Creating networking success can be an essential part of your business marketing toolkit. But why is it necessary and how do we create networking success? It's not just about meeting people who could become clients - it's about making connections and building relationships with people that you may not normally do business with.

In this podcast, we talk about:

* why networking is important for business

* how to create an elevator pitch (or juicy intro as we like to call it)

* networking protocol

Our guest podcaster is Jacqui Frampton from The Boardroom Network who tells us:

* how we can network successfully for business

* 3 top tips for networking

* how to use LinkedIn to support networking

 

 

 

You've agreed the date and venue for your event. How do get people to come to it? Event marketing for business is like any other kind of marketing for your business but it tends to be more intense and it's important that all your activity links together to work effectively.

In this podcast, we talk about:

* Whether you should post the event on your website or have a specific landing page

* How to use social media to promote your event

* Setting up an e-mail stream

* Maximising the opportunities that live coverage gives you

* What to do post-event

* What tools to use

We also include a special download with a Pre & Post Event Marketing Check List for you to use amongst your team. 

 

 

 

 

 

Effective email marketing should be an essential part of any business marketing strategy. But many people struggle with knowing how to do it or what to say to ensure their emails are opened amongst all the spam.

Recent research states that open rates for promotional email still averages 22-25%. This is, of course, good news as it means that email is still a powerful marketing channel you can use to communicate with your prospects or customers.

In this podcast, we share our experience about:

* Why effective email marketing is so important

* How to write a killer subject line

* Creating content that will get read

* The best days and times to send emails

* Which platforms to use including MailChimp, Infusionsoft, ActiveCampaign & Campaign Monitor

 

 

 

 

As businesses, we all like receiving recognition from our customers that we are good at what we do, and it may come in the form of testimonials, recommendations or verbal thanks. But how about taking it a step further and actually entering business awards for 'official' business recognition?

The business marketing potential for being shortlisted for an award, even if you don't win, can be a great way to raise your profile and be seen amongst your business peers and/or competition.

In this podcast, we discuss:

* What business awards are

* Why you should considering entering

* The marketing opportunities for winners and even those shortlisted

* Top tips for creating a professional entry

We also meet two inspirational business people who have entered awards and hear about their experience and thoughts on entering the business awards arena.

 

 

 

There are so many changes and trends in marketing, it's difficult to keep up with them all. What do you need to know for 2018? Which marketing predictions and ideas are on the 'ones to watch' list? In this episode, we look at:

* The rising use and reliance on home assistants such as Google Home & Alexa and discuss how businesses need to be aware of new opportunities to use these technologies

* How videos are transforming the marketing landscape

* What consumers, especially Millenials are demanding from companies they buy from

* Instagram versus Facebook

* Using the improved LinkedIn platform

* How big brands are using AR (Augmented Reality) to enhance the customer experience

 

 

 

 

We have talked about the rising importance of using video marketing as part of the marketing toolbox on several podcasts. So we thought it would be good to go into a little more detail about why video use is growing, what type of content could be included and what equipment people may need and how best to plan for video marketing in business.

We bring in our resident expert, Andrew Plant of Andrew Plant Photography, to share his expertise on how to make a professional looking video.

In this episode discover:

• Why it is a good idea to use video content

• Considerations when designing your message. What exactly are you trying to achieve?

• What types of video there are: Using videos for product demonstrations or ‘how to’ guides where you can share your expertise, an interview or testimonial, a who are we video, or it may be about an event you attended and feature footage of you in action

• How to create a storyboard

• How long a video should be

• Using voiceovers and music backgrounds

• Adding captions and where to host your video

• Useful technical issues to consider

Plus conversations on lighting, location, setting up the shots, camera suitability and more.

 

©The Marketing Menu 2017. All rights reserved.

This episode considers an explanation on what GDPR is and why it is being bought in. Data protection applies to all businesses. So it doesn't matter if you're a one-man band or a global corporate - data protection rules still apply.

We explain how GDPR is actually going to affect marketing practices in particular and whether there are any confusions when it comes to good marketing practices as there are other regulations that apply. One of the key things that's changing that a lot of people are really focused on is the rules around collecting consent for the purposes of processing and that's very important if you're collecting prospect data for marketing purposes. But in a world of marketing compliance, it's partly about data protection and protecting that data that you’re managing but it's also about privacy regulations, which control how will you use that data in an electronic marketing perspective.

