Audiences are now searching for purpose rather than a specific product or brand. People are asking questions using search engines before they commit to purchases and you need to appeal to these knowledge gaps. Content should be clear, useful and provide solutions. To help with making sure it’s serving its purpose, think of the 3 W’s (and an H) How, Why, When and Where – instead of just what.

Whenever someone asks a question that is relevant to your business or products make sure that you are generating content that can relate to their queries. The aim is to give your audience the help and advice that they are searching for and provide them with all the relevant information for them to make the right decision.

If someone is interested in the product or service you have to offer, they will go through several different touch points of interaction with your business including:

1. - Google search
2. - Your website
3. - Meeting with a sales representative
4. - Twitter
5. - LinkedIn
6. - Facebook

It is important that you think about how you can genuinely create something new and fresh at each stage of interaction that adds real value to your audience.

For example, Ideal Debt Solutions (IDS) appeal to the lifestyle their customers want: to save money but still enjoy life without spending a fortune. They write weekly blog posts on money savings tips and tricks and how to live for less. As a result each time their audience asks a question about how to save money they are offering help and advice which will draw in and engage potential and existing customers.

Successfully producing content that is relevant to your audience’s search habits and that answers their questions will help you engage with them and result in them spending more time on your website, they may view additional content and may be more likely to return. You have engaged with them by creating something that they have found interesting and valuable thus beginning the relationship which will eventually drive sales. Then all that’s left to do is nurture that relationship, by continuing to create useful content and keeping your audience engaged.

Find out how we can help you understand your prospects and customers in order to engage them and grow your business. Get in touch with us today; ask for Kirsty or Hannah @WhalePod.

Here are 5 reasons why business development coaching can help maximise the effectiveness of your marketing campaign:

1) Learn new approaches - It is always surprising when we do business development coaching, to see that most participants have become ‘stuck in a rut’ with their business development activities. Many experienced business development managers don’t know how to follow up or integrate their marketing campaigns with general business development activities. Changing this is proven to significantly improve sales and marketing results. A coaching programme that takes place over the course of a number of weeks and months not only gives the theory on new approaches but also encourages putting these into practice. The results can then be discussed and analysed in the following sessions, helping to create new habits and approaches.

2) Empower staff - Business development coaching, when either employed as a standalone piece of coaching or as part of a wider programme of executive or performance coaching, can really help to empower staff. There may be very capable members of your team who are simply lacking a little confidence; something that coaching will really bring out. Additionally, organising business development coaching shows your staff that you are prepared to invest in them – increasing performance and motivating employees as a result.

3) Identify hidden talents – Business development coaching isn’t reserved only for those members of staff in direct business development roles. It could be argued that any employee in a client facing role could benefit. Not only will the knowledge passed on help staff to identify opportunities and understand how to act upon them more easily, but the coaching may also reveal business development talents in members of staff you hadn’t necessarily pinpointed.

4) Challenge performance - Coaching of any kind helps to support, challenge and improve performance. Even if an employee is performing relatively well in a business development function, there is always room for improvement! Coaching helps people to reflect on what they are doing and look at tweaking their approach to hone in on areas of weakness. Even if the difference made in a high performing member of staff is only a relatively small improvement, this will still make a big difference in the long term.

5) Develop teamwork – The nature of coaching requires participants to be honest and communication between those involved is crucial. It can really help to build stronger relationships between team members and encourage a better and more cohesive team going forward.

Kathryn Bistacchi, Business Development Associate at Whale Marketing specialises in helping client facing teams work closely with marketing to maximise results. Using a range of methods including, workshops, training, coaching and mentoring we tailor our service to help clients increase returns.

 Contact one of the team today to learn more about our services or find out how we can help you in coaching your business development staff to maximise your return on investment in marketing activities.

Are you confident that your employees are portraying your brand how you want it to be portrayed? Do they truly understand the function of sales and marketing? 

Strong brands aren’t built by the marketing team alone; employees that understand their role in the company and represent and communicate the brand well when dealing with clients and prospects help you reach your brand potential.

To help your business accomplish this goal, Whale makes sure to involve all members of staff in our branding workshops right at the start of the process.  By being able to contribute to the exercise, employees feel more engaged and informed of the brand values and will be more motivated in communicating and representing those values when following up with marketing activities.

The business development awareness skills in your ‘front line’ staff can have a significant impact on your business, if they are coached effectively in communicating your brand values, you will be able to maximise the effect of your marketing.

