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When it comes to making an impact during the Year-end Holidays, even smaller businesses can run with the best of them. Whatever level of effort and/or money you want to put into holiday marketing, there’s something to choose from. Start now while you still have plenty of lead time so you can make sure your business is top of mind with customers as we end the year and start a new one.

Here are some low-cost creative marketing ideas that won’t break the bank, but will set you apart from your competition.

1. Dress up your website or blog logo like Google. It is so easy, fun and will bring a smile to your online visitors. But don’t just stop here, do it on your email signatures and social media sites. If you don’t have a designer that looks after your brand, try www.canva.com as they offer free accounts to help you customise backgrounds for online, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. Or even better, have your designer customise a branded ‘front’ image for you to front all images so every message is branded. Have fun and get extra marketing visibility at the same time. Tip: Do this for all holiday periods throughout the year.

2. Personalise. Almost everything can be customised these days in short runs very cheaply. Think about branded Christmas gifts – mugs, socks, ties, bags that has your logo image all over it. Wear it to every Christmas function and become a walking brand at events. You can also create customised products yourself very cheaply. Get your local branding company to create some adhesive labels for you to brand products you purchase in bulk (www.bigboldbranding.com.au). Put the labels on wine, cookies, water bottles, etc. Remember to use local where you can to build strong communities. Or, if you’re inclined, why not bake your own cookes – there is nothing better than receiving handmade gifts at Christmas – but do make sure you put your brand on them. The point is visibility and being top of mind.

3. Create a Video Card for online. Videos are very effective and popular form of low-cost promotion. Why not pull your group together and sing a holiday song – make it fun and remember to include your brand and product placement. Microsoft have created an instruction video on how to do this quickly and easily at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqEJaNbHpVg

4. Create 12-days of “Your Product”. Use this classic Christmas concept to develop a marketing campaign for your brand over the first 12 days of December, featuring a product or service every day on the count-down for Christmas. Offer your email subscribers a different special deal, and a helpful piece of content for 12 days straight. This series will have your customers and prospects coming back each day for more. If your reader knows you ave a new surprise for them every day – they are much more likely to open your emails or view your campaign. Many of your customers may not know your full range of things you have to offer and this is an ideal way to introduce it in a fun way.

5. Pimp Up Your Promotions. If you have an ad, like in Coffee News, change it up to include a Christmas or holiday offer. We love engagement from our advertisers and are happy to change up ads – but you need to drive the content and what your offer is.

6. Holiday Cards. Yes, there are still physical cards available. Don’t you get sick of the digital cards everyone sends out. To stand out, send a physical card to your special clients, or those prospects you are wanting on board.

7. Write a free (industry specific) downloadable Holiday Survival guide for your customers. What are some tips and tricks you know because you’re an expert and an insider in your business that your customers would really appreciate? OK, we’re thinking this is a great gift for a counsellor in how to deal with that difficult aunty at Christmas lunch, but it’s also perfect for financial planners, accountants, bookkeepers, weight-loss and gyms – anything that revolves around setting new year’s resolutions on the 1st January.

8. Gift Wrapping. If you have a product, you could offer and promote free Gift Wrapping Service for Christmas. Simple and cheap – and the offer brings you top of mind with your audience.

9. Christmas Products Landing Page. Make gift giving easy and create some excitement by setting up a Daily Christmas Surprise landing page. You can offer a new 1 hour flash sale each day leading up to Christmas Day. You don’t need to have a whole slew of products on offer each day. Just one will do the trick. Promote this landing page through your social channels and email subscription list, and you’ll create a real reason for your audience to return to your site each day. The flash sale concept also creates a sense of urgency, prompting indecisive browsers to pull the trigger.

10. Gift Cards for your Special Customers. It can be a small value, and for your “best” customers, sending them a customise gift cards with your brand and a special thank you will have great impact. These can be mailed direct to your customers from the site you order them from. We do this throughout the year with our Bunnings Gift Cards for our competition winners which go down such a treat. Try also www.eftposgiftcard.com.au.

