We have broken down the essential elements of winning a tender into six components; the first five are about getting into the race and the last is about winning it. To be able to win the work your tender response must be: compliant; comparable; comprehensive; competitive; convincing; and extraordinary.

COMPLIANT—Compliant with the tender’s requirements

A tender is essentially a request for an organization to provide evidence of how well they will meet the needs of the client. The Government agency will evaluate submissions against the rules, procedures and criteria outlined in their request document. Due to Government procurement rules they will follow these procedures rigidly and without favour. To be in the running your tender must meet all the requirements of the tender.

Where you don’t meet the criteria of the tender you may have the scope to be able to submit a non-complying tender if the process allows it. However, this must be agreed and negotiated with the agency before submission.

COMPARABLE—comparable in presentation

Thousands of hours of time may go into preparing a response and it is important that it shows. There are those in the process who think that if all the information is included the document will speak for itself. Experience shows that if your documentation is presented badly it is perceived as lacking in care and is judged harshly.

You must present your documentation at least as professionally as your competitors. This means ensuring the document is well-designed and creates a professional image for your organisation. It is also very important to make sure that the document is properly edited and comprehensively proofed. Timings and costs must be checked as these can be the deal breakers. Some important considerations that are sometimes overlooked:

• Editing to ensure there is consistent style, a well-understood structure, and that the most important selling points are made clear;
• Consistent design including fonts, page layout, covers, inserts—make sure diagrams, images, CVs, case studies, support documents match in style.
• Structure and order—make sure the numbering of pages, figures and images, support documents and appendices are correct and that there is a good table of contents.
• Proofreading and checking—time is always short in preparing a tender and deadlines are met with little time to spare but it is essential to make sure all the numbers are properly checked and the text independently proof-read.
• Quality printing and binding—professional digital printing on high-quality paper presented in custom-made binding shows your organisation’s pride and professionalism.

COMPREHENSIVE—Comprehensive in addressing all the tender’s requirements

Small mistakes or omissions may disqualify you from the tender process. It is better to make sure that if you find the requirements ambiguous you provide enough information for the assessors to find what they need. Don’t allow your tender to be disqualified because it did not provide enough information.

Many requests for tender restrict the number of words or pages that can be used in responding. This is understandable but don’t allow a space restriction to prevent you from properly presenting your case. Where the space is inadequate additional information can be provided as addendums, appendices or attachments. These are increasingly provided in multi-media formats.

The tender assessors are primarily concerned with getting value for money from the provider of the service. Make sure that you provide as much information about your service provision that will help the assessment. Some of the key areas

• The relative risk of the proposal and how it will be managed and minimised, including the flexibility of the proposal and your organisation to adapt to possible change;
• The performance history of your organisation in delivering the service or similar services (to time, cost and quality). Show that you can mobilise the resources to do the work in a cost-effective way for the client, to meet deadlines and to respond to changing situations;
• All direct and indirect financial costs and benefits over the life of the procurement (including maintenance and disposal costs); and
• Your organisation’s performance in environmental, social and economic management.

COMPETITIVE—competitive in terms of value-for-money

Governments are now recognising that value-for-money (VfM) and not price is the most important aspect of assessing service or product delivery. Many organisations try to compete on price alone, which is a dangerous strategy if your competitors can undercut your price or if they can offer additional services for the same price.

Being competitive now means an emphasis on value-for-money. This is where tender can be won against your competitors. Your organisation’s bid should emphasise business benefits to the client such as: service improvements, risk reduction, energy savings and reduced greenhouse gas production, lowered maintenance costs, higher quality or reliability, or reduced whole of lifetime costs etc.

CONVINCING—convincing in making the decision easy for the panel

Selling to government is not difficult if you understand what the client wants and needs. To create a convincing argument for the assessment panel you must understand what they want, what they need and how they operate. Then you can explain clearly how your organisation will provide the wants and needs of the client.

Make sure you have developed a logical argument. The argument for the client to chose your organisation must include:

WHY—demonstrate understanding of the client organisations goals and objectives for undertaking the work;

WHAT—demonstrate detailed understanding of the client’s requirements;

WHEN—ability to meet the deadlines and timelines and to deal with contingencies;

HOW—ability to undertake the work based on capacity, resources, skills, experience and past performance and can manage financial, commercial and legal risk; and

WHERE—ability to deliver services or products to required locations

EXTRAORDINARY—extraordinary in making your bid stand out

Now that you are a fully complying bid how will you win against all the other fully complying bids? This is the most difficult question in every tender bid. Presenting bids that are differentiated from the competitors is about marketing and salesmanship. This is not about providing a neat description, with lots of clever diagrams and a colourful cover—all your competitors will be doing the same. Differentiation needs two essential components:

• PROVIDING the most innovative and value-for-money product or service; and
• CONVINCING the assessors that your solution is the most innovative and value-for-money product or service.

