Category: Marketing

In the digital age we live in, small businesses are needing to pull out all the stops to generate sales and spread brand awareness. One of the best ways to get consumers on board is by running targeted email campaigns. Many businesses may opt for traditional marketing strategies, such as television and newspaper spreads; however, as a small company, you may not have the funds to promote your products and services on such platforms.

Email marketing is a popular strategy that more and more businesses are using to drum up interest for their brand. Sending regular communications to your target demographic is not only cost-effective, but easy to do too, so here are some of the best email marketing strategies to use in 2020.

Have a clear goal in mind

Before using email marketing, it’s essential that you have a clear goal in mind for your small business. Understandably, the main purpose of sending out emails is to nurture leads into sales, so figuring out who your audience is, the types of products they’re interested in, as well as how to catch their interest is key.

Don’t hide your email subscription

One of the main problems that many websites face is not having a mailing list that’s easily visible. To increase your opt-ins, consumers need to know how and where to subscribe to your content. The first thing that you need to do is have a sign-up form that’s easy to spot on your webpage, blog, or another resource page. To draw more consumers in, adding a link to the form on your social media channels, email signature, and other relevant locations is advised.

Let consumers know what to expect

Whether the purpose of your emails is to provide your audience with company updates, or you would like to promote your blog posts, it’s important that you tell consumers what to expect before signing up to your business. Providing as much information as possible will give visitors an informed choice, helping to reduce the risk of them unsubscribing in the future.

Offer incentives

If you’re having difficulty drumming up interest for your small business, why not provide an incentive? After all, we all like a freebie or something that will benefit us, so when audiences subscribe to your email newsletter, providing cost-effective incentives such as a discount voucher, a free eBook or a raffle entry can make all the difference between securing more subscribers or consumers losing interest.

Segment your lists

Once your email list begins to gain traction, you should start segmenting them to help you work out what types of emails are best sent to whom. Sure, it will take time to get things right; however, it will all pay off in the long run. You need to remember that all your subscribers will come from different walks of life, so the last thing you want to do is send out a marketing email to the wrong demographic. 

Create the perfect newsletter

To increase the chances of consumers taking an interest and signing up to your brand, it’s important that you create a newsletter that is eye-catching from the get-go. These enewsletter samples can give you a better idea of what you should incorporate into your own to help you stand out from competitors. Remember, consumers will get tons of emails each day from rivals, so you will need to think outside the box and have a USP (unique selling point) to make your presence known. 

Before you send out any emails, make sure that you take the time to thoroughly proofread what you have written. Spelling mistakes and bad grammar can put people off, so if you aren’t sure it’s suitable enough, reaching out to friends and family to have a look can help.

Mobile-friendly is crucial

With technology continuing to advance, so does the popularity of mobile phones. If you want to target a younger audience in particular, the chances are the majority will own a smartphone, so it’s crucial that you optimise your marketing emails so your audience can read about your business while on the go. 

Consistency is key

As a small business owner, it can be disheartening to put your blood, sweat, and tears into email marketing and not see the results you expected. You have to remember that success rarely tends to happen overnight, so even if you’ve curated the best e-newsletter out there, consumers need time to become aware of your brand before you notice an increase in subscribers. Staying consistent with your emails and showing that you’re passionate about your business can help make your target audience take you more seriously.

Email marketing can be a great way to let your target audience know about the latest developments, trends, products, and services that your company has to offer. If you aren’t sure where to begin, using all the email marketing tips listed can you get you off to a good start and help build a loyal following. 

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Ben talks with Edward White from ATLIVE to discuss how he got into film making and developing his own style.

The sponsor for this episode is 34SP. A Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress host based in the UK. Visit 34sp.com and use the code WPINVENTIVE at checkout to get your first three months of hosting completely free.

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Interesting idea from NatWest to support women in businesses.

We’re here to help you to turn your idea into a side-hustle and your side-hustle into your main-hustle. It’s time to close the gender gap in business, for good.

Not only do we have money for some of you (and we all know that helps), we also have mentoring, workshops, crowdfunding coaching and events in your community.

Apart from using the word ‘hustle’ – which I don’t think a business should ever be doing – I support this idea and it’s positive bias to support women. It’s crazy that ‘the system’ has worked any other way and a balancing of renumeration and authority is the only way forward.

Genevieve from Writability brought this scheme to my attention with her project.

