Maxxd Marketing Blog

Yes, we are still in business, and we are still in the same place, I were both shocked today when we realised how long the blog has been left!!! We have been stupidly busy and there have been so many things happening.

Over the past month we have mostly been:

• Attending car shows, selling the magazine (new one)
• Building up the MaxxDirectory - an ongoing job which is taking up alot of time, but its getting there.
• Carrying out alot of online marketing trying to get our page ranks up for all of the Maxxd sites.
• Having meetings with business support groups and putting plans together to help with the development of the business. We now have a lady that is helping with the marketing side and helping us put more structure into what we are doing, always good to get an outside person to overlook the operation.
• Sorting out things for the future of the Car Club, seeking sponsorship, holding meetings with the members and getting more input from them, restructuring the whole club in general and making sure things are more organised for the future.
• Rebuilding the Maxxd image galleries, there are over 25,000 images to sort through and five years of events to sort and publish.
• Building websites for local companies and designing business cards and other promotional materials.
• Chasing money (the worst job EVER), but it has to be done. Our payment terms are changing as from NOW !!!!
• Seeking backing for the next magazine which we are hoping to have sorted in time for Ultimate Street Car or Trax in September.

I think thats about it, nothing amazing has happened just alot of hard work and long hours getting on with things. It feels like things get harder by the day, the work we are doing now is probably the hardest as its all long term development.
There is no need to do a daily blog now so we will probably do one every week.

Today has gone real fast.. Its been a day of decisions and risks. Did I mention that it has gone fast?

We have decided today after alot of thought and head scratching that we are going to take on a member of staff, to help out with the sales for the MaxxDirectory. Initially they will be working two days per week making cold calls promoting and selling the advertising. We think this is a good idea and will help develop the business further, as they will be totally independent and concentrating on one thing and one thing only. SALES !!!

It is something we discussed some time ago but were always a bit worried about things going wrong. However, looking at the bigger picture it kinda can’t go wrong. Going on the sales conversion rates and the number of calls that can be made over two days, a very small number of sales need to be made in order to cover costs. As this person will be doing nothing other than making sales calls it will be easier for them to close sales.

They will have NO distractions and will not become involved in ANYTHING else!!!

How I can see the sales working are as follows: Tuesday - 80 cold calls and information sent via email then on Thursday 80 follow up calls to be made. From 80 leads going on a low conversion rate of 1 in 10 we would expect 8 sales (more is achievable but this is a minimum requirement). With the right person and determination I feel this can be pushed to 1 in 5 which would eventually give us 16 sales per week.

Interviews are taking place next week, we are using a local recruitment company, who are confident that it will all work very well. It will be nice for someone else to take care of the sales and allow myself to concentrate on the front page deals with the larger companies and manufacturers aswell as develop the business further and start looking into other aspects of the future of Maxxd.

Olly’s currently working on the websites and has had alot to do since the new site was launched, its been a little nightmare but has been well worth it. I am still getting used to it, have not really had that much time to mess around with it recently. The new .com site can do so much. Roll on more members and profiles. Lookin good so far !!

We are in the final few days for the magazine, all is hectic, roll on Modified Nationals!

Oh my gosh, how slack are we? We have had a very hectic two weeks rebuilding Maxxd.com. We have decided that instead of having the .com page with forums, event reports and a gallery - then the .info page with event/car features and a gallery, we would put all the information on .info, and have a proper community script installed and configured on .com. This has meant that the users of Maxxd.com are entirely responsible for the content on there. Pictures are uploaded by the users, and all the info on the profiles is filled out by them. Its kind of like myspace but better.

At first a few people frowned upon the change, but i think thats just becasue they are/were unfamiliar with how to use it. Now its been a few days since its been active and people are coming to terms with it now. I can imagine it was a shock to most people, but to be honest its been on the cards for a while.

The beauty of the new site too is you get your own little page. So my page is http://www.Maxxd.com/olstar - its as simple as that! And the user has full control to make that page look like, and contain, whatever they want!

This task has been keeping me and dave busy for the last week and a half. We have also finished websites for two clients and are awaiting the thumbs up from both.

The Maxxd.info Mag is winging its way to the Modified Nationals in two weeks, many cool cars and event reports in there - be sure to get your copy!

We’ll try and keep our blog a bit more updated than we have been doing. You know how it is tho, busy busy!

A new day, a new month. Its very exciting! Today we have been adding the final bits of text and moving stuff around so that we can get everything finished off for our website clients. Its really hard as the websites are for food related places and setting the menu’s out is a right pain!

Hopefully they can be done for tomorrow, and if we’re lucky we might get some free food!

