Digital Britain 2009 - A Growing UK Online Audience

In the House of Commons (London), the Labour Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw (16 June 2009) announced a plan of how the UK will develop and grow the digital landscape. This report affects all homes and businesses with or without broadband and will impact revenue generation in the future.

Currently on the list of developed nations, the UK does not have the highest broadband speeds and we are beginning to fall behind other less developed countries. Worse still, there are many communities in the UK without any access to broadband at all. This is made worse because ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are not willing to invest in the infrastructure of unprofitable areas.

In order to access a wide array of online information, streaming media and use social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook etc, we need to have fast and reliable broadband access. Many small businesses operate from home and according to the Digital Britain Report 2009, currently 2.1 million people (6% of total UK employment) contribute to the digital economy.

It is the UK Government’s intention to make sure that everyone has access to ‘next generation’ super fast broadband by 2012. The downside for UK households with fixed lines is that we will be taxed £6 a year to make this happen. The upside is the potential for growth for businesses that understand the growth potential as more and more of their target markets have online access

As an entrepreneur and business owner it is essential to identify areas that have a potential for growth. Faster and more widely available broadband will provide access to a bigger target market with a new way of promoting marketing messages. The web removes any perceived country borders which can stop business transactions from taking place. Regardless of whether you are UK based or live further a field, a better access to fast broadband in the UK will definitely open up the market place.

Take advantage of a burgeoning UK online audience and demonstrate a level of expertise in what you do - your niche. All of the following online strategies are low cost (if not free) and demonstrate how using guerrilla marketing can achieve specific online goals.

1. Make sure that you have an online presence. A UK Microsoft executive estimated that approximately 50% of UK businesses did not have one (2007). A blog is the place where you can demonstrate your knowledge and expertise but a basic website is better than nothing.
2. Demonstrate Knowledge. Write articles, press releases and blog posts that demonstrate your knowledge on a regular basis.
3. Incorporate multimedia such as audio and video onto your websites and User Generated Content (UGC) directories such as YouTube.
4. Grow your mailing list. Get people to sign up to a free ‘gift’ on your blog/website to gather email addresses. If you have a blog, users can sign up to receive RSS feeds with your latest blog posts.
5. Communicate Regularly - Send out emails about your industry, sector, products and services to you’re your mailing list.
6. Social Networking - Sign up for free Twitter and Facebook accounts, fill in your profile and take part in social media networking with your specific target audience. Give your prospects and clients a way to get to know you better.

Target Audience Definition

Many businesses find it quite difficult to clearly state who their customers (current and potential) are and use a very loose description.  Why does it matter?  Because knowing who they are, what they like along with their needs and desires will feed into what you sell and how you sell it.

Magazines in particular are very good at defining who their readers are so that potential advertisers have a clear idea who reads the magazine.  Marie Claire magazine (http://www.marieclaire.co.uk) gives an overview of its readers on its rate card aimed at advertisers.      Have a look for yourself - http://www.ipcadvertising.com/resource/rz4ksj85kcxcpyz0p2rjo8li.pdf

-  68% ABC1 (this is the socio economic group)
-  Median age – 33
-  Appearance conscious
-  Spend a lot of money oh clothes, toiletries and cosmetics
-  Cannot resist expensive perfume/aftershave

Action Points

For your business, find out more about your customers/clients so that you can make sure that your products and services meet their needs and that your marketing is appropriate for that group. 

1.  For example, send a questionnaire to your customers/clients and find out more about them – how old are they, their age, gender, where they live etc.  Define who your customers are in general and/or for specific products, services or ranges. 

2.  Create a profile or a pen portrait describing who they are, their lifestyles, their social groupings, where they live, what they want out of life and the challenges that they face.

3.  For business clients, include additional factors such as sector, location, turnover, job title/function, number of employees etc

4.  Review your products and services - are they aligned with your actual and potential customers?  Make changes where necessary i.e. target your existing products/services to a new target audience or create new products/services for your existing target audience.   

5.  Examine the marketing and advertising activity that you currently use.  Do the media tools used for your advertising and marketing fit with the customer profile that you have created?  If not, research alternative media that is more suitable.

The Pirate Bay Business Model

You have probably seen a tremendous amount of coverage for this Swedish based file sharing website recently.

Pirate Bay provides links for users to download videos, music, audio files, games, video and applications. The problem is that the materials that they provide access to are copyrighted and the big movie studios and record labels are not playing ball.

