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Sales and marketing

Increase your sales and brand impact

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Latest on sales and marketing

Read our latest features and articles on sales and marketing.
What do early-year retail redundancies mean for the sector in 2023?
  • Article
  • 13 Mar 2023
Thousands of UK retail workers lost their jobs in the first two months of the year – what are the prospects for the sector as a whole for the rest of this year?
Using your payments strategy to drive business growth
  • Article
  • 03 Mar 2023
This article discusses the importance of developing your payment strategy, as 67% of payers will stop a purchase if they don’t like the payment methods you offer them.
Update to audit reports for branded medicines schemes
  • Article
  • 02 Mar 2023
The Department of Health and ICAEW have reviewed the audit reports required under the scheme to ensure they continue to comply with International Standards on Auditing (UK).
Bishop Fleming shares its 12-year carbon reduction story
  • Article
  • 25 Nov 2022
Ewan McClymont, Business Development Director at Bishop Fleming, outlines how the chartered accountancy firm has identified scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions through Net Zero Now.
The golden rules for making redundancies
  • Article
  • 03 Nov 2022
Dismissing employees is an art, not a science. Some bosses have mastered it well; others fail abysmally and – thanks to social media – very publicly. We consider six things to avoid when delivering bad news.
A new generation of accountants
  • Article
  • 01 Nov 2022
New Gen Accountants launched in 2018 with a mission to ensure that the accountancy profession accurately reflects the society we live in.
Read more

Topics in depth

Designer in studio small business
Brand management
Find out more about brand management, including developing a personal brand.
Hands holding plant
Customer relationship management
Resources on customer care, including building customer loyalty.
Retail bakery cakes
Marketing segmentation
Resources on market segmentation, a marketing technique involving treating customers as distinct groups of buyers with particular needs.
Business men talking about shop layout retail
Marketing plans
A collection of guides, articles and links to help you plan your marketing.
Man with calculator
Pricing
View our latest content on pricing.
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Researching your market
A collection of books, articles, guides and links on understanding and researching markets.
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Sales
A collection of guides, articles and links for successful sales operations.
Woman texting
Social media marketing
Find out how to use social media for marketing and publicity.

Reports

How directors might use social media
  • 2020
This guide provides insight on how directors could start using social media to engage with all stakeholders and yield benefits. Social media attracts an enormous number of users, including company employees, suppliers, and existing and new customers.
Special report - Corporate image
  • 2018
Developing and enhancing your branding as a business can greatly enhance your market presence, especially on-line. This report covers the most important aspects to bear in mind when developing a brand strategy.
Exclusive Special report - Pricing
  • 2016
This report deals with the practical aspects of pricing strategy for products throughout their life cycle.
More reports

Webinars and recordings

Business resilience
  • Webinar
  • 23 Apr 2021
This webinar from the Business and Management Faculty will explore business resilience and getting it right.
Modern slavery: how to prepare a s54 statement
  • Webinar
  • 17 Mar 2021
This webinar explains Pentland's approach to preparing the section 54 statement.
Supply chain assurance in the retail sector
  • Webinar
  • 16 Oct 2020
Abigail Harper talks through a risk-based approach to providing supply chain assurance within the retail sector.
Marketing for Finance
  • Webinar
  • 08 Jul 2019
Marketing top tips for finance professionals.
How accountants can become digital leaders
  • Webinar
  • 19 Jun 2019
In this thought-provoking presentation, we will demystify how your future online customer is "thinking" and why every founder, business owner, and entrepreneur can digitally transform their sales and marketing using a proven methodology as a digital leader and utilise disruptive technology effectively.
Influencing and persuading – promoting your brand
  • Webinar
  • 15 May 2019
We all negotiate on a much more frequent basis than we realise and some of us are much better than others are winning the argument. David Gillespie, professional actor and coach, brings some practical tips in how to persuade people and better negotiate in this punchy twenty minute webinar.
More webinars

Legal Alert

Legal Alert is a monthly checklist from Atom Content Marketing highlighting new and pending laws, regulations, codes of practice and rulings that could have an impact on your business.

New guidance: ICO new guidance on marketing by electronic mail and phone
  • 01 Jan 2023
Organisations marketing by electronic mail and/or live phone calls will welcome new Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) guidances on direct marketing by these means.
New Code: CMA launches Green Claims Code to stop misleading ‘green’ claims by businesses, irrespective of size or sector
  • 01 Nov 2021
Businesses of all sizes in all sectors, and whether selling to consumers or to other businesses, should review any claims they make about their environmental credentials or risk falling foul of a new Green Claims Code from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
New practice: Employers may need access to employees’ private phones, email, social media accounts, etc to satisfy data protection obligations
  • 01 Jun 2021
Employers whose employees are allowed to use their own phones, computers or tablets, private email accounts and messaging services, or personal accounts on social or business media such as Twitter, LinkedIn, WhatsApp or Instagram for work purposes should ensure they are able to require their employees to give them access to personal data held on those phones, accounts etc where this is required to comply with data protection laws.
Case law: Information Commissioner’s Office publishes code of practice for providers of online services which children are likely to access
  • 01 Mar 2020
Organisations providing online services to children up to 18, or online services that children are likely to access, should consider whether they are complying with a new age appropriate design code of practice published by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Case law: Businesses beware sending service messages to customers electronically that contain marketing messages
  • 01 Jan 2020
Businesses should ensure service messages sent to customers electronically do not include marketing messages - unless the recipient consented to receiving marketing communications and they otherwise comply with privacy and electronic communication rules.
Case law: Brand owner breached competition law by banning retailers from using its online brand names in search advertising
  • 01 Feb 2019
Businesses selling branded products through retailers should beware of stopping those retailers from using the brand names in online search advertising, or risk being fined for breaching competition law.

