Get Creative
When I got into marketing about 10 years ago, I started to get interested in the creative process and realised that logical thought and creative thought don't have to be mutually exclusive and in fact have a synergy. I think this following article by Mark Forster – UK Author, gives some great concise tips on how to get creative.
How to be Creative, by Mark Forster
I guess some people are naturally creative and some are not, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t all improve our creativity. So here is a list of some of the best ways to improve your creativity:
Creativity comes out of new combinations. It’s very rare to produce something which is completely new in every respect. Creativity is much more commonly the result of bringing together two or more existing ideas and combining them in a new way.
Creativity comes out of perspiration. If you want to have new ideas then it’s important to keep working at them. Inspiration comes to those who are actively engaged in a problem, not to those who are just sitting back waiting for the big idea to come to them.
Creativity comes out of knowledge and experience. This is closely related to the previous two. The person who will have the most creative ideas about a subject is the person who knows it back to front.
Creativity comes out of questioning. There is a danger that people who know a subject well become wedded to “the way it’s always been done”. This is not a bad thing when that way is built on years of knowledge and experience. But the person who can bring a “new mind” to the subject will frequently see things which the old hands can’t see because they are blinded by familiarity.
Creativity comes out of restrictions. It’s much easier to be creative when the terms and boundaries have been defined closely. The closer you define the question the more likely you are to be able to answer it.
Creativity comes out of dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction with the way things are at present is one of the keys to creativity. But beware – this dissatisfaction can express itself in destructive ways instead of creative ways.
Creativity comes out of changing one thing. Often the key to creativity is to list the various factors involved and experiment with doing just one thing different.
6 steps to successful eMarketing
eMarketing is the implementation of a marketing strategy using electronic media such as websites, email and SMS. eMarketing is an ideal form of marketing for small business, because it is scalable, immediate and measurable. A successful eMarketing implementation will revolve around your website and use a combination of direct email, competitions, online marketing and traditional marketing.
1 Website
The website is the core of your eMarketing strategy. For most businesses it will have two main purposes. One is to grow your database by encouraging prospects to opt-in to receive information from you. The other is to generate enquiries or sales.
A successful website will have an easy to remember domain name that reflects your business name, a logical navigation structure, a profession design that reflects the brand and image of your business and copy that is brief, to the point and includes a call to action.
2 Database
Your database is essential to the success of your eMarketing campaign. Grow your database organically over time rather than buying or sourcing a list. Continue to clean your database and keep it up to date. Start your database with your existing clients and continue to grow it using your website, running competitions and viral campaigns and collecting business cards at networking functions.
3 Email
Email is an active medium that requires the prospect to take action (even if this is to delete the message). It keeps your company in the top of mind of the prospect and reminds them to visit your website. Emails to your database should be regular (weekly, monthly, quarterly) and should provide them with relevant, useful and valuable information. It should not purely promote your products. Call to action emails may be used as long as the message provides some value to your prospects.
4 Competitions & Viral Campaigns
Viral campaigns are where a message is sent to your contacts and they then spread it on to their contacts. A popular implementation is a competition, where you earn additional entries by sending on details of the competition to other contacts. The prizes offered in a competition should provide enough incentive for people to enter and encourage their friends to enter.
5 Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEM is paying for advertising that appears as sponsored links in the search engines. The most popular form of SEM is Google Adwords. With Google Adwords, you choose the words and geographical region for which your ad will display, choose how much you are willing to pay for each click, set a maximum daily budget and write you ad. Results are instant, and easily measured.
6 Measure & Improve
Review the results of your eMarketing at least monthly and continue to make changes to provide continual improvements. Change only one thing at a time, so you know what works and what doesn’t. Look at the click through rate of your Adwords, the click through rate of your emails, the growth of your database, the opt-out rates of your database, the number of visitors to your website and where they are coming from.
