How To Maximise Your Online Presence by Guest Blogger, Bob Francis

It never ceases to surprise me how many small businesses still do not effectively promote themselves on line. Many have a website but do not use this resource to its maximum advantage and many are unaware of the other ways in which they can promote themselves and their business. So here are a number of simple tips that can be used to maximise your online presence:

1. Get listed in Google Places

Google searches now prioritise local results. By entering your businesses details in Google Places, Google will be able to index your business and provide these details in searches improving your ranking and providing increased traffic to your website.

2. Get listed in appropriate directories

There are many Online directories covering all types of businesses. One of the best known is Freeindex. In addition to a basic entry of all you business details you can enhance the listing and include links to your website. Most directories get thousands of hits a day and will provide traffic to your site. You can also use sites like Gum Tree to enter a free ad for your products and services.

3. Get articles published in article directories

This is a great way to develop your position as a thought leader and to expose your brand to a wider audience. Articles will be picked up by other sites or bloggers and published with your by-line and website details. Google now indexes these articles which helps with SEO and increased traffic to your site. Ezine Articles is a good example of such a site.

4. Write a Squidoo Lens

Squidoo allows you to build a simple one page website which can be used to promote a product, service or special offer. Economies of scale means that again this will be seen by many people outside your normal sphere of influence and help to improve rankings.

5. LinkedIn

One of the most useful social media activities you can engage in is updating and maintaining your profile in LinkedIn. You can start your own Group based on your business and invite people to engage with you discussing issues that affect your market. In addition you can raise your profile by answering questions raised by other members of LinkedIn. As part of the answer you can link to topic experts, perhaps within your company as well as provide further information by including links to your website.

6. Facebook

Over recent years Facebook has grown substantially in numbers of users and in the way they can interact. In addition to setting up your own personal Facebook page, you can now set up Groups and your own Business Page. For some parts of the population this is the main form of communication and if that is your market then you need to maximise your engagement with this media. Because of the real time nature of communicating by Facebook it is ideal for starting conversations on new products and services and asking about future trends.

7. Twitter

When Twitter started it was primarily used for friends to tell each other what they were doing. It was simple to use, took no time to deliver 140 characters of information and could be done on the run (using mobile technology.) More recently businesses have taken to Twitter as a means of driving traffic to websites and blogs. By adding links to photos, websites, products, offers etc it has become a mainstream communication tool for business.

8. Blogging

Most websites are static and are rarely updated. Often this is due to the technology used making it difficult for anyone other than a programmer to change anything. But the one thing that a website must do is attract visitors and get them to carry out some form of action (call, email, buy.) One method of keeping visitors coming back time and again is to provide regular updates on activities within the company or market place, information on products and services, special offers and the like. The addition of a good blog to a website will help with SEO, traffic and will help to keep customers engaged. Take a look at Blogger and WordPress.

9. Maximise your reviews

In a B to C environment buying tends to be done after referral to friends relatives and work colleagues. Peer reviews and referrals from friends has a much greater effect on the purchasing decision than anything you can do. So it is important that you obtain testimonials, case studies and third party reviews which will help customers with their buying decisions. Using organisations like Tripadvisor and Qype assists in maximising reviews of products and services.

10. Trust signals

Do not forget to include details of corporate or personal membership of trade bodies or institutes as well as copies of certificates of achievements and awards on your website. This will help improve trust between the company and is potential customers.

11. Benefits

Review your website copy. Do you talk about what you do or do you talk about what you do for customers? Customers by benefits. How do your products and services benefit customers? This is what visitors to your site need to see. They do not stay long enough to wade through lots of copy about how you make your products, what machines you have etc., etc. Focus on how you help customers save time and money which in turn will help turn more visitors in to customers.

12. Calls to action

When potential customers arrive on your home page (or other landing page) do they know what is expected of them? Does your website make clear the call to action? In many cases websites tell a good narrative story about the company and its products but neglect to take the customer on the next stage of the purchasing journey. You need to encourage them to go one step further by getting them to contact you by phone or email, to download some free information in exchange for their email address, or take up your latest special offer.

