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PUSH to PLAY – A New Enterprise Initiative
Congratulations!
Thank you for taking the first, and most critical step, in finding out how our PUSH to PLAY services can really help you take your new business forward over the months and years ahead.
PUSH to PLAY is a unique offer provided through PUSH Marketing Partners and Business Growth Specialists. Our aim is very simple; we want to give you the very best chance of succeeding in your New Enterprise.
Through our strategic alliance with LloydsTSB Business Banking (East Anglian Region) we offer TWO main services that are designed to give you the knowledge and confidence to step into your new business and know that you are ready.
Pre-flight Check (CLICK HERE FOR BROCHURE)
It’s amazing how many people, who are about to start a new business, focus on the important elements like retail space, suppliers, finance, staffing, etc. but often overlook one of the most vital elements of every successful business – Sales & Marketing.
Making sure your business is financially viable from day one and ensuring that you are profitable IS the ‘bottom line’. To ensure you’re completely confident in this area you need a simple but practical view of how you will market and sell your products and services. Everything else comes second to this.
If you’ve not yet written out at least a basic Marketing Plan, or thought how your Sales and Marketing function will work, then now is the time to address this.
With Pre-flight Check we’ll walk you through a very simple but highly effective process that will ensure you have everything you need in place before you let your new business fly.
“Many thanks… you helped me realised how important it is to focus on my approach to sales and marketing; it’s started paying off already”
Steve Wright - Photographer
Pre-flight Check is an audit and review service; we ask you to complete a simple questionnaire (and we can help you with this as well), then we review the results and give you a practical plan to follow.
Pre-flight Check - Standard Audit Charge – £197.00 However…
LloydsTSB Business Customers can claim a New Enterprise Voucher for this and obtain the service at NO COST.
Please note; in every case we conduct a brief telephone consultation to ensure the suitability of this service and confirm your eligibility for this free New Enterprise Voucher. Also, there are a limited number of vouchers available each month so please register your interest first and ensure your application is live.
“the Pre-flight Check really helped me understand what I needed to have in place to get my business started, now I feel so much more confident”
Christine Alexander Smith - Development Specialist
Need Good Training?
The Second PUSH to PLAY Offer available is our Flying Start Enterprise Training events. Here’s the BROCHURE just click.
These half-day workshop-based seminars will ensure you have everything you need to make your new business fly. Learn the essentials basics that every smart owner/manager knows and give yourself the best opportunity at succeeding.
To find out about these training events please request details via the contact form below. Just put ‘Flying Start’ in the request.
To register your interest in a Pre-Flight Check – call us now on 0843 289 4320 (lo-call rate), or register your interest in the form below and we’ll contact you back direct within 24 hrs.
Comments or questions are welcome.
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The New Enterprise Voucher Scheme is offered in collaboration with the
East Anglian Enterprise Initiative
PUSH Marketing Academy; You’re Invited!
The PUSH Marketing Academy
Your invite to enrol for the New Year Term 2011 – Starting 18th January
Welcome!
Over the number of years I’ve been helping business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs I’ve learned that good marketing really is at the core of every successful business. More than this though, I’ve also learned that the owners/managers of strong and profitable businesses actually understand what effective marketing is all about.
While some business owners prefer to pass this responsibility on to others, the smart people out there have a good handle on how marketing can bring paying customers to their door, over and over again.
The strange thing is that so many people think good marketing is a mystery, or some sort of black art, when the truth is that good marketing – one that puts money back into the business and at a profit – is really very simple when you know how. To start with you just need someone with experience to show you the ropes and give you a proper plan to follow.
So let me ask…
- Do you sometimes feel confused about where to even start with your marketing?
- Are you ever anxious about the fact that you’ve not got a solid marketing plan to follow?
- Do you know what Return on Investment you’re currently getting from your marketing efforts?
- Do you wish you could find a practical way to get your marketing revved up for the months ahead?
- Are you conscious of the fact that SME marketing is changing rapidly… want to keep up?!
It’s in Your Hands!
