What Liberates you in your life?

Libby Dedman was born and raised in Newcastle, she is a wife and mother to three and a formidable marketer and entrepreneurial business woman. Through determination, passion and energy Libby has developed her business from Just Libby - an owner operator hair salon which Libby opened when just 21 years of age to become “Just Liberated”, which incorporates two award winning salons, and under the “Liberated Life” branding - business mentoring, business & personal development and education and networking.

Libby understands the challenges that face business owners and employees in today?s market. and the communication skills required to achieve high levels of customer service, team cohesion, branding and business growth. During this presentation she will help you learn to understand your market and recognise your customers needs and illustrate how to create a culture of having fun whilst achieving results - this has been the key to her business success along with the understanding that you never stop learning!

“Secrets of small business owners exposed!” featured a chapter with Libby, and the magazine Wealth Creator magazine (May/June 2007) printed Libby?s article on “Going the extra Mile” which discussed strategies to put customer service back into industry. Libby has written articles for trade magazines Hair Biz and iNSTYLE and is a sort after Key note speaker on staff and customer motivation/ retention and marketing.

To make a booking to attend this Women’s Business Networking Event taking place in Terrey Hills, please visit www.workingwomensnetwork.com.au  

The Promotions Plan is an integral component of a traditional marketing plan which addresses the “bigger picture” of the business as a whole, covering the product mix, distribution channels and pricing structure. The promotional mix is the area most commonly underdeveloped by small business and sole traders as, not surprisingly, they focus the majority of their time and efforts on running their business. It is also the area that, with focus, can deliver results quickly and cost-effectively.

Although proportions vary depending on the nature of your business, there are three basic components of a promotions plan:

• Advertising 
•  Personal selling
• Sales Promotion

Publicity can be considered a fourth component.

This includes newspapers, magazines, radio, television, billboards, direct mail, flyers, websites and the like. Several components can be incorporated into a clear promotional campaign with defined objectives. Avoid spending on random advertising - it may increase short term sales, but it is not effective in developing market awareness or cultivating a positive image and distinct brand for your business.

When advertising in any format, you should follow the ODaC formula - Open by grabbing attention, Develop by injecting desire and Close by promoting action.

For retailers, personal selling begins once a customer enters the store. However, for service, manufacturers and wholesalers, customers have to be found and prospecting outside your company is necessary. Phone, internet & face to face enquiries all provide personal selling opportunities and a system of initial response and follow up should be developed.

Sales promotion is a composite of activities that round out the advertising and personal selling components of your company’s promotion mix. Sales promotion aids include catalogues, reprints of advertisements, special displays & display fixtures, banners and signs appearances at tradeshows etc.

Publicity is news about you, your product or service that appears in a public medium. It can be considered advertising, good or bad, that you don’t pay for. It is more desirable than any other form of advertising because of the credibility it can deliver. Press releases can be submitted to a broad range of general media or to outlets with a specific focus on your industry.

A Promotion Plan is needed to:

• Acquaint customers with new products 
• Capitalise on the seasonal nature of products  
• Change or establish a company image  
• Emphasise quality of products & services 
• Increase store traffic 
• Inform customers of special services available such as delivery service, alterations or credit plans 
• Introduce new employees to the public  
• Keep the business name and location before the public  
• Offer get-acquainted incentives  
• Promote customer awareness of the business and its products or services  
• Promote special events such as a clearance sale, a change in location or the opening of a new outlet  
• Stimulate sales

A well-developed annual promotion calendar helps multiply the impact of dollars spent on promotion and advertising. By comparing past promotional calendars with their corresponding sources of funds statements, the effectiveness of campaigns can be ascertained.