We identify how GDPR doesn't necessarily relate to what we may call good marketing practice and what in essence this covers.

GDPR has ramifications for marketing people but, in a general everyday sense, it covers every aspect of management and processing of personal data. So that's data that identifies your customers, your clients, your employees, or any other individual -it’s not just about consent and marketing. Data protection has much wider ramifications for business. It's about everything that you do with personal data. So if you have data that identifies an individual, be it a client or an employee or a potential customer, that data is protected by data protection and therefore GDPR applies. So there are much wider ramifications for businesses than just the marketing aspects and businesses need to think about the security of that data, how they use that data and how will they also meet the requirements of the rights of the individuals whose data it is. The big key thing about GDPR is it's about accountability. Can you as a business demonstrate your compliance?

Finally, we offer some top tips for listeners in relation to GDPR and marketing so that you can ensure that your business will be compliant. There's lots going on in terms of data protection but also in a marketing world, we're expecting the new privacy regulations in Europe and the UK that will perhaps change some of the rules around electronic marketing or have a wider scope.

The episode also links to a number of useful sites where businesses can gain further clarification and material on how to fit GDPR terms into their business going forward, in a GDPR world.

©The Marketing Menu 2017. All rights reserved.

Today we’re going to give you a quick guide on how to set up a podcast channel. So Liz why are we talking about this today?

Well, I was at a networking event last week and interestingly I was talking to someone about our podcast and she mentioned that she’d been interested in doing one but had decided not to do so as it was so expensive. So I went on to explain how podcasting isn’t costly, which is one reason why we got into it in the first place. But I did have to explain how time heavy it is, so I thought it would be good to give listeners a quick start guide to running a podcast and the tools we’ve discovered along the way.

Yes, I suppose we should say this is not a definitive guide as obviously other people will have other recommendations but hopefully, these signposts will help other people to get ahead just a little bit faster.

Yes, so first off here’s a few figures, Nicky, which may interest you:

• Podcast listening grew 23% between 2015 and 2016

• Around 21% of Americans (aged 12 and upwards) have listened to a podcast in the last month – about the same as were active on Twitter (important to say here that your podcast could be heard beyond the UK)

• Weekly podcast listeners consume five shows a week on average

So I guess we’re saying if you want to promote your business or brand, you need to think beyond traditional PR.

Yes, it's a good tool to have although I think to be honest the UK has yet to catch up with some of those stats but it certainly is a growing phenomenon.

So let’s get into today’s episode which is all about the challenges of setting up a podcast. If you’ve ever thought about it, here is a quick overview of some of the tools and the things you need to think about.

Now, we will be offering a cheat sheet – so if you’d like to get your hands on one, do pop over to our website www.themarketingmenu.com/episode/guide-to-podcasting to download your copy. Please don't pop over there just yet without listening to the rest of this podcast as we’re painting the bigger picture and will be going into more detail than we’ve outlined on the cheat sheet.

So, in true Marketing Menu style, we’re going to go through this step-by-step. If you’ve ever thought about podcasting or if you’re podcasting now and are curious as to how we do it, that’s what this episode is all about.

©The Marketing Menu 2017. All rights reserved.

We will see! We'll keep you posted listeners. So, on to social media policy.

We covered how social media can help your business way back in Podcast 8 so that's worth referring back to if you need a refresh about how it could work for your business. In that podcast, we did briefly touch on how to behave on social media so we thought we would go into more detail today.

So, just a reminder of the benefits if you're using social media as part of your business marketing strategy. Obviously, it can help establish your brand, improve customer service and help you be seen amongst competitors.

Plus it's a low-cost form of marketing, it can build loyalty in your customers when they share content and should form part of your PR strategy.

The biggest challenges that we hear from clients is time, people think they have to spend a lot of time on it and in particular thinking about what they are going to say.

I agree, and quite often they are trying to do too much by spreading themselves too thinly over too many platforms when actually focusing on the ones where their customers actually are would be more effective.

So the key to success is to have a plan, target a specific audience and deliver engaging content. Tune in to Podcast 003 where we talk about Crushing it with Storytelling for ideas about what you could share.

I guess a lot of people will think ‘oh. I don't a social media policy, I do it all myself' or ‘I leave to someone in the team'. Well, this is exactly why you should have one! By setting out clearly how you operate your social media account means that anyone new coming on to the team or taking over the posting will know exactly what is expected of them.

