Here's our top Marketing tips for you to start using NOW!

Whether you're writing a brochure, website or advert, it needs to feel like a personal communication to the individual reading it. And it needs to be about them. It needs to address their needs, desires and fears and it needs to constantly communicate the benefits of what you are offering.

The headline is the most important part of any communication - if you don't grab the reader's attention, it doesn't matter what you say in the rest of the piece - they aren't reading it. Spending money on good copywriting is well worth the investment.

Make sure your website is an effective part of your marketing strategy, not just something you give a junior assistant to manage. Your website must reinforce your credibility and give potential customers the confidence that you are good to do business with.

When you want to raise your marketing game, some things are important to spend money on - other things you can get away with being a cheapskate. The two things you should never stint on are your corporate image - good design will make you look very professional - and printed materials - poor quality printing on cheap paper always devalues what you stand for. On the other hand, website templates have now become so good, you don't have to spend thousands of pounds to get a professional-looking website - only if you really want something really unique. (This website is built on templates)

The biggest website faux pas is to bang on about what you do - you need to effectively demonstrate how you can help your customer. They're not interested in you (other than needing assurance that you are a credible supplier) - they're looking for a solution to their problem. 90% of websites get this wrong. This is your biggest chance to steal a march on the competition.

The internet really is the ultimate selling tool. You can harness its power without spending a fortune on pay-per-click. Submit your key words to Google (around 80% of all internet searches are on Google), but make sure your website text echoes these words. Build links to your website from other websites relevant to your business, to help improve your natural page rank (reciprocal agreements are a good start). List your business on as many free index/directory sites as possible - including Google Maps - and in time you'll get yourself found.

If you can't wait for the search engines to start ranking your website (it does take time) then use pay-per-click wisely. You pay every time someone clicks through to your website, whether that produces a sale or not. You need a strategy to make sure people only click on your link when they are really focussed on what they're looking for. When people submit a search phrase, they keep refining it until they filter out all the inappropriate results. So make sure you only bid on really precise keyword phrases.

Don't waste your money on brand awareness ads. You want a response from your ad - a call, an email, a purchase. So, at the end, you need a call to action that makes it easy for them to respond. This works for websites and leaflets too.

If you don't measure the response to an advert, how can you tell if you're getting a return on your investment? When someone calls, ask where they heard about you; if they are enquiring by email, use different mailbox addresses so you can identify the source.

If your ads aren't working, stop them. Just because you've always advertised is no reason to keep doing it. Why throw your money away? Test smarter ads with snappier headlines and see which gives the best result.

Press releases need to make life easy for the journalist. Give them a good story written in the style their readers expect. And don't forget the attention-grabbing headline - otherwise it'll be straight in the bin without being read. Call them to check they've received it - and of course draw attention to it. Use the conversation to sell your story.

We hope you find these tips helpful. If you'd like some help to get you started, please give us a call on 07786 512450. We are happy to help in small ways (such as writing ads and press releases) or we can help you develop your Marketing strategy from first principles.