1. If your Advertising isn’t working – STOP DOING IT!
Let’s start with the simple stuff. If you are running advertising that is not working, please stop it!

This applies to all advertising, whether you’re running ads in newspapers or magazines. Feel free to use posters everywhere and make sure you ask people where they found out about you.
2. Only use Direct Response Advertising
There are two types of advertising – direct response advertising and brand advertising.

Understanding the distinction between the two will immediately save you a fortune.

Brand advertising is used by companies like Coca Cola and the large car manufacturers to build and increase awareness of their brand. Unless you have huge amounts of money which you are happy to lose, you should avoid brand advertising at all costs. For a small business it is a complete waste of money.

The only type of advertising you ever want to consider is direct response advertising. The only purpose of direct response advertising is to produce a clear response.
3. Testing and Measuring
It is absolutely essential that you test and measure all of your advertising.

If we are going to engage in direct response advertising we obviously need to be able to measure that response, otherwise we are not going to know if the ad is working.

At the very least we need to know how many people responded to the advert. Then you need to compare that figure to the cost of the ad and you can immediately work out how profitable the ad was, or whether you should stop running it.

One of the reasons that Radio and TV Advertising can be so high risk, is that it’s very difficult to test it on a small scale. You should never invest in Radio and TV Advertising unless it’s money you can afford to lose.
4. Use Fun and Exciting Headlines when possible
Be adventurous with your headlines. Test different versions to see what works best. There are no rules – except what works.
5. Remember AIDA
There’s a classic formula used by advertisers and it’s well worth remembering. The formula is AIDA. This stands for

Attention – grab the reader’s attention
Interest – Create an interest in your product or service
Desire – Convert that interest into a strong desire to contact you and find out more
Action – Give them a reason to act now e.g. free consultation or buy one get one free etc

If you follow this formula in every ad that you write or produce, you will greatly increase your chances of success.
6. Benefits, Benefits, Benefits
One of the principles that should drive all of your marketing is communicating the BENEFITS of your business.
7. Don’t Advertise on a Left Hand Page
If you’re doing newspaper or magazine advertising, this one piece of knowledge can turn an unsuccessful ad campaign into a successful one. This has been tested again and again. When you read a publication, your eyes are drawn to the right hand page as you flick through, so statistically, more people will see your ad if it’s on the right hand page.
8. Never pay the full rate for advertising
The person selling you the advertising needs to know very early on that you have absolutely no intention of paying the full rate.

Most advertising rate cards are far too high and you can always negotiate. If you’re a small business remember that large companies who use ad agencies are buying based on the readership or audience levels rather than the rate card - so haggle and negotiate.
9. Don’t Follow the Competition
One of the biggest mistakes people make is advertising in publications or on various forms of media just because their competitors are doing so. Don’t for a minute think that all your competitors are there because their ads are producing great results. They’re more likely to be there because everyone else is and most of them wont have a clue whether their advertising is working.

In fact, this is a well-known sales trick used by the people selling ad space. If they can get one or two of your competitors to advertise, they can call you up and tell you how you’ll lose out if you don’t advertise too. What they fail to mention is that your competitors probably never test their advertising, often haven’t got a clue how to market and are only advertising there because they think you will. This is a highly effective way to sustain the advertising industry. It’s not a great way for you to run your business.
10. Don’t buy into the myth that Advertising is essential for your Business Success
Generally, advertising is one of the least effective ways to grow a business.

Advertising is just one of many marketing options that you have. But you really shouldn’t be dependent on it.

So start to think out of the box and use a few of the other marketing methods below:
· Direct Mail
· Internet
· Email marketing
· PR (Why spend money on advertising when PR gives you coverage for free)
· Strategic Alliances – i.e. make friends with other businesses and sharing clients

You don’t have to allocate an enormous budget to get good results and recruit franchisees. But you do have to be clever and plan ahead, says marketing and PR specialist Sarah Dyer from Coconut Creatives.

This is the most ideal time of year to start planning for the year ahead to take advantage of the peaks of the franchise industry. Below, I will briefly look at the main aspects of creating a campaign that maximises budget, measures return on investment and can create the most benefit. In the next few issues of the Select Your Franchise newsletter, I will go into more detail on each aspect.