eBooks

The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides full text access to a selection of key business and reference eBooks from leading publishers. eBooks are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users. If you are unable to access an eBook, please see our Help and support advice or contact library@icaew.com.

Exclusive 101 marketing strategies for accounting, law, consulting, and professional services firms
  • 2004
  • Troy Waugh
  • John Wiley and Sons
A guide to marketing, selling and persuading.
Exclusive Advising the wealthy client: a handbook for working with the ultra wealthy
  • 2020
  • Barbara R. Hauser
  • Globe Law and Business Ltd
Countries are racing to disclose bank accounts to garner more tax income from the ultra wealthy and the politics of being in the “1% club” are not always positive. Yet these are important clients with important needs.
Exclusive Blog marketing
  • 2006
  • Jeremy Wright
  • McGraw-Hill
This book looks at the impact that blogging can have on business.
Exclusive Branding your business
  • 2008
  • James Hammond
  • Kogan Page
A practical guide to creating and managing successful brands.
Exclusive Building a marketing plan: a complete guide
  • 2011
  • Ho Yin Wong
  • Business Expert Press
A practical guide to developing a marketing plan.
Exclusive Business to business market research
  • 2005
  • Ruth McNeil
  • Kogan Page
Designed to help the reader develop core business-to-business market research skills and to apply research effectively.
Terms of use

You are permitted to access, download, copy, or print out content from eBooks for your own research or study only, subject to the terms of use set by our suppliers and any restrictions imposed by individual publishers. Please see individual supplier pages for full terms of use.

More eBooks

Business press

The Library provides access to leading business, finance and management journals. These journals are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users subject to suppliers' terms of use.
Exclusive Enter the digital human
  • 01 Mar 2023
  • Mike Seymour, Dan Lovallo, Kai Riemer, Alan R.Dennis, Lingyao Yuan
  • Harvard Business Review
Article discusses the introduction of 'digital humans' which use advances in artificial intelligence and computer graphics to put a human face on chatbots and other computer-based interfaces. These may not be as versatile as a genuine human but offer advantages in cost, customisability and scalability.
Exclusive How to use psychological targeting
  • 01 Mar 2023
  • Sandra Matz
  • Harvard Business Review
Psychological targeting - influencing behaviour by targeting personality traits, having collected data into consumers' psyches - has come of age as a marketing tool. The article explains how it works, its potential perils and the ethical way to use it as a marketing technique. Hilton Hotels and a beauty retailer are used as case studies of creating personalised social media marketing for introverts and extroverts.
Exclusive Generative AI: Preparing for next generation artificial intelligence
  • 17 Jan 2023
  • Cliff Saran
  • Computer Weekly
The article reports that the products such as ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot take technology into realms once thought to be reserved for humans. Topics include examines the paper suggested a number of possible scenarios, from AI-generated personalized sales and marketing content; generating task lists and documentation in operations and identifying errors; and drafting interview questions for job interviews and summarizing legal documents.
Exclusive Could AI help your company sell?
  • 01 Nov 2022
  • Jim Dickie, Boris Groysberg, Benson P.Shapiro, Barry Trailer
  • Harvard Business Review
AI can help you sell - depending on when and how you implement it, say the authors. They have developed a 'Sales Success Matrix' tool allowing companies to determine how to improve their use of sales technology and which kinds of AI tools might best serve their needs.
Exclusive Negative reviews can be better for sales than positive ones
  • 01 Nov 2022
  • Amy Meeker
  • Harvard Business Review
In a US study, 300 National Football League (NFL) fans were shown a a description of a league-branded hoodie and either a one-star or a five-star review of it by a Cleveland Browns fan. When people thought they and the reviewer were alike, their purchase intent was lower if they saw the one-star review rather than the five-star review. But when they felt unlike the reviewer, the one-star review generated significantly higher purchase intent than the five-star review.
Exclusive Market segmentation of online reviews: A network analysis approach
  • 01 Sep 2022
  • Hui-Ju Wang
  • International Journal of Market Research
A study proposing a network analysis approach for the market segmentation of online reviews. By collecting sample reviews of pizza delivery restaurants from Yelp via web scraping, this study demonstrates how network analysis techniques can be used to segment online reviewers through a four-step process.
More articles

Online journals

Stack of work papers
Marketing journals
The ICAEW Library & Information Service holds an extensive collection of articles and journals on marketing. This includes a selection of online resources which are available to logged-in members and students.

