Interested to see how many more Facebook likes we can get??
http://www.bestofwales.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/HolidayCottagesinWales

You may find this site useful as it offers a service that will show you how to adapt your home to help to minimise any barriers to your study.

http://www.fit4use.com

Hope it helps

This will help you to revise quickly and effectively.

A simple step by step guide to the key marketing tools for less than a text book. It contains all of the key points you need to know and is easy to remember. If you just want to understand marketing jargon this is the easy answer.

This will give you a simple structure so you can see how the marketing tools relate to the marketing plan. How segmentation links into strategy. Once you easy see where the product life cycle and marketing strategy all fit, it will make revision so much easier

If you are a marketing student and want a quick revision guide then simply hit the Buy Now button and follow the instructions, it is only £10 much less than text books and much quicker than spending hours trying to understand how all of the marketing concepts fit together and what the marketing jargon means. It will help you to see all of the key concepts for your next marketing exam

”Thank you for the marketing exams help, wish I had found this before, marketing now makes sense” Lisa

Hope it helps

It would be really good if you could add a comment and let me know which marketing exam topics I should include. It maybe a general question about exam technique or a specific question you need help with. Either way simply post a comment and I will outline an answer. You can chose if it is a written outline as a structure or a brief video. This will show you how to approach the question and then you can add the key points

Look forward to seeing your top questions

It is well known in marketing that it is much more expensive to attract a new customer than to keep your existing customer.  Examine everything that your business does and ensure that it focuses on the customers and their needs. Really understand what they want and follow this up. Make sure that the product is delivered on time, it is what they wanted, it lives up to expectation. Focus on building the relationship, customers will tell others and that is so much more powerful that your promotions.

The marketing lesson is to really get under the skin of your customers and build that relationship. So how to do it?

Understand their needs, make the most of any customer interaction, use customer service teams to find out as much as possible about the need and how well your business is meeting that need.

Ask your customer to compare you and your competitors.

Build a benchmark of good performance.  Such as delivery in 5 days or call back in 24 hours. Opportunity to up grade, learn more, build your own are all examples of how businesses have adapted and changed.

If we look at examples of really good customer service and then examine the performance of the business. You would not be surprised to learn that companies that score well on customer service are keeping customers, up selling to them and performing better.

Recent winners of awards are First Direct that scored highest in the banking sector in a survey conducted bySatmetrix. First Direct scored 42% satisfaction compared with an industry norm of -4%.

Virgin and Sky scored well in the ISP business. Still in mobiles O2 did the business. Apple iPhone was miles ahead of the industry with a score of 67% compared to the industry average of  18%. This is a really good example of marketing practice

Customer service is so much more than dealing with complaints. It offers business the chance to really understand their customers, analyse their needs, build new products or services. It will also reduce costs and focus on making the business more effective.

So deliver and build the level of customer service. Do what you promise and make sure you know what to promise

I am offering a free short marketing course. The course will cover the basics of marketing and help you to understand the key marketing ideas in a really simple way.

If you are studying for a marketing exam it will help you to revise and check your understanding of the marketing environment and how the economic factors can affect a business. It will show you how to plan for the future and understand the key parts of a marketing plan. It is in easy to follow and will help you to understand the marketing template more easily.

If you are working in marketing and trying to find that little extra insight to help your organisation to compete and deal with the challenges facing business today. It will show you the key models and the way in which your business can develop and focus on building value for the customer. The better the customer needs are met the greater the chance that the business will be successful.

The course will be delivered to you by email over a a few weeks.

So how was it done?

The key point in any communication and political campaigns is who get the message over in the simplest way possible. The art of cutting through the noise from other parties, masses of media coverage and voters who maybe switched off, is a huge challenge.

The starting point is the message, simple and give the voter a reason to vote, sounds easy but in reality very difficult to do. There are lots of ways of achieving this and as many commentators have said the role of social media is important.

Nationally, there were acres of newsprint, hours of TV, masses of radio and yet millions of people who had not made up their mind until the day of the election.  In Blaenau Gwent the campaign used lots of traditional tactics, leaflets and connecting with small groups in meetings, in public events, by walking the streets and door knocking.  Visibility of campaign material such as traditional posters and garden stakes as a reminder was important. It also created momentum but the number of posters was much lower than the final vote.

Social media connected via Facebook with 744 friends. That is creates a ripple effect as their friends will see the updates and comments. That increases the coverage and multiplies the effect. These friends then share the links, the stories, the photos and videos. 

Given that there are a defined number of voters. Every friend that votes takes their vote from the opposition. This doubles the impact of that vote.  So of the friends, 700 voted, that is a 1,400 swing and that in political marketing is huge.

The key here is to engage with the friends. That is critical as it increases the turnout of the vote. In political marketing the threat is from the other candidates but also from the sofa, just not bothering to turn out to vote

The connections into Twitter and Utube really worked well. It integrated the campaign and gave it life. This enabled short, quick updates and showed current activities. It involves people so they can feel part of what is going on even if they are not there. It is the social interest that increases engagement.

The consistituency is Blaenau Gwent in South Wales. It is is a seat with deep historical and political significance for the Labour Party. For those of you with an interest in politics it was the seat of Aneurin Bevan, who set up the NHS and  then came Michael Foot, with massive Labour majorities. It was lost to an  Independent candidate and has been controversial since 2001. Labour have been fighting hard to win it back for the first time since 2001 and it is not an easy task.

The campaign has a very limited budget. My role has been to run and manage the social media and the results so far have been amazing. The starting point was a Facebook group which has grown hugely with a regular following. This is really important as these people are engaged with the group. That is a major difference as it is two way communication, so much more powerful than one way communications.

This is linked to a blog. This has a different function. It offers more of an in depth analysis of the issues and attracts new readers, who are directed back to FB.  Twitter plays a role and is connected to the blog and also to a FB page. The political candidate already had a page so Twitter was linked into this. The blog tracks back to FB and then of course there is Utube. That has also been a huge boost to the campaign. Simple enough to upload a video to Utube and then link in to the site.

 One of the big advantages of social media in the campaign is immediate feedback and measurable outcomes. In best marketing practice that is key. For those of you in business it is something to focus on. For marketing students sitting marketing exams it is an interesting case study to show you understand what is happening in marketing at the moment.

Within hours you can see the results of a post, the hits on the website, the sources of traffic. This permits immediate response and the ability to change and adapt quickly.

Check it out here and watch the results of the Election to see if it is successful.

http://www.nicksmithblog.wordpress.com/

twitter.com/nicksmith4bg

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=122196429916&ref=ts