The big SBT reveal

For this month’s cover feature, we reveal all about our exciting new project for the Sussex business community.

WHO?

Welcome to Sussex’s new business community

Sussex Business Times has had amazing and successful 45 years in the publishing industry, serving our local businessmen and women with the best content from the Sussex business community – from stories on finance, property and the legal sector to reviews on some of the county’s best fine dining spots – but now we are taking Sussex Business Times in a new direction.

We are going to create a, multi-product, multi-service, media-led business platform for local businesses to grow.

County Business Clubs will be opening in each county in the UK, providing great opportunities for County Business Club (Sussex) to earn more revenue from the cross pollination of business from other counties.

Of course, we will continue to deliver the content you love in print, but also now in other interactive formats via our online site and through our partnership with County Business Clubs. Sussex Business Times will continue – albeit an enhanced version – but will now become the publication for County Business Clubs (Sussex), a community to cater specifically to the needs of our local businesses.

County Business Clubs is starting in Sussex and will be expanding into neighbouring counties, ensuring that local business news, communities and opportunities are open to all of our members, eventually on a national scale.

We are turning publishing on its head, and from this moment on, we are no longer selling advertising. It is free for Value Added Partners of County Business Clubs membership with top up sponsorship and advertising available at heavily discounted rates in comparison to the market average. We are looking for the right partners to represent a breadth of industries to make the County Business Club (Sussex) transform and thrive with SBT supporting its content delivery.

WHAT?

All great ideas can be drawn with a crayon

We will be able to offer funding for new ideas, services to develop those ideas and build a loyal community that drives revenues for everyone. We will be an organisation that can affect local policy and drive consumer sentiment into the minds of businesspeople, government and the public at large.

County Business Clubs with the 50-year reputation of The Sussex Business Times behind it will lead the way in member experience, pivoting from regional business magazine to business Community – a springboard for growth for our members.

The features of the County Business Clubs ecosystem

Finance and Investment Platform

• Crowdfunding Platform

E-Commerce Platform

• E-Commerce store

• Advanced targeting services for merchants

• Every product is a deal for members

• Discounts at shops, restaurants

Community Platform

• Events

• Social events

• Educational

• Business festivals

• Business Awards

• Networking

• Value added Partner lunches

• Member roster, geo locator and direct chat facility

• Community improvement programmes

Content Platform

• e-Courses

• PR feed for members

• Forums and discussion channels

• Polls & Surveys

• Competitions

• Business news

• Lifestyle content

• Reviews:

• Motor

• Hotel

• Restaurant

• Webinars and seminars

• Sussex Business Times magazine

• Research analysis and premium content

• Podcasts and interviews

• Blogs

Business Services

• Advertising and sponsorship opportunities

• Professional services

• Marketing and strategic workshops

WHY?

Why create this thing anyway?

What is a service?

“The action of helping or doing work for someone.”

County Business Clubs realises that businesses tend to have similar needs at different times, however, there is no one sole “marketplace” for businesses to go to attain the help they need in these areas. The answer to “why?” is right there – because a membership organisation that is a one-stop ecosystem to help businesses thrive, grow and succeed is exactly what the Sussex business community is missing.

Member benefits

As a valued part of the local community, becoming a member of County Business Clubs (Sussex) would benefit you and your business in many ways…

Business events: Our business events are always varied and tackle topical issues. Presented by leading local and national business experts, they are sure to have a positive effect on your own business fortunes.

Social events: It’s not all work, work, work! Our members will be seen at fantastic events as part of County Business Clubs social calendar. Ascot, Glorious Goodwood and local events at our own members’ venues will make for a great chance to meet like-minded people and take time out from your busy schedules to relax.

Online events: We can’t be everywhere at once, so our state-of-the-art webinar software means that members can engage with their audience in a much more professional manner as well as enjoy a greater experience from webinars provided by the other members.

Online platform: We are revamping our existing website to include new proprietary community software offering forums, links to relevant business associates, events, surveys, competitions, online courses built with our members, a marketplace just for our members to buy and sell anything with great discounts, and of course, great premium business content.

Flexible membership options: Whether you are a corporate member or an individual we have seven different ways for you to join so that you can get the best fit membership for you. No lock-ins – come and go as you please.

Members-only marketplace: Our marketplace is there to help our members sell and help our members buy. Highly competitive listing fees and members-only offers being mandatory mean everyone wins – but discounts are only for paid memberships. Using the marketplace should therefore pay for your membership.

Premium content: Not only do you get up to date, informative content in our publication, Sussex Business Times, but we also will be releasing market research reports and other forms of premium content to keep your business growing. Sussex Business Times delivered direct to your door, as well as online; not everybody loves a mobile screen to read the news. To make life easy for you we post your copy of Sussex Business Times directly to your door.

Live news feed: With our online platform you have access to your own PR machine, with a live news feed on which you can announce company news, free to all of our members.

Ability to host and sell courses: Work with us and get your thought leadership into the marketplace and make a profit while doing it. We can build courses with your expertise and sell them on the platform.

State of the art webinar technology: Our webinar platform isn’t like anything you have seen, more resembling a news studio than typical webinar. Increase your engagement with your own online business events and be more engaged with interesting panels, debates and educational webinars covering the latest business issues.

