Appointment Setting, Business Services, Colleges & Universities, Education Telemarketing, Enterprise IT, Financial Services & Fintech, Lead Generation, Marketing Partnerships, Medical & Pharma, Other Sectors, Professional Associations & Membership Organisations, Public & Third Sector

'Cold Calling' - a thing of the past?

We take a look into why telemarketing is so regularly disputed and the simple qualifying techniques businesses can adopt to avoid those negative associations of a cold call.

3 steps to aligning your sales and marketing team

There’s often a lot of disparity between the goals, priorities and roles of sales and marketing teams in business. Marketing are focused on building brand, maximising outreach and generating new opportunities to progress. Sales on the other hand, they need to meet goals, solve problems and close deals with the most opportune targets - with often very little time to do so!

Business Services, Colleges & Universities, Education Telemarketing, Enterprise IT, Event Promotion, Financial Services & Fintech, Marketing Partnerships, Medical & Pharma, Other Sectors, Professional Associations & Membership Organisations, Public & Third Sector

5 Step formula for planning sales events

Holding an event can be the perfect opportunity to sell your business and offering to relevant decision makers. However, if done incorrectly, they can present themselves as a costly expense. We've put together some of the key things to consider when in the planning stage for your event.

Business Services, Colleges & Universities, Education Telemarketing, Enterprise IT, Financial Services & Fintech, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Marketing Partnerships, Medical & Pharma, Other Sectors, Professional Associations & Membership Organisations, Public & Third Sector

5 Tips For Lead Generation Success

Take a look at some of our tips for the most successful approaches to lead generation in a B2B environment.

Colleges & Universities, Lead Generation, Public & Third Sector

5 tips for managing your CRM implementation

Organising the data for your CRM is one of the fundamental building blocks to ensuring it is successfully adopted by the users it's intended for. We've put together five handy tips to help you understand the processes involved in successfully managing your data for CRM implementation.

A week's work experience at Blueberry Marketing

This week we had a student from a local school complete work experience with us, as part of their learning they have shared a summary of their week.

Data Enhancement, Database Cleansing, Database Profiling & Purchasing, Free Data Quality Audit, Other Sectors

B2B Data - Buy or Build?

When it comes to bad data, businesses are losing out. With so many options for sourcing data, what's the best choice for you and your business?

B2B buyer behaviour within the wider marketing mix

B2B and B2C buyer behaviour has taken a drastic shift within the last decade. Thanks to the internet and what Google have labelled the online decision-making Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT), businesses and consumers favour the use of online searches to make decisions about your brand – and more notably, whether or not they’ll buy from you!

Appointment Setting, Business Services, Colleges & Universities, Education Telemarketing, Enterprise IT, Financial Services & Fintech, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Marketing Partnerships, Medical & Pharma, Other Sectors, Professional Associations & Membership Organisations, Public & Third Sector

Beyond BANT? Qualifying Leads

We've put together a handy guide on how to use BANT qualification to your advantage.

Appointment Setting, Colleges & Universities, Education Telemarketing, Lead Generation

Blueberry Partners with Wakefield Council to Boost Apprenticeships

Leeds-based business development agency, Blueberry Marketing Solutions, is partnering with Wakefield Council, to raise awareness of the Apprenticeships Made Easy scheme.

Blueberry report 28% year-on-year growth

Leeds-based business development agency, Blueberry Marketing Solutions, has experienced a 28% year-on-year growth thanks to some major client wins.

Blueberry support the launch of CityConnect Cycles in Leeds

We have partnered with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Sustrans and BikeRight! to launch the new CityConnect Cycle scheme in the Leeds City Region.

Bridging The Gap Between Government Targets And Employer Expectations

We're pleased to announce that we've published a piece on FE News in collaboration with Calderdale College regarding our joint marketing campaign to promote the Rise programme.

Bridging the Gap Between Sales and Marketing

B2B buying behaviour is becoming more complex than ever. With the rise of digital and content marketing, face-to-face sales are no longer the main method of selling, with on average 67% of a sales decision being made through online research (1). These shifts in buying behaviour mean that for businesses to be successful, they need to adapt to the changing nature of B2B sales and ensure that both sales and marketing are successfully working together.