At one of my Seminars earlier in the year I talked about the relationship between Business Knowledge, Focus and Systems. These three elements, when working in harmony, can create solid and profitable results. So you’ll understand me when I say that keeping up with your Business Knowledge is just like any other vocation; it’s something you need to invest in frequently to ensure you’re growing and moving forward. Remember; if you’re not growing, you’re falling behind the pack, as others (your competition) are forging ahead of you and probably stealing your customers.
I’ve also learned over time that trying to help improve the results of a business simply by adding some systems and a few new ideas rarely produces long-term gains. You see, the truth is that as business owners it’s all about us and our ability to grow, expand and APPLY our knowledge.
You don’t need to be a genius to be great at business, you don’t need to be the most creative, the most dynamic or even blessed with special entrepreneurial talents… you just need to UNDERSTAND how good business works and then focus on doing the right things every day!
This is why I’ve created a new learning platform for business owners who wanted to gain practical knowledge that can be applied, in real-time, to their business. Yes, there are lots of opportunities to gain academic knowledge about marketing; you can walk away with nice certificates for your office wall and lots of folders to fill the bottom draw of your filing cabinet. I wanted to create something far more tangible than this and ensure that this learning opportunity was married to practical action, so you can see the results of your learning in the bottom-line of your business. I wanted learning to go hand-in-hand with a real plan for action.
The PUSH Marketing Academy is a new way to get the knowledge that will help propel your business forward. It’s not online, home-study or distance learning, it’s up-front, ‘live and unplugged’ if you like!
You’ll have the chance to attend a Course Study Day each month with a small group of like-minded peers and learn direct from my personal experience and knowledge. The Course Programme is centred on current and relevant information that’s been assembled to ensure you can apply it to your micro or SME business in real-time and watch the new results you’re getting.
There are some great academic courses out there on marketing, and you can learn all about how the big names apply strategic and brand marketing to capture large chunks of the global market; but I’m guessing you’re much more interested in knowing how you’re going to improve your own business, without massive budgets or a marketing team the size of Saatchi & Saatchi!
You’ll also be learning a Programme that has been drawn from real-world experience of over two-decades (and not just my own). I’ve got my hands dirty and built a strong reputation on getting results where it counts. With the greatest of respect, there are some self-professed business tutors and coaches out there who have never run a business in their lives, let alone worked with (hundreds) of others.
It’s a Roll Call!
For the Winter Term I’m looking for just 15 people who are really serious about expanding their business knowledge and want to put this to good use and see this produce better results for their business.
The Programme is drawn from over 22 years of my personal business experience and focuses on the strategy and tactics that I know actually work. If you’re new to business (or even just new to marketing) it will help you cut your learning curve down considerably – not to mention potentially saving you massive amounts of money wasted on marketing that just doesn’t work.
As this is a live Programme you’ll be exposed to the very latest cutting-edge marketing tactics that capitalise on the recent significant advances in technology; all helping to make your life easier and your business simpler. You’ll find out just how much marketing has changed in the past two years and why so many businesses today are seeing diminishing results from their old-style campaigns.
The Course lasts four months and you’ll attend a One-Day Group Study Session each month, learning from a specially tailored training Programme that’s been designed and recently updated to ensure the content is fresh, relevant and applicable. You’ll be following a plan and have study material to follow as you go along so you can park your learning and build upon this progressively.
You’ll also have 1-2-1 Tutor Time with me personally to make sure you’re keeping on track and advancing your learning, as well as applying it in your business each week. There will be informal Peer Group Meetings too where you can share ideas and experiences along the way with your fellow students, helping you to even better understand and apply this new knowledge.
This Course Programme includes:
- Building & Communicating a Business Proposition
- How to Identify your Current Marketing Assets
- Effective Brand Creation & Management
- How to ‘Buy’ more customers and make a Profit
- Creating Real Leverage in Your Marketing Strategy
- The Fundamentals of Permission-Based Marketing
- Setting your Marketing Plan & Campaign Schedules
- Creating & Managing Multiple Marketing Channels
- How to Integrate your Marketing and Sales Strategies
- Tactics for Social Media – A New Wealth of Opportunity
- Setting Realistic Marketing Budgets and Measuring ROI
- How to Write Killer Marketing Copy like a Professional
- Effective PR that you can do for Yourself
- Working in Collaboration with Others – the Power of Joint-Venture
… a fitting location; Drayton Old Lodge, home to our Academy!
