Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts

Friday, September 2, 2011

Pros and Cons of using a Trading Name


Many people believe that a Company has to use its name as its brand when it communicates with its clients. But it does not have to be. A Company can use a trading name instead. Or even more than one.

A trading name is just a name used instead of the legal name. There is no need to file anything at Companies House nor at HMRC when creating a trading name but there are a still a few things to keep in mind:
  1. You will need to inform the bank of those trading names so that you can cash cheques for example. While you can create separate accounts, you don't have even though it's good practice. 
  2. Even though no registration is required, the same rules that apply to company formation apply to trading names. For example, the trading name cannot be similar to another company or business name in a way that might be confusing. Also, the use of sensitive words is prohibited as part of a trading name in much the same way as it is for limited company names. You cannot use words like “association”, “group”, “federation” for example.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Top 5 mistakes when writing a newsletter

In a world where the buzz is all about social media, you could be tempted to forget about the good old newsletter. That would be a mistake, especially if your client base has yet to jump on the latest tech craze. Indeed, a well designed and targeted newsletter is still one of the most potent tools to grow your business. And used in conjunction with the new social media tools, it will undoubtedly deliver great results. There are some pitfalls however. Here are the 5 most frequent mistakes that are easy to avoid:

1. Spam people
Spamming is probably the easiest thing to do. There is delicate balance between keeping your company on the radar of potential clients and spamming them. In order to avoid being backlisted, these are the few things you need to do:
  • Have people subscribe by themselves from your web site. If they request the newsletter in the first place, they will not perceive it as spam. You can use incentives like discounts or freebies to have people subscribe but make it clear that by providing an email address they will subscribe to a newsletter as well.  
  • If you are adding people yourself to the mailing list, make sure you asked before. It is actually a legal requirement. At the very least, ensure that you have met and established rapport. 
  • Always remind the recipient of the newsletter why they receive the newsletter and how they were subscribed. Also give an option to unsubscribe in every newsletter. 
  • Refrain from sending the newsletter more frequently than once a month.