Are you tempted to start a business?

This appeals to me a lot.  If something seems impossible then you just need to try harder to find a way to make it work.

These great sentiments and graphics are from the Be Your Own Boss programme fronted by Innocent entrepreneur Richard Reed. http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/beyourownboss

Interestingly they have set up an investment company - so if you are struggling with funding from a bank, try these guys.

I tripped over all this on Twitter and need to share with you a first in my Twitter usage.  It is the first time that I have ever paid any attention to a promoted tweet.

I don't follow many links on Twitter, unless I know the person/business that has posted the link.  So there you have it - a perfect example of how powerful a brand can be.  Will I watch the programme?  

Well, I missed the first one .... but I am definitely following @jamjarinvest

Small business branding issue - where is the line between you and your business? What are you really selling?

I have just received an email from a client who is seeking clarity on an issue she has with her marketing. Her query is as follows:

“I need to get clearer about ''my name" or "my company name's" (footnote 1)  USP, and I am still not sure whether I am my business or not”

First a little bit of context. My client is a consultant/coach working on personal and professional development with individuals and teams. Her specialist subject is by definition personal to people and in order to be effective she needs people's trust. The paying customer/decision-maker may be the direct recipient of her service or may be an HR person who sources and arranges on behalf of the organisation.

I hear business advisors tell business owners “you are your business”. They insist “you must sell 'you'. And the poor business owner, who is likely to be at home with the operational side of their business, but less comfortable being its marketing manager, is left unclear on what this means. Conclusions may be drawn that you have to be a nice person, or a popular person, to run a successful small business. Then there is the current buzzword 'authenticity', which a lot of people are translating as sharing everything about themselves as individuals. And, then add to that the now obligatory adjective 'passionate'.  Can't you just be good at what you offer any more?

I send out a challenge to these business advisors. I am not satisfied that you have to “sell yourself” and “you are your business”. I would like to offer some health warnings to small business owers regarding this advice.  

Back to the client query re the USP.  Let's differentiate between 'USP', ethos, brand, and 'personal selling!

USP – so hard to offer something “unique”. USP has been downgraded to “wow factors” with good reason. A wow factor of your business could be that it uses the latest technology, has the most comfortable premises, has some amazing quantifiable results etc etc (nothing personal there). If you are struggling to think of some wow factors trying asking your customers what they think.

Ethos and brand are very linked in my mind, as a brand without an ethos is in danger of becoming just a meaningless logo device. No matter the size of the business, there are brand values wrapped up in it. The difficulty for micro businesses is unravelling what they are because the business owners are so close to it and simply do things 'their way'. In Henmore's Marketing Club we have some fun working on this area. Have a think, what standards and values do you have that are appropriate to share with your customers? What values do your customers seek?

Personal selling is a marketing text book phrase for when there is a face-to-face sales person as one of your marketing tactics (part of your promotional mix - see 2 below). Sales reps are the essence of this tactic. So if you are the business owner and selling your expertise you are inevitably both the sales rep and the delivery mechanism so possibly the concept of having to sell yourself and be authentic and passionate looms large (see 3 below).

Could someone else sell your product/service?

Try testing yourself with this question. Could someone else sell your product or service for you? There should only be one answer to that question – yes! Imagine what information and approach this ficticious sales person would need. Actually, don't just imagine it, write it down. What steps would you suggest the sales rep takes to convert a prospective customer into a paying customer? Give your ficticious salesman the job description of having to demonstrate credibility - would you equip her with some prepared information? How would she build conviction? This may involve a demo or trial – so that is possibly where the real you comes back in again. How would you make sure your sales person sets expectations about price and service levels? I bet your sales person wouldn't give away so much for free in the way that small business owners do!

If you couldn't answer yes to the salesperson question and you are more comfortable selling 'you' then let me leave you with this thought: You may be over-identifying with your business. You may be viewing its success, financial or otherwise, as validating you as a person. When something goes awry - business owners do make errors, products do fail, markets can collapse - the disasters or failures could have an affect on your mental well-being. Some entrepreneurs evaluate and start again with new information, others don't. What would you do?

