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by CarolS

Win £750 Worth of Design and Print Work with Ces Loftus

July 21, 2011 in Headline


Business Mum Ces Loftus is offering a great prize for one lucky winner.

To celebrate the launch of www.supportivebusinessmums.co.uk and www.biz-brand-buzz.co.uk Ces is giving away £750 worth of design and print. The print of business cards and flyers is being sponsored by Dorset Digital Print. Everyone who applies to win will be given a fantastic free promotional feature on www.supportivebusinessmums.co.uk

Ces has set up www.supportivebusinessmums.co.uk and www.biz-brand-buzz.co.uk in order to provide free promotion, give aways and advice on creating a brand buzz for small businesses in a cost effective way.

Ces Loftus (known as @Ces_Creatively on twitter) is a mum of 3 from Poole. In May 2006 her 4th son was still born at full term and she has overcome adversity to make a successful new cyber career.

Whether you have an existing business or a new venture you can choose any of the following: professionally designed logo, twitter page, facebook fan page, flyer design and print, business card design and print, website or blog design, banner design, ebooks, and more.

HOW TO ENTER:

Email Ces via ces@creativelyminded.co.uk and request an application form which will form the basis of a feature to promote your business on www.supportivebusinessmums.co.uk

All those who enter will be sent details of further opportunities to create a Buzz for your business through Biz Brand Buzz and Supportive Business Mums.

Closing date for entries 22nd August 2011.

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by CarolS

Setting Your Advertising Budget.

February 15, 2011 in About ACEInspire, Featured


It is easy to overspend on advertising, and hard to predict how well it will work for you. A little careful preparation will ensure that you make the most of your advertising budget, however small.

Decide an approximate annual budget for advertising. To do this, request some media packs from magazines and newspapers that you might like to advertise in. In a media pack, the rate card will show you the standard rate for advertisement. You should aim to negotiate a discount of up to 50 per cent on this rate. Work out where you would like to advertise, add it up, and then revise your list of targets to meet what you can afford.

When planning advertising, ask yourself whether your target audience will read your advert? If you are a high street business and want local customers, do not be tempted by advertising in national publications if a local publication will reach your potential customers at a fraction of the cost. Look at the magazine or paper yourself and see where your advert would fit in. Will it stand out, or will it be lost amongst thousands of others?

Once you have made your list of targets, check out deadlines and get an advert drawn up. If you have an advert all ready, you will be able to take advantage of last minute rates. Try to include a striking image and memorable logo. Make sure the advertisement highlights your business’s unique and special points. Check that the advert will look good in black and white and colour – you may want different versions and a range of sizes. The media packs will tell you what format different publications require. As a general guideline a PDF or JPEG will be acceptable, and the higher the resolution the better. Aim for a minimum of 300dpi (dots per inch).

Negotiating the best price

Once you have your advert drawn up, call shortly before the deadline and see if there is any space available. Do not sound too keen, and ask what would be the ‘best price’. If you don’t get the price you want, you can play it cool. Say that you will think about it, once they have your contact details, and see if they call you back with a better offer. Of course, this strategy means that you risk missing the slot, but there is always next month’s issue

Visit our ACE Inspire shop for our full range of Business Tools

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by CarolS

How to Run a Competition on Your Blog.

February 10, 2011 in Business Blogging, Featured, Social Media


Running a competition on your blog can be a great way to reward current readers and attract new ones. Some people shy away from running competitions as they think it is complicated but in actually fact it’s quite simple.

Here is our guide to running a competition.

The prize

First you need to have a prize, this can be something bought by yourself but more often it’s something you’ve been given to review or a product you’ve been offered to giveaway as a prize. Don’t forget to disclose if your prize is coming from a third party, you’ll probably want to promote that company or service anyway in return for the prize.

How can people enter?

Decide what the reader must do to enter, popular choices include answering a question, commenting on the post, signing up to your newsletter, retweeting your post on Twitter, writing a post about your competition. Decide what you want from the competition, is it more readers? Comments? Subscribers to your newsletter? Once you’ve decided act accordingly.

Who can enter?

Decide whether your prize is open to local, national or international residents. If your prize is coming from a third party ask them where they’ll be able to ship to. Always say who can enter, even if it’s open to everyone.

End date

Decide on a date for the competition to close and let your readers know.

How will a winner be picked?

Decide how a winner will be picked, a correct answer, amount of entries or random. Most online competitions are drawn at random and most people favour using a random number generator, search in   Google to find one.

Email winner

Email the winner, I usually allow 48 hours for them to email me back and claim their prize.

Want to know more about blogging for business? Visit our AceInspire shop for more resources.

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by CarolS

How Market Research Can Work For you

January 23, 2011 in Featured, Online Marketing


When you are working out your plans for promotion, it helps if you have a clear idea about who you are trying to reach. If you have an existing business, think about your current customers and those who you would like to attract to purchase from your business.

If you are just starting up, you may need to use a bit of imagination to work out who your potential customers are, but with a little market research you can find out a lot of information.

