The Importance of Social Media

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In this ultra-connected world, social media represents one of the most vital marketing tools companies should use. Getting involved in social media and generating content is a crucial aspect of business survival and client attraction. Of course, this must be done in a professional manner. Posting and sharing relevant information with the aim of nurturing relations with current clients, and at the same time, having the potential to attract new leads, must be done with great attention and proficiency, otherwise, it can damage your company’s image.

nxo helps SMEs maintain contact with clients by engaging in social media and stimulating interest in your business. There are many platforms available for businesses: Facebook, the major social website for maintaining contact and communicating directly with clients; LinkedIn and Twitter, most useful for B2B marketing and building connections. The platforms that can support a company to promote its brand visually include Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat. Read more →

Healthy Leaders lead the way

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Following an invitation from NatWest Bank, a roundtable event took place at their Wigan Commercial Office on 6th July.  20 business leaders attended the event to hear Philip Dyer, founder and director of Healthy Leaders Ltd, talk about the importance of the health and wellbeing of an owner manager and the impact it has on the culture of an organisation.

The concept behind Healthy Leaders is to inspire entrepreneurs and organisational leaders to take control of their health and wellbeing to promote improved personal and team performance. Healthy Leaders provides practical know- how and guidance to demystify mental and physical wellbeing, resulting in increased levels of confidence, self-awareness and enhanced performance.

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Marketing, as it should be, market-ing

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Marketing is often misconceived as just advertising; producing adverts for your company’s goods or services and attempting to entice customers to purchase or utilise your company’s offerings, but marketing is so much more than that. Marketing as defined by Kotler is a science that delivers value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. It allows businesses to identify unfulfilled needs and desires and measures and quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential. All while pinpointing which segments the company is capable of serving best and designs and promotes the appropriate products and services. However, Kotler proposes that marketing is and should always be market-ing as businesses exist in an ever changing market, shaped by technological advances that they need to understand in order to evolve their marketing.

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Recruitment: SOLVED

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Are you a small business leader and do you find yourself struggling with recruitment? In 2016 58% of small business owners reported trying to hire staff in 2016, but 52% reported that they were unable to recruit, 48% said that it was a result of being unable to find the employees their business needs.

Fundamentally 60% of recruiters believe cultural fit is the most important factor when recruiting. So by ensuring that your company culture correctly engages with your current teams, culture can be the difference between attracting the right employees for your team and being unable to find any. Culture provides the anchor for your organisation.

Image result for recruitment

A business’ culture is, to a certain extent, responsible for creating its brand image and identity, and many organisations are recognisable just by their culture. No two organisations ever have the same work culture, culture is the defining factor between organisations and makes organisations unique. But most importantly, culture is the factor that determines morale, recruitment, productivity and ultimately the bottom line of your business.

Common characteristics of successful workplace cultures include open communication, an apparent organisational mission, selective hiring, work-life flexibility and competitive pay. And not to forget, enjoyment and fun – in the hard-driving world of business it’s incredibly easy to overlook humanity. Really, culture is about choosing whether you want to be a business that benefits just you or if you want to create a business environment that’s good for all the stakeholders. Culture, after all, is everything.  Read more →

Signposting your business for the future

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In order to successfully run a company of any size. The business owner needs a clear vision as to where their organisation is heading. In other words, they need to know their business’s purpose and where it aspires to be. A mission statement is, therefore, the key to defining a company’s purpose, activities, and values.

Mission and values form the foundations of any strategic planning. Through communicating them to employees within your business, the overall functioning of your business can be improved and most importantly improve continuously as a result.

The direction your company needs

The use of a mission statement provides a guide for everyone involved with your company’s decision-making. It guides each and every employee in the daily decisions and tasks that they make, to ensure their alignment with the business. A mission reflects employees motivation, so it can help employees to feel positive and inspire them, engaging your workforce with their work and bringing a sense of togetherness within your organisation. However, your mission must be kept up-to-date and dynamic, to ensure that it reflects your current business activities and evolving purpose. Read more →

Internal Marketing – The key to superior customer service and performance

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Only 29% of the UK’s workforce is engaged, this means that 20 million UK workers are not actively engaged with their employers. Placing the UK ninth in the world’s leading economies for employee engagement, through internal marketing you can re-engage your employees and provide the key to enable your business.

Image result for puzzle internal marketing

Internal marketing’s purpose is to communicate your company’s goals and to understand your employee’s needs, through aligning employees with your company objectives, your team are more likely to deliver the quality service you’ve designed. By understanding employee’s needs and wants, communication can be tailored to enhance job satisfaction and performance. Effective internal marketing means that barriers to organisational change and resistance can be overcome to realign and motivate employees to create customer orientated employees. Most importantly, internal marketing allows your employees to develop a strong emotional connection to your company brand and the products and/or services that your business sells. Read more →

Develop a value proposition, create business clarity and enable your business

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Often business value is seen as the difference between perceived benefits and perceived costs, or the price-quality ratio of a product or service offering. But dig a little deeper, and the internet will tell you that value is the reason that your business exists or why you’re able to charge what you charge or why your business is the best at what it does. Fundamentally value and value propositions form the foundation of marketing and enable your business.

Simply put, value propositions describe your customer’s problem and your solution to their problem and most importantly the value customers will receive from your business. It’s the difference between you and your competitors and explains to customers why they should buy from you. And, there’s a clear link between value propositions and organisational performance, competitive advantage and improving financial performance; value propositions enable business. Read more →

WyredUp Workshop Takeaway

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nxo consultants Cheryl Jones and Debbie Smith were invited along to deliver a marketing workshop to over 40 delegates who attended WyredUp’s latest networking event in Fleetwood.

WyredUp is a business network set up by Wyre Council to help local businesses connect with each other and also gives the opportunity to showcase their company. Read more →

Marketing Planning Workshop

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nxo, Propel2Grow and Boost Lancashire are delighted to invite you to a

Marketing Planning Workshop

Build an effective strategy for marketing success

on Wednesday 14th June 2017 8.30 am – 12 pm
at HSBC Commercial Centre, Fulwood, Preston

Hosted by nxo Marketing Director Cheryl Jones
& nxo Marketing Consultant, Debbie Smith

This event will suit any small business looking to improve their marketing function. You will leave with a planning framework to help you build your own marketing strategy.

Click on this Invitation link to find out more or reserve your place now at goo.gl/w3QTrn

 

Healthy Leaders

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Mens sana in corpore sano

A healthy mind in a healthy body; if I heard my father say this to me once he said it a thousand times. Perhaps this is the route to my interest in personal well-being.

The expression is a truism for businesses too – the office of national statistics refers to start-up businesses as births and you may have already guessed what they call closing businesses – deaths!!

In my line of work, helping businesses to grow, the two things are intertwined; it is essential to gain an initial understanding of the health of the business I am working with:

Culture; customers; cash-flow; profit

It could just as easily be:

Weight; nutrition; blood pressure; activity
Each element has a unique impact on the well-being of the business or the person and cumulatively the impact can be profound – positively or negatively.

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