13. Google

Google offer a number of free tools to help you maximise your web presence. One of these is Google Analytics. The reports from Google Analytics helps you to understand how people interact with your website, where the enter and exit the site, how long they stay, what keywords or search terms they use and many other areas. All this information if understood and used correctly enable you to improve your site and gain more traffic and better ranking.

Another Google tool is Alerts where you can keep abreast of what is happening in your industry, any breaking news that helps you and information on competition including what people are saying about your business.

Google+ is one of the latest products from the search engine giant. This is a Social Media Tool which can be considered the equivalent of Facebook. It has some powerful features and is well worth exploring to maximise your presence.

Embedding Google Maps into your website not only helps customers find you if you have a physical presence but also ensures better rankings for your site. As indicated earlier combined with an entry in Google Places ensures more traffic can find you.

14. Google adwords

This is not a free tool but is very useful to drive up your website rankings and targets potential customers looking for your products at that moment. Depending on how much you bid for the search keyword phrases you ad will appear on the relevant search results page at or near the top ensuring you gain maximum number of hits. Costs can be held in check by use of the budget limits which ensures that you do not overspend your daily budget.

15. Title tags

Title tags are embedded in the coding for each page of your site. Most people just use their company name in the title tags. But typically most people do not search by company name therefore using keywords and phrases in the title tags will help in search engine rankings.

16. Meta tag description

This is the part of the search engine listing that appears below the main title. It should be used to describe the main benefits that you offer your customers. If Google cannot find a meta tag description it will normally pick up the first one or two lines of the website home page which as we have seen does not always do the company justice.

17. Email signature

Email signatures are a great way to promote your website, blog or other on line presence. The inclusion of hyperlinks to your website makes it easy for potential viewers to connect.

18. Email marketing

Set up a method of collecting visitors email addresses in exchange for white papers, newsletters and other useful information. Building a database of people interested in your products and services will allow you to regularly send them information on special offers, new products and services and exclusive deals. A couple of popular platforms for this are Constant Contact and MailChimp.

Bob Francis

bob.francis@sgba.co.uk

sgbabusinessadvisors.co.uk

10 Steps To Success In 2012

10 Steps To Success In 2012

With 2012 upon us and all the doom and gloom in the press about the economy, the Euro and anything else they can come up with a negative slant on to depress us – does all this news actually impact what you are doing and can do for your business?

I think not.

There is still money out there being spent. Mercedes-Benz had record sales in 2011 with an increase in sales of 8% worldwide and Rolls Royce had an increase of 31% in their sales – and neither are the cheapest of cars!

So here are 10 steps for you to consider in order to be successful (or more successful) in your business over the next 12 months:

1. Market – be clear who your ideal target prospect is. This can be based on a number of factors: geography, turnover, number of staff, role, industry sector, etc.

2. Competitive Advantage – what is your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? What distinguishes you out from your competitors that would compel customers to buy from you?

3. Message – armed with your ideal prospect and USP, you can now focus on your marketing message, being clear about the benefits of why people should do business with you.

4. Method – this refers to the means by which you get your message out to the market. This should be an ongoing process and through multiple channels.

5. Measure – whatever channels you use, make sure you are measuring your return on investment. This enables you to do more of what is working and less of what isn’t.

6. Price – often a contentious point, but on the whole, customers do not buy on price; they are looking for the right value proposition that either provides pleasure for them in some way or that alleviates a pain they have. If you have the right product or service to fulfil the need, price is not an issue.

7. Profit – “profit is sanity, turnover is vanity” – focus on the bottom line, not the headline figure.

8. Cashflow – as mentioned in an earlier article, lack of cash is the biggest threat to a business. Know your income and expenditure looking ahead.

9. Outsource – you are not an expert in everything (no one is), therefore concentrate on what you are good at and what works for your business and outsource other services; either by employing staff or engaging an external service provider.

10. Plan – if you don’t know where you are heading, how do you know when you’ve got there? Write things down in an action based plan with measurable targets in line with the objectives you have for the business.