Even though the Pirate Bay do not host the items (save on their servers), they provide access to it. This, according to a Swedish court, has been deemed to be unacceptable – well illegal to be more accurate. The founders have been sentenced to jail time with a huge fine. Whilst the courts work through the appeals process, it’s fair to ask what has this got to do with marketing for entrepreneurs?

Apart from the obvious point of making sure that the products/services that you provide are not illegal, a few issues sprung to mind.

Copyright

The Pirate Bay quite clearly infringed the copyright of lots of companies who have substantial legal clout. In your endeavours, make sure that if you use material that does not belong to you, you correctly reference it. Don’t fall into the trap of just copying what someone else has written, take the time to interpret it and put it into your own words if need be.

Delivering What the Customer/Client Wants

The Pirate Bay team clearly found a gap in the market and delivered what people wanted at a price that they can afford. In order to succeed, you must take the time to find out what your target market wants and then deliver it in the format that they want at a price that they can afford.

Driving Traffic to Your Site with Freebies

The Pirate Bay business model is difficult to compete with as items that would normally have a price attached to them, do not cost anything at all. Aim to offer something free to potential/actual customers or clients in return for them to provide their email address or respond to research questions for example.

Guerrilla Marketing Intro

Guerrilla marketing, aimed at small businesses and entrepreneurs, was introduced to the world in the early 70’s by the now legendary Jay Conrad Levinson.

In his international best-selling book, not surprisingly called ‘Guerrilla Marketing’, he outlines how to clearly define a seven step guerrilla marketing plan.  He also lists hundreds of low/no cost marketing ‘weapons’ (tools) which can be used to promote your business.

 
Guerrilla Marketing for SMEs
           
The term ‘Guerrilla’ in this context is a marketing methodology well suited for creative small businesses (SMEs) with smaller budgets.  This is in contrast to ‘traditional’ brand marketing used by big businesses with money to burn.  The Guerrilla marketer has a ‘can-do’ attitude and knows that building trusting relationships and rapport with prospects and customers is at the cornerstone of any successful marketing strategy. 

Using a warfare analogy, the ‘guerrilla’ uses non-traditional techniques to outwit the opposition i.e. by combining a selection of marketing ‘weapons’ to grow profits with a unique array of ideas.  The guerrilla knows that the best battles include surprise attacks so marketing campaign ideas must be ‘out of the box’ – subterfuge at its best! 

Low or No Cost High Impact Marketing Techniques

The guerrilla marketer also knows that marketing must also have a high impact even if it is cost effective.  With technology at the core, the guerrilla marketer understands the psychology of target audiences and knows that communicating with prospects on a regular basis produces more meaningful results over the lifetime of the relationship. 

As a guerrilla marketer you must:

• Have a plan and stick to it.
• Know your market and create a relationship with your target audience.
• Promote the benefits of what you are offering and demonstrate value.
• Use a variety of low or no cost high impact marketing techniques knowing that online tools are essential.
• Operate within a niche - be a big fish in a small pond.
   

Marketing Defined - A Dark Art?

Believe it or not, marketing is not a dark art only perpetrated by ‘those in the know’.   Marketing is often thought to be public relations (PR), sales or advertising – the kind that can be heard on the radio, seen on the TV or read in newspapers and magazines.  Furthermore, many businesses treat sales and marketing as two separate disciplines where the two sides can be in conflict with each other working towards different goals. 

The Marketing Process
In reality, marketing is a process that includes reviewing current trading conditions, setting business growth goals with a marketing strategy and implementing a tactical plan to achieve chosen objectives.  The marketing ‘umbrella’ includes a variety of disciplines where specific tactics or tools are used to promote brand benefits attached to your products and services to a chosen target audience. 

Marketing in the Past
For many entrepreneurs, the foray into the world of marketing is an uncertain one.  In the past, it wasn’t unusual to have a business that was running for some time to generate revenue relatively easily using basic marketing techniques. 

Perhaps the marketing activity was called sales or lead generation but either way revenue is generated.  However, as the economy becomes more competitive and it becomes more difficult to make a sale, you need to establish a strategy and plan to stay in business and a halt potential decline in your revenue.   

Marketing for the Future

It should be said that a marketing plan will not, in its own right, guarantee that your business will be successful.  In the first instance, you must have a pretty good business idea along with a thorough understanding of your market/sector.  Your challenge is then to know how to position yourself in the market to distinguish yourself from your competitors, promote the benefits you offer, fulfil the wants and needs your customers/clients and track the results of what you do. 

Whatever you do to grow your business doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, but you do need to creatively target the right people with the right information at the right time.Most importantly, you must implement your plan – without putting your ideas in practice you will be dead in the water.