Marketing Is the Key to the Success of Your Business

Posted by: on Nov 8, 2010 | No Comments

Good accountants will look for all ways to save you tax, but just as important Sir Tax Accountants Camberley recognizes that you must drive the business forward through marketing.

If you are motivated to grow your business you must ‘work on, not in your business’. Key areas to focus on marketing your business follow:

• Successful business owners spend 60% of their time marketing their business. Every business should adopt a tag line similar to “Sir Tax Accountant Camberley are in the business of marketing and accountancy / tax planning services”.

• There are numerous approaches to marketing including: referrals from existing clients & associates; website (yours + free listings + Google local maps); mail shots; telephone marketing; directory adverts; networking; doing seminars / presentations; local newspaper / magazine adverts and PR; TV; radio; joint ventures; etc. What works for you inevitably is very much dependent on the type of business you operate.

• Postcards work well for start up businesses. They are easy to post and interested prospects may keep it for future reference. Thousands can be printed at very low cost. The more you deliver the more you sell. Use both sides or even offer the second side to an associate business. If you sell high value products/services deliver your advert to high value houses. Post between 5pm and 7pm if you want executives pick it up when returning home.

• Social media is becoming an increasingly powerful method of marketing and should not be ignored. Start by setting up a WordPress blog. Use for example Hootsuite.com to flow news posts down to a Facebook fan page, Twitter, and LinkedIn, to achieve maximum exposure at scheduled timeslots. Give useful information to prospects reading your blog to build trust that you are an expert in your field. Build relationships with friends/followers and, with patience, sales enquiries are likely to follow.

You must continuously market your business to grow your business.

Business Planning – Make Sure You Do Market Research

Posted by: on Oct 17, 2010 | No Comments

Before you start a new business or release a new product/service it is absolutely essential that you ask yourself the question:

IS THERE A MARKET FOR MY PRODUCTS AND / OR SERVICES ?

Clearly you will not make significant profits if consumers do not like or need your product.

It is essential that you do market research before you invest too much money in preparing the products / services for market. Some examples how to assess the market are listed below:

• To keep your costs down you can do face to face surveys. Make sure you choose the right location and sample of people. For example, if you want to research the public’s interest in a new design of suit carrier, standing outside a McDonald’s restaurant is likely to give inaccurate results. Whereas standing at the entrance of London Bridge railway station approaching city workers should give good feedback whether the market really wants your product. Take the opportunity to seek feedback regarding acceptable price, colour etc.

• If you are proposing to sell products an initial sale via eBay can be useful in evaluating demand and pricing before you purchase a large batch of stock.

• Search the internet, yellow pages, and local directories to get a feel for how many companies are already selling your chosen products or services.

• Visit competitors retail units as a mystery shopper to assess prices and level of service

• If you are offering a service search the internet to assess what your completion are offering and at what price. If that information is not published ring the competitors in your local area and ask questions as if you are a prospective customer. You can ask family or friends to help with this.

• To assess demand from prospective customers, telephone market research is commonly used. Make sure a suitable search database is used to select leads from the right demographic sample, otherwise high costs may be incurred for wasted calls.

• Social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and your blog can also be very powerful in eliciting feedback from an audience of literally 100s of millions of consumers at little or no cost to you. To make this effective it is likely that you would need to have built up a substantial following to achieve a suitable sample size.

Good market research will help reduce the risk of business failure.