(This is the much abridged version of the full document – available as a free download here: www.tipsforsuccess.co.uk)

When It Comes To Networking – You’re An Animal

When It Comes To Networking - You're An Animla

Now we all have our own styles or at least we see other people’s when networking, have you ever wondered which category of networker you fit into and what animal that might equate to?

Well here goes. Which one fits you the best?

(Please don’t take offence – these are done with tongue in cheek – but may strike a few nerves!).

Swan: He or she is a monogamist and only sticks to one networking group and is very loyal to that one particular organisation. This is fine but can lead to a level of ‘stagnation’ as the opportunities from that group may have been exhausted.

Monkey: They’re everywhere, attending each and every networking event going and enjoy the social interaction although aren’t necessarily that great at generating business for themselves or other people; but they are fun to be around and get on with.

Chameleon: These are the type of people who seem to always change the product or service they are offering; or have a diverse range of things they can do. This can create the ‘jack of all trades, master of none‘ dilemma.

Chick: New and only just ‘hatched‘ into the networking world, maybe a start up business, and need a little help and encouragement to get on their feet and get the most out of networking events.

Tortoise: Pretty much stay in their shell and don’t connect with people naturally or may be shy, possibly lacking in confidence. They may need coaxing a little to engage fully and feel comfortable in a large group.

Owl: A seasoned networker who knows the business community well and provides insightful advice and help to other networkers; as well as being a good source of prospects and referrals.

Spider: A very good connector of people within their business network. Building up a strong ‘web‘ of like-minded networkers that work very well together with complimentary services and understand the benefits of networking. Often they get involved in strategic alliances and joint ventures.

Bat: Blind to opportunities for other people and only interested in ‘sucking the blood’ from you and letting you know all about how great their product/service is and why you should buy it now. More of a salesman than a networker.

Hawk: Very focused, serious and clear about what they want to get out of networking. Able to identify their ‘prey‘ and develop strong relationships for mutual gain. They are highly effective when it comes to networking but may not be the most sociable.

Magpie: Only interested in collecting your ‘shiny‘ business card or the list of attendees in order to add to their newsletter or spam you after the networking meeting!

Mayfly: They are short-lived – only appear once briefly at a meeting, decide networking is not for them and they’re never seen again. Not realising that networking is a mid- to long-term investment to generate relationships that ultimately lead to business.

Did you work out which one you are?

How To Increase Your Profits By 33%

How To Increase Your Profits By 33%

It’s a simple yet common question, “How can I make my business more successful?”

Success can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people but when it comes down to it, the success of your business should only be measured by one thing – profit.

At the end of the day, it’s not how many people came in to your store or phoned in. It’s not even how many widgets you sold. At the end of the day, what truly matters is how much of a profit you made.

It would make sense then that your efforts focus on profit as the end result.

With that in mind, there are only three strategies to increase profits for your business.

1. Increase the pound size of each order
2. Increase the number of times people buy from you
3. Increase the number of people who buy from you

Most likely, your business is already primed to attack each of these three angles and implementing that attack should be fairly easy.

So, how can you increase the amount of money that someone spends with you?

The classic example of this is “Do you want fries with that?”

Maybe this just means putting your prices up? You may be interested to know that if your profit margin is 40%, putting your price up by 10% could sustain a 20% reduction in sales revenue with no impact to your profit.

(Read more on price increasing)

Secondly, how could you increase the number of times that someone buys from you? Maybe the way to do this is to offer incentives for people, such as special offers or simply by staying in communication with your client and prospect database via newsletters? The more often you are ‘in front‘ of your customer, the higher the chance they will think of you when they need the product or service that you offer.

Finally, how can you increase the number of customers? This is really down to your marketing activity. If you are really clear about your ideal customer and the benefits of doing business with you, the challenge is to get your message out there and attract more custom.

If this seems like a big hurdle, increasing each of these areas by only 10% will impact your profits by 33%.