Marketing here is about fully understanding your client’s needs and tailoring your product to this need. This is marketing in its truest sense and must not be confused with the sense of promotions and advertising.

Convincing the assessors that your solution is the most desirable requires your bid to contain something of a “wow” factor. This is where the bid presentation needs to be creative and dynamic. Determining the wow factor also requires a good understanding of the client organisation’s needs and wants.

Extra-ordinary performance in the tender process requires that you have a superior understanding of your clients needs. You need to understand and interpret the client’s needs beyond the documentation and present your work to emphasise the superior way in which you meet their needs.

Looking at your customers in different ways can help you to adjust your marketing and advertising strategies to win more business. Madrigal Communications suggests some ways to win these different types of Australian consumer.

The Value Consumer

The Global Financial crisis has increased uncertainty about the future economy. Consumers have responded by being more conservative and cautious with their spending, either looking for better value or if not finding the value not spending at all.

As a value shopper the consumer is more analytical and more rational in their behaviour. Consumers are buying what they need now and postponing what they want until another time. They are less likely to impulse buy.

Businesses have to respond to the value customer by giving them more for less. This means giving discounts, providing better service or creating improved products. Businesses can’t rely on brand loyalty they have to give more to the discerning customer.

The Busy Consumer

In modern Australia we are all time-poor. We work long hours. We are studying hard, working hard and trying to raise our children. Both parents are working and rushing home to cook dinner and taxi their children to sports or other activities.

Time is the most important commodity. Consumers now value their time highly and put a large value on it. Supermarkets are the preferred shopping venue not because they offer choice but because they have become one-stop-shops—we can get nearly everything we need in one shopping trip.

Businesses have to respond by simplifying the buying process, by placing importance on speed, simplicity and convenience.

The Green Consumer

The rise of the environmental movement has focussed us all on protecting our planet from the detrimental effects of consumerism. We now think about what we buy in terms of the environmental impacts of the product or packaging. We all are aware that we can reduce the impact of plastic bags to the environment by using reusable bags (although we may not always use them).

There is an increasing niche market of consumers who are highly motivated to protect the environment and are willing to spend more on being environmentally friendly. Green consumers consistently discriminate in their purchases in favour of products or services that have less impact on the environment.

Businesses have to respond by being more environmentally conscious. This includes being socially, ethically, and culturally sensitive and aware in providing and marketing your product and service.

The Local Consumer

Supporting local businesses is important to many Australians. Buying from local businesses supports the local community and economy. It also offers the advantage of better quality product or service without having to travel further to get it. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of where and how products are produced, leading to a surge in country of origin products for the retail industry.

Businesses need to respond to consumers who want meaningful relationships with the “brands” and organisations they deal with in their lives. Make sure that you have good front counter staff, make the management accessible to customers and value the customer relationship. Customers seek out personal interaction with people they can trust.

The Bored Consumer

Consumers are bombarded with advertisements and promotions and offered and infinite variety of complex plans or packages. Consumers have become de-sensitised and consequently bored with traditional retailing and advertising. Consumers have become cynical and do not engage with traditional mainstream marketing.

Consumers are therefore searching for more connection with retailers, and a more engaging shopping experience.

Businesses need to respond by offering consumers greater involvement in the transactions and more personalised products and services.

The Digital Consumer

The rise of Web II, as well as the main social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, has led to the emergence of “connected” consumers who spend considerable amounts of time interacting with businesses online. Digital consumers seek channels to generate recommendations for good service and to complain on line.

User generated content and online communities are changing the way consumers engage with businesses as well as changing how and why they shop.

Businesses need to respond by creating ways for on-line consumers to develop more meaningful relationships and to participate in more engaging experiences with the business. Make sure your website is linked to Facebook and customers have opportunities to engage online.

• whether to travel,
• where to travel and what to do,
• when to travel,
• how long to stay, and
• how much to spend.

While travel businesses are interested in how consumers make these decisions, the most significant one is how they choose their destination.