British Science Week 2018

I got the chance to get involved with British Science Week this week, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to demonstrate the positive way that science is introduced to children at an early age.

Brushing up our Knowledge - Back to University

When you think of higher education, the main picture that comes to mind are sleep-deprived students proudly waving their degree certificates at Graduation after too many late nights in the library (we’ve all been there, done that!) However - Universities all over the UK are offering so many other services and schemes aimed at small businesses.

Business Services, Colleges & Universities, Comparison Sites & Technology Innovators, Distributors & Builders Merchants, Education Telemarketing, Enterprise IT, Financial Services & Fintech, Lead Generation, Logistics, Manufacturers, Marketing Partnerships, Medical & Pharma, Other Sectors, Professional Associations & Membership Organisations, Public & Third Sector

Business Support During Coronavirus

Order books have collapsed, staff have been furloughed, and cashflow has been reduced to a trickle. Sales forecasts and marketing plans – even just from a few weeks ago – are pretty much obsolete. While the government has announced support for businesses, understanding how to navigate through the labyrinth of overlapping schemes, measures and funding pots isn’t always easy - so where should businesses turn to for support?

CIM win for Blueberry Director

Here at Blueberry we are delighted that one of our directors, Pamela Knight, has won the Chartered Institute of Marketing Award for Top Student in Yorkshire 2015!

Do Apprenticeships Have a Perception Problem?

We’ve had huge success with our apprenticeship scheme over the past five years – but if you’d asked us six years ago our perceptions of apprenticeships might have been very different.

Driving Digital: The Lloyds Digital Index and Our Transformation Journey

A small, dedicated group of researchers from Lloyds Banking Group have been working relentlessly over the last five years to put together a report into the Digital Index of businesses and charities in the UK.

Effective Sales Follow up - How to close more deals

When it comes to effective sales follow up, finding that happy medium between being overly persistent and pushy, to no follow up procedure at all can be tricky for salespeople.

Email Marketing, Other Sectors

Email Marketing at 40 – Mid-Life Crisis or in its Prime?

Email marketing has hit it’s 40s, but instead of having a mid-life crisis it’s maturing like a fine wine!

Entrepreneur In Residence

I've joined Leeds Business School's panel of Entrepreneurs in Residence

Appointment Setting, Business Services, Colleges & Universities, Customer Satisfaction, Education Telemarketing, Enterprise IT, Financial Services & Fintech, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Marketing Partnerships, Medical & Pharma, Other Sectors, Professional Associations & Membership Organisations, Public & Third Sector

Finding the leaks in your sales process

If you're not happy with the outputs of your sales efforts – or are unsure if they could be more effective – how do you plan where to put your resources in order to improve?

GDPR – An Introduction to Legitimate Interests

What is legitimate interest and when can you use it for processing data?

GDPR – Small Businesses don’t panic!

With the recent changes in GDPR now effective, we know many small businesses are feeling overwhelmed!

Customer Engagement & Relationship Marketing, Customer Retention & Loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Professional Associations & Membership Organisations, Stakeholder Engagement

Getting the Most out of Your Members : Engagement

In our previous article, we looked at how to get the most out of your member renewal process. We now move on to how to engage your members earlier on to improve how renewals are received.

Customer Engagement & Relationship Marketing, Customer Retention & Loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Professional Associations & Membership Organisations

Getting the Most out of Your Members: Renewal

As working practices change, regulatory requirements evolve, and technology continues to drive innovation across sectors, many professional associations we work with are aware of their need to adapt to this fast-changing market landscape. Responding to all these changes while still maintaining value for members can be a challenge and, for many associations, maximising member value has become more pressing than ever.

Giving Back to the Community During COVID

A chance conversation with one of our customers has opened an opportunity for us to provide PPE to over 30 care homes across Leeds and Yorkshire.

Guest Blog: Preparing for University

We've really enjoyed having Sarah in this week to complete her work placement - we look forward to hearing where her studies take her and undoubtedly she has a bright future ahead of her!

How merchants can prepare for changing customer behaviour in the post-crisis world

Whilst merchant stores start to re-open, it’s important to consider what practical steps merchants can take, in order to be prepared for what the new ‘normal’ looks like. We have come up with a few simple tips and steps that merchants like yourself can consider, helping to recover in the post-crisis world.

