Page 18 Mojacarmagazine.com Issue 14
Steve Homer is a business consultant with in excess of 36 years involvement in corporate business. He’s worked in the banking and finance industry, manufacturing, catering, market research and run his own corporate management training/consultancy business for in excess of 17 years with a client base the likes of Coutts, Citibank, Nat West, CSC Computer Sciences, IPC Media, and very many others. He’s travelled extensively, has lived in Singapore, UAE, France and Spain apart from the UK, has lectured throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Steve has just returned to the area following a spell in UAE as the CEO of a successful research agency, operating in 17 countries with a full-time staff of 125 and 700 part-time. In the meantime, when time permits, Steve is also a professional photographer and website developer.
If you are many of the British business owners based in Spain you’ll probably be going through a stage of re-evaluating where exactly your income is going to come from to tide you through the winter months. With the continued economic depression in the UK and Spain and the reduced tourist traffic, many businesses rely on the expats who have moved to Spain for a better life. The continuous fluctuations in the £ v € and the need for cautious spending even the expats aren’t spending as much as they used to, and of course this makes predicting your income very difficult indeed.
There is therefore a need for a drastic re-valuation of not only your business, but specifically how you market your business. There is no overnight answer to this except the harder your work on it and the more you engage with your prospects and existing customers then the greater the rewards. This isn’t about sitting back and placing an advert in the local periodical to be seen by only those that bother to glance through it week on week or month on month. This is about ‘true’ and ‘active engagement’ with your audience and with your prospective audience. To what do I refer? Social media marketing.
Oh, you’ll have heard all the hype about Facebook and Twitter and similar networks and the majority of you will say “It’s for the kids, it’s not for me!” But guess what? You couldn’t be further from the truth! Twitter alone is fast becoming the biggest and most effective small business tool globally. Picture the scene; you own a bar or restaurant and you are competing with very many others in your town, some better than yours and others not do good. The typical approach to marketing your bar is word of mouth (if your
If you are many of the British business owners based in Spain you’ll probably be going through a stage of re-evaluating where exactly your income is going to come from to tide you through the winter months. With the continued economic depression in the UK and Spain and the reduced tourist traffic, many businesses rely on the expats who have moved to Spain for a better life. The continuous fluctuations in the £ v € and the need for cautious spending even the expats aren’t spending as much as they used to, and of course this makes predicting your income very difficult indeed.
There is therefore a need for a drastic re-valuation of not only your business, but specifically how you market your business. There is no overnight answer to this except the harder your work on it and the more you engage with your prospects and existing customers then the greater the rewards. This isn’t about sitting back and placing an advert in the local periodical to be seen by only those that bother to glance through it week on week or month on month. This is about ‘true’ and ‘active engagement’ with your audience and with your prospective audience. To what do I refer? Social media marketing.
Oh, you’ll have heard all the hype about Facebook and Twitter and similar networks and the majority of you will say “It’s for the kids, it’s not for me!” But guess what? You couldn’t be further from the truth! Twitter alone is fast becoming the biggest and most effective small business tool globally. Picture the scene; you own a bar or restaurant and you are competing with very many others in your town, some better than yours and others not do good. The typical approach to marketing your bar is word of mouth (if your
offering isn’t right, then people won’t come back, but that’s another story in itself), adverts in a newspaper or magazine and maybe, just maybe you have a website that frankly little or no-one visits. Others of you will have A boards or some such board advertising outside your premises to attract local passers-by, and one or two of the more affluent or desperate, depending upon your take, will revert to radio. Then there is the good old flier/leaflet drop. Some leaflets more glamorous than others. Some knocked up on a word document and printed and photocopied. Others placed in the hands of graphic designers and printers at an eye-watering cost (when you think of the return on investment!). Cast your eye back over the above list and only word and mouth involves any engagement of any sort with your prospective and current customer base.
The use of the fast growing social media marketing through a social media network such as Twitter allows you to, over time
The use of the fast growing social media marketing through a social media network such as Twitter allows you to, over time
· build a ‘following’ of locally based customers
· build a ‘following’ of new prospects (even in say the UK who will be visiting your resort shortly)
· ‘engage’ with your very own community
· reduce your marketing costs
· get your message out to the community 20 times per day, if you wish, all for no extra cost
· drive new visitors to your website
· advertise your offerings, specials, etc
· increase your turnover
Does this Twitter and Facebook lark work? Answer: only if you put the time and effort into it! Participate, participate, and participate!
Whilst it isn’t a pre-requisite, having your own ‘decent’ website is the start. They don’t have to be expensive, but it tells your audience, “I care enough about my business that I wish to invest in promoting it!” Why would any business not wish to promote their offering to the world? I find it incredible that this happens.
Having a website however is only the start. It’s no good having a website if no-one can find it and no-one knows it exists! Promote, promote and promote. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is complex but with some study or a helping hand then you can soon make in-roads to spreading the word. Will you ever get Google Ranking No.1 with your site? I doubt it, but that doesn’t mean to say that you cannot develop a good and regular following. Investing in promoting your website is ore important that investing in building your site. There are plenty of free sites available for you to start with….it just needs research and time investment on your part. If you don’t have the expertise nor the time, then seek professional help…it’s available.
