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Newsletter - January 2008

5 Steps to Online Success in 2008

Will New Google Video Ads Affect Your Business?

Do's and Don'ts of Viral Email Marketing

Time for a New Site?

It's a new year, and having reviewed your business objectives you may have decided that your current website is not sufficient for your future needs. If this is the case, I am pleased to announce the launch of webstart. I don't usually use this space to promote my own services so blatantly but I know that this solution is right for so many people that I wanted to make you aware of it.

webstart is a website solution that achieves all of the following important objectives:

Professional design – unique to your business
Search engine friendly – what's the point of a site with no traffic?
User-friendly – focused on the customer experience
Legal obligations met in terms of following accessibility guidelines
Ultimately expandable to grow with your business
Modular architecture to easily enhance functionality and interactivity when you need it
Future-proof – protecting your investment
Browser-based content management system (for those inclined to update their own site)
Affordable for the smallest of businesses

This is unlike any other packaged solution available as it incorporates all the attributes normally only associated with websites, and budgets, for larger businesses. And, ultimately, the package just gets you started. Due to the modular flexibility, in terms of design and functionality, no two solutions are the same – in other words you get a unique solution aligned to your specific requirements.

If you are beginning to think that your website is looking tired and invisible to search engines, then why not talk to us about webstart? – Perhaps it's the start you are looking for.

There is more information on my website but feel free to call me on 01242 570330 and see how webstart could work for you.

5 Steps to Online Success in 2008

The beginning of a new year is not only a time for personal resolutions, but also an important time to look forward to the year ahead for your business. Making improvements to your website now can play a major part in the success your company will achieve in the year ahead.

Here are five important steps to take at the beginning of the year to put your company on the right track throughout 2008.

1. Evaluate the Goals and Purposes of Your Website
Your business grows and changes over time, so the beginning of the year is a perfect time to evaluate whether your website goals should change as well. Did one of your strategies have an unexpected level of success last year, indicating that it deserves more resources? Have you introduced new product lines or services that need exposure on your website?

2. Ensure Your Website is Up-to-Date and Persuasive
As technology changes, your website might need to be updated as well. Do your pages look dated or old fashioned? Is your information fresh and informative? And most of all, are your pages easy to use and persuasive, to help convince site visitors to fulfil your website goals?

3. Determine How You'll Drive Traffic to the Site
The best website in the world won't help your company if no one is around to see it. At the beginning of the year, it's a good idea to plan how you'll be bringing visitors to your site in 2008. Which tactics worked in 2007? Do you have reason to believe they'll still be strong in the year ahead? Did you use strategies in 2007 that were ineffective and should be abandoned?

4. Commit Resources to a Customer Acquisition Strategy
Once you've determined how you want to bring new traffic to the site, you'll need to budget your time, money, and resources to converting that traffic into new customers. This includes everything from ensuring that your website repeats and strengthens your advertising message to following up on sales leads generated by your website.

5. Determine How to Analyse Website Activity to Determine Success
After you've worked out your goals and decided how to achieve them, you need to determine how you'll measure whether your strategy is working. Your website servers store a vast amount of information about your customers' behaviour, but you'll need to set a method of evaluating that information. Decide what your key metrics will be and what kind of numbers you'll need to see to declare the year a success.

By using the beginning of the year to evaluate your business and prepare for the year ahead, you can set your company on the road to online success throughout 2008. If you would like a no-obligation consultation to review and make plans for your website, please call 01242 570330.

How to Write a Killer 'About Us' Page

One of the tricky things about writing a killer 'About Us' page is that most companies tend to take it at its word and write what they want to tell their audience. A really effective About Us page is actually about the user – or, rather, what the user wants to know.

Here are 7 suggestions for making your company's About Us pages more effective.

1. Put Your Mission Statement Front and Centre
Your customers come to the About Us page to find out what kind of company you are. Be sure that you answer their question by succinctly expressing your business ethics and long-term goals.

2. Give Your Business a Face
If you were doing business face-to-face, your customers would have a good idea of who your employees are. Online, you lose the ability to speak with every one of your visitors, but you can still provide a more personalised shopping experience by providing bios of your key employees.

3. Let Customers Share Experiences
Customers expect businesses to be a bit biased about themselves, but they'll give more weight to the experiences of other shoppers like themselves. Include testimonials in your About Us pages, and give links to more details and reviews.

4. Keep Your Information Current
An out-of-date website speaks of shoddy workmanship and a lack of attention to detail – which is the last thing a customer wants to see. If you don't even care about your own website, how can you expect your customers to believe that you'll care about their experiences? Review you About Us pages often and remove outdated information immediately.

5. Be Sincere
It's tempting to slant your About Us pages to what you think your customers want to hear. But many customers can sniff out hype and insincerity a mile away. Be honest and real when talking about your business. Emphasise your benefits and accomplishments, but don't exaggerate.

