When it comes to an online presence one cannot stress enough what needs to be done – comment, share, like, and do it strategically.  How much time do you sit on social media? The average person spends at minimum 2 and 1/2 hrs a day and to really benefit.   As a business, if you want to be taken seriously you yourself may need to dedicate 3 hours a WEEK to do the bare minimum.

If you are serious about building your brand and growing your business you cannot ignore the internet. Newspaper and radio marketing is what people used before the internet and now you have the internet with 4.66 billion active internet users. How can you not leverage this phenomenal tool that can help you build income streams, find customers, analyse customers, and upskill yourself at the touch of a button.

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Sales and marketing go hand in hand, marketing informs and reminds people you exist while sales, is the customer care process of understanding the customer need and then offer the best solution that will benefit the customer.  And sometimes you are not always the best solution for the customer.  Are you willing to let go of a customer if you are not able to give them the service they need?  Are you willing to let go of a customer if you are unable to help them further.

I love working with people to help them understand their brands and the tools that are out there that they can use to either make life easier, save costs or to make improvements which is part of the lead generation process.

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Coke Cola, Nike, Vodafone, top brands who still spend a lot of their budget on marketing.  Take Coke Cola – listed often as one of the top brands in the world.  Do they need to advertise?  One would think not because everyone loves Coke and yet you see their brand marketing everywhere.  At every event, every bar, every party.  At every movie, at every game, at every sports event.  In magazines, on billboards, and on public transport.  And let’s not forget TV, radio and now social media with a high online marketing spend budget.  Coke is present and visible.  What can we learn from this?

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There’s a rule of thumb in the advertising industry that ad spend follows any rise or fall in GDP. Over the last decade, as global GDP has risen 3-6% each year, the ad market has grown with it to around $646 billion USD in 2019. Pre-coronavirus, the ad market was forecast to grow to $865 billion USD by 2024. But the pandemic changed all that – according to the World Economic Forum Covid Action Platform,

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After five months of debilitating conditions brought on by the corona virus, and as the pandemic seems to be levelling off, businesses need to look ahead to the recovery phase and how to regain their place in the economic space. Those brands that are quick off the mark to reassure consumers that they have weathered the storm and are fully equipped to pick up the pieces, re-define and re-invent their offerings to embrace the new economy, will be the ones to benefit the most and lead in the recovery.

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Strong franchisor/franchisee relationships are key to surviving the current crisis. As the pandemic progresses, franchisors are working closely with their franchisees to adapt to market changes – from hosting daily calls to providing information about ever-changing guidelines and new strategies to cope.

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Over the last 2 months the Association has started running live events hosted online to give members of the Association additional exposure for their businesses.  Those who have participated in the live events we hosted on Facebook and last year’s webinar enjoyed there experience even with some of the challenges we’ve faced one of them being internet connectivity.  What I’ve learnt having watched webinars as well as live events is that when things go wrong, the best thing to do is not panic.  Expect that from time to time there will be technical issues and I think audiences across the world expect these things to happen as well.  So one just has to stop for a moment breathe, announce that you are having technical issues and work them out as best you can.  The key to remember is that there are many factors that influence the quality of a live streaming event.  None of us has control over how the internet connection will work and so you do the best you can with the resources you have at your disposal.

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There is no question that franchising’s saving grace in a struggling economy is the fact that, by its very nature franchising is entrepreneurial, flexible and forward-thinking. Not only does it continue to be resilient, but it also offers, largely due to its strong business format and support system, a better chance of surviving the ups and downs.

Thinking outside the box and looking for ways and means to cross-promote and reach new markets is a trait that many of FASA’s members do extremely well. They are the ones who find a ‘niche’ that sets them apart or, by default, thrive on the back of challenging conditions.

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I think most would agree that trading conditions have toughened considerably in the last few years. Gone are the days where companies achieved organic growth without doing much outside of business as usual. These days, business leaders and decision-makers must be innovative, question everything that companies do, be willing to change the old with the new almost on a daily basis, pay attention to minute details and provide strong and decisive leadership. However, there are still some old values that should not be discarded and these values are often what drives the public to or away from a brand.

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