DATA

Data protection – if you are gdpr compliant your are almost OK

Make sure you are able to get data from EU

Check your providers if they are EU based eg Ireland

IMPORT EXPORT

Customs declarations

HMRC APPROACH TO NO DEAL

Day one easements

• Transitional simplified procedures
• Intermediatetd liability
• Guarantee relaxations
• Entry summary declarations for imports

DAY ONE RO-RO LOCATIONS

Declerations to be prelogded

EORI

An EORI number – which stands for an Economic Operator Registration and Identification Number – is a unique ID code used to track and register customs information in the EU.

An EORI number is not the same as a VAT number. However, if you’re VAT registered, they are linked. When you apply for an EORI number as a VAT registered business HMRC will link all your imports to your VAT number.

Exit summary declaration

If an export declaration or a transit declaration containing safety and security data has not been submitted for goods exiting the EU, an electronic exit summary declaration (IE615) is to be submitted to Customs for the goods.

The responsibility for submitting an exit summary declaration lies with the transport company, which has drafted the transport agreement and which transports the goods out of the Union.

Safety and security data must be submitted for goods exiting the EU prior to their departure from the Union.

The declaration is submitted when goods physically exit the EU territory by road and by rail.

The declaration is submitted for goods exiting by air or sea when the goods are loaded on board a craft, which transports them outside the EU.

An exit summary declaration is required at a place of exit in Finland when goods are sent from Norway via Finland to a non-EU territory, for example Russia.

https://tulli.fi/en/businesses/arrival-and-exit/exit-summary-declaration

Export Control System

The Export Control System (ECS) is the EU system for the control of indirect exports, such as export consignments declared for export at a location in one member state that then exit the EU via another member state.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/export-control-system-ecs-supporting-guidance

UK to remain in Common Transit Convention after Brexit

Continued membership of the convention will ensure simplified cross-border trade for UK businesses exporting their goods.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-to-remain-in-common-transit-convention-after-brexit

Customs Special Procedures for the Union Customs Code

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notice-3001-special-procedures-for-the-union-customs-code/notice-3001-special-procedures-for-the-union-customs-code

Paying VAT on imports, acquisitions and purchases from abroad

If you import, acquire or buy goods or services from abroad you may have to pay VAT or account for it under the reverse charge procedure.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-imports-acquisitions-and-purchases-from-abroad

KEY ACTIONS

TRANSITIONAL SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES – TSP

HMRC has today set out an extension of Transitional Simplified Procedures (TSP) which includes:

• an extension of the date when the first supplementary customs declarations must be submitted, and any import duties must be paid, to 4 October 2019, with subsequent declarations submitted monthly.
• making TSP available for any port or airport where goods are being brought in from the EU. HMRC will continue to work with stakeholders on TSP implementation, recognising that circumstances will be different from port to port.
• giving importing businesses until 30 September 2019 to provide a guarantee that is required to cover any customs duties that they wish to defer. This will apply for all importers, not just those who have registered for TSP.

The full news article is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hmrc-outlines-extension-of-transitional-simplified-procedures

Also published is further guidance on making declarations for TSP: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/making-declarations-using-transitional-simplified-procedures

https://www.bifa.org/news/articles/2019/mar/transitional-simplified-procedures-tsp

TRADE POLICY

Trade Barriers

Temporary tariff regime for no deal Brexit published

Government has published details of the UK’s temporary tariff regime for no deal, designed to minimise costs to business and consumers while protecting vulnerable industries.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/temporary-tariff-regime-for-no-deal-brexit-published

An update on existing trade agreements if the UK leaves the EU without a deal

An update on existing trade agreements if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/trade-agreement-continuity

Unilateral free trade simply means that one country reduces its import restrictions without any formal agreement for reciprocation from its trade partners.

The Agreement on Government Procurement is a plurilateral agreement under the auspices of the World Trade Organization which regulates the procurement of goods and services by the public authorities of the parties to the agreement, based on the principles of openness, transparency and non-discrimination.

The UK’s trade remedies investigations process

Trade remedies help protect UK businesses against unfair trading practices and unforeseen surges in imports. These usually take the form of additional duties on those imports.

The Trade Remedies Investigations Directorate (TRID) will investigate if new anti-dumping or anti-subsidy measures are needed to counteract unfair trading practices. TRID will also investigate if safeguard measures are needed to counteract unforeseen surges in imports which risk damaging UK businesses.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/trade-remedies-investigating-dumped-or-subsidised-goods

Commodity code

https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/sections

Do some marketing every day

SIMPLE AS ABC

Audience – Who are you selling to?

Demographics

Boast – What are you saying to them?

What are their problems

Channel – How are you getting that message across?

THE 3 W’S

Who – are you?

What – do you do?