Planning, planning and more planning
We can’t state enough how important it is to plan your campaigns in advance. Many magazines will offer an early booking or series discount with good free editorial space to those franchisors that can produce well written case studies or interesting, fresh stories. It is often the same for online advertising with deals of booking so many months and getting some free.

It is a well known fact that advertising is best done over a long period of time whether this is on or off line. It builds your brand in the public domain and exposes your key messages to your target audience who will find it increasingly harder to ignore you when they have seen you for the 10th time!

In the franchise industry we have magazines such as Making Money, What Franchise or Business Franchise which are most effective if used more than once. Yet be realistic about this: whether you have £2k or £10k to spend over the year on magazine advertising, then spread it out across several issues to gain regular exposure and always discuss editorial opportunities.

We feel that it is better to have an increased number of slightly smaller adverts with negotiated free editorial space booked in advance, than fewer larger adverts booked at late notice.

Measure your return on investment
A simple spreadsheet is better than nothing when measuring the return on your investment. You can calculate this in several ways. To calculate the worth of free editorial space achieved over any period, it is best to look at the space that you have achieved and work out how much that same space would have cost you if it were paid for advertising space.

Ongoing market research
Again, this doesn’t have to be made into a complicated procedure. We recommend speaking to 5 existing franchisees, 5 that went to interview stage and 5 that were just spoken to on the phone and received information. Ask them all where they looked for information about franchising, how they found your franchise and most importantly ALL the places that they found your franchise that influenced them. They may have finally enquired through your own website and therefore be labelled a ‘website enquiry’ but what you should be interested in is how they found your website. Did they read an article in a magazine? Did they visit an exhibition and collect some literature? Did they read about you online?

If you can continually refine the combination of marketing and communication channels that are used for your franchise recruitment campaign then you will become more and more successful.

Don’t forget…
· Plan your annual franchise recruitment cycle in advance
· Book any advertising in advance to make the most of early space and series discounts
· Offer good quality case studies which are current and interesting
· Track the return on your investment using a simple spreadsheet or system that you are comfortable with (something is better than nothing)
· Always, always ask prospects how they found out about you

Overall, plan ahead to make sure your business doesn’t get left behind…

Coconut Creatives have been invited to publish a range of articles in several magazines to respond to the increased interest that business people have in marketing.

Featured articles can be found in the national Making Money Magazine sold in Tescos and WH Smith, Start Your Business magazine also sold in WH Smith and independent retailers and the national Franchisor News magazine which serves the franchise industry.

“We are delighted to offer marketing features to complement the magazines existing articles and information,” says Coconut Creatives founder, Sarah Dyer. “We have been writing articles for the press and online sources for some time now and it is our pleasure to help spread the word about marketing through established and reputable magazines as well.”

Coconut Creatives Directors, Sarah Dyer and Christopher Cook also sit on the South West Regional Board for the Chartered Institute of Marketing and work tirelessly to help improve the awareness and standard of marketing practices UK-wide. “It is vital that a company’s marketing function starts from a strategic level so that it maps in with the direction of the business plan. Campaigns and promotions are then created to meet the objectives set out at this strategic level and we have found that our clients see and achieve much greater success by approaching marketing in this way,” explains Christopher.

For further information about Coconut Creatives contact Sarah or Chris on 01963 31030 or email helpme@coconutcreatives.co.uk.

Part of the article featured in the national magazine Making Money…

Many business owners are worrying about their brand and company’s reputation as more businesses take on board a corporate social responsibility strategy or policy for more ethical trading. This is beginning to affect the sensitivity and attitudes of todays empowered consumers.

With the rise in digital media, such as blogs and forums, consumers are publicly discussing every aspect of your business, their experiences with your brand – both good and bad, as well as highlighting the differences between your offering and that of your competitors. How does this affect franchising when you are dependent on an entire network to be consistent? Control can be hard.

So what can you do to ensure your business isn’t just keeping up, but leading the industry? How can you make more money? The answer comes through marketing communications…

· Build solid foundations
· Define strong brand values
· Build relationships with all stakeholders
· Communicate all of the above (listen as well)

The importance of brand values
Developing and maintaining a reputation in a competitive market can be tricky. Yet the best companies do this through consistent communication both within the business (through their network of staff and affiliates) and externally (by communicating with their suppliers, customers and prospective customers).

