February 9th, 2012
We have been working with Duraflex (the UK’s largest extruder of uPVC) over the last 6 months on a new strategy to launch their consumer facing windows, doors and conservatories brand – Safechoice.
We’re really excited by the launch as this project has included much more than just digital. We are partnering with both Duraflex and Icaal to deliver a complete package of online and offline marketing and support activities to really give Safechoice approved dealers a boost.
View the new Safechoice website here
Watch this space for a full case study. Just to whet your appetite, here are a few of the headlines:
- National public facing brand website
- – Clearly deliver information
- – Promote brand awareness
- – Generate leads
Safechoice approved dealer locator
Dealer co-branded subsites
Email marketing on behalf of Safechoice
- Dealer support
- Social media updating
- Email marketing
- Live web demonstrations
- Livechat management
Tags: Duraflex, Safechoice
Posted in internet marketing, Recent Work | No Comments »
January 27th, 2012
A new report commissioned by Google produces some interesting insights. Read Tim Webbers article on BBC here and you’ll learn about how as many as 80% of the zones internet users will access the web via a mobile device, and how the internet will go more social – allowing customers and businesses to engage with each other more freely.
I think that there are 3 key aspects that businesses can take from this research:
- All businesses should be trading online where possible – How? By considering your business model and integrating with digital / the internet as much as possible.
- Your website should serve up a mobile version of the site to users of hand held devices – How? It’s time to add a mobile site to your website (if you’ve not already got one).
-Customers and businesses are already engaging online. Be sure that your business is encouraging reviews, comments and feedback where possible – How? By blogging (allowing comments & feedback) and encouraging customers to review your performance (via Google reviews and the many other niche review websites now available).
All 3 of these actions are easily achievable for your business today and will prepare you well for the exciting future ahead for forward thinking businesses.
Tags: BBC, blogging, google report, mobile sites, reviews, Tim Webber, web economy
Posted in Business Advice, Internet Consultancy | No Comments »
November 10th, 2011
If you are looking to build your email list then this new research released by Exact Target reveals some interesting information for all email marketers in the UK. They are completing a series of reports called ‘Subscribers, Fans & Followers’ exploring differences between the UK and US users of social media and email.
The research shows email dominating brand interaction – 93% or respondents fitting into the subscriber group compared to 45% as fans (facebook) and 7% as followers (twitter).
What we think is particularly interesting is the ‘motivation’ for registration. 52% register to receive discounts or money off promotions and 44% register to receive ‘free stuff’ or ‘giveaways’.
What can we take away from this? We’ve always been advocates of a ‘strong and relevant’ call to action on newsletter registration and this information can help us to ensure that our message is not only focussed towards our target markets but also has maximum broadness of appeal.
Tags: calls to action, email marketing, list building, Social Media
Posted in Email Marketing, internet marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
November 4th, 2011
We’ve been telling our customers about the importance of obtaining positive feedback & reviews – especially Google reviews for a while now. The open nature of the internet is a double edged sword however and there is little to protect our businesses from false or even damaging reviews presently. Watch this report from the BBC’s Claire Marshall.
How can you avoid this? As the report shows it’s not easy. It’s important to be aware of any negative things people are saying about our businesses online so be sure to setup some kind of reporting service such as Google Alerts to monitor your brand name and report any use / misuse of it.
I think it’s also important to point out that we should all try to adopt an ethical approach to our own review writing online – this way ensuring that reviews can be the excellent guides that they should be for all of us.
Tags: bbc claire marshall, google alerts, google reviews, review sites, reviews and seo
Posted in Business Advice, Internet Consultancy, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) | 1 Comment »
August 24th, 2011
Google is changing the way they rank websites. It’s really important that anybody working in the web industry, as well as any website owners are fully uptospeed with Googles latest ‘version’ of their algorithm – named ‘Panda or Farmer’ as it can (and is), having resounding implications upon the performance of many sites in the Google rankings.
I’ve read,viewed & listened to alot of information about Panda since it’s recent implementation, but this video from the experts at SEOMoz is by far the most comprehensive and well explained to date. I recommend you take the 10 minutes to watch this video and then give yourself time to process the information and implications for you and your business of these changes to the way that websites will be reviewed and ranked in the future.
I would be really interested to hear what business owners and other internet professionals have to say about these changes, so please drop me a line or leave a comment.
Tags: google farmer, google panda, SEO advice, SEOMoz
Posted in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), SEO For Business Websites | No Comments »
July 14th, 2011
The web may be cutting edge but old school skills are still incredibly important for your websites performance and conversions.
This recent article on the BBC highlights one angle showing how bad spelling can have a negative impact on conversions. This bad news is also compounded by Googles latest update – the ‘farmer’ or ‘panda’ update.
I’m going to put up a full summary of the key impacts of this change as it will have a major impact upon how websites achieve high Google rankings in the future, but for now I’ll just focus on the spelling issue.
As well as checking such elements as inbound links, onpage SEO etc, the Google spiders are also checking your spelling, grammar and even the accuracy of your information! If you’re making mistakes your site will be penalised and your ranking will suffer.
Maybe now would be a good time to go back through your website and spend a little time ensuring that the copy is well written with no spellings and is also grammatically and factually correct.
I know that we found a few gremlins when we recently carried out a similar exercise on our own site recently…
More on Panda soon – you are going to need to read this and take it VERY seriously.
Tags: farmer update, google ranking factors, panda update, spelling on websites
Posted in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), SEO For Business Websites | No Comments »
November 11th, 2010
I’ll bet you are on Facebook?
I’ll bet you’ve been told that social media is the next big thing in internet marketing also…
What is the truth about social media? Is it a good tool for an average sized business? Should your marketing people be embracing it? These are all fair questions you would be asking as a business owner looking to get the best out of online marketing. We see some bold claims about how well the large corporations are doing e.g. Dell making over a million from Twitter
As an internet marketing consultant dealing with medium sized businesses, I would urge cautious exploration. I would also urge that you don’t try to run before you can crawl! Social media would be right at the ‘mature end’ of an internet strategy for many businesses – unless you have a product or service that’s particularly social.
I would advise you get out your internet marketing checklist and make sure you have the basics covered first off:
- Website structure, usability and goals
- Website content
- Onpage SEO
- Offpage SEO
- Email Marketing
- Integration with any offline campaigns
If you can tick all of these boxes, then I would certainly take a look at some Social Media Optimisation (SMO). Start by looking at the different options and looking at how you business fits in. You can then start to plan your strategy & delivery. Remember that social isn’t sales – don’t be too pushy!
I’ll be posting more social media tips and information over the next few months – looking at how it can be effectively implemented for small and medium businesses.
Tags: internet marketing, smo, Social Media
Posted in Business Advice, internet marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
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