For example, if you are selling a £10 item to 10 clients 10 times a year and your profit is 10%, that will give you a turnover of £1000 and a profit of £100.

Increasing each by 10%, will increase your turnover to £1,331 and your profit to £133 – a 33% increase overall!

3 Numbers Every Business Owner Should Know

3 Numbers Every Business Owner Should Know

If you are serious about developing and growing your business, then there are certain measurements that you should have in place so you know where your business is heading.

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it!

Break Even Point

This is the minimum level of sales that you need to make, to cover all your business costs and start to get into a profitable situation. Assuming you know your fixed costs (e.g. salaries, rents, rates – often referred to as overheads) and variable costs (these relate to the cost of production and vary with quantity e.g. raw materials) within the business, the simplest way to work this is as follows:

Work out your gross profit (GP) = Total sales – Variable Costs
Calculate your GP percentage = Gross Profit ÷ Sales
Break Even Point = Fixed Costs ÷ GP Percentage

For example, if your sales turnover is £500k, your fixed costs are £100k and your variable costs are £200k – your break even point will be £167k; meaning that once you have achieved £167k of sales revenue, you are in a profitable situation – below this number you are making a loss.

(Use the free break even point calculator to calculate your break even point)

Cashflow

Cash is the biggest killer of businesses – large and small. Knowing what money is coming in and when and what money is going out and when is vital. Unfortunately most accountants only provide historic information on your finances; often at least a few weeks if not months after the end of your accounting period. This doesn’t allow you to do much about a cashflow situation.

You should be able to forecast what cash is coming in through the orders that you currently have and hopefully can forecast. Be realistic about when the invoices will be paid and look at the worse case scenario rather than the best so you are not left with any shortfalls or surprises if money doesn’t come in on time. Likewise you can look at your outgoings, your fixed and variable costs for the business. Particularly take note of tax bills such as VAT or NI contributions as these are often a big chunk out of any business’s cashflow when these fall due.

(Forecast your cashflow using a free cashflow template)

Conversion Rate

In order to survive in business, you need new customers doing business with you. Only you know how many customers you want over the next 12 months – for some it will be 1000s, for others maybe only 10s. Either way, you need to be aware of your sales pipeline or funnel. This allows you to track a potential customer from the prospect stage right through to the point at which an order is placed or a buying transaction occurs.

Now whilst there may be a number of stages in the sales process for your business, for simplicity lets just look at prospect through to initial engagement, followed by proposal and finally order placement.

Working this backwards, the first important measure to know is your conversion rate. Of the potential clients that you get to make an offer to or engage with in a sales conversation, how many of those lead to business? For the sake of argument lets say you close 1 in 5.

Now, of the prospects that you initially engage, how many of those carry on to the next stage and are willing to accept a sales proposal. So, for example, if you are conducting a telemarketing campaign to your target market, where the aim is to get an appointment – what is your success rate here? Again, for this exercise, let’s say 1 in 10.

Finally, looking at the initial stage of the process – how do you identify your prospects in the fist place and is there a process of qualification before you start the telemarketing or next step of engagement? Maybe for your business only 1 in 10 actually get past these initial hurdles before becoming a qualified lead that you feel worthy of following up.

So what this now means is….if you want 10 new customers in the next 12 months and we use the above numbers by way of an example…you need to propose to 50 prospects, telemarket to 500 in the first place and have an initial prospect list of 5000.

Now whilst there will be variations for your particular sector, the principle is the same for any business and knowing these numbers for your business will help you much more effective in your marketing; as well as looking to improve your success rate at each of these stages.

Protect Your Ideas*

Click on the image above to find out more about software to help with your business planning

Build it, then sell it

People often ask if they can sell an idea for a new product or service to a company that will implement it. But ideas that can’t be protected are worth relatively little. I don’t mean necessarily legally protected, but at the very least, protected with marketing momentum, image, and awareness.

Relatively few of the well-known successful start-ups depended on the ideas. What matters is doing it, starting it up, getting it done. For example, when Apple Computer started in 1976, thousands of people had the same idea. Altair and MIPS were already producing. Every hobbyist club in the country talked about it in their meetings. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, however, did it. They found the resources, contracted people, took the risks, and started it up.

