We came up with the idea for our brilliant Wake up Your Website service after being asked to create a better website design and brand image for The Stroke Comedy Club in Lichfield, Staffordshire. www.strokecomedy.com

The website was old fashioned, badly laid out, had slow loading images, didn’t portray the quality of the club and its massive success, and the business owner was not enjoying adding updates or promoting it. So we had a meeting and started planning the improvements.

As you would expect, the revamped site’s function is to quickly give details of forthcoming shows but we also wanted to include everything that people would want to know – how to get tickets, directions, who’s played there before, what the club is like, etc. Read more…

Like many things, you get what you pay for when hiring a web designer, but the resultant website and its ability to achieve your business objectives is very much dependent upon YOUR input too.

Let’s use the analogy of custom building a desirable house……

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Leadership begins inside; with the inner character not the outward personality.

Being a Great leader requires a combination of skills, character traits, experience, mental strength, intelligence and principles.

If you are a leader and you lack any one of the following YOU WILL ultimately get found out and crash and burn:

• Can articulate a compelling vision of the future that’s clear and focused
• A good communicator with a simple message
• A charismatic and enthusiastic character
• Able to mobilise people and hold their company/team together
• Can inspire confidence and empower others
• Can bring out the best in others
• Is credible, courageous and proactive
• Has admirable principles which guide decisions
• Makes decisions intelligently, quickly and with commitment
• Has high expectations in self and others
• Can establish a success formula and achieve tasks efficiently
• Searches for new opportunities for their company to consider
• Is flexible and can refocus in light of new opportunities or threats
• Predicts future demand and trends and plans for them
• Embraces technology
• Puts health and family before work (within reason)
• Can take advice and knows the right people to get it from
• Can manage change effectively

Alexander Bullivant
Roxbourne Marketing Consultants

The Battle of Hopton Heath Memorial Stone

On Saturday the 7th March and Sunday 22nd March we will be doing some charity filming work for the West Midlands Branch of the Military Historical Society (WMMHS) and The Hopton Heath Battlefield Memorial Project.

This is to help them promote their fund raising for the erection of a memorial stone and interpretation panel on the site of an historic Staffordshire battle. On both occasions a large group of Sealed Knot re-enactors in period costume/uniform will be in attendance.

Photograph taken by Mark Warwick – Captured Times

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(Further to the content on our main website about why a firm with clients would want to develop an effective Referral Marketing Strategy)

Those who get a lot of referred business are usually good at their job – AND clients know it.

Their clients KNOW, understand and appreciate the service and its benefits, believe they are given good value for money and they also TRUST and LIKE the person that deals with them or provides the service to the extent that they want to help them.

KNOW, TRUST & LIKE are the attributes that need to be improved in order to get lots of quality referrals. more…

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We filmed the Sealed Knot in Stafford last Saturday and the BBC will be showing some of our video footage  during the early evening BBC West Midlands News on the 19th March 2009. The videos will be within a piece about the forth coming Hopton Heath Battlefield Memorial Stone unveiling ceremony.

The ceremony itself will be on Sunday the 22nd March 2009 in Hopton in Staffordshire – why not come along if you are interested in English history or the English Civil War. A large group of Sealed Knot re-enactors in period costume/uniform will be in attendance. See our other piece about the ceremony for more detail.

See the BBC news article on the project

It all starts with your Mission –

• Why are you in business and where do you want to take it?
• What is mission critical?
• What barriers to success are in your way?
• What sets you apart from your competition?
• What do your customers really need/want?
• Have you researched it?
• What kind of service do they expect these days?

Endless things to consider.. all you know is turnover and profits must rise and stress levels must fall.

What’s needed are a new Mission Statement and an Action Plan to get passionate about. You need to research, innovate and develop your offering to attract more and better business, boost client/customer satisfaction and reputation.

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This blog is also for any firm or individual that has clients and a client base, rather than customers. It follows on from our other blogs on Referral Marketing and from info on our main website . Referral Marketing is the best business development strategy there is for Service Providers…

A COI is ideally a client who knows your firm and at least one person in it very well and trusts and respects what you do and is confident enough to recommend you often and without hesitation.

The reason they are like this is a combination of their character – “they are just naturally like that”, and their social status or power status at work. COIs need to be identified within your client-base and treated very well for obvious reasons. More…

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Getting leads from Colleagues, Internal Business Referrals,  Inter-departmental Referring or Cross-selling, whatever you call it – either way you’re maximising the value of your clients. Here’s some simple tips – but be aware of the common problems.

This post is for any firm or individual that has clients,  rather than customers. It follows on from our other blogs on Referral Marketing and from info on our main website. Referral Marketing is the best business development strategy there is for Service Providers…

Some firms are good at inter-departmental referring others are not; either way your strategy for dealing with this should be included in your overall Marketing Plan.

Human nature needs to be used to your advantage rather than disadvantage.

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Referrals From External Connections
This blog is for any person or firm that has clients rather than customers.

Referral Marketing is the best business development strategy there is for Service Providers…

…Accountants, Financial Advisers, Solicitors, Dentists, Designers, Architects, Plastic Surgeons, Builders, Vets, IT Services, Website Designers, Stylists, Trainers, Consultants, Printers, Landscape Gardeners, Brokers, etc.

Other service providers and professions other than your own have clients that may also need your services; your clients might also need their services. So it makes perfect sense to be proactive about it. Working more holistically and referring your clients to other carefully selected providers and professionals will compliment your own offering, bringing ‘added value services’ that your clients will appreciate and remember you for. In return the service providers and professionals are also more inclined to refer their clients to you, which is the main objective.
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