15 ways to review your marketing success in 2015 and make this your best year yet

By Anwen Cooper, Get Fruitful Marketing

If you want to take your business  and marketing to the next level this year, you need to begin with a review of your efforts from last year. So many people just carry on with a ‘business-as-usual’ approach, without ever taking this critical time to analyse and reflect. But remember – knowledge is power. The more you know about your business and customers – the stronger your position. The chances are that you have most of this information at your fingertips… you just need to dig it out. Here are 15 points to consider when undertaking an annual marketing review and plan:

1.     Resource allocation

How did you spend your marketing budget and allocate your time to generating new business in 2015? What was a good investment of resources? If you have a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system then this may be easier for you to track. If you don’t have an automated system yet then make this your number one priority for the year ahead.

2. Sales analysis

Again, if you have a CRM system, this may be easier to run reports on. Otherwise, look back over your accounts to see:

• Where did most of your business come from?
• Who were your most profitable and least profitable customers?
• Who were your most loyal repeat customers?
• What proportion of business came from new v repeat customers?
• What were your best-selling (and worst-selling) products or services?
• Were there particular market segments that were easier to reach?

3. Website analysis

Next, take some time to review your website visitor statistics. If you’re using Google Analytics, or you have a custom analytics package – login and pull the reports to see:

• Where did most of your traffic come from?
• How many and which pages do visitors look at?
• How long do people spend on your site?
• What search terms people are using to find you?
• What were your most popular blog posts and pages?

If you don’t have access to this information, ask your website provider, or get some help with installing Google Analytics as a priority for the year ahead.

4. Email marketing analysis

Look back over any email campaigns you sent out and find out:

• Which got best the response?
• What times of day and days of the week got the best response?
• Which links got the most clicks?
• Was your open rate, click-through rate and unsubscribe rate consistent?

5. Social media marketing analysis

Look back at your social media analytics and review:

• Which of your posts received the most engagement and views?
• Who were your top followers?
• What content generated the most click-throughs to your website?
• Did any of your convert to any actions such as e-list sign-ups, content downloads, direct sales?

6. Direct mail and paid-for advertising

If you ran any direct mail campaigns or paid-for advertising, review which had the best response rate and return on investment.

7. Events, exhibitions, networking

Consider any events, exhibitions and networking you attended and work out the return on investment in terms of lead generation, sales closed, professional development and market research you benefited from as a result.

8. PR

Review any free media coverage you generated, and consider what this would have cost if you had paid for the same amount of advertising space. The value of editorial is often calculated as being around three to six times the equivalent cost of paying for the same space in advertising – though there are many who question the validity of this method – it might give you a guideline to assess its contribution to your bottom line.

9. Campaign comparison

Compare different campaigns you ran throughout the year, and assess which yielded the best responses and ROI. Were there particular channels or messages that worked better than others? Were there promotions at particular times that proved more effective?

10. Overall effectiveness

To conclude your review, take into account the way in which all the different elements of the marketing mix contributed towards the overall effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

11. Market research

Consider where there are gaps in your knowledge about your target market. Perhaps you need to undertake a survey, user testing or focus groups to get more feedback before making any key decisions.

12. Set your objectives for 2016

Once your review of 2015 is complete, you need to clarify your marketing objectives for the year ahead. Make sure they are SMARTER (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Time-Bound, and can be Evaluated and Reviewed).

13. Make a plan

Now is the time to plan out the activity you need to implement to achieve your goals, and set a realistic budget and time allocation. Make the plan as detailed as you need, giving thought to quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily goals.

14. Step up

Consider if you need to step up your investment this year to allow you to test out new ways of doing things, to implement new tools and resources, or to get some extra help on board to develop your strategy or to support the implementation.

15. Get some free fresh insight on your marketing strategy

Want to check if you’re heading in the right direction and get some more inspiration and support? Then join my workshop at the West Kent B2B on 10^th March. 

Click here to book at West Kent B2B.

How to use an Exhibition to Market Your Business

Exhibitions are an excellent way of meeting new customers and marketing your business, your products and services to ultimately get more sales and increase profits.

Exhibiting does not need to be costly, so how do you keep costs down and maximise your return on investment?

It's all in the preparation

In order to maximise your results on your stand you will need to:

• Identify your goals and objectives -Work out what you want to achieve from the exhibition and beyond, who you want to target and how you will measure your success (e.g. number of leads, number of converted leads).
• Exhibition stand design - When designing your exhibition stand, ensure that it conveys your marketing aim, brand values and product or service capabilities and is geared towards your target audience. Think of ways that you can entice people to engage with you. Create a special show offer on your product or services pricing or perhaps deliver a pertinent give away – a white paper or some new research.