Why – should I care?
(WIIFM) What’s In It For Me

WIIFM is the stuff that shows how or why what you have to sell or say matters to those who you are trying to sell or say it too. It’s the value proposition, the thing that makes them realize that what you’re offering is worth their money or their time.

HOW ARE YOU USING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA?

Are you consistent?

Are you useful?

Are your profiles complete?

Are you using hootsuite.com (or similar) ?

B2B is possible but difficult in FB

IN is best fit for B2B but IN is becoming like FB recently

COPY FORMULA

AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action

Speak to the client – use you

Get testimonials – lots of them

Capture data

Write blogs and case studies

Answer questions

Use social media (especially video)

Reviews

Don’t start with we, start with your audience

Make it easy for people to get in touch

FEATURES TO BENEFITS

Say what? So what?

WIIFM? How can you help me?

Tell me I’m special, please!

Don’t we all over your message!

Everyone buys something for a reason

Usually these reasons are hidden

A lot of people buy things for feelings

When is the last time you got a thank you card for purchasing something?

Go the extra mile

Do something extra, little things…

You just need to be a little better than your competitors.

PRICING

Never compete on price – race to bottom

Review your prices every 6 months

High price strategies

Do you have payment options?

Have you got a guarantee?

Price is not the issue

Value is key

Premium products?

Add instant profits

Upsells, upgrade

Payment options?

MARKETING PILLARS

Affiliate marketing

Affiliates

Articles in other magazines

Asking existing clients for referrals

Auto responders

Awards

Banner retargeting

Blogs

Blogs others

Brochures

Business cards

CRM / Database

Direct mail

Discussion groups

Email

Exhibitions

Facebook organic

Facebook ppc

Four square

Google PPC

Introducers

Leaflet drops

Letter campaigns

Linkedin organic

Linkedin ads

Local magazines

Local papers

Joint ventures

Networking

Newsletters printed

Newsletters email

Papers

Pinterest

Postcards

PR articles

Premium products

Promotional clothing

Promotional other cards, pens etc

Radio

Roller banners

Seminars

Speaking

Sponsorship

Squeeze pages

Strategic partners

Telemarketing

Telephone

Testimonials

Testimonials video

Text

TV

Twitter

Up-sells

Video

Walk-ins cold!

Webinars

Website

Yellow pages or similar

Youtube

THE MONEY IS IN THE LIST

Are you using a CRM?

And, if not, why not?

How often do you contact client and connections?

When you sell a business, it is the database that is worth the money

REFERRALS MADE SIMPLE

How to get a referral:

ASK FOR IT!

Or, offer an incentive

Give something back

LOOK AFTER YOU

Get good sleep

Eat properly

Exercise regularly

MARKETING ACTION PLAN

Every Day

• Social media, TW, FB etc
• List building or updating your database

Every week

• Email writing, newsletter
• Blog writing
• Gather testimonials, talk to clients, get feedback

Every month

• Planning marketing campaign, working out how to reach and contact your target market
• Referral gathering, asking your clients for introductions into other clients

Every Quarter

• Review success and failure over the last quarter
• Adjust what didn’t work , do more of what did
• Plan the next quarter, what markets, products are you going to target?

WHY VIDEO?

• Communicates some things better
• Preferred by some people over reading
• Liked by google
• Can be viewed on many devices including TV
• Can be published on your site and many other platforms
• Video is a persuasive medium

VIDEO FOR…?

• Location
• Process – timelapse
• Brand story
• Show the person/people
• Show/demo the product
• Event
• Customer/product support
• Testimonials
  • Social proof, reviews
  • Easy to buy fake reviews
  • How do we know its not fake? Video reviews
• Promotional / advert

TIPS

• Keep your hands close to your body for less shaking
• Don’t jump into the video without thinking about it
• You need to slow down
• Tripod slows you down, frees your hands

SOUND

• Half of the video is sound: microphone

VIDEO TYPES

• Cut away
  • You can paste different videos on a main video (eg an interview)
  • You can also use photos as well. You can zoom in photos to give it a motion
  • You can cut away to photos

LENGTH

• Brand story can be few minutes (someone interested would be viewing it)
• Most other stuff 30-60 seconds
  • Most people won’t commit more than this duration

WHAT CAN BE IN VIDEO?

