27 Ways to Raise Your Company's Profile

Here are 27 ways to boost brand awareness, according to Catherine Woods - Best of Real Business

1. Consider stunts - Stunts may be risky but they can be very effective if done in a witty and relevant way, says author and “ideas man” Shed Simove. “The best are those that show you have the skills relevant to what a person wants,” he says.

Ling’s Cars founder Ling Valentine put a missile truck on the side of the A1 motorway to promote her firm. “People’s opinions changed from ‘you’re mad’ to ‘that’s clever’,” she says. “When Tony Blair forced me to remove the rocket, I was inundated with messages asking where it had gone, and was interviewed on radio and TV.”

2. Try something different - On occasion, it’s good to change tack, says Ronnie Bartlett. His family’s 60-year-old root vegetable business, Albert Bartlett, became a sponsor of iconic horse racing festival Cheltenham. He explains: “We’re getting to the male consumer because that can drive demand. Cheltenham is covered all across the world, so it’s huge exposure for us.

"There’s a lot of trade involved in the festival over the week; punters get to try our products. Everyone who eats a potato at Cheltenham will eat one of ours.”

3. Personalise and differentiate - Simove recommends adding a personal touch to your offering. “Target decision-makers but strike an emotional connection. Don’t do what everyone else will do,” he says.

“One time, to win a client, I found out all about the company’s boss, discovered his favourite character in Coronation Street was Mike Baldwin and then got the actor in question to sign a photo with a special message on it.”

4. Hire a PR firm for your business - It’s an oldie but a goodie. Hiring a good PR firm is one of the easiest ways to increase awareness of your business. Dean Horridge, founder of children’s activity company Fit for Sport, recently hired his first PR company.

“We were sending a lot of mixed messages about what we did through some of our initiatives – we wanted clarity on brand awareness across the UK,” he says.

5. Hire a PR firm for you - One of the services Rostrum Communications offers is “personal” PR. Founder Mark Houlding explains why it can be useful: “It can create credibility for the company by giving it a human face and personality, which can add value if you’re competing against larger firms with bigger budgets and brands.”

6. Pick a firm that knows your market - “An agency is not going to be able to do a great job of positioning your brand and finding the opportunities and dealing with journalists in a professional manner if it doesn’t know your market,” says Jay O’Connor, former MD of European operations for PR firm Racepoint Group. She also says it’s important to check a potential PR partner’s contacts and references.

7. Be eponymous - Valentine believes putting herself in the firing line has been the most successful tactic to raise the profile of her business. “Every other company in the car-leasing sector trades as a generic-style firm, such as XYZ Leasing, but I trade as myself. People know who they’re dealing with,” she says.

“Sticking my head above the parapet includes putting myself on TV [Valentine turned down funding on Dragons’ Den], representing myself on my webpage and personally taking care of my customers.”

8. Network online - The Results Academy founder Fraser Hay says he’s become well known through the use of online social networks such as Ecademy and Facebook. “I’ve been able to generate leads, get referrals from people in many different places and create pre-qualified prospects without having to cold call,” he says.

To make this sort of networking work, however, Hay says you need to identify what peoples’ problems are and how you can help.

9. Don’t be intimidated - Networking is a great way to raise your profile, but Liz Taylor, founder of £3.5m-turnover events company the Taylor Lynn Corporation, says you’ll make more of an impact if you’re not easily intimidated. “You should always have the confidence to speak to anybody,” she says.

10. Know your objectives and your audience - You won’t get anywhere if you don’t know what you want to achieve and who you’re trying to target, says O’Connor. She advises business owners to ask themselves a few questions before embarking on a publicity drive: “Why are you doing this? Who do you want to reach? How do you reach those audiences? Who influences them?”

11. Target obvious customers - Bartlett says the company successfully raised its profile by targeting relevant media outlets. “We featured in Good Food magazines around the world, as well as sponsoring the Food Channel and other food programmes,” he says.

12. Strike the right partnerships - To raise the profile of his new business,iammoving.com's Simon Preston has partnered with organisations his clients have to deal with when they’re moving house.

“We have a partnership with the Royal Mail, which deals with redirections,” he says. “You’ll see us gradually growing relationships with other people, such as letting agents.”

13. Align with big names - Luxury shirt maker Emma Willis was featured in a report called 'Face Value: Your Reputation as a Business Asset,' published by private bank Coutts. “People bank with Coutts all over the world, so it’s a really good affiliation,” she says.

“I have also collaborated with young British fashion label Rodnik. It distinguishes you from being just another shirt maker in Jermyn Street.”

