The Business Growth Show, as you may have guessed is a show for businesses to exhibit those products or services that would help an SME to grow. There were numerous exhibitors present offering everything from customised chocolate bars (to replace standard business cards) through to business style consultants which made for an interesting and varied day.

Both Joe and I arrived at 7:30am to set up and had to tactically negotiate the Forbury Gardens forecourt whilst manhandling an incredibly heavy presentation table and Matt’s 26” computer screen which I can assure you was no easy task.

Once we had successfully navigated our way around the revolving doors, we went through to the main room to set up. Our kit list comprised our attention grabbing Generate UK pop-up banner, the ever so heavy presentation table, Joe’s laptop, Matt’s unreasonably large computer screen and a couple of boxes of chocolate to attract business people of all kinds.

Having arrived early, we were able to set up with little interruption and took the time before 9am to meet and greet other exhibitors close by. Directly in front of us was visualize, a video production company specialising in web videos for business i.e. product demonstrations, introductions etc. To our right was a selection of stands, particularly one giving away books on free PR techniques (which I signed up for in a well-suited flash) and to our immediate left was a large table playing home to the free refreshments, which was ideal as it meant that everyone who took advantage of the free refreshments throughout the day was instantly exposed to our colourful presence.

Having pinched many sweets and taken a few business cards from others nearby, we began to engage with the first trickle of people to arrive as the doors opened at 9am. Some were there just so they could get away from work, others were there to make a sale without paying the exhibitors fees and there were a fair few who were genuinely interested in researching methods of SME growth. This mix was to be expected, but as the day wore on more and more people arrived and it got to a stage where no one could bare to wear their suit jackets any longer as the air conditioning failed to make its presence felt.  So if you are thinking of hosting an event, ensure you can keep your crowd cool, even if the number of attendees exceeds your expectations! It’s good for business.

As the room became busier, I disappeared for 30 minutes to attend my first ever speed networking event. It was an interesting experience; looking back I’m quite sure I have never had so many one-on-one conversations with so many people in such little time! The room contained some 20 chairs facing one another with one set off to the side at one end. The idea was for everyone to sit down and once the stop watch was set, for the people on the left of the room to begin talking about their business for precisely one minute. Once this was done, their conversational partner was then supposed to reciprocate all the same information on their own business for a further minute, during which time some business cards would likely have changed hands. I unfortunately made the mistake of sitting in the chair set off to the side at the very beginning. This is the chair you sit in to give your vocal chords a rest for two minutes which everyone eventually ends up in. So I used up my ‘get out of jail free card’ right at the very beginning. On the plus side however, it did give me the chance to observe everyone else in the act so I knew what to do when my turn came. I spoke to a multitude of people by the end and even engaged with one chap on the subject of improving his website so all in all, it was a beneficial experience. Although I would argue that just one minute gives out just about enough time to say your name, company, 5 words about what you do and maybe allowing you to mention a client or two. You need much more time to converse on a meaningful level.

After the event I went back to the stand to supervise the free chocolates and talk ‘shop’ with anyone that looked at our banner or Matt’s huge screen. I met many interested parties and really enjoyed speaking to them. I discovered that digital marketing is becoming much more popular which is why so many people were drawn to our stand. Many copyrighters quizzed me about the benefits of social media and article submissions and I had at least three web developers and graphic designers approach me to discuss the possibility of a partnership where our technical expertise would plug the gaps in their services.

All in all the event demonstrated just how important networking is. Even if you don’t immediately make sales off the back of the day, you can still build profitable partnerships with other people in the industry. Joe and I still managed to arrange future contact with some of the attending business people so the event in essence will pay for itself. Besides the sales element however, there is a great opportunity to learn and discover new and prevailing trends in the industry whether it be an up-and-coming technology or a new take on an almost forgotten product.

Overall it was a great day and it gave me the chance to exercise my knowledge and deep bass vocal tones with people from all industries and levels of business. In one case I actually accessed the company website of one interested individual and pointed out a number of problems with their page that we could fix in no time at all to generate additional traffic. To top it off, I was also told by a style consultant that I was ‘incredibly well dressed’ for a man of my complexion, which made me feel rather smug for most of the afternoon whilst Joe was told that his complexion made up only 2% of the UK populous and that the colour that suits him best is ‘coral’, much to his surprise. Although I doubt he’ll be rushing out to buy a ‘coral’ shirt or tie anytime soon.

