Krishna De: Insights From Ireland On Digital Marketing, Social Media And Entrepreneurship

Referrals make the world go around don't they? Most businesses I know find that the majority of their business comes from referrals be than online of offline.

Small business marketing coach and author John Jantsch hosted 'Make a Referral Week' in 2009 and I am delighted that he is hosting it again during the week of 8-12 March 2010.

So don't forget to add who your referred and why in the comments section at http://www.makeareferralweek.com/referralcounter – you can add URLs so others can learn about the business you referred.

Who will you be referring business to this week?

Adage.com reports that last year, Coca-Cola started to roll out a group of 28 electronic billboards in 27 markets that the company owns and operates -14 feet by 48 feet LED screens.

Owning the digital bill boards will also enable Coca-Cola to offer screen time to its retail partners. Coca-Cola has also promoted charity partners on their digital billboards including rotating in messages to support The Red Cross' texting campaign to benefit Haiti.

This move will also allow Coca-Cola to get some close at hand research into what marketing messages and what frequency to change the messages along side timing of messages works most effectively for their campaigns.

Have you seen a Coca-Cola digital billboard yet?

Eliminated my business line – I use my cellphone exclusively

Manicures, pedicures – all done myself (which explains why it looks as if a 3-year-old painted my nails)

Toyota Camry was the least expensive lease, believe it or not – even cheaper than a Corolla

No more Nordstroms – hello, consignment shops

Eliminated a bunch of print newspaper and magazine subscriptions

Reduced my society membership fees to only those groups I truly enjoy – PRSA and ABPA

Very, very few dinners out – more coffees

Speaking of coffee, goodbye, Starbucks cafe mocha – hello regular coffee

Used bookstores and Amazon used books

Learning more web info myself, instead of paying an outsourced designer

Here's an extract of an article by Linda Vandevrede on the Valley PR blog about how her spending patterns have changed this last year.

I was also reading a newsletter from a friend of mine Chris Barrow who works with dentists and how many of them are very concerned about the start of 2010 with people cancelling appointments due to the bad weather in the UK.

I know many people are concerned about the start of 2010 and especially if they are marketing to consumers they are concerned about the economy.

I also predict that this next month we will start to see a number of job cuts announced so many people will be watching their wallets.

So what actions can you take?

1. as Chris mentions in his newsletter - don't panic publicly - don't let your team, customers or business associates be aware that you are lacking confidence

2. accept that this is going to be a challenging quarter

3. review your expenditure and explore where you can reduce this further - take a look at my example of using my iPhone to make a conference call avoiding hotel conference calling costs as an example

4. review what your customers are investing in and make sure that you refine your offerings to what they want, need and will invest in - how can you create a new stream of revenue?

5. tune up your marketing - invest in building your visibility and your network - that might be exploring strategic alliances or implementing a newsletter as a keep in touch strategy

6. follow up with those warm leads you had before Christmas

7. research your competition - get onto their newsletter lists, read their log posts or Twitter feeds and note what they are doing and how can you learn and improve upon that

8. seek support - perhaps that is a buddy, a mastermind group, finding yourself a mentor, reading marketing books or investing in training - don't go it alone find some people to support you through this challenging first quarter of 2010

9. make a decision and then act on it - what three priorities do you have for the next 90 days - then clear the decks of anything else - focus relentlessly and give yourself the best chance of success - just today I turned down a potential opportunity as I know that it will take me off my course of action that I have planned.

What other ideas do you have for weathering the rough start for 2010?

Did you know that Nestle Kit Kat is Britain's biggest selling biscuit with about 1 billion sold each year?

Following a move by Cadbury's Dairy Milk which is the UK's best selling chocolate bar and which became Fairtrade certified in March 2009, Nestle Kit Kat becoming certified will mean that 6,000 farmers in West Africa will get a better price for their cocoa which in turn should impact on their livelihood for them and their families.

The biscuit, with the poplar tag line 'have a break have a Kit Kat' will be giving the farmers a break - or at least a chance of escaping from poverty as they will get a guaranteed minimum price plus a premium of more than £100 a tonne with the Fairtrade agreement.

What a great example of how western brands can do social good.