Portsmouth Businesses to Hear About GrowthAccelerator

Manufacturers around Portsmouth are being invited to an event to learn how HMG’s GrowthAccelerator programme can help them.  The event, organised jointly by Portsmouth City Council and Business Growth and Support, is to be held at the Portsmouth Enterprise Centre will be addressed by Pauline Rippon of UKTI; Mark Barber and Richard Cooper of GrowthAccelerator and Patrick Lee of MAS.

thev event is being held on 29th May and doors open at 2.30 pm.  for more information you can call Madeline Morton on 07425 133084 or email her on madeline@businessgrowthandsupport.co.uk.

Sc: Portsmouth News

Sc: MGBA

GrowthAccelorator

GrowthAccelerator is a new partnership between the government and the private sector designed to help growing businesses to identify and then overcome barriers to growth. Small and medium sized business owners and senior managers will get to work with world-class growth experts to help them achieve their potential. The programme focuses on areas such as:

• Creating new products and services.
• Developing new business opportunities.
• Effective marketing and sales.
• Improving management capability.

Businesses can find out if they qualify for support by entering their details on the new Midlands GrowthAccelerator page.

MGBA Supporting a new client

Today is a busy day.  My MGBA colleagues and I have signed a new client and, as always in these cases, there is loads to do.

This is a new start up business headed up by a guy who has considerable experience in his sector but needs help with the organisation and funding.

So emails are flashing back and forth as his cashflow and P&L develops. Conference calls are under way for funding and suppliers.  And finally we are building his sales / marketing plan too.

All this is happening pretty much on the hoof as sales are happening as we speak and the client is already installing product on his customers’ sites.

All terrific stuff and everyone working under pressure but having a great time.

Funding Partners; HSBC; Young Britain; BCRS

Business coaching and support: MGBA

Sc: Martin Parry

Business Twitter for Beginners

May I begin by saying, if you are an experienced Twitter adherent in your business, then this blog ain’t for you.  However if you are considering using Twitter to help market your business then perhaps I can help.

Firstly please don’t imagine that because Twitter is free then it’s use is without cost.  You can easily spend hours using to absolutely no business advantage.  That will make it pretty expensive!  So firstly be very clear about why you are using it and what you hope to achieve.  Remember SMART.  Twitter like everything else must have a measurable objective (ROI)

If you are interested, have a read of my article about ensuring you get a return on your social media activities. Click here.

However if you are looking for some really simple points remember when you are starting to use Twitter to market your business, read on…

• 70 Characters max.  Shorter Tweets are re-tweeted twice as often.
• Use attention words.  Words like WOW and TODAY ONLY grab attention
• Make tweets personal. This can mean funny. interesting, informative.  They are re-tweeted more and personalise your brand.
• Provide useful news.  Content that educates and informs is re-tweeted more often. Much more popular than simply hard-selling.
• Offer a deal. Tweets with deals are 16% re-tweeted 16% more.
• Tweet about upcoming events.  Builds a sense of anticipation.  Try news about an upcoming sale or exhibition or event/

Finally, don’t expect results immediately.  Twitter is a medium term tool and you will need to keep going to build up your following.

If you would like more information on using Twitter in your business, put your question in the comment box below or drop an email to Martin Parry

Sc: MGBA/UKBA/Martin Parry

9. Telemarketing

This is the ninth part of our extended article, “Getting more Business in 2013″.  To see the rest of this article, click here

This may not at first sight be something that you might consider. However note the title is  telemarketing not telesales. In telemarketing you can build
interest through a suitably qualified telephone call and then make an
appointment. Or you can get commitment to try/buy a sample, or agree to receive further information

If you are going to do this yourself get some information about best practice and use it. These are only some ideas that you can use to help revive your
business and develop your marketing activity. Whatever marketing you do make sure that you measure the results from each element of the activity so that you
can understand where to put your marketing spend in the future.

More useful information on this can be found in  Boosting Your Business, the house magazine of UKBA.  Why not click the link and have a look.

8. Directories

This is the eighth part of our extended article, “Getting more Business in 2013″.  To see the rest of this article, click here

•  There are a number of directories which serve your market: printed or online.
•  Research which ones suit your business and get a suitable entry reflecting you marketing messages.
•  Ensure where possible to get links to and from your entry to help build traffic to your site.

More useful information on this can be found in  Boosting Your Business, the house magazine of UKBA.  Why not click the link and have a look.

7. Newsletters

This is the seventh part of our extended article, “Getting more Business in 2013″.  To see the rest of this article, click here

• A newsletter can get across a lot more information to your prospects and customers.
• You can include industry news as well as company news, technical information as well as products offers etc.
• This will also build your image and credibility if you include others such as the thought leaders in your local business market, in your list.

A fine example of a useful newsletter is our own, Boosting Your Business, the house magazine of UKBA.  Why not click the link and have a look.

5. Websites

This is the fifth part of our extended article, “Getting more Business in 2013″.  To see the rest of this article, click here

Does your website work for you? Is it delivering your message(s) to the target audience? Here are a few ideas to keep your website in top condition.

• Review your home page to ensure that you talk about the benefits you can deliver rather than what you do?
•  Research key words to allow you to optimise your site so that it can be found when a prospect searches for those words.
•  Make maximum use of the tools that can be found (often for free) on the internet to maximise the effectiveness of this resource.

This article originally published in Boosting Your Business, the house magazine of UKBA

6. E_Marketing

This is the sixth part of our extended article, “Getting more Business in 2013″.  To see the rest of this article, click here

E-Marketing can be a very cost-effective way to deliver your message.  The technique covers a variety of activities to get to your target market. Here are a few simple tips to help you improve the performance of your e-marketing activities.

• Ensure you have all your customers email addresses.
•  Build up a database of prospects email addresses. This can be done either by buying an opt in list from a list broker or by building your database by capturing the details of visitors to your website.
• Send regular emails to these lists with latest information on your business.
• Remember it is illegal to send unsolicited emails to people or oraganisations with whom you have no previous commercial relationship.  If you need more infoprmation on this complete the comment box below or drop me an email to martin.parry@mgba.co.uk

This article originally published in Boosting Your Business, the house magazine of UKBA

4. Press Releases

This is the fourth part of our extended article, “Getting more Business in 2013″.  To see the rest of this article, click here

• Under this heading falls a wide range of activities that in general only costs your time. These include news items, case studies, and technical, business or trade articles, new product releases and so on. Often this activity is free!
• Firstly identify the journals, newspapers and trade magazines that you want your story to appear in. Then contact each of the editors by phone to discuss their requirements for style and any mechanical details they require although now it is rare for an editor not to be able to accept story and any pictures by email. Keep in touch with editors to become a ‘specialist’ to whom he can turn for industry quotes etc. Become the expert.
• Make the item news worthy.
•  Focus around the messages you want to deliver.
• You will be surprised the effect this will have on your customers and may have the opportunity to generate more prospects.
• Remember that there are many ezines now available so remember to submit your article to these also.

This article originally published in Boosting Your Business, the house magazine of UKBA