14. Hire a celebrity - Neville Upton brought former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio on board as a director of motivation for his £26m-turnover customer relations firm, The Listening Company. As well as inspiring the 2,000-strong workforce, Upton says Dallaglio also spends time with clients.

“Everyone knows who he is. He’s an impressive person and he’s helped raise the company’s profile a great deal,” Upton says, adding that the initiative has been “very good value for money”.

15. Focus on content - O’Connor says whatever your message, the content you’re putting out there has to be relevant to the audience. “You need to focus on the benefits of your products or services and what’s going to matter to clients or consumers, not the technical aspects that people won’t care about,” she says.

16. Champion a cause - IT services specialist Connect has helped grow awareness of the company by undertaking initiatives to boost the number of women in IT. For example, Connect has formed a group for women IT specialists, worked with schools to promote the IT sector to female students and taken part in industry-wide groups investigating the issue.

CEO Mark MacGregor says: “It helps us stand out from the crowd because it’s not just about us launching a new product.”

17. Be an expert - Writing opinion pieces, joining the speakers’ circuit or running an event that shows your expertise is a good way to get yourself known, according to Judith Germain, founder of Dynamic Transitions.

She says: “I’ve published a lot of articles on the web. I’ve also written a lead article for Talent Management Review, as well as running online and offline business communities.”

18. Be accessible to journalists - If you’re positioning yourself as an industry commentator in the media, Houlding recommends: “Be readily available and give an interesting and different point of view.” He warns against becoming a “rent-a-quote”, saying it’s easier to build an image in one specialist area.

19. Befriend the right writers - Emma Willis says dealing with the press is “absolutely critical” to building up your profile. “I’ve worked hard – on my own and with PR agencies – to be written about in quality publications my customers read, such as the Financial Times and Vogue,” she says. “I will personally go and meet the relevant journalists, even those in the US. I give them a good idea about what I do.”

20. Join a business organisation - “I’m involved in quite a lot of other business activities,” says Preston. “I’m an international board director of the Young Presidents’ Organisation. We have a relatively low public profile, but it’s all about business leaders networking together, sharing experiences, ideas and education.”

21. Be charitable - Helping a charity to raise money not only means using your skills to help others – it may also put you in touch with potential partners. Taylor works with the Prince’s Trust Fundraising Committee.

She advises: “You’ve got to be a little bit canny and make it work commercially for you. Find out who supports the charity, who’s involved, where they come from and what they’re trying to achieve.”

22. Target students - James Lott is the co-founder of business management tool provider The Working Knowledge Group, which runs competitions with university students as a way of promoting its products and services. “Students use a derivative of our strategy tool,” he says. “Throughout the competition, they keep seeing this tool and think ‘I could use this in my future business’.”

23. Be transparent - Today’s consumers are demanding more information about the products they buy and the companies that supply them. Tapping into that can help give your business a better profile. Take vegetable company Albert Bartlett.

Bartlett says: “Our packaging tells you the name of the grower and you can also read about them on our website. It’s good for everyone, as the growers are focused on promotion as well.”

24. Get sporty - Bulldog is the official grooming supplier to rugby team the London Wasps. “We sponsor the back of the shorts,” adds co-founder Rhodri Ferrier. He says that while it’s hard to measure the tangible benefits of sports club sponsorship, the club did get a lot of publicity during the Rugby World Cup. “It’s a great tie-up because it’s a good club that stands for the things we stand for.”

25. Apply for a business award - Many organisations, Real Business included, give out annual awards to the great and the good in a particular area. Winning an award can earn you coverage in the press, the respect of your peers and make potential clients aware of you. Try out our Growing Business Awards!

26. Jump on the bandwagon - While we would never advise changing your business to take advantage of trends, it’s worth promoting a particular side of your business if it’s relevant to a hot issue.

Kelly Smith’s company, Smartbunker, offers customers a data centre that uses zero-carbon energy and green technology. “We have a truly unique proposition, which marks us out in a crowded marketplace – that’s why we’re getting so much publicity,” he says.

27. Be consistent - No one is going to take you seriously if you don’t come across as genuine or consistent. Germain says consistency is often a problem when people cross from offline to online: “A lot of people feel they can write stuff online and act in a certain way, then be very different offline. Everything on the web can be googled.”

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Five Ways to Make your Staff Great at Teamworking

1. Use the strengths of each team member

Each of us has a unique strengths profile. Strengths are our innate abilities. They are easy and rewarding for us to exercise. They are related to, but not quite the same as, our skills and personalities. Strengths are an expression of highly developed mental pathways and neural connections that take minimal effort to use.