Most marketing activity is aimed at persuading tourists to choose a particular location. However when a tourist’s buying behaviour relates strongly to what the travel motives are it is important to look at these motives.

The five strongest motives in choosing a holiday destination were:

• to have fun,
• to visit new places,
• to relax mentally,
• to get away from everyday life, and
• to experience something new.

The five weakest motives for travelling on holiday were:

• to master a skill,
• to engage in challenging physical activities,
• to improve self-confidence,
• to engage in nature-based activities, and
• to engage in non-challenging physical activities.

There are seven key motives involved in tourism consumer behaviour:

1. Nature,
2. Social and self enhancement,
3. New experiences and knowledge,
4. Health, exercise and skill,
5. Relaxation and escape,
6. Adventure and excitement, and
7. Family, friends and fun.

So when you are thinking about your marketing plan you need to focus on one or more of these key motivations.

Think about the weather

The weather is warming up. People are wearing different clothes and wanting different things for the summer. They have different needs. They behave in different ways.

Research from British email marketing company Pure360 showed that businesses should consider the weather when implementing their email campaigns.

Hot, sunny weather increased the effectiveness of campaigns promoting summer-related products or services. Recipients of emails promoting festival tickets were twice as likely to open them on a sunny day as opposed to a rainy day.

They also found that consumers are far more likely to be thinking about major purchases such as cars or houses on a day with poor weather. Campaigns promoting restaurants are twice as effective on days with bad weather.

Their statistics showed:

•  Email open rates for summer-related products on hot days was 15% (3% on rainy days)
• Click through rates for summer-related products was 27% in good weather (12% in bad weather)
• Holiday industry emails open rates were five times higher on hot days
• In hot weather, campaigns promoting satnav systems had a 48% click through rate (23% on bad weather days)
• Campaigns promoting business-related events and products had a click through rate of 27% (12% when raining)

Think about Christmas

Some US statistics from last year (source is in brackets)

• 19% of U.S. consumers planned to shop on the day after Christmas, December 26, 2010 (International Council of Shopping Centers, ICSC)
• 43% percent of people planned to make a purchase on December 26^th (American Express Spending & Saving Tracker)
• 47% of U.S. consumers said they would be doing more shopping in the week between Christmas and New Year’s (ICSC and Goldman Sachs Group)
• 77.3% of shoppers planned on buying at least one gift card during the holiday season (NRF)
• 23 million people were shopping on Christmas Eve (ICSC)
• 31%-34% of shopping dollars generally change hands in the 10 days prior to Christmas (ShopperTrak)
• $36.4 billion was spent online by Thursday, the day before Christmas Eve, which was 15.4% more than 2009 (MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse)

Think about back-to-school shopping

A US study undertaken last year showed the key back-to-school buying behaviours.

Back to school shopping includes: general school supplies, clothing (including shoes and uniforms), books, USB flash drives, laptop computer accessories (software, speakers), calculator (basic, scientific, graphing), mobile phone/smartphone, sporting goods, and netbooks.

While shopping for children’s school supplies parents are also thinking about themselves. It is important to note that back-to-school spending can also drive non-school-related purchases.

• 51% of consumers will leave their shopping until the last minute to take advantage of price drops, while 49% will start shopping early to spread the cost out.
• 56% of consumers planned to spend more than US$250 on back-to-school items. 31% of consumers planned to spend more than US$500.
• Most consumers planned to spend at least $250 on back-to-school shopping for their elementary, middle/junior high, or high school student or college/junior college student.
• 14% of consumers say their economic outlook will influence their back-to-school shopping compared to last year.
• 17% of consumers will compare prices from their mobile phones when back-to-school shopping in-store.
• Shopping at discount stores (60%) and printing online coupons (33%) are the top back-to-school money savers.
• 21% of consumers feel influenced to make non-school-related purchases for themselves while shopping for back-to-school items.

