Insight Marketing Services

Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Insight marketing services celebrates 18 years in business

Insight Marketing Services is celebrating its 18^th birthday today, by offering 18 businesses a slice of cake and a free 1 hour consultation to help them get the most from their marketing spend. *

Founded in May 1992, the company moved from Malmesbury, Wiltshire, to Christchurch, Dorset 8 years ago. Passionate as ever about making marketing work and generate ROI for business, our “cake”( the substance of what we do) is to provide strategic marketing through marketing planning and research.

Supporting clients through relevant implementation and delivery can be seen as the “filling”, including brochure copy, feature articles, PR campaigns, building a positive reputation, exhibitions and events, house and customer journals, and direct mail.

Training , through our associate business, Top mark training,  symbolises the  “icing” on the top. Dianne’s live sales and marketing training and coaching sessions were formalised in 2000, to include trainer resource packs and distance learning, complementing the consultancy and services.

“It’s hard to believe I have been in this business for 18 years, but then I look at the wealth of experience I have built up and see how many of my clients are more successful, and it strikes home. Here’s to the next 18!”

On line facilitation and tutoring

Managing consultant Dianne Edgar has recently completed an online facilitation and tutoring course, using the Moogle platform, which will enable her to provide effective online facilitation for students around the world.

The four week on-line course, covered online communication, improving participation, dealing with difficult situations, motivation, learning styles, promoting deeper learning, and evaluating online contributions. Along with delegates from the UK, the Caribbean, and Africa, Dianne developed knowledge and techniques specifically for online courses, to complement her existing skills in a face-to-face environment.

“The differences between face to face and online learning are quite significant, and required careful consideration before implementing. As tutors and facilitators, we have to look for additional clues regarding students’ progress, learning styles, and motivation, which would otherwise be apparent in a classroom situation. I will be applying the techniques and approaches learned in both on and off line settings.”

www.topmarktraining.com

Insight Marketing Services’ lead consultant, Dianne Edgar, has just delivered a one hour Teleseminar on marketing for the small business, a recording of which is now available , for those who missed the original.

Presented on behalf of The Second Tuesday Online Business Club, this one-hour session was packed with hints and tips, supported by examples, to help small businesses apply marketing techniques in a way which will help them get business without eating up their budget unnecessarily.

Topics included marketing planning and budgeting, making cold calls that produce results, and how to understand customer needs. Dianne Edgar explained, “Using this new international technology enabled us to explore frequently asked marketing questions, which I normally cover in a live seminar. Delegates can drop in to suit themselves, their time zones, and their workloads. I am looking forward to the next one.”

To listen to the seminar now, Contact us on +44 (0)1425 276303 or email ideas@i-marketing.uk.com

BUSINESS GROWTH PLAN 2010

January Make a marketing plan, analyse what you spent last year, and what gave you the best return on investment. Write down an action plan, with costs and responsibilities allocated, and make a resolution to stick to it, measuring and monitoring everything involved.

February Diary a note to cancel all those advertising contracts where you decided the return was not good enough

March Start asking customers where they heard from you, and what else they would like from you. Make sure all your staff know this is critical to the business

April Train your staff- on sales, telesales and customer care- it pays off so quickly.

May The PR campaign you decided upon in January should be working by now. Check customers and prospects have seen it.

June Following up those sales leads from the exhibitions you attended should be delivering profits.

July Review your prospect database and check for patterns, omissions

August Prepare mailing/e-mailing campaigns for busy autumn selling season

September Evaluate networking-to see what’s working, and what could work better

October Launch customer newsletter, in tough times you need to keep customers close

November Review analytics from website and adjust keywords and SEO

December Time to re-train telesales team

January 2011 Review 2010, and contact I-Marketing on 01425 276303 or email ideas@i-marketing.uk.com for more help, there’s too much to do in-house.

Creating and capturing new business opportunities

The marketing masterclass, Strategic Marketing -Creating and Capturing New Business Opportunities, delivered by Insight’s senior consultant Dianne Edgar on behalf of Executive Solutions (Training) Ltd, held on 14 January, 2010, was voted a resounding success by the delegates. Feedback included “enlightening”, “I wish I had met you last month, you could have saved me a fortune” and “inspiring”.

Designed for managers of small businesses which had been identified as having significant growth potential, this full day workshop was held at the Manor House Library, Lewisham, London. Delegates learned practical skills about marketing planning tools, market research, setting marketing objectives, and the marketing mix.

Sponsored by South East Enterprise, this masterclass is one of a series covering marketing, finance, organisation, and people, each designed to access new contract opportunities and markets, focus on business growth, and plan for increased profitability. Further masterclasses in this series will be held later this year.

Dianne Edgar commented, “These delegates were experienced in running their businesses, understood their target markets, and knew what they wanted. They came from a wide range of industry sectors, and were able to take the ideas and tools discussed, and apply them to their own businesses. They generally agreed that they had increased their knowledge of marketing and went away with pages of ideas to put into practice.”

www.executive-solutions.co.uk

http://www.seenterprise.co.uk/sales_growth.htm#master

A true story:

Once upon a time, there was an engineering business which said, – “we don’t need to do any marketing- we’ve been going 20 years, and the sales just keep coming in.”

But then business got tougher, their customers had more choice, their staff forgot to turn up on site, and their orders dwindled. They were taken over by a larger business which was looking to expand into their sector.

The larger business called in the help of Insight Marketing Services who put together a lead generation plan. At the same time, a training programme which included everyone from MD to fitter, to show what the company needed to do, and how it could change its fortunes, was implemented.

Five years later, the original company achieved a successful management buyout, having implemented and updated all the lead generation plans.  They took on more staff, made lead generation a compulsory part of every job description, and the new company is now a success story.

We helped this company to define its ideal customer, look at who they already knew, set objectives and make a plan. We adapted their offering to the current market needs, qualified leads, and targeted the specialist sales force to win business. Everyone who had customer contact, from the accounts clerk and IT manager to the delivery driver and site engineers, had sales and customer service training. The leads began to flow, their profits increased, and they are all now continuously generating leads, and the business is growing well.