February 2006
Monthly Archive
Seven good reasons why your business MUST have a communications plan
MattE 28 Feb 2006 | : Communications
No matter what size your business, you and your staff are communicating. How you communicate and what you communicate is important and needs to be planned in the same way as the business plan and the marketing plan is written. In fact, the communications plan should be part of the marketing plan.
Here are seven reasons why your business MUST have a communications plan:
- Identifies who your target audiences are.
Careful anaylysis of your business will reveal who is out there listening (passively or actively) to what your business is saying. A careful review is often revealing in terms of who your audience includes. - Identifies what messages are being delivered to which audience.
There is nothing worse than comflicting messages, or wose, wrong message being communicated to your target audiences. An audit of existing communication methods and messages needs to be undertaken. - Will identify how you are currently communicating.
The audit will show the various pathways of communication. These will often include various newsletters, websites, blogs, media invertiews, advertising, conference presentations, staff interactions with customers, and the various forms of internal communications. - Will identify what messages you SHOULD be communicating.
Once the audit is complete you can start looking at the range of messages you should be communicating. Often different messages need to be communicated with different audiences. For instance, your suppliers need different messages to your customers, of whom there may be segments who receive different messages again, depending on their ‘worth’ and level of interaction with your business. Some messages will be generic, others will be tightly focussed on the audience. It will also allow your messages (how your target audiences perceive your business) to be consistent! - Will identify HOW you should be communicating.
Key messages need to be communicated in the best way to suit the audience. Some audiences can be served with infrequent paper-based newsletters, others may be best served with frquent emails or encouraged to make use of RSS feeds. Key messages can be included in various communication methods. Some audiences may need a mixture of frequent short messages and less frequent core messages. The how can also include colours, fonts etc, as this all impacts on effective communications. - Will let you know your communications budget.
You cannot communicat effectively if you have not looked at audiences and methods. This will allow a budget to me set that includes time, printing costs, distributions costs, outside assistance (if using ad agencies etc) as well as budgeting to review the communicatuion process during the year and thoroughly each year. Your budget may also include having an external party write your communications plan. - Will reveal effectiveness.
By speaking with various audiences and seeking their views, you will know if your plan is succeeding or needs fine-tuning (or major changes)!
Contact Ozemail – yeah, right…
MattE 27 Feb 2006 | : Marketing, Web
Lesson in good customer focus – don’t put barriers in the way to people contacting you.
This link takes you to the Ozemail contact form :Contact Ozemail
WHY would I need to provide my password to contact them? I don’t ever use my password – I would have to troll back through years of documentation to find it.
C’mon Ozemail, remove this customer service roadblock and provide uninterupted pathways for customer feedback!
Google Maps to carry ads
MattE 25 Feb 2006 | : Communications, Media, Web
I am a big fan of Google Maps. I like the way information can be spatially represented. But I also kew it was just a matter of time before the ads would start to appear.
Such is the success and uptake of Google maps by people making mashups (overlaying their info onto the maps) that the expected introduction of paid advertising that would also appear on local maps is about to arrive, as noted by Niall Kennedy in his blog post Google Maps to carry ads
One can only hope that the intrusiveness of pay per click style ads is not too great.
Number One Reason To Advertise
MattE 21 Feb 2006 | : Communications, Marketing, Media
I was interested to read this short post by Steve Cone Blog: Number One Reason To Advertise
While he mentions more than one (positioning your company to the public AND motivating employees) it is an interesting take on what roles advertising can really include.
Generally advertising is seen to be about many things including: Continue Reading »
How long is too long to wait for a response for an email query?
MattE 19 Feb 2006 | : Marketing, Web
So you are ready to do business, but all you want is the answer to a simple question. So you happily send an email to the business. And wait….
How long is typical?
The average response time to e-mail queries is 30 hours, compared to 26 hours a year ago, according to the E-Tailing Group. With online customer service inquiries projected to grow 15% a year through 2008, small and medium-sized businesses must be better prepared to handle the growing volume of customer queries, the study continued. As a result, small businesses will struggle to keep up with the level of customer service now expected of them as consumers look for more ways to connect.
30 hours! I know in our business we get back to over 80% of emails within 6 hours and would be quickker except for time zone differences (we are in Australia and many customers are in the USA and UK).
SEO Cheat Sheet – how to get listed quickly
MattE 18 Feb 2006 | : Marketing, Web
Jeffrey Dorrian has some great tips to getting your new website noticed. I concur with all that he says, especially the observations about using link submission services.
It should be noted that his article only covers the tip of the SEO iceberg. There are many more aspects that need to be considerd, including keyword phrases, meta data, how the body copy of your site is written etc.
You have decided to take the plunge and put you business on the Internet. You have a limited marketing budget and want to promote your new site to attract new clients.
Txting might get you into trouble
It seeems the Swedes are a saucy lot.
A survey by mobile portal Halebop for Swedish operator TeliaSonera showed that 86 percent of people had flirted with someone by SMS, and 40 percent had had SMS sex. Seven percent said they had had SMS sex with an unknown person.
Bit of fun, maybe, but the survey also showed that two-thirds of Swedes secretly read their partner’s mobile phone text messages, in particular when he or she nips off to the loo.
Most people, 47 percent, said they secretly peeked into their partner’s phone when he or she was in the bathroom or shower, while others said they did it when their partner was sleeping or had forgotten to take their mobile.
Why long sales copy works
MattE 12 Feb 2006 | : Marketing, Media, Web
Call them vanilla sales letters, cookie cutter sales letters or just long sales letters, the fact is that long copy for selling products has been around for a long time. Of course there have been people who have spoofed them, as pointed out on this blog HERE, but do they really work?
To me the answer is yes, as long as the sales copy addresses the needs and desires of the reader. Part of their success comes from the repetition and the inclusion of added incentives, not once, but several times. Generally they are hugely benefit laden.
If you are actively searching for an opportunity – have a committment in your mind to do what is being offered then the long sales copy is highly effective. Identify the dreams, show them how it can work, repeat it from various angles and make the offer highly compelling.
Don’t let poor words hurt your resume or proposal
MattE 10 Feb 2006 | : Communications, Marketing
I was alerted to this informative article CNN.com – 25 words that hurt your resume – Jan 20, 2006
and thought how good it was.
It is also worth looking at this article in terms of what your write in business proposals etc (I’m in the midst of writing one now).
Certainly the definite is better than the vague – as long as the definite is truthful. Making claims (just because they cannot be easily checked) will come back to haunt you if you cannot achieve outcomes like those ‘other ones’ in either your resume or business proposal.
Your input is welcomed
MattE 07 Feb 2006 | : Communications, Marketing, Media, SMS, Web
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