In general a new business should be prepared to spend about 5 percent of projected gross revenue on a rounded promotion plan. An established business should budget 2 to 3 percent of gross revenue. Other issues that will influence the budget include:

• Are funds available from suppliers for prepared ads? Are there any co-operative advertising options?  
• How large is the community? Merchants operating in large communities will generally spend more than those targeting a small community  
• Is the business in a good location? If it is in a poor location, more activity will be required to encourage people to go out of there way to go there  
• Is the competition aggressive? What do you need to do to match or overwhelm them?  
• Is the business new? The newer the business, the higher the spend that will be required

It is essential that you keep records of the promotional activity that you run with and the ensuing results so that you can make comparisons, repeat your successes and dump those that do not work for you.

This can be as simple as keeping copies of all advertisements, flyers, newsletters that promoted a particular offer in a scrapbook and detailing the direct responses you received. If you have a website, it involves gaining an understanding of your site statistics, seeing where your visitors come from, which pages they visit and whether or not they request further information.

And of course, every time you receive an enquiry in any form, make sure you ask the million dollar question “How did you hear about us?” This, more than any other, will guide where you place your promotional emphasis in the future.

A Blog, short for web log, is simply an online communication tool. It’s an online journal where you can share information about a particular subject at regular intervals. It’s a two way conversation, as your readers and potential customers can also respond to your posts.

Search engines love blogs! As they text based and content rich and offer multiple incoming links back to your website they can have a major positive impact on the ranking of your site.

Blogs are relatively easy to set up and maintain and you can write them in your usual conversational style. Through my small business marketing consultancy, Ideas Into Action We have partnered with Web Chameleon to offer a blog design and setup as well as online tutorials so you can get started quickly and easily - more details are available here.

The Working Women’s Network is holding a half day seminar on Wednesday September 10th in Killara, Sydney. Facilitated by Master Networker Sue Henry, this interactive and fun session will see participants learn the networking fundamentals required for business today including:

• Understanding networking functions, people’s behaviour and creating opportunities
• Creating effective budgets for Networking
• Learn the secrets of making new contacts in a short amount of time
• Mastering the relationship and maintaining the balance of Face to Face, E-mail and Phone contacts
• The tools & resources for effective networking
• Developing your own personal networking strategy to fit in with your working day.

The basic premise of this Networking workshop is to enable you to to identify your individual strengths and challenges and to set an immediate course of action for improvement. Participants will also receive a copy of “Network or Perish” - tips and strategies to boost your networking skills from master networkers such as Robyn Henderson, Kim McGuiness, Belinda Yabsley and of course, Sue Henry!

For bookings or more information phone (02) 9402 5783 or visit www.workingwomensnetwork.com.au

If you have a number of suppliers and colleagues whose work you know and trust, ask them each for a dozen business cards. Keep these in a folder with you and next time you come across someone who needs a particular product or service, you’ll have a source at your fingertips. Why not add your name to the back of each so they remember where the information came from? You’ll be helping out 2 people at the same time.

1. Take a look at your staff - could they be wearing branded uniforms, hats, shirts, aprons or badges? Can promote your business logo via their bags, computers or equipment for extra exposure? Are they carrying business cards and flyers wherever they go in case an opportunity presents itself?
2. Have you considered classified advertising? This is an inexpensive and effective advertising medium suitable to many small businesses. Options include community newspapers, websites, trade publications, trade press and niche publications
3. Consider a change in marketing strategy to focus on drawing greater value from existing customers rather than finding new ones can be a cost effective strategy. Build and promote a loyalty program that rewards current customers for repeat business or spending more. Provide your customers with a reason to return at identified non-peak times.
4. Don’t make the mistake of focusing on features instead of benefits when describing your business. People don’t buy products and services, they buy what those products and services will do for them. For example “Has an efficient diesel motor so you will spend less money on fuel”. Write down as many features as possible of your product or service and turn your features into benefits by adding the words “so you” at the end of the feature as above. Keep a record of these benefits for use in all marketing communications.
5. Approach your local school and offer a fundraising opportunity - they are always looking to raise funds. Perhaps you could offer school parents a specific discount on our goods or services or a rebate on purchases that go directly to the school. Explore advertising in the school newsletter in exchange for a specific donation or offer.

