Paul Featherstone: Digital Consultant

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Your friends and family are your greatest sales team

February 22nd, 2010

You will not get more passionate advocates for your talents or your business services than your family and friends. It’s a marketing channel that many may overlook yet it can be one which provides sales leads and contacts that can have tangible benefits.

Your friends and family can help you in a number of different areas. View your friends and family as a network of contacts, each person will know several other people who may potentially require your business services. Make sure that your friends and family have your email address so they can send your website to those they know who are potential customers. Give your friends and family members a pack of your business cards and arm them with any marketing materials you have spare.

High quality business referrals are built around trust, prospective customers like referrals from those they know well as it helps mitigate the risk of receiving a poor service or product.

Market intelligence and research are key to running a successful business, friends and family may have a broad range of experience you can tap into. As well as business experience it is worth considering another important type of information important to business people – life experience!

If you have a business idea, a product in need of fresh ideas or are looking to gain valuable feedback on a new marketing campaign then look no further. The most honest (brutally so!) focus group money can buy is ready and waiting at a fraction of the cost of a market research agency.

Your family know you better than you know yourself, use this to your advantage and try out ideas on them, they may come back with constructive comments that you had never considered before.

Word of mouth promotion is also key, engage your friends and family in everything you do, keep them up to date with exciting projects and clients as they will talk to others and ‘spread the word’ about your business.

Using your family as part time employees may be another option you wish to consider. Employing family members should not be entered into without some thought as sometimes tensions arise, on the plus side you will have an honest employee who won’t abandon you for a better paid role at the drop of a hat.

So go ahead, try some of these ideas and you may be surprised at the success it brings your business.

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The basics of Search Engine Marketing

September 15th, 2009

There are a lot of search engine agencies who promise overnight results, optimisation of websites and search engine success – but what does it all mean? Further to this, how can a focus on optimising your online marketing for search engines achieve your business objectives and generate revenue for your organisation? Keep reading if you want some straight answers to these questions.

When talking about Search Engine Marketing (SEM) you are referring to two main activities and what is essentially now two main search engines.

SEM can be split into two key areas: organic or natural search and paid or pay per click (PPC) advertising.

Organic search involves the ‘normal’ listings in search engines, that is to say the non-paid listings. There are a number of factors that determine the Search Engine Ranking Position (SERP) in the major search engines. These factors can be classified under two main headings, on page optimisation and off page optimisation.

On page optimisation includes factors related to your website or blog itself, examples of this would be:

  • The text (or copy) you use on your website
  • The way your website is constructed in terms of design and information architecture
  • The coding of your website in terms of certain tags and structure
  • The frequency with which your blog or website is updated

Off page optimisation includes factors external to your website, for example:

  • Links to your website or blog from other relevant websites
  • Links to your website or blog from relevant news or article sites

The process of optimising your blog or website for high SERP’s is known as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – a lot of acronyms already, I know! The process of SEO and achieving success in the rankings for the major search engines can take a number of months and should be viewed as a long-term commitment and strategy. This is especially true where there exists intense competition for certain key words and phrases – more on this later.

Paid or PPC search engine marketing involves bidding for certain key words and phrases that you would like your website or blog to rank highly for, those who bid the most get the top spot. Paid search can be used to good effect to achieve quick results and can be seen as a good tool to leverage in the shorter-term. It is questionable whether this alone, without any attention being paid to natural search, is a good long-term tactic.

In order to get the most out of any Search Engine Marketing campaign or long-term strategy keyword analysis must be undertaken in order to establish the most relevant and productive terms which your target audience will use to search for your products and services. There are a number of methods which are used to undertake such analysis and these range from old fashioned brain storming to more sophisticated use of software.

One school of thought focuses on use of longer search phrases containing a series of words, these are known as Long Tail search terms, for example “golf clubs north Leeds”. Because you are using more targeted phrases there is often an improved chance of gaining high search engine rankings due to improved targeting and reduced competition from the untargeted masses.

When relevant key phrases have been confirmed for use it is then possible to use on and off page optimisation techniques to feature the phrases by talking about “golf clubs north Leeds” on your site, in articles and through other sites.

