nbmedia, Author at EM Solutions

Marketing VS Advertising

So, what is the difference between Marketing and Advertising?

Most of us do not know the difference between marketing and advertising. It seems like it’s two terms used to describe the same thing. The difference can be confusing, indeed. While these two concepts are vital in your business and work interchangeably, they are not the same and their roles are different.

Let’s first look at the definition of these two terms:

Marketing – It is a systematic planning, implementation and control of business activities intended to bring together the seller and the buyer for the mutual exchange or transfer of products.

Advertising – It is a paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor. It is essentially spreading the word about what your company has to offer.

Now, how do we market?

When you market your product or services, you need to have studied your target audience. You need to know what their needs and wants are.

Marketing is based on thinking about the business in terms of customer needs and their satisfaction. It is about meeting the needs and wants of customers.

It is is a business-wide function – not something that operates alone from other business activities. It is about understanding customers and finding ways to provide products or services which customers demand.

And, how do we advertise?

Advertising is a communication of your brand to your target audience. It essentially includes the placement of an advertisement in the media. Print, television, radio and the internet are all venues that can communicate your brand to potential buyers. It requires budget because putting an advertisement in the media need to be paid for.

These two concepts are slices of a bigger pie in your business. They work together towards the bigger goal.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:10+02:00February 16th, 2016|Marketing|0 Comments

B.O.B -The sales funnel

A good marketer knows to adjusts to the ever-changing terrain of marketing without losing sight of what needs to be done to get people’s attention. Marketing is no longer a numbers game, but it remains a funnel. We are going to take you through the key steps that you can use to drive people down your sales funnel. The five below steps are pretty much straight forward and practical:

1. Contacts

Part of the marketing process is to make contact with the potential clients. Where ever you go, make sure to engage with people so that you can create contacts.

2. Categorize

Categorize people accordingly. Not everyone is a potential clients, but you need theses people because they might know someone who is a potential client, so you must be able to identify those and categorize them accordingly. Another category of people is those that can be customers but are not sure and ready yet. The last category is the hot customers. These are the customers that you must have immediately! They are ready, they know their needs and need your services. Sign them up today.

3. Clarify

Clarify your contacts. Make your contact details clear and what you offer clear to your clients. Send them your information. Clarify their needs that your company can meet.

4. Convert

Converting can be a lengthy process depending on what your organizations is doing. You can’t magically make it happen. You have to work on and be strategic about it. Encourage those visiting customers to engage with you on the various social platforms, the most prominent being Facebook or website.

5. Conversations

Building relations with your clients is key in marketing. It could be over lunch, via emails or wherever, make a plan to capitalize on the conversation that has been started by your client.

Watch the video on the sales funnel below:

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:10+02:00February 15th, 2016|Bruce on Business|0 Comments

The State Of your Business Affairs – SOBA

There’s been serious economic changes that have occurred recently, and that calls for a lot of things to change in business. Entrepreneurs sure must do things differently in order to survive. Everyone must change, especially small-business owners. The good news is while change is good; it does not mean that what you have been doing all along is bad. Change can be leveraged to keep up desired progress, saving cost and eliminating duplicative efforts.

With the rand becoming weaker and weaker every day, it cannot be a surprise that the confidence of many business owners is in tatters. Actually, everyone’s confidence is torn into pieces. Therefore as a business owner, you need to have strategies in place that are designed to work in a changing business climate.

Constantly check the state of your business affairs. Adjust, confront and conquer.

In tough times such as these, advisors are crucial because you need people to bounce ideas off, inspect what you’re doing, and push you to greater accomplishments. And always keep in mind that this isn’t about you; it’s about the business. Keep your emotions aside.

Being an entrepreneur is your choice, so make it work. It can be done. You can survive, emerge and succeed in this downsized economy, if you follow the right path.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:11+02:00February 12th, 2016|General|0 Comments

5 steps to make you stick with your marketing plan

It may be tempting to abandon your long term marketing plan when you do not see it working immediately. Don’t! Stick to it and work on it every day. Be consistent in implementing it. Give it time to work.

These 5 steps can help you make the most of your long-term marketing plan:

Focus on your niche.

Become the expert in all things involving your niche. Don’t limit your knowledge to the services you offer. The more you know about your niche’s priorities and challenges, the more valuable a resource you can become to them. Become familiar with other professionals who can assist your niche with challenges outside your expertise. When you’re tempted to work with clients outside your niche, make sure the time and payoff will be worth it and won’t draw you away from your commitment.

