Talking e-marketing with members of the Solent Enterprise Network for Sustainable Enterprise (SENSE)
It was a privilege to be invited along to give a talk on e-marketing to a group of budding entrepreneurs at Southampton Solent University. It is always a joy to talk to entrepreneurs who are just starting out on their exciting journeys.
As well as being a privilege it was also a challenge to select the topics to include in talk and it was a reminder of how broad e-marketing is. In the end I decided to take them on the journey that I have gone through with many other small business start ups, showing them the importance of e-marketing strategies and plans to acquire and retain valued customers before jumping in and using the various e-marketing tools; by sharing our experiences we were able to draw out a number of key e-marketing messages for entrepreneurs in particularly to consider.
The Take Home Messages
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- Just in case I forgot to mention, you should definitely have a marketing plan!
- Create great content that your target audience will look for and want to share.
- Social media skills include listening as well as posting.
- Use Social CRM to maintain meaningful and valuable relationships.
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- Social media is not a magic marketing wand…beware the time suck syndrome.
- Bad news travels fast online…misuse e-marketing and your bad reputation will precede you.
- DIY websites can be worse than no website at all.
- Likes are vanity, sales are sanity, profit is reality.
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Solent Graduate Entrepreneurs
Above all else, I wish the Solent Graduate Entrepreneurs every success in their business ventures. I will definitely be keeping in touch and look forward to hearing your success stories.