In terms of major search engines we are now only really referring to two companies – Google and Yahoo/Bing – a recent merger which will see Yahoo retain the front end of their search engine with Microsoft’s Bing (formally Live Search) powering the back end.

Finally, the last important part of the Search Engine Marketing websites is monitoring all of the activity you are undertaking as well as your SERP’s in the Google and Yahoo search engines. There are number of free and paid tools available to help you do this ranging from very simple through to highly sophisticated. Some good free tools can be found at the Google Webmaster and SEOBook websites.

I hope you found this article useful and it has shed some light on the area of Search Engine Marketing.

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Top ten methods for online marketing success on a shoestring

September 15th, 2009

In the not too distant past the only method of gaining exposure for you or your business was via a tightly controlled network of media contacts and marketing channels. With the advent of the Internet the past decade has seen a total transformation in both marketing and public relations as communication channels evolved along with technology to enable you to get closer than ever to your target audience.

The growth in popularity of the Internet also means that there are now more opportunities than ever to market yourself or your business online for little or no investment. But don’t be fooled, no budget does not mean no effort – serious dedication and a solid plan of action are required for success in online marketing.

There are a number of key tactical tools to look at as you formulate your online marketing plan, many of these tools are free and all offer the opportunity to gain significant exposure for your or your business if used in the right way.

Firstly, a business blog is a great way to reach your target audience, there are a number of popular platforms available such as Wordpress, Blogger and Typepad. All of these platforms are free and all allow you to set up and host your blog with relative ease, they also offer options to enhance and customise your blogs using plugins and templates for design.

Search engines love websites where they see content changing on a regular basis, with a regularly updated blog you quickly build equity with Google and co. and this can help you achieve better rankings. One note here, ensure that you enable the search engines to crawl your blog, there will be an option to select in each of the afore mentioned platforms.

Blogs also allow the facility for your audience to comment on the posts you generate which helps to engage and provide an important point of interaction.

Secondly, optimise your site for search engine success! How many times have you read a headline like that on the Internet and wondered what it all really meant? In a nutshell, there are two options with search engines, organic (or natural) search and pay per click (PPC) search. As the name suggests, the latter option involves having some budget in order to bid for search engine rankings so lets focus on the former.

Organic search engine optimisation involves making sure that everything on your website pages (on page) is optimised and also that you optimise everything external to your website (off page). For on page optimisation ensure that you focus on using the language your target audience use to search for you or your businesses’ products and services (e.g. golf clubs London or freelance designer New York) in your site text, titles, descriptions and page names. For off page optimisation ensure you build up links to your website (backlinks) from other websites talking about what you do as an individual or business. For more information visit the excellent SEObook website where you can find out more information on SEO.

eMail marketing is another excellent method of reaching your target audiences. You may already have a wealth of information on clients or prospects that you are not currently using, if you are not currently recording email addresses then start to do so. A target email message can be very effective in driving your message home. Some useful email services which are very low cost (and free for small email campaigns) are MailChimp and Constant Contact.

Social media is another area which there is great interest in at the moment, there is also a lot of hype around social media marketing too. Used in the right way, however, social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Myspace can be very effective methods of building online communities that you can communicate your message to on a regular basis. As with your site, focus on the provision of quality information and have a long-term strategy to build your community.

Article writing is another great free marketing tool at your disposal. An important factor in your success online will be building relationships and credibility online with your target audience. Article sites help you to become the thought leader or expert in your field through the provision of free information. There are a number of excellent article sites on the web, make sure you look for good quality sites where you can add your website address and author biography.

Viral marketing can be used to good effect, especially if you have something to give away. Whether you are a software house who gives away a free software tool or a comedian who distributes some funny new material, the principles remain the same. Give something away for free, make sure it is easily accessible and that people can easily forward on to others (the viral agent e.g. email).

If you want to actually make money rather than spend it, why not monetise your website or blog using display advertising through networks such as Google Adwords. The more work you put into driving a targeted audience to your site, the more advertising revenue you can make as viewers click on adverts that are of interest to them. For every click you receive money!

Create news on your site and distribute it using free sites such as the ProTalk portfolio of sites (there are various sites for different industries). There are also a number of industry specific news sites which will allow you to post a news story online. If you are stuck for an idea, why not write about the launch of your latest marketing campaign which has a budget of £1 and won you 50 new customers.