----------------------------------------------------------

1. You'll spot that names were deleted – there's a balance between transparency and appropriateness.

2. Personal selling is part of the promotional mix, which for the sake of completeness also includes advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, and publicity. The promotional mix part of your marketing plan specifies how much emphasis to apportion each of these techniques, and how much money to budget for each. (Reality check – not many micro businesses have a marketing plan beyond a 'to do' list unless their bank requires one).
3. I will publish my blog on authenticity another time because I want to run it past a kindred spirt in the US first. In the mean time I'd advise people to start being wary of describing how passionate they are about their business or product because it is fast becoming a cliché.

Brand management - moment of amusement

This morning I received a jolly note from a client pointing out a typo in the LinkedIn event information for my business development workshop this Wednesday.  I gave myself a telling off, but then I tripped over this message from Google and now I feel a whole lot better.  This has to be a fundamental brand management error for a leading search engine specialist.  Quite fun though.

Marketing Club 2012

Marketing Club is one of my favourite services.  I love the enthusiastic participation of everyone in the group and I am gratified by the positive steps that the business members take as a result.

Henmore's Strictly Marketing group

Business owners say they benefit from a sustained focus on their marketing over the year. Marketing Club is designed to help you find 'clarity' and 'certainty' in all areas of your business development. The primary aims of this long-term programme are to help you to do more business and to do that business on your preferred terms.

This translates to minimising wasted effort and/or budget on sales and marketing, making sure you are selling at the right price and achieving maximum customer satisfaction. We know this is aiming high, but justifiably so because our Marketing Club members are benefiting from the positive results.

In the words of a Marketing Club Member:

Strictly Marketing has provided me with the know-how and motivation to develop and implement a structured and focussed marketing strategy for my business.

Catherine’s step-by step approach, one-to-one mentoring and engaging group sessions enable businesses to adopt a professional approach to DIY marketing. It saves time and gets results. Highly recommended and great value. Chris Mills, Barlow Associates


What we cover in Marketing Club?

During the group sessions and in the one-to-one sales & marketing consultancy sessions, we build knowledge and improve techniques in the following marketing essentials:

• Know the customers you want to win
• Establish a strong brand and generate strong sales leads
• Understand the available methods to reach your customer types
• Position your products and services to wow your prospective customers
• Communicate effectively with prospects and customers
• Convert more sales, doing business on your terms
• Evaluate what works and what doesn't
• Help your customers become your champions
• Extend your successes further into the market and/or enter new market segments

Workshops are held six times a year on dates/times agreed with the group.  There is networking and meeting room space available before and afterwards.  We meet at Dove Studio, Ellastone, DE6 2GY.

Enjoy the extra encouragement via the peer support and feedback of other group members.  Come along and address those hard, strategic questions: is your business approaching the best customers, in the best way, at the best time, with the best products?  Is there more you could be doing?  How will you find out what is working and what needs improvement? Make sure your ideas are put into practice in a structured way.

More Marketing Club Members' comments:

"Many thanks for the speedy response - and really useful feedback. It's so hard to be objective when promoting your own business."

"I think there's a lot of 'marketing tips' on offer through events and online, and people tend miss the point - one size does not fit all, and though general advice can be helpful, successful marketing needs to be right for your business and you personally. In the same vein, although a 'quick hit' can be effective, keeping your marketing going is crucial, and this is where ongoing support, that can be tailored to your particular circumstances, is invaluable...and where Marketing Club really fits the bill."

"Marketing Club is good use of my time and budget"

“I am a member of Catherine's Marketing Club which is a fantastic opportunity to receive professional marketing advice, expertly tailored to my business, at a reasonable cost. The club consists of a group of businesses with bi-monthly meetings facilitated by Catherine. These meetings are highly practical, informative and enjoyable. Club members also benefit from regular a one to one session with Catherine. These are an excellent follow-up to the group sessions. I can really see how my business is benefiting from this regular and focussed input. I also very much value the input of the other group members and find it an ideal forum to get honest feedback on my ideas and strategies. All in all, highly recommended.”  A recommendation from Frances Taylor, Brightspark Training, posted on our LinkedIn page.

Venue:  Dove Training Suite, Ellastone, DE6 2GY.  To join one of these programmes please email us on web@henmore.co.uk or call Catherine on 01335 289075

Marketing and use of Social Media

Henmore's virtuous circle of marketing communications diagram illustrates the marketing challenges businesses need to address.