If you’d like an injection of new marketing ideas visit www.ideasintoaction.com.au. We’ll provide you with 3 new ideas for your business, completely free of charge so you can test out our skills!

“We’re not big advertisers, we rely on growing our business through reputation and referrals so, if you’re happy with the service we’re providing, we’d really appreciate your referring your friends or colleagues to us”……

You can even proactively pop that one the bottom of your invoices when you thank them for their business. Referrals are such an easy way to make new sales, and many happy customers will pass on your details when asked in an easygoing way.

Just don’t forget to send a handwritten card or thank you note when they do!

For more small business marketing ideas visit our website.

Business Networking is connecting your business to potential clients in a face-to-face environment. It works best when participants adopt an attitude of abundance and seek to connect people as opposed to simply focusing on seeking out their own business leads.

Is as much an attitude and a way of thinking as it is a skill and involves an investment of time and energy. It’s particularly important for soloists - people like me who work for themselves, most often by themselves. On one hand over 75% of my current client base has come directly as a result of Networking, so it is of obvious value to me from a business growth perspective. But just as importantly, it fulfils another very real need - social contact with my peers where I get to exchange ideas and connect in with other like-minded women who are juggling and multi-tasking just like me.

Here are some of the key benefits of networking

• Building a support network and an instant database of people to call for information, help and/or products or services
• Gaining customers/clients from your particular group
• Sharing customers/clients through building relationships
• Opportunities to build strategic alliances/partnerships with other member
• Increasing product awareness in the marketplace
• Learning from speakers and presenters
• Building awareness of competitors operating in your market
• The opportunity to create advocates for you circulating within the marketplace
• Getting to know the needs of potential customers
• Discussing and solving common problems with other businesspeople
• Gaining insights into other members marketing and business techniques

All those benefits from just a small and regular investment of your time and money. And Networking doesn’t have to be as daunting as some people fear. You can rest assured that that room full of strangers is littered with people just like you, who may also be feeling a little nervous. So, the key is to fake it til you make it!

As the co-founder of a women’s business network focused on Sydney’s North Shore and Northern Beaches, I’ve been able to pick up a few key tips that could help you in your networking.

• Have an attitude of abundance, not competition
• Visit before joining any specific group
• Make a commitment to attend - be seen to lift your profile and aim to build genuine relationships
• Always carry a plentiful supply of current business cards
• Appear confident (fake it till you make it!), introduce yourself, have a few current topics prepared to talk about
• Don’t hard sell. Once a relationship has been established the business will come
• Use a persons name several times when you’re first chatting, listen intently, ask questions and be sincerely interested in what the other person has to say (don’t look over their shoulder for a better prospect to speak to, but by all means, invite someone who is alone into your discussions group)
• Ask for others cards and make notes for yourself - perhaps one personal, one descriptive and one business interest. That way you will always have something to draw on when you meet or talk to them again that is relevant
• Turn off your mobile
• Follow up if you say you will. Consider sending a handwritten note rather than an email
  95% of people at a Networking function will be asked “what do you do” so be prepared with a succinct “elevator spiel” that focuses on what you do for others (the outcomes) rather than simply describing your business
• Look for ways in which you can connect other people and don’t keep score - this is networking karma!

Always remember that people do business with people they know, like and trust so networking is all about building a profile and relationships. A relationship which might not seem to be initially good for your business may lead to you being referred on, one of the strongest marketing tools used to generate more business.

And (time for a plug now!), if you are a business woman in the Northern Suburbs of Sydney, why not come along to www.workingwomensnetwork.com.au and say hello.

Although you need to have an off-line marketing strategy to bring visitors to your site - promote your web address on all of your promotional materials, business cards, advertising, business directory listings etc etc being easily found on Google, Yahoo, NIne MSN and other engines can certainly have a big impact on your business success.