Allow content and news on your website or blog to be distributed via Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and social bookmarks such as Delicious and Digg. Both of these types of tools allow your audience to feed your site content into news reader software, their own website or blog and bookmarking websites where the popularity of your content can win you a prominent position.

Finally, with popular services such as YouTube, high speed Internet access and low cost recording and editing technology comes the opportunity for even the smallest organisation to utilise television as a new marketing channel. If you are an expert in your field why not record a series of short monologues talking about your chosen subject in an honest and engaging way. YouTube accounts are free and you can integrate your videos into your website and blog for a professional effect.

I hope that these ten pointers provide some food for thought and enable you to start on the road to online marketing success whilst freeing up budget to invest in other ways.

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Top ten barriers to setting up a business website

September 15th, 2009

Developing a business website can be a challenging process even for experienced individuals. There are a number of factors that can prevent people from considering development a website, all of these can be overcome with the right blend of planning and research.

The top ten barriers preventing development are:

Time – even though it can feel difficult to take time out of working ‘in’ your business, unless you work ‘on’ your business you may not achieve the long-term success you want. It is essential that you put some time aside every week to devote to marketing and the development of your website. This is time well spent and will make your business more secure and profitable in the future

Technical knowledge – you may feel that you do not really understand what the web is all about or have the first clue about how to produce your website or brief an external supplier. The best course of action is to keep it simple, consider investing in a content management system that allows you to update your site without the use of specialist technical web design software or computer languages. There are a number of good free systems available which do not require an annual licence fee or additional charges (known as open source systems).

Money – it would be untrue to state that high quality, bespoke websites don’t cost money. However, budget shouldn’t always be a barrier as there are a number of options:

Start small and simple and as the website provides business, reinvest that profit back into your site through development or content and features

Find a supplier who will work with you and is willing to share knowledge and allow you to learn the skills necessary to produce some of your website whilst they help with the complicated parts

Share your website (and therefore cost) with another organisation which is an indirect competitor. Give this option some consideration however as the practicalities of sharing a site can be difficult to manage

Ask a supplier if they will consider staged payments which would ease your cashflow

Belief – there may be those in your organisation who doubt the justification for developing a website and the budget this requires. Make sure that you have a strong business case for the website, put this in to some kind of document and make sure you get sign off from the senior individuals in your business. Demonstrate your business case through examples and hard figures rather than anecdotal evidence.

Planning – the old saying, ‘many fail to plan but no-one plans to fail’ may sound corny but it is worth remembering’. For a smaller business you will not have the luxury of a Project Manager to ensure your website is delivered on time and on budget. This doesn’t mean that you can’t successfully manage a small project however! Make sure there is at least a schedule for the work that needs to be completed and some kind of track of work completed and budget remaining. Keep it simple but make sure you plan, with this you should be able the successfully deliver your website.

Trust – with so many suppliers in one industry and many promising quick success and fantastic results it is not surprising that many businesses feel intimidated or afraid of being ripped off when considering developing a business website. Try to mitigate this risk by always looking for examples of previous work undertaken and testimonials. Don’t believe the hype, if a supplier is promising overnight success then it should act as a warning sign, the best results take time to develop – as with anything in business. Look for experts who are happy to share information with you and build your trust before taking any money from you.

Laziness – sorry, but this has to be on the list! It is a plain fact that many business owners and employees appreciate and understand that developing a website can be a lucrative and extremely effective course of action for their business but they continue to do what they have always done because this is the easiest most pain free course of action. Ultimately it is a question of success or failure in your market – those who stand still are actually going backwards as technology and consumers become more sophisticated

Denial – there are many businesses who (amazingly) continue to deny that the Internet actually exists. It’s true that for some businesses the development of a business website is not appropriate but to turn your back on this area and ignore huge potential benefits is not the answer.

Not right for my business – it could be that you have not developed a website for your business due to a belief that you will not gain any competitive advantage or revenue from such a project. It is certainly true that a website isn’t right for every business but take the time to consider potential benefits, look at competitors and what they are doing. Don’t be afraid to develop a website even if it is not something that is common between your competitors or in your industry – there may still be value in this course of action as you will be seen as an innovator in your market and may be the first to capitalise on potential returns.

