If you have spent any time working in marketing or studying marketing, you will be aware of the 4 Ps (Price, Product, Place, Promotion).

(And yes I know, the 4 Ps went out with the dinosaurs.  But you should hear me out).

A sure fire way to lose credibility as a ‘marketing consultant’ (I use the term loosely) is to start spouting the 4 Ps.  Or better yet, the more recent 7Ps, or 8Ps… I think there were eventually up to 13 Ps, but I think they included words like ‘Pretty Pictures’ and ‘Potato Peeler’ (or maybe not).  Whatever number of Ps there are now, the original 4  just aint fashionable any more. Read more

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising gets a lot of coverage on the web, so I’m not going to try and repeat (or dispute) any of that advice.  Here are just a few tips for companies considering PPC (specifically Google’s Adwords) who have either had a bad experience in the past or have never tried it.  Before I start, this article assumes you have installed Google Analytics and set your goal conversions so you can track where new enquiries come from (if that was double-dutch to you, let me know and I’ll explain). Read more

I’m writing this post because I’m now starting to lose count of the number of smaller businesses that have commissioned an agency to create a new website and have then ultimately been unhappy with the outcome.   It seems to be happening all over the place.

The overarching reason for this can actually be boiled down to one thing:  The quality of the new website is directly influenced by the client’s knowledge of building websites and website strategy. Read more

This is an article about honesty.  Specifically, it’s about being honest with yourself and with the way your customers see your business.  Even more specifically, I’m talking about your business’ ‘Silent Truths’.

Silent truths such as…

• Retailers have customers who visit their stores to look at products, knowing full well that some of those customers will then go home and buy those products online to save money.
• Newsagents have customers who will read the magazines in the shop to find out specific pieces of information but will have no intention of buying the magazines.
• Cinemas have customers who will take their own food and drink to avoid paying the higher prices at the counter.  Read more

The other week I took the train into London and while on my local station platform I bought a take-away cup of tea (in a paper cup).  It was only £1.10 which was a very reasonable price considering the tea shop has a captive audience of commuters.

The problem came when I asked for an insulated sleeve to go over the paper cup.  The answer was, ‘we don’t provide them, the owner says they are too expensive considering the low price we charge for tea’.

So I, and others around me, were left juggling our cups of tea from hand to hand.  Except for a couple of wiser commuters who had grabbed handfuls of serviettes to wrap around the cups. Read more