INFOGRAPHIC - GDPR Myths

Feeling unnerved regarding the imminent GDPR coming in to place? Make sure you know the facts from the fiction.

Innovation in Business

Innovation can often seem like a minefield when it comes to implementing it into your own business. In this article we explore how businesses can innovate and whether or not you already are!

Appointment Setting, Customer Engagement & Relationship Marketing, Lead Generation, Other Sectors

Is telemarketing dead?

The rise of inbound marketing tactics has led to some suggesting that more traditional, outbound marketing channels – such as telemarketing – will die out. But maybe, rather than seeing them as conflicting approaches, we should look at how to integrate the two.

Joining the dots in your marketing

For any organisation – joining the dots between departments and teams to provide a coherent customer journey can be a struggle. We work within the college sector and know that this can be a particularly pressing challenge when coordinating the multitude of initiatives you run; from apprenticeships and funded training programmes right through to commercial training opportunities. Here are our top three tips for colleges aiming to boost their business development.

Business Services, Comparison Sites & Technology Innovators, Customer Engagement & Relationship Marketing, Customer Retention & Loyalty, Distributors & Builders Merchants, Enterprise IT, Financial Services & Fintech, Logistics, Manufacturers, Marketing Partnerships, Medical & Pharma, Other Sectors, Stakeholder Engagement

Marketing During Coronavirus

It is more important now than ever to be seen and to engage positively with your audience. How you go about this is what can make all the difference. We have come up with a few simple tips to help business owners, sales and marketing teams and leaders, plan and maintain visibility in the right way at a time when business confidence is at an all-time low. Hopefully you can put some of these tips to practice!

Marketing Trends for 2019 and beyond

To ensure your B2B marketing doesn’t go out of fashion we’ve taken some time to reflect on marketing trends we think we will all see more of throughout 2019 and the foreseeable future.

Measuring Marketing ROI – How to justify spend with your audience

Measuring ROI across several different marketing activities can often prove difficult for marketers. But just because it's difficult, doesn't mean its impossible! We explore how Marketing Automation can help you in your quest to demonstrate the best return on investment.

My Apprenticeship Journey

Based on my A Levels I knew I was passionate about marketing but didn’t want to go to University, so an apprenticeship seemed like the best option to fulfil my desire to continue my learning but more specifically I wanted to gain practical skills.

National Apprenticeship Week 2018

To mark the start of National Apprenticeship Week 2018, we thought we’d share our own experience taking on apprentices and demonstrate the impact they've had on us!

Nurturing soft skills

We’ve recognised at Blueberry that whilst the emphasis on hard skills has always been needed, in such a diverse industry we now look out for so much more than that. We focus on nurturing leadership, communication, flexibility, creativity and we promote such skills through our Blueberry Academy. But, it didn’t happen overnight!

Other Sectors, Stakeholder Engagement

Our 2018 in Review

After hitting the ground running in 2019, we thought we’d take a breather and reflect on one of our most exciting years to date, 2018! Not only have we been able to expand our internal team, we’ve been given new, exciting opportunities to spread our initiatives and dive deeper into our current service offering as a result. With a continuously developing client list and lots of memorable moments along the way, here are few snapshots of our 2018!

Our Experience of Work Experience

Helping under 16's find their feet in the world of work.

Our Exporting Journey

As a small business in the service sector, we had no long-term plans of exporting but found ourselves reactively exporting. Basically, we were responding to international enquiries, but we’d never been intentionally chasing them. Here’s what we learnt over our exporting journey!

PECR and Marketing to Sole Traders

The grounds around B2B marketing can sometimes seem confusing for businesses, especially following the new GDPR legislation which came into place in May 2018.

Picking Partners to Help You Sell

Faresh Maisuria, director at Blueberry Marketing Solutions, shares some advice on selecting the right outsourcing partner.

Putting People First - About Our Blueberry Academy

We believe that people are the core of our business, and that developing our team as individuals, enables them to deliver flexible, response telemarketing that sets us apart from the rest.

Sales Leads Vs Marketing Leads

We’ve explored where the division between sales and marketing departments can often begin and the affect it has. We now look at how sales and marketing need shared definitions and targets to ensure they can work towards a shared goal.

