Make use of this downtime and get stuck into some of the items on your marketing to-do list. You know what I mean… that list of social media updates, out-dated marketing materials or website refresh that you intended to get to.

Whether you are a business owner or employee, why not use this time to tick a couple of tasks off the list. These could include:

• Spring clean your social media. Ensure your LinkedIn accounts have relevant information and ask people for recommendations. Ensure your company Facebook account is also up-to-date.
• Refresh your website. Is the content up to date, do you have new images to add, is your team page looking dated?
• Write blogs and content. You may not publish them yet, but now is a great time to build up a solid library for when things get busy again.
• Refresh all your marketing materials. Update brochures, info sheets and documents while you can. Pre-plan and/or schedule social media posts.
• Review, update and consolidate your templates. Now is the time to review your templates, ensuring everyone will be using the same and most up to date versions.
• Continue to communicate with your customers and clients. Especially now, using your regular channels.
• Call and check-in. Think about giving your current clients a call to check in and continue to build your relationships. I’m sure you’ve received at least one call like this over the past few months.
• Upskill. There are plenty of online courses and webinars to learn new marketing skills, how to use various marketing tools and even work on your own website.

With a bit of luck, things might get back to ‘normal’ soon, so how good would it feel to have a few new tricks up your sleeve.

We are experiencing interesting times, with many businesses currently restricting travel and face-to-face meetings.  With all the technology available to us we have never been more equipped to handle working remotely and this includes virtual meetings.

Regardless of whether you are holding your meeting using an online platform or telephone, it can be difficult to hold the attention of participants.

Here are a few quick tips I have picked up on how to run a successful virtual meeting:

• Be prepared – make sure everyone knows why they are attending the meeting. Share an agenda where possible
• Be punctual – start and end on time
• Speak clearly and slowly. Only one person to speak at once
• Mute – put your microphone on mute when you are not speaking to help eliminate any background noise
• Stay focused and present – resist the temptation to check your emails or multi-task. You wouldn’t in a face-to-face meeting

More importantly, your virtual meetings will help you stay connected with your staff, colleagues and friends.  Please make the time to stay in touch.

Take care out there.

Christmas Parties and End of Year celebrations are a great way to offer a huge thank you to your clients and staff.  These events are a great way to celebrate the achievements of the company and show gratitude for support and hard work over the year.

There are several things that you should focus on to make your guests happy and ensure the event is enjoyable for everyone. Here are a few tips.

Planning

Start early and pick your date!  Fridays & Saturdays will be among the most popular, so consider hosting your event earlier in the week.  You could also save money – some venues impose a minimum spend limit which can vary.

Lots of companies will be hosting events so by deciding on a date and time for your event early, you’re more likely to have more venue options to choose from.

Determine the budget

Everything will depend on the budget.  Set your budget and use it as a starting point to brainstorm ideas for venues, food, drinks, entertainment etc.  You can still manage to keep it memorable and creative by choosing the right providers.

Venue/Location

The type of venue you choose will depend on your theme, budget, number of guests, location and corporate culture. Convenience is key. If you want to ensure that everyone makes it to the celebration, you’ll need to choose a venue that’s convenient.

Food and drinks are very important, so once you have picked your venue work with them to create a package that will satisfy your guests.

Attend to details

What kind of entertainment will you have? Are you going to hand out gifts?  The details will make your guests feel like the event has been thought out and planned so they can have a good time. Make them feel special and your event feedback will be off the charts.  Don’t forget to ask for specific dietary requirements?

Invite guests

By planning early you can avoid the need to send a ‘save the date’ and go straight to sending out your invites (digital is the way to go).  You’ll certainly have your guests looking forward to the event!

Have fun & enjoy!

 

Created your profile and now not quite sure where to start?  Feel like you haven’t really got the time to do too much with it?  In reality, it doesn’t take a lot of time and I’ve got some quick steps to get you started.

Step 1 – Accept Connection requests.

Do you have pending LinkedIn connection requests?  A common misconception of LinkedIn is that you should only connect with people you know or want to do business within but there’s no reason why you should limit your connections.

Step 2– Send thank you messages to new connections.