So if you have something new and of value to the SME sector and you have a bit of budget to spend, I would recommend this particular show. Just be sure to dress in something breathable next time just in case they don’t improve the air-conditioning.

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June 30th saw us present yet another of our locally renowned seminars at the beautiful Donnington Grove Country Club, this time in the Kennet suite. Around fifty delegates from companies spanning a whole variety of industries attended, including people from CSC, Hyperbole, Verbatim and many, many more. We kicked off the seminar with some light refreshments and networking and with the excellent weather, the mood was fantastic. Once much of the coffee had disappeared, our attendees were ushered into our very own Mr Joe Baily’s introduction and presentation. Joe discussed the way in which we here at Generate UK operate and work with clients, as well as discussing the underlying foundations and technologies that should support a business’ online marketing activity. Will your CMS grow with your company, or will it stop working as soon as your growth explodes? Does your marketing roadmap include the latest social media platforms? Are you missing out on any key marketing activities, like e-mail marketing for example? This helped open some eyes and hopefully encouraged our attendees to look at the road ahead, why update your strategy now… When the wheels of the underlying vehicle will fall off in the near future? You might as well get both right now to save a lot of heart ache and expense in the long term!

Michael Robinson then took the reigns and went on to explain some of the jargon and terms commonly used in the Internet marketing industry. Many questions were asked and many were thusly enlightened on the subjects of ‘Black hat’ vs ‘White hat’ SEO techniques and ‘Google Bombing’ among many others. This demonstrated that in having knowledge of all the different SEO and Internet marketing approaches, we can better advise and improve upon our client s online activity. This put to rest many of the doubts our delegates had regarding things like Google AdSense, Pay Per Click, Keywords and link-building where they had bad experiences in the past when working with less experienced or ‘black hat’ agencies.

The seminar was then adjourned for another round of tea and coffee so that we could make our way around and speak to many of those who attended as possible. We found that our delegates had differing reasons for attending, but many were surprised by the planned scope of the event and were very much looking forward to seeing the rest of what we had to offer.

Having set high expectations with the first half of the event, it was then down to our guest speaker Mr Ian Summerfield from Optim IP to continue the trend. Ian presented on the subject of Cloud Computing, a technology that has been around for quite sometime, but is only just entering the mainstream. Ian certainly delivered; his presentation roused many questions as some of our attendees could not believe that they could compute with incredible power, on inexpensive devices through a service provided from half way across the globe. Ian illustrated that the use of Cloud Computing is not a question of if, but when. Microsoft is giving the cloud their full backing, and more and more charities rely on cloud computing as a cheaper, more flexible alternative to maintaining their own infrastructure. Not only this, but many other platforms will migrate to the cloud from film rental, to console gaming which will dramatically change the way businesses utilise their marketing channels and the way in which they manage their customer engagement. This gave our audience much to think about as they were about to be instructed on the use of design in marketing.

Matt Lewin and I presented on a number of related subjects that determine whether or not your website design is current. I began by introducing on-page SEO, navigation and web standards as well as their affects on accessibility and design. Many people do not give these points the consideration that they deserve and to illustrate their significance I showed how many larger organisations have been sued for ignoring these points. After all, in not adhering to these guidelines, you could be damaging your user experience for up to 48% of your audience.

I then handed the talk over to Matt so he could talk our audience through the importance of designing a website with their key marketing activity and priorities in mind as well as demonstrating how a company web page could be better built for user interaction through portals and social platforms.  The reason being that marketing is moving to a more integrated and interactive paradigm and some smaller companies are falling behind the trend and could potentially be losing business as a result. Matt also talked our delegates through the process of determining their site sizing and layout so that it engages the user in all the right ways, ultimately delivering better returns and conversions which should be a part of every businesses marketing strategy.

To top off an already brilliant event, our very own social media guru Mr Ian Fergusson began to convert our audience into becoming more social media savvy. Ian shocked our audience with impressive facts and creative figures on the sheer volume of social media users and then went on to tell us that if Facebook was a country, it would be the 4th biggest country in the world behind the US based on registered users alone! If that was not shocking enough, Facebook itself has seen a dramatic shift in demographic from 16-18 year olds to mainly 45-54 year olds! So it is certainly no longer a ‘kid’s thing’ which makes it a marketing tool to be considered much more seriously as part of an integrated marketing arsenal. This talk was well received all round with many delegates asking for training and tips on how to leverage these platforms properly themselves.