Inappropriate content – it could be that you feel your business cannot communicate its services or products via a website. There are, however, many new ways of developing a website using multimedia content which can give close to or as good as a product or service demonstration as you could give to a prospective client face to face. Explore free tools like video online with YouTube or try writing about what you do in more detail and incorporating into a site or blog.

So now you can turn the top ten barriers to developing a business website into a ten step plan for success. Good luck, I look forward to visiting your website soon!

If you enjoyed this article then why not link to it from your site or blog, also, don’t forget to bookmark this page on your favorite social bookmarking site.

If you would like to learn more about how to develop a business website then request your free copy of the We Are Web Quickguide to Website Investment for SMEs at We Are Web.

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Key points to consider when developing your company website

September 15th, 2009

At some point the majority of businesses have considered whether they need to invest in a business website. If there is justification for the development of a website the next stage in this important process is to look at the main factors which will influence the design and development of the website.

  • Firstly consider the type of business you have – business to business websites (targeting a business audience) are very different to business to consumer websites (targeting consumers rather than businesses. A business site will require very different content to a consumer website, take the time to look at some of the websites belonging to your most successful competitors and see how they do it.

Next you need to consider how you are going to develop your business website on time and to budget – you need a plan! At the very least you should have a rough plan detailing your key actions and site objectives – this will help you develop and assess the success of your website as the project progresses.

  • As part of the plan you must include a firm idea of what the objectives of your website will be.  For example, to generate sales leads or to increase charitable donations, etc. A number of small and medium sized businesses complain about the failure of their new websites to attract sales leads, however this is often due to an absence of clear objectives based on lead generation set out from the start.
  • One important factor to remember is that you should not stop existing forms of marketing and replace with marketing your website online – keep doing both. Traditional forms of marketing can still prove useful and effective. For the most effective results integrate your website and traditional marketing e.g. ensure you quote your new website in all of your printed marketing literature.
  • Some of the most user-friendly and useful websites in the world never attract any visitors – the reason: you must tell people about your site. Generating traffic to your website is imperative, you wouldn’t get a new phone line installed and then sit by the telephone waiting for it to ring, so don’t do the same with your website. Make raising the visibility of your website a key priority.
  • Remember: keep it simple – don’t be tempted to overcomplicate the design, or content on your website. The same is true for the technology used on your website. If you have limited technical knowledge make sure your site or the technology used to create it is as user-friendly as possible. It is better to learn as you go along than let doubt and perfectionism stifle your opportunity to achieve some good results – you can always improve your website with every iteration.
  • You should always track success, even if it is in a crude basic way – keep track of where your online enquiries are coming from e.g. a simple source of enquiry question on a contact form or a simple log of how many visitors your site has received. Free analytics tools are offered by many website hosting providers. How will you know you have achieved your objectives if you do not track success, how will you improve if you don’t record what is not working and what is?
  • Ask yourself the question: could I cope with an influx of leads from a new website? Be prepared for success, think about whether you have the resources to cope with an influx of leads from your website. Make sure that your resources are synchronised with your website plan.
  • Finally, don’t believe the hype.  Leave flashing websites and neon lights to the large brands to try – they have the marketing large budget to be able to experiment. Stick to simple ideas, they work well in traditional marketing so they will work well on the web.

Request your free copy of the We Are Web Quickguide to Website Investment for SMEs at We Are Web.

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Is a website right for my business?

August 24th, 2009

A website is not right for every business, although it is recommended that every commercial business should undertake some form of marketing that doesn’t always include the development of a website. However, for the majority of businesses, success on the web can often mean the difference between profit and loss or success and failure.

Important points to consider are:

Do my customers and prospects use the internet? If you can’t find any statistics for your industry sector then ask your customers – it’s the most effective form of free market research

How many clients do I have, if offering a personal service to a handful of clients will a website add value and return the investment? It is important to highlight that if you are not targeting new prospective customers, a website can still add value.  For example, a section on your website could house important documentation and information available for download  when required by the client

Would prospects use the internet to find my services? Some businesses such as dry cleaners, often win customers by their business location.  Others such as tree surgeons may win customers using word of mouth recommendation

How do I currently win business? If the way that you currently market your business is not producing satisfactory results then a new tactic may be required

How would I like to win business? Are you targeting the wrong sort of customer using your existing marketing methods, do your ideal customers tend to ignore you as they prefer to use the internet?

