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Put simply, business awards are recognitions bestowed upon your business for being excellent, and securing one works better than any other PR strategy. Besides creating great business prospects for you company, these awards also make employees more motivated. In order to bag these awards, a company has to convincingly highlight how it is the best in the industry. The following tips can be used to successfully create an impressive business awards entry.
The first step towards winning any business awards is to enter them. This may sound like a cakewalk, but nominations often elude even highly reputed companies. Therefore, judicious choice of award category is important, and so is submission of a strong and convincing case for entry.
Once you have entered your name for one of the awards, you have to be serious about winning the award and have to do everything accordingly. No doubt that being modest is a positive trait, but it doesn t work if you are eyeing a business award. As explained at the business excellence awards site, to win the award, you have to engage in effective self-promotion and focus on the strengths of your business.
The next important thing to do for winning business awards is to understand what the judges want and accordingly write your nomination entry. In order to achieve this objective, you will have to first figure out who the jury members are and what backgrounds do they come from. Next ensure that you read and follow all the instructions given in the participation pack of the business awards. The entry should also be coherently drafted, and it should mention all the factors that will keep your business one step ahead of your competitors. Go over to corporate identity london for ideas on how to make your company look more attractive.
Although there are other steps involved in winning a business award, the guidelines provided above will be a great help for you to cross the first hurdle of submitting a potentially winning entry.
I’m going to do this review in reverse and tell you right now that Cunningly Clever Marketing by Andrew Wood is a must buy. Anything you need to know about marketing is in this book and I am shocked that these books are still in stock in Amazon. As of this writing they say there are only two left but more are on the way.
Now on to the review of the book. I got asked to read this book by an associate of mine. He had received a copy of the book for free by the people who actually run the Cunningly Clever Marketing operation. They asked him to write a full review of it and put it on his website to generate interest. Before he posted the evaluation he wrote on the website that he maintains, he wanted me to take a look at the book from and see what I thought about it. Well I read the book and will be shocking him by posting a review of the book on my website before he gets it on his! First person to have the content on their website gets the most points right?
Anyway, the book is amazing. I’ve read a lot of marketing books from all of the greats. Books like Ogilvy on Advertising, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding and The Book of Gossage; they all set the standard which all new internet marketing books are judged against. Well, add a new book to that list because Cunningly Clever Marketing deserves its rightful place right next to David Ogilvy and the rest of the Marketing Legends.
Why is this book so fantastic? Well for one it takes all of the marketing strategies that have worked in the past and puts them into individual small chapters that are extremely easy to read and understand. Literally almost every chapter in this book is no more than 2 or 3 pages long at most.
Another reason this book is great is the writing style of Andrew Wood. The book is self published so there are spelling mistakes like most self published titles, but Andrew’s writing style flows well and it is like the book is actually speaking to you. When I finished reading this marketing book I felt like I spent a day in a hospital and had an IV in me dripping pure marketing information.
Andrew Wood has definitely earned the title of “Marketing Legend” and everyone who is in the profession of marketing or advertising needs to read this book because this internet marketing book has just become standard reading criteria. This book will not only be of assistance to people who are already in the advertising industry, but also people who run a local businesses or really any other type of company. So what are you all reading this for? Go to Amazon, order the book, and get reading and using the remarkable marketing ideas within this book!
What are the things you can learn by conducting effective market research?
Know your customers – Market research will help you better understand your customers in a number of ways including demographic information such as their age, gender and geographic spread. The better you know your customer the easier it is to fine tune your product or service towards the target market.
Know your target market - Who exactly are your existing customers and where do they live? Does your service or product appeal to specific age group? Who are your potential customers and where do they live?
Know your competition – Market Research will help you measure your service compared to others. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your organization and are you improving in the right areas?
Products and services - Do you have the products or services that people want? Is what you offer value for money? How do your company’s services and products compare to those of your competitors? Can you, do you, should you deliver?
Ease of doing business – Do your customers find it easy to deal with you and when they visit your store and/or website do they find what they want? Is there sufficient advice and assistance on hand? Do you make it easy for your customers to buy? Are your employees properly trained, helpful, knowledgeable and available?
Marketing – Is your marketing reaching the right people and is the marketing message clear and effective. Which are the least effective and what are the most effective marketing channels?
