I am delighted to say that I have been asked to present my new seminar ‘12 Proven Marketing Ideas to Help your Business Weather the Economic Storm’ at workhotel in Hemel Hempstead.

This will be a Breakfast Seminar running from 07:45 on Thursday, 6th November 2008 (Finishes 09:30 – 10:00) at workhotel, 575-599 Maxted Road, Hemel Hempstead, HP2 7DX see www.workhotel.com

Many businesses are feeling some of the painful affects of the credit crunch. As a topic at the top of most people’s agenda Alastair Campbell, in cooperation with workhotel, is hosting a seminar to give you some insight in how to weather this economic storm and come out of it with your business intact.

This will be a valuable networking opportunity, so why not invite a colleague to join you?

£10 per person, including a continental breakfast, coffee, tea and orange juice.

To book your place just call 0844 255 5555 with your credit or debit card details or email jenny.woolford@workhotel.com and a member of our team will contact you to confirm your booking.

I think that this will be a useful event to prepare your marketing for what is to come in 2009. If you are in Hemel Hempstead, St. Albans or surround areas this Marketing Seminar book out the morning of Nevember 6th and join us.

Break the whole project down into small and then even smaller steps. Ask yourself if you could complete 5 of your new tiny steps by the end of this week – of course you could. You will then have made a start. Once the project is in motion, it is far easier to keep it going.

Marketing seminar in London

Thank you to everybody who attended the marketing seminar i was asked to present in London yesterday.  It was on the theme of ‘9 Steps to Succesfult Marketing’ a theme that I developed earlier in the year and have now developed into a full presentation.  The groups that I have presented to to seem to feel that it’s a useful framework and gives them a way to take a broader look at their marketing. 

On this occasion the event planners had the foresite to ask the people attending what are the main areas of marketing that you’d like help with.  This meant that I was able to spend more time on the bits that most of them said they want covered,  I like the idea of doing this and will suggest to – where possible – to other event planners.

A couple of things were notable for me about the presentation.  First of all the people who were there, were all friends of one person – Dennis Preston from Anagram (www.anagramonline.co.uk) He invited them so that they could connect with one another and as a way of growing each other’s network. I think that this is a great idea and on the train home I was thinking about whether I could do somthing similar myself. 

Secondly, the people were themselves lovely.  Perhaps because Dennis was careful to take a great deal of care about who he selected to make sure that there was a good mix of skills and common interests, I’m not sure.  But I got the feeling that even if I hadn’t given my presentation it would have been a great success. They would have quite happily talked amongst themselves for the morning!

Finally the building itself – The National Liberal Club is a great venue to hold an event.  It had a homely splendour about it, it that isn’t too much of a contradiction.  Located in Whithall Place overlooking the Thames, it was a wonderful old building – the sort that you walk past and wonder what it’s like inside.  Well now I have had the pleasure of going inside and seeing for myself.  

One of the many joys of running marketing talks, marketing seminars and marketing workshops is that often you get to see the most interesting places that you wouldn’t normally go.

marketing mentor

Penalties – decide what needs to be done as a first stage and if you don’t complete, commit to doing something that you really hate as a punishment for not completing in time. For example, give a friend £50 and tell them to keep it if you don’t get back to them by a certain time with the completed task!

Decide what would constitute the completed ‘first step’ of the project. Set a deadline to complete it by then, and promise yourself a reward that means something to you if you complete by this time.

Speed writing! Take the phone off the hook and force yourself to write anything – literally anything – on the subject you are working on for 15 minutes. Much of what you end up with may be rubbish, but amongst that you will have the root of the reason you have been hesitating, and great deal of information on where to start work.

The advertising world is often accused of creating it’s own type of reality that has little to do with everyday life.  Of course it can create great TV, but the best advertising is rooted in people’s everyday problems.  If you take the time to understand what problems are affecting your prospects and then work out a way that your product can REALLY solve them, then your advert and your product is likley to be a success – if you can attract their attention.

And of course that is the problem.  Getting people’s attenion is getting harder all the time – hense the need for a the attention grabbing reality we see so often in advertising.

Nobody would ever the accuse James Bond movies of going for ‘reality’ yet that have made plenty of money over the years.

Have a look at the trailer for the latest at http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-gb&vid=3e1ccfe0-654d-4c6f-9b72-3835db18eb77 and compare it with the reality of the situation if you know Mr Bond - as seen by Mitchell and Webb tinyurl.com/6nan8r.

There are still a fe places left at my next free marketing seminar taking place at Hothorpe Hall, near Market Harborough, Leicestershire on Wednesday 17th of September.  Reserve your place by calling 01858 44 55 43 and I hope to see you there.

Ask somebody who has completed a similar project. Ask them what they did first, and get some tips on how to get started – what is the easiest part or perhaps a key component to the unlocking the task.

Make a tiny step – just commit to spending 10 minutes on a project and then 10 minutes the next day and so on. Before you know it you will have achieved momentum and will be compelled to carry on.

time saving tips for marketing

Everybody gets nervous or frightened by new projects or a change of events from time to time. Sometimes we just shrug off any worries and get on with it, but on occasions we keep putting off projects until they get to a crisis point in our lives or assume a significance that is totally out of proportion to their real importance.

This short tips booklet will give you some easy to follow and practical ideas to help you overcome hesitation. These ideas are focused on work based ‘projects’ but the ideas are equally valid in solving any type of problem that you just keep putting off – whether at school, at home or indeed any area of your life.

You’ll notice that a few of the tips are framed as positive or negative rewards. This is because some people are motivated by negative consequences rather than positive results.

You need to decide with each particular project what would motivate you more – the fear of failure or the joy of success? Would you be more motivated by a special treat for completing a task – or a punishment for missing a deadline? Try out both approaches and you will find that one works better for you than the other. However, just because it works that way on one project doesn’t mean it will always be that way. You may find that you need different reward strategies for different areas of your life. Just try this out a few times and you’ll see what I mean.