Archive for the 'marketing' Category

5 tips for networking with successful people

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

Why network with successful people? Because as a result you will become more successful when you network with people more successful than you.

One thing that everyone needs is visibility, have a blog like this helps, but perhaps now and more so in the futuretwitter and other social sites will be used as an effective tool for broadcasting and consuming information.

1. Offer something they don’t have

The number one reason to start a blog or to be a journalist isn’t to position yourself as an expert or get your thoughts out there. 99% of bloggers and journalists make almost nothing (relatively nothing), but the network that they gain from giving value to successful people, is priceless. See, the one thing that all successful people have in common when it comes to needs is that they need visibility and promotion for their brands. With a blog, you can provide that to them. When you first start your blog, you can’t because you won’t have enough readership to prove the benefit to them.

2. Give something for free

Unless you have something of extraordinary “one of a kind” value to give to successful people, you are better off giving them something for free in exchange for an endorsement or referral later. A lot of consultants choose to do this or have to do this when they are first starting out, so they can build credibility and a track record. Obviously, people are more inclined to accept that type of generous offer than pay a complete stranger or someone who isn’t as wealthy or successful. If you receive an endorsement from them, you can use it on your website or on LinkedIn to attract new business or opportunities. Also, if they talk about you or promote you back, you gain visibility with other influencer’s, which can further your career.

3. Take genuine interest in their brand

If someone emails you and is sincere, you are more inclined to answer their email. If someone is reaching out to you asking you for favors, especially when you are more successful than they are, you are going to disregard the email. Genuine interest goes a long way in this world, especially because people are so used to being “used and abused,” as well as spammed daily. There is a great opportunity right now to locate people who are closely aligned to your brand and reach out to them. Even if you’re less successful than they are, they will at least answer you based on flattery.

4. Get noticed by them

Successful people take notice of other successful people. There are like secret code words and there is an ancient language they all speak ;) . A great way to connect with them is to be where their eyes already are. For instance, if you speak at an event they are speaking at, it’s easy to start a conversation around that and for them to already know who you are. Also, if you write an article for a blog or traditional news site that they read, you might earn some respect from them.

5. Find people who know them

The shortcut to meeting successful people is by meeting them through your personal contacts. Your friends’ endorsement can save you from a random outreach and make it more personal. LinkedIn is so important because you can see who knows you and then strategize. Networking gets easier once your network gets larger. When you’re first starting out, it will be hard to implement this strategy, but as you grow older, it will become much easier to meet successful people this way.

Email Marketing Masterclass

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

We are proud to be collaborating with local email marketing company Pure360 on a session at The Werks based on email marketing.

Date -Thursday, August 21, 2008
Time – 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Why are we doing this?

As email marketing has fantastic results in terms of converting new and existing customers to buy your products and learn about your company.

Reaching your customer using email newsletter campaign is still a fantastic way to encourage visits to your site. With email being still the largest social network in the world!

Sending emails has the main purpose of enhancing the relationship of a company with its current or old customers. As well as encouraging customer loyalty and repeat business no matter how large and small your business.

Researchers estimate that US firms alone spent $475 million on email marketing in 2007, as it proves to be a cost effective method of marketing and increasing sales.

Todays level of reporting combines very detailed analytics that measure the effectiveness of every campaign you send out. This and more will be discussed on the evening.

Register on upcoming at the Email Marketing Masterclass page.

Email Newsletter Statistics

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

Notes from Internet World 2008, containing some useful statistics on email newsletter metrics.

This is still a valuable tool for reaching customers, and it is quite difficult to lose money in email marketing. The question is how to we measure the visitor statistics successfully. There are a number of US and UK companies that provide the mailout and reporting using spam filter friendly servers so a higher proportion of emails get delivered.

The mere fact that companies send emails to customers, regardless of the fact if they are opened or not leads to brand impact and awareness of the company and its services.
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Company Customer Pact

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

We are pleased to be invited to sign up to the Company Customer Pact.

This reinforces the values with which we follow in our day to day working lives here. Particularly these two which are on the charter.

  1. Be human. Use a respectful, conversational voice, avoid scripts and never use corporate doublespeak.
  2. Demonstrate your good intentions by speaking plainly, earnestly and candidly with customers about problems that arise

We think things would be very confusing if we didn’t share our knowledge, issues and foster and long term reputation with the company.

We hope you think so too, voice your support in doing business like all the folks at CCPact, by signing up as well.

cc pact

Maximising (y)our time at SxSW 2008

Friday, February 8th, 2008

So, the Annual Geekfest in Austin Texas is almost upon us.

Just one look at the events calendar is enough to make any person nervous, with the amount of world renowned speakers and also some homegrown talent going over to share knowledge, hang out with friends and make new aquaintances.

How to maximise everyones time at SxSW08

This is how I can see the event working. After the initial check in for flight, and at the hotel. All delegates are required to register. This will be a good initial check to get a vibe for just how friendly and excitable everyone will be about the week ahead. Hopefully to spot some of the Brightoninan’s that will also be there.

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Notes from Crystal Balls – Chinwag Live Event

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

After a great night with some leading agencies in London, here are the notes of the evening hosted by Chinwag.

The evening had 5 speakers, all from different areas of the digital market place.

  • Marketing - Jon Bains – Co-Founder, Lateral
  • User experience – Nikki Barton – Creative Director, CIMEX
  • Agencies - Andy Hobsbawm – European Chairman, Agency.com & Co-Founder, Green Thing
  • Advertising - Guy Phillipson – CEO, Internet Advertising Bureau
  • Media Planner – Pete Robins – Co-Founder, Agenda21

A marketing look in the future for digital media. Based on what brand is all about rather than the bling of web 2.0.

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