Is your marketing message understood? Does the marketing material properly represent your brand? Do you advertise through the right channels? Are you reaching your target audience?
With the power of the Internet it is now very easy to conduct market research using one of the many online survey software sites that make conducting surveys and collating good market research intelligence quick, easy and extremely cost effective.
What are the things you can learn if you conduct effective market research?
Know your customers – Market research will help you better understand your customers in a number of ways including demographic information such as their age, gender and geographic spread. The better you know your customer the easier it is to fine tune your product or service towards the target market.
Know your target market - Who exactly are your existing customers and where do they live? Does your product or service appeal to specific age groups? Who are your potential customers and where do they live?
Know your competition – Market Research will help you measure your service compared to others. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your business and are you improving in the areas that customers demand?
Products and services - Do you have the products or services that people want? Is what you offer value for money? How do your company’s products and services match up to that of your competitors? If you have a product can you, do you, should you deliver directly to your customer?
Ease of doing business – Do your customers find it easy to deal with you and when they visit your store and/or website do they find what they want? Is there sufficient advice and assistance on hand? Do people find it easy to buy from you? Are all your staff properly trained, helpful, knowledgeable and available?
Marketing – Is your marketing reaching the right people and is the marketing message clear and effective. Which of the marketing channels that are available to you are effective and which ones are proving ineffective?
Is the marketing message understood? Does your marketing material accurately represent your brand? Do you use the right promotion channels? Are you reaching your target audience?
With the power of the Internet it is now very easy to conduct market research using one of the many online survey software sites that make conducting surveys and collating good market research intelligence quick, easy and extremely cost effective.
Good customer service is the life blood of any business. Although new customers are important good customer service will help generate customer loyalty and repeat business. With each satisfied customer your business is likely to win many more customers through recommendations and remember, if you are not taking care of your customers, your competition will.
Online customer satisfaction surveys will help you not only identify problem areas but will also demonstrate to your customers that you care and are proactive in looking for ways to improve the service that you provide.
Objective - As a first step decide what the main objectives of the survey are, in that way you will be able to retain focus and find it easier to decide what questions to ask.
Analysis - Once the survey has been completed consider how you will analyse the answers.
Keep in mind that ‘closed’ questions (where a respondent is asked to choose from a limited number of responses) are much easier to analyze than ‘open’ questions (where the respondent can reply in anyway they want).
Much will depend on the predicted volume of respondents, the higher the volume the more important it is to have an easy method of analyzing the results.
Opportunity – As well as obtaining valuable market research data keep in mind that customer surveys are also a good way to advertise areas of your service that your customers may not be aware of.
After you have drafted your survey read through the survey from a market research view point and check that you are asking the right questions in the right way and that with the feedback information you will be able to properly analyze the data allowing you to make informed decisions.
Then, from a marketing view point read through the survey, confirm that you have phrased each question so that every opportunity has been taken to promote your business?
The ideal question will perform the following three functions:-
For example:- Do you find the in-store baby changing facilities useful?
In asking this question the store will hopefully not only receive useful feedback on the baby changing facility but they will also promote the store as being child-friendly even beyond the customers who actually require the facility.
Warts and all – to benefit most from a customer survey you need to be prepared to accept criticism.
A customer satisfaction survey should be designed to highlight problems so that they can be addressed; regular customer satisfaction will prevent complacency and will also give early warning on where your competitors initiatives may be losing you business.
Although it is a given that each business is likely to have specific and unique factors that are important in providing good customer services there are common areas that are relevant to all businesses be they a physical store, online internet store or a service industry. The following are key areas to providing good customer service.
Communication - Are you confident that you make it easy for your customers to contact you?
When customers telephone are their calls answered quickly; are their enquiries about products or services handled properly? Good businesses will make every effort to ensure that whatever the customers query it is resolved by the right person, quickly, politely and fairly.
If a problem is not resolvable immediately do you promise to respond in a given time period and do you deliver on your promise?
Use a customer satisfaction survey to ensure that all your staff are considered by your customers to be courteous, helpful and knowledgeable.
Location – Are you doing everything you can to ensure that your customers find it easy to visit you, if a physical store, does it have good access and is it conveniently located?