Think about changing consumer trends

In a recent report the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed how we are changing our preferences for household appliances. We are spending less time washing up and more time on the computer. We are spending less time listening to our stereos and presumably more time listening to our iPods or MP3 players or watching DVDs on our home theatre. Statistics showing proportion of consumer goods in households:

• dishwashers have increased by 9 per cent since 2005 (42% in 2005 to 51% in 2011)
• top loader washing machines decreased from 83% in 2005 to 68% in 2011
• front loader washing machines increased from 13% in 2005 to 31% in 2011
• DVD players increased from 72% in 2005 to 83% in 2011
• stereo systems dropped from 78% in 2005 to 41% in 2011
• laptop (at least one) increased from 38% in 2008 to 61% in 2011
• desktop computer (at least one) increased from 55% in 2008 to 60% in 2011

Social network marketing

Twitter is a fascinating world, as is the whole online social networking universe. I won’t explain the workings of Twitter. It is simple and written about elsewhere (try Wikipedia) but what I will attempt to explain is how Twitter is operating in social network marketing and how it can be used to make money.

Twitter operates as part of the social media marketing machine so you need to understand social media marketing to understand Twitter’s uses.

Social network marketing or social media marketing are terms that are less understood and perhaps poorly defined. Social media marketing involves engaging with online communities to create brand awareness, to create opportunities through partnerships, to generate targeted traffic and, ultimately, to generate sales.

Back to marketing basics

To understand social network marketing lets start with the basics of marketing. Marketing is a process to match products or services to the needs or wants of the customers in a way that provides a profit for an organisation.

Marketing uses market testing methods to work out what the customers want, then develops a product or service to meet that want, and then promotes and advertises the product to attract the customers. Simple!

So how does Twitter help in these processes? Lets break the marketing process down to these three components: finding out what the customer wants, creating the perfect product, and then selling it. Looked at in these terms Twitter has a lot to offer.

Monitoring mindshare

Mindshare is a term that is being used in the online social networking world to explain what the recognition level of a product is in the population. By following keywords (identified by hashes) or other search terms on monitoring sites you can monitor the Twitterverse (all that is happening on Twitter) for every mention of your product or company. Twitter because of its immediacy is an important indicator of the online mindshare.

This is a metric for a brand’s share of the collective mind! There are lots of other and more sophisticated methods to measure keywords that are being used across the online world to include Google and other important search engines.

Developing the perfect product

Monitoring mindshare provides the intelligence or information to develop the product or promotional message that will make the product more saleable. This is the product monitoring and product development part.

Monetising Twitter

This is the Holy Grail for Twitter. How is Twitter going to make money out of the whole Twitter world. No-one really knows how Twitter will make money but everyone seems to know about how it can be used to make YOU money.

How to make money using Twitter

Twitter CAN make you money in quite a few ways. It is a medium for getting messages out there so can be used as a great promotional and advertising tool particularly for international brands. Therefore you should be using it if you work for an advertising agency.

Twitter is a good method for building international brand. It will not work so well if you are a local business or in a niche market unless, as in all things marketing, you are creative.

Direct selling on Twitter is not encouraged. This is not so much because it is rude but mostly because it is too hard sell and therefore ineffective. The Twitter tweet is a short message and therefore does not allow anything more than headline-style persuasion, it is soft sell. However, the tweet can be used to direct people to websites or blogs where a more persuasive, promotional message can be used to persuade people to buy products. This is, of course, all about creating and driving website traffic.

Affiliate marketing

Companies either use their own marketers to drive traffic or they use affiliate marketers. Affiliate marketing is where the originator of the traffic gets paid for each customer or visitor to the owner’s site. This is where many people seek to make money online.

Affiliate marketing on Twitter requires that the originating marketer has enough influence with the Twitter community that they can direct large traffic volumes. This is why developing large followings on Twitter is so important. (It is one of the contradictions in Twitter that there is an expectation of a mutual exchange of messages between users. Those that have thousands of followers are unlikely to read the tweets of their followers.)

Providing help and expertise

The other way to make money on Twitter is to provide help to others to make money out of Twitter. Expertise in social network marketing is a rare commodity and there are those offering to sell that expertise. There are social networking gurus who can help you get traffic to your site or your affiliate’s site (I am not pretending to be one of them).

Get Twittering for money

So what does this mean for you if you want to make money from Twitter? You have several options:

1. you can use Twitter as part of a larger branding and advertising strategy within your agency or company,

2. you can develop an affiliate marketing strategy by developing a large enough Twitter following that you can direct significant, qualified traffic to target sites, or

3. you can make yourself into an expert and sell your services to those that need it.

Thanks for reading this blog – no money required.

The winter provides us with opportunities for new markets and new customers as well as helping our existing clients with new products. Here are some tips to focus your marketing, advertising and promotions over the cold months ahead.

