Month: May 2017

In my last post I talked a little about the importance and value of managing the technicalities of website hosting, but in reality, the technical aspects of marketing your business tend to go way beyond hosting. This scenario begs the question:

What is the role of a marketing partner?

Typically offerings fall into One of 3 categories:

1. Consultancy – looking at strategy & planning
2. Management of marketing tools like web, social media, SEO etc
3. Technical aspects that facilitate the delivery of marketing activities

We looked in detail at the value of linking the first 2 in our recent post about Combining Planning and Implementation, and touched on the value of linking the last 2  in the case of web hosting in the post Do You Care About Your Web Hosting. However, as I stated earlier, the technical aspects of marketing your business tend to go way beyond hosting. What I want to look at here id the issue of managing the wider technicalities of marketing in 21st Century, and how having a marketing partner with a good working knowledge of the technicalities can be very valuable. To Illustrate this point, I would like to look at a few of the requests we have had for support on Marketing projects over the last 12 months:

1. I would like to list my products on Amazon in the USA
2. I would like my products to appear as images at the top of Google listing
3. My site doesn’t appear on Google for phrase <<insert keyword here>> What can I do about it
4. We want to do a Twitter style survey but don’t want to do it on Twitter
5. Can I integrate my website e-commerce system with my accounts package/CRM?
6. I need a web payment gateway that will also work when I am selling things in the physical world
7. I’d like to make sure my website is optimised for a visitors across the Globe
8. We need to efficiently segment my email sending to optimise personalisation
9. I have had a call about <<insert web marketing service here>> does it add value
10. I would like to implement a “where to buy” Directory on my website how do I go about it?

Whilst these requests are all very different, they all have two things in common.

1. They are all perfectly relevant marketing issues
2. They all require technical knowledge to implement

In the world of SMEs, working with a different partner for each of these projects would be challenging, and few marketing specialists would have the skills to handle all of these requests, but in our view, a marketing partner should be able to deal with any of this, and At BSA Marketing we can.

So how do we do this without compromising quality?

The answer is two-fold:

1. A great deal of experience in Digital Marketing – Having grown up marketing over the past 20 years as the web has grown in importance, we have an excellent working knowledge of how the marketing works in the digital world, so know what skills are needed to deliver, and in many cases we have those skills in house
2. A fantastic network of specialist knowledge to call on when we need it – Having been delivering marketing solutions for clients over this time, we have build relationships with a network of people who have specialist knowledge in many different areas. We are now able to call on thin knowledge when needed to deliver for clients.

Marketing in the current world is complex

The truth is delivering effective marketing support in the current SME environment is complex, but we are confident that whatever your requirements from the reliable hosting of a website to the complex scenarios outlined earlier in this post, we have the expertise & partnerships to make them happen without breaking the bank. If you would like to talk to us about how we could add value to your marketing activities, give us a call, or drop us an email

Planning and implementation are 2 essential elements for any business wanting sustainable marketing success. So why is it, when looking for support with marketing, options for planning and implementation are so often separated? In over 30 years working with SME businesses, I have seen a constant; there are consultants/coaches/mentors etc. who will help you plan, and marketing service suppliers (print/digital/design/communication etc.) who will help you action, yet finding a genuinely joined-up combination is remarkably rare. There are certainly planners who purport to get involved with implementation. Even more so, there are implementers who purport to get involved with planning. However, when you look under the skin they are almost always one or the other! It is something I think about regularly so here is my take on why I think it happens…

Marketing is speculative

Whether we like it or not, marketing is speculative. You commit resources with service suppliers now in the hope/expectation of benefit later. A good personal relationship, based on confidence is extremely valuable when you want to discuss outcomes and plan future action. With business services suppliers, relationships with the people you work with is no less important than outcomes, SMEs like dealing with SMEs. Big companies can (sometimes!) be good at delivering value in a mass commoditised market. When things get more subjective, having someone with experience, who you know and trust, to talk with is extremely appealing.

Logic suggests that the ideal service partner would be a personable,
effective and experienced member of the Chartered Institute
of Marketing who is also a graphic designer, copywriter, web coder
and an expert in data management, SEO, PPC and Social Media.
  I don't know about you but I haven't met them yet!

Back to reality

The focus of many marketing service partners tends either planning or action. This is where their strengths and experience lie – and hopefully what they enjoy doing! Furthermore, whether you are looking at planning or implementation, it isn’t a case of ‘one size fits all’. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses. Working with people who play to their strengths is normally the best formula for success.

Open Partnerships – What good looks like

Over the past few years, BSA has developed partnerships where we work as a team with other people/businesses. We work together to help our SME clients achieve their goals. I believe these partnerships deliver remarkable value to our joint customers. We are proud of the fact that these team relationships sustain for years. Key to this success is the openness of the partnerships. There is no expectation when any partner starts working with a client that there will be opportunity for another partner. Maybe there will and maybe there won’t. the aim is always giving the best advice and support for the client’s needs. A cohort of solid business and marketing expertise which is known, trusted and respected, coupled with an entirely client-benefit focused approach means that decisions on the best approach are more objective. Plans get the resource to make sure they are effectively implemented and implementation is based on an independently considered approach using the best tools to achieve the client objectives. The approach also delivers unrivalled flexibility. As I said, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. By having the option to call on specialists, there is no need to rely on someone just because it is who you know. Even better, the development of the genuine client-centred approach can be highly cost effective as it is in the interest of the whole partnership to deliver economically sustainable results which mean that everyone wants the process to continue! If you would like to find out more about open partnerships to help integrate planning and implementation to drive your business forward, do get in touch.

