Looking to create a ‘customer persona’ to inform your marketing and promotion and wondering how? This post may be helpful as it provides an example. It then lists some questions to consider as you formulate a description of your Bullseye customer. What is the purpose of creating a customer persona? According to Seth Godin the…
Tendering and public procurement represents both a fantastic opportunity for SMEs and potentially a monumental waste of energy, time and resources. For established startups and microenterprises, the unfortunate reality is that tenders simply cannot be ignored. The onus is very firmly on the business owner and senior management to get up to speed with what…
As a business trainer, I personally love business books that I can refer to and recommend to clients, mentees and workshops participants. I imagine that some will like to read and it is great to get recommended books to dig into greater detail on business topics that we are discussing. Business is complicated. It is…
This is the second part of a two part blogpost about books directly focused on Marketing for fast growth oriented startups. My most recent post reviewed the superb ‘Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers’ by Gabrial Weinberg and Justin Mares, 2014 and this post will review Startup Growth Engines: Case Studies on How Today’s…
I was delighted to be asked by Kinvarra Business Network to attend a recent meeting to present on a topic of my choice within the area of Marketing. I prepared for a slot of about 40 minutes plus Q&A. 15 Marketing Takeaways I decided to title my presentation ’15 SME Marketing & Business…
This blogpost will highlight some of my favourite parts of the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaccson – which i think is a brilliant read. I will focus on the parts which epitomize the role of Steve Jobs in building Apple – a company which changed the world. I will also pick out nuggets…
Public Relations (PR) is coverage of your business in the media – tv, radio, newspapers, magazines and now blogs – as part of their news. While there is no money paid to the organisation for the coverage it does take time, effort and money to get lots of positive coverage for your business. The flipside of course is that not all PR is 100% positive but that is another story. The blogpost will summarise some key points to remember when preparing a press release to promote your business. They are two key stages in the process. The first is to think about an angle that makes your release newsworthy. You then need to write the release in a style and language that suits your audience. The second key stage is distribution of your release. At the end I will talk about the advantages of using a PR agency.
Chapter 12 of ‘What You See Is What You Get: My Autobiography’ by Alan Sugar (2010) is fascinating. It tells how Amstrad reinvented itself by helping Rupert Murdoch to launch Sky. I love stories. This particular story is fascinating as it shows superb lateral thinking by Alan Sugar and his team. Around 1988, satellite dishes and receivers were on the market for approximately £5,000. In June of that year, Alan Sugar agreed that Amstrad would develop satellite receiving equipment which would sell in the shops for £199.
Marketing Research is hugely important for the promoters of new business endeavours to include: new products; geographic or market expansion of an existing product; or start-up businesses. Secondary research is hugely important for both consumer and business-to-business (B2B) market research. Secondary research lays the groundwork and primary research helps fill in the gaps. By using both types of market research, business owners get a well-rounded view of their market and have the information they need to make important business decisions.
My presentation to Limerick City Enterprise Board Startup Network ‘Marketing : The starting point for Startups’