After the presentation, we took questions from the floor and explained some of our fields in more depth. We were then locked into deep marketing conversations with many of our delegates 1-on-1 to advise them on some of the marketing issues they had stumbled across quite recently. We talked these through with them and suggested ways they could perhaps revisit these activities and tweak their approach to better their results.

We love to help people and businesses with their online marketing and the feedback we received on the number of free tools we gave away and the advice we included in our seminar was astounding. So much so that we are currently planning another event to invite you all back to! If you would like to request access to the presentations from our great speakers, then please click here.
I look forward to seeing you all again in the future!

Kind regards,
John King.

I did however go to a seminar today on this very subject that did exactly that! No the room wasn’t full of ‘grandmas’, but it did break down the mysterious lore that is social media and online marketing into easily digested nuggets of knowledge.
This seminar was hosted by Generate UK at the spectacular Donnington Grove in their ‘Cloud Suite’. The ‘Cloud Suite’ is a luxurious room lined with lovely old paintings, overshadowed by a fantastic painted ceiling. There was free tea and coffee, there was glorious sunshine and there was a friendly buzz as attendees began to arrive.

We were all seated in some rather fancy chairs and we covered a variety of things from e-marketing myth busting to the fundamentals of the ‘twitterverse’. I already knew some of the basics that were covered but it was nice to see that all the fundamentals were explained so that everyone else understood the more advanced things that were to follow. Overall it was very well presented and it left no one guessing.

Over the course of the morning I mentally noted a number of clever marketing devices for later use. I learned that no more are the days where one could simply post a few thousand identical links all over the Internet to rank their page from ‘unheard of’ to ‘the industry authority’ in a matter of weeks; nor can you purchase links on leading websites to boost your own rankings… Well, not without major repercussions anyway. The emphasis nowadays is on natural link building, quality and content with a hint of tweeting; although the ‘Tweeting’ is optional.

Natural link building is the activity that promotes the recommendation of your online presence by getting other online entities to refer to your site naturally via a link; this could be as a point of interest, or perhaps in the form of a recommendation of your products or services. This is done of their own accord. This is now necessary because the search engines have ‘wizened-up’ to those manipulative chaps that have previously gone out to the marketplace to spam every existing website with their own links and false recommendations; all in a bid to rank higher on the search engine results. The current digital marketing paradigm now dictates that it is better for a company ‘footprint’ to grow gradually over time as more and more web users begin to trust the site in question and recognise it as an authority in the field.  For those of you that didn’t know, an online footprint is the measurement of your own online presence size… Yet another vital thing I learned today that I have lovingly passed on to you.

Now, can you tell me of something currently going on in your life or workplace that you’ve told other people about? I bet you can. Yet, many companies with an online presence clam-up and communicate next to nothing. If you have some experience in a particular field, enough for you to generate money from, it must be worth shouting about surely?
This is where we come on to the subject of quality and content. I learned today that some companies are beginning to embrace this as a guideline for their online activity. Not too many years ago the majority of companies had a static website that was occasionally updated with some generic company news. Nowadays however, the early adopters of new digital marketing methods and technology are beginning to share their knowledge, views and information online. This interactivity allows users to communicate with the company in a dynamic fashion allowing the aforementioned businesses to stay firmly on the industry pulse; this is due to their grass roots interaction with the end consumer, so businesses are more aware of what these consumers are thinking right now.

How is this done? In a surprisingly simple way actually, it’s all a question of sharing targeted, interesting and relevant content with the web surfers you want to attract to your business.  This does require that you embrace some of the new social media platforms that have recently come to power though i.e. Facebook, Twitter, del.icio.us etc. So although the process may seem straight forward, there is a significant learning curve involved which puts many companies off.
Let me give you an example. Imagine you and I run a fashion outlet for customised clothing and accessories. We could do our traditional market research, develop prototype designs and then hope that when these items finally go on sale they will indeed, sell. This is admittedly, a very short-sighted example but now imagine this; instead of doing our in-house research with a few participants… We opened up a website listing all of our latest designs. We could then use a platform like Twitter to ‘Tweet’ (post information about) those designs to the masses whilst linking back to the main site. This would then open the door to other ‘Twitterers’ (Twitter users) for them to offer valuable feedback on our designs and to perhaps make some valuable recommendations for change. Not only that, but by engaging with the fashion conscious community on Twitter, we could explore what other people in the field are talking about and then throw in our own ‘two cents’ on the subject. We have just outlined a way to improve our customer interaction, improve our market research and product design process as well as establish ourselves as an authority in the field of fashion by expressing our expert opinion in up-to-the-minute conversations on the subject; all the while building natural links and generating traffic to our sales website, hopefully earning some extra money. Of course such a strategy would require much more thought and planning, but such a scenario is not uncommon where clever individuals have managed to leverage this powerful technology to their own business benefit.

