the point, the information would help project something of the personality of your company, its heritage and its experience.
What else can you do to help drive more traffic to your site?
· A Blog
A Blog can help you to position yourselves as a true expert. It also helps you to secure an additional presence on the web, by posting a substantial amount of additional online content, with a subsequent increase in the number of search results for the company.
You can position your Blog(s) as a forum for discussing issues that concern those in your industry. In addition to being stand alone sites in their own right, Blogs can be placed on a number of other internet platforms including popular and specialist trade Blog directories.
· Backlinking
You should actively seek reciprocal links with other relevant websites – the more links you can incorporate, the higher the probability of appearing more prominently in searches and, of course, securing more referrals.
· email address generator
Why not include devices to encourage visitors to your site to register their email addresses? There are a number of devices you could use ranging from a simple contact page through to more sophisticated and engaging devices such as offering Fact Sheets or a subscription to an e-zine/newsletter.
· Updated news and events section
The facility to add updateable news, photos or event information will ensure that repeat visitors to your site will have new content to read. News of your attendance at events can provide interesting content for the site as can the introduction of new products.
Monday, 18 February 2008
Using seminars to sell your services
Seminar selling is not new and many industries use seminars or workshops to market their products or services. Some companies use the medium as their main source of new business leads yet others remain reluctant to adopt this specialised form of selling.
A reluctance to use such a public platform for selling your services can be for a number of quite valid reasons – it may be an understandable nervousness about speaking in public; it could be a concern a
bout the effort required to organise the event; or, it could possibly be the perceived costs and benefits of holding a seminar.
If you are worried about public speaking, here's our top 6 tips
bout the effort required to organise the event; or, it could possibly be the perceived costs and benefits of holding a seminar.If you are worried about public speaking, here's our top 6 tips
1. Know your material
2. Use personal stories in your presentation
3. Practice. Practice. Practice!
4. Rehearse out loud with all the equipment you plan on using.
5. Know your audience. Greet some of the audience members as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to strangers.
6. Arrive early and familiarise yourself with your surroundings
A successful seminar offers an opportunity to present your services to an invited audience of interested prospects. They will be there because they want to find out more about the topic you are presenting and they will be there without many of the usual barriers you come up against with some of the more traditional forms of selling.
A successful seminar enables you to impart far more information than any brochure or website could do and you’ll be in a position to answer questions or address concerns immediately. Your clients can experience you, and your service, in action and make valuable judgements about your personality and the culture of your business.
Furthermore, the content of your seminar has the potential to boost interest in your business and the messages you want to get across – the successful seminar presenter will have a real ability to inspire people to buy from them.
It is worth remembering that some people are reluctant to ask questions and would rather remain anonymous. They may be more comfortable when they are part of a crowd and will respond much more positively to you. They may dislike one to one sales situations which could make them feel under pressure to buy. Let your delegates listen to you whilst sitting with friends, family or colleagues – or with complete strangers but people who share their needs and aspirations – and it will comfort them and as a result you may find that you have much warmer prospects. Your seminar will offer them the chance to listen and to observe the reactions of other people in the audience allowing them to form their opinions with no pressure.
Seminar Selling can be extremely cost effective if you compare it with the cost of traditional prospecting. To secure an audience of 20, 30 or more interested prospects in one room at the same time, offers a highly attractive business opportunity indeed.
So, if you're looking for something different - why not try the seminar?
The Marketing Manager has many years experience of helping companies market their services via seminars - why not get in touch if you'd like to know more?
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Give your website an early spring clean
The start of the year is always a good time for a spot of navel gazing!
You probably have a website - but how many times have you checked to make sure its still perfromaing well for you?
Its always worth making sure your site is still working for you and what it is you expect from your site. For isntance, is is:
To provide an online guide to your company's services?
To offer an online corporate brochure?
To generate sales enquiries?
To provide a profile for your company on the major search engines?
To encourage visits and repeat visits to the site?
To encourage newsletter subscriptions?
To be search engine friendly?
Take a look to at your design objectives.
Does your site look slick and polished - or does it look dated?
Is it inviting? Or does it take some time and effort to navigate?
Does it use appropriate imagery?
Why not give your website an early spring clean? A new fresh look for your site could do wonders for your business.
You probably have a website - but how many times have you checked to make sure its still perfromaing well for you?
Its always worth making sure your site is still working for you and what it is you expect from your site. For isntance, is is:
To provide an online guide to your company's services?
To offer an online corporate brochure?
To generate sales enquiries?
To provide a profile for your company on the major search engines?
To encourage visits and repeat visits to the site?
To encourage newsletter subscriptions?
To be search engine friendly?
Take a look to at your design objectives.
Does your site look slick and polished - or does it look dated?
Is it inviting? Or does it take some time and effort to navigate?
Does it use appropriate imagery?
Why not give your website an early spring clean? A new fresh look for your site could do wonders for your business.
Monday, 7 January 2008
Dining out with the Marketing Manager
The key to the success of any good restaurant is its ability to continue to attract customers. Their customers will either be new people – or those who have enjoyed the restaurant in the past. Attracting additional and increased turnover from your existing customers will be much easier than trying to attract new customers.
It is just so important to build up a database of customers and prospects which you can use to attract new business. Indeed the database is the single most crucial marketing tool you possess - but an astonishing number of restaurants and pubs fail to record their customer's details!
If you can accumulate a database of around 1000 prospects and customers you will (not should, mind!) have sufficient prospects to enable you to rely on database marketing initiatives to fill your establishment – particularly for special occasions, events and themed evenings.
Segment the database into corporate and and personal data and you can personalise the marketing messages accordingly.
Securing more data is a challenge but one that should form the basis for the bulk of your short term marketing efforts There are a number of sources of data – some more easy to generate than others - but all requiring some effort! how about:
collating all your existing customer records, business cards etc and then segmenting into corporate and personal and into customers and prospects
visitors to your restaurant should always be asked for their contact details – either by asking them to complete a contact card, asking them to complete a 'customer satisfaction' card, by leaving their business cards – or all three! There are opportunities to secure these details by displaying material on tables, by enclosing them with the bill and by leaving a receptacle close to the till and restaurant exit for business cards. It may become a chore for staff but it should be stressed how important it is!
initiating data capture exercises – marketing material distributed to potential customers
capture data at exhibitions - try exhibiting at some of your local business exhibitions
PR exercises such as competitions can also attract details that can be added to your database
Finally, you can always look to carry out a data capture exercise to source local business details – this is something you can either do yourselves by searching local directories, websites and publications or you may wish to consider outsourcing.
Once you have your database you can then begin to market your restaurant. A regular programme of both postal and electronic communications should enable you to attract enough enquiries to help you to fill your restaurant for special promotions and events.
You can also use the database for:
special taster events for local businesses
open evenings
wine tastings
charity dinners with entertainment
launching new or special occasion menus
The Marketing Manager has extensive experience of using both electronic and postal databases to maximise business opportunities in the restaurant sector. Why not get in touch to find out more?
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