Extend Your Success - Print Reaches Intelligent Buyers with more Income

Marketers are learning how to balance their budget to account for both digital and print for the best mix to reach their ideal audiences and not leave a gaping hole in their marketing mix and limiting their success. So it turns out, not only is print NOT dead, but print advertising is making a comeback in a very real but different way.

Gerry Harvey, the chairman of retail powerhouse Harvey Norman – the “Retail King” in Australia made a bold statement this week after posting a record net profit before tax of $639.81 million for the year ended June 30, 26.3% higher than the previous years.

“Critics who claim print advertising was in decline were wrong”

The chairman of powerhouse Harvey Norman said print advertising had been a key part of his marketing strategy for decades and had helped boost sales within his 281 stores.

“We advertise where we get a result – it’s about as simple as that”.

His leading retail brands Harvey Norman, Domayne and Joyce Mayne regularly place full page advertisements in many print mediums.

In the world of marketing, what is the draw to print and what have we learnt from the take-up of digital devices. In Australia, Victorian Education Minister, James Merlino’s recent comment after our Naplan 2017 results were released that: “I get concerned if there’s too much focus on technology and devices and I also get concerned if there’s no focus on technology at all,” he said. Many people are now realising that technology is not the only solution, and a balance is needed. The research reveals:-

Readers retain more information when reading printReaders are more likely to skim over articles on a device than in printPrint encourages more focused reading than an IPad and better assimilation and retentionReaders eyes linger longer on print than online, meaning they concentrate more on print

In general, marketers are realising that print advertising breaks through the noise online and reaches the audiences that they are looking for - an audience that tends to be well educated with more disposable income. And here are the statistics for you:-

Many categories of consumers read print media, with higher readership among certain sub-groups:

6 in 10 university graduates read newspaper media: 59% of those with a post-graduate degree consume newspaper media in a typical week compared with 46% of those who have a high school education or less

Upscale Consumers are more likely to engage with print media: As household income increases, the audience for print newspaper format increase with 57% of those with annual household incomes of $250,000 or more read print. For those with incomes of $100,000 - $249,999 it is 54%, decreasing to high school.

Why market in print media: 57% of millennials read newspaper content in print and digital in a typical week (22% print only) 80% of adults took action after seeing a print ad 57% of adults are influenced by newspaper media weekly 56% of customers find print marketing to be the most trustworthy type of marketing 52% of adults use print advertising for shopping planning and purchase decisions

Like Gerry, smart marketers understand that even after they have worked out their ideal client, say a 45-55 year old woman, that within that segment, there are varying preferences and tendencies of the population in how they want to receive communications from you. This is a part that a lot of marketers miss. Print advertising makes your online display ads more effective and reaches a segment of your market that simply prefers print - so don’t limit your success. Print is alive, kicking and a recommended part of your marketing mix.

We appear to live hectic lives these days. Technically, life is easier for us than previous generations because so much of the humdrum work is now done by automated programs, bots and machines. But for some reason, you seem to be busier than ever – isn’t that right?

How can this be? Because there are so many more claims on your attention, that’s why. You’re already overloaded with an embarrassment of opportunities to absorb your time and expend your funds doing things, watching things, using things, improving things. But every day even more opportunities are presented to you.

So now when you decide to spend an hour online, the first thing you find is you are assaulted by advertising. Have you ever wanted to read an article online and found it difficult due to the vast number of ads throughout? Have you ever searched for a mattress, to find you are still being marketed to months after you bought from mattress companies? Clicked on a link accidently and felt sorry that some poor bugger that has just paid for that click? Online advertising is often seen as a distraction or barrier to performing tasks (pop-up boxes, banners, a million ads in the middle of an article you are reading) – completely ignored or worse, aggravating. “Being assaulted by online marketing” is a now common complaint. There are challenges online and the industry continues debate around good content, effective delivery and that online marketing is now viewed as ‘traditional marketing’.

Whilst there is no doubt that the ‘Internet of Thing’ is a vital piece of the marketing mix these days, and yes, people do want to visit your website to check your credibility and professionalism, want to receive emails and connect with others on social networks, it is clear that the internet is becoming a cluttered world. There is no doubt there is a high demand to turn around ‘assault marketing’ to a more respectful way of communicating – one that is of your own choosing.

