Celebration of New Business Start-Ups

Events in 17 libraries throughout the UK were held on the 20^th September, celebrating Start-up Day, in collaboration with Santander, and once again proved to be a huge success.

More than 1,000 people attended across all locations, welcoming entrepreneurs for fully funded talks, workshops and advice sessions.  I was delighted to be invited to present a workshop on ‘How to Network on LinkedIn – Get Connected and Grow Your Business’, and here I have compiled my top tips from the day, so that you can continue your start-up journey.

1. LinkedIn Profile – get it complete and up to date!

Building connections starts with people seeing all that you have to offer and those with 100% complete profiles are 40 times more likely open to opportunities through LinkedIn.

2. You’re more experienced than you think!

Think broadly about all your experience, including summer jobs, internships, volunteer work, and any student organisations you were involved with.  You never know what might catch someone’s eye.

3. Ask for recommendations

A recommendation from a client or customer is a great way to show that you are the expert in your field and that you’ve done a great job.  I also recommend that you ask permission for these to be used in other areas of your marketing, such as website, brochures, email footers etc. – don’t just keep them on LinkedIn.

4. Use your inbox

Networking on LinkedIn doesn’t mean reaching out cold to strangers. Start building your LinkedIn network and connect to those people you know, like and trust, in the first instance.  The trick is to then see who they know so you can ask your trusted connection for an introduction, and guess what, they’ll be much more likely to help if you already know them.

5. Default Messages -V- Customised Messages

It’s an absolute must that you tailor your LinkedIn request, let’s look at why…

“I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn”

OR

“Hi XX, it was great to meet you at XX last week. It is good to see you on LinkedIn and thought we could stay in touch?”

What would you prefer to receive in your inbox?  I’d certainly prefer the message where they have certainly taken their time to be interested – try it for yourself!

6. Join in the crowd

LinkedIn Groups can help you form new connections, start with any alumni groups, find other organisations and any associations that you belong to, or groups who are relevant to your industry sector/expertise.

7. Follow-up

Take the relationship off LinkedIn – offer to meet for a coffee or schedule a “virtual coffee” – the only way for connections to get to know, like and trust you.

Summary

• Make sure your profile is 100% complete and updated, include your experience.
• Ask for recommendations, they are important to show off your great work!
• Connect to people you know, like and trust.
• Always customise your connection request or messages.
• Join in the crowd – look up those groups of interest.
• Follow-up!  Like any relationship it’s all about keeping in touch and following up.

If you’d like to chat about any LinkedIn training requirements, bespoke to your company either on a one to one or group basis, please contact me on 07752 539719 or 0161 826 7181 or email info@bizwizuk.co.uk.

By Ann Davies, Director

How to create a plan!

A good marketing plan should define how you are going to market your products or services.  It should also include your aims and objectives and how you are going to implement them.

However, a marketing plancan be very wide-ranging and can include anything from a 10-year vision to how to increase sales in one product or service over the next two years.

With that in mind, here’s our guide to help you start your very own marketing plan.

What should your marketing plan achieve?

Your plan will rest on where you want your business to go and forms part of your overall business aims and here’s some examples of what these might be and strategies you could use:

• Increase sales
• Bring in new customers
• Get existing customers to buy more
• Introduce new products or services
• Further establish your brand
• Launch a PR campaign
• Retain existing profitable customers
• Offer existing customers exclusive offers

Here’s our step-by-step tips:

Research

Carry out detailed analysis of your company, your market, and your competitors.

Identify your target customers and segment them by splitting into groups such as existing and target customers.

Examine your products or services with the objective of how you are going to market them such as:

• USPs – what can your products or services offer than no other competitor can?
• Benefits – arising from determining your USPs what benefits your customer?

Finally, how you are going to communicate the benefits of buying your products or service to your target customers?

Whatever your marketing plan, you should write it down:

• Everything should be simple to understand, representative, and with a clear path of action
• Be ready to adapt your marketing strategy as and when necessary – there are an endless number of influences that could require a change.  Remember, it is flexibility that will keep you ahead of your competition.

We hope our tips have given you some ideas for your 2018 plan?  However, if you would like further information about how we can help support your future business plans, please contact us.

By Ann Davies, Director and Erran Taylor, Digital Marketing Manager