6. Make the About Us Page Easy to Find
If your customers are wondering who you are, you don't want them to think that you have something to hide. Make sure that the About Us page is part of your main navigation, including a link from the home page. Even if a customer never visits the About Us page, knowing it's there builds trust and increases the likelihood of sales.

7. Anticipate Where Your Customers Will Go Next
When your customers are done reading the About Us page, you want them to go deeper into your site, not to click away. Make it easy for them to stay engaged by providing links to related pages like contact or product pages, or to return to the main section of the site.

By following these easy tips, you can turn your About Us page into a tool to help build customer trust and increase conversions. Call 01242 570330 for a no-obligation consultation to review the effectiveness of your About Us page.

Will New Google Video Ads Affect Your Business?

After a short test in the United States, Google is opening its brand new video advertising option to UK businesses as well. Businesses can now go beyond text links and banner ads to present their marketing information to customers in a fun and engaging way. How could this new AdSense feature affect your business?

What are Google Video Ads?
Google video ads are short video clips of two minutes in length or less. The videos are hosted by Google so that they do not use the site owner's bandwidth or make site visitors wait longer for the page to load. The videos are screened for family-safe content by Google staff.Google video ads won't begin until the site visitor clicks on the "play" button, which means that they are non-intrusive.

How Will I Pay for Google Video Ads?
Google video ads compete with all of the other ad types, including text links and banner advertisements, for placement on the publisher's site. Content-generated Google video ads are paid on a cost-per-click basis when users click on the video or on the advertiser's web address, which is displayed below the video.

If you choose to target your ads demographically or by choosing specific websites to display them, the price is calculated on a cost-per-thousand-displays (CPM) basis, just like with any other kind of Google ad.

How Can Google Video Ads Affect My Business?
This new technology from Google could change small-to-medium enterprises in a number of different ways. These include:

More Engagement. Video ads can use colour, light, and sound to create a real feel for your products and services, going far beyond the small amount of information that can be transmitted in a text ad.
More Sales. You can also use Google video ads yourself to market your own products and services. Video ads give you the chance to really show what your business can do. Think of how customers would respond to a 360-degree view of your products instead of just seeing a single image.
More Trust. In a recent survey, 58% of respondents said that video added to the perceived professionalism of the site. Although video has become easier to use, many still think that only companies with deep pockets can afford it. Nearly half of the respondents also said that they tended to trust companies that use video more.

How Can I Take Advantage of Google Video Ads?
If you'd like to create your own Google videos, here are some tips for making video advertisements:

Define your goalsCreate a tag lineCome up with an angleTell a story
Hook your viewers

Google video ads are putting a powerful advertisement format into the hands of even the smallest businesses. Take advantage of it by testing video ads for your company today. For a no-obligation consultation, call 01242 570330.

Do's and Don'ts of Viral Email Marketing

Email is one of the most popular advertising methods for small and medium enterprises because of its ability to bring your marketing message to a huge number of people at very low cost. Not only can you contact a broad segment of your market directly, but if you design your campaign correctly, your direct customers will pass the word on to their friends and family.

Here are some tips on how to make your email campaigns go viral – so they spread quickly from person to person.In order to create a successful viral email marketing campaign:

DO define your goals. Determine what you want to accomplish with a viral campaign before starting. Some possibilities include increasing brand recognition, customer loyalty, size of your opt-in mailing list, or direct sales.
DO remind your email recipients to forward the mails to their friends. Use clear, strong language and place your reminder in an easy-to-see place.
DO make sure that your email contains enough information about your company and services, so that even people who are not on your regular mailing list understand your offer.
DO make sure you consider your email format carefully. Rich media emails may lose formatting when they are forwarded, causing them to look strange when they are received. Provide a ‘forward to a friend’ web link to make it easy to pass it on.
DO track the results from your email forwarding. Some email programs make it easy to tell how often your emails are passed on to friends.
DO test how altering the size, look, and placement of the forwarding link impacts how often the mail is forwarded and how the recipients respond.
DON'T ask people to forward your mails without encouraging them to be responsible about it. If they forward to people they don't know well, or without being clear about why they are sending the mail, your message will look like spam, which could have a negative impact on your company reputation.
DON'T use incentives to encourage people to forward your mail unless you can be sure that they won't send the mails to every email address they can find, for the same reason as above.
DON'T try to do too many things at once. If you want your email to go viral, make that a strong central point of your message. Don't distract from your goal by also trying to get your readers to take too many other actions as well.

By following these do's and don'ts of creating a viral email marketing campaign, you can reach a far broader audience without breaking your marketing budget. If you would like a no-obligation consultation to explore how a viral marketing campaign could work for your business, please call 01242 570330.