Text

Remembering the basics of design will help your stand make an impact. The text you use is an important element of this and less is definitely more. Try to convey your key sales/marketing message as succinctly as possible - a single word is great, as long as it still gets your message across. Also, place your text at the top of the stand so that your message isn’t obstructed by other stands and ensure the font is large enough to be seen from a distance.

Graphics

Choose graphics and images that will appeal to your target audience, keep them big so that they can be seen from afar, and once again, place them in the top two thirds of the space.

Lighting

Finally, the lighting you use can make or break your exhibition stand. At the very least, you need to ensure that there is enough lighting so that delegates can read your text and displays.

Your stand staff

• Carefully brief your exhibition stand staff, ensure that your staff are trained and briefed on the overall aims, who to target, the kind of questions that may arise and how to interact with prospects and customers.
• Contact your contacts - Make sure that as many prospects and customers as possible know that you will be attending the exhibition. Send e-shots, use social media, add a signature block toy our emails and add it toy our web site if possible.

On the day of the exhibition

• Remember why you're there - make sure you and your staff remain focused on their goals. Reinforce your aims to the team just before the doors open and the day begins 
• Make the most of the exhibitions and remember that networking can happen anywhere at the show – when you’re at the coffee bar, attending a workshop or listening to speakers. Walk around the exhibition and talk with other exhibitors – increasing your engagement with delegates and exhibitors will hugely increase your positive leads from the day. 

Big No-Nos

• Body language and behaviour - Your staff are your brand, that means no crossed arms, mobile phones, or eating on the stand. Welcoming smiles, making eye contact and open questions will make a big difference to your success
• Keep it short - Keep your conversations with prospects short and concise. You have a limited amount of time, so ensure that you spend enough time to get all the details you need and then move on

Post-exhibition

• Evaluate the day - After the event, it's important to assess how well the day went and discuss any feedback you received from customers so that you can improve for next time.
• Follow up on leads - Immediately after the event, you should either call or mail every contact that you spoke to on the exhibition stand, even if it's just a simple thank you for visiting you at the stand
• Measure your successes - Ensure that you follow up on all leads and track whether or not these convert into sales. This the only way you will know whether or not the exhibition was a success enabling you to accurately calculate your return on investment. 

If you require any further information or we can help in any way, please give us a ring on 01732 758530. We run free training sessions on exhibiting and making the most of social media so why not book onto one now? Click here to find out more.

Getting the most from Twitter at North Kent B2B

Getting the most from Twitter at 

North Kent B2B - 15 October - Brands Hatch Circuit

As you are exhibiting at the Best of Kent Shows, North Kent B2B you are attending one of the main business shows in Kent.  We would like to share with you some tops tips about engaging with the attendees and other exhibitors before meeting them?

You can build and establish a rapport, know-like and trust to accelerate your business relationship with them before attending the event!

This is how……

Pre Event

#Hashtag

#KentB2B1000

Go onto twitter and type this hashtag into the search bar. This will then bring up all the tweets and media for this hashtag.

Have a browse through what has already been tweeted, check out the conversations and pictures being shared. Start to engage back with this audience as these are the people and organisations that will be at the event.

If you are using Tweetdeck, Hootsuite or Sendible you can add this hashtag stream to your dashboard and whenever there is a new post with this hashtag you will be notified and kept up to date with the conversation.

Check the event website for exhibitors and find them on twitter

A great way to get your brand in front of other exhibitors to raise brand awareness is to start following them on twitter and engaging with them.

Visit the event’s website and check out who will be exhibiting. You can either then find their twitter link on their website or via the twitter search by typing in their company name.

Once you have found their twitter account follow them and add them to a twitter list called the event name ie. #KentB2B1000

When you follow someone on twitter they are notified that you have followed them. They will then hopefully reciprocate and follow you back.  Again this is great for building brand awareness but also the start of building a business relationship with someone before attending the event.

Engage

Once you have created your twitter list and added the people tweeting with that particular hashtag to the twitter list too, you can then start engaging with these people before the event.

Check your twitter list on a regular basis as to what the contributors are saying, sharing and posting. Engage with them; comment on their posts, share their content if valuable and contribute to their conversation. This will start to build a rapport with those people.

