Mamut's solution has played a large role in InMyShoe's customer relationship management (CRM). Through our website we want to offer you useful information and services and by improving supply-chain operations we can build business partnerships with business customers and suppliers. Our customer service is a key part of our company's brand; enhancing trust and building sales.

Sindy Birkelid, director, InMyShoe
Small companies working on a small budget need to validate their business model and their market to get the most out of their campaigns. It is important to put together a creative strategy that will use the right medium to get across the right message to the right target market. The benefit of analysing every bit of the market and sales expenditure is that your marketing can often be done on a shoestring.

Your market research should establish who and where your customers are. Different advertising strategies may be appropriate depending on whether your target market is consumers, B2B or the public sector.

Have a marketing plan in place for the year ahead and consider what promotional tactics will be the most effective. Then allocate detailed budgets, responsibilities, targets and deadlines as appropriate. Measure the effectiveness from any marketing campaigns you run by keeping it up to date and adding all key results. If any of your tactics prove to be too expensive, such as exhibiting at a trade show, then look for more cost-effective ways to reach the same audience such as visiting a trade show to hand out cards.

Develop appropriate marketing materials to build brand awareness. Your campaign should be in line with any other marketing activity you are running and should work together to promote a consistent message.

Small companies want to promote themselves in a positive and competitive light, so it is a good idea to use PR (public relations) as often as possible since it costs less than advertising. Advertising is often regarded with suspicion and people need to see an advertisement a number of times before it fully registers. If you are going to advertise, make it relevant to your company’s products and services.

Use both online and offline channels that are authorities in your industry. Editorials on media sites, trade magazines and specialist sites offer great value where consumers are more likely to trust the endorsement of an editor. Also function as the spokesman of your own company as consumers feel reassured when the owner stands up and publicly represents his or her own business.

Beat rivals in taking advantage of new technology which can open up to new marketing opportunities where you can reduce costs and increase profits through market communications, sales and customer service online. Using strong methods of communication through the internet has also got an impact on how companies are slicing their marketing budgets.

Websites are strong marketing tools that drive traffic and bring companies with new customers and a 24 hour shop window at relatively little cost. This means small companies can avoid the expense of printing glossy brochures when they can quickly and easily update their company information on a website instead.

By improving trade relationships and reducing cost of servicing online you can directly increase efficiency and profitability; and this is the key to a great marketing success.

For more information, visit www.inmyshoe.com