Marketing Fundamentals Ltd does not condone the receipt of yellow or red cards or any bad behaviour on the football pitch – leaving that aside there are some clear lessons that any entrepreneur would do well to learn from Mario Balotelli. We have listed 5 of them below.

Mario Balotelli Facts – 5 Lessons

1. Be different
Business like professional football (soccer to our US readers) is a very competitive environment and it is very difficult to stand out and make an impact. No- one would dispute that Mario is different and unconventional. This is part of his appeal and can work in your favour too if your company is markedly different to your competitors. – Think about your company name, positioning, pricing, communications tools, website, logo and products or services.

2. Be unpredictable

In business and in football it’s hard to stay ahead of your competition and sustain a competitive advantage. What worked for you at the start of the year/ season might not work for you now. The double step over and reverse pass is not as effective as it once was. Cast your minds back a couple of months to the failure of Tesco’s annual Christmas price drop activity and recognise the need to be unpredictable – this is especially true for an entrepreneur.

3. Strive for excellence

In your business you should strive for excellence just as a fully fit and focused Mr Balotelli strives for excellence on the pitch. Critics would argue that a fully fit and focused Balotelli is quite rare but would agree that he rarely seems content with his achievements so far and similarly you must never become complacent with the progress made by your company.

4. Be enigmatic

There are thousands of entrepreneurs launching businesses that never capture the interest of the public at large – businesses that never become stars. When you create your business story think about building some mystery into it. Mario has this in abundance. The secrecy surrounding Coca-Cola’s original recipe protected for commercial reasons is a good example of this mystery.

5. Work well in a team but also individually

Recognise that you will not be able to do it alone and recruit a great team to support you. Your combined efforts will far outweigh anything you could have achieved individually. This is a truth that Mr Balotelli recognises – there will still be opportunities for individual responsibility but the team goals are the priority; figuratively and literally.

Are you an entrepreneur or business owner trying to promote your company? We can certainly help you. Feel free to give us a call on +44 845 2264247 or drop us an email via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

We hope you find this information useful.

Kind regards,

Marketing Fundamentals Team

Don’t know who Mario Balotelli is? Click here

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There are a lot of businesses proclaiming ‘business as usual’, usually against a backdrop of a competitive marketplace, a tough economic climate, building work or inclement weather; we appreciate that there are benefits to this message of consistency and reassurance. However, if you are trying to grow your business using connected leadership and establish yourself in your niche, ‘business as usual’ is the antithesis of what you need. Below are 5 reasons why business as usual is not good enough.

Business as Usual is Not Good Enough

1. Your Competitors

In our wonderful online and offline world your competitors know what you are doing and can work out your business model exactly. Not only do they know what you did last summer but most probably the whole of last year.

2. Technology

Technological advances are affecting almost every industry and you must allocate resource and most likely money to keep abreast of these changes and to apply them to your business. Those who adapt most successfully will forge ahead. M-commerce or business conducted via smartphones is just one example.

3. Your Staff

Your staff are motivated by more than their salary or pay cheque; although they may not say this directly to you as the business owner really they want to feel they are part of a special company; one that strives to change the nature of its industry by being innovative and forward-thinking.

4. Your Profits

Even if you made great profits last year that is no guarantee that this year will be the same. The path to continued business success is not in repeating what you did last year or resting on your laurels. Believe it or not there will come a point when the smartphone market is saturated with iPhones and even sales of Amazon’s Kindle will have peaked – no doubt by then Apple and Amazon will have introduced new products or pivoted in a new direction.

5. Your Vision

We’ve never read a business plan that stated an intention to have a few years of ‘business as usual’ or ‘more of the same’. If you are committed to your vision for your business you must keep striving to move forward whether that means new products/ services or entering new international markets.

Are you an entrepreneur or business owner trying to avoid ‘business as usual’? We can certainly help you from a marketing perspective.

If you have liked this post you will also like the following posts:

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B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Wednesdays.

Best regards,

Mike Pitt

Founder, Marketing Fundamentals Ltd

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How to TurboCharge Your Business with a Blog
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This is blog post post number 60.

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Most companies are ‘me too’ companies providing a similar range of products or services to their competitors. If you’re an entrepreneur or SME owner being a ‘me too’ company is probably not going to bring you the business success that you crave. How do many companies of a similar size to yours move to a position or leadership? Well, it is certainly not by accident. Below are 6 tips to help you establish yourself as a leader in your niche.

Niche Leadership – 6 Tips

1. Thought leader – Against the Grain

If you want the profile of your company to grow and your number of potential customers to increase you should attempt to provide thought leadership. Post articles about your sector or niche and take different positions to your competitors. Present at seminars and workshops. Actively try to go against the grain – To zig when everyone else is zagging to borrow an often used phrased.

2. Product and/ or Service Offering

Examine the product or service offering of your competitors, now look at yours. Are there really differences? Or is it just a different logo and company name? Standing out is not necessarily about spending lots of money, it’s about being innovative.

3. Communication Tools

Let’s assume you have a regular blog and your readers know that every few days/each week you will publish another post. That is a great position to be in but you must make your blog titles work for you. Create titles to draw in readers and ensure that yours are different to others on the web. To take this point further – if there are already too many posts about a subject leave it well alone and pick something more original.