The social media policy can form part of your PR policy and can ensure your reputation online is protected. It provides clear guidelines for employees about how to behave on social media when representing your business and determines what is & isn't acceptable.

So why are a Social Media Policy and Company Best Practice Needed?

Well, the world is changing fast, and how we communicate is changing even faster – it is a growing phenomenon embraced by all generations. There are great benefits to today's technology and its widespread use, but there are also risks. Of course, it can also:

Get the Company, and you, in legal trouble with government agencies, other companies, customers or the general public

Diminish the brand name by creating negative publicity for The Company, owners, and partners, as well as yourself

or your team

Cause damage to The Company by releasing non-public information or proprietary information

Cost us the ability to get patents or undermine our competitive advantage

And ultimately cost you your job at the Company

And I would suggest that most of these won't trouble companies if employees use common sense and good judgment in their online interaction. And it draws a line between private use & work.

I think this is a really important point actually. A lot of people think that because they have a personal Facebook or Twitter account, that they know how to use it. But it's a completely different ball game when it comes to using them for business.

Yes absolutely right, and this is where you need to protect your company reputation. You can't risk someone posting a personal opinion, responding to another tweet inappropriately or sharing posts that have no relevance to your business.

Just to mention here that you could also include any email policy you have and set out that any online posts should not disclose any confidential information.

You should also emphasise that logos or branding should only be used with permission.

And photos!

Good point! Yes,

I'm the Cyber Crime Prevention Officer for Dorset Police, and so my role has been created for about a year and a half now, to get cyber security advice out to as many people as possible around the county, particularly small businesses because they tend not to have the cyber security training and advice in place and if we can help with that knowledge and advice to prevent cybercrimes from happening, we could effectively keep those businesses from being hit by cyber attacks.

So, are we saying that small businesses are particularly susceptible to cyber crime?

What small and medium businesses tend not to have the IT departments that might help them out later and, particularly, don't have a security person who would look after their company in that respect. So, yes everyone's targeted. The small and medium businesses tend not to have that prevention in place.

And presumably Dorset Police saw a need specifically for somebody in your sort of role?

Yes, well all the police forces in the country were offered money by the Home Office to fund this role and I think the large majority of the forces have taken on my role.

Okay, so even if listeners are listening in from another county then effectively they will be able to reach out to their local force.

Yes definitely, someone can go in and give a talk and give some training if they need it.

That’s interesting.

So, what's your background? How did you get into cyber security?

Well, I did Maths and Computing at University, and then I went straight into the Police Force. I started off doing statistics, but then I soon went into the high-tech crime unit. That's the unit where I would take computers apart and look for digital evidence on hard drives and in phones…

That’s the stuff of telly cop shows!

Absolutely! Not as quick as it is on the TV, but with a murder, for example, we're going to take the computer apart and have look for just log on & log off times, Google history, and their emails can be found, anything that could help out as evidence in a court case would be huge, and it's growing so much these days. I did that for about eight years and then I managed the team became Head of Digital Forensics for a couple of years in Dorset Police, and then I was asked to go and join the cyber crime team.

Wow! Challenging!

So I know you're going to talk to us about different types of cyber crime. I had an email supposedly from HMRC. Now it looked really genuine. I'm used to them now, so I did double-check the email address that it came from, because it was telling me that I had a £411 refund. Are those the sort of things that are catching people out?

Yes, that’s a typical phishing email. Phishing emails are a huge problem but they're always prevented by us knowing that they could be a phishing scam. And so the HMRC one… lots and lots of people are discussing them now so they tend to think twice and hope they see them come up. Also, if you do have an HMRC account, you'll have what's called a two-factor authentication in place, which means when you type in your user name and password, it'll then say ‘hey we're going to text you a code’, and that code is one time password that works just for that one minute. And so that means the hacker if he had your password, he would also need that code and he hasn't got your mobile phone. So, that's a big telltale sign if you're going to a site and it doesn't ask you for that code, of course, therefore you're probably looking at fake site like they're trying to harvest your password. They do, however, send fake text messages as well. So, it's not just fake emails that are coming through. It's called SMS phishing or together that's called smishing, that's the newer term. They love these terms!. That will come to your phone it says 'hey!