Stay close to your ideal client.

Networking, surveys, online community forums, trade magazines, and associations are all great ways to keep sharp about the things that matter to your ideal client. Also, stay on top of the news, and ask yourself how your client’s needs will be affected by changes in the business and world environment.

Keep your eyes on your competition.

If your clients stop thinking that you offer a competitive advantage in addressing their needs, you lose and the competition wins. Don’t be the last to know what your competition is doing.

Make sure you’re positioned to win.

If you’re doing the first four steps, you’ll know when it’s time to change your tune, tweak your message, and speak a new language that’s more in tune with what your ideal client needs. Ask yourself, “Is my unique selling proposition still unique? Does anyone do it better? What one thing can I do to serve my clients better?” That’s how you stay unique.

Take action every day.

Follow your schedule. Complete the actions you say you’ll complete in your daily schedule. At the end of the week, give yourself a grade for effort. Then give yourself another one for accomplishment. If you’re getting A’s for effort and C’s for accomplishment, troubleshoot.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:11+02:00February 11th, 2016|Business Resources|0 Comments

FREE Marketing workshop

You are invited to attend one of our next FREE, no-commitment required, Entrepreneur Look-In Sessions, where you will have time to share and network with others at the same business development stage as yourself, and listen to some of our ideas. We have programmes on offer that will assist you to get your business on track and steaming towards success.
We have two sessions this week with places on both:

• Wednesday 10th February 17:00 – 18:30
• Thursday 11th February 12:30 – 14:00

Remember: “Growing your business is our business”.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:11+02:00February 9th, 2016|Marketing|0 Comments

BOB 14 – Sales Cycle

A lot has been written about the attributions of sales cycle. It really is a simple step by step process.

Here are the 5 steps of the sales cycle:

1. Inform

You’ve got to inform your customers about your product. Inform them that they have a problem. inform them that they need it. create awareness.

2. Educate

People need to be educated before you can call them potential client. Educate them about your product or your service offering. How does your product solve their problem? Educate them about how it works, where it works. Do some educating marketing.

3. Sell

Don’t jump into selling unless you’ve informed and educated. Do selling campaigning.

4. Re – selling

Remember it’s 10 times easier to re-sell to an existing client than to sell to a completely new one. Re-sell should be your strategic part of your marketing.

5. up-selling

This is about the other complementary services around your product or service offering. What else can you plug in to the initial product.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:11+02:00February 8th, 2016|Business Resources|0 Comments

Are you a meaningful Entrepreneur?

There is a recently published study by Stanford University, about the way we construct our experiences, proving that though the principles of meaning and happiness overlap, a meaningful life is ultimately more important than a happy one. So, what is the difference then?

Putting your energy into cultivating an experience that is meaningful entails something more than whatever appeases your own wants and desires in the moment. Happiness is a fleeting feeling, whereas meaning is a stable foundation. Because if you cut down the things that matter to the reasons why they matter, you will realize that the common denominator is that they all give you a sense of belonging, fulfillment and purpose.

Ultimately, meaning is attainable. Meaning is something we can choose. That is not always the case with happiness.

Now, let’s take this to entrepreneurship. What is a meaningful entrepreneurship?

Meaningful entrepreneurs are the entrepreneurs who are enterprise growers and, therefore, job creators.

So, do you think you are a meaningful entrepreneur?

In his blog, Michael Gerber, a legendary entrepreneur, mentioned that a true entrepreneur starts with an inspiration, an innovative or transformative idea for a business, and is driven by the prospect of growth and reinvention.

The world needs more and more true entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs who are inspired to create, to be inspired to innovate, to be inspired to build a completely new world.

Michael Gerber says the cure for unemployment is not more jobs, but more meaningful entrepreneurs – entrepreneurs who will contribute to the transformation of the economy and to the growth of meaningful, rewarding jobs.

Unemployment is a problem that refuses to go away. The hope lies in the hands of a true entrepreneur, to create meaningful jobs.