There are plenty of good examples. Was Federal Express patentable? No, but they did it. Look at Amazon.com—it was a good idea, but very copiable. In that case they knew they had to move fast and gain visibility very quickly to pre-empt competition. McDonald’s?

There are companies whose main advantage is the idea. Kodak, Polaroid, and Xerox are examples, but these are exceptions, not the rule.

By the time you’ve had a good idea, so have hundreds or thousands of others.

So how do you approach a large company with a good idea? I say, simply, don’t; not until you have momentum. Sure, some ideas need larger companies to move them forward, but if your idea is that good and not legally protectable, why shouldn’t the big company move on it? Managers are charged with enhancing the value of the company they work for, and you’re saying there’s no patent, so why not? They aren’t bad people, it’s just that you don’t own the idea.

Besides, larger companies move very slowly, and unless you’ve proven the idea and developed the concept, it’s even harder to think they’ll do it better.

My advice is to build some advantage first, develop this idea, bear down, and make it work. After that, then you will have something to sell. Even without patents, you could have trademarks, service marks, and legal protection against people trying to trade on your company’s name and trademarks.

Think of it from the buyer’s point of view, for a while. Which would you rather buy, an idea, or a business? Turn your idea into a business that works, with sales and employees and a market position, and then you have something to sell.

Remember that there are almost always people proposing ideas to large companies, and you’ll have to make sure the contact in the company understands that you might have something that’s very worthwhile. It’s hard for me to think you can do that without building it first, then selling it.

Think about what it is you own that they would need your participation for—perhaps it’s your expertise or name in an industry.

*Disclaimer. NB these articles are for informational purposes only. They are not designed to be used as a substitute for legal advice.

Will Your Business Survive in a Downturn?

A challenging time for business can be the best time to secure your long term future and prosperity. It is even more important to be smarter than your competitors.

If one company takes action to respond to the situation and one company just hopes for the best, who is the most
likely to survive and be ready for the upturn?

If you want to do nothing and hope for the best, don’t read on. You will have plenty of time for reading when your competitors manage the downturn better.

So where to start. Take a look at the world around you and assess the risks. What is the effect of a downturn going to be on those areas that affect your business:

Sales & Marketing – Redouble Sales Effort

Sales are the lifeblood of your business but a lot of MD’s/Owners do not like the sales side of business and rather let it happen. Not anymore. Good salesmanship is not actually that difficult. It is mostly common sense – know
who is buying and not buying. Talk to the ones who have not placed an order this month and understand why.

Is there any fundamental change likely in their buying pattern?
Do you know how much share of business you have with each of your customers?
Can it be increased?
It is much easier to get business from existing customers than capturing new ones. Are there some obvious customers who you do not trade with?
What about an action plan to start a dialogue with them?
Is your service good?
What can you do better?

Examine your pricing. When did you last increase prices? You may have to find the courage to put prices up but if you don’t – Are there some low cost marketing actions that you can do?

Websites are not expensive and can replace expensive and quickly out of date brochures.

ACTION STEPS

• Put a Sales & Marketing Plan together now
• Review your pricing strategy
• Sell, Sell, Sell

Operations & Resources – Doing the right thing, efficiently

When times are good we all get into a “nice to have” syndrome. Things get added because we think it might make life easier or better. In tough times decide what is really essential and what can be done without.

Look at your headcount. Make a 10% headcount cut part of your contingency plan. Usually there is someone whose performance is not satisfactory but the issue has not been tackled. If they need to go, should you start the process of removing them anyway? Make sure you use an HR Specialist to help with this. It can be done but has to be done correctly.

Often things can be made simpler and better. Time for radical thought. Look at how you’re doing things and see what can be done to improve effectiveness and efficiency.

Usually the people doing these things know most about them. So if you have staff involved in these activities get them involved too. Set up improvement teams. Give the projects titles and make a fuss of them. Review them regularly. Do it now while you still have the luxury of time and cash.