Potential customers have changed the way they search for and select the suppliers of their goods and services. I’m sure I’m not the only person who mainly uses my Yellow Pages as a footrest these days….. There are 14 million internet users in Australia along and more than one billion worldwide and they use the web to research what they need - once someone picks up the phone or walks into a store, they have often already made their decision.

SEO (for short) is an inexact art - no one knows precisely what will score you a high listing, and the search engines aren’t going to share all of their secrets with us. Search engines use software, often called “spiders” which continuously crawl the internet, ustlisiing links between sites, checking the text in sites and then indexing the content and adding the results to their databases. Then, when someone sits down and types in a search term such as “women’s business network in Sydney”, the search engine uses its algorithm (the big secret formula we’d all like to know!) to determine the most relevant websites to return in the search requests. It then depends on how far the searcher wants to go, but it is generally accepted that one or two pages of results are typical. So, that’s where we’d all like to appear…..

You need to accept that SEO is a ongoing process, not a one off event with a quick return. Google will not zoom a new site to the top of its rankings - their formulas reward websites that have a history, strong content and regular changes and additions. So take a long term approach - make SEO one of the key marketing strategies for the growth and development of your small business

If you have the budget you can always invest in the assistance of a SEO specialist company to help you in your quest (google them, the best ones should walk the talk and come up at the top of the list!) But as a small business owner, that’s fairly unlikely, so it’s good to know that there are certainly some specific things that you can implement that will assist you in your journey to appear on page one or two for your selected keyword searches….

So, what is the DIY approach to search engine optimisation? The key components include:

• Keywords and keyword phrases - deciding on the ones you think your potential customers are most likely to search for and then ensuring they are included in your headings and text as often as is logical. Optimise each page of your site - use different keywords and phrases for different pages and aim to own a niche eg: small business marketing consultant, north shore rather than marketing consultant
• Meta tags, title tages and page descriptions - make sure you use your keywords and phrases in these as they are valued and utilised by the indexing engines
• Incoming Links - seek quality inbound links to your site - it’s better to be linked to from websites relevant to your industry than a whole host of general directories
• Blog! - Search engines are mad for lots of text, regularly updated!

If you are yet to develop a website for your small business or if you’d like to you’d like a review of your existing site you might like to take a visit to the small business online marketing area of my business website, Ideas Into Action.

So what is it? Marketing is simply the process by which you create quality leads for your business. It’s all the activities that get the phone ringing, people to visit to your website and customers to your door. And it is definitely a process, not an event.

Marketing requires you to take a step back and work on your business rather than just in it. But it doesn’t need to be daunting, expensive or complicated. A lot of marketing theory has been built, tried and tested in the corporate world and is simply not relevant to small business owners. You don’t need multi-layered strategic marketing plans.

So what do you need to get started? I like to create “The One Page Marketing Plan” for my small business clients. It’s a simple strategy for allocating resources (time and money) to achieve your objectives (likely to be a fair profit for supplying a good product or service). This involves:

A Vision - what do you want to achieve with your business? This will be very different for someone who wants to build an asset to sell in 5 years, versus someone who wants to franchise their model, create a family business their children can step into or simply provide a wage instead of working in the corporate world. You need to define what it is you are looking to achieve with your business before you can move to the next step…..

Objectives - What you’ve heard is true, keep them SMART - specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time framed. And don’t have too many of them!

Strategies - The activities that you will put into place to achieve your objectives. This is where the ideas are created, analysed, harvested and selected

Implementation - The timelines within which you put the strategies into place, usually in 2-3 phases

Evaluation - Where you look back and measure what worked, what didn’t, what to drop and what to repeat and improve.

So, as you can see, the process is not difficult to plan. The key now is to develop the strategies that fit your product or service, market and budget. I’ll look at some of the essentials that you need in your marketing toolkit in my next post, in the meantime you might like to take a look at my website where you’ll find a whole lot of small business marketing ideas.