Search
Blog posts tagged Experts
And now, a Christmas message from the Marketing Donut…
December 23, 2009
What a year it has been for the Marketing Donut! We have had such a busy time with bringing small businesses the best resources to help them with their marketing that we are having a well earned break over Christmas and into the New Year.
The website and all its resources will be fully available but this will be the last blog post and there will be no Twitter activity from @MarketingDonut until Monday 4 January when we will be back with a renewed vigour and determination to help your small business take on the challenges of 2010.
If your craving for small business donuts is so insatiable, why not gorge yourself on our Facebook Fan page? Start a discussion with fellow small businesses or ask the community a question. If you can’t stomach any more Christmas television or you have lost your Radio Times, head over to the Marketing Donut YouTube channel.
We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has helped make the Marketing Donut all that it is so far, be that our experts, sponsors and you, our readers. We wish you all a restful Christmas period and a Happy New Year.
James, Simon, Rachel and Kasia - the Marketing Donut team.
Perhaps it's time to pimp your PowerPoint?
November 06, 2009
If you make presentations frequently, or are likely to need to, take a few moments to hear some very useful advice from some world class experts who know how to make PowerPoints really work.
What do you think? Could some of these techniques help you add life your PowerPoint game?
Ten unwelcome guests at the marketing party
August 27, 2009
Guest post by Tom Albrighton
Modern marketing is a lot like a party. Work the room right and you’ll attract interest and new contacts. Fail to shine and you’ll be going home alone. Here are the ten marketing partygoers you never want to meet – or be.
1. The counsellor is full of unwelcome ‘why don’t you’ advice for everyone she meets – she’s the answer to a question nobody asked. Marketing moral: expertise is becoming devalued; cultivating strong personal connections may work better than positioning yourself as an expert.
2. The egotist holds forth interminably on his favourite topic: himself. Marketing moral: focus on the customer, not yourself. (See this post for more.)
3. The wallflower stands shyly on the sidelines even though her best friend could be introducing her to plenty of guests if asked. Marketing moral: proactively cultivate and request referrals and testimonials.
4. The geek batters you into submission with an enthusiastic but crashingly dull monologue about his phone, computer or other gadget. Marketing moral: don’t confuse technical features with customer benefits.
5. The clown keeps the jokes coming even if they’re not appreciated, appropriate or even funny. Marketing moral: Humour doesn’t travel and should be used with care – can you guarantee the reaction you’re hoping for?
6. The miser brings Liebfraumilch but drinks Moët. Marketing moral: In modern marketing, particularly social media, you have to give something (of yourself) before you receive.
7. The butterfly is always looking around the room for someone more interesting to talk to. Marketing moral: don’t neglect here-and-now customer needs in the quest for new connections or business.
8. The gatecrasher shouldn’t even be here at all but he never misses the chance to party, even if he doesn’t know anyone. Marketing moral: don’t waste time and money making a big splash when you really need focused exposure.
9. The nervous hostess flits between conversations, asking everyone if they’re enjoying themselves (and the vol-au-vents). Marketing moral: don’t over-regulate the conversation about your brand or content; allowing criticism shows strength and confirms authenticity.
10. The chatterbox just won’t shut up! Marketing moral: We can’t talk and listen at the same time; make time for learning as well as pushing out content.
Marketing Donut to host Twitter Conference - Tuesday 30, June #mydonut
June 26, 2009
On Tuesday, 30 June at 0930 GMT, this will be the day that Marketing Donut, more pertinently @marketingdonut, will make use of the power of Twitter in all its real-time networking glory. We’ve decided to host a “conversation conference” on Twitter so that small businesses, entrepreneurs, marketing experts and anyone who wants to be a part of this online event can chat about all things marketing.
There will be a concentrated burst of activity between 0930 GMT and 1100 GMT. To get things going, we will be discussing topics and articles from the Marketing Donut. There will also be opportunities for small businesses to raise their issues or queries with our marketing experts. We also want to connect small businesses with fellow small businesses. It will be a simple conversation about your marketing activities in an online forum full of those who want to help you. This is not an exclusive invitation only event; we welcome the insight of anyone with a Twitter account.
There are a number of ways to get involved:
- Tweet comments about something you have seen on Marketing Donut
- Ask a marketing related question. You could be the one person who starts off a great debate or pose that marketing question you always wanted to ask.
- Engage in a one-on-one conversation. It could be with one of our experts, a fellow entrepreneur, or a complete stranger.
- You could Retweet a tweet that appears as part of the flow of ideas that you find useful, funny or of interest to your followers.
Following the event
Following the event is easy too, it may be that you don’t want to jump right in and that monitoring the event is all you want to take from the online conversation conference. If you use desktop Twitter applications, such as Tweetdeck or Seesmic, it is possible to set up search windows which will feed the whole flow of the conversations in real-time. Simply search for the hashtag topic of “#mydonut”
This will be a great opportunity to get involved with small businesses and marketing experts alike. Look out for #mydonut come Tuesday 30th June and be a part of what is hoped to be a fun and worthwhile Twitter event hosted by Marketing Donut.
Join in, use the #mydonut Hashtag, and let’s have some fun!
Knowledge is power
April 16, 2009
The Marketing Donut is a truly collaborative project and we’ve used some of the best people available to create this fantastic new resource. Central to this is the involvement of more than 100 expert contributors.
We’ve always worked with experts at BHP and believe their involvement is key to the practical and unbiased nature of the content we produce. It can be a challenge to incorporate feedback from different experts, each with their own views. But there’s a real sense of achievement when after the umpteenth round of corrections, you end up with a piece of content upon which everyone agrees – and that still reads well.
We’ve struck gold with the Marketing Donut and have some great people working with us. From high-profile marketing writers through ex-marketing directors of blue chips to well-known social networkers, plus, all the key marketing bodies – they’ve all given their time, knowledge and support. We’re very grateful for this.
Currently, we’re recruiting for the next Donut – so if you’re an expert in start-up issues, please get in touch.
The Internet does not only enable us to laugh at William Shatner
April 10, 2009
There’s no avoiding the Internet. Whether you’re checking the headlines, keeping in touch, booking flights or buying a birthday gift for your mother, the chances are you turn to your PC first (or your laptop, or your phone…). It’s scary how reliant on the Internet we’ve become for information and entertainment, and how quickly. Who would have imagined 15, or even 10, years ago that we’d be using telephones to watch a video of William Shatner singing Rocket Man?
This all-pervasiveness is both good and bad news for businesses. Good because the web gives you access to an almost unlimited customer base; bad because just having a website is not nearly enough when the typical visitor expects to be informed and engaged instantly. If you don’t deliver straight away, your visitors will be off to someone who can.
To succeed in the modern business environment, you’ve got to have a web strategy that works. E-commerce, search engine optimisation, online advertising, affiliate marketing, email marketing, social networking – these are all things you may well have to master to maximise your online marketing and sales. It’s horribly confusing and complicated. Or is it?
For the Marketing Donut, we’ve recruited a phalanx of Internet experts to tell you what you need to know in language you can understand. We’ve got Penny Power, for example, the founder of the web’s top business networking site, Ecademy, explaining how to do social networking; a variety of experts from our main sponsor, Google, addressing online advertising; David J Smith, director of operations at the online retail body IMRG explaining e-commerce issues – you get the idea.
With the Marketing Donut, we want to make Internet marketing straightforward for small-business owners. We think we’re going to do it. Find out for yourself on 20 April.
Founding partners
Small business marketing - free advice, tools and resources | Marketing Donut
Published by 
