And the essence of marketing still lingers on when you visit your local market…

• Product – you receive instant feedback as to whether your product is in demand.  The way you display your products is important and you’ll sell more if it’s appealing.
• Price – instant feedback again – are people buying or not?  If not, you can change your price instantly.  The fruit and veg sellers are fantastic at this and will alter their price throughout the day; knowing they have to move as much stock as possible whilst it’s at its freshest and can demand a higher price.
• Place – Some positions on the markets are hotly contested…it’s all about location, location, location.  Where is the highest footfall and which streets attract more of your ‘target audience’?
• Promotion – I love the bustle of a marketplace.  Sellers promoting their wares and trying to catch your attention with shouts of ’10 for £1′.  As the promotion is verbal, it can be changed many times throughout the day and the regular traders will know which ‘promotions’ or headlines work best

I usually visit the local market wherever we travel in the world and have been impressed by the presentation of products in Spain and France, but the noise and bustle of the marketplace is more exciting in the markets of England and Africa.

This really is marketing back to it’s roots and its worthwhile revisiting what you do in your business – and whether things have become unnecessarily overcomplicated.

As I’ve only heard one side of the story, I won’t jump to conclusions, but there are a couple of really crucial lessons in this story and they link to the way business – and marketing – is changing…

1. Once a story has appeared in the ‘news’ it really is open to anyone to discuss, talk about, tell other people about…  This may be verbally, but it may also be online, as more and more of us have conversations with people using the technology we now have at our disposal.
2. If you’ve sent a story to a newspaper, you obviously want the promotion – so let others talk about you online to their hearts content.  Especially if they include a link to your event, story or site.  By working together, you’ll all reach more people.
3. We now live in a different world – collaboration is king.  Online people work together in a very different way.  They share more information and they work together for the greater good.  If you don’t understand that, you need to learn about how social marketing could boost your business.
4. The more people are talking about you – online or offline – the more successful you’ll be (as long as they’re talking about you for the right reasons).  So make it easy for people to share your news with their networks – you will all benefit in the end.
5. Stop being precious about ‘your’ content.  Very little in the world is new these days, so you need to work with others and share more openly.  Just look at the success stories of recent years, such as YouTube and Twitter, to see how much sharing is going on – and how much you’re losing out on.

If you live in the North West and want more details about social media, look out for our post about the ONE Event – we have a great trainer coming along to talk about optimising your website and talking to people online.  (Visit www.onebusinessnetwork.co.uk/one2010 for more details.)

In most cases, a one-off advert will not cover it’s costs.  And this is unfortunately what leads to most business owners being unhappy with marketing as a whole.  But, what they sometimes don’t realise is that there are many other marketing methods they can use; most of which are less expensive.  But they do require a bit more thought.

I’m afraid there is no magic marketing bullet that will bring you an inordinate amount of business overnight.  It’s a question of trying different methods and measuring your results.  But, we always recommend looking at the cheaper methods first – what difference could you make to your bottom line, for example, if you improved your customer retention by 10%?  Chances are that’s cheaper than looking for new customers.

By creating a plan, you can put some science to your marketing.  Henry Ford once famously said ‘I know 50% of my marketing spend is wasted – I just don’t know which 50%.’  My argument is that he should have known what was and wasn’t working – just by asking ‘How did you hear about us?’ you can reduce your spend in the areas that aren’t covering their costs and boost it in others.

One of our favourite customers did just this and re-allocated £5000 in advertising that wasn’t working, into a campaign that was generating results.  This year, his audience figures are up 18% on last year.  In the middle of a recession.

This is what the model looks like:

PRODUCT, naturally, concerns your products and / or services.  Do you provide the products people are looking for and what problems do they solve?

PRICE, concerns your pricing structure and what you sell your products and services for.  This area of the marketing mix is also concerned with ‘market price’ – are you cheaper than your competitors, or more expensive?  How do you know what the market is willing to pay for your product?  Can you be sure you aren’t under (or over-) charging?

PLACE, is about distribution – having your products and services available in the right place, so customers can find them.  This also concerns delivery, logistics and timing.  Distribution strategies are considered in this section – could you increase your customer base through the use of agents, wholesalers or ecommerce?

PROMOTION, is the area of marketing most people think about when they hear the word ‘marketing’.  (It’s also the reason why so many companies say they are ‘marketing’ companies, but they never actually get involved in product development, pricing structures or distribution strategies.)  Promotion is all about telling your customer you (and your product or service) exist and selling the benefits to encourage them to buy.  This area of marketing can be really creative, but it’s only of equal importance to the other three parts of the model.

Take a look at your business – and your marketing plan.  Do you have strategies to improve each area, or are you focused on the ‘pretty’ bits and avoiding the sharp (or financial) end of marketing.

Tomorrow we’ll cover another three P’s – a development of the marketing mix which is specifically relevant to organisations who sell services.

Firstly, speak to a few web design companies and meet with at least two or three.  These are the top things we are looking for when recommending web partners…

1. Someone you can work with and get along with. It’s important you build a great relationship with your web designer, as they should become a ‘partner’ in helping you achieve success on the internet.
2. A fantastic design service. First impressions are very important with a website, so you need a company that employs good designers.
3. Fabulous back-end, technical skills. Websites must be easy to navigate and the technical back-up and security behind websites is often over-looked.  But, it’s vital to a successful website, so ensure your web company has high-level technical skills to ensure your users have a safe, secure and simple route through your site.
4. Outstanding search engine optimisation knowledge. Creating a website and failing to optimise it is like printing 1000 brochures and leaving them in your office – it’s a complete waste of money.  Ensure your web team understand optimisation and ask them for examples of companies they’ve helped and how they changed their position – on Google specifically.
5. An understanding of marketing. A website is one small part of a promotional strategy.  And promotion is one quarter (at best) of the marketing mix – so it’s a very small part of your overall strategy.  Your web designer needs an understanding of where your website fits in your strategy and how it integrates with your other marketing methods.

As a result of these demands, it’s highly unusual to find them all in one individual.  Gone are the days when web designers could set up on their own, in their back bedroom and create fantastic websites.  You now need many more skills.  We therefore look to work with companies with all these skills under one roof – they usually have at least three staff; one of whom specialises in each of the key areas of web design.  (Look at www.ibexinternet.co.uk for an example of the company we choose for all our web design and support.)

I hope this helps you in your choice.  Whatever you do, please don’t use your ‘nephew’, unless he runs a very successful internet company.  If you can’t afford a properly designed website, question whether you need one at all, rather than spending money on something that won’t work.