The Men Who Made Us Spend Ep 3 HD

I thought it wouldn't make sense to mark my return to blogging without finishing what I started.

Below is the link to the final instalment of 'The Men Who Made Us Spend'. Comment, discuss and share!

http://goo.gl/O1Om6p

The Cheapest Methods of Advertising Your Business

Dependent on the type of business that you have set up, or are planning to set up, cost of advertising can be very costly.

Here are some of the cheapest methods of advertising

Social Networks

To set up an account on most social networks is relatively cheap or free. The benefit of social networks are that they cost nothing to make an account. Using social networks such as instagram, Twitter and Facebook, means a business can easily advertise its product quickly and efficiently. It is totally free to upload a picture or video, tweet, write a status. Just make sure you know how to word your advert well.

In terms of further investment in advertising Facebook and Twitter allow users to create paid adverts of their business, in order to reach a wider audience. They even have packages to suit every budget.

Clothing

Clothing is one of the cheapest but most intriguing forms of advertising. A good design always helps out. It doesn't have to be a jumper representing your online or brick store. What if you as the business owner wanted to bring some order and pizazz to your business? Bring in a nice uniform. That's a really strong form of advertisement. Anytime someone sees your staff in a uniform, it will always be related to your business.

Merchandise

Merchandise can be quite a broad topic. Things that people use everyday can be used to promote a brand. Pens, mugs, fridge magnets etc. are all good options to advertise your business. Not only are they handy but the fact they're everyday usage, means many people can see what your companies about and it can peak their interest. In my last post I have mentioned some companies that specialise in this area. You can check it out here

Offers/Competitions

Offers and competitions are one of the best ways to drive people to pay attention to your business.  A motto we swore by at a previous job suggested that "humans are naturally greedy" so they'd always want something for nothing. By providing offers especially where people end up paying less, will drive consumers to your business.

Radio

Depending on the type of radio and station you want to advertise your business on determines the cost of advertising using this platform. For this post, I am going to use local radio as the example. Local radio can advertise for as little as £30

Mailing List

To provide company information on a mass scale a mailing list is probably the cheapest and most efficient way to do this. Software programs such as MailChimp and SendBlaster can send emails to selected people in minutes. The mailing list is created by information put into a database and sent to the relevant people.

Supposing your company came up with a new offer or competition then this is one of the most effective ways to get the message across quickly, efficiently and to many people at once. 

Thanks for reading. For this post some of the ideas were generated by some of my marketer colleagues. You can find them on Twitter @Olson_realm, @Jlunsi and Patrick Oyelese on Linkedin

Marketing Week Live

On the 30th of April, the annual marketing exhibition Marketing Week Live took place at the Kensington Olympia. There were many different types of marketing personnel present. Companies that deal specialise in brand merchandising, digital marketing, recruitment and a few others.

My main goal of attending Marketing Week Live was to build opportunities to network with people involved in similar industries, educate myself and to gain new ideas to develop myself personally and in business. One thing I must commend Marketing Week on were the talks. The talks were absolutely fantastic and the guests that were invited to speak were company executives who had been involved in different elements of mentioned campaigns etc.

There was one such talk that really inspired me, that was in the Marketing Academy bootcamp theatre. Lysa Hardy from Holland & Barrett gave a brilliant, stand out, presentation on 'The importance of using technology in marketing'. It was extremely insightful and really underlined the way marketing techniques are changing or adapting to the current demands of today's consumer. She went into detail about the ways in which Holland and Barrett have actively got customers to keep on spending money with them, both online and offline. She even revealed the early ideas they had in the making, in accordance with the ever changing technologies.

Exhibitors That Stood Out

Aside from the talks in their respective theatres, I was impressed by quite a few exhibitors as there were so many to choose from. The ones that really stood out to me were:

Winglee
http://www.winglee.co.uk

In an exhibition full of promotional marketing organisations there were few that really stood out to me. One of which that defied the odds was Wing Lee Creative.  At first I thought the company had something to do with China, (just because of the name) but after talking to a representative I discovered exactly how creative they have been and can be, in regards to promotional marketing material. The guy I spoke to showed me pieces that they had created for big brands such as Formula 1 (F1) and Babybel. Really creative pieces. One could descibe it as out of this world in terms of creativity. With products to suit all budgets this is a company's services I plan on using in the future and one you should all check out.

