Mr Reid introduced advisers to the concept of what he refers to as helpful, modern marketing, much of it based around using new technology, that can help to overcome the three limiting, self-imposed beliefs, that he says trap small businesses in the marketing of their services:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Lack of time<\/li>\n
- Lack of money<\/li>\n
- Lack of knowledge<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Mr Reid emphasised that marketing today is about being helpful: “What our clients need is education and to be informed,” he told his audience, using examples of how other small businesses have achieved this outcome and have consequently grown the value of their businesses.<\/p>\n
The scary thing is that we are who Google says we are…<\/h6>\n
In refering to online customer perceptions, Mr Reid said “The scary thing is that we are who Google says we are…”<\/p>\n
He noted three key factors that Google seeks in terms of delivering top online content. He said information must be:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Fast<\/li>\n
- Relevant<\/li>\n
- Accurate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Mr Reid also advocated that advisers work on including ’emotion’ in their marketing message because “… emotions are hard to sever.”<\/p>\n
Helpful marketing is about selling more by selling less<\/h6>\n
Differentiation is also a key, he said: “We live in a world of sameness – put your head above the pack,” he urged his audience.\u00a0 He demonstrated various ways to achieve the outcome of ‘standing out’, sometimes by counter-intuitive methods: “Helpful marketing is about selling more by selling less,” he said, while other suggestions made by Mr Reid, on which he expanded, included:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Think about being a poor marketer rather than a push marketer<\/li>\n
- They say marketing is what you do if you can’t go to see someone<\/li>\n
- Smart phones are a marketing machine<\/li>\n
- Get a video business card<\/li>\n
- Put it on your ‘about us’ page. Do one for each staff member and have it say why you do what you do<\/li>\n
- Podcasting is a sleeping giant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Summarising his message, Mr Reid told advisers that “… new communications technology allows small businesses to punch way above their weight.” He said advice businesses should select a communication medium they like, such as: videos, blogs, podcasts etc, and then to ‘go deep’ into at least one of those channels of social media to deliver their message.<\/p>\n
In achieving the delivery of helpful marketing, Mr Reid advocated a three-step process:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Step one – Identify and answer all the questions about your business that you have ever been asked:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
1. Listen to your customers<\/p>\n
2. Use Google’s predictive search<\/p>\n
3. Run YouTube predictive searches<\/p>\n
4. Research on LinkedIn<\/p>\n
- Step one – Identify and answer all the questions about your business that you have ever been asked:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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