During the workshops this week we helped businesses with the use of Social Media in their marketing.  Participants came armed with laptops and applied changes to their online presence during the workshop.  I am driven by a determination to help businesses translate ideas into workable strategies, that they succeed in putting into action, gaining desired results. It is not enough for me to see people scribbling notes of their good intentions, because I have experienced those intentions myself and subsequently lost the piece of paper (or the good intentions).  We all know about this inevitable loss of momentum.  That's why I like interactive workshops and year plus programmes like our Marketing Club.

Last week people in the room were there to make changes.  But of course we worked our way towards that part of the workshop.  First of all we looked at the challenges faced by businesses in generic terms, referencing Henmore's much-referred-to trademark diagram (as shown above).  Each workshop participant in the room articulated the particular marketing communications challenges that were a priority for them.  Then we took action on the laptops.

I am sure someone once advised it is high risk to present live in an environment of children, animals and IT.  We only had live IT, and it seemed to work OK on this occasion.

As presenter and facilitator I really enjoyed the sessions and the enthusiasm of the business owners in the room.  I would like to thank everyone for all the positive comments and the reviews and recommendations that we have received as a result.  And I would like to thank Jane Stretton at Dove Studios for the refreshments and the perfectly functioning IT connections.

If you would like to join one of our marketing and social media training courses in Staffordshire or Derbyshire please check our upcoming events or sign up to receive email invitations.

Is the customer king, more than ever before?

Do you remember that old phrase 'The Customer is King'?

It was an adage that businesses had to regard, because unhappy customers had the annoying habit of muttering their displeasure around the local community. The result was that businesses had to take note and make improvements, assuming improvements were necessary. Either that, or the community made an assessment of the mutterings, filtering out the ramblings of the odd unhappy customer on the basis they were probably maladjusted or had a personal vendetta. Easy enough to spot – then as now.

I was particularly interested in the TripAdvisor debate and the views of various commentators and phone-in participants. I was reassured that people said they'd ignore someone whose user name is something like 'ChocChipCookie' making a personally damning observation along the lines of “the hotel owner is aggressive and a sexist racist and you shouldn't stay in her/his hotel . . .”

True, Social Media does give King Customer an instant voice. These tools take us back to hyper local ways, albeit across a global economy. I was just researching the latest views on social media tools for this weeks workshops and was reading a blog article on Social Media Today on which I just had to leave a comment. It said:

“One happy and connected customer can start a spiraling of praise which can hyper accelerate building a global brand. And one maligned (or maladjusted) unhappy customer can put the breaks on a multi-million dollar campaign and bring pain to a huge company.”

I said I thought the author was exaggerating. Huge brands have so much consumer interaction that a few negative comments are drowned out.

Many would sign off their blog criticism with #justsaying (on Twitter) or Just sayin' (on a blog comment). This always reminds me of when people say “no offence, but . . .” It's fun this social media, isn't it? A couple of opinionated people on different continents having their say, jostling for position and recognition by being slightly critical but mainly in agreement.

The author's main thought, about the struggle businesses have on Social Media in finding their voice and putting on a face, is a point on which I wholeheartedly concur.

As I said, I am meant to be researching social media views in preparation for the workshops on Wednesday and Thursday this week when I was distracted by this blog post, and just had to leave a comment. . .and then had a coffee and thought a bit more about it and decided to write this blog on the subject . . . and have it feed through to facebook, twitter and LinkedIn.

It was a time-consuming distraction . . . . a sign of the times for sure.

Social Media for Business - marketing training event

Social Media - your business voice

Social media has revolutionised small business marketing. There ever never before been such a cheap and easily accessible set of tools. More and more small businesses are seeing the benefits of social media to help increase awareness, create and nurture relationships, generate new leads, increase search engine placements, monitor marketing effort ... all with reduced expense.

It takes thought, so many organisations are not yet effectively establishing and managing a strong social media presence, let alone keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of social outlets and tools.

Henmore's interactive, hands-on workshop session covers:

• Social Media Basics & Beyond: Understanding key social media outlets, emerging trends and new tools and communities to consider in your social media plans
• Creating Your Social Media Strategy: Developing and implementing a social media strategy that supports your specific brand voice and vision, takes into account your day to day realities,  identifies which tools make sense (and which don’t) for your business.
• 5 Marketing Questions to ask yourself: What you need to consider before diving into specific social media outlets - and tips for making your effort worthwhile when you do.
• Tips, Tricks & Real-world Examples - ideas, practices and lessons learned from helping clients with their marketing on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Blogging, and more.

