Government opens up contract opportunities for small businesses

It’s recently come to our attention that some of our clients are still paying annual subscription fees to receive and access public sector tender opportunities through OJEU (The official journal of the European Union).

The Cabinet Office recently announced a package of measures to give smaller businesses a better change of winning government business. This reflects claims from the Conservative Party, put forward in the year before the general election, that government has given too much business to major suppliers.

Key measures in the package include “seeking to eliminate” pre-qualification questionnaires for all central government procurements under £100,000. In addition, a new website - Contracts Finder, is now live and is a source of information on public sector contracts worth more than £10,000.

As part of the Government’s objective to be more transparent on public sector spending, the site also includes details of contracts already awarded. For this reason, it does take some time to get to grips with the search facility on the Contract Finder website, but there is a PDF guide that explains how to distinguish the signed contracts from the open tenders.

If you are paying high subscription charges to a tender matching service, take a look at Contracts Finder, as a FREE alternative to accessing those public sector contract opportunities!

New healthcare division is just the tonic for Red Alchemy

Leeds-based strategic marketing company Red Alchemy is launching a new healthcare marketing division following a number of client wins in the sector.

“We see exciting opportunities for the business in this new phase of our growth.” says John Ashworth, Managing Director.

“Since the business was formed, we have built a strong reputation as a full service, strategic marketing company supporting the growth of clients’ business with lead generation and customer acquisition through direct marketing strategies, PR campaigns and event management.“The launch of a dedicated healthcare division is a new departure for us and one that we expect to contribute significantly to Red Alchemy’s continued growth.”

Red Alchemy was formed in 2009 as a result of a merger between Alchemy Direct Marketing and Red Book Marketing.

“Our direct marketing specialists are at the heart of our business and enable us to move quickly when new market opportunities arise.“Staff have client-side experience as in-house marketers, communication and PR managers. This means we’ve walked in the client’s shoes and understand first-hand the frustrations and challenges of in-house marketing teams. None more so than in the healthcare industry where our client-side experience includes Government agencies and the NHS to blue-chip brands and SMEs.

“This experience has been crucial in winning a number of healthcare-related direct marketing accounts in recent months.

“We feel the time is right to launch a sector specialism and are excited at the prospect of growing our healthcare division.”

Data cleaning reduces costs and increases sales

Data cleaning is a key issue, not only in avoiding the industry term ‘junk mail’ but in supporting the direct marketing industry achieve its environmental targets.

Suppression costs should not be seen as an additional campaign expense, but a cost-effective process. The benefits of having an up-to-date, accurate mailing database are clear – costs are reduced, return on investment is increased and customer relationships are maximised.

Correcting entries within a mailing list, or removing / suppressing incorrect entries is a relatively straightforward process.

Many suppression files are available, including Mailing Preference Service and the Bereavement Register.

- 1.2m addresses change on the postcode file each year

- Every day in the UK 1,600 people die and 18,000 people move house

- The Direct Marketing Association believes that over £95m is wasted annually as a result of mailing deceased individuals

- 47% of consumers are put off from responding to offers that interest them if their name and / or address details are incorrect

- A business moves premises every 6 minutes

- 37% of an average sized business database will decay every year

- It is estimated that more than £180m is lost every year as a result of using out of date business data

Red Alchemy can provide a FREE data health check, screening your data to help identify any potential issues.

This will look at all aspects of your data file, including duplicates, suppressions, and name/address quality. You’ll receive a FREE report. You only pay for the level of service you require (if any), after the health check.

Email: john.ashworth@red-alchemy.co.uk for further details or call us on 0113 249 9220.

Maximising ROI in your direct mail campaigns

PostComm has approved Royal Mail’s plans to increase the price of business mail by up to 19 per cent from May 2011. This will, without doubt, hit the direct mail sector hard and companies could be forced to move to digital marketing tactics.

However, direct mail is still a great marketing tool for cost effectively targeting current and potential customers. It's personal, responsive, measurable and cost effective.

There are many benefits to using a direct mail campaign – these are just some of them:

Personal: Direct mail allows you to communicate directly with an individual on a one to one basis and make sure your message reaches them.

Engaging: You can be really creative with direct mail to engage your customers.

Tangible: Direct mail gives you a direct, physical presence of your brand and product in your customers’ hands – how many other marketing channels enable you to do that!

Targeted: The more information you have about your current customers, the better you can target potential ones. Direct mail enables you to precisely target customers using the information you have. And the more targeted your mailing list, the more cost effective your mailing will be.

Flexible: Direct mail can be created in many different formats including leaflets, brochures and samples to illustrate products and services to their best advantage.

Responsive: Research by Royal Mail shows that people really respond to direct mail - spending up to 10 minutes reading mail shots. They digest the information in their own time and at their own pace, and then decide to act, or not.

Measurable: Because you track responses to direct mail campaigns so easily, it is a very measurable form of marketing. Direct mail results enable you to continually learn and refine your mail shot.

Cost effective: By sending a targeted direct mail campaign which is measurable, you are able to work out the cost of every response. Accurately profiling your customers will help maximise your return on investment and ensure your direct mail campaign is cost effective.

Businesses who are involved in sending out direct mail communications must ensure they comply with the Data Protection Act, which regulates the use of personal data such as a names and addresses in a marketing database. Individuals who don’t want to receive unsolicited mail can register with the Mailing Preference Service (MPS), which operates a suppression file.

And as with telemarketing campaigns, the key to a successful direct mail campaigns lies in accurate data, which has been segmented to target the customers that are most likely to respond. By accurately targeting, you will get the best return on your marketing investment.

Red Alchemy supports clients with campaign development, creative execution, data acquisition, data cleaning, database management, fulfilment and postal management.

We provide a free marketing audit which includes ways to improve your response and ways to save money (e.g. to maximise postage discounts).

Email john.ashworth@red-alchemy.co.uk for further details or call us on 0113 249 9220

There are only three ways to grow a business

There are many ways to generate profit within your business but when all is said done, there are only three ways in which you can grow your business, namely:

• Increase the number of customers
• Increase the average transaction value
• Increase the frequency of purchase

How do you fair in these categories?

It sounds simple but in our experience, a lot of businesses overlook these basic principles by over-complicating their marketing with brand, image, feel, look, style and culture. These are all relevant factors but the simple fact remains, there are only three ways to grow your business.

Take the test …

• Do you analyse your sales statistics in each of the three categories?
• Do you know your strengths and weaknesses in relation to these three areas?
• Do you set specific goals to target your weaknesses (e.g. the number of enquiries you want to receive daily/weekly, conversion rates, etc?)
• Are you monitoring progress to see improvements in your sales stats in these areas?

Take the first step to transform your marketing this year:

• CALL US TODAY to arrange your free, no-obligation audit
• Phone us on 0113 249 9220
• Alternatively, email info@red-alchemy.co.uk
• Or visit www.red-alchemy.co.uk