A Reminder....

I feel sure that most businesses in the UK found the last quarter pretty heavy going. With reference to the playwright Jim Cartwright, the first three months of the year was a little like walking through raw meat in high heels.

Today's GDP figures show that the UK's economy grew by 0.5% in the first quarter of 2011, avoiding the so-called double-dip recession. That, in spite of the dreadful December weather and the anticipated dread of financial cut-backs.

The Chancellor is still exercising caution, and warns that "we are not out of the woods yet".

Now seems a good time, therefore, to remind you that we have a few schemes and events aimed at helping the small business to look forward with optimism and make the most of any market activity.

Free Marketing Review

We are offering any small business a free review of their current marketing activity. All you need to do is complete a short questionnaire, and we will provide a report that gives a n objective overview of your current marketing activity and makes suggestions and recommendations for other activities that may wish to try or improve. No catch here; simply a third-party look at what you are doing and what you could improve without wasting money.

The questionnaire can be found at http://www.argentrammedia.com/questionnaire

One-to-One Start-Up Consultation

From a logistical persepctive, we can only provide this free service to Kent-based businesses.

You may have a really good idea for a new business, and be very good at what you do, but very few would-be entrepreneurs have all the experience and confidence they need to get up and running. We have been there, and we know what is expected and what needs to be done.

Whilst there are some very good sources of advice, such as Business Link, sometimes it helps for an individual to sit down and get some personal, impartial advice that takes into account all the skills and shortcomings of each individual. We know that you can't be great at everything, and we aim to guide you through some of the pitfalls.

Simply give us a call, and we will arrange a free 30 minute face-to-face chat that should give you more confidence and some additional knowledge to get you up and running.

Call Lorraine Baker on 01580 761000.

Marketing in a Difficult Economy - Seminar

On Wednesday 18th May, we are holding a seminar in the beautiful surroundings of the Hop Farm, Paddock Wood, Kent.

The seminar runs from 09:00 - 11:00, and is aimed at any small business who wants to ensure that they are getting the best out of their marketing activities. Marketing has changed dramatically in recent months, as the emphasis is very much on in-bound activities rather than the traditional, interruptive methods such as telesales/telemarketing, email blasts and mailshots. Engagement, customer-service and customer loyalty are top of the tree, and you need to explore the many new ways of ensuring that your marketing messages get seen by the right people. Without accepting that marketing strategy is changing forever, you run the risk of having your market share pared down to critical levels.

There is a charge for the seminar of £15.00 + VAT per head, and this includes breakfast. Two speakers will present their insights into cost-effective new marketing methods that could make the difference between your company success or failure.

For booking information, please contact Lorraine on 01580 761000 or email lorraine@argenttrammedia.com

There's nowt so funny as folk

Some local businesses are funny, and I don't mean that patronisingly.

I have been doing some tele-marketing this afternoon (I know! I apologise to all those people who hate cold-callers). I have been approaching small businesses who do not have websites at all, or whose websites are an abomination (again, with apologies to those affected!).

I am surprised by the numbers of people who seem totally disinterested in the concept of a website. That said, I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised, as the fact that they care so very little about their internet presence tells me a lot already.

I appreciate that there are some businesses who have a very steady level of existing clientele, and feel no need to try to entice in new customers. But no matter how successsful you are, customers do drop off at some time or another (The Leaky Bucket - tell me if I have lost you at this stage). These customers do need to be replaced or you end up with an empty bucket.

Having a good website is such a simple thing, and need not cost the earth. Once there, it is your invitation to new customers. It shouldn't be a financial drain if designed and built properly, but will keep your leaky bucket nicely topped up. A poorly designed website shows a lack of care, and WILL deter prospective customers from contacting you, and I know that in this day and age, very few businesses can afford to be that cavalier.

Even the mighty Tesco admits that "We can do better and we are taking action.....to improve the sharpness of our communication to customers.”

Acknowledgment - Marketing Week:
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/3025629.article?cmpid=MWE01&cmptype=newsletter&email=true

We only want to be liked!

As you may now be aware, we have finally launched our new website, and have sub-sites in the pipeline for our Dental Marketing and Estate Agency Property Management Systems.