• Camera video
• Archive video (by you or someone else)
• Stills
  • Photos, graphics, slides, diagrams, screenshots
  • You can do image search and filter it by image rights
  • License for reuse
• Animation
  • Placeit
  • Keynote magic move
• Screen recordings
  • Still capture
  • Or video capture Loom
• Sound, voiceover, music

HOW TO BE BETTER THAN 99%

• Have a bit of a plan: scripting, composition and storyboarding
• Composition: where things are in a frame
• Choosing location and controlling light
  • You don’t want hard shadows
• Worry less about light in video rather than photography
• Keep it steady – tripods and mounts
• Get the sound right – half the battle
  • https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rode-Smartlav-Lavalier-Microphone-Smartphone/dp/B00EO4A7L0/ref=asc_df_B00EO4A7L0/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309952060520&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1539379931395725850&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046183&hvtargid=pla-352077295439&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

EQUIPMENT

• Spaces and windows
• Reflectors including mountboard
• Tripods, including for phones and tablets
• Microphone – Lavalier or “Lav” mike

STORYBOARDING

• Even slight thinking before shooting, makes you better than 99% of videos

EDITING

• Use a clap to sync multiple sound tracks and sync them
  • Like a Clapperboard

VIDEO FORMAT

• Size 1920 x 1080 or 1080 square
• File format: MP4 has become the modern standard
• Compression format (or codec) H.264
• Above combination suitable for all of FB, TW and IG
• IG, TW – file size limits are 15 mb
• IG 60 seconds, Google my business 30 sec
• Use Youtube embed on website
  • Use rel=0 tag not to show related videos at the end

SERVING VIDEO

• Video is large file size
• Needs a host or content delivery network (CDN)
• Some other website your video lives on
• Eg Youtube, Vimeo, Wistia

MOVING THE CAMERA

• By hand – with image stabilization
• Optical image stabilisation is much superior – in 6S Plus, 7 onwards
• Low cost dollies and gimbals for phones and tablets
• Steadicam

WRAP UP

• Everything takes too long
• Throw almost all of what you shoot away
• Less is more, cut before its gets slow
• Rhythm, try to make your cuts regular
  • See music videos

Instructor:

https://www.davidjamesross.co.uk/

AGENDA

• Your brand
• Your story
• Your customer persona
• Your key messages
• Your marketing channels
• Your killer content
• Your action plan

START WITH WHY

• Why you are in business
• List 3 things you will work on after the workshop
• Simon Sinek
• https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en

BRAND

• Voice
• Values
• Identity
• Message
• Integrity
• Recognition
  • Positioning
  • Logo
  • Colours
  • Style
  • Fonts
• Culture
• Slogans / taglines

B2D

• WHY: Close the literacy gap for all children, enabling them to achieve their true potential.
• HOW: Bulk purchases for lower prices and excellent delivery service
• WHAT: Selling kids books at bargain prices

https://www.forbes.com/sites/annaschaverien/2018/12/12/consumers-do-care-about-retailers-ethics-and-brand-purpose-accenture-research-finds/#3992018416f2

https://www.accenture.com/gb-en/company-news-release-strategy-gcpr-2018-uk

UK consumers are investing their time, money and attention in brands that have a genuine commitment to important principles that they care about.

HOW TO TELL YOUR STORY

• Who you are
  • The business
  • People
• Why you exist
  • History
  • Your why
• What you do
  • Products
  • Services
• Who you serve
  • Customers
• What you can do for them
  • Outcomes
  • Evidence
  • Testimonials

STORY STRUCTURE

Beginning, middle, ending

Backstory, problem, solution, action

STORY THAT WILL RESONATE WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS

WHO IS YOUR CUSTOMER

• Different personas
• What do you know about them?
• What problems do they have?
• How do you solve them?
• Give them a name

B2D Persona

Lara, 40 years old, has 2 kids, employed

Does most of the household shopping

Tech-savvy, uses mobile for ecommerce

Value seeker, bargain hunter

Searching for air travel, new house and car so higher end of value seeker

Interested in cooking, travel, celebrity news

Motivated by the needs of her family and looking for ways to add value (find a bargain)

Don’t really have much time, quite busy with all the housework, kids and work.

They want a good deal, trusted seller, frictionless ecommerce experience.

DEVELOPING YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION AND KEY MESSAGES

A unique selling proposition (USP, also seen as unique selling point) is a factor that differentiates a product from its competitors, such as the lowest cost, the highest quality or the first-ever product of its kind. A USP could be thought of as “what you have that competitors don’t.”

PRINT

• Pros
  • Reaches those that don’t use the internet or social media
  • Not as common as it used to be so you can stand out
  • Gives something tangible
• Cons
  • Can be expensive
  • Can go out of date quickly
  • Not as environmentally friendly as it could be

WEBSITE

• Pros
  • Provides information for customers
  • Detailed information – offers value
  • Can be purchase point (ecommerce)
  • Cost-effective – hosting options
  • Plenty of people with skills
• Cons
  • Many different options
  • Standing out requires effort
  • Innovation costly
  • Requires some tech skills
  • Copywriting important
  • Search is competitive

EMAIL

• Pros
  • Easy to produce
  • Low cost / no cost
  • Everyone has email
  • You own the data
• Cons
  • Open rates
  • Easy to unsubscribe
  • Messages can be vanilla or feel very salesy
• Services
  • Mailchimp
    • Tend to have HTML heavy emails, can cause spam issues
  • Drip
  • Hubspot
  • Getresponse
  • Sendinblue
  • Aweber
  • Constantcontact
  • Convertkit
  • Activecampaign

When might legitimate interests be appropriate?