The latest July, 2017 research reveals these facts:-

There are over 1 billion websites;The average person sees 5000 ads a day (compared to 500 a day back in the 1970’s)On Facebook there are more than 50 million small businesses that have active pagesThere are 4.75 billion pieces of content shared daily (as at May 2013) on Facebook alone;Messenger and WhatsApp process 60 billion messages a day;There are 83 million fake profiles on Facebook (source: CNN);We share 1,800,000,000 photos every day on social media – yes every day!

It is a lot, isn’t it? As more and more ‘channels’ are opening online for businesses to advertise on, analysing channel effectiveness is becoming a science, an expense, and often a place of distrust and fraud for businesses. ‘Methbot’ Smokes Brand Budgets’, a report in December 2016, reported on a Russian Ring of Digital Ad Crooks stealing $3 million to $5 million daily from premium-video-focused advertisers, using a tactic to make their faux internet activity appear genuine commanding their bot army to generate 200-300 million impressions daily, assaulting and charging brands for premium video ads. Some very high profile and tech savvy companies were caught in the fraud.

And the latest research reveals that total digital ad spending in 2017 will equal $77.37 billion, or 38.4% of total ad spending, yet 70% of marketers do not track effectiveness of social media. Facebook advertising alone, has in my experience, generally quadrupled in price for less than one quarter of the reach previously available – and each channel is increasing their rates (check out profit returns for these companies – they will astound you). I went to re-run an ad recently and at the end of the listing, noticed the cost had increased to $14,000 (more than a 1,000 times than before) and cancelled the ad. I did not proceed. I repeat, I did not proceed. 5 minutes later, I was being told that my ad had started. Yes, panic and a determined exchange of communications – but it was cancelled!

Do you remember when ‘Online’ was Sexy?

Talking about online advertising was once viewed as sexy. You could drop in ‘social media’ into a conversation and see some adoration or awe reflected back at you. But that is changing with more data and information becoming available about the reality of this medium and flaws experienced in this arena. I have no illusions about the mobility and changes in our society and technology and how that is affecting choices that businesses have these days. AI and Chatbots are starting to become mainstream and are being used to guide consumer behaviour. While it is far more flexible and open than in the past, there are huge impediments for the local budgets of small to medium business. It can be a massive undertaking to discern valuable information from the data available.

But What Pays The Bills?

Visibility, however, is one aspect of marketing that won’t change—regardless of the year. Marketing before and after a digital platform availability still revolves around how customers see your business. For you as a business, you need to address some very simple but crucial questions:-

Who is your ideal client?Where do they hang out?How do you get in front of them in a positive way, without assaulting them?What impression do they get when they see your brand visibility?Do you have a customer-centric philosophy and provide great customer experiences?

Permission Marketing

Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated and relevant messages to people who actually want to read them. With permission marketing, the company is encouraged to build up a long term relationship with customers which can be beneficial in the long run. It gives a brand visibility whilst recognising the new power of the best consumers to ignore marketing. It realises that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention.

Pay attention is a key phrase here, because permission marketers understand that when someone chooses to pay attention they are actually paying you with something precious – their attention. By choice. Attention becomes an important asset, something to be valued, not taken for granted, nor wasted.

Real permission is different from presumed or legalistic permission. Just because you somehow get my email address doesn't mean you have permission. Just because I don't complain doesn't mean you have permission. Just because it's in the fine print of your privacy policy doesn't mean it's permission either. Real permission works like this: if you stop showing up, people notice or complain, they ask where you went.

We got a call the other day – Coffee News had ran out in one outlet. The caller was upset because he couldn’t get his Coffee News edition for that week. That's permission.

Permission is like dating. You don't start by asking for the sale at first impression. You earn the right, over time, bit by bit. You know this yourself in your business or networking – those people who meet you for the first time and then immediately try to sell to you. Or you get an email out of the blue that says “buy from me”. Or that guy or girl you dated and.... you know the story (and probably warn off your friends about what a jerk they were). This is a major turnoff. It is the antithesis to permission marketing.