1.    Base your promotions on popular events

Sydney has a range of festivals, cultural festivals, social awareness programs and significant days happening over the winter. These provide an opportunity to create targeted promotions that tap into what’s hot in the event calendar. We have created a list of some of Sydney’s most newsworthy events and have given some ideas to market using them.

Choose events or charities that most fit your business’s product or services and marketing strategy. Choose at least one less well-known event to be different to your competitors. Advertise with a theme.

2.    Don’t let your customers hibernate

Don’t treat the winter like a long, slow, down-time and don’t let your customers hibernate. Create urgency. Consumers tend to be more decisive in their purchasing when there is a short deadline. Use the events as cut-offs for promotions and create a sense of urgency in your promotions. The end of financial year creates a strong deadline.

3.    Keep your prospects warm

If you have business premises make sure you keep your customers or clients warm by turning on the heating or having somewhere warm to meet. Cosy and comforting is the best atmosphere for winter shopping. Create ambience with an open fire if you are in the hospitality business. Make sure your marketing material is warming.

4.    Expand your product range

Retailers know to change stock and to change their promotions and advertising for the cold weather, an easy example is Surf Dive and Ski, that covers both seasons. But does your business?

5.    Make your merchandise match the season

The winter season brings different needs. Promotional items should be things that remind customers of your business and fit the season. You want to give them items that they use and that remind them of you every time they use them. Umbrellas are good for winter rain and scarves keep out the cold—they both are good for carrying logos and company names. Give out free tissues with your company details printed on them. Don’t give them T-shirts.

6.    Look for new and different markets

If your product or services are so seasonal that winter is a slow time, think about selling your product in different markets. If you are selling bikinis in Sydney in the summer sell them in California in the winter (their summer).

7.    Help your customers dream

It is important to market to your prospects when they are most likely to be thinking about your product or service. As people travel into deep winter they start to dream of the summer sun. If the purchase of your product or service has a large lead-time winter is a good time to start planning.

8.    Take advantage of people’s changed behaviour

Cocooning behaviour

It is colder, the days are shorter, people don’t go out as much in the evenings. DVD rentals increase as people entertain themselves at home. People who stay at home on their holidays and socialise less are said to be cocooning or staycationing.

9.    Use the time to develop leads

Create a customer management system or mailing list from the information you have about your customers so that you can use it to keep the sales flowing in your quiet periods. Market yourself as an expert in your field or business sector. Give free webinars or speak at meetings, conferences or events.

10.Focus on building your online social network

Focus your social networking accounts appropriate to your product such as Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. Keep your information up-to-date, relevant, and professional. Use this time to expand your contact base and to maintain dialogue with them. Make attractive product offers and deals. Warm people up for spring specials.

You can use large public events to promote you products and services to your customers. By tapping into the media attention that comes with the publicity given to big events you get your customers to engage more with your business.

City to Surf

The Australian winter calendar brings a range of community events, cultural festivals, social awareness programs and significant days that the public celebrate. In Sydney (and NSW) we have a few unique events of our own.

Have fun and be creative

Many events are held to raise funds for charities (which is a good thing in itself and helps you give back to the community). These give your business opportunities to participate in fund-raising events and to get your customers to join in. They can be great fun. Be creative in creating themes and in following the most appropriate events for your business. Sporting events are good for fitness centres, social causes for law firms, children’s causes for just about everybody. Use your imagination to support a charity linked to your business.

Providing sponsorship

Sponsoring events gets your business name prominently displayed and the association with important events helps to build your reputation. Sponsorship can be major or minor depending on your budget and promotional intention.

Getting involved

Participating in events provides opportunities for media releases and to get your business name in the paper. Get involved in local or regional celebrations (to expose your business to customers and to show involvement with your community).

Try giveaways

Use tickets to shows, films or events as prizes in promotions or as gifts to your most valued customers.

Broaden your market

Getting involved in cultural festivals broadens your market and gets you involved in the wider community.

Use themes

Decorate your business premises with the theme of the festival, event or awareness day. Sell the charity products to help raise money. Get your staff to dress up. It creates a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

Its all about being engaging

Businesses need to engage with their customers. This engagement builds trust, friendship and a long-term relationship. Taking part in events is an easy way to share experiences with your customers.

Classic fonts create a sense of strong personality implying reliability and trustworthiness, the best example being Times New Roman, developed in England at The Times newspaper. If your business has a professional image you need to use strong fonts; using fun or creative fonts would make you look frivolous.