Legitimate interests is the most flexible of the six lawful bases. It is not focused on a particular purpose and therefore gives you more scope to potentially rely on it in many different circumstances.

It may be the most appropriate basis when:

the processing is not required by law but is of a clear benefit to you or others;

there’s a limited privacy impact on the individual;

the individual should reasonably expect you to use their data in that way; and

you cannot, or do not want to, give the individual full upfront control (ie consent) or bother them with disruptive consent requests when they are unlikely to object to the processing.

There may also be occasions when you have a compelling justification for the processing which may mean that a more intrusive impact on the individual can be warranted. However in such cases you need to ensure that you can demonstrate that any impact is justified.

The legitimate interests basis is likely to be most useful where there is either a minimal impact on the individual, or else a compelling justification for the processing.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/legitimate-interests/when-can-we-rely-on-legitimate-interests/

SOCIAL MEDIA

• Facebook
  • Older audiences
  • Large number of users
  • Limited organic reach
• Instagram
  • Generation Z
  • Aspirational
  • Fast growing
  • Developing rapidly
• Linkedin
  • 79% over 35
  • Professional
  • B2B
  • Big growth this year
• Twitter
  • 32% 18-29
  • Topical
  • Fast moving
• Pinterest
  • 80% women
  • Craft/fashion/health/decor
  • International
• Snapchat
  • 76% millennials
  • Lifestyle
  • Closed network

EVENTS

• Pros
  • Great for relationship building (face to face)
  • Chance to demonstrate what you do and for people to sample
  • Your audience are all in one place
• Cons
  • Can be expensive (time and money)
  • It’s hard to stand out – what will attract people to you?
  • Less people go to events than they used to

How do you feel when someone phones you, someone tries to sell to you?

When you are browsing a shop, how do feel when you are approached by a member of the staff, how do you feel if you are being ignored?

How do you feel about using the phone?

Nervous, uncomfortable… but They don’t know you feel like this

Phones: We don’t use it for calling it much. It’s an office, bank… everything.

Email: quick, easy, not involving emotions but can be ineffective. We can’t see the response. The meaning, emphasis gets lots. Its very easy to ignore an email.

Customers are the most important thing in business (they pay our wages) but if we can’t allocate time to them.

What makes it difficult?

• Getting through, gatekeepers
  • I wonder if you can help me out
  • Google before
• Language barrier
• Time zone
• You don’t know them
• How you or they will respond?
• How we communicate
  • Body movements 55%
  • Pitch, pace, tone 38%
  • Words you are using 7%

PLAN FOR THE CALL

• Research beforehand
• We do not want to be sold to
  • We want to build relationships
• Quality and quantity
  • Saves time , you should ring the right people

WHAT DOES A PLAN LOOK LIKE

• Your call framework
  • Who are we calling
  • What do they know about us?
    • Do something to raise awareness of you, send a letter maybe?
      • https://www.ukpostbox.com/services/send-letters-online
      • https://www.pc2paper.co.uk/business.aspx
    • Linkedin connection request with personal note. Do not do it from your mobile because you won’t be able to personalize it.
  • What do we know about them?
    • Linkedin and Google search + web browse
  • Why would they be interested in speaking to us?
    • We don’t sell products or services
    • We sell solutions to problems
    • We need to tap into the psyche of the person
    • What’s in it for me?
  • How will we break the ice?
    • How’s the week going?
    • Weather?
    • Keep it simple, don’t over do it
  • What can we do to make it easier?
  • How can we stand out from others calling them?
    • Authentic
    • Keep your word, follow up, do what you said you’d do
    • Don’t sell
    • Don’t talk industry jargon
      • Don’t assume that they know you are talking about
    • Don’t over talk

LANGUAGE

• Using the language to get results
• Toxic language
  • Does not add value
    • Fillers like basically, actually, obviously,
    • Ambiguous: probably, possibly, maybe, for sure, might
    • Any industry jargon
  • Calling everyone “guys”
• People love their names the most
• Lets focus on positive
  • Use open questions
    • Questions that can not be answered with a yes or no
    • What’s your biggest challenge this week?
    • Refer to news on website or linkedin posts?
    • What are your top [business/industry] priorities right now?
    • Are you having problems with [insert a couple of pain points] like some of our other clients?
    • Is your current solution not solving these as well as you would like?
    • What would it do for your overall revenue/workflow/pain benefit if you could handle these issues more effectively?
    • How does the decision making look for a solution like this?
    • What concerns do you have about switching/implementing a new solution?
    • At the end of that call will you give us a firm answer?
    • Who is the best person to speak to?
    • What do you think of the british summer?
    • https://www.rainsalestraining.com/blog/21-powerful-open-ended-sales-questions
    • 50 sales questions PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ogH8BdU1m_g7wU2AlsRJuL5NThOaOF8g/view?usp=sharing
  • What we can do?
  • How we’d like to help?
  • What would you like to happen next?
  • What would you like us to do?
  • Listen and reflect
  • What would be most helpful to them
  • Summarise at the end