Argent Ram Media

The design of the new site has been kept simple and to the point, as we endeavour to practice what we preach! Hopefully, the four core areas of our business are made immediately evident:

• Website design and development;
• Screen Marketing and Digital Signage;
• Search Engine Marketing and Promotion;
• Branding

Hopefully, the design will grab your attention and there are clear Calls-to-Action.

The importance of a website to any business cannot be emphasised enough, and although we always see our site as a work in progress, we hope it does the trick and you like it!

If you'd like to keep up to date with all our goings-on, do please hook up by any of the following means:

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Or give us a call - 01580 761000.

Think Screens!

"Digital signage is an unbeatable way to reach an audience. Used by retailers around the world, it reaches customers at the exact moment purchase decisions are made, delivering an attention-grabbing, high-impact message.

Provide information in a format that entertains, informs and engages audiences – and that gets results. Deliver the right message, at exactly the right time, to the right people. And where the costs of updating printed signage can add up, going digital can earn a pleasingly quick return on investment."

So says Hewlett Packard, but it is a message that sums up the power of digital signage.

Screens are now affordable enough for even the smallest business, so if you are spending money on advertising (local press, magazines, posters and leaflets) think about the power of increasing customer spend-per-head at point of sale.

Our prices for a full system - 32" screen, media player, installation - start at just £17.95 + VAT per week.

Call Lorraine on 01580 761000 or email lorraine@argentrammedia.com for further details.

Two invitations...

Would you like to step back and have a little think about some of the methods you are using to market your business?

We have a couple of schemes that might help you:

1. We are offering a free review of your marketing activities and strategy. Nothing too complex or daunting, but a few suggestions as to additional ingredients that you can throw into the marketing pot to ensure that your profile doesn't fade into obscurity. If you would like to receive this review, all you need to do is fill in a simnple questionnaire:

http://www.argentrammedia.com/questionnaire/

2. If you would like to enjoy breakfast in the beautiful surroundings of the Hop Farm, Paddock Wood, Kent with a seminar on "Marketing in a Difficult Economy", and an opportunity to network with a few other local business people, then let us know!

We are holding a seminar on Wednesday 18th May at the Hop Farm, with breakfast included. Please contact Lorraine on 01580 761000 or email lorraine@argentrammedia.com for further details.

Winds of Change?

I don't know about you, but for us this last week has seen a marked increase in client enquiries and orders.

From early December, when business was definitely affected by the weather, we arrived at a period of Small Business Gloom. I have no doubt that this was fuelled by a combination of seasonal ennui, general economic inactivity, spending cuts and another budget.

The cuts are now beginning to be felt on a very personal level, and I must admit I did think that this would have a further significant effect on small business confidence and activity. However, as has happened in the past, the thought process appears to have been one of "let's wait and and see and then make a decision."

Small Business waited for the budget to see if this was the last nail in their collective coffin, but have made the decision to come out fighting. We can all sit there fearing the worst, but for how long?

It is now up to the small business to steer itself clear of these troubled waters. I have learnt from the past that very few people are there to help you, and it is up to us to create our own opportunities and our own success.

Spring is here, financial news can hardly get any worse for the small business, so now is the time to pick ourselves up, think positively, fine-tune our sales and marketing strategy and get out there in front of our new, existing and past clients.

Free Review of your Marketing Activities and Strategy

I am sure that none us needs reminding that the economy is not helping the small and medium-sized business very much at the moment. It is at times like these that we all need to look very hard at our marketing activities and assess what works and what doesn't. We need to generate more revenue for less cost, and this can take a lot of creative thinking.

In this week's Kent Business, PR Guru Max Clifford is quoted as saying "Businesses might be very good at what they do, but they are not good at getting the message across."

We, at Argent Ram Media, would like to offer you some help.

A FREE, no-obligation review of your marketing activities and strategy.

We will look at the following areas of your business, and make recommendations based on current trends and anticipated return-on-investment:

• The effectiveness of your website;
• Social Media and the ways in which this might help open up new routes to market;
• Brand visibility and PR;
• Printed collateral;
• The ways in which you engage and communicate with your clients and customers.

The next steps:


Complete a very short questionnaire by clicking here.

We will prepare and send you a free report providing you with our suggestions and recommendations for ways to market your business without a prohibitive increase in overhead.