Our social media session is always one of the liveliest. We share our knowledge and give you tips
and tools to help you get started, grow and solidify your social media strategies.

2012 Social Media Workshops - schedule and booking

Facebook for Small Business Owners

I met up with some enterprising women from Staffordshire and Derbyshire at the local WiRE meeting last week. The highlight of the evening was obviously the delicious local Staffordshire food provided by Emily and Maggie of Simply Staffordshire in the relaxing environment of Dove Farm. The main notice of the evening was the launch of the WiRE Doves Networking pages on Facebook. To accompany the launch I was tasked with presenting on the subject of using Facebook for business. This post is a follow up for those that want to get started or work a bit harder at using Facebook.

A show of hands revealed that most of the women in the room were small business entrepreneurs who were either sceptical about Facebook or inactive users. With a couple of advanced users in the room we were well set up for some lively discussion.

1. Mindset for Facebook

Adopting Facebook does require a different mindset to having a web site and using email. To some, it is uncomfortable when their interface with the online world becomes potentially more personal, more visible, possibly less controllable. Maybe I was too harsh and modern when I suggested that it was time to 'get over ourselves'. But I said this with true passion to the women in the room simply because I really want them to take action asap to help their businesses. Right now there is still opportunity to get in on the act while this space is less crowded. If they wait until the culture is fully adopted and they are inured to this whole way of doing business then it may become harder to gain a foothold. And mistakes will be more obvious to the world. I was an early adopter and made some mistakes along the way - we all did at the start- but Social Media Marketing is becoming more established and part of this means that ways of conducting yourself are becoming established. Why do humans so love to create rules of conduct, I wonder?

2. Manage your Personal Brand on Facebook

I am always banging on about how your business has a brand, an identity, a personality, that it is not necessarily the same as that of the owner or founder. You and your business are different (I have a fun exercise on this for another time). But on Facebook you are required to join as an individual first. You have to sign up as a consumer and are encouraged to provide some information and a picture just to get going. Nb Leter when you set up a business page your identity and your business identity become seperate again.

• Think really hard about the information you provide. Choose the Interests you list. This is info about you as a consumer and will drive the adverts and information that is placed on your page. E.g if you list Travel and the Far East as interests you will receive special offers and adverts from holiday companies operating there, that may be useful. By being female and over 40 you will be bombarded by dieting and debt ads. Obscure and quirky things may seem fun just to position you versus other people, but it all forms part of your online personal brand so please sanity check what you offer – and set your privacy for who can see this information.
• Get comfortable with the Privacy Settings and activate them. They are much easier now than before. You need to be in control of this!
• For more Privacy sophistication, put your contacts into Lists and control the privacy levels associated with these lists accordingly. Start as your mean to carry on with this. (Parents take note – your children, when they get savvy, might put you on a List and you will be in blissful ignorance of their real online outpourings).
• The Wall is something to manage and understand. You can write on your own to distribute your status (aka a thought/deed/update) to all your Friends; you can jot something on your Friends' walls; you can also write something on the wall of a Business or Organisation e.g WiRE Doves Network or Alton Towers. Just remember that whatever you write stays with you publicly on your wall.
• If you 'Like' something you see then click to say so. The fact that you have done so is shared to all your Friends. In organisational terms this is a great viral way to raise awareness of brands and issues. It also work conversely if you complain by writing a negative Comment – so use this tool to hold businesses and organisations to account. Organisations also have online reputations to maintain.
• Quick word on Marketplace – it is a place to flog or give-away stuff, visible to your friends – and Groups – indicators of the collective state of mind and vehicles for the collective voice. Groups are mainly for lobbying and spreading trends. If you feel strongly about something there will be a Group for it or you could start your own.

3. Manage your Business Brand on Facebook

Really, really easy to set up a business page (once you have a personal account). And a lot less personal as there is no need for your mug shot or your name to be on the page (although you will be the first fan to join your page so at that point the connection remains obvious).

