Entries by Darren Stevens

The end of an era

It was with more than a little sadness we heard on Wednesday of the decision to stop publishing The Gloucestershire Echo and Gloucester Citizen as daily newspapers and instead to publish them as a weekly paper. Now to put this into context I am of a generation that I still recall as a child rushing […]

What to do when Marketing goes wrong ……

In the ideal world, everything you ever do on the Marketing front will be a rip roaring success. But from time to time things can go wrong for even the best marketers – but then is the time for a calm head and to ask yourself some questions (or ask somebody like us), to help […]

You have a website, so what …………. next?

Our top 10 tips for making sure you make the most out of your website and what it can do for your business. The chances are that if you are reading this and you either work in a business or run a business yourself, then that business will have a website. The possible exceptions might […]

Our Marketing predictions for 2017

As we approach 2017, here are our 12 predictions for the Marketing industry in 2017.

1. The percentage share of Marketing budgets devoted to some form of digital marketing will increase.

2. There will be a rush to make website https as Chrome rolls out its planned changes to mark non secure websites as insecure.

3. The importance of social media will increase, but the market will also become more fragmented, with the dominance of the likes of Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin becoming increasingly challenged (very much a continuation of 2016).

4. More and more businesses will adopt content marketing as they strive to increase traffic to their websites.

5. Demand for experienced Marketing staff will climb, outstripping supply and leading to more firms to “grow their own”.

6. Integrated marketing, will become the norm – with less and less businesses running marketing or campaigns in silos.

7. Businesses will devote more time and energy to their full digital presence, not just their website and will strive for a more consistent brand image.

8. Economic uncertainty will prevail driving businesses to source suppliers locally.

9. Customer expectations will continue to climb and the gulf between expectations and reality will grow wider. This will drive more firms to measure customer experience and invest in training and technology to improve results.

10. Pressure on marketing budgets will increase the focus on customer retention, cross selling and improving conversion rates on new enquiries.

11. Businesses will place an increased importance on customer and prospect data. Ensuring it is up-to-date, complete and increasingly segmented.

12. Growing numbers of businesses will turn to outsourced providers to supplement existing resources or skills (well you would expect us to say that wouldn’t you?)

2016 – a month by month guide to what happened

In a year of such major political events, it is all too easy to overlook some of the main events in the world of marketing. We list here a light hearted look at twelve marketing things that happened in 2016 – one for each month of the year. January John Cleese returned as Basil Fawlty […]

The power of Social Media

Social media isn’t just there to grow your brand and connect with old friends, when done correctly, the big platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram can play a key role in creating new business leads and attracting new customers. Let’s take a look at how Trumps triumphant yet surprising win in the USA presidency […]