It’s a good practice to get into the habit of thanking someone for connecting with you.  If you haven’t met them before this could be a good time to share a piece of content that you think they would find useful.  Remember you want to add value.

Step 3 – Request to connect with one person per day.

LinkedIn will prompt you to connect to people you may know.  Aim to connect with at least one person per day.

Just these 3 steps will help you get the ball rolling.

Helpful tip: how to spot a fake LinkedIn profile.

It would come as no surprise to learn that not all profiles are legitimate and who knows what their ultimate aim is.  The good thing is a fake profile is fairly easy to spot.

They may have:

* Lower case first and last name or rhythmic names like Bob Brown, Joe Johnson, etc.

* Used a stock photo for the profile.  (You can actually do a google image search and see where else it has been used.)

* Incomplete profile with no summary or recommendations few connections but belong to a large number of groups

* Generic company name or dubious sounding job titles

I’d also suggest that unless you know the person, don’t automatically accept a LinkedIn invitation if it comes via your email address. Only view the profile and accept invitations (or not) when you’re logged into your LinkedIn account.

Yes, it’s hard to believe!  January is over, school’s back in and there are no excuses.  You know everything you said you would “do next year”, well it’s next year!

Time to stop procrastinating and get back to it.  It’s time to dig deep and tackle those jobs head on.

Here are a couple of simple tips to help motivate yourself and stop procrastinating:

Reacquaint yourself with your office.  Most small business owners have trouble stepping away from work for too long but you may need to take some time to refresh your workspace.

• Throw away things you don’t need
• File away papers you aren’t working on
• Put the extra note pads, pens etc you don’t need or use away
• Limit the clutter in your space
• Organise so you can always find what you’re looking for.

List your Priorities.  Now that you’re sitting at a tidy and organised desk, start making a list of what’s important for today, this week and this month.

• This will help guide your time management on tasks that need your attention right now and what can wait.
• Now look at your list and do one thing on it right now!  Doesn’t that feel great!

Can you get someone in to help with those new year jobs?  Think of how you can work smarter, not harder by outsourcing some of those simple, yet tedious jobs that you keep delaying.

If it helps, have a chat to Margaret at Emporia to see if she can help you kick start 2019.

 

It’s that time of the year and the Christmas countdown has started… Here are a few easy to apply marketing ideas you might like to use this Christmas..

Daily / Weekly Deals Advent Calendar

Provide your customers with a different daily (or weekly) deal. If your business is too small to create a different deal every day, you could turn it into a weekly deal.  Consider creating a landing page on your website and promote each day / week across social media to reveal the day’s / week’s special offer.

Branded Christmas Cards and Calendars

Send your customers, suppliers and other contacts a branded Christmas card or 2019 Calendar.  A thank you will ensure your brand gets a positive perception and will encourage customer loyalty. By giving away a branded calendar you will ensure you are in front of their eyes all year around.

New Year Voucher

To encourage repeat business, provide anyone purchasing during December a discount voucher for use on their first order in the New Year. Promote this voucher offer via email, social media and on your website. This will attract customers in December and bring them back in January.

Christmas Party Ideas & Tips

Planning a Christmas Party for your staff or clients can be a little confusing if you don’t know where to start.  Here are a couple of ideas to get you thinking.

• Melbourne Zoo are holding a Shared Christmas Party on Friday 21 December. All you need to do is buy the tickets and turn up.  $149pp for a five hour all-inclusive event.
• Arts Centre Melbourne has a range of event spaces. From overlooking the Melbourne skyline to hosting a dinner on the State Theatre stage.
• Perhaps a local pub is more your style. Many will provide a range of casual or exclusive areas perfect for your Christmas break-up.

Want some help with your Christmas Marketing or getting your Christmas party organised.  Emporia can help with everything you need.  Get in touch with us today. 

Call 0409 134 742 or email margaret@emporiamanagement.com.au

 

Running multiple databases?  Want to update your clients?  Need to send information to your clients to remain compliant? Not sure where to start?

If this sounds like you, read on.  Here are a few quick tips on how to clean up and manage that database.

Make a decision

Decide what information you need to collect and where you are going to keep it.