Is this for you?!
You don’t have to be a post-graduate or possess any special academic skills to join this Programme; a modest working knowledge of verbal and written English is all that you require… and a serious thirst to learn about practical marketing.
I’ll walk you through the essential basics first, then introduce you to the exciting stuff and show you how other businesses are adopting new ways to successfully market their products and services. You’ll learn what’s most current in the world of marketing, not re-hashed material that was out of date ten years ago!
Above all, this is a chance to really get some focus on your business from a marketing perspective; and I’m firmly of the opinion that if you’ve got a good handle on your marketing you’re more than half-way on the road to business success.
There will be only 15 places available for this next Term and I want you to have all the information you need to decide if this is right for you. So I’d like to encourage you now to request the full information pack to find out more (you’re not making any commitment at this stage).
To get this Prospectus Information, all you need to do is submit your name and email address below; this will ONLY be used by PUSH Marketing and not passed on to any third parties and you can unsubscribe at any time. Please note; the Prospectus is not on general release but on request only.
So… I’m going to leave you with a few very straight-forward questions that I think will help you decide if you’d like to be on this Programme:
- How serious are you about ‘growing’ your business? If you’re happy with the way things are and really don’t think you can change your results then this Programme is clearly not for you. If you know things could be better, then read on…
- Do you feel that your knowledge of practical marketing may be lacking or perhaps just a little bit out of date? And more importantly, do you want to DO something about it now?
- Do you find that you learn best when you’ve got a proper tutor guiding you through structured lesson plans, with practical exercises and follow-up work to complete?
- Would you value the benefit of studying alongside like-minded individuals who also want to gain an advantage in their business? Do you like learning in small groups?
- Have you ever felt that you’ve previously missed out on a more formal academic business education but never really found a programme that makes sense in terms of time and money invested?
- If you could learn new ways to bring new customers and clients to your business and all this took was some knowledge, your focus and some support, would you go ahead?
- Are you ready to step up a gear, demonstrate your business commitment by investing in yourself and learning new skills that will repay you over and over again..?
If my message above has stirred something deep inside you and if you’re curious to find out more, I’m offering you a chance to get the new Academy Prospectus and apply for a place on the next term of this year.
Just email apply@pushmarketingacademy.co.uk and mention where you found out about the Academy; I’ll send you a PDF Prospectus by return.
If you just want to talk over your thoughts or ask me any questions, I’m here – unlike some, I don’t hide behind my website! Pick up the phone and call me for some personal time and attention – 0844 357 0230
I very much hope you’ll take the next step on your journey of learning and would love to welcome you to the PUSH Marketing Academy this year.
Sincerely
Nial Adams
Academy Principal Tutor
PUSH Marketing Academy - Enquiry Form.
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The New Email Marketing Revolution is here, will you be joining us?
Find out how every business can harness the power of EFFECTIVE Email Marketing… today!
A 60-minute presentation that lifts the lid and shows you how you can steal the advantage!
For too long email marketing has been ineffective and hard to measure accurately. Many businesses still see email as a way to just stay in touch; however, significant new advances in email marketing technology have changed all this. The smart business owners and managers are using this already, are you?!
“Since we’ve been using the new system we’re getting results that are 100-200% better than anything before”
Email marketing is still rated as the most cost-effective way to get your message right under the nose of your target audience. Even more than this, it can deliver a number of ways to accelerate your business.
Nial Adams, acclaimed marketing specialist and public speaker will be delivering this presentation and sharing his knowledge with you.
“This guy knows what he’s talking about and shares everything!” – Previous Seminar Delegate
Attend this presentation and find out how properly managed Email Marketing can help you:
- Sell more and increase your profit margins
- Reduce waste in your current marketing
- Refine and grow your prospect/client data
- Help you find out what your customers actually want
- Build your client community and relationships
- Ensure email is integrated with your other marketing
Email Marketing has been around for years and for many the perception is that it simply doesn’t generate results and can alienate potential customers. New ways of managing and distributing your email campaigns can significantly increase the results you get and help you build on this month after month. Best of all, you can be up and running, in control, with your new email campaigns in a matter of days, and with low start-up costs.
