My top tips from Apprentice Kim's Marketing Masters seminar
Last week I attended the first of Kimberley (Apprentice series 5) Davies’ Marketing Masters seminars, where I learned some new tricks, consolidated the knowledge I already had, and realised a few home truths. These are the top tips I gained from a very interesting and informative day:
1 Whether you are a new start-up or an established business, do your research (target market, ideal client, what are your competitors doing?) before you act.
2 Be truly unique; what makes you stand out?
3 Make sure you have a professionally designed brand, and do not deviate from the instructions the designer gives you in your Brand Guidelines.
4 Formulate the perfect elevator speech. I found this interesting, as it’s something I do not excel at! You should be able to give your fellow lift-user a taster of who you are – whet their appetite so that they want to find out more – in the time it takes to ascend a few floors. Include some of the following elements: who/what/when/where/why/how? My elevator speech would be something like: “Hi, I’m Annette. I’m a graphic designer and I can raise your profile by helping you with your branding and publicity.” (OK, it needs to be worked on!)
5 PR is what people say about you, advertising is what you say about yourself. PR is far more beneficial to small businesses and one-man-bands.
6 Kimberley recommends that you spend 20% of your turnover on marketing – thank God I can do a lot of that myself!
7 The purpose of your website is to lead the customer to call you for more information; design, construction and e-commerce are equally important.
8 Last, but most important: Don’t try to do everything yourself!
You can find out more about Kimberley by visiting her website at http://www.sarsaparillamarketing.com.