Some businesses use a range of platforms, so clients can be entered into a number of systems.  Decide on which one you will be using as your main client database and ensure that is capturing the information you need.

Instead of seeing your database in terms of columns and rows, see it is a powerful business tool and constantly consider new data fields to add, new segments and new customer lead opportunities.

Identify duplicates

Duplicates are inevitable. So proactively check your data on a regular basis and eliminate duplicates as they occur.

Of course, you need to delete with caution.  So check both records, determine which has the most correct data and then act accordingly.  If you find that you have different addresses for the same name, give the customer a quick call to confirm their details – they’ll appreciate the effort.

Spring clean throughout the year

It’s always a good time to look at the data you’re collecting and gathering information that will make your next marketing campaign more effective than your last. Here’s a list of the basic fields you’ll want to include or add to your database:

• Title (Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms) – Adding a title to a name lets you create professional communications and ensures you know the gender of each customer.
• First Name – Separate this field from Last Name for ease of data cleansing and so you can write personal salutations in your email or direct mail campaigns.
• Last Name
• Business Name – include this field if you’re in a business-to-business industry.
• Position – By knowing who you’re talking to within each company, you can tailor your communications accordingly.
• Mailing Address and/or Postal Address – Depending on what’s relevant to your business and your communication plans.
• Daytime Phone Number, Evening Phone Number – Again, you’ll want to include these fields if they’re relevant.
• Mobile Number – If you include a Daytime Phone Number field, there’s a good chance customers will give you their mobile number. If you want to be more specific, you can ask for Work Number, Home Number and Mobile Number.
• Email Address – It’s important to collect email addresses if you want to send quick messages or send email newsletters.

If you have fields in your database that you never use, get rid of them.

Getting more value from your database and your customers

In addition to the required data fields above, you can ask for extra information that will help you segment customers, provide you with free research and let you better personalise marketing campaigns.

• Birthday – If you obtain customer birth dates, you can send birthday cards or special offers.
• Where Did You Hear About Us? – Ask this question and you’ll find out which of your advertising/referral channels is working best for you.

Keep an eye on your customers addresses to see where they live or work – you might be able to tailor your advertising with more personal messages and offers.  Do you know which football team they follow, or which code for that matter?  Get them involved in your Footy Tips competition.

Send anniversary notes or reminders to encourage customers to visit or purchase again.

You’ll want to record the date you entered each customer in your database for longevity and loyalty purposes. You’ll also want to keep track of the dates you communicate with each customer so you don’t overdo it or lose contact.

Go directly to the source once a year

The best way to confirm or establish customer information is obviously to get it from the customers themselves. Once a year, send out an email or direct mail asking customers to correct their details and/or provide you with more information. It’s a good opportunity to remind them about your services. You can offer an incentive for their time or use the communication as a tell-a-friend tool to build your database further.

Always get permission

The Spam Act 2003 as a number of requirements in relation to is a little vague but if you follow these three steps you should be fine:

• Recipients of your message must give consent to receive emails from you;
• You must provide identification of your business contact details; and
• You must provide a working unsubscribe link.

If a customer doesn’t want you to communicate with them any longer, flag your database immediately.

Check out the attached link for further information. Key Elements Spam Act

I hope these tips can help but if you have any questions, please drop us an email margaret@emporiamanagement.com.au , there is no obligation and we hope to help you develop your business communications.

How often have you heard that?? Mr & Mrs Investor/First Home Buyer/Client are not quite ready yet … you have every intention of keeping in touch (after all you had such great rapport) … life gets in the way … and then when you contact them they ended up going elsewhere.

We all know how important it is to keep in contact with potential clients.  Whether your do the work yourself or outsource it, it’s important to nurture that pipeline.

Sales Pipeline Nurturing is essential in any business.

When you think about all the hard work in getting the lead why would you want to undo all of that by not ‘loving’ them for as long as it takes until they’re ready?

Do you have a system for keeping in touch?

It doesn’t matter what system you use in your business for keeping in touch so long as you have a system that works.

Usually the most simple of systems can be the most effective.

As well as a system you need to have tactics.  These tactics can include phone calls combined with email updates and/or newsletters.  Pop them the occasional item in the mail.