The rest, as they say, is up to you....!

Discretion is the better part of valour

My esteemed sales manager, Lorraine, went out and about in town yesterday, having a chat to local businesses and handing out some of our promotional leaflets for website design services.

The reception Lorraine received on most premises was friendly and polite, but there were two business owner/managers that were downright rude.

One of these was simply dismissive and disinterested. The other, when presented with one of our leaflets, pushed it back with a curt "You can take that back".

I am the first to concede that it can be a nuisance to be disturbed during the course of a working day. However, this is a small local business community, and it must be in everyone's best interest to try to help one another when financial times are hard. Good manners go a long way, and even if our leaflet was filed in the bin once Lorraine had left, a polite acknowledgment of another local business, and potential customer, might have been politic.

Suffice to say, I shall think twice before buying Bertie any treats from the second of the above traders, nor shall I buy greetings cards from the first.

Getting over the growth hurdle - Technology or Manpower?

Every small business will eventually reach a stage where they need to invest in order to grow.

They may become so busy that the existing staff are so stretched that errors are beginning to creep into their work. They no longer have the time they used to have to follow up every lead or enquiry, or ensure that their customers feel valued. Slowly but surely, clients are tempted away to the competition, complaints start to appear about poor customer service and a business starts to slip down the drain.

In order to generate more enquiries, the business knows that they need to either increase telesales activity, improve customer service, canvass more, get a better website or advertise, and these pose the difficult question: "what generates the best return without costing the earth"? In a poor economic climate, the small business will always reduce their advertising budget first as that is the easiest thing to cut and the most difficult to gauge in terms of Return on Investment.

The small business will also often fall into the trap of cutting spend on cost-effective solutions that will help them get over this next hurdle.

Technology or Manpower?

Employees represent a very large expense, and for a business that does not have enough hours in the day the first thought is often: "I must take someone on".

Some years ago, a travel business client had reached a hurdle. The bulk of the work was being handled by one member of staff. Their new website was suddenly producing a surge of new enquiries, and due to the increase in overall workload, the employee was beginning to make the occasional mistake. In order to get over this hurdle, the company had a decision to make - either employ another person, or look at ways of improving the efficiency of the systems used to help the existing employee. A member of staff with the skills and experience would have cost around £16,000 per annum in salaries - a sum that could not be sustained.

A Customer Relationship Management system, though, would cost a fraction of that extra salary, and allow the employee to handle the increased number of enquiries, schedule reminders, email in bulk, track bookings and much more.

By investing £5,000 in a GoldMine CRM system, the company improved office efficiency, reduced the actual workload of the employee and resulted in a significant increase in turnover. This, then, did enable the business to invest in another employee shortly thereafter, and the hurdle was crossed successfully, allowing the business to grow.

Another client wanted to increase sales within their retail trade counter. Staff levels were always kept to a minimum as the footfall did not warrant the overhead of superfluous sales staff.

On average, the customer dwell-time within the outlet was 10 - 15 minutes. This can seem an inordinately long time for the customer in a queue, so it made sense to try to encourage that customer to buy more or learn about the products and servcies that were available.

How much would it cost to employ a body to hand out leaflets to every waiting customer, and try to promote products as customers browse (think "perfume-sprayers" in department stores, or "flyer-pushers" on the high street)? Do you honestly think this is the best use of your resources, and would you really generate enough additional sales revenue to cover that person's salary, and more?

The above client installed a marketing screen - an LCD screen that played bespoke content: product demonstrations, special offers, company news, promotions, all aimed at the customer on a soft-sell basis. The £2,000 investment was a fraction of the cost of an additional member of staff. Customers found the in-branch experience to be much better, as they lost perspective of time. Sales increased, spend-per-customer-head increased, and the screens were particulalrly useful for shifting end of line stock items.

Technology as a way of increasing sales for your business does work.

It doesn't need to be at the expense of human resources, but small businesses, particularly, often need to bridge the gap between their existing set-up and the next stage of their growth. Getting over that hurdle in the most cost-effective way, with an eye on Return on Investment, can make all the difference between a company's success or failure.

Argent Ram Media - 01580 761000. ian@argentrammedia.com