Furthermore, in their 2014 report, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) divided entrepreneurial motivation into two drivers: motivational drivers and job-growth expectations. The first one is necessity-driven, which means individuals start businesses because there are no better options to obtain resources for living. The second one is opportunity-driven, which means individuals start businesses based on recognized opportunities.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:11+02:00February 5th, 2016|Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

You do not want to miss our next Lunch ‘n Learn session
Gallery
You do not want to miss our next Lunch ‘n Learn session

Marketing

You do not want to miss our next Lunch ‘n Learn session

Our first Lunch ‘n Learn session for this year was well attended. You do not want to miss the next one next month.

This year’s sessions will be held on the first Tuesday of every month. We highly recommend Lunch ‘n Learn, because, apart from being educative and informative, these session are a great platform to network and advertise yourself or your business. We all know that networking is a really valuable way to expand your knowledge. It helps you learn from the success of others, attain new clients and tell others about your business.

The topic of the first session today was on Marketing, looking into The Importance of Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses. It was such an insightful, well-researched presentation, wherein people walked away with very helpful information on how to go about marketing their businesses.

“I found this session to be so much informative. I thought I knew a lot about marketing, but my eyes were opened to a whole lot of new things today”, said business owner Vincent Staples who was in attendance.

As you learn how to run a business, it’s always a good idea to add variety to your content marketing strategy. Lunch ‘n Learn is one of the platforms that you can use to source information for the benefit of your business.

One of the the few things that we touched on was the Product Marketing Specification. This is about creating a persona when marketing your product or business. Do you know who your ideal clients are? What are you offering? Do you have a strategy for turning potential clients into paying clients?

Find today’s notes on www.slideshare.com and learn more about The Importance of Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses.

We trust that we will see you at our next Lunch ‘n Learn session next month on the first Tuesday of the month.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:11+02:00February 2nd, 2016|Marketing|0 Comments

B.O.B Episode 13 – February – the marketing month

February is the marketing month, a month where people go all out to activate and launch their marketing strategies for the year.

Here at EI, we have packaged all the information about marketing for you this whole month. This is to just help you market your business the right way in order for you to reach your target audience and grow your business. Remember, growing your business is our business.

In this video we focus on the four key factors you need to address when you do your marketing strategy:

– Get to know your product

You need to understand the problems that your product is addressing.

– Get to know your customers

Understand the problems that your customers have. Is your product trying to solve them? Understand what they need and want. Make sure it’s the problems that they want to get rid of, and not the problems that they are happy with.

– How willing are your potential customers?

Are people willing to spend their money on your product? Are they happy with their problems or are they willing to spend money to spend money on your product to solve their products?

– Learn how to connect with customers

You identified the problem, and have a solution, so how do you then connect that to customers?

Watch the video below for more on this briefly explained key factors about marketing.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:12+02:00February 1st, 2016|Bruce on Business, Marketing|0 Comments

February – the Marketing month

February is Marketing month and we have some special treats for you.
Four workshops lined up to boost your business marketing to new heights for 2016.
The more you learn the more you save with our 10% off for every additional workshop you attend in February. That adds up to a total of 60% savings if you attend all four workshops.

Please book now using the link to the Meetup Group below.

4 Easy to use tools to market your business Thursday 4 Feb: 09:30 – 16:30
Marketing is not about the 4P’s or price cutting discounts anymore: our customers are demanding higher levels of service, experience and convenience from their brands. Taking your business into the Blue Water zone requires a different strategy, a new way of thinking. Blue Water Strategies will help with this paradigm shift that will make your business immune to the competition and sales negotiations around price cuts.

Taking your business into Blue Water marketing Thursday 11 Feb: 09:30 – 16:30
Marketing is not about the 4P’s or price cutting discounts anymore: our customers are demanding higher levels of service, experience and convenience from their brands. Taking your business into the Blue Water zone requires a different strategy, a new way of thinking. Blue Water Strategies will help with this paradigm shift that will make your business immune to the competition and sales negotiations around price cuts.

How to woo your customers with Narrative Marketing Thursday 18 Feb: 09:30 – 16:30
Telling stories is part of our African heritage, using stories in our marketing creates African legends. Narrative Marketing will unpack all the tools and techniques required to fill your marketing with exciting narratives that connect to and include your customers into a powerful profitable relationship.

5 Secrets to Pimp your Pitch Thursday 25 Feb: 09:30 – 15:00
Only successful business owners and managers go on to build successful businesses. One of the common traits these people have is the ability to share their ideas with others through an effective, thought provoking presentation. This skill can be learnt and when used will set you aside from those who are unable.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:12+02:00January 26th, 2016|Marketing|0 Comments