This may seem like a dumb question, but in reality, the answer may not be so clear.

Facebook wants to own you

Over recent years, it is clear that the strategy of social media platforms (I use Facebook as a case in point) has been to keep you on their sites and minimise the requirement to view content elsewhere. Their rationale is that while users are on their site, those users are delivering both data and opportunities the site owner can use to monetise the user activity. Part of this strategy is to make it easy for content marketers to host their content (Video, audio, quiz, blog post survey audio, images etc) on Facebook rather than elsewhere. But there is a payback for this “easy life”. That payment is loss of control. Every bit of content you put on Facebook (or any other social media platform) is owned and controlled by that platform.

And there is the Catch 22

Let’s face it, digital marketing relies on social media and search platforms. As a marketer, you need your message to be seen in the places people hang out, and in the modern world they hang out on platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google. You need to have your content visible in these places. The trick is to use the platforms to promote your content, but don’t rely on them to host it! However, there are cases when this may not hold true. Sometimes you may be better off deciding not to use a particular channel.If you do take the decision to hosting all your marketing content on a platform like LinkedIn or Facebook, you need to be aware of the fact that the payment for this “free service” is their ownership and use of your content!

So what is the answer?

Once you have set your objectives and plan, digital marketing can be split into 2 areas:

1. Your Messages/Content that define your brand
2. The tools you use to promote these messages

The key to staying in control is to recognise where the various players fit into these roles and to use them appropriately. It is the first of these points that is key. As a simple rule of thumb

Whoever hosts your content owns and controls it

By making sure you own the platform where your content is hosted ensures that you control it. Usually, this will mean your own website.

There is always an exception

The one exception to this is video. Hosting video in a format that can be easily streamed is resource hungry, and usually hosting it yourself is not the best option. Best practice here is to host it on one of the streaming platforms (Probably Vimeo or Youtube – more on these next time) and then embed it into your own site. In these circumstances, the key to maintaining control is to ensure that you have copies of the video content locally. So if you edit the video online, make sure to download a copy of the final video. That way if there is an issue on the site hosting it, you can always go elsewhere!

Use social media/search to promote the content

With all your content all safely hosted on your own platform, you are then free to use the most appropriate tools available to promote that content to your market. In this scenario, re-posting content onto the various platforms is no problem, as if anything happens to compromise that content you can again, go elsewhere. However, your goal should always be to promote content that you host, and not content hosted on the social media platform.

Plus ça change…

The fact is that whilst marketing fundamentals remain pretty constant, the tools and the popularity of digital platforms change.  Some die (remember these 10 failed Social Media sites!) and new platforms arise which may fit better with your marketing objectives. By ensuring that you stay in control of your content, you are free to make the best decisions for now and the future, independent of the platforms you use.

Why is implementing marketing ideas that involve the web often seen as such a big deal? Perhaps because too many digital marketers want to make it a big deal? In my experience, many digital marketers are techies first and marketers second – but isn’t this a bit like the tail wagging the dog? Effective marketing is the driver of business development and growth while digital tools are some of the options available for use in a marketing plan. The plan should dictate the method and not vice-versa! When a company makes a decision to use a particular (digital) tool to achieve their business development objectives, the requirements could be quite modest technically yet a techie-focussed ‘digital marketer’ may be keen to build the work into a ‘significant’ project. As I have said many times, marketing is a process, not an event. The dynamic nature of marketing drives a range of objectives which can be best delivered by different tools. Taking the approach described in the previous paragraph can all too quickly see costs spiralling. As a consequence, it becomes more difficult to achieve objectives cost-effectively or ideas are put on hold. In either case, satisfaction will take a hit!

So what is the answer?

Take a different perspective, let the marketing process be the lead and tap into digital tools only when appropriate, and as modestly as you like! Every bit of marketing doesn’t need to be a major project. By developing and implementing a marketing process focussed on business development, using digital tools as and when appropriate can allow a more fluid approach Examples of what we have done to support clients:

• Rescale a website to take advantage of modern monitor and device screen sizes
• Implement a web-based Customer Survey integrated into your website
• Add a poll to your website – a Twitter poll without Twitter
• A fully interactive, graphical ‘Where to buy’ facility to allow customers to search your website for their nearest supplier
• Fully tracked email to take advantage of a last-minute opportunity
• SEO for a particular product offer (Achieving Page 1 Google within 2 weeks).
• Add a completely new service range to your website
• A new ‘Downloads page’ with comprehensive content management

It doesn’t need to take long. Each of these took less than 24 hours to implement and some took less than an hour. Launching a marketing idea doesn’t need to cost the earth.

The advantage of a flexible system

Several years ago, after much investigation (and a few false starts!) we elected to focus on WordPress as our web development platform of choice. Since that decision, I am yet to be disappointed. WordPress continues to impress me. Bias! I hear someone shouting! Sure, WordPress isn’t perfect. There are numerous blog posts with titles in the vein of ’10 reasons why you shouldn’t use WordPress’ yet I would be happy to discuss these with anyone. I don’t believe any of these ‘reasons’ is valid for a regular SME business I’m not looking for the ultimate in technically beautiful web development (that costs a fortune to implement and maintain!), I want to offer a practical, effective and flexible solution that can address and meet real marketing objectives in the real world, quickly and cost-effectively. It is down to the flexibility and power of the WordPress platform that developments can be implemented so quickly and easily. If you want your digital marketing to be responsive and cost effective, make sure that the dog is wagging its tail!