It is said that knowledge is power. Knowledge also makes good commercial sense, especially when distilled into financial return. Knowledge mitigates risk, builds relationships and helps grow strong businesses.

A significant amount of knowledge can be acquired through stakeholder and partner networks. A culture of information exchange and knowledge transfer takes time to build up, but there are a number of key activities that can assist with this process.

Knowledge transfer sessions

Sharing knowledge in face-to-face meetings is something organisations have been doing since the dawn of time. Digital channels facilitate the process of interactions of this nature through forums, webinars, live chat and video cast services. There are a number of advantages associated with the use of these tactical tools, including:

• Real time interaction
• Removal of reliance on scribes / minuting as there is often a permanent record of the session captured e.g. a recording of a webinar or the discourse of a live chat session
• Non-location dependent – allows sessions to reach a global audience
• Multi channel integration in one environment – e.g. a webinar supported with instant messenger for questions to the host(s) and presentation delivered via a web portal
• Reduced cost.

Few organisations fully utilise these services, which are commonplace in client facing environments for the cultivation of partner and stakeholder relationships and the sharing of knowledge.

The greater relative convenience and additional advantages offered by digital channels can provide an opportunity for organisations to develop regular knowledge sharing sessions.

Knowledge sharing groups

Harnessing the power of the interconnected web is key for developing relationships and partnerships based on a solid foundation of knowledge sharing.

Knowledge hubs and wikis are now more common place for large organisations, some of which have invested in the development of bespoke systems and tools.

There is perhaps a perception that the technology required to implement this type of programme is beyond the reach of many small and medium sized enterprises. However, through the use of open source solutions such as MediaWiki or eFront and managed hosted solutions such as SocialGO, a lot can be achieved with limited technical resources.

The enabling tasks for establishing a knowledge sharing group can be more easily completed via the use of digital tools, specifically:

• Thought leader lists – a database can be built by thought leaders themselves, thus saving time and cost e.g. partner employee registration with an organisation’s wiki
• Knowledge themes – online information architecture can simplify the organisation of knowledge into themes, categories and sections
• Linking of ideas and concepts – the web is ideal for enabling cross informational linking that drives new ideas e.g. a collaborative online workshop presentation that consolidates and references several different partner concepts
• Modification of ideas – use of wikis is potentially beneficial but not without risk
• Collaborative content creation – the ability to quickly sift, edit and add to information online facilitates the process of collaboration
• The sharing of digital assets through content libraries

Shared digital asset and content production

Working with partners to jointly produce digital assets and content can present significant benefits to an organisation. The output of such activity may be targeted at a closed loop internal audience or could be opened up to a wider external audience to continue the knowledge harvesting process.

Co-produced editorial and expert guest writers from partner organisations can also potentially add credibility to an organisation’s message to external audiences.

Sharing technical knowledge and expertise

Technical teams within your organisation will be no strangers to the approaches to knowledge sharing commonly found in the software and applications development world.

The sharing of developer tool kits and Application Programme Interfaces with networks of partners and stakeholders is nothing new, but transitioning to this state from a more traditional model can be a huge shift for organisations supplying digital products and services.

The degree to which this approach is adopted will depend on a number of factors including commercial, risk and cultural considerations.

Choose your sharing model

Depending on the number and nature of the partnership relationships your organisation has, there are a number of different models available to support the development of a digital knowledge sharing strategy. Three possible strategies could be:

• Fluid knowledge collaboration – the sharing of knowledge through a collaborative process of creating assets, content and resources. Rather than a rigid process, the output of such activity may be small banks of information that can be regularly updated by all parties, referred to, repackaged and referenced e.g. an indexable list of reference specifications in a knowledge portal or group wiki
• Knowledge distribution – existing knowledge resources shared freely with partners and stakeholder groups e.g. content distribution via an eLearning static brochure ware type platform. (Some type of commenting or feedback loop can be included)
• Internal partner collaboration meets external client collaboration – the output of knowledge sharing activity in an organisation can be continued in an external audience environment e.g. a report produced as a result of several conversations between partners and an organisation via their wiki site could be published externally on a client-facing site that would then continue the process. Version two of the report could incorporate knowledge gained from client’s comments or discussions.

The strategies, tactics and tools discussed in this article can help support joint knowledge sharing projects and collaborative information sharing ventures. However, each individual organisation will no doubt wish to tailor their approach and map it to existing partner or stakeholder networks or those currently being developed.

Many of our most popular high street banks provide woeful service through their websites, often design and usability of sites seems to suggests that no testing has ever occurred (as if it had then obvious shortcomings in user experience would be addressed).

I’ve used a number of online banking websites over the past few years as I tried to chase rates from one organisation to another.

My top five gripes with online banks are as follows:

1) Hiding the ‘contact us’ link

This is such a common issue with websites in general, online banks are particular offenders. Surely one of the most common user journeys customers will be looking to take online is to visit the website in order to find other means or methods of communication. So why on so many sites is finding the contact us section so difficult?

Favourite tricks include burying the contact link in the footer and placing it in the middle of lots of other content.

2) Not providing an updated balance

Okay – this is a functional aspect but hey. When I log into my Santander account and it tells me a balance that’s 4 days out of date I do start to wonder why?

3) Making security checks as difficult as humanly possible

From the over complicated to the totally unfathomable, security checks for online banking are the bane of many people’s lives. Forgetting passwords and general inconvenience caused by convoluted solutions to serious security requirements are a real issue to many customers. There must be a better balance between security and usability that can be reached.

Nationwide have decided that their users must use a card reader for the majority of actions they perform through their online banking site, great for the bank – bad for the user. NS&I have decided to supplement their already terrible online service with telephone verification for transactions. Unfortunately they don’t tell you they are going to call you as you move through the process and if you miss the call they lock you out of your account – perfect. The only message displayed to the user states: “You will now be challenged by telephone”..all sounds a bit threatening to me?!

4) Hiding the account login

Lets not stop at hiding the contact us link, let’s hide the login to online banking link too! Incredulous but true for many online banking websites. Look at NS&I’s homepage, found it yet? Quite easy to miss I think.

5) Sacking their designer

There are some shockers in the online banking world in terms of site design. A few good examples include Santander’s total brand confusion template and First Direct’s black hole of Calcutta design – who turned the lights out?

But it’s not all negative! Nationwide provide a good example of an organisation who seem to take online banking seriously, their site is clean in design, the back end has a good level of functionality and from a user perspective all the round corners and colours are making the whole process of using the site is at risk of being quite pleasing!

But I still lament the fact that so many banks get it wrong. If the banks can’t get established website technology right now then I expect little of value to me as a customer to be developed soon for use on my mobile or TV.

So let’s hear your comments beneath – which banks are the heroes and which are the villains in your opinion?

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.

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.

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.

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.

• 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.

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.

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!