PHASES

• Introduction
  • Research about the person
  • Keep them talking to you
  • Use their names
  • You can use a jot form https://www.jotform.com/form-templates/?classic
• Yes
  • Qualify them
  • When can we sell, today, next week, month, year?
• No
  • If it is never going to work, getting a no sooner is better
• Closing
  • You can send follow up email
  • Keep in touch with them
    • When will be the best time for them?
  • Agree on next step
  • Summarize
  • Thank them
  • Always check if they are OK with stuff

• M otivation – why
• A bility – budget
• N eeds – want
• U rgency – when

WHEN TO CALL

• Think of your Perfect client
• You might have several segments of clients
• Morning?
• Late afternoon can work, usually people don’t have late meetings
• Part of your plan

SUMMARIZE

• Plan
• Prepare
• Use your framework
• Agree next action
• Confirm it by email
• Diarise
• Do it!

Buying cycle

Product photos with white background

And lifestyle shots – Instagram style

High End fashion products – white background almost finished

Why does this matter?

• We are asking people to buy a physical product but they don’t gave no direct experience of
• More images is better – but not the same type, detailed photos, show the scale
• Checklist of different
• Ecommerce has a problem of tangibility
• The more you show and tell, the more you sell

BURAK Can we update ugly Amazon photos with ours?

People started browsing products by browsing images, not just Instagram but google image search as well.

AGENDA

• Putting together a shot list – types of images you may need
• Deciding on aspect ratios – shape of the image, square or rectangle etc
• Two approaches to controlling light
• General shooting tips
• Optimizing images
• Image manipulation and software
• Styling and lifestyle images
• When to hire a professional

Types of images you may need

• Flat, straight, plain background, product shot

ASPECT RATIOS

Square is the allrounder

Where will you else use them?

dSLR spec might not be OK

LIGHT APPROACHES

• Diffuse natural light plus reflectors (or LEDs or bounce flash fill)
• Light boxes
• Anything small and flat, scan it
• Rembrandt light

• Natural light
  • You are seeking strong but diffuse light – a difficult combination
  • Natural light – north facing window is ideal
  • High cloud cover is good
  • Middle of the day is good
  • Fill in shadows with reflectors (or lights or flash)

• Get rid of the shadow with reflector
• If you get the lighting right, even iphone camera would be enough (with tripod and timer)
• Light tents

GENERAL SHOOTING TIPS

• Shoot to allow cropping
• Perspective control – distance to shoot from
• If you shoot up very close, closer edge might look bigger
• Pay attention to horizontal and vertical
• Take lots, reject most- bracketing
  • In photography, bracketing is the general technique of taking several shots of the same subject using different camera settings.
• Professional photographers scrap 99% of their shots
• Instructor does not prefer flash shots , difficult to work with

EQUIPMENT

• Spaces and windows
• Reflectors including mountboard
• Tripods, including for phones and tablets

STEPS and PURPOSE

• Aspect ratio
  • Choose best aspect ratio
• Light source
  • Find a suitable diffuse light source
• Fillers
  • Choose your tools to fill in the shadows
• Platform
  • Support your camera with a stable platform – tripod or similar
• Perspective
  • Choose a distance from the product that makes it look in natural proportion – not too close
• Cropping
  • Leave enough space around the outside of the frame to allow cropping
• Level
  • Use a grid to check your horizontal and vertical
• Timer
  • Use your timer to keep your hands free for light control
• Take many
  • Bracket by taking lots of little variations. Choose only the best

LEDS ARE THE FUTURE

• Continuous light – see what you do
• Run cool (very little heat)
• Can use a wide range of diffusers
• Can buy daylight, same colour temp as natural light
• Use less energy and long lasting

OPTIMIZING IMAGES

• Image manipulation – any changes to colour, contrast etc first
• Crop to the aspect ratio
• Resize to your largest need
• Compress and optimise file size
• Name your file

LEVELS

• To make slight white background to 100% white – play around with Levels in photoshop

IMAGING SOFTWARE

• Photos (free, apple)
• Pixelmator apple only – pro not necessarily better
• Serif affinity photo
• Gimp
• Adobe photoshop
• Free trials
• Apple aperture – not supported