Making it pleasant, making it easy - For an internet business it is important to ensure that your website is aesthetically pleasing and easy to use.
Regardless of the store being a bricks and mortar or purely online web based store, is the store properly laid out and can your customers find what they need and is there sufficient detailed information and help on hand to explain how a particular product works?
The right quality products – You should not only measure the quality of the service that you provide but you should also monitor that the products and services that you market are what the customer wants and closely match their expectations.
Value for money – Cheap or expensive is rarely a good measure, value for money is.
Do your current customers consider your services as value for money, if not, why not?
Speed and attention – The majority of customers will want to be dealt with quickly but attentively.
Are you doing everything you can to avoid delays?
Customers like to be treated as individuals, how do you treat your customers? Attention is appreciated but it needs to be followed up with a quick and satisfactory resolution to the query.
Demographics and Specific issues – Take the opportunity to profile your customers, for example what is their age group and where do they live?
By understanding your customers more, the better your chances of correctly targeting your business.
Allow customers to state any concerns that they may have and the opportunity to provide their contact details so that any problems that are raised can be followed up.
Once the survey has been completed analyse the results.
Trends – Identify specific and common areas where the service needs improving.
Ask yourself if any criticism is valid and is there anything that can be done to resolve or minimise the problem?
Training – Are the staff properly trained and do they have sufficient knowledge?
Where employee training programmes have been implemented have they made a positive contribution to the business and improved the customer service?
Follow-up – If a customer has raised a specific issue through completing a survey ensure that they are contacted and that their complaint is properly addressed.
Do not waste an opportunity to resolve a problem and keep a customer.
Continuously Monitor - Make changes based on the survey results and then re-measure by issuing follow up surveys.
If you are interested in tracking customer satisfaction and would like to see a sample survey for a store that demonstrates some of the above advice please view the following example that can be used as a customer satisfaction survey template.
For any business that wants to offer products or services that are focused and well targeted market research is essential. Business decisions that are based on good intelligence and good market research can minimise risk and pay dividends. By making market research part and parcel of the business process and conducting market research throughout the life cycle of a product or service market research will bring the following benefits:-
Market research brings considerable benefits and it is perhaps surprising how few businesses invest sufficient resources to gather good intelligence that will help them improve business. Many may think that market research takes too much time and effort but that is just not the case anymore as through the power of the Internet online survey software is readily available and vital market research data can now be gathered in a quick, simple and cost effective manner.
Designing surveys is easy; or is it? The reality is that writing surveys is easy but writing surveys that will be effective is a little bit more difficult. The following are twenty tips that if followed will help you with your survey questionnaire design and help you write effective surveys.
1. What is the survey’s purpose?
Surveys are conducted for many reasons. By correctly phrasing the questions and structuring the answers surveys can be used in a multitude of ways and for a variety of reasons. When designing a survey do not lose sight of its purpose.
2. Give the survey a good title
The survey title is key and an opportunity to instantly summarise a survey’s objective and grab the attention of invited respondents. Respondents are going to invest time in completing the survey so make them feel that their investment is worthwhile.
3. Don’t make the survey any longer than it needs to be
Every question that is asked should be asked for a reason. Concentrate on the ‘need to know’ questions and minimise ‘nice to know’ information.
4. Use plain English, maintain consistency, avoid jargon and acronyms and don’t ask questions that may result in ambiguous answers
Be careful when wording the question. If a question can be interpreted in more ways than one then there is a risk that any analysis of the survey results will be worthless or at the very least suspect.
5. Avoid long questions
Use succinct sentences wherever possible. Long questions tend to cause respondents discomfort and can lead to a higher level of incidents where respondents abandon a survey.
6. Ask one question at a time
Avoid confusing the respondent with a question like ‘Do you like tennis and golf?’
7. Avoid influencing the answer
Avoid loading the question. ‘Should irresponsible shop keepers who sell tobacco to minors be prosecuted?’ is likely to have no value.
8. Ensure that the answer format used allows the respondent to answer the question being asked
Ensure that the respondent is able to answer how they really feel or they may abandon the survey. As a last resort consider the benefit of including a “Can’t say”, “Don’t know” or similar response option.
