Pizza, Indian, Chinese.............what's your choice?

As someone who rarely buys take-aways, as by the time I drive from the nearest town they are usually cold, I sometimes glance a the leaflets dropped through my front door from the local restaurant delivery services. Pizza, Indian, Chinese, chicken and chips - take your pick.  As I live in a village, we probably receive only a fraction of leaflets drops that those of you who live in more built-up areas. 

Most folk I talk to about their marketing media seem to think that leaflet drops are a waste of time.  The question therefore is why do the take-aways continue to do it despite the fact that the majority of receipients throw them straight into the recycling bin?  The answer is refreshingly simple - it works.  It is built into their whole marketing strategy.

Raising awareness by leaflet drops or any other means is not always about the quick sale.  It is more about keeping your brand (as opposed to anyone else's) at the front of your potential clients' minds.  In fact, some of my clients find the majority of their new business from leafletting. 

You need the right leaflet, for the right service delivered to your target homes or businesses.  And, it's all about repetition.  Once designed and printed, delivery can be staggered to fit your business cycle.  Measure the impact and repeat.

Not all products and services lend themselves to this marketing route but think about yours.  It might just work and if anything you'll at least have a great leaflet to give out at meetings and for direct mail.

Call me for more information on our design and print service.

Going local

We have recently been undertaking some local market research for a financial services business.  The need for the research arose from an analysis of new business.  The company was increasingly finding new business from existing customers and their families and contacts but very little was coming from the immediate locality.

Why is this important?  Well, one of the main reasons is that 'local' is flavour of the month, whether in buying fruit and veg or selecting a tradesperson.  Secondly, the financial services firm had a 'shop window' or rather an office frontage, door and the potential for revised signage.  Thirdly, the cost of servicing clients in the immediate locality is significantly less in terms of time and travel costs than driving an hour to several meetings before securing any fee paying business - the client is more likely to come to you resulting in 50% more new business meetings.

The main premises of the research was to test whether the 'man on the street' was a) aware of the existence of the business, b) if they were, where is the company's location in the town and finally c) did the interviewee have any knowledge of the services they offer? 

Without going into all the methodology and statistics, the main observation was that about 50% of the people surveyed (who lived in the town) had heard of the firm, and of those only 20% knew where to find the offices.  Some even directed the researcher to other financial services firms!  As for the services offered by the client, the results demonstrated that those surveyed had barely any knowledge of what was on offer.

The implications for this client were relatively straight forward.  They were missing out on a niche market that is simple to access.  A nifty piece of local marketing, well presented and focussed on the clients' needs will turn the balance of new business around.  Watch this space for how it pans out.

This case study demonstrates that businesses become stuck in the same activities because no-one asked the obvious questions.  The knowledge gained from a piece of market research allowed the financial services company to allocate their limited marketing budget effectively.  Maybe you should ask your locals some similar questions?

Lime Green and Blue - a great colour combination

Another infrequent Saturday Morning Musing and glorious weather has returned to the UK.  It encourages us outside to do something different after a long cold winter.  Running the risk of repeating a well-known phrase, 'if you do want you've always done then you'll get what you've always got', I thought I'd focus this week on Change.

Change is fun, exciting and sometime scary.  To fully benefit from change takes careful planning.  Whether it's something simple, like starting a new email campaign or something more involved such as introducing a new product or service, understanding how resources have to be allocated is key to success.  Change for change's sake is futile - if you've reached that point then I suggest you seek help.

So what changes have I made this week.  A couple of quite trivial things - adding new emails addresses to personalise our communications and adding another Workshop to the calendar.  On a more fundamental note, consideration of offering a new service - Intelligent Admin - an interim, outsourced adminstrative service offering clients more time to do what they do best leaving us to handle the repetitive tasks.  It will take some refining.  Consequently, watch this space.

So why the title of this Post?  Well, the contrasting colours of the fresh green leaves and the sky makes me think of the contrasting (and complementary) skills Sheila and I bring to Alterra.  Her attention to detail and my creativity, her calm and my frenetic behaviour, her well-rooted, traditional approach versus my more risky attitude make for a great combination.  There's a place for everyone in the Lime Green and Blue world.

Saturday Morning Musings - LinkedIn

There are now 65 million users of LinkedIn.  In the last week, I have added about 20 contacts - an increase of about 20%.  As a result, my 2nd degree contacts (namely, contacts of contacts) has increased by 50%.  Well that all sounds wonderful as I can now easily reach over 16,000 people but this social media platform will only add value if all these connections really start to use it.

Lots of newcomers to the platform are somewhat bewildered by its value.  One clear advantage is the listing of Jobs.  For a specialist in a particular field or location, the search facility gets the job hunter directly to companies seeking their skills and it may open up new avenues along the way.

Groups and their discussions are a great way to find out information on your own specialism or one you or your clients may be interested in.  Searching for work colleagues and classmates just because you can puts you back in touch.

For me the ability to post Presentations, Events and link my Blog and Twitter, makes LinkedIn an efficient way of disemminating information to my business contacts with minimal effort.  10 minutes am and pm - that's all it takes.

But on this beautiful Saturday in mid April, I'm more drawn to the great outdoors!  Have a lovely weekend.