You can be more confident knowing your staff are pro-actively:

–  Representing  your brand values

–  Developing stronger relationships with clients and potential customers

-  Spotting opportunities and actively encouraging business

–  Following up marketing campaigns

–  Developing good personal branding that enhances your business values

Kathryn Bistacchi, Business Development Associate at Whale Marketing specialises in helping client facing teams work closely with marketing to maximise results. Using a range of methods including, workshops, training, coaching and mentoring we tailor our service to help clients increase returns and achieve their business goals.

If you want to learn more about the services at Whale Marketing & how we can help your staff represent your brand. Call us now on 0161 236 5395. Or email us on info@whalemarketing.co.uk

Customers have grown tired of hard sell tactics which is why content is at the forefront of marketing strategies – it is a way of engaging with your audience around their needs without being too intrusive or demanding. After Google’s “Phantom 2” update there will be no more churning out masses of average content crammed with keywords because Google will penalise you for it. The focus is now firmly on the quality of what you are producing. It’s time to stop thinking about generating lots of content and to start thinking about how to add value and meaningfully help solve our audiences’ problems.

There are lots of early examples of businesses using content marketing but one of the best is the Michelin Guides. In 1900 Michelin were struggling to sell tyres, largely due to the fact that not many people were driving back then. They thought about what would give their target audience a reason to get out on the roads and created the “Michelin Guides”. The guides aimed to inform car owners of how to maintain their vehicles but also encourage travelling in cars by listing the best hotels and restaurants to visit around the country. By providing their audience with valuable and useful content, Michelin were able to spark an interest in driving amongst their readers which resulted in more cars on the road, and therefore more need for people to buy their tyres.

Creating engaging content that is benefit led and of interest to consumers is the challenge for marketers (and for the future of content marketing) but it’s easier than you might think. The quality of the writing is one of the most important factors but it is also essential that you use subtle techniques that will increase audience engagement.

Here are 5 simple tips to get you started on creating more engaging content:

1. Video content - It is a fact that people are more drawn to Video than any other content – your audience is 64% more likely to stick around to find out more information about your product and are more confident in your services after watching a related video. So think about ways you can integrate video into your content marketing.

2. Be more visual – If you are not using images in your content marketing you are missing a trick! Like video, audiences respond more to visuals. Make sure to use images that complement and enhance your content.

3. Understand your audience - Audiences are now searching for purpose rather than a specific product or brand and they are asking a lot more detailed questions using search engines before they commit to purchases and it is important to appeal to these knowledge gaps. Content should be clear, useful and provide answers for your audience.

4.  Integration – You should be aiming to reach your audience across multiple user acquisition channels to make the most out of your content – tailoring content appropriately for each channel. A good place to start is with your email marketing list and social media.

5. Stop selling! The more you try to pitch to your audience with aggressive, self-serving marketing tactics, the more they will be uninterested and uninspired. Stop making it all about you and instead try to engage in conversation with your audience by focusing more on amusing or educating them.

Challenge us…

We often hear “You won’t be able to make resin flooring, industrial components, safety glass – insert your product / service here – interesting” or “We just can’t think of any news, nothing really significant has happened”.

If you think there’s nothing to say, you most likely won’t be engaging customers – challenge us to think creatively about your content dilemma and we guarantee we will surprise you with interesting content marketing and ideas to help you stand out from your competitors.

At Whale we are producing creative, engaging content for our clients’ businesses. Find out how we can help you engage your prospects and customers more and grow your business. Get in touch with us today; ask for Kirsty or Hannah @WhalePod.

A new client, Key Computers wanted to maximise a return on investment from exhibiting at Accountex; an exhibition for Accountancy firms a target sector for Key’s cloud server solutions.

Key had previously exhibited at this event, hence rebooking, but wanted to get more exposure for their investment.  With just a couple of weeks to go we quickly devised an integrated plan including:

 – Contacting relevant prospects to invite them to attend and meet Key at the exhibition

– Targeted emails to relevant audience re Accountex, hosted desktop and exhibition offer

– Promotion on Key web, social media platforms and Accountex media

– Developed limited time offer for exhibition

– Created, designed and printed bespoke communications for Accountancy firms with associated testimonials

– Sourced promotional support to boost sales team numbers on stand

– Branded promotional merchandise and giveaways

– Prepared follow-up telemarketing and email campaigns in advance ready to follow up leads after the event.

The results were increased exposure and an increase in leads generated. By ensuring we were targeted and used a mix of online and offline communications we boosted the effect of our marketing campaign.

]]> http://www.whalemarketing.co.uk/including-exhibitions-in-your-marketing-mix/feed/ 0 http://www.whalemarketing.co.uk/moving-on-up/ http://www.whalemarketing.co.uk/moving-on-up/#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2015 15:13:25 +0000 http://www.whalemarketing.co.uk/?p=2675 Communicate Better is a Unified Communications Provider based in Warrington. We have worked with them over recent years to develop their brand and in that time they have gone from strength to strength and have recently expanded into a much larger space.

