Helen Dowling
Free
Exceptional Thinking - Marketing Services Expert
Helen Dowling Quick Facts
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing. For 50 free ideas on marketing and promoting your business, go to http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/50ideas.htm
Exceptional Thinking specialise in getting marketing done. Whether you want us to do it for you or you want to do your own marketing with our support, we have flexible packages available to suit your needs.
Helen started the business back in 2003 and is Exceptional Thinking’s main driver. She is a professional marketer and specialises in working with small businesses. She has recently won Midlands Networker of the Year in the Midlands Business Awards and been nominated as a finalist in several awards including Cotswold Life Awards and the Barclays National Business Plan Awards. Helen also sits on many panels including being one of the experts on the Business Startup Community.
Articles by this expert
SelfGrowth articles and saved writing connected to this expert.
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A is for Advertising
When I first started Exceptional Thinking, just about everybody told me that I should do some advertising and to be honest, that’s what I thought I should do too. After all, that’s what businesses do to promote their products and services don’t they? So, dutifully I advertised. First in a business magazine that resulted in nothing, then in a local community magazine – again nothing and then finally (I was learning my lesson at this point) in the local paper. Nothing there either. By this point, I was getting a little frustrated with marketing.
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B is for Blogging
Over the last few years, there have been lots of new ways to market and promote your business springing up. One of those ways is to create a blog for your business. A blog – short for web-log – is an on-line diary. You can set one up for free at www.blogger.com or for those who are more technically minded, set one up at www.wordpress.org. When you’ve set one up you can use it in whichever way you choose. Here’s some examples: Articlesr If you write articles (which are a great way to promote your business in their own right), you can post them in your blog.
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Act Like Your Business is Worth £1m
How many times have you heard the phrase “Act like your business is worth £1m” and left thinking that although that would be nice, there is no way you could do that because you just don’t have the money. Me too! And then, the other day I reached an epiphany. By this phrase, people don’t mean to actually spend money like your business is worth £1m. What they mean is categorised by the word “ACT”. Let me explain what I realised.
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Why Does The World Stop At Christmas?
Within the next week or so, offices across the country will be closing for Christmas and not re-opening their doors until 3rd January 2012. While that’s only a couple of weeks, no-one will really get going again until the second week in January, so it almost feels like there is a month off for everyone. Why is this and how can you stop it having a major impact on your business?
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The Secret to Writing Great Copy
How many times have you read something – maybe on a website or in a sales letter and thought “that doesn't make sense” or found it hard to concentrate because the way it was written wasn't very interesting? Well, let me tell you something. When I first started my business, that’s how the information that I wrote down used to be all the time. It was full of jargon, didn't make sense and was written in business English – great for reports, but not for getting the sale in through the door.
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Doctor Vs Dentists
Yesterday I had an 8.45am appointment with the Dentist. Definitely not my favourite place to go and definitely not at that time in the morning. My husband and I arrived for our check-ups promptly and at 8.45am exactly I was shown into the chair. After a quick look around and an announcement that everything was fine, I went back out to the waiting room. And that is when the magic happened. I don't mean literally here; Harry Potter did not appear or anything like that. But that is when the systems took over.
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D is for Direct Mail
Direct Mail, otherwise known as sending letters through the post to prospective customers is now pretty much a dying art. By many business owners, sending letters has been replaced by emails – can’t say I blame them really. After all, emails are cheaper, quicker and you can see who has opened it and read it. Why wouldn’t you use emails? But, there are still some business owners who do use direct mail as a marketing technique.
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F is for Following up
Over the last few years, I’ve spoken and written in depth about following up with people and why I really do think that it is the most important marketing technique that you can do. But, I still see business owners struggling with following up with people. Case in point, I was speaking to a contact of mine who was a member of a networking group. He told me that every week he was giving potential leads to follow up with and dutifully sent them all an email.
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I is for (free) Information
This week, I wanted to address a question that I get asked by many small businesses. How much information is appropriate to give away for free? Most of us get asked to give away a fair amount of information – from information that we choose to provide (like this article) to people contacting us and asking us to answer questions for them to people blatantly meeting us and picking our brains. So, what’s ok to give away for free and what’s not? Well, the answer is that it’s very much up to you and your business.
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M is for Marketing Strategy
Do you have a marketing strategy in place? No, by this I don’t mean a marketing plan (although that’s great if you have one of these). I mean a marketing strategy – something that tells you end to end where each of your marketing fits in. When I talk to small business owners they usually tell me about various marketing activities that they have planned for their business. That’s all great and I’m not knocking that at all, but all this will do is bring you in potential customers for your business.
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What are the new ways to promote your business?
Over the last year or so, lots and lots of new ways to promote your business have appeared. Some of these were there before, but they’ve now become mainstream and have opened the doors for smaller businesses to compete with larger businesses for the first time.
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Being clear on what you do
Last week I sat down with a lady who wanted me to refer business to her. She was really lovely and we spent about an hour chatting away. But, although I would have liked to have referred business to her, I walked away from that meeting not really understanding what she did or how she could have helped people. Our conversation went something like this: She explained what she did. I replied with what I thought she did. She said no, she didn’t quite do that.
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