STYLING IMAGES

• Images can be styled to appeal to the desired lifestyle
• Typically use:
  • A complementary colour palette
  •  Textures
  • Desirable backdrops
  • Cherished items
• Lifestyle images can use filters or color grading to give a distinct “look”
• This is very much like setting up a stage, eg much in a film

WHEN TO HIRE A PRO

• Critical color management
• Using studio flash
• Hero images
• If your time can be spent more profitability doing other things
• Don’t listen, look for a portfolio in your category

PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS

• People don’t read, they scan for the info
• Use headings
• Lists are easier to read
• Availability
• Copy format for scan reading: headings, lists, tables, symbols/icons, short sentences and paragraphs
• https://readable.com/

CUSTOMER CONCERNS

• Outcomes, what does the customer get?
  • Psychological objectives
• People buy my products so they can ….
• Features
  • Put them on the product page
  • Origins
    • Made where?
    • By whom?
    • Under what conditions?
    • Environmental impact
• Variants, options, customizations
• Availability
  • Limited?
  • How soon?
• Warranty and risk
  • What if something goes wrong?
• Longevity
• Uniqueness
• Social proof: Other people and this product
  • Customer reviews
  • Social media
• Aftercare

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION STYLE GUIDE

• Paragraph length
  • Keep paragraphs short – no more than about six lines
• Sentence length
  • Keep sentences short to aid readability
• Headings
  • Use headings and sub-headings to make text scan-readable
• Lists
  • Use unordered (bulleted) and numbered lists
• Tables
  • Use tables and diagrams where appropriate eg size charts
• Symbols / icons
  • Use symbols and icons where appropriate eg. handmade, made in Britain
• Internal links
  • Link to other related products

To switch to something new takes time to reinvest your attention

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM4u-7Z5URk

Air traffic controllers take 15-30 min breaks every 2 hours

Context switching depletes your neuro biological resources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Weinberg

When programmers are involved in more projects, time to finish increases rapidly.

https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-multi-tasking-myth/

Exercise 1: Draw a line

Start timer

Write multitasking is a thief on top

Write numbers 1 2 3 …. 21  below the line

Stop the timer

Exercise 2 : time again

This time write 1 letter and 1 number like M 1 U 2 … above and below the line.

Effects:

1. Time
2. Quality
3. Stress

Any project longer than 90 days, is subject to procrastination

You need business objective for 3-5 years and link it to something tangible.

Toyota uses 4-5 different approach for 10-20 years and employs the most suitable one according to market needs.

hoshin kanri objective matrix

Fortune Magazine found that 80% of Fortune 500 companies use some sort of balanced performance metric approach to their strategy. But it also found that when a company fails, 70% of the time it wasn’t because of bad strategy—it was due to bad execution.

Hoshin planning can help mitigate that risk.

https://www.clearpointstrategy.com/hoshin-kanri-matrix-template/

Customer Avatar

Value proposition

Scrum element

Gaining clarity and focus

Each task has specific attributes:

Time

Money

People

Skills

Your key asset is your customer database

Especially for B2B

Meetings = big company disease

Time blocking for projects and priority task

Does Multitasking Kill Productivity | Why Multitasking Fails and How to Stop Doing It

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOmsRSwQ9rk

Suggested read on ecommerce:

https://jeffwalker.com/tag/product-launch-formula/

More useful you are to the members of the media, the more likely we can get into their brain.

Let’s think about what it’s like for them (empathize)

• Time
• Amount of incoming emails – stories
• Lots of people in the team v’s very few
• Freelance or full time part time employee? Mostly freelance.
• Deadlines?
• Serving the audience
• Use the phone
• ABC rated – journalist lists

Media thinks about Christmas now and finished it up in about Aug-Sep

Think in advance

Media website

Marketing / press pack

Avoid emails after Friday afternoon

What is the media and what are they looking for?

• Purpose of the media
• Job of a journalist / media outlet
• Readership
• Media outlet = bottom line, currency driven
• Journalists = content / story driven
• Editor – a bit of both

If PR projects provide value to journalists / editors, they welcome it because they don’t have the team, resources and they need quality content to publish.

How do you do PR on budget?

• It’s all about blending
• Clear strategy,creative approach
• Creating and nurturing relationship
• Measuring results
• In short it’s all about story
• Powerful storytelling will make you memorable relatable and visible
• Build that relationship
• Be relevant

Creating your story . including your backstory

• Angles
• Spin
• What’s already news / whats out there .
• How can we ride on its coat tails
• Can we create a brand new story
• And your backstory? It’s vital

Enrich your story

• Do not necessarily focus on the product / process / manufacturing itself
• Use backstory or focus on the effects, improvements in people’s lives with the product
• Backstory selles your content

Idea: Start from a national story / issue (eg education / deprived of books)

https://www.ons.gov.uk/

Let’s think about

• Organise your planned activities – creating a focussed calendar of planned activity
• Be strategic – what is the purpose of your activity (what are your campaign objectives? )
• What does success look like, be specific about campaign objectives

Do not send PDFs or hires photo directly. It should be easy to copy paste from the emali. They can ask for hires photo and you can use it to build the relationship. Consider most of the time they are checking on mobile.

