Updates in progress

I’ve recently made a few changes to the website in an effort to improve and enhance it, I’ve updated the following on the blog:

• Entries have been re-categorised and can now be found in the new navigation menu at the top of the website.
• It has been given a new look and feel with new colours and styles.
• The background on our Twitter page has been updated.
• A new graphic designer has been added to the team who has created the images for each post so far and will continue to do so, I will have more information on this in a future post.

More improvements are planned too, including the following:

• A new page offering services including web design, graphic design and marketing.
• A comprehensive about us page.
• New guest bloggers with specific areas of expertise.
• A new marketing campaign to encourage more visitors and more comments.
• Some new widgets will be added to improve the blog’s functionality and appearance.
• A Twitter mass unfollow, we will unfollow everyone on Twitter and only follow people we have a genuine interest in, there will be a separate blog item on this when it happens which will explain our reasons.
• Many more frequently updated articles.

I want to turn this website into a marketing HUB which is run by various experts who have different expertise, this is very close to becoming a reality. If you have any suggestions for improvements please feel free to comment and I can promise you that your comments will be taken onboard. Thanks.

How important is your website?

In my line of work (website design) and in the current economic climate I find that more and more people are trying to avoid spending any money on website development and creating a genuine web presence because they deem it more of a luxury than a necessity, but often they don’t realise that not having a great website actually loses them money!

A website is a much more important part of your business than you may realise right now, the value you get compared to the initial outlay you invest can be so enormous that it is the difference between a flourishing company, or one which doesn’t make it through the recession.

Below I am going to give you the top 10 reasons for which your business needs a top quality website:

1. With a professionally developed website you can turn your business from a locally run small business, into a global business which generates interest from customers worldwide.
2. Your website is used as a shop window for your business, products and services and allows you to be open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
3. A website is one of the most popular ways for customers to get in contact with a business they would like to deal with and is essential if you don’t want to miss out on potential customers.
4. A website delivers a much higher return on investment than hiring a salesperson if you compare the costs of advertising/wages compared to the setup of a website.
5. It is much easier for satisfied customers to tell their contacts and friends about you, they can easily forward a website address but it is much more difficult to fax or email a leaflet, this makes for easy referrals.
6. Your potential customers who use the WWW will often investigate your business before making contact, because this is anonymous they can visit your website (or look for it and come up empty) and make a buying decision based on the quality of your website without you even knowing.
7. Make your business cards more effective with a website address, this will make you look more professional and give your potential customer an opportunity to find out more about your services before making a buying decision.
8. You can collect email addresses and therefore potential new customers through your website, with these email addresses then create a mailing list and now you have a quick and easy way to contact all the people who once showed an interest in your product or service, thus giving you a chance to sell to them in the future.
9. Your website should be very customer focused and give a very professional view of your company, you manage the content of your website so it is easy to regulate the information you give to the customer.
10. The first place anybody looks for a business in this era is online, gone are the days of looking through the yellow pages to find what you want, the internet is the place you want to be.

If you are interested in having a website designed or simply wish to find out more information related to this article, please email me and I’d be happy to answer any enquiries.

Spread a little Christmas spirit

Here’s a cost effective tip for you to retain customers and also spread a little Christmas cheer at the same time, send a hand written Christmas card to EVERY single one of your customers! It really is that simple, just think how pleasant it is when you receive an unexpected card in the post wishing you happiness over the holidays… well that’s what feeling you should be giving each of your customers this holiday.

For the cost of a few stamps and a box of Christmas cards you can:

• Retain customers
• Improve customer relations
• Bring in new business from word of mouth
• Increase frequency of purchase through customer loyalty
• Spread a little Christmas spirit

But remember, this is about customer retention, not selling (they will naturally come back to you to buy more products/services anyway) so don’t include leaflets or any sales communications with your cards as your customers will only think there is an ulterior motive behind the original nice gesture.

If you’d prefer you could also send out an email or e-card to your customers but this is slightly less effective (you know the reason you are sending an e-card instead of a real one is because it’s quicker/easier and so do they). However it is still more effective than no card at all, if you do choose to send emails out make sure you personalise each one as it’s much more meaningful and shows you have made an effort especially for them.

In addition to this, sending out Christmas cards to your employees can also improve their productivity, the key is to hand write every card to make them feel they are truly valued, going one step further and praising them on an individual task they have acheived recently will shoot their self-esteem and productivity through the roof this Christmas.

I’m off to finish writing mine as soon as this is post is up, Merry Christmas everyone!!

Burn the Ships

Hernando Cortez was a Spanish Conquistador who landed in Mexico on the shores of the Yucatan in 1519 with the goal of seizing the glorious treasures held by the Aztecs. Cortez was 100% committed and focused on this mission and his story is legendary, he was an excellent motivator and persuaded over 500 soldiers and 100 sailors to sail with him from Spain to Mexico.

Cortez and his fleet of 11 ships arrived on the shores of the Yucatan facing one of the greatest challenges in history, they were a small group of soldiers attempting to overthrow a large and powerful empire on their own turf, an empire that had been in power for over 600 years.

There was only one method that could make Cortez’ men succeed in their mission, he needed their complete trust and commitment, he needed them to go for all or nothing. To achieve this he famously took away the option of failure for his men, he gave a pre-battle speech on the shore and finally shouted “burn the ships!” to his men, his men resisted at first not knowing what to think, but then he said “if we are going home, we are going home in their ships”.

His men then burnt all their own ships and now found themselves in a win or die situation, the commitment level of his men was now elevated to a whole new level, higher than any of the men or Cortez himself could have imagined.