Gemini recruitment
http://www.gemini-search.co.uk

Gemini recruitment by name is recruitment company specialising in roles in marketing, advertising and communications. I spoke to a guy called Morgan that explained exactly what they do and most importantly how they go about helping to make the unemployed, employed. If you're looking for roles in any of the aforementioned disciplines then you should definitely check them out.

Roantree
http://roantree.co.uk

Another promotional marketing organisation. Roantree's products really drew me to them upon walking past. I spoke to a representative of the company and asked him how Roantree differs from similar services such as Vistaprint. He went into great detail taking the time out to explain thoroughly.  The personal aspect of Roantree is a sure fire selling point, not to mention the quality of the products.

Demojive
http://demojive.com

Demojive is the first company I've come across of it's type. They are solely dedicated to making video which can be used for promotional marketing campaigns.  It's a brilliant concept. Interested in some new video for your business? You must have a look.

Depositphotos
http://depositphotos.com

I'm pretty sure there are hundreds of companies that sell images/videos for business use, however from a discussion with the lady at the Depositphotos stand, I decided that Depositphotos stands out amongst the crowd. They offer brilliant images for cheaper than some other popular competitors and the percentage they pay distributors is really good too. See their website for more information.

Amazing If
http://www.amazingif.com

Amazing If are a career development organisation.  I visited Amazing If's talk at the marketing Academy bootcamp theatre about networking. Personally I didn't think I was the strongest networker, but the ladies that founded Amazing If, Sarah Ellis and Helen Tupper, enabled me to learn of many ways I can improve. Using the topic of networking they also mentioned other skills that could help me with career development and for that I just had to ensure I mentioned them in this post.

Thanks for reading my personal review of Marketing Week Live 2015. If you want to experience it first hand I've included a link below for registration. I'll definitely be there next year, so hope to see some of my audience.

Register for next year here http://goo.gl/nQnGI5

Tips For A Successful Social Media Campaign

1. Know your target audience

This is always the basis of any campaign. Always ask yourself:

Who will be interested in my product or service?
What social networks do they use?

First things first. Make sure you identify your target market and tailor the campaign to suit that demographic. You must always understand which social networks they are likely to use and customise the campaign accordingly. Do they use Twitter more than LinkedIn? Do they use Instagram? You must find these answers before planning your campaign based off what you know.

2. Content

Always consider what kind of content you should deliver and on which social platform. Video, images are usually very attractive to a user seeing the campaign. Also include links to further information that will normally expand on the reason behind the campaign.

Sometimes reading text and viewing videos and images is not enough. Try and produce content that can get the user involved. Hashtags and competitions are always good ideas. Another way to use content to your advantage to cross promote on social networks. For example use Twitter to promote your competition on instagram and vice versa. It won't just broaden your social brand, it will also weed out the users of the other social networks which will help you later on.

3. The right tag line/slogan (words that set you apart from other brands)

Ensure the choice of words for the campaign are engaging. Short and sharp messages are easiest to remember. If they are part of another campaign, i.e television, radio, make sure the words used match those campaigns.

4. Monitoring and measuring (during and after)

Monitoring your campaign is a key learning curve. It is important to note how well or badly, the engagement on social networks was before the campaign and how much it is after. It is also just as key to realise the specific time and days the target market engage with the campaign. It's a trial and error process so you can take your time with it, just make sure you take note of what is happening.

At the end of the campaign make sure all the results are noted. Engagement is vital. Even note whether the responses were positive or negative. When the next campaign comes round you'll have the information about your target market that you need. Use this to your advantage in the next campaign.

Some good tools for monitoring:

Google Analytics 

Sprout Social

Social Mention

Topsy

5. Response

The next tip goes hand in hand with monitoring the campaign. Consumers need to know that you are taking note of their response. Try and interact with them. It can be difficult depending on the size of the campaign/brand but always try your best. Consumers need to know that you're actually taking an interest in what they have to say. It could be reply comments on Youtube or mentions on Facebook,Instagram or Twitter.

Comment/Share and Follow me @Allenbusiness on Twitter

How Depop Brings Out Your Inner Marketer?

What is Depop? Depop is one of the latest trading mobile applications, that allows users to buy and sell goods. Sounds basic enough right?...Wrong. Depop allows users to fully integrate social networks into it's app, by giving users the opportunity to effectively market products using them.