9. At the same time that you compile the survey consider, when the survey is complete, how the compiled data is going be analysed
If a question is asked that allows a free text open ended response appreciate that such information is likely to be difficult to score and/or summarised. Consider grouping answers. For example “Indicate your length of service?” - ‘less than 3 year’, ‘between 3 and 8 years’ and ‘more than 8′.
10. Ensure that the questionnaire flows
Group the questions into clear categories as this makes the task of completing the survey easier for the participants.
11. Target your respondents
You may want to target a specific group, in others a cross section. If you can’t easily control the respondents consider including questions/answers that will allow you to filter out respondents that don’t match your target profile.
12. Allow the respondent to expand or make comments
By allowing respondents to make additional comments you will increase their satisfaction level and the comments will also give valuable feedback on the specific questions and/or the survey as a whole. Remember that for large sample collections that free text open ended responses may be difficult to analyse.
13. If you are conducting a confidential survey ensure that your pledge for confidentiality is upheld
If you have guaranteed the respondents that the survey is confidential ensure that the individual data is not to be shared with anyone and the information is not going to be used for any other purpose. Confidentiality must be maintained and any identifying information deleted after the survey is complete.
14. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of allowing respondents to be anonymous or identifiable
If your respondents are to be anonymous then appreciate that you will be unable to follow up or match “pre” or “post” surveys. There are advantages to allowing people to remain anonymous for example it would allow people to respond without possible peer pressure.
15. Consideration carefully the best response format
Being consistent with the format used for responses is good practice. When creating your survey keep in mind that when analysing the data radio buttons are easier to analyse than check boxes that offer the respondent multiple responses. If a radio response can be used do not use a check box.
16. Give the respondent an estimate as to how much time the survey will take
Respondent drop out can occur if the survey appears to be a stream of never ending questions. It is good practice to give an indication as to how long the survey is likely to take so the respondents can choose the best time to complete the survey.
17. Inform the respondents of the survey end date
Encourage your invited respondents to complete the survey as soon as possible but advise the respondents of the survey’s end date so that they have the opportunity to schedule the necessary time.
18. Trial the survey
Before publishing a live survey publish a small pilot survey to check for questions that are ambiguous or confusing and to ensure that the survey is aesthetically pleasing.
19. Before publishing the survey check the survey several times
Check more than once that the survey is grammatically correct and makes sense. If possible get someone else to proof read the survey before you publish, if you are unable to do this then take a break before checking again.
20. Thank your respondents
To complete surveys respondents have to devote their time and should be thanked at the end of completing the survey or in a follow up letter. You may even want to consider incentives such as a reward of some sort.
Getting started is easy and there are many survey software websites to choose from.
There are plenty of online marketing consultants and they compete in service quality, number and professionalism levels. In fact, it is totally understandable why online marketing has gained such preeminence when most shop owners and manufacturers have designed web sites to promote they products. What online marketing consultants do is to provide Internet marketing services ensuring that your web site comes first in search engine ranking guaranteeing success and profit for those who hire them.
Marketing Reviews
Most online marketing consultants provide web design and development of their clients’ web sites giving them a custom or semi-custom look as it best fits the clients’ wishes. This custom design also includes search engine optimization which is to trigger lucrative business results due to increased web site visitor traffic. There are even specializations on domains specific the various online marketing consultants: thus, some service mortgages, others banking, real estate or traveling.
Without the services provided by online marketing consultants the competition between businesses carried out on the Internet would not be so keen. Moreover, we all tend to be under the impression that the more extensive the experience of the online marketing consultants, the more serious the guarantee of success. The job of online marketing consultants is to come up with the right Internet marketing strategy to make sure the business stays up. Just as strategizing and planning are required on the regular market, a similar function is brought by the Internet.
The Internet has significantly simplified transactions, saving time and opening the door to more clients, hence, business owners have two options: either to become IM products specialists themselves or hire the professionals for the marketing job. Always choose to work with online marketing consultants that are realistic in promises and estimations. Without proper communication and a job extremely well done, hiring specialists of this kind may have no results at all.
Good Internet marketing reviews not only conduct online business marketing for your business but they also analyze how your business is marketed and what results this brings along. User research and web site statistics will therefore turn into important tools to increase site traffic. Therefore, permanent services are necessary, and the use of a long-term contract with good marketing consultants will do your company a lot of good.