Make it easy for them.

Do not send the story to everyone. Do not blanked email.  Target as much as possible to the editor / journalist level.

Twenty top tips for next year, etc

You can use google alerts to keep in track of published news.

How to

• Develop a trustworthy and reliable relationship.
  • Treat them as your best clients who can refer best / most clients to you. How would you treat them?
• Present information in a simple manner.
  • Put information right into the email / embed it. No PDF.
  • Always send an image. Not a stock image

Talking to the media

• Formal v’s informal
• The different types of interview
  • Face to face
  • Email webast video conference skype
  • On camera studio based remote feed
  • On the radio
  • Be mindful if you are going to be live
  • You can ask for questions to prepare. Not trying to look good, trying to look better.

Write a press release

• Get it on paper … then shuffle it about
• Just as at school… think beginning middle and end
• If you need to write your headline first or last
• Always write with your media’s audience firmly in mind
• Make sure you include a “boilerplate” (editors notes) at the end which succinctly describes your company and clearly gives your contact details
• Email it in a s part of the body of your email ie. not as an attachment that needs to be opened

Take the perfect press photo

• Think about what story you’re trying to convey
• Why would they use your photo
• How is it different from the rest
• Is it good enough quality wise to use
• Tech specs
  • 300 dpi for a magazine
  • 150 dpi for newspapers
  • 72 dpi for online
• What headline or byline would go with it?
  • Use filename as well

In marketing, brand management is the analysis and planning on how a brand is perceived in the market. Developing a good relationship with the target market is essential for brand management. Tangible elements of brand management include the product itself; its look, price, and packaging, etc. The intangible elements are the experiences that the consumers share with the brand, and also the relationships they have with the brand. A brand manager would oversee all aspects of the consumer’s brand association as well as relationships with members of the supply chain.[

Book clubs

https://imaginationlibrary.com/uk/

What you stand for

What you stand against

What you do

Why you do it?

Brand Structure

Brand is why others want to be with you

What your brand stands for

Brand is creating your ideal personality

You can create a list, honest tolerance strength etc

Once you created the core personality – naked brand

Core values can not be contradicted

Brand identity is the wardrobe you dress your brand in.

Good brand – your strongest friend

Branding is quite personal

Simple, uncorporate

You build your brand through text and images on your website, business cards any medium it reflects on.

Brand management aims to create an emotional connection between products, companies and their customers and constituents. Brand managers & Marketing managers may try to control the brand image.

Specialize. You can choose who your potential clients / customers could be.

Amazon brand values https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles

Leadership Principles

We use our Leadership Principles every day, whether we’re discussing ideas for new projects or deciding on the best approach to solving a problem. It is just one of the things that makes Amazon peculiar.

Customer Obsession

Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.

Ownership

Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say “that’s not my job.”

Invent and Simplify

Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by “not invented here.” As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time.

Are Right, A Lot

Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.

Learn and Be Curious

Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them.

Hire and Develop the Best

Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others. We work on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms for development like Career Choice.

Insist on the Highest Standards

Leaders have relentlessly high standards — many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and drive their teams to deliver high quality products, services, and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.

Think Big

Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers.

Bias for Action

Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking.

Frugality

Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense.

Earn Trust

Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their or their team’s body odor smells of perfume. They benchmark themselves and their teams against the best.

Dive Deep

Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdote differ. No task is beneath them.

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.

Deliver Results

Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.

Storytelling

Ideas to next workshop –

School

QUESTIONS TO START

• Own site, marketplace or both
• Own site – how? Shopify
• Site assets you will need
• Site organisation
• Site search
• Legalities
• Payments
• Site security
• POS – point of sale

DOMAIN STRUCTURE

• Shop.site.com
• site.com/shop
• Site.com – full ecommerce

PLATFORM CHOICE

• Shopify is the best ecommerce platform .
  • As an ecommerce consultant I find it is easier to get shopify working
• Wix very slow – slow is death in ecommerce
• Square space – some of it good some of it very bad – not recommended
• Easy as possible but should be able to sell your stuff
• Security – do you want to trust 1-2 people for the security of your website or a world class
• Shopify and amazon work well
• Magento is very good but the problem is it is very technical and you need a developer. It is overkill. It was the best ecommerce platform 10 years ago
• How much control do you have over what helps you to sell?
• What is the ROI rather than the cost?
• Are they a trusted supplier for the long term?