All businesses need a common goal and an aim, this is just like driving from Portsmouth to London, you need to know which roads to take, where to get petrol and how long it is going to take you to get there. If everyone is focused on a common goal, you are much more likely to achieve it.

Becoming recognised in your industry for doing something well and doing it consistently is vital in building a great brand, this where brand values come in.

Sarah comments “these values tell the world that you are the best, you are trustworthy and you are definitely worth the money. If you can then stand by your values over the long term, you might just achieve more than you can imagine.”

For more information about this subject contact Coconut Creatives on 01963 31030 or email tellmemore@coconutcreatives.co.uk

I’m often asked about tactics which can fit into a marketing strategy, so this month’s tips focus on a few different ideas that can be done alongside your existing 2008 campaign.

Often the temptation is to focus all efforts on recruitment when in fact, your existing franchisee network is capable of much more than you think.

Franchisees at Exhibitions
Taking a franchisee to an exhibition with you gives two very clear messages to prospective franchisees. That you are happy for prospects to chat with an existing franchisee and that you have happy franchisees. So much time is spent on the lead up to an exhibition in the preparation of the stand, signing off final artwork and sorting last minute freebies to tempt prospects onto your stand. The best possible attraction that a franchisor can have on their stand is a real life franchisee (even if they wear a t-shirt saying “I’m a Franchisee”) the message will be strong, clear and powerful. So make sure you take a franchisee with you and get them talking to the visitors

Franchisee recruitment questions
Franchisees are the best possible advocate for your brand and franchise package. It has been proven that when prospects are given a chance to talk to or visit and existing franchisee, they ask better questions and therefore find out at an earlier stage if the franchise is for them. After all, the franchisee is doing the job that they hope to do. They will have many questions and will want to find out what it is like in their shoes. This may require some training and agreement from a particular franchisee and is well worth the effort.

Marketing collateral
Use your chosen franchisees on marketing materials, within press releases and on your website. People like to see people and their testimonials will aid your franchise success for the future. All franchisees should be encouraged to report on positive feedback, gain comments from their own customers and to take photos where possible. You never know when this material might come in handy saving time and money when a promotional opportunity requires such materials. However, be choosey on which materials you use as they must meet your brand standards and give the right message.

Research for future development
Your existing franchisees can offer valuable insights into the future development of the franchise package. A system for capturing their feedback on everything from initial training to newly launched products is essential for continual improvement to maintain a competitive advantage in the future.

Useful Tips
1. Try to build a bank of franchisee case studies which ideally cover several key market areas. Such market areas can include women in franchising or couples in franchising. This allows you to have marketing collateral at your disposal to target specific market segments.
2. Always take a franchisee when you attend events and exhibitions to recruit new franchisees
3. Ideally have a franchisee that is available for serious prospects to talk to.
4. Encourage a marketing focus within your network and reward your franchisees for offering customer case studies that you, as the franchisor, can use.

The India trip 5 – 18th January 2008 was organised by Fair Trade UK based retail company Shared Earth as a buying trip and to gain images of the manufacturing process to use in their marketing materials. Sarah Dyer and Chris Cook from Coconut Creatives accompanied the group to undertake interviews and gain images for press opportunities.

During the trip the Shared Earth team visited many different suppliers in Delhi, Agra, Saharanpur and Kolkatta. These suppliers are working with hundreds of Indian producers to offer fairly traded products world-wide.

The Shared Earth and Coconut Creatives team were taken to a slum, orphanage, villages, cities and funded schools travelling right across India to discover the real positive impact that Fair Trade is making on the workers and their family’s lives.

What we discovered…
Fair Trade projects have been set up by the Indian suppliers throughout India to give back to the community. Details of many of these projects can be found on www.sharedearthnewsandmedia.co.uk. A sample can be found below:
1. A school slum which provides funded education for 60 children from 400 families living in Delhi

2. A funded orphanage which cares for and educates former child workers, child prostitutes and abandoned children from the Delhi region

3. An E-Academy to teach children necessary computer skills in Kolkatta
4. A self sufficient project for deaf and dumb adults giving them a fair chance to work making handicrafts which are sold internationally
5. Many, many workshops that provide consistent employment, fair wages, pensions, healthcare schemes and safer working conditions for master craftsmen and workers throughout India

Vicki Cunningham editor of Franchisor News recently invited Sarah Dyer, Marketing Specialist from Coconut Creatives Ltd to write a regular marketing feature within the Franchisor News magazine.