Many people may know by now, that most of people's time these days is spent on social networks, so much so, that pretty much all social networks have apps on mobile devices, as well as the traditional websites. From a marketers perspective, this is the perfect platform and clears up why Depop would target social networks.

Depop allows users to market and sell their own products by using images taken from the users phones, (which are moving closer and closer to actual camera's these days) and sell them to people involved in their social networks. If you were to assume that the majority of users on our own social networks like many of the things we do, (Yes it's a bold assumption) then from the outside looking in, you can see why this app would hold mass appeal.

From a social standpoint the things that people have in common with each other can sometimes form the basis on which they'll become friends or at the least, friends online. For example I'm a big football fan and what I have in common with most of my friends is that they are too. If I wanted to sell some football memorabilia using Depop and promote it using my social networks, then it is likely one of my friends or one of their friends might be interested.

A simple 'share' or maybe a 'retweet' can spread the fact someone selling something and potentially get me a customer willing to check out the goods I have for sale. This is probably the best thing about Depop. It only takes one person with a few hundred followers to spread the word, or maybe out of those few hundred a certain portion of those numbers, could actually become buyers. It could even mean that the buyers could follow you on these social networks and that means there is always scope for repeat buyers.

Check it out on the Play Store. Depop



Thanks For Reading!


Comment/Share and Follow me @Allenbusiness on Twitter

The Men Who Made Us Spend Ep 2 HD - Video Dailymotion

The Men Who Made Us Spend Ep 2 HD - Video Dailymotion



The second part to the intriguing video. Comment, discuss and share!

▶ The Men Who Made Us Spend Ep 1 HD - Video Dailymotion

▶ The Men Who Made Us Spend Ep 1 HD - Video Dailymotion

Click on the link above to watch this documentary. Very interesting and some very good talking points. Feel free to discuss some points with me. Personally I feel this documentary is amazing!!

How Instagram Is Used To Promote Brands

Gone are the days when social media was literally only about keeping contact with friends and seeing what they were up to. Social media still provides that function, but as many know, there is a lot of money to be made using it.

Instagram is one such social network targeted by people or brands with a business interest at heart. Originally a photo-sharing entity, Instagram has added video in addition to many other cool features to its arsenal.

On Instagram's official blog you can see the list of brands that use Instagram to promote their products or services. The reputation of the organisations that use Instagram shows the measure, the reach of Instagram and suggests a slight indication of why they use it.

Other users and/or brands sometimes use Instagram as a form of content marketing. They say "A picture is worth a thousand words". With that in mind, Instagram is the total package. There are users who not only use Instagram to promote their goods, products, services or even events, but for the user to buy into them, and become more involved with the brand. Some famous A-listers in the celebrity world use Instagram to give the audience a preview into their lives away from their professional capacity. It gives users a sense of inclusion to that persons life.

Accounts that promote fashion such as The Drop Date use Instagram to inform it's followers when new trainers are to be released. Similarly Trendset UK posts pictures of various fashion items and uses the hashtag "#Hot or #Not".

In TrendSet's case the items seen can be 'liked' and/or commented on. What this means is that fashion brands can see what products are favoured or not, measured by the 'likes' and comments. It also means they can make marketing decisions based on this information, like whether to spend money to promote the brands or not.

In terms of comments the best thing about them from a marketer's perspective is that there is no prompt to leave a comment, yet there are still people that do. This is a win-win situation for people or businesses promoting anything.

Some brands and people you should follow to get a clear picture of how instagram is used are: 

Trendset Uk 

The Drop Date

Innocent Smoothies

Nike

Nicki Minaj

Dan Bilzerian

Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter @Allenbusiness

Happy New Year

I'm a little late I know, but I've been really busy recently.  Just wanted to say happy new year to all and a special thanks to those that have supported my blog thus far. Even if you haven't read my post or commented (I'd really like you too lol), but you've shared on various social networks, I still appreciate it. I know I need to post more regularly and I will make more time to do so. To wrap it all up, thanks for the support and have a prosperous new year.

Anthony Allen

Network Marketing Explained: Part 2

If you have read my previous post on network marketing (if you haven't, read here) you would have gained an understanding of it. I thought it wouldn't be enough to just to talk about something that I haven't witnessed or experienced so I decided to write from my experience.  

You may not realise but there are companies that actually use network marketing as well as marketing their products using traditional forms of advertising. One such company is Telecommunications group, Talk Talk. Talk Talk actually outsource promotions companies to help them expand their customer base.  