Please note: Don’t stalk them ;-)

Remember to include the hashtag in your tweets and replies. This then means your tweets and replies are included in the conversation stream too.

Tweet about the event

Put together 8-10 tweets about your presence at the event either as an attendee or an exhibitor. Make other people aware that you will be there and start to build that rapport with them before attending.

Let people know what stand you will be on or alternatively tell people you will be visiting the event and who would like a coffee with you?

At the Event

Schedule

If you are exhibiting it is hard to be able to manage your stand and try to tweet throughout the day too. You don’t want to look rude by being on your phone all day!

My suggestion is that you schedule 4-5 tweets throughout the day to post that mentions you, your company and stand and where people can find you.

Be inviting.

Don’t spam with constant selling messages. Give them a good fun reason to come and meet with you.

Use tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer and Sendible to schedule these messages. Remember though you need to be engaging as well. In your comfort breaks and lunch check out the hashtag stream of conversation on the event and engage with the attendees and other exhibitors. Share pictures of your stand, competitions you are running, pictures of your team! Be engaging.

Check your notifications

Make sure someone is checking your twitter notifications whilst at the event. It could be that someone has noticed your tweet in the conversation stream and is engaging back. It might be that they are wondering what stand you are on, or that they have just met you!

If they have just met you and tweeted mentioning your twitter handle, make sure you re share with all of your followers and with the conversation hashtag stream to show other people. This will increase the reach of your message and brand to the wider audience.

At one of our recent events over 1200 tweets were send with over 1.3 million impressions with 800 unique people seeing the tweets. If your message was sent out with the relevant hashtag for the event this would be great brand awareness and exposure for your business!

Engage

Try to engage with as many people as you can who are engaging on the hashtag stream of conversation.  This will get your brand seen by as many of the people contributing to the conversation and also start to build the rapport with those people and companies too.

Post Event

Continue to Engage

Many people after an event will stop engaging and following the people they have engaged with.

I believe this is the most important time to engage with them.

You have spent the last few weeks online and at the event building a rapport, know-like and trust.

Now maintain that relationship with that company to develop into a great referrer, contact or client.

Happy tweeting and engaging!

Zoe Cairns

16 Ways To Measure The Effectiveness of Your Exhibition Stand

Regardless of the nature or size of your business, events and exhibitions are an excellent opportunity to collect qualified leads, close sales, build new relationships and cement existing ones.

Live event marketing complements other sales and marketing promotion, but unlike most other marketing forms, at an event you get to meet the buyer face to face and isn't that what you want?

While the initial cost may seem daunting, exhibiting at an event is one of the most cost-effective ways for your firm to reach qualified audiences. According to a US study by Exhibit Surveys Inc., the average cost per visitor reached at a trade show is £120, while the average cost of a field sales call is £195.

You can do the sums.

Given the importance and potential cost, it is crucial to measure your return. You won’t be able to measure that in revenue initially, so you can use proxy metrics that indicate how your exhibition stand is going to feed your marketing funnel.

Every exhibition is different for every exhibitor, so no single measurement tool will work for everyone.  The effectiveness of your exhibition is down to the effectiveness of your with pre event planning, preparation and post event follow up.

So the first step is to set some realistic objectives. Here are 16 goals that exhibitions can help you achieve

Marketing Funnel

How many people do you want to speak to?

How many contact details do you want for your database?

How many people do you want to take up your special ‘exhibition’ offer?

How many sales do you expect to get and what will the value be?

Customer Relations

How many of your current customers would you like to meet?

What upsell and cross sell opportunities will this create?

How many customers can you educate on the day?

How many customers’ testimonials can you collect?

How many lapsed customers can you reengage?

Market Research

Can you test or preview a new product or service?

What research will you collect on the day?

How much market testing, perhaps for awareness, can you collect?

Building Your Brand

What are your market awareness objectives?

How will your brand be positioned compared to your peers?

Will you find new investors?

Will the exhibition enable you to develop new markets?

Media relations

How will you build relationships with journalists at the event?

What coverage are you looking for?

Every exhibition is different for every exhibitor. For some they will be launching new products, for others, they will be for selling something that is proven. The clearer you are on what you want to achieve, the more successful you will be.

You may have to attend a number of exhibitions to fine tune your proposition and test what works for you.  So think about your special show offer, be clear about your proposition and my favourite top tip, don’t forget to sell to the other exhibitors.

I hope to see you at one of our events soon.