“I’m thrilled to be writing for the magazine,” says Sarah. “There are so many elements to marketing and franchised businesses can generate so much benefit from employing just a few of the tools that I will be explaining through the features.”

The magazine is full of franchisor examples and news from the industry. Vicki has ensured that the tone is light and the text large so that it is an easy yet informative read.

Watch out for the next quarterly addition which goes to print later this month and is available from the beginning of December.  For more information about the magazine go to www.franchisornews.co.uk

Morrisons supermarkets are now proud stockists of Bridport based Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes in a move to support local quality producers.

Coconut Creatives client, Richard Bowditch from Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes, was approached by Morrisons a few months ago and now customers can find these freshly hand prepared cakes in Morrisons stores throughout the Wessex region.

“As a local producer, we are delighted to be able to share our cakes with a wider audience and the feedback has been fabulous,” says Jessica Bowditch, who was the original inspiration for Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes.

Coconut Creatives has been working towards preparing the marketing and in-house systems to allow for a greater demand such as the new Morrison’s contract. The implementation of a customer relationship management system for Richard and his staff to use has made a big difference to the speed of the operation. Coconut Creatives came up with the idea after a gruelling internal audit.

The marketing stance for Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes has always focused on being local. Hand prepared at Manor Farm near Bridport using local ingredients wherever possible, Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes has been using traditional recipes and techniques for three generations. If your mouth is watering at the thought of a five inch high chocolate sponge cake, pop to your local Morrisons and pick one up for the whole family to share.

For more information about Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes go to www.jessicasfarmhousecakes.co.uk

Every day, on the radio, in newspapers and on television, we’re being extolled to go green, reduce carbon emissions, eat more healthy food and use fair-trade suppliers – in fact, just live a better lifestyle. GreenerLiving magazine is there to help make sense of all the conflicting advice, by giving balanced information on each subject, allowing readers to make the right choices for themselves.

More than 30,000 copies are distributed free every two months through supermarkets and point of sale promotions and readers can subscribe and receive a personal copy delivered to their door.

Working with Dorset-based Coconut Creatives marketing house, Greener Living magazine will soon be launching the GreenerLiving Club, a loyalty scheme giving members access to discounts from a wide range of companies offering ‘greener’ products and services, as well as a regular e-newsletter packed with even more club promotions and information on greener solutions.

“We’re really excited about launching the GreenerLiving Club,” said Sarah, Partner of Coconut Creatives. “We’ve been working with Peter Batt, GreenerLiving’s editor for a few months now and the magazine has been really well received so far. We have big plans to for its continued success over the coming months.”

To coincide with the club launch later this year, GreenerLiving is also launching a special corporate Partners and Affiliates programme. With a number of options, ranging from a simple business listing to a high-profile case study, and coupled with website and e-newsletter banner advertising, the programme will offer businesses the opportunity to promote their ‘green’ products and services to consumers who really want to buy.

For more information about GreenerLiving Magazine or to download a back copy go to www.greenerliving.tv

After operating a successful central London office a mile from London Bridge, Coconut Creatives decided to move to the tranquil and creative location of Charlton Musgrove, a village just off the A303 past Stone Henge.

The reason for the move came about after a surge of clients in the South of England!

However, since the move the Coconuts have been traveling back to London at least once a week to work with London based businesses which use their marketing services on a regular basis.

Chris Livett, owner of Thames Luxury Charters and Waterman to the Her Majesty the Queen requested for Christopher Cook to work on several projects this year. “At the moment, I feel like I have the best of both worlds, I spend a day or so a week in London and the rest of the time in Somerset,” remarks Chris Cook, Coconut Creatives Partner.

As mentioned in a previous feature, one of Coconut Creatives main objectives is to help owner managed businesses reach their goals. “Moving out of London has always been a consideration as I grew up in the countryside. I know I am very lucky to be able to help so many businesses work towards their own goals and it is a bonus that it has brought me closer to my own,” says Sarah Dyer, founder of Coconut Creatives Ltd.

So whether you are aiming for a hotel on the moon or a cocktail on a Friday night, “aim high,” say the Coconuts, “you never know when you’ll get an opportunity to move closer to where you really want to be.”

Although since the move back in June, Coconut Creatives has attracted several new clients in the Yorkshire region, so we wonder where they might be located in the future…