I happened to work for one such company. It was a direct sales company using a network marketing structure to achieve goals internally and for Talk Talk themselves. The company had it's own set of rules as far as training went. These rules were the foundations of the company in order for an individual to reach to the head of the company and eventually run their own business. The aim was to get as many people across the country to sign up to Talk Talk as possible.   The way the company managed to do this was by using a particular system combining excellent sales techniques and psychology. They used some of the best motivational techniques around to get the best from the employees or future business owners. They also managed to successfully incorporate a network structure based on performance. If I'm honest you would have been surprised by some of the techniques that were used and how susceptible people can be to a good offer.  

The advantage that my colleagues and I had over other methods of marketing were that we had the chance to get to the customer on a more personal level. We could tailor a package that would suit the customer,  that  otherwise might have probably ignored other methods of Talk Talk's marketing.  

The measure of success in this organisation was how many offices that my manager got his apprentices to run, be their own manager and repeat the business model. From starting with one London office the manager managed to promote another manager in most of the major cities in the country. He promoted managers to Birmingham,  Newcastle, Liverpool and a few others. More offices means more teams of people trying to become managers of their own offices selling Talk Talk, which means more contracts being sold so it's more money and custom for Talk Talk. It also means that more people become involved in the organisation with a view to become a manager in the long term.

Looking forward I believe that more organisations will use the successful examples of companies like the one I worked for. The rate at which the new custom to companies comes in, is really fast. I'll assume that Talk Talk get more custom this way than from referrals by television or any other methods of advertising, especially as around 10,000 people a month sign up to Talk Talk.

As for the individual, it is a great opportunity to make alot of money. The performance aspect of it means a harder work rate. The prospect of becoming a manager at the end of the program as long as making money whilst you learn how to become one is the main incentive.

Thanks for reading this post. For constructive feedback and criticism follow me on Twitter @Allenbusiness or on Google+ / LinkedIn...Anthony Allen.

Network Marketing Explained: A Growing Industry

Network marketing has become a big phenomenon within the marketing industry. It is significantly newer than some other more renowned forms of marketing but just as effective.  Many companies worldwide have adopted this method of marketing because of this. Network marketing has meant that companies can expand into different cities as well as countries a lot more quickly than your conventional organisation.  

The reasons why network marketing is so successful is because each company employing this strategy has some of the best, most valuable set of motivation and people management skills. Not only this, network marketing allows the opportunity to progress within the organisation rapidly and based on performance. Being performance based means that it is up to the individual to work hard to earn lots of money. This also means that the only people stopping their own financial and hierarchical progression are themselves.

Network marketing preaches the ideology of individual success within a collaborative environment. It may sound strange to put individual and collaborative in one sentence, however the basis of network marketing works in this way. To put it simply, the way an individual can succeed in a network marketing organisation is by learning the steps it takes to reach a senior position within the organisation right from the very beginning. What this individual must do is then repeat and teach the same actions to new people. Once the new people have learnt them, they regurgitate what they have learnt to someone else and so on. The better the individual is at training and assembling a team of 'new people' and getting them to perform well doing the specific duties, the quicker they can progress in the organisation.   

It is based on a four stage hierarchy where for three stages the fundamental roles do not change much, in terms of the duties. The four stages are as follows:

1.  Entry level - The new personnel in the business. Untrained. Learning the ropes

2.Team Leader - Doing so well at the entry level, you are promoted. You take on a little more responsibility as you get the next new person to be as good as you. After a llittle while you assemble a team and when they all start doing well, you get promoted again.

3.Assistant Manager - At this stage you will work closely with the manager whilst still doing your duties as a team leader. Your trainees are now doing the training and have become team leaders.

4. Head Personnel/Manager - Has the most control over everyone. Is responsible for motivating everyone to perform to the best of their ability. To get to this stage you would have needed to take on some managerial duties as an assistant manager. When the time is right the manager will promote you.

Just because the compulsory stages have been completed doesn't mean the opportunity stops there. There are normally roles beyond manager such as regional manager and other executive roles, but they vary from organisation to organisation.

This whole process goes on for the duration of the businesses operation. This allows for the business' employees to multiply rapidly under a big 'network' dedicated to the same cause. It also means, with more employees means more quicker expansion into different cities and countries. When you really sit and think about it, the way these organisations that operate using network marketing, is nothing short of genius.