Discovering people’s strengths and encouraging them to use them boosts productivity and has proven benefits on levels of engagement. This is because when we are using our strengths work feels effortless, we are energised and confident. The effect is multiplied in teams as feeling like this we are more able to be generous and patient with others, so the benefits flow onward.

Help your team members discover their true strengths and then find ways as a team to utilise everyone’s strengths to achieve the team task. Think of your team as an economy of strengths, and work out how to create extra value by trading your strengths.

2. Create a positive working culture

Research over the last 10 years has convincingly endorsed what many of us intuitively knew; a good working atmosphere makes a huge difference to a team’s productivity. What the research found is that the key to the difference between high performing and low performing teams is the ratio of positive to negative comments in team meetings. Interestingly this doesn’t need to be balanced, it needs to be weighted in favour of positive comments, at least by a ratio of 3:1.

A number of things seem to happen once this magic ratio is reached and even more so if the ratio moves closer to 6:1. When people feel good they are more able to think well, be creative, and work with others. In addition people become more willing to contribute ideas, and to work with goodwill through the moments of uncertainty, disconnection or confusion in the conversation until something new emerges. The benefits continue beyond the immediate team meetings, as team members’ actions in their own domains are more in sync with their colleagues.

3. Build common ground amongst team members

Teams are often made up of people with different skills and backgrounds who tend to see the world, and the priorities for action within it, differently. This can lead to friction and conflict. Yet at the same time, at a deeper level, there will be areas of commonality amongst team members, often in the areas of core values and central purpose.

A very productive way to access these commonalities is through the sharing of heartfelt and meaningful stories. When people are asked to share personal stories of their moments of pride at work, or moments of achievement or success, or the part of their job that means the most to them, they are expressing their values and sense of purpose in an engaging, passionate and easy to hear form. The listener will undoubtedly find that the story resonates with them, creating an emotional connection at the same time as they begin to see the person in a different light. In the best scenarios, as people share their highlight stories, a sense emerges in the room of ‘wow, these are great people I’m working with here, I’d better raise my game!’ By bringing the hidden common purpose and sense of connection into the foreground, it becomes easier to negotiate surface differences.

4. Foster innovation

Groups can get stuck in repeating dynamic patterns. When this happens listening declines as everyone believes they know what everyone else is saying – they’ve heard it all before. To break the patterns we need to move from rehearsed speech (which means exactly what it says, speech that has been thought or said so often it just tumbles out) to generative speech (which is the delightful sensation of hearing ourselves, or others, say something new).

To help the team make the shift you need to ask questions, or introduce activities that mean people need to think before they speak, that brings information into the common domain that hasn’t been heard before. Positively or appreciatively framed questions are particularly good for this. So too are imagination based questions, for example ‘If we woke up tomorrow and we had solved this dilemma, how would we know, what would be different?’ ‘If we weren’t spending our time locked in this conversation, what might we be talking about?’ Or ‘as if’ questions ‘If we discuss this as if the customer were in the room with us, what will we be saying?’ Sometimes just getting people to switch from their habitual seating pattern breaks old and creates new dynamics.

This, combined with an awareness of strengths and a positive working culture, creates fertile ground for innovative thoughts and ideas to be expressed, explored and developed.

5. Build a beautiful future

When teams suffer a crisis of motivation or morale it is often associated with a lack of hope. A lack of hope that things can get better, a lack of hope in the power and influence of the group or the leader, a lack of hope or belief in the possibility of achieving anything.

Hope and optimism are both great motivators and also key in team resilience. In hopeless situations we need to engender hopefulness. Appreciative Inquiry as an approach is particularly good at doing this as it first of all discovers the best of the current situation, unearths the hidden resources and strengths of the group, and then goes on to imagine future scenarios based on these very discoveries about what is possible. As people project themselves into optimistic futures clearly connected to the present, they begin to experience some hopefulness. This in turn engenders some motivation to start working towards those more aspirational scenarios of how things can be.

By using the techniques described above it's possible to get a stuck team moving again and a move a working team from good to great.

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Ten Easy Ways to Really Irritate your Customers

1. Torture them by telephone

Of all the bugbears in business, the front-runner is voicemail. Across the UK, companies are damaging their customer relations by replacing receptionists and telephonists with time-wasting, irritating, tedious, answering machines. Across the board, telephones are driving business people crazy. Do you get asked to hold – only to remain stranded on the end of a silent line? Like many business people, advisor Shelia McKenzie sets aside Monday mornings for paperwork, only to be bombarded by people wanting to know whether their letter has arrived. 