We had a sort break this lunch time, and went out and sat in the sun for a hour. Sometimes  even though the work we do is exciting, its good to take a break and clear your mind.

Mag two is well underway, ollie is in right now just planning mag THREE as we need to keep ahead of the times! Its a totally separate side of the business that is going well, i just wish we could employ ollie to work for us full time. Maybe one day soon eh!

The last day in april, and its preperation time for the coming month! may is a VERY important month to us, as its the launch month for MAG2, the Second edition of the Maxxd.info magazine.

Its probably the most important mag launch, the first was to get the name out and gauge interest, and the second one is where we hopefully get people coming up to the stand requesting a mag, as we’ve got the word out to LOTS of people. We need to finalize a few plans in that area but things are looking awesome!

We are finishing a few websites off today, and dave has lots of calls to make. Wait, dave ALWAYS has lots of calls to make!

We have picked up a couple of website contract over the last few weeks, and this week was mostly spent adding text and images to these sites.

One site is being made from scratch, and the other one is a replacement for that companies existing website - which isnt exactly the most useful and appealing website in the world.

Both companies are based in mansfield and has created a nice link between us and some more of the business owners in mansfield. We have found that links and networking between people is one of the most important things in business.

Its not what you know, its who you know.

We hope to have both websites finished for mid next week so we can concentrate on a few other areas of MAXXD that are at the moment being left behind.

Sorry for the fewer updates guys, we are so busy we forget to eat most of the time, never mind update our business blog!

We’ll try to go back to a day to day post, no matter how short and sweet.

Well, what a busy time its been recently. I don’t want to sit here for hours typing but to sum it up quickly we have been…

• Developing new ideas for the magazine and looking at a different approach to the layout of the advertising.
• Continuing with the sales, and have incorporated another new package into the online advertising.
• Working on other income streams such as web design, we have been asked to do websites for two local companies, which are both well know Bar & Restaurants. They will be started as soon as we have all the necessary details.
• Talking to the local authorities and Police about the problem in the area regarding Boy racers and are now putting a proposal together that will hopefully rid of the problem our local town has had for several years. More to come soon…

Times going real fast at the moment, hence why the blogs not been updated on a daily basis…

More to come soon….

After the little dispute between myself and dave on the monday, and yesterdays tension we sat down and discussed everything that is happening with maxxd, and everything that is gonna happen.

We have been so caught up in the future, we have neglected to discuss the present and this has meant that neither of us knew what the other person was doing, we have kinda been in our own little bubbles, there has been so much to do, time has ran away with itself and the business starts running you and not the other way round.

This industry moves so fast its unreal, our to do lists get bigger and if your not careful you end up with a back log that no one could clear.

Jobs are slowly being delegated and more structure is being put in place, it all take time though and we still have to keep an eye on the cashflow. Its all coming together mind.

Following a meeting today, we have discovered that we can get some backing from local authorities that will help us progress the business further and maybe give us more stability whilst we build up our clients. We now have two media packs that look more professional and have been perfected. I cannot believe how many changes have been made to the sales literature since we started.

Last but not least, its the weekly club meet tonight so we are off to see the guys and girls, taking some magazines with us for those who missed the show.

Still being tired from the weekend we only worked until lunch time, we had a few things to sort out with the server and content on the website.

Everything has been up in the air today, the tension has been rather horrible, like I mentioned yesterday with us being good mates you try and avoid letting the friendship clash with the business. We are both adults though and true professionals so we have it under control.

Feedback is still coming in from the magazine launch, the feature requests are flowing in, so all looks good this end. We have an important meeting tomorrow that should result in some local support with the magazine and another “project” we are looking into. Fingers crossed..

Today we have spent time sorting out the impact from the weekend, it has been totally mental and none stop. We spent the weekend on our magazine trade stand promoting and selling the new magazine. We were speaking to people none stop for most of the weekend.

We feel it went really well, we sold a hell of alot of magazines however it did come as a bit of a shock having to speak to thousands of people about it and not everyone buying a copy. The general impression from people was fantastic and alot were really interested too get their car and club featured.

For the first time in our lives Me & Olly had a bit of a clash and had to walk away and take some time out, we know that its down to taking alot on and basically having too much on, it has got to the point where its been hard to communicate properly. We have both been in our own little bubbles, still been getting work done but its been very hard to focus together. We have had a good chat about it and have got ourselves back on track. It is hard sometimes working with your best friend as certain things you feel awkward saying. We are both aware of this and have now sorted out what to do if any of us ever feel that things aren’t going in the right direction.

This week we are going to be sorting through the data that we have gathered over the weekend and getting the direction of the business back on track, theres so much work been created over the weekend.

Happy times….. More tomorrow