Thanks for reading this post. For constructive feedback and criticism follow me on Twitter @Allenbusiness or on Google+ / LinkedIn...Anthony Allen. Remember to share too, it's much appreciated.

Does a social following translate into sales?

The stigma attached to a following   A social network following can be said to replicate the amount of interest gathered in a product, service or person. There are cases where this can be true and others where in reality, we are lead to believe otherwise. There are many people and businesses that could argue that a bigger social presence means that there is an increase in either the amount of sales or the amount of popular appeal. From reading this article you will realise that it is not necessarily that simple to judge based on a following or people just taking an interest.  

Facebook Likes 

The term 'likes' in social networking describes the ability to click a button that shows that the user is in favour of something. For example, if there was a picture of the colour red, painted onto a wall and people were in favour of it, they would click a button somewhere on the screen that says 'like' to show they are in favour of it, or put more simply, they like it. To my knowledge, Facebook was the first social network to use likes as an important part of their set up. There are many organisations, and celebrities that have fan pages on Facebook. The amount of likes on these pages can be perceived to be the same amount of people that are genuinely interested in a product service or celebrity. To the untrained business mind, it would make logical sense to say that the amount of social interest gained by a product would equate to the amount of people that would be potential users of this product. It is an understanable logic, however the interest mounted in the product could be huge and the sales per unit might not match up. For instance if a 500 ml bottle of Coca-Cola costs £1, but 1 million people 'like' the product on Facebook, it doesn't have to mean that the drink will sell one million units. The factors affecting people's decision making are things such as:  

Price: If a product costs a certain amount of money to buy, the assumption is that not everyone in the associated target market will be able to afford it.  

Convenience: This can also have a little to do with price because if a product is useful to a potential consumer, sometimes the cost of it may lead them to think "do I really need this?"  

Alternatives: Are there some much lesser known, cheaper alternatives that do almost or exactly the same job.  

Twitter Followers  

Followers on Twitter are people with a Twitter account who actively keep up to date with another users status updates. Twitter followers are similar to Facebook friends, the difference being that it is a less personal approach between one follower to another. It can be perceived that the amount of followers that an individual has, shows how socially appealing they are. People are socially appealing for different reasons. Some have a big Twitter following because they are outspoken, not afraid to say exactly what they feel. Others have many Twitter followers because they have naturally appealing personalities or regularly tweet about certain topics. For example I follow many entrepreneurs on Twitter because I hope to become one, one day, so I follow people relative to my interests. Another reason why people follow others is because they are celebrities and fans want to know about their lives.   Celebrities tend to have much more twitter followers than the local paper boy or lollipop lady. It's because they are exposed to much media exposure than the aforementioned. It is also because they have a greater public appeal and their lives appear to be more interesting. That is not necessarily true, but these celebrities have unknowingly become role models to a lot more people than the paper boy and as a result many people have taken an interest in their lives.    

Celebrity Examples  

Musicians have many followers on Twitter. As of when this article was written, Justin Bieber stands as the most followed celebrity in the world, also making him the most followed music artist. Nicki Minaj, a hugely popular rapper also has many, many Twitter followers.   Justin Bieber has 46 million Twitter followers and this could be the reason his last album has gone platinum in 3 countries, double platinum in two countries, triple platinum in another country and gold in 5 others.  Nicki Minaj has 17 million Twitter followers,  a lot less than Justin Bieber. Her sales seem to have the same trend but still less than Justin Bieber. She has gone only platinum in two countries, with her most recent album and gold in 3 others. It may seem she has been very successful, but when distributors such as major supermarket chains refuse to sell the album due to fear of financial loss, it can have an adverse effect on her sales. This in turn will hold her back from ever matching Justin Bieber in terms of sales.  She mentions these things in her interview 

Conclusion  

A naive mind would assume that the amount of Twitter followers would add up to the amount of sales, whether it be concert ticket sales or album sales. This post was written just to make you, the reader see that belief from a different perspective. It was written so you could understand that there could be several factors that have affected her followers' decision to not convert her social popularity into album sales.   On the other hand in Justin Bieber's situation, the followers to sales conversion is much more of a positive one. Just like Nicki Minaj, there could be many external factors that affected his sales, although unlike Nicki Minaj, his followers may have had more of a positive effect on his sales.              

Thanks for reading this post. For constructive feedback and criticism follow me on Twitter @Allenbusiness or on Google+ / LinkdIn...Anthony Allen.