2. Pay them late – and bill them wrong

Payment problems are a blight on business life. Almost all our respondents mentioned them. No matter how carefully you nurture a relationship with another company, it seems, it's becoming ever more difficult to get them to pay on time – and with good grace. And if you want to remain in business, don't write worthless cheques. Late payment also appears to have become an everyday fact of business life. Some people even think that legislation would have little effect. 

3. Keep them waiting

Lateness is another universal dislike. Almost all the people we questioned mentioned it. It's rude, it wastes everyone's time, and it's easily avoided by using a diary. Martin Randerson, former managing director of The Travel Professionals, won't do business with people who are late for meetings - “unless they have got a really good excuse. There are very few reasons for being late. If someone is stuck on the M25 and you can hear that they're on the carphone, fair enough. Otherwise your diary should be organised in such a way that it works. People who aren't concerned about time are a major irritation.”

4. Break your promises

The business people we spoke to want to be honourable – and would like, in return, to be treated with honesty. All too often, however, promises are broken. Too often suppliers over-promise and under-deliver. There was a consensus on one depressing feature of business life: people who say they will call in a few days or send information and don't. 

“The worst is when you are waiting to hear if you have won a piece of business,” says David Bailey, co-founder of Impact Plus, acquired by Hitachi Consulting. “The client says that you'll hear on Friday, and, of course, when it comes to it they are too embarrassed to tell you that you haven't got it.” 

5. Be rude to them

Good manners mean good business. Obvious? Apparently not. According to our respondents, an astonishing number of business people forget the basic rules of behaviour. Here are some things you shouldn't do if you want to keep your customers: Missing meetings is unforgivable, as is forgetting that someone is coming to see you; don't cancel, at four hours' notice, meetings that were set up weeks in advance; don't have a chat on your mobile phone during a meeting. Don't tolerate surly receptionists. And for goodness sake, if you ask someone in for a lunchtime get-together, at least offer them a cup of coffee.

6. Tie them up with bureaucracy

Bureaucracy is both the bedfellow and enemy of business. It is estimated that ten per cent of a business person's life is taken up with needless bureaucracy. “It is incredible that so many companies will not take your money without an official purchase order because their system can't cope without the relevant number”, says one company director. “There is so much form-filling for the sake of it.”

One side-effect of bureaucracy is that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Result? Receiving a standardised mailshot from a company you are already using. Or receiving a demand for payment from one department when you have been credited by another.

7. Bombard them with junk mail

Direct mail is so prevalent that it's almost excusable. What isn't is applying blanket, junk mail techniques to regular, valued customers. If a customer has built up a relationship over years, they should expect to receive something better than a standardised form letter. But addressing someone who bought a box of staples from you four years ago or who has never done business with you as a 'valued customer' is plain daft. Want to guarantee that your correspondence goes straight into the bin – and makes you look foolish? Try addressing Mr Smith as Miss Smith, or vice-versa.

8. Raise false hopes

It's unethical and it's happening all the time. Many companies say they would like to meet to discuss business when the prospects are slim. “The time and effort you waste putting together a presentation costs money”, says Stephen Callender, former managing director of Black Cat.

Clients will also deliberately flirt with suppliers they have no intention of engaging. First, it's a cheap way of generating new ideas. Two, it's an effective way of scaring existing suppliers into a better deal –the board insists on a regular statutory review, so they have to make a foregone conclusion look like a genuinely competitive pitch.

9. Baffle them with jargon

People usually use buzzwords to obfuscate and mislead. Either they don't know what they're talking about, or they don't want you to know what they're talking about.

“Our dynamic results-orientated, customer-focused DM campaign has positively impacted on consumer spend” actually means: the mailshot flagged some products. Jargon doesn't always make you sound clever, it's the last refuge of the incompetent.

10. Dither over decisions

Everyone comes across ditherers. And they are not only infuriating, they're expensive. Ditherers know that they need never be alone – they can always hold a meeting. Ask yourself whether you hold meetings that wobble off the agenda leaving the central issue unresolved. “We'll get back to you” is an oft-used and much hated phrase.

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RBS offers businesses £20bn of loans

The bank, which is 81 per cent owned by the taxpayer, set up the review because of the mismatch between what it says it is doing for business and complaints from firms that they are finding it difficult to secure finance.

RBS has hired former Bank of England deputy governor Sir Andrew Large and management consultancy Oliver Wyman to carry out an independent review of its lending practices for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

Following RBS boss Stephen Hester's resignation announcement in June, Chancellor George Osborne made it clear the bank's new chief executive would be expected to increase lending to Britain's businesses.

Bridging the gap

Chris Sullivan, RBS's chief executive of UK corporate banking, said: "We are the biggest lender to SMEs in the country, and have identified £20bn in surplus deposits that we want to put to work to support the economy.