Cortez and his men then defeated the Aztecs and took the treasure home in their new ships, they had managed to succeed where everyone else had failed for the past 6 centuries. They won because they had no escape and no backup plan, if they didn’t win the battle they would die and had no option to retreat to their ships, thus elevating their will to win to an incredibly high level.

To succeed in life and business you need to have a similar attitude to that of Cortez and his men, they didn’t have a fallback position or any other options so gave their total 100% commitment and came out winners. Imagine what it would be like fighting against men with that level of motivation.

You need to take away your excuses and crutches if you want to be highly successful as these will often stop you achieving your goals, identify the ships in your life that are stopping your dreams from becoming a wonderful reality and burn them.

If we know our ship is always going to be there then it is human instinct to make a run for it and escape when we appear to be losing a battle, the path of least resistance. This can apply to any aspect of your life, whether it be using old marketing methods that don’t work simply because you’ve always done them or staying in a job you hate because you’re already working there and it’s easier than changing.

If you really want to achieve your dreams you need to remove that fallback position and give your dream your 100% commitment, that is what Cortez and his men did and that is why the mission was a success. Commitment is the foundation of success and no accomplishment has been achieved without it, focus on your commitment and your dreams can become a reality.

What is your competitive advantage?

A competitive advantage is something you have that your competitor doesn’t, it is a reason for someone to visit your website instead of someone else’s. This criteria could be one of the following:

1. Unique selling point (USP)
Having a unique selling point is one of the most important things in business, it means you offer something different from everyone else. For example if you held a patent on a certain design of a product that nobody else had.

Another USP could be that you specialise in one product and nobody else does this, for example you may be the only store in the world that only sells spoons, but you have every different kind of spoon that anyone could ever want.

Having a unique selling point makes advertising much easier, for example you could state at the top of your website “The world’s largest supplier of spoons” or something similar to gain peoples interest.

2. Reputation
This is everything in business, if you are a new start-up company it can be tough to establish, especially on the internet where people have to know where you are before they visit your website. It’s easier if you’re a shop on a high street where people will walk past and see what you have available, but its easier still if you have a great reputation.

Having a recognisable brand name is important, if you offer a product that people like then that will become recognised and your reputation will grow. If you manage to become the leading brand in a certain field then you are in a great position for the future, for example Google and eBay are the leading competitors in their respective fields of search engines and online auctions because they both have a great reputation and the vast majority of people use those websites over any other.

3. Effective Strategy
If you plan well and you get a head-start over your competitors then you have a great advantage, the best way to plan is for 3 different outcomes; if things go how you expect, if things go better than expected and if things go worse than expected. By doing things this way you will always be one step ahead of your competitors and will know exactly what to do no matter what scenario happens.

When the internet was first coming to prominence a lot of company’s saw it as a threat, and some still do. Michael Porter said back in 2001 that those who see the internet as a complement to the traditional ways of competing will be the real winners, this has proved true for many major companies.

Follow these steps to marketing success

A fantastic competitive advantage is to know what you’re doing when it comes to online marketing, it can be difficult because most people just don’t know where to start. It’s good if you can get yourself listed in major search engines and get advertisements on other websites, but it is important to get value for money. Here are seven steps to help you on your way to online marketing success:

1. Testing
Rather than go full steam ahead with a marketing campaign and blowing your entire budget, it’s often a very good idea to have a focus group first and find out what people want from you, then you will have an idea of how to advertise to them. Then you might want to put out a few ads and see what feedback you get on them, if the feedback is good then you can go ahead with the full campaign.

2. Optimise for search engines
You could have the most amazing website on the entire internet, but what good would it be if nobody saw it? You are actually much better off having a badly designed website which is optimised for search engines rather than having a beautiful website that isn’t because you will only get visitors to the one which is optimised!

3. Only pay for what you use
When advertising through search engines or by using banners it is advisable to use pay-per-click deals where you only pay when someone clicks on your link, rather that paying a lot of money for advertising space and potentially not getting your moneys worth. These deals are great because you know you are getting what you pay for and can even determine the number of clicks you wish to receive on some search engines.

4. Pick the best time to advertise
Once you have a product that you wish to advertise and a place to advertise it, it can be a good idea to push the advertising more at a certain time of day when you will appeal more to your target audience. An example of this would be advertising children’s toys between 3pm-9pm when they are home from school and before they go to bed, or from 9am-5pm to attract the attention of business customers.

5. Use behavioural targeting
This is a bit more specialised and more useful for larger companies, you can analyse user surfing patterns and behaviour over a period of time and give them certain advertisements based on those results. I’m sure you’ve all seen the personal recommendations on Amazon and other websites, that is behavioural targeting.

6. Affiliate with other websites
The cheapest way of advertising is to affiliate with another website, this is where you would link to another website and in return they would link to yours. It’s a good idea to affiliate with a website in the same area as yours, because people clicking on your link are more likely to the interested in your product. This form of advertising is usually free because both affiliated websites will benefit from it as they are basically sharing their customers.

7. Text based ads can be value-for-money
While they may not stand out as much, text-based advertisements can sometimes be better than ads with lots of images as they can sometimes come across better and make the user think it is a serious website, not just one with a flashing banner to get your attention. They can also be more cost-effective because they are usually cheaper and you will still receive a good amount of clicks.

The new blog onlinemarketingguidance.com is now online and ready to go, for all the latest articles on search engine optimisation, email marketing, banner adverts, social networking, pay-per-click and much more… then you need to bookmark this website!

New articles will be added whenever relevant and general blog posts about the state of the marketing industry will also be made, hopefully you’ll feel happy here and we will be able to help you in one way or another.