Communicate with your staff, management team, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders to keep them informed of what is happening with the business.

ACTION STEPS

• Review your staffing- consider outsourced services
• Reduce inefficiencies and waste in your business
• Implement good, operational business processes

Finance – Cash is King

Cashflow has to the number one priority. If you run out of money the business is dead and all the hard work you have done is down the pan. And maybe your house with it! So do you know your break-even? Do you do a monthly cashflow forecast for the next 3 months?

These are two essential measures of the health of your business. If you do have them, we would recommend you start to do them right away. Most businesses know their costs base pretty well and what orders their customers are likely to place in the next month.

Forecasting sales for months 2 and 3 can be more difficult. Moving annual totals come highly recommended to cover the future trends in sales. You will quickly spot the turning points when sales go flat and subsequently start to turn down.

Clearly if the sales trend is down and approaching your break-even you need to take action. If you are not in this situation you should at least have a contingency plan to reduce costs. You also need to know how long these are likely to take to come into effect. It takes time to reduce costs. Your cashflow forecast can be used to see how this works.

Review your credit control processes. Do you get a signed order for everything? Do you get proof of delivery for goods? Make sure you have processes in place to follow up quickly with late payers.

ACTION STEPS

• Review your cashflow now
• Look at cost reduction and where savings can be made
• Focus on getting money in that is owed

Conclusion

The old adage “failing to plan is planning to fail” is so apt for recessionary times. So start as you mean to go on.
It’s easy to make lists, much harder to actually make things happen.

If you’d like some help with this give us a call and we’d be delighted to help. You’d be surprised what can be achieved in a short space of time.

And how much more gets done with regular review dates with us to help you make sure that you really do implement your action plan.

Influence Mapping – How to Sell to Corporates

INTRODUCTION

We have all worked in large organisations and the larger they are, the more a knowledge of the internal politics and unofficial communications systems is of value in surviving and making progress.

For people outside the organisation who are trying to get things done within the organisation, the situation is twice as bad because they not only have to figure out the official hierarchy and communication channels, but also the unofficial ones.

Most good sales people develop an instinct for how to learn the politics of a client organisation, but once they get beyond a certain size it is very difficult to be properly effective unless you practically live in the client organisation and this is particularly so if your interaction with the client needs to be of a complex or widespread nature.In the 1960s IBM came up against this problem in a big way in trying to sell their large computer systems into large organisations, where the supply of a new system fundamentally affected dozens of sectors of both the official and unofficial decision making structures.

This is where Influence Mapping was born.

Multi level contact occurs quite naturally between two large organisations that do business together, but IBM was the first to see the value of managing and co-ordinating this interaction rather than just letting it happen and of doing a forensic job of mapping how all the interactions and influences worked. In particular they became masters at managing the interface between the techies, who understood the product and the management who did not, but had the decision making responsibility.

The legend that “You never get fired for buying IBM” was one of the bits of marketing genius that came out of this and successfully kept other suppliers with better, more innovative and cheaper products out of their market for a long time. Influence mapping is about mapping out the personnel terrain, understanding its dynamics and most importantly, identifying the key “opinion formers” and planting the seeds with them that will create the image of your supplying organisation that is required. Whether we have the time, patience and dedication to do this in our relationship with any other mega client – and whether we can make it worth while is a matter for debate.

THE INFLUENCE MAPPING PROCESS

Defining the Influence Requirements

As regards a business advice practice for example, we need to write down a set of actions we want the prospect organisation to take, or opinions we want them to have, such as

o Feeling that consultancy in general is added value to what they do.

o Actively recommending us to clients

o Recommending us to colleagues

o Asking our advice etc

The Organisation Map

We need to build an organisation chart. It needs to show not only who reports to whom, but also what each key person is responsible for and how influential they are in influencing the delivery of our needs as specified in above.