We have designed and installed large scale signage and window vinyls across the brand new office building. Communicate Better’s logo consists of two bright green speech marks, so when we were asked to develop the brand further, we created a cast of colourful, friendly characters using the speech mark as faces. The characters inhabit their own bright, tech savvy world made up of urban skylines and colourful clouds. It was important that their friendly, customer focused branding was applied across the new building as they take the next step in their expansion.

Their logo and company name was applied to the outside of the building.

The speech mark aspect of their logo was enlarged onto vinyl and stuck onto the glass windows at the entrance. The result is a dynamic graphic which can’t be missed as visitors approach the building.

Inside the building, glass walls split up the working areas and these have had a skyline graphic applied across them, adding interest and providing privacy while still allowing light to filter through. Getting the graphics consistent across the glass panels was a technical design challenge which needed some accurate measurements and careful planning!

The logo has been applied to various walls within the building and a bespoke typographic vinyl made up of words describing Communicate Better’s service and philosophy has been applied to the stairwell, making a vibrant impact. Finally, every staff member has had a customised illustrated mug, featuring the characters and their name – adding a fun element to the staff kitchen.

This has been an interesting and rewarding project for Whale; helping a company we’ve seen grow steadily over the last few years, apply their branding across their new premises. We wish them every success for the future.

Having visited Spain many times over the years, she fell in love with an area known as the sherry triangle in the south west of Spain. The triangle forms the area between Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlucar de Barrameda and el Puerto de Santa Maria and is the only area in the world where sherry wines can be made. The DO is governed by the Consejo Regulador for sherry wines, who are responsible for overseeing the production and promotion of sherry worldwide.

A few years ago Hannah met several other people who were passionate about the sector and became involved in a week dedicated to the wines of the region. Sherry Wines week last year involved over 2000 events in bars, restaurants and retailers across the globe. This event now forms a key part of the Consejo’s activity for the year. In 2015 it will take place from 2nd to 8th November and Whale Marketing will carry out the social media and digital marketing for the event, as well as other campaigns throughout the year for Sherry Wines UK.

The campaigns have kicked off this week with the Copa Jerez, an international wine and food pairing competition held in Jerez for top chefs and sommeliers. The UK’s entrants are from the Lytellton Restaurant at the Stafford Hotel in London and will compete with other top restaurants from around the world.

image source: @SherryWines

image source: @SherryWines

You can follow the action on the @SherryWinesUK Twitter account and Sherry Wines Facebook and instagram pages.

Baker Mallett’s strapline is ‘A First Class Supplier’ so we wanted to reflect this in the campaign. We came up with a first class post mark stamp and the look and feel of the items, appearing like brown cardboard box parcels in the mail.

Baker Mallett work across multiple sectors but they realised that not everyone knew this. They were potentially missing out on projects that could have been awarded to them because the client didn’t know they were able to work in that sector.

To help tackle this problem, it was proposed that a DM campaign would be a good way to keep in touch with contacts and to raise their profile across multi-sectors.

The campaign comprised of 3 parts:

The first was 4 A5 postcards, detailing a brief overview of the projects Baker Mallett have worked on and promoting their services

The second was a pop-up money box, in the style of a brown cardboard box, to raise awareness for a “first class cause” which was Macmillan cancer support.

The third and final piece of mail was a 3D cube calendar, also in the style of a brown cardboard box. The calendar folds into a cube and each month displays different projects that Baker Mallett have completed to showcase their work to their customers.

We backed this up with digital/online activities such as an e-shot, website updates and social media. Clients commented on the innovative nature of the money box and calendar and the lasting impression it made on them.

They help to convey your brand messages.

As covered in our previous blog, a brand isn’t just a logo – it’s the experience a customer has at every touch point with a business. Video provides a great opportunity for businesses to portray what their business and their brand really stand for. Today we are constantly bombarded with marketing messages on a daily basis but video gives brands a platform to cut through the noise and tell their story. Nobody wants to read a bland company mission statement anymore – get creative and have some fun!

They put across your personality.
As above, video gives companies an opportunity to get their personality across in a way that is just not achievable through any other medium. For example, two years ago we were taken on by accountancy firm Stafford & Co to undertake a complete rebrand and help promote their business. As part of the process, we discussed video content; they had previously produced a corporate video that hadn’t made much of an impact. So we talked about creating a new style of ‘corporate video’ to help put across their brand personality in a fun, engaging way. We worked closely with a video specialist and the resulting video can be viewed below.