I’d like to reach more of the UK’s plucky but under-resourced SMEs and help them succeed with better sales and marketing copy.

Check out the project and see if you can support Genevieve or one of the other projects in the scheme with as little as £1.

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Ben talks with Jonathan Mahan from Bombbomb on how video improves business and gathers some tips on how to get comfortable on camera.

The sponsor for this episode is 34SP. A Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress host based in the UK. Visit 34sp.com and use the code WPINVENTIVE at checkout to get your first three months of hosting completely free.

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Based in the United Arab Emirates, Lubna Forzley-Badr shares how she disrupts corporate businesses through the art of storytelling and creative a business narrative.

The sponsor for this episode is 34SP. A Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress host based in the UK. Visit 34sp.com and use the code WPINVENTIVE at checkout to get your first three months of hosting completely free.

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After spending three days, attending 12 talks and walking over 20,000 steps, I’m back from Bath Digital Festival. I was lucky enough to interview some of the speakers and attendees to bring you a flavour of the state of technology and marketing in 2019.

It’s a fully packed episode and I hope you enjoy it.

The sponsor for this episode is 34SP. A Fast, Secure and Managed WordPress host based in the UK. Visit 34sp.com and use the code WPINVENTIVE at checkout to get your first three months of hosting completely free.

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Ben meets with Nicholas van der Walle to discuss how Astute Graphics managed the process of updating their website with a new product pricing system.

The sponsor for this episode is our Internet Marketing Club. Remember to use code INVENTIVEPODCAST for 20% off annual membership.

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Ben talks to Claire Doré, a life coach about her tips on reprogramming your mindset and achieving your goals.

The sponsor for this episode is our Internet Marketing Club. Remember to use code INVENTIVEPODCAST for 20% off annual membership.

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Your business ethics are the moral principles that guide your business – take your eye off the ball for one moment and you could be in a world of trouble.

Ethics in business are slippery fish with many business leaders not realising the impact one wrong decision can have. Just ask Uber, H&M and Pret a Manger – Just three examples where leaders have chosen not to see what’s really going on and suffered the consequences – bad publicity. So what can you do to ensure your business ethics are sound?

You might think that you’d know if you were faced with an ethically dubious choice to make – sexual harassment, blatant environmental damage, or misleading packaging for instance – clearly the wrong choices – and not sustainable for long. Yet, every day we read about deceiving CEOs embezzling millions or other dishonest dealings, which could lead us into thinking that ethics is clear cut and those who are responsible were bad apples all along.

But can you be so sure? And are you willing to stake your business on it? With concrete definitions of good ethical practice, beyond the laws and regulations that businesses currently live by, becoming more difficult to identify, there are increasing numbers of scandals hitting the news recently. As ethical scandals go, few are harder to beat than the Cambridge Analytica scandal of 2018, whereby the harvesting of the personal data of millions of Facebook profiles without consent was used for political advertising purposes. This one example shows just how careful businesses need to be in our present social environment.

But it isn’t just the big media-worthy scandals. Ethics is increasingly becoming an issue for the smaller business. So connected are we by social media that one wrong move can have the world banging on the door demanding retribution. Any infraction will swiftly gain bad exposure, followed by circulation by those who are happy to disfigure your business reputation. You don’t want to be at the receiving end of that kind of publicity. So, how do you ensure you’re not sitting on an ethical time bomb;

• Be aware of euphemistic language – ‘Pretexting’ was used to disguise phone record hacking and to lie in the Hewlett-Packard spying scandal. This example of euphemistic language masked the true nature of the misconduct until it was brought to light most disparagingly.
• Be aware of ethical numbing – In an environment where we are repeatedly exposed to certain behaviours, these can seem to be acceptable. The S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team began to adopt the unethical behaviour of doping, although when testifying they admitted it was wrong.
• Be aware of routinisation – We may try to justify our behaviour by claiming that ‘this is the way we’ve always done it’ and therefore it seems normal. Perhaps behaviour has changed incrementally until eventually a completely different behaviour emerged – this is likely what happened with Carillion.
• Be aware of shifting responsibility –By omitting information and putting the responsibility onto the consumer to discover information that might influence their decision to buy, you could be inadvertently acting unethically.

