Business 2012 ... let’s get internet marketing!

Who says there is no such thing as a free lunch? I love a good free event and free learning and so I hopped over to @biz2012, which as Richard Branson put it, really was ‘a free lunch’ event.



My day in the O2 began with a talk from Nigel Botterill “The man who’s launched eight million pound+ businesses in the last 7 years” If you’ve not heard of him, you seriously have to check him out! He’s basically a business genie! He popped out a loud Yorkshire lamp and granted us 3 (ok 9) wishes of business wisdom... Click here for his book. And read on to receive your wishes....

1. Think BIG, this puts you in a minority with less competition as most think small so Fuck It and think BIG. 80% of your competition is not mega successful so they are obviously doing it wrong! So don’t compromise on your big plans.

“Getting and Keeping customers is the single most important thing for your business” so of course Nigel devotes 90 mins every week day morning of purely doing just that. If you are to be a super successful business owner, it’s not your skill (what the business does) alone that will make it happen. You have to become an expert in marketing and selling your business.

“All super successful business owners are experts in marketing and selling”

2. Don’t just get ready, TAKE ACTION. Know which bit of your marketing works and which doesn’t. Call Tracking Numbers for instance (citynumbers.co.uk) mean you can track which marketing drove your customer to call you. Google Pay-per –Click, SEO and google places are all must haves.

3. “Stop the Sabotage”, because nobody cares about your business as much as you do, (ever), then staff can often unwittingly damage/ restrict your business- check they are doing their full job to their full extent as this will lead to return / increased custom.

4. Make a premium version of your product available to your customers ‘standard’ or ‘professional’ pack. With different levels of pricing, 20% will go for a premium version

5. The most valuable asset in your business is the database! It’s your job not the customers to remind them to do business with you – send emails everyday to targeted groups and you can be sure of sales. (as another speaker pointed out, for every £1 spent on email marketing, you can expect a £30 return on investment)

6. It’s all about keeping in touch, repeat marketing is much easier to get than new business- personalised post cards, greeting cards, emails and texts (This is the part Nigel mentions his one of his businesses ‘ Dynamite Sales System’) please note a 35% response rate to marketing is insanely good!

7. Deadlines! If I had to do X by Y or else I’d die could I get it done? – Treat all deadlines like this and if the answers yes then do it so you don’t die!!

8. The most important thing you can do for your business is learn. What you don’t know costs you money. – So get tuition and learn how to be a business owner. Consume lots of knowledge and commit to learning – replicate stuff that works! Keep up with new ways of making that business successful.

9. The recession is actually the perfect time to start a business! So don’t listen to all the doom and gloom!

Nigel runs Entrepreneurs Circle events and in May he is hosting a 4 day event The ultimate guide to a million pound business. You can also read his book as mentioned above!