The basics however are centred on sharing relevant, quality content with other users in an engaging way so that these users will interact with your business. Got a new product line? Tweet it. Planning a big PR event? Set up an events page on Facebook. Little things like this as part of a wider marketing plan can really level the playing field when competing for business against larger faceless corporations. Consumers like to know there is a bit of humanity in the business workings somewhere, something they can relate to. This is what makes quality content sharing on these innovative platforms so damned powerful.

Last week I attended my first Speed Networking Event at Windsor Racecourse and thought that it was certainly worth a Blog post! Initially I was pretty sceptical and didn’t really know what to expect, but I have to say I was really impressed.

The event was hosted by Speed Networking Events who are committed to growing Speed Networking throughout the UK.

I really enjoyed the afternoon and left feeling pretty exhausted! The format involved 20 different companies and you literally had three minutes (one and a half minutes each!) to tell each other about yourself, your business and how you could potentially help each other. After only 5 mini meetings I had already met some really interesting people and a few potential business opportunities!

Whilst not all 19 meetings represented an interest for me, I did find it fascinating to hear about people’s views, hear their enthusiasm and understand their business pains, all within 90 seconds!

After 9 meetings we stopped for a break during which we received an excellent presentation from John Shenton who represented a company called BIA who helps companies improve business growth through people communications. After some tips from John as to how we should approach each of our mini meetings and some more light refreshments, people then entered into the second phase of meetings with renewed vigour.

The idea is a simple yet effective concept and the event was certainly a worthwhile exercise, it really opened my eyes to other businesses and I would recommend any person(s) who want to meet new people and engage with different businesses.

For more information about an event in your area visit Speed Networking Events

There are many ways to market your seminar, it largely depends on they type of event you’re planning to run, who your audience is and how they tend to take in their information. For example, if you’re targeting people within the IT sector, it is a fair bet that they have access to the Internet and emails. If you’re targeting building site foremen, then email might not be the best way to communicate with them.

1. Leave plenty of time to market your event, usually 6-8 weeks is about right. You might want to extend this to 12-16 weeks if you’re targeting larger numbers of delegates.

2. Decide on what media you are going to use to tell people about your seminar. You should create a marketing schedule that will outline when your communication and advertising is planned for.

3. If you’re buying data in especially for your seminar, we recommend that you warm your list up first. If your target delegates have never heard from you before, they might not connect your company with their market or as a company they might be interested in. Warm your list up by submitting to it and offering a white paper or something that begins to add to your credibility like a case study.

4. Find out where your target market is likely to be. Is it worth sponsoring a web site that you know attracts the profile of delegate you want to market to. Are there joint venture opportunities to market to other lists in return for them speaking at your event or similar contra? Is there a governing body or a busy forum that you could use to filter information about your event? Whatever you choose, do not rely on just one method.

5. Make it easy for your delegates to book their place on the seminar. This is a crucial factor so spend some time on this. If you’re sending them an email, make sure that they can respond to the email to register their interest, many companies use a noreply email alias when marketing to their email list, this is frustrating for your potential delegates if they respond to your marketing with a question.

6. Use best practice for your seminar landing page. Provide an overview of your seminar, details of the agenda, details of who should attend and why and the option to register via the page. Don’t forget to include details of the location, a map and full address (for those using satnav) details. If you’re in London, details of the nearest tube station.

7. Consider placing a .ICS file on your event landing page. This is the standard way to install calendar information on your web page. This will allow your delegates to download a calendar entry that will populate their chosen calendar programme, such as Outlook. This is a nice way of pre booking your event in their diary and increase the chances that they do not double book.

8. Use an autoresponder to confirm their seminar place is booked, ensure that you include all of the information as it relates to the event and contact details in case they have questions or queries. Make sure the basics like a link to the address details is provided.