TOOLKIT WEBSITES

• https://whatcms.org
  • Check what your competitors are using
• https://builtwith.com/
• https://www.printful.com/
• https://www.fullstory.com/
• https://www.hotjar.com/

DESIGN AND LAYOUT

• You should not mess around too much with the design and page layout in ecommerce
• Page layout is fairly standard. Functionality is pretty standard as well.
• You want to mess around with branding, colors, logo, feel of it. Look of it.
• Especially on mobile, almost most websites look very similar. Except images / visuals

LOGO, BRANDING, BRAND GUIDELINES

• Branding mostly about consistency, guidelines
• Landscape logos better for layout . don’t push content too much down
• What gets seen gets sold
• Colors can be a problem for navigation (contrast)
• Domain, short, difficult to get wrong, memorable
  • Co.uk if you are selling exclusively in the UK
  • Com if you want to look bigger

IMAGES FOR ECOMMERCE

• Hero at top of page = landscape orientation
• Rest = dependent on product, clothes – portrait, housewares – square. Be consistent
• Square images work well both on social, mobile and web as well (on desktop you can do 3 column layouts for it)
• Design for mobile first – square preferred
• Optimise images – speed is very important
• Shopify generates other image sizes if you supply it with enough hi-res at first (eg it will generate mobile version for you)
• As small as possible in terms of file size – for site speed. Image compression

BURAK Add videos to SSB

BURAK Use mobile banners not landscape

MOBILE NAVIGATION

• Use first column in footer for further exploration eg. collection names not about us etc. It is the first thing they see after the product
• E Commerce is mobile. ⅔ or ¾ of visitors are from mobile now

BURAK Update SSB footer columns

THEME CHOICE

• Avoid commercial themes, go with free and popular themes
• Must be responsive – probably no one is selling a theme not working on mobile but good to check
• Security , these things maintenance. Especially in wordpress. What you want to be buying into?
• Speed – shopify theme test
  • http://fastshopifythemes.com/
• Functionality – filters
  • Shopify supply works with large inventories
• Ease and simplicity
  • How does image view work on mobile?
  • Does it scroll well?
• Inventory size – most built for small inventory
• Longevity – will it be updated?

SITE STRUCTURE

• Think about your main or sub categories
• Collections are handier than categories
• Consider SEO as well

VARIANTS

• Variant = a variation of a single product
• Variants are normally listed on a single page
• Size colour
• Style finish
• It’s up to you to decide whats a separate product and what’s a variant
• Crucial event is what works for the user?

SEARCH

• Don’t use search as a sticking plaster for poor content architecture
• It is a primary channel for people to find products
• Google custom search – includes ads, potentially from competitors
• CMS’s basic search usually not enough
• Autocomplete search.
• Algolia, instantsearch by fast simon, klevu, freefind
• It isn’t easy and it can be expensive

PAYMENTS

• Consumers like a choice
• Paypal, amazon payments, stripe, sage pay, world pay
• Consumers like a name they recognise
• Has to work with your platform and market
• Account based- paypal, amazon payments
• Payment processors – stripe, worldpay, sagepay
• Some require merchant account, others are all in one
• Your responsibility for security varies

SECURITY

• Your responsibility depends on your payment solution
• Don’t keep handle any customer data you don’t need
• Strong passwords
• Avoid plugins as much as possible
• Change default settings. No username like admin
• Keep it up to date as much as possible
• Customer fraud: claimed that they haven’t received etc. always track postages.
• 3d secure to switch responsibility

LEGALITIES

• Selling over the web – normal legalities (sale of goods, consumer protection, data protection)
• E Commerce regulations 2002 info you have to provide during the sales process
• Consumer contracts regulations 2014 cooling off period of 14 days
• Info that must be on your site: company name, address, email, registration, VAT number
• Payment card Industry data security

GDPR

• Became law on 25 May 2018
• More affirmative consent – end of pre-ticket boxes
• Customer can ask for their data or to have it deleted
• Need to include GDPR in terms and conditions
• Service providers need to be gDPR compliant. If you are sharing info with them.
• Refer to Paypal’s GDPR, mailchimp GDPR policies etc
• Shopify GDPR compliance .
  • https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/your-account/GDPR

POS INTEGRATION

• Physical sales, sell offline
• Some platforms also include it Shopify – It only works on IOS
• POS often involves ipad
• Integrated POS means a single inventory control for online and offline

COMMON ISSUES

• Store is too slow

BURAK SSB on mobile

https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fststephensbooks.com%2F&tab=mobile

• Store is confusing to the new visitor – what is it?
• Products are difficult to find
  • Do user test, do it on mobile, don’t help testers
• Tangibility  not achieved. Products don’t feel real enough

BURAK videos?

• “Build it and they will come”
• Locked into a platform / theme that is a problem
• Seriously underestimating the competition
• Failing to convert visitors to buyers