With world environmental issues in the news every day it is expected of business to do its part in reducing the impact we have. If your business is blatantly flouting that expectation then expect to, sooner or later be hauled across the coals for it. Younger people in particular are becoming more knowledgeable about ethical practices and their hyper-connectivity means hyper awareness. On the other hand, even the smallest change made for the health of the environment will have public support – by way of example, my LinkedIn feed revealed recently that Waitrose introduced its new plastic-free section in one of its branches in London – a positive endorsement for Waitrose and one that received many views and likes.

Leaders need to be aware that ethical challenges can come from unforeseen directions and be so complex as to be almost unidentifiable. However, the most astute enemy of the business may just identify and expose any dubious ethical conduct, especially those businesses who try to justify or ignore behaviours that could be construed as unethical.

You may think that you’re immune from ethical responsibility, but ethics is about more than following the rules, it is about being responsible and identifying potential ethical issues before they come and bite you on the rear end. As business leaders we are all vulnerable to the rules of ethics, and complexity, lack of understanding or self-deception will not be acceptable excuses.

Identifying any new and complex ethical issues is vital for the success and endurance of your business. Your ethical behaviours are increasingly under scrutiny and have greater consequences than ever before.

Image by Pixabay

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Ben speaks with Martin Dugan from Double Tap Marketing about his approach on managing outbound marketing and cold calling through to nurturing.

The sponsor for this episode is Inventive People. Get 20% off first order with the code INVENTIVEPODCAST.

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Ben speaks with Ben Everard from The Ideas Bureau on his approach to problem solving and the steps he uses to overcome them.

The sponsor for this episode is Inventive People. Get 20% off first order with the code INVENTIVEPODCAST.

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In this summer holiday special Ben shares an episode from the monthly IMC Marketing Webinar where he discusses the best ways and practices on how to get reviews for your business.

The sponsor for this episode is Inventive People. Get 20% off first order with the code INVENTIVEPODCAST.

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In this episode Ben is joined by Tess Coughlan-Allen, Marketing Manager at Mind Doodle to talk about content planning, mind mapping and minidoodle.com.

The sponsor for this episode is Inventive People. Get 20% off first order with the code INVENTIVEPODCAST.

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On this episode Ben talks to Shayna Rattler, a leading expert in corporate sponsorship and influencer marketing.

The sponsor for this episode is Inventive People. Get 20% off first order with the code INVENTIVEPODCAST.

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Ben talks to Tom Ross, the founder of DesignCuts.com (and fellow podcaster) about creativity within marketing and how he balances building a community of contributors whilst marketing to customers.

Something Inventive is an entertaining and lively podcast on creativity and the web. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or search for ‘Something Inventive’ in your favourite podcast player.

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Episode sponsored by our SEO report

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Show notes

• Tom Ross
• Design Cuts

 

Image Credit: Tom Ross portrait. Banner Image Credit: Image of Tom Ross sat in a meeting.

The last time I took my boys to the local go-cart race track they had a great time.

Me, not so much. It was rather chilly in the old aircraft-hangar, and I would have welcomed a warming decaf cappuccino. And the husband is always a sucker for a bacon sandwich.

Avoid the barest minimum service

Alas, all they had in the way of coffee was weak, dirty-dishwater-coloured freeze-dried stuff that was offered with a kind of reluctance you might get from someone you’d just asked for money in the street. As for a bacon sandwich – from the looks of the kitchen facilities available, this was way beyond their capabilities and I cannot imagine the sort of look that would have warranted.

Now compare this scenario to another where, just like the go-cart place, the business owners have the benefit of a captive audience.

Give customers a reason to want to return

Jolly Nice, a farm shop in Frampton Mansell near Cirencester was set up in 2013 on the site of a disused petrol station. It began as an airstream trailer but because it responded to the demands of its customers, offering more and more reasons for them to return, they managed to turn their tiny business into a thriving enterprise.

Jolly Nice is now a collection of attractive wooden buildings and a couple of yurts and sells everything you’d expect from a farm shop and much more. It has a café selling decent coffee and hot food, a butcher shop, a deli and it offers plants and flowers for sale. It overlooks a lovely field with roaming rare breed sheep and shorthorn cattle. This truly is a business that delights its captive market, offering customers reasons to return. Indeed, all I need is the excuse for some sausages for dinner and I will make the 20-minute journey there to sit and relax in the cosy yurt or in the large spacious garden with a good coffee and a lovely home-made chocolate brownie. I will then peruse the plants before buying my meat.