People tell us:
“I don’t want people to see us as spammers”
“How can I effectively measure my results?”
“I don’t know enough about it to be confident”
In this fast-paced sixty-minute presentation you’ll find out how the new PUSH Email Marketing System is generating controllable results, today, that significantly beat the competition.
You will see a live demonstration of how powerful systems can help you run a campaign in the morning and start making sales in the afternoon. You’ll also find out why most businesses that use email marketing currently are actually damaging their brand, losing out on simple ways to increase results and letting their profits end up in the pockets of their competition.
TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT PLEASE CALL - 0843 289 1590
OR EMAIL – briefing@pushemailmarketing.co.uk
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Why most businesses struggle with their marketing
And why your business should be boring and predictable!
For a little over twenty years now I’ve been looking at what makes a successful business tick and, more to the point, why it is that so many businesses struggle to get off the ground and stay aloft. For several years I was convinced that the only way to be sure my own business would be successful was to read every book, study every ‘guru’ and learn the hidden secrets that clearly eluded so many.
I also fell for the big lie; I now call this the M-myth… OK, Mr Gerber got there first but just as the ‘E-myth’ explains what holds back so many business owners (and it’s a must read!), my version, the M-myth, is a simple way to let you know that marketing really isn’t as difficult as you might imagine and much of what people believe about it just isn’t true.
Now, I know I’ll ruffle more than a few feathers when I say this but let me share something very important with you. Most of what you’ll read and hear about marketing, especially from the so-called marketing experts, is total bunkum. What a lot of marketing experts want you to believe is that marketing is actually a very difficult and complex subject and far too technical for the average business owner to understand.
The truth is very different. I believe (and have proved) that you can teach most business owners and managers the simple mechanics of good marketing practice and that these can be applied very quickly and easily. Above all, you don’t need to spend a small fortune. There’s no magic involved and there is a simple formula that can be learned and followed. You just need someone you can trust to show you how this works and how to apply it to your business.
Certainly, there is no getting away from the fact that a very large proportion of businesses, of all sizes and types, are wasting hard-earned profits, making unnecessary mistakes and losing out to the smarter, better informed competition. The big problem with marketing is that there are so many ways you can approach it and an almost endless list of marketing methods and approaches. This tends to be confusing for a lot of people; as a result they normally resort to doing one of two things:
1) Try to do what they THINK will work for them and spend time and money going around in circles never really getting the consistent results they want and never being really clear about what works and what doesn’t. Or…
2) Alternatively, they trust a marketing ‘expert’ who helps them spend money on feeling good about their business but still doesn’t really produce results that can be defined or, most importantly, replicated.
There are a couple of really vital things I’d like to make you aware of and can guarantee that if you start to apply this type of thinking to your marketing, and your business as a whole, you’ll begin to see better results and be able to build on this progressively. Both of these points were vital business components I learned from my mentor about ten years ago and I’ve proved since then how essential and valuable these really are.
RULE No. 1 First of all, make marketing the core of your business.
This radically changes the way many business owners think of their business. All too often marketing is an afterthought in many businesses. Let me paint you a picture; most of us go into business, in a particular field, because we have an interest, passion or in-depth knowledge of it. This is exactly what Gerber talks about in the E-myth. This is not wrong but what is vital is to understand that the core strength in your business is probably not going to be your knowledge of the given subject but rather your knowledge of business mechanics themselves. In other words; don’t focus on your expertise in making chocolates, selling insurance, designing IT solutions, or whatever it is you do; focus on your business skills first.
It’s shocking to consider that most people running their own business are doing so not because they know, have learned or have been taught about good business skills but rather because they are knowledgeable and have a passion for the subject of their business. Many business owners and managers actually know very little about how to run a business using proven and successful systems and processes.