For what is often considered to be a fairly ‘dry’ industry, this humorous video really stands out and says something different about the firm and its people – therefore positioning them differently from their competitors. This video has resulted in excellent feedback from clients and helped Stafford & Co to achieve their aim of standing out in a crowded marketplace.

They’re good for search.
YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and receives more than one billion unique visitors every month. Let’s not also forget that YouTube is owned by the planet’s biggest search engine – Google. This is no coincidence; videos started to be included as a ranking factor for SEO some five or so years ago. As part of Google’s aim to provide the best and most relevant content for users, it isn’t unusual for videos to appear in search listings. What’s more, research shows that 75% of people who view a video will go on to visit the brand website afterwards, thus creating real and tangible results.

You can provide information succinctly.
In this day and age, people are busy and simply don’t have the time to go digging around for information. If you work in a particularly technical field, it may be likely that you need to convey a lot of information to potential clients. Not everybody likes to read reams of text, however, and video therefore provides the ideal alternative. In fact, humans process visual information 60,000 times faster than text, so by providing videos for clients will help to make their life easier – something I’m sure they’ll appreciate! Some studies suggest that because of the speed in which information can be digested, along with all of the other visual cues conveyed about your brand in the process, the speed of purchasing decisions is increased on the back of watching a business’ video content.

They can generate a ‘buzz’ quickly and easily.
The very nature of videos and the platforms they sit upon make them easy to like, comment on and share. If you can create a video campaign that is either extremely useful or very funny, it is likely to be shared, thereby helping to raise brand awareness. A study by Axonn Research found seven in ten people view brands in a more positive light after watching interesting video content from them. So if you can get your video in front of more potential consumers, you’re almost certainly going to see the benefit.

Videos can be tricky things to master and achieving a professional production isn’t always as quick or low cost as other forms of marketing. However, when done right, they can be extremely effective and can be used for years to come. To discuss creating a video campaign to add to your marketing mix, get in contact with the Whale team.

We were recently asked to deliver a seminar for Barclays aimed at the professional services sector. After some thought about what would be of interest and use to the audience, we decided to get ‘back to basics’ and came up with the topic ‘How to Maximise Your Brand’.

Throughout the course of putting the presentation together, we came up with some pretty interesting points on the importance of creating, developing and reimagining a company brand. Here are just a few of them…

A brand isn’t just a logo! Throughout the twelve years since we started Whale, I have lost count of the number of clients that have asked us for a ‘rebrand’ – thinking that this just involves creating a new logo! In fact, a brand is much, MUCH more than that…It’s how people think and feel about a company; the experience a customer (or potential customer) has at every touch point they have with the business. How people feel about a brand can influence whether they choose to engage or interact with a company; having a direct impact on sales and therefore being vital to business growth.

Mind the gap. It is arguable that any company that is in the public domain and servicing customers has a ‘brand’, and it’s important to know what the perception of yours is if you want to target new audiences or reposition your business. There are many components of a brand, including the company’s vision/goals, its ‘personality’ and where the brand is seen – both physically in terms of its outward presentation and theoretically, ie. where it is within the marketplace. Very often, there is a discord between where the company wants to be and what the reality is with regards these factors. This discord is what we call the ‘communication gap’ – and this is the point from which any brand building or rebranding exercise should start.

Consistency is key. The main element of any branding exercise is developing the business’ key messages and target positioning. Part of the process might be to create a new logo or corporate identity to help communicate those messages. When carrying branding across into your marketing materials and communication platforms, ensure that every touch point is covered. For example, there’s no point investing in a new website and marketing materials if your office still looks the same as it did 20 years ago! Embrace your brand and use any branding exercise as an opportunity to improve and take the business to the next level.

Remember to involve employees. Whilst what a brand stands for is likely to have been developed by the business owners, it’s important to remember that quite often, it is the front line employees who deal with everyday enquiries that become the business’ voice. If you are going to do a ‘rebranding’ exercise, try to involve employees by asking their feedback and involving them in the process. Obtaining their ‘buy in’ at the outset will make it much easier down the line when the time comes to roll out any changes.

Don’t forget your personal brand. In larger organisations, the vast majority of employees have little say or control over the company’s brand or messaging. Everybody, however, has the ability to control their own personal brand. Take a step back and think about what you stand for in business and in life, and think about how this carries across into the way you deal with people. As mentioned in the previous point, if you are representing a business, you should also consider whether your communications marry up with the brand’s key messages and ethos. Employees are the everyday representation of a company’s brand, so singing from the same hymn sheet can help to reinforce branding and create customer ‘brand loyalty’.

For more help and tips on B2B branding, or to discuss your business’ brand, please contact The Pod. To obtain a copy of the presentation slides, please get in touch.