A little research now can save you hundreds or thousands of pounds in the long run. Test your market before you invest money in your business, and you will know how to best target your funds.

Whether you are in business already or just at the planning stages, a survey is a useful tool to help you pin down the right groups of people to aim your promotion activities at. You can ask people about your products or services and get feedback n whether they might buy, and if not, why not.

For more advice on promoting your business visit our ACE Inspire shop for our full range of Business Tools.

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by CarolS

How To Write A Press Release

January 13, 2011 in Featured, Social Media


A press release is a newsworthy story about your business that you submit to newspapers, radio, television or magazines. If the media is interested in your story, your press release may make it into in their publication.

You need to make sure that there is a story that will grab people’s attention, so only issue a press release when you have something interesting to say. All releases need a ‘hook’ or ‘angle’, something that will appeal to editors and give your story a good chance of gaining coverage. Journalists are always on the lookout for stories that will interest the readers of their paper or magazine.

Press releases follow a standard format. This makes it easy for the journalist to see what the story is about at a glance. It also means that, once you have a template to follow, it is simple for you to fill in your story too.

The first sentence of the press release needs to instantly capture the journalist’s attention, and sum up the story. Focus on a problem you are solving for readers, and make sure you have a brief but attention-grabbing headline.

Use the first paragraph to answer all the important questions like who, what, where, when, why and how. Get vital information in first, so if the journalist stops reading after the first paragraph, he or she has a good idea the story. Then, back up your claims with facts and statistics in the following paragraphs.

Press releases – dos and don’ts

  • Use facts, and cut back on adjectives. Always use the present tense or the release can sound like old news, and write in the third person (he or she, instead of I). Include short quotes, in italics, highlighting new information that is not mentioned elsewhere in the press release. Write in the style of the magazine you are targeting as editors may just take your words and put them straight on the page.
  • If you are targeting different media sectors with the same story, write multiple releases rather than issuing one ‘catch all’ release. Keep press releases to one or two sides of A4, double-spaced to give the editor room to scribble.
  • Double spacing is less critical, however, if you are emailing a release. Use a clear modern font like Ariel, at least 10pt in size.
  • Make paragraphs short for easy reading and align the text to the left. If you are sending your release by post, use A4 letterhead paper, and number your pages 1 of 2, 2 of 2, etc.
  • Use only one side of the paper. If your release is more than one page, write ‘more’ at the bottom.
  • Finish the press release with ### ENDS ###.
  • Make sure you include ‘Notes to Editors’. This should include your phone number, address, company name, fax number, email and website.
  • Include the hours you are available at the listed phone number and add an after-hours phone number, if you can. You should also state whether you have photos available

For more advice on promoting your business visit our ACE Inspire shop for our full range of Business Tools.

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by CarolS

Different Types of Promotion for Your Business

December 13, 2010 in email marketing, Featured, Online Marketing


You need to plan a range of activities to promote your business. In order to promote it effectively, you need to start thinking about it as early as possible.

I’ve put together a short guide to the different types of promotion available to you.

Leaflets

Draw up a target list for places to distribute your leaflets — stroll around places to see where your target audience hang out. As an example, depending on who you want to contact you could leave leaflets in coffee shops, business centres, toddler groups. Visit a new location each week, and remember to go back to places and see if you need to restock.

Displays and demonstrations

Do you have a topic you could talk about or a skill to show off? Would your business make an interesting subject for a talk?

Newsletters

Plan your newsletters for the year. Use a program such as Constant Contact to send out a regular update on what you are up to. Aim at sending out something bi-monthly or every month to let people know about special offers, updates and events.

Articles

Write some tips or an article. If you have some spare time use your expertise to write some top ten tips. Send this out to relevant publications and websites.

Weblinks

Browse the internet to work out which websites are read by your target audience. See if you can submit your link to the relevant websites, or join and post on their forums.

Local papers

Buy your local paper and have a look at what they cover. See if you can plan in some activities which will be of interest to them, and of course, remember to send them press releases about what you have planned.

Be a case study

Find websites where journalists place media requests – many journalists advertise when they need case studies and you might be able to get some good coverage for you and your business by volunteering. Search on ‘media requests’ on the internet, and check out chat forums.

Local networking

Attend networking events. Enquire about your local business groups, Chamber of Commerce, etc and get to know other local businesses. Your local enterprise organisation may be able to help you find local groups.

Network online

There are many online business directories and forums. Subscribe for useful email newsletters, the opportunity to list your business in their directory and to ‘chat’ with other business owners and share and solve problems.

Online promotion

Look at the Adwords programmes offered by Google and other search engines and directories. You create a small text advert which appears when people use certain search terms. Swap website links and promotional materials with complementary businesses

Events

Plan an event and press release to celebrate your business’s anniversary.

Incentives

Develop incentives for customers to hand out your promotional materials and encourage their friends to buy from you.

Competitions

Enter competitions for your business such as start up awards. Search on the internet or ask your local enterprise centre if they know of any awards.

For more advice on promoting your business visit our ACE Inspire shop for our full range of Business Tools.

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