Keeping in touch is critical.

Post Meeting

• Make notes about your personal-to-them conversations. As soon as you’re able, make notes about the conversations you’ve just had.
• Record personal-to-them discussions (eg, their son’s wedding – what’s his name? when is it? what footy team do they follow?)
• Write a thank you note. Later that day or the very next day send them a thank you for their time.  This could be a hand-written card or, at the very least, an email.
• Remember to refer to the personal-to-them conversations you had (eg, son’s wedding).
• Let them know you look forward to keeping in touch with them.

Add them to your pipeline

Add them to your database

Because they are in your pipeline means you need to ensure they’re also in your “Nurture” database.

Being nurtured means they will receive something from you at least every month. This will be sent to them via the mail and delivered to their postal address or via email.

FYI unless you’re using an email client service (eg Mailchimp) you’ll have no way of knowing whether your emails are being opened or not. Also, because so very little is actually physically posted these days, there is special something in receiving mail that has a bit of a ‘wow’ factor.

Yes – it costs more to post a letter (at least $1.00) but this has to be seen as a marketing investment. The ROI (return on investment) when you close a sale, will far outweigh a few dollars in stamps, envelopes and printing.

Little things can bring big results.

All of these suggestions take very little time and have a minimal cost but the returns can be huge.  If you are looking for more ideas then contact the team at Emporia Management to see how they can help you with your pipeline.

LinkedIn is considered to be a highly trusted platform so here are a few tips you can use to build your audience and start generating more leads.

Trust & Value are the two currencies you need to generate leads.

Your profile goes a long way towards helping building your credibility and level of trust. There are also a number of ways you can add value.

Be a contributing member.  This could be a simple as posting a status update through to posting tips & hints, relevant articles, videos or even webinar links.  Add something of value that will help people achieve their goal.

Join Groups where your ideal prospects hang out.  It’s very easy to search for Groups. Once you’ve found a group you’d like to join, ensure the group is active, well moderated, has a good number of members and great posts.

There is a limit on how many groups you can join but a good number to start with would be 15 groups – 5 where your peers hang out and 10 for your target market.

The key with groups is to add value, don’t spam.  Create/respond to group discussions, share your articles if relevant.

Remember you are never selling in a group.  Create trust and add value.

End of financial year (EOFY) celebrations are a great way to offer a huge thank you to your clients and your staff. And what better way to show gratitude than organising an enjoyable event where everyone can celebrate the achievements of the company?

There are several things that you should focus on to make your guests happy and ensure the EOFY party is a memorable event.  Here are a few tips.

Planning

Start early – You will save money.  Lots of companies will be throwing an EOFY party at the same time, so make sure you get in quick, or you’ll miss out!

How big is your guest list? Is this party for all company employees or are you simply celebrating with your immediate team? Once you know how much space you need, you can decide to book an exclusive space, or a smaller semi-private section of a larger venue.

Determine the budget

Everything will depend on the budget.  Set your budget and use it as a starting point to brainstorm ideas for venues, food, drinks, entertainment etc.  You can still manage to keep it memorable and creative by choosing the right providers and booking early.

Venue/Location

The type of venue you choose will depend on your budget, number of guests, location and corporate culture. Convenience is key. If you want to ensure that everyone makes it to the celebration, you’ll need to choose a venue that’s convenient.

Winter is here –  so choose your venue wisely, the weather won’t always be on your side. Beer gardens, courtyards, terrace spaces and uncovered balconies may not work for your July event.   Instead, ask about weather contingencies: what’s plan B, do they have a covered area, are there outdoor heaters?

Attend to details

This includes the entertainment, menu, the flow of the program and the theme. The details will make your guests feel like the event has been thought out and planned so they can have a good time.  Make them feel special and your event feedback will be off the charts.  Do you need to plan for specific dietary requirements?

Invite guests

Send out your invites (digital is the way to go) and have your guests look forward to the event!

Have fun!

Other activities to consider

Christmas in July – embrace the chill.

Cooking Classes – could be anything for pizza, pasta to cupcakes.

Destination Long Lunch – take your guests to a beautiful destination venue for a long lunch.