4. Using Social Media and Networking

Use social media to engage rather than to broadcast your corporate messages and be open and responsive to those who contact you. Network as much as possible as ‘face to face’ networking still trumps everything else.

5. Consistency

Consistency is so important. There’s no point starting a daily blog and then giving it up after 3 weeks. Your target audience needs to become familiar with your company, what you represent and what products or services you offer.

6. Let your Passion Shine Through

Your passion for your business should shine through in all your communications and those of your staff. It should be infectious and properly channelled will differentiate you from your competitors.

No- one said that business leadership in your niche was going to be easy – the fact that you have read this far means that you are considering it. Execute a niche leadership strategy well and your business will reap the rewards.

B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Wednesdays.

Best regards,

Mike Pitt

Founder,  Marketing Fundamentals Ltd

Follow Mike on Pinterest

Subscribe to 

Follow us on LinkedIn

Online courses:

Meet Edgar Social Media Management
TurboCharge Your Twitter Presence
Quora For Business

Follow Mike on Twitter

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Local Marketing – 15 ways to dominate your local market

Communications

1. Organise a leaflet drop in areas where your target audience live or work

2. Advertise on local radio and/or run a competition

3. Advertise in your local newspaper/ free magazine

4. Rent a billboard

5. Issue a local press release to introduce a new product/service or promote an event

6. Stage a number of unique PR stunts and ensure that they are captured on video uploaded to YouTube sent to local media etc.

Take your company to the customers

7. Hire promotional staff to demonstrate your product or service at your local town centre or railway station

8. Turbo-powered networking – Go out into the field and meet as many customers and potential customers as possible

9. Sponsor a local charity event or exhibition

Network

10. Join your local chamber of commerce and present to members

11. Establish partnerships with complementary local businesses

12. Hire a stand at a local trade fair

13. Enthuse your staff and encourage them to promote your business to their network

Online

14. Set up online data-capture for time sensitive promotional offers and email bespoke offers to your database

15. Use your location in your blog post titles and add meta tags to your site and # hashtags on Twitter.

Are you planning a local marketing campaign? Do you need marketing expertise to maximise your return on investment? If so, give us a call on +44 845 2264247 or drop us an email via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

We hope you find this information useful.We are a leading Marketing Agency in London.

Kind regards,

Marketing Fundamentals Team

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The business risks should be calculated and the potential benefits need to be identified beforehand. This is a part of business many business owners struggle with – understandably they are keen to keep costs down and play it safe but that is not the way to stimulate growth. When was the last time you took a risk for your business? Risk taking may be the difference between business stagnation and business growth. Below are five big risk takers who went on to reap their rewards.

Business Risk Management – 5 big risk takers to inspire you

1. Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham

Risk taken – Quit their day jobs as surveyors in 1986 to take control of the first Pret a Manger in Victoria station, London. Metcalfe and Beecham sold the chain to private equity firm Bridgepoint for £350 million in 2008.

2. Mark Pincus

Risk taken – Turned down his last chance at funding for his (first) company Freeloader in 1996. He had one month of cash left, and the investor lined up wanted him to hire a CEO of his choice in exchange for the funding. He walked away. Managed to get a new line of funding months later, sold the company and in 2007 went on to found Zynga the social gaming company (creator of “FarmVille” and “Mafia Wars” popular on Facebook) – A pre-IPO valuation of Zynga in Dec 2011 valued the company at between $7.7 and $9.04 billion.

3. Elon Musk

Risk taken – Dropped out of graduate program in applied physics and materials science at Stanford University to start Zip2, with his brother Kimbal. Zip2 provided online content publishing software for news organizations. In 1999 Compaq’s AltaVista division acquired Zip2 for US$307 million in cash and US$34 million in stock options. Elon went on to found PayPal, Spacex and Tesla Motors.

4. Alex Tew

Risk taken – Relied on his own unique idea – The Million Dollar Homepage to pay for his university education. The Million Dollar Homepage sold pixels of adspace to advertisers and went onto make a gross total of $1,037,100 in five months during 2005. After costs, taxes and a donation to The Prince’s Trust, a charity for young people, Tew’s net income was around $650,000 – $700,000. Not bad for 5 months work – ironically but understandably after the success of the project Alex did not go to university and continues to follow pursue entrepreneurial projects.

5. Jeff Bezos

Risk taken – In 1994 Bezos left his job as vice-president of the Wall Street firm D.E. Shaw, moved to Seattle, and began to work on a business plan for what would become Amazon.com. In 1997 the company went public and Amazon.com became the first internet retailer to secure one million customers. In September 2011 Bezos’s estimated net worth was $19.1 billion dollars.

Has this inspired you? Remember Woolworths? They were safe and didn’t take risks. Their business model did not change in over 100 years but the market place did and they got left behind and then shut down.

If you would like our help to take risks with your marketing in order to stimulate business growth, feel free to give us a call on +44 845 2264 247 or drop us an email via mail@marketingfundamentals.com. We are a leading Content Marketing Agency in London.

We hope you find this information useful.

Kind regards,

Mike Pitt

Founder,

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd

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