Marketing programmes directly reaching other members: For those members that have opted to hear about events in your industry, we can put together eye catching email campaigns that directly reach them. Highly competitive pricing and marketing expertise mean that we are likely a better option than doing it yourself from home. 

Populate your profile and tailor the experience: Let us know how you want to be contacted, of products you want to buy, content you want to receive and any events you want to go to. We are launching a completely interactive platform where you can create your own experience that is relevant specifically to you. You can even vote on what topics you want us to write about. There is no need to waste your time reading anything not relevant to your specific interests with County Business Clubs.

Searchable content library, past issues and webinars: As you can well appreciate, as a business publisher our content library just gets bigger and bigger, but in-depth search functionality means quality content is only a few keystrokes away.

Loyalty programmes: the more use us the more you get: We want you to do well and for us to be an instrumental part of your armoury. We also reward those of you who use our platform and get the most out of it. Every interaction you make with us earns points that translate into monthly rewards and for the most engaged members our coveted invite only VIP membership.

Free trial offer: Want to try us out first? No problem. Until August 1st 2020 we are giving our premium membership away. No credit card needed – just give us a try and see if the region’s premium business platform is right for you. We will always have a free membership for those that don’t want all the great functions that Premium membership offers.

Great referral programme: Our referral programme is generous enough that it should mean you don’t have to pay anything for your own membership. By building the County Business Club movement together we are helping everyone individually as well as the local businesses around us all that we all depend on. 

HOW?

A beginner’s guide to running a business community

What happens when you run a community? What can members expect?

Running a community take a lot of knowledge, personal skills, and effort to get right, but we have the abilities for all of the above. Here are the 12 key elements of running a  business community…

1. Start insightful conversations: Our community management team knows how to get a conversation going. Combined with incredibly advanced software, we are able to dissect topics, discuss and vote on what content members want, and even help them get their voices heard though their contributions. There will always be a topical forum, online panel debate or expert led event to get everyone involved in what matters to them, and can help their business grow. 

2. Selling comes second: Our key aim is to continue creating and distributing high-quality magazine and online content. The experience comes first. It may take a year for a free member to become a paid member and that’s ok. We want to stimulate a super-engaged community that makes a huge difference to the lives of all our members. The culture of the company is to be completely client centric, not just pay lip service to this like so many membership organisations do.

3. Make customer care a priority: Customer service and keeping our membership happy is in the fabric of our team, which is easy to see in their biographies.

4. Find a common bond: Our content foundation is about representing niche interests. Nothing can be more niche than one’s own business and each person’s ambitions. That being said, there are common themes, ways of working, industries and opinions that affect all businessmen and women. From the common field of interest, relationships will be formed and great things can happen.

5. Facilitate feeling connected: Community members will have the opportunity to tell us what they want to read, events they want to attend or other aspects of the platform that they want to be a part of. Our forums and events are accessible to all and by getting to know our members personally we really can let them feel they are part of the tribe – one of the most common instincts of human nature.

6. Collaborate with readers: Our content calendar software means that Sussex Business Times and our online content will be guided, influenced and even created by our readership. Themes are posted, and topics and suggestions related to that theme can be up-voted or down-voted by our membership for inclusion in our content output. Although we will always have editorial control, we welcome contributions from people who have great ideas to share, AND we reward their input too.

7. Celebrate the super-fans: County Business Club (Sussex) “super-fans” who get involved and contribute, or just use the platform regularly will get special invites to events and upgrades to their memberships. Our corporate partners will also be able to extend great, relevant offers to them. For example, getting fans to trial and feedback on new products and services.

8. Surprise and delight: The analytics function sitting behind our online presence will register who reads what, so we can better address content to their individual needs or create competitions and surveys specifically relevant to each client. By knowing what people want we can delight and surprise them gaining further engagement and recommendations from word of mouth.

9. Encourage and incentivise members to refer guests: Our members will be able to give trial memberships to anyone, which if converted to a paid membership, will reduce the cost of membership for the introducing member. Everybody can gain out of developing the community with us.

10. Speak with them, not at them: Our community managers will have to have a demonstrable interest in business and the community they are serving to ensure the conversation is interesting for everyone. We will also incentivise members to become forum moderators and to be more involved.

11. Seek their opinion: Surveys are incredibly valuable, useful and even fun for some people. Getting feedback is always a priority for us to improve our business events, content and general running of the CBC (Sussex) community.

12. Face time & events: County Business Club (Sussex) will partner with companies wanting to get our membership to their events as well as create our own events and meet-ups. There will be a huge array of events, most notable will be the County Business Club (Sussex) Summer Festival. As well as Face time, our software enables members to make new connections, meet up and make new friends and business connections. Communities thrive on face time. And with such a strong emotional common interest, our events will be a great success for everybody, facilitated by our welcoming community management and membership team.

WHEN AND WHERE?

May 1st 2020!

County Business Club is starting off in Sussex working with Sussex Business Times to bring the best content possible. Soon after we are looking to expand to our neighbouring counties of Kent, Surrey and Hampshire in 2020, and most importantly, there are lots of ways to get involved from investing, to different member categories meaning there is something for everyone.

If you are a part of the Sussex business community and would like to get involved or simply find out more information about our brand new, exciting project, don’t hesitate to get in touch!