Helvetica, a Swiss font that recently had its 50th birthday, is a modernist font worshipped by some and hated by others. The reason it is so well liked is because it projects an air of safety, reliability and stability. The list of large, corporate brands that use Helvetica is long and includes: Gap, Orange, Hoover, Lufthansa, Panasonic, Royal Bank of Scotland, Tupperware, and Zanussi.

The reasons why Helvetica is disliked are almost the same reasons it is liked: because of its corporate ubiquity it can be seen as bland, conforming and unadventurous.

Some organisation’s font choices are more adventurous, distinctive and can become immediately recognizable. The BBC uses Gill Sans which is slightly quirky but still reliable; New Johnston is the choice of London Underground, Dunkin Donuts uses the Frankfurter font. Sabon is the font originally used by Penguin Books and also now by Stanford University.

Fun fonts should be used with great caution. Comic Sans is so hated by some that they have tried to have it banned. Now, on one hand, I see this as a complete overreaction and a needless waste of effort but, on the other hand, I do really think the world would be a better place if people wouldn’t use it.

There are some people who see the interest in fonts as all too unnecessary. Unfortunately they are probably the same people who turn up to interviews in safari suits and nylon ties. It is not so much what you look like but how you choose to portray yourself that is important in how people assess you.

The importance of type

There is lots of information available on the web about fonts. Here are a couple of very good sites that will give you a sense of the power of fonts in evoking a particular mood of sense of identity.

The graphic designers at Penguin Books (US) all have different views on fonts. This series of video posts shows their passion for their pet fonts and for their disliked fonts—it is a great insight into the power and importance of choosing the right font.

In Live the Language, a series of advertisements for a language-teaching company, the creative director has used typography to emphasise the different identities of the four capital cities chosen: Paris, London, Beijing, and Barcelona. It is an insightful use of typography to differentiate the cultural aspects of each city and it shows how powerful the imagery can be in creating distinct personalities using fonts.

Who is Tavi Gevinson? Gevinson is the 14-year-old author of the StyleRookie blog. Gevinson started her blog at the age of 11 and has built a huge following in the blogosphere:

Guess who is going to be all fancy n stuff and talk at L2’s Generation Y conference this Friday? Me, that’s who! And I’m going to be talking about the Unpredictability of Gen Y …

And not surprisingly, as reported by the Economist, she stole the show that had been put together to focus on “tomorrow’s affluent consumer”. Representatives of luxury-goods businesses, hung on Gevinson’s every word.

The lesson for today’s businesses is that those of Generation Y (people born between 1980 and 2000) know more than us about how to make the most out of social-networking technologies.

Some of us are Baby Boomers (born after 1945 until about 1960) who didn’t own a computer until we were well into adulthood. We possibly had to program our computers to perform our calculations and may even remember having to feed paper cards into a mainframe. Computers were calculating machines.

Most of us are X Generation (born between 1961 and 1981) we experienced the growth of personal computers and witnessed the birth of the Internet. Internet 1.0 was about sharing information and we played space invaders by putting lots of coins in arcade machines.

But those of Generation Y have grown up with computers and treat them as an essential part of their everyday lives – technology is social and about entertainment. They have participated in the growth of Web 2.0 as a means of participating in online communities, for sharing gossip and for on-line collaboration. They are also known as the Net Generation!

Do you know how to use Web 2.0 to connect and engage with Generation Y? Madrigal Communications can help you put together a do-it-yourself social media marketing campaign for as little as $250! Our consultant will sit down with you and show you how you can use a combination of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Foursquare and your website to connect your business with the Net Generation. Contact us to find out more!

Be valuable

Don’t undersell your products or services. Emphasise value not price! Even if your customer is price-driven they still need to trust you to buy from you.

Be honest

Don’t say you are the best. Tell how you will provide the benefits that your customers want or need. That shows that you are the best at what they want.

Be authentic

Let your personality stand out. People don’t like superficiality. Don’t be just another business selling a product or service.

Be human

Your business is not an object – it is the quality, expertise, and experience of its people. It is what you do for your customers. It is not an “it” it is a “we”.

Be accountable

You are the most important thing in your business. Don’t be anonymous. If something goes wrong your customer knows who to talk to. Make sure you have a relationship with your customers.

Need help?

If your business needs ideas to build trust with its marketing give me a call, Tim Entwisle, at Madrigal Communications, valuable, honest, authentic, human and not anonymous.