Appointment Setting, Business Services, Colleges & Universities, Education Telemarketing, Enterprise IT, Financial Services & Fintech, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Marketing Partnerships, Medical & Pharma, Other Sectors, Professional Associations & Membership Organisations, Public & Third Sector

Selling in the 'Silly Season'

With hot summer days and staff on holiday, summer is often seen as a lull for telemarketing opportunities. So how can businesses buck this trend and realise August's potential?

Appointment Setting, Business Services, Education Telemarketing, Event Promotion, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing

Selling to Schools

Marketing within the education sector is more important than ever before, so we've put together some useful tips to help you get to the top of the class, and successfully sell to schools.

Small Business Charter - Summer Reception at the House of Lords

I was extremely honoured to attend the Small Business Charter Summer Reception at the House of Lords last week as a guest of Lord Young of Grafton.

Small businesses and data breach protection

The rise of large corporations hitting the headlines over data breaches, alongside the implementation of the recent GDPR has led to a drastic decrease in consumer trust relating to data protection.

Team Blueberry against the Themed Multi-Station Experience Machine

On one normal Friday in May, on the first floor of 12 South Parade, unbeknownst to its inhabitants, 20 superheroes* spent the Friday afternoon getting stuck into a bunch of team building challenges, before being let loose in the city of Leeds. Team Activ provided the concept and the tools – and all we had to do was bring our A game.

Appointment Setting, Business Services, Colleges & Universities, Education Telemarketing, Enterprise IT, Financial Services & Fintech, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Marketing Partnerships, Medical & Pharma, Other Sectors, Professional Associations & Membership Organisations, Public & Third Sector

Telemarketing over Christmas

The Christmas build up is well underway, so what does that mean for B2B lead generation? We share some insider knowledge on how to approach telemarketing around the Christmas period.

The English Asian Business Awards

We are pleased to announce that our Director, Faresh Masuria, has been nominated for Creative Entrepreneur of the Year at the English Asian Business Awards, with the ceremony taking place in Manchester tonight!

The Perks of Industry Placements

Facilitated by all–nighters and lots of coffee many students hope their hard work will forge the way for a successful career. We all know it’s often no longer enough to have a degree- businesses are advertising graduate roles and asking for candidates to have relevant work experience. More than ever businesses need to help students gain this gold dust experience through industry placements.

Three Myths of GDPR

With only two months to go, GDPR is on the mind of most marketers. But how do you distinguish the scaremongering from the sensible guidelines? We’ve given the top three myths that we've come across!

We're a Northern Powerhouse Partner!

The secret's out – we’re a Northern Powerhouse Partner! We’re excited to hit the ground running as this role will see us broaden our commitment to helping drive the northern economy.

We're doing the Yorkshire Peaks Challenge!

For those of you that have been following our journey, we recently completed the Leeds 10k in aid of Zest. Now our legs and lungs have recovered, it’s time to step things up a gear…

We've Moved!

After 12 years of successful, and slightly cramped, business at our former offices on Aire Street, we are very happy to announce that we have finally flown the nest and have taken up new, larger residences on South Parade in Leeds City Centre.

We’re expanding!

It’s a busy year at Blueberry – our team is growing, we’re broadening the services we offer, and we’ve had some exciting new client wins!

We’ve partnered with Zest Leeds

We're very proud to announce we've partnered with Zest Leeds – a charity right on our doorstep who offer support and opportunity to individuals who live in disadvantaged areas of Leeds.

Customer Engagement & Relationship Marketing, Database Cleansing, Database Profiling & Purchasing, Free Data Quality Audit, Other Sectors, Stakeholder Engagement

What does GDPR mean for your marketing?

All organisations that handle personal data will be affected by the new European General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in some way. Whilst there is some fear around the impact of the new regulations across B2B organisations, it’s important to recognise the benefits too!

What to do when you’ve got the “Funding Fatigue”

Are you fatigued by the sight of the word “government funded” or “grant funding?”. Maybe you’ve tried a grant funding scheme once before and it didn’t quite work out...

Yorkshire Three Peaks – The Aftermath

As most of you are aware, Blueberry recently took on the infamous Yorkshire 3 Peaks challenge. Despite the early start, hip and knee injuries and an unfortunate incident involving stinging nettles, we managed to complete the challenge in 11 hours, comfortably within our 12-hour target!