"But we constantly hear that businesses can't get the finance they need. We have to bridge this gap."

Sir Andrew Large said: "There is a disconnect between what the bank says it is doing on lending, and what many businesses say they experience on the ground.

"That is why we have been asked to conduct an independent review to establish what is going on, and what steps can be taken."

The bank's net lending fell by £1.6bn in the first three months of 2013, despite tapping the funding for lending scheme for £750m worth of cheap finance.

Risky ventures

RBS says net lending fell overall because it is in the process of extracting itself from some of the riskier activities that led to its government bailout in 2008.

It says lending to SMEs rose by 1 per cent earlier this year, with £1bn made available to firms.

Businesses say they are finding it hard to attract finance from lenders, but concede that there are firms that are not seeking loans because they believe they will be turned down.

Adam Marshall, director of policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said the RBS review was a "sensible and welcome step".

He added: "This is just what small businesses will be wanting to hear at this delicate stage of the UK recovery."

Biggest lender

RBS is the biggest lender to SMEs in Britain, with a 35 per cent share of the loan and overdraft market.

It says it saw a 20 per cent reduction in borrowing applications from small firms in 2012.

The review will take place this summer, with findings and recommendations published in the autumn.

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Business card firm MOO has used blogging to promote and grow its business for years – learn how you can do the same.

Hands up who’s paid a visit to a company’s website for a brief look, and ended up spending four hours on the site having discovered their blog, and getting sucked into posts from September 2007?

We’ve all been there, and while we admit this may be encouraging procrastination, it’s also a great example of why you should be considering a blog for your small business.

People love people. People buy from people. People love inspiring stories, pictures of cats, and comprehensible, tried-and-tested advice. A blog is your way to be showcase your personality online, when perhaps you have no other way of reaching out to your customers, bar your website.

If we at MOO didn’t have our blog, we’d have nowhere to show you our brilliant customers, nowhere to display what we’re proud of, and nowhere to let you know how much cake is being consumed!

Why should you blog?

Above all, blogging can be really fun: it’s your platform to produce quality content that people will enjoy and share, and if you’re doing it right, you’ll be helping people at the same time.

If your business doesn’t operate in a typically creative or "fun" space, this is your chance to show a fun side; the side that people might not instantly associate with your industry: displaying an edge like this could set you apart from the competition.

If you are running a creative company, open your world up to customers: show them what inspires you, what got you to this point, and in turn, you could inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs.

A blog can be the perfect destination for everything on your social networking accounts: 140 characters isn’t much when you’ve got a lot to say, so linking to a longer blog post can help you come across somewhat more eloquently, as well as allowing your community to join in with their comments.

This is also your chance to establish yourself as an expert in your industry: you can become a voice of authority, help, and inspiration. The more you build up this reputation, the more it reflects on your company.

If you can help people, whether that’s by cheering them up, offering practical advice, or providing people with something interesting and entertaining to read, you’ll be doing a lot more for your business’ reputation than handing out flyers and putting adverts all over the internet.

It’s all very well us saying that posting pictures of cats and writing about your style icons is fun, but it does need a practical side. A blog can work wonders for your business, especially now: people want content to read, they want to know who they’re buying from, and they want to know that you’re not a faceless factory, chasing a profit margin (even if you are).

Why is blogging good for your business?

A well-written, well looked after blog shows clients that your business can be trusted: you’re real people, with real knowledge, real stories, real opinions, and real pets. You aren’t hiding behind customer service lines, and reams of empty promises that cover your website. The more confidence that a client has in what you’re saying, the more confidence they’ll have in what you’re providing: your company becomes authentic.

Blogging gives you the chance to build a different kind of relationship with your customers or clients. They get to chart your progress, from beginning in your bedroom, to opening your first boutique, and in turn, you’re able to hear what they have to say. You’ll be able to engage with clients on a whole new level: have conversations, hear their feedback, and ultimately build a community around your company.

Want to get down to the real details of the benefits of blogging? Firstly, it’s a tried and tested marketing strategy that gets results. Blogs are a great way to create a buzz around what you do, as well as a platform for any press releases: it’s your chance to have a strong online presence, attracting attention towards all the brilliant things you do. You can set a blog up for free, and the main outgoing is time – it’s far cheaper than a lot of marketing options.

Not only will it send more traffic to your site, but you’ll be able to reach a huge range of new people: from existing customers, to prospective ones, as well as potential employees, people in the media, and possible partners. It can also be a great way to reinforce your brand and your values, in a way where you can show what you mean, instead of just telling people.

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