• Think about the name you use for the page and picture/logo you add. As an example, the holiday cottage has benefited from being called 'Barks Holiday Cottage near Alton Towers' because it positions it clearly. On Facebook adverts this vital geographical fact has been in the headline. When people search Alton Towers on Facebook, up pops the cottage in their search list. FYI www.facebook.com/barks.holiday.cottage
• Choose and add other pages: Add Notes, Info, Boxes, Photos, Video, Events and any other Apps (.e.g Twitter feed) that suit your business. Try and get it all sorted out before you get people to join/follow your page because changes are notified to your followers.
  Contact details – A good spot is in the little biog bit on the top left of your page and in the Notes section.
• Set which page you want to act as the opening page – it is not necessary to have the Wall as the main page and wouldn't be suitable for some businesses.
  There is a place to show 'Favourite pages' of your business so add wisely to suit your business brand and ethos and to support your associates' businesses (e.g. other WiRE Dove networkers' businesses.)
• Import your blog to your Notes page using the RSS feed from your blog. Choose carefully whether you want your blog posts to be published onto the wall (and thus automatically sent to your followers) as this may be overwhelming or may be perfect, depending on your business. The blog can be a good opening page.
• Post status updates. How often? You know you get it right when interesting snippets please your followers and they post comments or click the Like. Gratifying sure, but more importantly they are spreading the word to all their friends. You know you get it wrong when your followers decide to hide your feed, or worse still leave altogether by unfollowing your business. A negative comment would be better than have them unfollow!
  

4. Facebook Business Targets

First Target = 100 Fans / followers: then you can set the page name for your business from a whole load of numbers and squiggles to a meaningful name that you can publish on your business cards. I will deal with how to find and keep followers another time.

Ongoing target and primary goal: Engage with your followers and fans

Right now this is relatively easy. Users of Facebook have not yet become so discerning about what they follow and like and join. There is still a level of innocence to it all, especially with the older users who are signing up in the droves right now. It doesn't take long before you want to start weeding out the 'noise' by paring down what you follow.

Management Target: to maintain the post quality and the number of likes and interactions so that you can measure and maximise the level of engagement you are achieving with your followers. Because Engagement is what it all about.

As a business using Facebook think really hard about what you post and how frequently. Your goal is to elicit Likes and Comments from your followers and getting testimonials and fan photos from them.

BTW – if you are a friend of the business owner, remember it is not helping them promote their brand and business if you write personal, non business-related comments on their wall. It could actually be damaging.

Engaging with customers and prospects so openly can have its downsides too. If you do get a negative comment then deal with it to your advantage - clarify, apologise, offer recompense, rectify as appropriate. (If all else fails there is always the Remove comment button.)

Long term target: If you can manage to get 10,000 fans you can get some serious analytical insights into each post and who read it etc. We'll come back to that another time perhaps when everyone is a bit nearer this target.

In the mean time, I wish everyone in the room every success with their online marketing.

5. And Finally

A quick plug for us - Henmore has services and packages that cover set up and management of most online marketing methods in case you, or anyone you know, is short of time or patience for handling all this Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc stuff. Drop me a line for further details or call to discuss.

This post has now gone on far too long, as did my talk. I admired the forebearance of those not interested in the subject of Facebook politely waiting to be allowed to sample the delicious desserts on offer; thanks for your patience. My effort of preparing and giving the talk was rewarded by those that set about creating or improving their Facebook pages the very next day. Thank you for your enthusiasm. I was amused by the Twitter activity between @HenmoreLtd and @SimplyStaffs next day. LOL!

If I can help you further please do get in touch.

If you would like further details of the WiRE Doves Network please visit the new Facebook page.

Pink Concert PR disaster at Alton Towers

It was all going so well, Pink wowed the capacity crowd at Alton Towers . . . . and then it was time to leave the concert and head home. That's when, from midnight, it all started going horribly wrong at Alton Towers. A double whammy, guest and local residents PR disaster ensues! Quick, arrange a meeting with the crisis management PR people.

I had heard last week that Alton Towers were genuinely expecting it to take 4 hours to exit the park - well they were right, it just about did take that long. I really have to wonder why, if Alton Towers knew how long it was going to take, they couldn't make better arrangements. Either find a way to get everyone out of the park quicker, or find a way to set more realistic expectations.

Guests exiting the park at 2am after a 2 - 3 hour stationary wait apparently vented their frustration by beeping their car horns in the local villages. Not sure how that fits into operating within a noise abatement order (brought about by the already frustrated residents of Farley). During a meeting at Alton Towers recently, the PR person said to me that they had given up worrying about what local residents think of Alton Towers. Amazed by this, I downloaded a Charter they've written on this subject and looked carefully to find any meaningful content, but alas, there was none so I guess she meant what she said.