Articles and books in the ICAEW Library collection

The collection of the ICAEW Library & Information Service includes a range of articles, books and reports on sales and marketing. Use the links below to see what we have available to request in our Library catalogue (Libcat).

To find out how you can borrow books from the Library please see our guide to borrowing books.

You can obtain copies of articles or extracts of books and reports through our document supply service.

External resources - guides and reports

BrandZ
  • Kantar BrandZ

Brand equity database with individual annual reports covering:

Finding and selling to customers
  • smallbusiness.co.uk
Articles providing helpful tips and advice on selling and marketing to customers. Written for UK small businesses and sole traders.
Sale of goods and services and data protection
  • GOV.UK
Sales guidance for businesses from GOV.UK, covering topics such as accepting returns and giving refunds, marketing and advertising law, online and distance selling, trading hours and product labelling.
Sales & Growth resources
  • Be The Business
Sales and growth resources covering common business questions for UK SMEs. A Sales & Growth assessment tool and Help to Grow Digital programme are available, providing free impartial advice on how technology can boost your sales and marketing efforts. Be the Business is an independent not-for-profit organisation supported by the UK government.
The power of branding
  • Design Council

A Design Council guide on branding which outlines what branding is, how it works and how you can use it to help improve your business or the perception of your service.

Terms of use

ICAEW accepts no responsibility for the content on any site to which a hypertext link from this site exists. The links are provided 'as is' with no warranty, express or implied, for the information provided within them. Please see the full copyright and disclaimer notice.

External resources - Atom marketing guides

Apps and online tools
  • Atom Content Marketing
Thanks to the proliferation of innovative apps for smartphones, business owners can now do so much more while they are out of the office.
Content marketing
  • Atom Content Marketing
For small businesses, posting useful content online offers a powerful way to engage with customers, via blogs, case studies, email and social media.
Ecommerce
  • Atom Content Marketing
Selling online, either wholly or in addition to selling offline, can provide a fantastic source of revenue, but how do you get involved in ecommerce?
Email marketing
  • Atom Content Marketing
Email marketing is fast and cheap, while enabling businesses to target messages to the right people at the right time. Find out how to do it.
Online and PPC advertising
  • Atom Content Marketing
Unlike traditional advertising, online advertising can deliver visitors immediately - through a simple click on your ad with measurable results.
SEO
  • Atom Content Marketing
If you’ve got a website, you need SEO. It’s that simple. Search engine optimisation can help you feature prominently on search engines like Google.
Social media
  • Atom Content Marketing
Social media is firmly established as a marketing tool. Having a presence opens up new lines of communication with existing and potential customers.
Your website
  • Atom Content Marketing
Your website helps new customers find you as well as keeping existing customers up to date with special offers and product launches.
Terms of use

ICAEW accepts no responsibility for the content on any site to which a hypertext link from this site exists. The links are provided 'as is' with no warranty, express or implied, for the information provided within them. Please see the full copyright and disclaimer notice.

External resources - Atom sales guides

Sales lead generation
  • Atom Content Marketing
A successful sales process looks at the customer and what they want, rather than just what kind of product or service you're trying to sell.
Sales lead generation
  • Atom Content Marketing
New sales leads are the lifeblood of many businesses. To successfully generate them, you'll need to actively prospect for marketing leads.
Sales management
  • Atom Content Marketing
Effective sales management gets the most out of your salesforce. Sales people need hands-on support and guidance to help them succeed.
Sales presentations
  • Atom Content Marketing
A sales presentation is a great chance to progress or even complete a sale. It's up to you to make a truly effective presentation.
Sales tools and technology
  • Atom Content Marketing
The right sales tools improve sales success rates, whether you use a customer database or sophisticated customer relationship management (CRM).
Choose a pricing strategy
  • Atom Content Marketing
Pricing is one of the most important aspects of your offer to get right.
Tendering for contracts
  • Atom Content Marketing
Tendering can be a major opportunity to win new business. Understanding the tender process and how to tender will help you submit winning proposals.
Sales strategy
  • Atom Content Marketing
Selling is one of the most difficult tasks for small business owners. A sales strategy will focus your attention and help you seize opportunities.
Terms of use

ICAEW accepts no responsibility for the content on any site to which a hypertext link from this site exists. The links are provided 'as is' with no warranty, express or implied, for the information provided within them. Please see the full copyright and disclaimer notice.

Related topics

We also maintain separate web pages on these topics:
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Marketing in a downturn
If the country you are based in is going through a downturn, ICAEW has a range of resources to help you successfully market your business in difficult economic times.
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Marketing organisations
Useful links to key marketing associations and organisations.
Can't find what you're looking for?

The ICAEW Library can give you the right information from trustworthy, professional sources that aren't freely available online. Contact us for expert help with your enquiries and research.

Everything business

Find out about the key benefits available for members in business and the support from ICAEW. We are proud of our some 60,000 members working in and running business all over the world.
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Information

Some of the content on this web page was provided by the Chartered Accountants’ Trust for Education and Research, a registered charity, which owns the library and operates it for ICAEW.