Capitalise

The go-cart race track is missing a trick not capitalising on all the customers who frequent its business and offering them, at the very least, decent coffee and good food. With a little bit of care and attention, they could turn their visitors into loyal customers. They have the attraction – the go-cart race track – so why don’t they turn this into a successful enterprise by simply offering good quality refreshments and appealing to the parent market?

What can you offer your visitors and customers so they don’t need to go anywhere else? Whatever you’re selling, look for opportunities to make it a one-stop shop for everything to do with that product or service, and offer decent coffee if it’s appropriate  – this makes it a more delightful experience for the visitor, which means they’re less likely to go elsewhere to fulfil their needs.

 

Image courtesy of Pixabay

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Ben catches-up with Alex Galviz, who is one of the top influences on LinkedIn in the UK. She has co-created an incredible global network of events called LinkedIn local and encourages people to communicate with authenticity.

This is a recommended listen if you want to up your game on LinkedIn.

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Ben is joined by Jonathan Pollinger and they talk about the future social media, why it’s worth making predictions, JP’s rebrand and why Facebook is bloated and not very much fun to use.

The sponsor for this episode is Inventive People. Get 20% off first order with the code INVENTIVEPODCAST.

If you have any feedback, ideas or topics you’d like covered on our podcast we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch via our contact page, leave a voicemail on 0800 881 5805 or mention @RatherInventive on Twitter.

Something Inventive is an entertaining and lively podcast on creativity and the web. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or search for ‘Something Inventive’ in your favourite podcast player.

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Episode sponsored by our SEO report

Check out our laser focused SEO report. If you need to build up your traffic then this report is for you! Mention our podcast when your order and get 10% off.

Show notes

• Inventive People – outsourcing work
• Jonathan Pollinger Social Media Trainer
• Jonathan Pollinger Social Media Predictions 2017
• Google and Facebook’s Complete and Total Digital Ad Domination Explained in 1 Chart
• The FTC and Facebook Are Negotiating a Record, Multibillion-Dollar Fine for the Company’s Privacy Lapses
• Mark Zuckerberg Promised A Clear History Tool Almost A Year Ago. Where Is It?
• Marketing automation with Marcus Unemyr
• Rather Inventive Marketing Events 2019
• If Baguettes could move
• SayHola Feedback

The Hosts

Jonathan Pollinger (@pollingersocial) – An unusual mix of logical thinker with a creative eye
Ben Kinnaird (@benkinnaird) – Knower of Social media, SEO and ‘the Web’

Be part of the show

Tweet a service or product you’d like to promote, mentioning @RatherInventive and the hashtag #podvert and we’ll read it out over the coming episodes.

If you like the show please give us a rating in iTunes and we’ll read out your comment. You can do this from the podcast player on Apple.

Thanks for listening!

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Edited by Clare Harris – ‘Goofy Vocal Groove‘ intro music by Dave Girtsman–Image courtesy of Pexel.

Al and Ben discuss lessons learnt from their first webinar, how to check if your data has been hacked, gdpr fails and a look back at Al’s time with Rather Inventive before he embarks on a new adventure.

The sponsor for this episode is Inventive People. Get 20% off first order with the code INVENTIVEPODCAST.

If you have any feedback, ideas or topics you’d like covered on our podcast we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch via our contact page, leave a voicemail on 0800 881 5805 or mention @RatherInventive on Twitter.

Something Inventive is an entertaining and lively podcast on creativity and the web. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or search for ‘Something Inventive’ in your favourite podcast player.

---

Episode sponsored by our SEO report

Check out our laser focused SEO report. If you need to build up your traffic then this report is for you! Mention our podcast when your order and get 10% off.

Show notes

• Inventive People – outsourcing work
• Webinar IMC follow-up – You can join here
• Hacked Data
• Have I been pwned
• Recaptcha
• Why Captchas have got so difficult
• SayHola Feedback

 

The Hosts

Al Osmond (@inventiveal) – An unusual mix of logical thinker with a creative eye
Ben Kinnaird (@benkinnaird) – Knower of Social media, SEO and ‘the Web’

Be part of the show

Tweet a service or product you’d like to promote, mentioning @RatherInventive and the hashtag #podvert and we’ll read it out over the coming episodes.

If you like the show please give us a rating in iTunes and we’ll read out your comment. You can do this from the podcast player on Apple.