The residents of a few roads in Alton and Oakamoor receive a quota of free theme park passes to compensate them for the lines of traffic passing their front windows, but then receive letters reminding them that special events like concerts are strictly off limits with these passes . . . oh and sorry about the extra traffic jams and noise it will all cause. I don't guess they mentioned the likely risk of angry car drivers beeping at 2am! This letter went down quite badly, which was a pity when it could have been turned into a local PR triumph with just a bit of smart thinking. But Alton Towers' PR thinking of late has been about issuing press releases to do with the need for plastic pants on Thirteen and the calorific content of the flies that riders unwittingly ingest. Not very strategic.


Meanwhile, customers invest in Park plus Pink tickets and get there early to enjoy a day at the park prior to the concert; a USP over Coventry where Pink played last weekend. Were the early birds with this ticket really directed to the furthest away car park K? Surely better arrangements were in place. No?! Just imagine, there you are with your kids, after 14 hours spent trailing round Alton Towers (with a lack of food and facilities to cope with the pre-booked 28,000 guests) and guess what? Only another 2 and a half hours from midnight sitting together in the car before you need bother to start the engine! It just wasn't what full paying customers were expecting. No wonder there are so many complaints posted on their Facebook page this morning! These techniques to engage your customers are great, aren't they . . . I've not seen any replies from Alton Towers as yet!

Fabio Capello is probably not the only one who's job contract is being examined this morning! Was there any trouble getting people out of Glastonbury do you think? Alton Towers, it really is time to consider PR a lot more strategically than you do. Plastic pants indeed.

Categorisation of online directories

A thought on websites and marketing. Most companies have their own websites. Many companies strive to increase visitors to their websites using search engine optimisation techniques, search engine adwords and online adverts. There are, amazingly, still a few businesses that are under the misapprehension that having a website and putting the address on their business cards will be enough to bring them sales enquiries.

Sensible use of directory sites can be a useful technique to drive traffic to your website and generate sales enquiries for your business. Some directories will achieve this and some will not. A good directorty will achieve much more, by positioning your business and adding to your credibility and enhancing your brand, but be warned, some directories will do the reverse - they might damage your reputation.

We have made some generalisations below that attempt to categorise online directories. We would be interested in your thoughts on this subject.

1. National sites with free/cheap listings whose main objective is to drive web traffic to banner adverts rather than actually provide the info you searched. They can be frustrating when you are looking for information because they frequently seem to offer false promises and dead ends. When composing this article we searched cafes in Belper and one of these sites offered us 1 -10 of 1635 coffee shops in Belper. How many? We clicked and were offered coffee shops as far afield as Sheffield.  We say, don't pay to advertise on this type of site.

2. National, recognised brands that used to be primarily paper-based do at least provide the type of contact details they promised in the search results; useful if all you need is an address or telephone number. If you are doing online window-shopping looking for a reputable local supplier the results of this search don’t actually provide sufficient information to make an informed choice. This is a pity because being listed on such a site takes a large chunk of a company’s advertising budget. We say, there are other ways of using this budget to attract traffic and give them the information and the motivation to make an informed choice.

3. Local sites set up by well-meaning individuals. They can sound great in concept because they are often really cheap. Trouble is they rarely have sufficient budget or technical back up to actually drive meaningful web traffic to your business. Some of these sites will imply you'll be front page of Google -  they rarely explain that will be via Adwords for approximate 5 mins at 6am!  Don't be fooled, they probably don't mean you'll be top of Google in the organic listings.

4. Official directories for your industry sector or established ones in your niche market. These industry sector directories, particularly those offered by professional bodies, are really useful to prove your credentials or support your ethos. Similarly there are often a number of sites aimed at each niche, such as eco-tourism sites, parenting sites etc. In many cases we would recommend that businesses prepare suitable entries on these specific directory sites.

To maximise the effectiveness of your directory entry, cross reference your listings to other aspects of your marketing, e.g using the logo of the professional body on your stationery or the link to your eco-tourism directory entry in your email signatures.


Now ask yourself this question.  Do you have any niggling doubts about the quality of your web site? The thing is, interested people are being sent to your web site by most directory sites, and if this traffic bounces (leaves again without contacting you) it may be time to review your site. Sometimes the smallest change can make the biggest difference, but that is another subject for another day.

Please contact us if you would like additional support with any aspect of your online marketing.