One of the key drivers of permission marketing, in addition to the scarcity of attention given online, is the extraordinarily low cost of dripping to people who are in the area of business that you reach out to and can service. Home organic fruit and veg delivery is the farmer’s revenge... it's the essence of permission.

Permission doesn't have to be formal but it has to be obvious. A friend may have permission to call you if he needs to borrow five dollars, but the person you meet at a networking event has no such ability to call, email or put you on their marketing list afterward and pitch you his entire product range.

In order to get permission, you make a promise. You say, "I will do x, y and z, I hope you will give me permission by reading / listening." And then, this is the hard part, that's all you do. You don't assume you can do more. You don't sell the list or rent the list or demand more attention. You can promise a newsletter and talk to me for years, you can promise a daily RSS feed and talk to me every three minutes, you can promise a sales pitch every day – whatever I have given you permission to do. But the promise is the promise until both sides agree to change it. Permission can be a one-way broadcast medium or online, and it demands that you figure out how to let your permission base choose what they hear and in what format.

If it sounds like you need humility and patience to do permission marketing, you're right. That's why so few companies do it properly. The best shortcut, in this case, is no shortcut at all. It is about building trust, keeping top of mind, treating people with utmost respect – and when they, or someone they know is, looking for your product or service, it is your name that is remembered as a trusted and respectful provider.

Don’t Neglect Local:

It is simple – if your market is international, use the internet. If it is local, use your local mediums. Don’t confuse ‘Likes’ with profit. Yes of course I agree with digital marketing for the right company, but what I am advocating for, is a neglected and poorly serviced local business that has a precious and limited budget and needs an advantage over a highly competitive market. For success you must ‘own’ and dominate your local area marketing space.

Here are some facts that may help you are a local provider, to narrow down where your local market hangs out:-

80% of people live their life locally and spend most of their time within 10km of home;90% spend their time within 20km of their home;76% spend most of their money locally within 10km of home;92% spend most of their money locally within 20km of home;67%of people prefer ‘Local Media’ to find products and services offered by companies in the local area;58% of people prefer print media exclusively as their reading preference

So how do you stand out from the crowd with your marketing?

An experiment conducted at the Centre for Experimental Consumer Psychology at Bangor University proved that printed material created deeper impressions on the brain. As part of a Quad/Graphics Customer Focus Research Study of people 18-34 years of age, advertising material was shown to the participants on a screen and on paper and the MRI scanner determined deeper stimuli when paper ads were held in the hand.

Maintaining consumer trust is one of the fundamental parts of doing business and the research reveals print is a key component that people use in making their purchasing decisions. Studies have also shown that print is considered a more trustworthy and authoritative source of information and people have a stronger emotional connection to messages delivered on paper. Print tantalises our senses. The physical and emotional connection with print makes the experience unique.

Coffee News is both unique, effective and targeted – it’s the New Disruptor!

A ‘disruptive’ innovation is an innovation or creative solution that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market leading firms, product and alliances. Think Uber, Air BnB, Apple.

Both Uber and Airbnb embodied one of the main principles of disruption innovation in that they were spawned by identifying a flaw in a traditional model and its attributes. They found alternative benefits and embraced the power of people in the market as both customers and creators. Airbnb found new customers in people who didn’t enjoy or couldn’t afford traditional forms of accommodation. “Great disruptors are great at understanding human psychology,” stated Chip Conley, strategic thought leader and change agent at Airbnb. Uber was the same, developing a new workforce of drivers and delivering a product to an existing customer base who were dissatisfied with current transport options. Apple essentially disrupted their laptop business with the development of the iPhone and it didn’t render laptops redundant, it grew the market.

So if you are dissatisfied with traditional marketing (ie online), know your prospective customers are local, desire the inordinate value of permission marketing, want to stand out from the crowd, want to be the exclusive top of mind provider of your service or profession, want to ‘own’ your local market.... give Coffee News a call. We are ridiculously affordable, in demand with exclusive categories, very popular, global with a local focus and.... we’re mexafrixen awesome!