9. Iin our opinion this next stage is critical to the success of your seminar; staying in touch with the delegates who have registered. We would suggest that from cold list to seminar attendee you will need to touch your contact a minimum of 5 times, obviously this changes depending on the circumstances. Below is our touch process when using email marketing for seminars:

l Warm up the list, initial offering of case study or similar.
l Additional touch designed to show your expertise in a specific market.
l Market the seminar
l Autoresponder thanking those that register
l A follow up email with a slight change to the agenda (optional)
l Phone call to establish what the delegate is looking to learn
l Final call to check dietary requirements and attendance plans.

The above list is useful because it provides you with a number of different interactions with your delegate. At the same time you are constantly qualifying them, did they respond to your initial offer, did they register for the seminar, did they show an interest when you spoke to them, were you able to arrange some one-on-one time with them? All of this is great and will allow you to have a better picture of your delegate and plan your event well.

The worst case scenario here is that you have had a number of opportunities to find out the potential number of attendees. If through your calls or emails you realise that you have more people coming than than space in the room, you have an opportunity to do something about it.

Seminar marketing is an exceptional way to deliver your message to multiple qualified prospects. By attending your event and taking time out of their day, your delegates are sending you a strong message that they are interested in what you have to say. The universal challenge with seminar marketing is in ensuring that the right number of delegates attend and getting enough bottoms on seat to justify the expense and effort of creating a seminar.

This guide runs through the steps we take when marketing a seminar for ourselves or on behalf of our clients. We may tweak the process slightly depending on the market sector we’re targeting, in the main though our thought process will be much the same.

Whilst this guide focuses on seminars, it can be extended to other events. In fact, as a general marketing guide it can be used for any new “go to market strategy”.

Considerations for your Seminar

1. Consider the objectives of your seminar. It sounds simple but is very important. Write them down and agree what will make a successful seminar. How many delegates do you want? What profile of delegate do you want? Is it a business development seminar or an educational event?

2. Think about what you have to say or offer. In our opinion the more focused an event the better chance of it being successful. Think about the challenges that are happening right now in your customer base. Work out how to demonstrate your expertise in a way that will benefit your delegates.

3. Visit and evaluate a number of potential locations for your event. Consider whether it is large enough for your requirements Are the staff friendly and helpful? Is it easy to find and does it have enough car parking? It is important that your event has a separate registration area and a place for tea and coffee.

4. Once you have chosen a potential location, decide upon the format of your event. Consider whether you need to provide refreshments (advisable) or lunch if your event is longer. These are the times for you network with your delegates and for your delegates to network with each other.

5. There are many different styles of events you could consider. Speed networking is quite popular at the moment, which is a spin off from the more well known speed dating format, this is proven to work in the right circumstances, although we use this method with caution. We prefer a more traditional approach because we know that it works, if it helps you to differentiate your event from others it might be worth it to consider other styles.

6. Once you have decided to do an event and have chosen your location, the next important step is the agenda. We are not always in the fortunate position that our brand or profile alone is enough to attract delegates, so the agenda becomes critical. This is your chance to say to your target market “Come to our event or miss out on this very important news”.

7. The agenda is critical in the sense that it needs to be attractive and of value but also it needs to be presented in this way as well. It is no good having a great day plenned full of fantastic presentations, only for your agenda to be stale and unimaginative. This is your opportunity to use the headlines to your advantage. Tell you audience what they will get out of attending your event. If you’re showing your delegates a new release of your product that does something they have been crying out for, mention it!

8. It is easy to fall into the trap of creating an agenda that is basically a list of sales presentations, this will disappoint your delegates. To really attract delegates, you must provide them with some value. Help them to solve a challenge they’re having, provide them with something useful that will make them look good. Whatever it is, you will have already identified this at the early stages of identifying the objectives for your seminar.

9. Now that we have seminar objectives, key success factors, a location, a target audience and an agenda; we need to start telling people about the event. This largely depends on your budget, however you will want to take elements of these suggestions and work them into your own seminar marketing.

10. Consider the impact of your speakers, are they industry experts? Are they credible and are they able to deliver the message in line with your objectives. Sometimes it is viable to work with other companies to increase the value of your agenda. It is also worth considering a guest speaker or someone that you know who is well know or has a very interesting story.