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Here’s a little story which perhaps will explain what customers may perhaps feel if you don’t clearly explain what you’re about, give clear and obvious options, and show them how to do business with you. So. Rebecca and I recently went up to a business conference in London. At lunchtime, we had to decide what restaurant to go to for our lunch (that’s a story for another Friday!). We went with Jimmy’s. I’d heard good things about it. Our first problem was that once we’d committed, Rebecca realised it was a buffet restaurant and was horrified… Apparently it goes against everything she stands for and was scared about sleeve fluff falling into the silver serving trays (think they’re called chafers?). Anyway… we were told by the waitress to go and take a seat. That was it. No other instruction at all. And we’d never been …

Systems get results. This article shows a personal example of this. Ladies you’ll love it. Chaps? Do read if only for this: you will discover a win:win solution for spending less time traipsing around town centres with the woman in your life! Yippeeeeeee! So here we go…. I hugely dislike shopping in the sales. My little family and I went into West Quay in Southampton on 27th December for a browse (anyone else make that mistake?!). Pretty stressful really…. the queues to pay were ridiculous. But the good news for me is that I had Personal Styling a few months ago (that’s the win:win guys, click here!). Because of this Personal Styling session, I know exactly what suits and fits me well: styles, colour, fabrics, size. I know how to dress it up…. dress it down…. so that it’s all re-wearable and …

In every Workshop, Masterclass or One-to-One we run, we always ask our clients what their ‘ah-haa’ moments are. You know, the moments where the blinkers come off, the light bulb goes on… and you finally just ‘get it’! For us at All Star Marketing Club, this tells us we have fulfilled our mission of making Small Businesses self sufficient and successful with Marketing. Here is just the tip of the iceberg, because we have hundreds… Let’s take a look at some of their Ah-haa moments! “We work so hard on getting customers in, but we’ve not been getting their details and keeping in touch with them.” Like many others that we work with, this business has implemented a robust system to ensure they never lose another lead. “I now see that Branding is actually tenable. It’s not fluffy and I can …

In this article, I’ll explain my utter disappointment with my new car, in a series of disappointing events; and give you a 7-Step Model that you can download immediately and complete, to ensure that you can create a customer journey that delights your customers, that you’ll be able to take immediate action from to make it happen. Last Friday, my new car arrived on my driveway. Nothing flash. A Kia Sportage. A good family car. I’ve leased it. But nevertheless, I have ordered a new car which still required a sizeable upfront payment, followed by the monthly leasing costs. It has taken months to be delivered and having been told early October, it has only just joined the family.  Disappointment Numero Uno. They didn’t deliver on their promise. When it arrived in my driveway, my first angry thought was “IT’S FILTHY!”. Disappointment 2. It’s not …

**For Small Business Owners – Complete With LinkedIn Profile Checklist** LinkedIn is the most up to date database of its kind in the world. We all have a vested interest in keeping our profile up to date and looking great! However, there are some school boy/girl errors that we need to overcome to ensure we are not shooting outselves in the foot when it comes to succeeding on LinkedIn. And let me say, if you are guilty, you are most certainly not alone! This article focuses on your profile and your presence as a business owner and covers my top 9 mistakes. Are you making them? 1. Your Photograph Is Too Personal (or non-existent) Wedding photos, holiday snaps and night out are for Facebook. It is always best to opt for a nice head and shoulder shot on your profile without …

Running a small business is tough. Not only do you have to actually run the business you also have to keep a constant flow of customers. And that is particularly hard as Christmas approaches, when everyone starts focusing on selection packs & tinsel (you should see my local co-op). So, how do you make sure that you keep customers coming in and you don’t lose momentum through the approaching festive season? You give your Marketing a big old ‘Kick-start’ to take you into the new year and beyond by making sure you have the 4 ‘W’s in place. How to get your 4 ‘W’s in place to Kick-start Your Marketing: ‘Why’ are you doing this thing called ‘Marketing’? Think about what you need your business to turnover by the end of the year, what volume of customers do you want to end …

We held a Branding Masterclass at the fabulous Fareham Innovation Centre. It was quite a day…. Often we can think of branding as a need for just big businesses; but it’s even more important for us smaller ones. It ultimately creates RECOGNITION and TRUST. One of the fundamentals (but only a small part of branding) is, to put it simply: THE LOOK! You know, the logo, the colours, the fonts and such like. Why? Because they give our prospective customers visual clues, and it makes them think and feel things about the brand. Quite amazing really. And here’s the proof, delivered in my TERRIBLE experience (albeit a first world problem!)….. At the end of the Masterclass, I turned right out of the Innovation Centre road, about half past five in the evening, to get some fuel… because as always, I’d …

n this article we discuss the number 1 reason that business fail at marketing, and the knock on impact on business failure. This ends with a fantastic ACTIONS list so you don’t fall into this nasty failure trap; as well as a FREE guide covering our definitive list of the 14 Reasons Your Marketing is Not Getting Results, and what to do about it! There’s some really scary statistics out there on business failure rates. The one I picked out most recently was this…. 8 out of 10 businesses fail in the first 18 months. When you look under the surface, the leading reasons for this are: Lack of Funding, Cash Flow Issues, Poor Execution of Business. And not carrying out successful Marketing is up there in the top reasons. Actually, when you look under the skin of the first two reasons, they can ultimately come down …

The Digital Marketing Summit Southampton 2016 is just around the corner, which brings together business leaders and digital industry experts for a game-changing, dynamic, full-on day for business growth. All Star Marketing Club are thrilled to be a Guest Speaker at this event, sharing one of our exceptional strategies that makes Marketing work for businesses: The Ultimate Customer Contact Strategy. During this talk, we will discuss the following: What is a Customer Contact Strategy and why is it so important? How does a business craft a Customer Contact Strategy that moves a prospect from cold data to customer? The power of uniting traditional and Digital Marketing with this results-driven Marketing methodology. This will result in PRACTICAL strategies and tactics that work to enhance Marketing success for businesses. The Digital Marketing Summit Southampton 2016 will be held on: Thursday 27th October at the Novotel Southampton. …

We look at 9 reasons that Personal Training is Top of the Class when you need to inject successful Marketing into your business and don’t yet have the skills. Personal Training is well known in the Fitness Industry; and if like me, you’ve ever had Personal Training of this nature then you will know that it REALLY works. However, when most of us want to access Training for our business skills (like Marketing) we will usually opt for a group-training course; which is the obvious place to go… and if you choose the right course they are brilliant! But when we are strapped for time and we have a steep learning curve to ascend, a Training Course of this nature will not always be the right solution… but Personal Training is! So here’s the 9 Reasons Marketing Personal Training might …