What is the difference in networking between a business referral based network group and other network groups?

One of our success factors in the Coffee News franchise is being part of a local referral based network group. Recently though we had a franchisee visit a referral based network group - at our encouragement - to be told that they could not be involved in other network groups. This caused confusion to them, but also as a past National Operations Manager of that group - I know that is not the intention of that group, nor is it in the group or member's best interests not to be clear on the subject. To give a general basic outline of the difference and to clarify the confusion as this has popped up quite a few times:-

A referral based network group:

This group is member and subscription based, is generally exclusive with only one business per category, meets weekly, and measures the activities and referrals generated between members. Its purpose is to give you high visibility as the leading person of your profession or trade and to build quality one-to-one loyal relationships between members based on a high level of ethics and trust. Weekly meetings give members the opportunity to repeat what they offer every week to keep members at the forefront of each other’s minds, so that members become an advocate for other members and actively promote each other by looking for and giving quality referrals. You in essence become part of the 'sales-team' for other members, and in return, they also do that for you. These types of groups are in the business of being in business. There is no shame, confusion, or embarrassment that they are there to get and give business, and it takes a high level of integrity, commitment and resilience to become a quality member, but well worth the investment if you can commit. In general, most referral based network groups have a proviso in their terms and conditions that you can only be involved in one of these types of network – simply because if you join two, you are dividing your loyalty and if you cannot be loyal to that group – why would they look for referrals back for you. It is a recipe for failure. You would look to be involved in one of these groups if you have a high level of availability, understand mutual benefit, love working in a team and have a strong commitment to building your business – fast and for the long term! In my personal view, I would not join a referral based network group that had less than 20 members – the dynamics just don’t work!

A network group:

These groups include Chamber groups, Women’s Networking Groups, Council network groups, Meet Up Groups and numerous business and social Groups constantly popping up in local communities. They are generally open to members and non-members who meet on a casual basis – often monthly. Regular meetings are held but whilst invited, there is no requirement that you will come along to each event – it is more casual. Networking is done, relationships are built, but there is no expectation that members will look for and generate referrals for each other, and no recording is done. These groups follow the same process of visibility for you at the groups, but it can be difficult to establish your credibility within the group in the short time and casual formats of the meetings or events. Often this can be done by volunteering on the management committee of the group and gaining respect and credibility through that. You should be a part of three casual networking groups like these and even though casual – show up every month to establish your own credibility and reliability. These type of networks are extremely valuable to make connections, but you need to work outside of the events or meetings to build relationships, and when it is a monthly meeting it may be hard to keep other attendees top of mind, especially as you may be networking with several of your competitors, all vying for those same connections. These networks are valuable ways to meet people, and if you can discern if they are a quality person of high ethics and reliability, feed back in your referral based group. Why wouldn’t you – if it is working so well for your business, you would want to invite other quality people along to reap the same benefits.

Coffee News (est. 1988) offers exclusive categories to businesses to give them high visibility as the leading person of your profession or trade to stay top of mind in the local audience and as a weekly publication, build the weekly repetition that keeps you top of mind, builds reliability and a feeling of trust. Want to know more: www.coffeenews.com.au

I recently spent some time with a Global Business Development Manager who has written development programs for major brands (including our very successful banks in Australia). These programs are to re-focus, market to and re-connect with their local customers using local area marketing as a simple and cost effective way to increase sales and success.

I have also just watched one of the major bank’s You-Tube video offered as business tips for their clients that encourages businesses to “increase sales through local area marketing - including local publications”.

Now, at Coffee News, a local community based paper committed to connecting businesses to local communities, we have always known this (after all, that is why Coffee News was developed in 1988 and has been successfully doing this for decades) - but why the sudden “re-focus” back to local. (Read more for Research results).

Could it be that all the science behind “data mining” is telling us what was always good common sense? Recent research tells us that local area marketing is crucial (shared to the right). Secondly, in my view, there has been a realisation that the promised “digital revolution” hasn’t made our businesses huge overnight global successes with online customers knocking our virtual doors down - at little or no cost.