People Classification

We need to classify each individual (or sometimes group of individuals) as to the type of contribution theymake to the influencing and decision making process, in terms of things like

o Are they a decision maker?

o Or an Influencer?

o Or an opinion former?

o Or combinations of two or more?

o What do they influence the most (in our field of view)

o Whom do they influence significantly?

o Who are they influenced by?

o What formal decision making group(s) are they in, if any

o What opinion forming group(s) are they in

o Who are the informal group leaders, or opinion formers in their group

The Network Influence

It is rare that a complete set of everything is assembled at any one time. However, after a reasonable part of the above data is assembled, a pattern will emerge that can be mapped, showing in a dynamic form how decisions are made and influenced, how opinions are formed and “nodes” will appear showing where the key people and groups are that influence opinions, decisions and actions

The Strategy

A reasonably coherent network diagram, even if partly complete, will begin to show clearly where and on whom our efforts need to be expended to maximise the result we are looking for, what type of information we need to present to whom and how we have to manage the players with more minor roles.

Meetings, Bloody Meetings

Meetings Bloody Meetings

“Meetings are a waste of time. I’m just too busy to spend time in meetings. I’ve got too much work to do”. Sound familiar? And when I hear this I often do see people flying around frantically fire fighting, often getting lots of interruptions and not being at all sure where they are going. Does that sound familiar too?

I like to think of meetings as gaining leverage for myself. Making sure that people know what I am trying to achieve and helping me forward. Likewise I like to know what others are trying to achieve and helping them forward. This way I cut down on my interruptions and know I will have a focussed discussion with my colleagues…so I don’t need to interrupt them and hopefully they don’t interrupt me.

Its not that I’m anti interruptions – what I call corridor conversations. There will always be the unexpected and that’s fair enough. Its just that I’d rather be better organised than that and have my mind clear to discus important matters when my mind is really focussed on the topic, rather than in the middle of five million other important things I am trying to achieve.

So what are the constituents of a good meeting?

o A leader. All teams need leaders. Leadership styles need to change with the situation. In the middle of a crisis we need a dictator – just ****** do it. But more often it is someone who can set up a discussion, draw in different opinions and only then conclude. It may be a good idea to rotate the leadership of a meeting – it helps people develop and enables them to run meetings as they think they should be run. It also helps them understand that running meetings is not as easy as they might think – which might make them more supportive at the next meeting!

o A plan: The meeting needs to know its direction. How long the meeting is going to take, what we are going to discuss. Too often meetings try and boil the ocean all at once. Provided I know that the topic is coming up in the meeting I don’t need to bring it up in the middle of another topic. It is the role of the leader to manage this plan.

o Minutes: These are a useful way of asking people to discuss the issue outside of the meeting – or to do something. It enables the meeting to move on and not get bogged down in the detail. They are also a good reminder of what was agreed.

How long should a meeting last?

My view is that anything more than two hours is beyond my concentration level. If it needs to be more than that then there should be a scheduled break. That way people stay focussed and therefore effective. It can be very useful to make it clear that the meeting will last no longer than a certain time. This can be achieved by telling people that we will stand up at a certain time. It is amazing how much more quickly meetings go when people are standing up!

How often should a meeting take place?

For management teams my view is that we should meet once a month on a rhythm that fits the business – the third Thursday of the month is quite a good time. However in some situations that require tighter management, once a week is effective – first thing Monday morning, or Friday morning. These become more tactical meetings dealing with day to day issues. I find them more effective with junior staff, less necessary with experienced staff or teams.

How to deal with follow ups.

How do you get people to do the actions that they have agreed to in a meeting? Its no good leaving it to the next meeting to review whether people have done the actions they agreed from the last meeting. I have found it effective to re-circulate the minutes a week before the next meeting. Instead of Portrait I set them up as Landscape with another column for people to record what they have done with the action. All I am really looking for is “done” – or an explanation on progress. If people haven’t done the action they are often reminded to do it before the meeting – if nothing else to avoid the embarrassment of saying they haven’t done it. Once everybody has commented the completed follows up can be re-circulated prior to the meeting. If people still haven’t done their action by then I have found that they will now try to get it done.

But what if they still haven’t done their action?