Thanks for listening!

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Audio edited by Clare Harris – ‘Goofy Vocal Groove‘ intro music by Dave Girtsman–Image courtesy of Pexel.

Ben chats with Magnus Unemyr on how implementing artificial intelligence and automated marketing can impact society and if done well, AI driven, marketing automation can not only propel sales but can and waste less time through more targeted interactions.

They also dip into the darker side of how big data can, and has been misused by companies in the recent past.

 

• Unemyr.com
• Linkedin
• Marketing automation course
• Data Driven Marketing with Automation Book

 

Image Credit: Magnus Unemyr portrait. Banner Image Credit: Image of Magnus Unemyr presenting a lecture.

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In this interview Ben chats with Michelle Evans on how developing a marketing funnel can take your from simply surviving, to SOLD OUT.

Michelle takes us through the steps of developing a funnel from understanding your audience before jumping in to develop a funnel that will nurture more customers into working with you.

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Al and Ben discuss the website trends to look out for this year and the impact of blanding branding. Ben shares Jonathon Pollinger’s social media predictions for 2019.

Sponsor: Inventive Marketing Club – Learn to build a better marketing strategy. Find out more

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It is truly amazing what we can all achieve with a mobile phone camera but you need to be realistic. When it comes to producing stunning imagery for your business, it really is worth getting the professionals in.

We see so many hobbyist photographers who believe they are saving money by taking the photos themselves but in fact, it’s costing them in the long run.

 

A professional photographer provides experience, knowledge & creative flair

When you hire a professional photographer you are hiring someone who does photography for a living. They have a wealth of experience they can apply to any given situation and will strive to capture your vision. Photography is an art and it’s not at all as simple as point and shoot. They are thinking about their depth of field, lighting, angle, overall composition and scene to tailor the photography style to your industry. It takes years of practice to hone their skill and develop their creative flair to enable them to deliver breathtaking shots that enthusiasts can only dream of.

The skill is not only taking the original shot but also being able to adjust and edit the photos depending on your photo requirements. Whether the colours need to be punchier or the background needs enhancing, editing photos can take hours. To do it well takes experience, practice, and creativity usually on expensive software.

Customers can judge in an instant from the presentation of a product whether or not it is right for them. Using a professional photographer will only increase your chances of getting their attention and for the right reasons.

 

Investing in stock images could be an alternative answer

If hiring a professional photographer is currently beyond your means then consider investing in some stock images. There are many libraries online like EveryPixel, Adobe Stock and Flickr who provide a range of free and inexpensive images for all to use. Just remember if you opt for this, other people will also be using these images, maybe even your competitors so they won’t be unique to your business. If you want to stand out and have professional, unique images which represent your brand, then you have invested in a professional photographer.

 

It doesn’t have to be expensive

If you value how your business is perceived then invest. This doesn’t have to be overly expensive, many photographers will tailor a bespoke package to your needs and means. Or for ease if mind, you can always purchase an off the shelf deal so you know exactly what you can expect. On Inventive People we offer lots of options to enable us to meet our clients’ needs.

 

Image courtesy of Pexel

In this interview Ben managed to catch Dan Lewis from Free Agent 247 in-between meetings to chat about their free business model and how video plays an important part in their promotional strategy.

 

• • Dan Lewis – Founder of free-agent247
  • free-agent247.com
  • free-agent247 on instagram
  • Worcester Foregate Street Station
  • Michelle Morris – Natural Photography

Image Credit: Founder Dan Lewis, FreeAgent247. Banner Image Credit: Image of Dan Lewis sat in a chair reading.

Voice search on Alexa and Google, is an area we don’t have a complete grasp on yet, particularly optimising for it. So, Ben was keen to talk with Duane Forrester, VP of Industry Insights over at Yext.

We discuss why we should be using structured data on our website. How this impacts conventional SEO and why it matters for voice and augmented reality.

 

• • • Duane Forrester
    • Bing
    • Next
    • Mocca Master
    • Schema.org (Jointly operated by Google and Bing)
    • Structured Data (Trust Signal)
    • Amazon Echo Dot
    • Digital Knowledge Engineer job role
    • Ready Player One
    • Google Glasses
    • Augmented Reality
    • Yext.co.uk

Image Credit: Founder Duane Forrester. Banner Image Credit: Accounts icons on a mobile courtesy of Pexel