Am I currently generating enough revenue through other offline forms of marketing and business development. If you generate a satisfactory amount of revenue without a website you may feel it is not worth investing in one

Do you want to grow your business and extend your message to new audiences? This question is key, if the answer is no then a website is probably not right for you. If you do want to grow your business then a website is an extremely important part of your marketing arsenal

Can I afford to invest in a new website? When considering this question it is important to keep a focus on return on investment. Any money invested in a website today should provide return tomorrow as long as you have clear objectives and a plan of action

Do I have the time to effectively manage and update my website? There are a number of options for managing your website which can make the process more straight forward than you think (see Potential Barriers section beneath). Be sure to give this area some thought as a website containing out of date information can damage to your brand image

So if you think your profitable customers are online and want to grow your business and increase your customer base then investment in a website is the best course of action.

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Marketing illustration and art online

August 24th, 2009

There are literally thousands of people in the world who have a talent for art and illustration, unfortunately we will never get to enjoy the work produced by these people as they may not be marketing their skills successfully.

Many artists and illustrators I know have cupboards full of work of high quality which could be generating an income and raising their profile. As well as this it is surely the point of art to be enjoyed by people otherwise the motivation for production can only be to satisfy personal pleasures.

One of the most important and cost effective methods of marketing your work in by harnessing the power of the web, it offers large-scale reach for very limited cost.

Online marketing of illustration and art still required fundamentals of marketing to be considered – ask yourself the question “who is my target audience” and “how can I reach them with my message?”. Next consider the marketing mix – Product, Price, Place and Promotion and how you will use the tools of Internet promotion to promote your work.

In this article I will concentrate on promotion via the web as even with a limited understanding of marketing getting this part of the marketing mix right can bring quick rewards.

The first point for consideration should be the creation of a website, whether it’s a few pages created by a friend who has some technical knowledge or a fully functioning eCommerce site this element is crucial to your online success. You will need to choose a name for your website that is relevant, for example if you are an illustrator who produces illustration for children’s books then consider names such as “childrens-illustrator”. Thought put into the choice of website name will reap rewards later through high search engine rankings.

Secondly, start a blog, there are hundreds of free blog facilities available where illustrators and artists can discuss their work and also benefit from promoting what the do at the same time. There is an added benefit with use of blogs as search engines also like to see other sites linking to your website.

Thirdly, list your website with as many free directory and listing sites as you can in order to keep the volume of exposure high. As well as attracting traffic (i.e. visitors) to your website it will also assist with your search engine rankings in the same manor as your blog.

Fourthly, don’t forget about offline promotion – quote your website and blog addresses on your marketing literature, business cards etc so as to create maximum synergy between all of your promotional efforts.

Fifthly, harness the power of eZine sites such as this, by sharing knowledge on your specialist subject you are not only promoting what you are good at but are also building a reputation as a trusted source of information in your field on the web.

Step six, speak to other artists and illustrators about sharing links for each other sites, this practise is known as reciprocal linking and as well as being good for, you guessed it, the search engine rankings, it is also a great way to network and gain word of mouth promotion.

Finally, consider publicising your illustration or art through use e-mail communications. Simple e-mail-shots can be sent from software such as MS Outlook or Thunderbird mail. If you want to use a system that is a little more sophisticated (i.e. it offers more advanced tracking for response and opening statistics) then why not try a service like Constant Contact. This supplier offers free e-mail broadcast for small quantity mail outs, perfect if you are new to e-mail marketing and want to try your hand.

E-mail communications are a very effective way of staying in touch with your target audience and can be used to promote a wide range of subjects from a new exhibition to current art or illustration projects.

So what’s stopping you, promote your illustration and art on the web today!

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Welcome to the Digital Consultant blog

August 24th, 2009

Welcome to the Digital Consultant blog!

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