This is where the leader has to step in and deal with the individual on a one to one basis. There is probably some more fundamental problem that needs addressing. Maybe they are struggling with their work load – and maybe not delegating effectively – and maybe they need help with running their own meetings.

Team briefing.

Once the team meeting is over, it can be a good idea to make sure that the key messages/ decisions are communicated onwards. Often those who attend important meetings don’t realise their responsibility to pass on information at their own team meeting. A written brief may be the most effective way of doing that – or sometimes the minutes can be a useful reminder.

Do get the minutes out quickly.

I have always favoured quick and cheerful rather than slow and 100% accurate. Fundamentally minutes are there to remind people of what they agreed to do.

What do I do if some people can’t attend?

My view is that the meeting should run anyway. From time to time people can’t attend. However it may be important to deal with persistent offenders on a one to one basis.

One to one meetings

There is a place for a regular team meeting and there is also a place for a regular one to one session with each direct report. I recommend setting two hours aside in your diary each month for each person that works for you – just as you do for the team. This is a more flexible date between two people. My view is that it is flexible, but must happen sometime. So either person can change the date but must organise another time.

I find the one to one session is much more personal. However I do the same things as in a team meeting – plan what I want to cover, take notes, review actions. It is much more of a mentoring role, particularly with senior staff. It enables me to get buy in to my plans; it enables difficult issues to be discussed in a calm way; I often use it to get the staff member to set their own goals and targets – which means I have their buy in to the way forward right from the start.

In my experience I have found that if I have these two types of meeting running each month I am left alone for the rest of the month to get on with my own work. It reduces the level of interruptions and instils a sense of order. It enables more forward thinking which in itself prevents some of those crises.

Meetings, bloody meetings? I wouldn’t be without them!

Is Your Website Working?

Does your Website attract a steady flow of targeted traffic, build an opt-in list, supply you leads and income from sales of products and services?

If it doesn’t, then you need to examine your Website content, design and structure.

In most cases, Websites are designed and built first. Then the business owners try to figure out how to attract visitors. This approach is backwards.

Before you have a single web page built or content written you should have clearly identified your strategy for attracting visitors and converting them to leads or clients. Using the web to market your product or services requires a web marketing plan.

The web has the potential to be a powerful communication tool, but your Website needs to be designed in order for you to achieve your marketing goals. These goals also have to be measurable.

A Website built and managed without a clear marketing plan is usually a waste of time and money. Many Website are nothing more than web billboards. These sites generally do not attract clients and provide little marketing benefit.

What should you measure?

The most obvious category that can be measured is the amount of traffic that your Website is generating. The key value is the number of unique visitors that come to the Website. There are other values that are important, such as page views and average length of stay.

As you measure these values over time the goal would be to have a steady increase in all of these values.

Of course, if these visitors are not doing anything when they are on your Website they are of little value.

Do you have a call to action?

Your Website should be designed in such a way that your visitors are presented with a call to action. This call to action should be obvious to the visitor. Your call to action is another element that can be measured. How many visitors perform the call to action?

The call to action can take many forms. It may be opting in to a email newsletter list, or filling out a lead form. The ideal action is the purchase of a product or service.

When a site visitor performs the call to action, you have a conversion. The number of conversions divided by the number of Website visitors is the conversion rate.

One of the goals of the Website should be to increase the conversion rate.

Testing

Once you have your measurable elements, traffic and conversions, you can test various ways to make your Website work. You can test various techniques for increasing traffic. Options here include search engine optimization of your Website, pay per click advertising, press releases and article writing.

Then you will also want to increase your conversion rates. Split testing is used to determine how various elements within the web page affect the visitor. You can change the elements on the page such as the headline or color of text and graphics, to measure the affect on the visitor.

Website Goals

You now have the understanding that your business Website should be working for you with a marketing plan. You need a call to action. You need to measure traffic and conversions, and then test to improve the results.

With these measurements in hand, you can now set goals for your Website.

via UK Business Advisors Ltd | UKBA – Is Your Website Working?.