Of all the business skills you need to learn about, one of the most essential (arguably THE most essential) is to know how to market what you have. If you cannot successfully market what you have, every other element of your business fails to have any purpose. It’s no good being the best salesperson if you can’t attract good prospects and potential customers. It’s no good being the best specialist in your field if you don’t have anyone to buy your products or services from you. It’s no good being adept at the management, financial control, etc. in your business if you don’t have a queue of people wanting to buy from you.
Many business owners will look at a way to outsource their marketing. If you make and sell widgets, or if you provide customers with a great service it seems obvious that this is where you need to focus your efforts but the fact is that everything in your business will flow from your marketing.
I’ve often come across business owners who tell me that they have such confidence in their brand and customer loyalty that they simply don’t need to promote or market what they have. Admittedly, a very few businesses are so famous, so unique, that they will always have a queue for their product/service, however this is very rare. It’s no coincidence that a large number of these other businesses have simply withered and perished during the last recession. You cannot, ever, be complacent about your ability to attract new customers, if you have no marketing platform, you put your business at serious risk.
My mentor shared with me a concept that your business should become a marketing business and in fact you should outsource everything else! That might sound a little too radical but I hope I make the point. Know how to successfully market what you have and you will always have a business that thrives and has the potential to be profitable. Invest in yourself and your business; learn how to market what you have properly and successfully, everything else will fall into place.
RULE No. 2. Business should be ’boring and predictable’
When one of my early mentors first told me this I was a little shocked and really rather disappointed; I wanted my business to be fun, exciting and a challenge that I could really get my teeth into. Then he explained more fully; your business should follow a proven system. Every business is a ‘system of systems’. You should know what happens in your business and learn that when you do something the result will be predictable. I’ve come to understand this philosophy and appreciate the simplistic beauty of it.
When you begin a marketing campaign you should have a resource of data and knowledge from your previous campaign and be able to build upon this. Each time you run a new campaign or exercise you can get a better result and continue to fine tune it. Just like a Formula 1 racing team, you don’t turn up at the next race and start making radical changes that you are uncertain about. You build on the experience you have and the business data that tells you what works and what doesn’t. This is something I’ve been applying over the past couple of years to email marketing; now my results are consistently 200-300% higher than the industry averages.
I know this concept works and I can prove it to you. Just about every successful business I’ve ever come across, worked with or engaged with as a consumer, has something in common; they have solid systems and processes that they follow every day. These aren’t guess work, they are supported by the evidence of success built up over time. So what about that new business that’s just starting out? Well, even better; if yours is a new business you have the chance to start as you mean to go on and build systems in your business that test and measure what you do and what results you get. Once you’ve got systems in place you can repeat these over and over again, continually fine tuning and refining your business. This will help you to ensure your business becomes ‘boring and predictable’ – and why do you want this?
- Your business should be systemised, then you can train others to run and manage the different components for you.
- You can actually take time off, step away from the day-to-day running of your business – do you have a business or a job?
- You can replicate and scale up your business when you have proven systems and processes – think of all the largest companies; from a coffee chain like Costa to airline like Virgin, a high-street bank and supermarket, they all share something in common, they have standard systems and operating procedures.
- You can build systems within your business that become part of the asset value and you can sell it!
KEY LEARNING POINTS:
- Don’t believe everything you hear or read in the marketing books – marketing doesn’t need to be complex!
- Accept that learning and understanding about business skills is often more important than the subject of your product or service
- There are lots of marketing methods and approached; you need to find the ones that work for you; you’ll need to test and measure to find this out.
- Don’t continually repeat marketing campaigns and exercises because you THINK they work; get the evidence from your results!
- Put solid marketing at the core of your business and build everything else around this, or outsource parts of the business that you don’t need to do.
- Don’t become reliant upon strong customer loyalty always have a marketing plan in place and use it.
- Build systems in your business, no mater how small it might be – scale up and replicate these for growth and capital value.
- Avoid radical changes and jumping around with ideas; follow a structure and build your business on it one step at a time.
And lastly…
Aim to have a business that’s boring and predictable - this way you’ll know what to expect, have control over your business and the ability to step away from it and enjoy it. Remember; you’re building a business, not giving yourself a job!
Resources; Michael Gerber on the E-myth.
Nial Adams