Does this mean digital is dead?

A recent quote reported in the industry by Marc Pritchard, Global Brand Building Officer of Procter & Gamble (the world’s largest buyer of advertising) that “digital marketing is dead”, was quite startling. Coupled with the Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith’s statement that “All this raving about how fantastic the internet is at advertising - it doesn't work" simply highlights that the hype around digital may not meet the promise. For local businesses, expectations may have been unrealistic, and/or the reliance on digital advertising alone may have missed the mark. There is a new phrase “Digital Back” that Marc Pritchard referred to - if you are going to use the digital world you need to “build your way back to the rest of the marketing mix”. You have to remember also that digital hype is created by that industry to generate their own revenue streams, which change and increase regularly with new offers. The chase to get ahead of your competitors is always then at more cost to you. I receive a regular “Trendwatching” report, and am conscious that this report is specifically for ‘trends’ within the digital industry - not for all media. Taken out of context, we can develop a bias that is not beneficial.

Now please, if you’re in the digital marketing industry, don’t write to me protesting. I am not against digital marketing and believe that every business needs to have a multi-media approach that includes a quality digital presence. However that is my point. It should be a part of the multi-media approach which includes traditional media and methods to connect local businesses with their local customers.

As a consumer, I have often used the internet to find products - of course I have. But my search is specific. I already know what I'm looking for. Advertising online is like finding a needle in a haystack amongst a product’s innumerable competitors. There's so much out there, and generally, the people online already know what they're looking for. A common complaint is the “intrusive advertising” that pops up and annoys people on a computer screen and then keep ‘representing’ themselves. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me and I quickly click the x to close the intrusion.

Target the audience digital doesn’t reach

With Coffee News, people pick up our paper because they want to, and the advertising is secondary - yet powerful with built in psychological tools that gets the ad remembered. I may not know I want that service, or even know that such a service or product existed, until I see it 'in my hands'.

With Coffee News, we provide the introduction and the constant branding to business that would otherwise be lost in the digital 'mess'. And we do it affordably and exclusively for local businesses. No big budgets - and no competitors!

Coffee News is trusted part of the community. Coffee News has a niche market that targets a specific group of consumers in targeted markets (reaching people with disposable income in a receptive environment) and is the perfect supplemental advertising medium to complete a firm's marketing mix. It provides valuable community information, such as links to business, events and community organisations. Existing users see it is a highly valued and trusted publication.

‘Top of Mind Awareness' is owning the space that your product or service occupies in your prospects mind which influences them to buy from you when ready. That can be very expensive digitally. Coupled with the fact that only 2-5% of people are “NOW” buyers, it is crucial to a business in developing their local marketing plan to establish:

1. How to affordably local area market with the required weekly presence to keep you “top of mind”; and

2. What the local buyers are looking for from you (community involvement and support); and

3. What trusted local advertising mediums fit these values and criteria (community, affordability and weekly consistency) that you can align your marketing with.

Even national brands have a local presence - and are re-connecting to this model and their local customers. Read the research and you’ll understand why, and most importantly, why Coffee News needs to be a highly valued part of your marketing mix.

What the research discovered:-

- People are loving local more than before - They continue to spend most of their time and money locally - Local media is the best way to take advantage of the new rise of local - It works. People act on it

"Local Newspapers have highly engaged audiences, the most believable advertising and a powerful effective medium" (The New Shopper: Today's Purchase Path and the media that influences it)

People live their lives locally and spend most of their time close to home: 80% - "within 10 km of home" 93% - "within 20km of home" 81% - "I try to buy locally whenever I can" 93% - "I like companies that involve themselves in the local community" 84% - "I am more likely to buy brands that give something back to the local community" People spend most of their money locally: 76% - "within 10 km of home" 92% - "within 20 km of home"

People are Focused on Local 32% "The country is improving" (2008: 31%) 70% "Overall, I would say my local area is improving" (2008:57%) 81% "The recession has made supporting my local community more important"