Howdy!



Just wanted to let you know that I have NOT forgotten about you. 

In fact, I’ve been reading every single comment on this blog and, where necessary, replying.

The reason why there have not been any new posts recently, is because I’ve been working round the clock on a new major announcement…

[Drum roll, please!]

I’m abandoning this blog! OK, abandoning is a really strong word, and I’m not exactly deserting it. Instead, I am jumping ship and moving this blog to my website.

The reason?

I’ve been really happy here, but moving over to my own blog domain will afford me greater liberty in the way I run the blog. 

So, today marks the end of MarketingMoment on my WordPress domain. I am no longer going to blog here. (NB: I will STILL monitor and respond to any comments, though.) Instead, I’ll be blogging on my own domain at www.blog.mediaminister.co.uk. And it will still be called MarketingMoment.

I hope you will follow me on my migration and join me at my new blog.

If you have linked to my blog in the past, you may want to update that link. I’m also in the process of creating a new blog-post notification list. So if you want to be notified of posts on the new blog, please join the new blog email list and/or update your RSS feed.

I’d like to thank you all for being ‘here’ and supporting this blog over the past year-and-a-half. In fact, I want you to have a really great tool I created — absolutely free of charge. It’s my gift to you for staying with me. All you have to do is get in touch to grab your copy, and quote ‘new MediaMinister blog’.

Finally, I would also like to thank the staff at WordPress. My new blog is going to be powered by you, so I look forward to more blogging with you!

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Source: Creative Pool newsletter, May 08

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There is a great debate going on over at Flying Solo’s blog on email versus phone. And let’s not even get started on texting as a business tool.  ;-)

I personally prefer email. Perhaps that’s because I’m a ‘typical’ writer; fairly eloquent on paper, but face to face or over the phone..!

What I particularly like about email is that it allows me to receive instructions by email that I can, if need be, print off and re-read, ticking off items as I work through them. Moreover, if there is some ambiguity or lack of clarity in the email author’s words, I can reply to the email highlighting that which I don’t understand. Far too often, things can be misconstrued or forgotten when communicating over the phone.

In essence, for me, having a ‘virtual paper trail’ means I don’t overlook or misinterpret that which may have been said (or not quite) over the phone.

That’s not to say I totally ignore the phone. Indeed, it can be a very useful tool, and at times certainly more direct than email. But, as a home-worker, what I have found that if I answer every phone call as it comes in, I wouldn’t ever get any project work done. When working on a client project, it’s important to have focus . . . and that means no interruptions of any kind. Hence, the answerphone is by next best friend.  

What about you? Are you a phonephobe? Do you hate email as a business tool? Perhaps you can’t live without it, and work with clients one-on-one almost exclusively by email consultation… Do tell! I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts.

Heralded by the not-for-profit Work Wise UK, soon-to-be-rolled-out initiatives will include condensed hours and nine-day fortnights, more home-working, remote and mobile working opportunities.

This is all good news. especially when you consider that the average employee in the South East spends the equivalent of one full additional working day each week on commuting.

Source: South East Business magazine, May 2008

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Most entrepreneurs and even businesses are wasting the powerful opportunities that the email channel presents, despite the growing popularity of email marketing, according to enterprise marketing platform provider Alterian.

To date its free online interactive assessment (www.alterian.com/quiz) has received more than 700 responses from marketers, agencies and marketing-service. The tool takes an in-depth look at how marketers personalise, automate, segment, track and report on email campaigns.

The results so far demonstrate that many marketers have an opportunity to greatly improve the returns of their email marketing investment.

Especially as Alterian’s fifth annual marketing survey – a comprehensive analysis of spending and investment priorities for the industry based on responses from almost 900 marketers, agencies, marketing services providers and systems integrators – reveals that 81 per cent of participants plan to increase marketing spend on email efforts over the next 12 months. 

Forrester Research also reports similar trends: “In the coming year, we expect email marketers to make a priority of improving email sophistication by investing in analytics, customising message frequency, and using email data to inform other marketing efforts,” commented Forrester Research Analyst Julie Katz, in the report titled How To Move Email Marketing Forward In 2008, February 2008.

So what are your plans for email marketing? How can you improve its effectiveness? Have you tested any new approaches recently? I’d LOVE to hear from you!

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Well, the answer is, it depends on your ‘ideal customer‘. (If you haven’t a clue what that means or who that is, then my Stop Working With Deadbeats! Attract IDEAL Clients & Knock Out The Competition Instead will help you hone in on what is potentially one of the most important elements of running your business.)

In a nutshell, you need to know your target buyers like the back of your hand before you can target them appropriately. Until then, you are pretty much wasting your time, expense and effort trying to reach them.

OK, for the point of this post, let’s say you know exactly who your ideal client is. By now, you should know that a) targeting has suddenly become much easier, and b) you know where they ‘hang out’, which publications they read, and so on.

Assuming you decide to advertise in a given publication that they read, make a note of whether any of your competitors are advertising regularly there. If so, that’s a good sign…

Now, phone up the advertising department for that publication and tell them that you are thinking of placing an ad, and that you’re currently researching the results of ads in the same industry (ie, those of your competitors). 

You will be surprised as to how honest they’ll be with you.

If it all sounds good, arrange a multi-run ad deal – ie, where you place a similar-sized ad in that publication for a number of issues (ideally, seven, but at least three if you can push to that). Make sure you include some kind of code for tracking purposes, and then measure the response you get. If it’s good, repeat the ad – it is obviously extremely well targeted. If for some reason it bombs, consider your ad’s copywriting and/or offer. Could either be improved upon?

The key to ANY advertising and marketing is to test, track, tweak and test again and again until you get the response you want. I covered more on this in a recent issue of my newsletter Communiqué for Success! 

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The figures come from a recent study conducted by data supplier Mintel, which also reports that last year Brits racked up £12.8 billion (16.16 billion euros) worth of online sales. In contrast, the Italians and the Spanish favoured brick-and-mortar shopping, spending just 1.1 and one billion euros respectively. Germany fared well with a total of 13 billion euros (£10.3 billion) worth of sales.

And the UK online market shows no real signs of slowing down. It has shown a healthy 75% growth over the last two years alone. What’s more, UK online sales are expected to increase by as much as 200% over the next four years to hit £44.36 billion (56 billion euros). says Mintel.

Do you sell your products or services online? If not, why not? there’s a burgeoning market out there…

You can double, triple or even quadruple your sales when you learn the dynamics of selling online and how to easily apply it your business. 

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This seems counter-intuitive and, from a business point of view, rather foolish…

As a busy sole trader, I take the time to provide as detailed a response as possible to customer queries. With prospective customers, I aim to respond to their emails within 24-48 hours. With existing customers, I like to get back to them as soon as I can, often within the same day their emails are received.

Naturally, when deadlines are looming or I’m away on business, this can be put off target. But usually it works out just fine.

Due to the nature of being a sole trader, anything above and beyond this is nigh on impossible. There are so many ‘hats’ one can wear.

That said, I would expect a larger company to have an adequate and speedy customer-response system in place. There is nothing worse than a company who goads you into becoming their customer with fast, efficient email responses, only to drop off once they have you in their database… 

For all e-commerce businesses, customer fulfilment should be one of the most important aspects of running that business. Most business owners would be alarmed to think that customers leave a company not necessarily because they’re disillusioned with the product, but rather the service (or lack of it).

With today’s ‘need it now’ online culture, it is absolutely crucial that every promise made to your customer is fulfilled on target, on time…

How do you measure up? 

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