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Social media online marketing

With businesses looking for more and more ways in which they can connect with their customer or potential customers with less face to face contact, social media marketing is more important than ever.

Much of the population in the UK uses or has access to social media accounts. When someone has a social media account you can often target them based on certain criteria such as age or location. You can possibly even drill down either further and target people who have shown an interest in a particular sport or hobby.

Some businesses may find it easier to use social media as a marketing tool than others. Businesses that deal directly with the public often find it easy to engage with customers through social media and don’t have too much of an issue creating posts and post updates. Businesses in other industries may struggle a little more, especially as social media can be quite informal. Business that are in a professional industry such as accountants, solicitors etc may worry about what they put on their social media, but social media can still be quite formal as long as you get the balance right. For example, you may want to put on a news article about politic news updates but then follow it with one about something that is going on in your office.

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What makes a great website?

To design and build an effective website is a challenge that many businesses face as they start out and even though the content of the site is important the whole experience that a visitor to the site has depends on you and your design.

Distinct web design elements can have an effect on the attitude of the viewer and so should be carefully thought about at the outset. Research has been carried out on the effects of colours, font and spacing on the website reviews and it makes interesting reading therefore what are the key elements that make for a successful website design?

Firstly, the content of your site should be clear, organised and easily navigated. Visitors do not want to be inundated with irrelevant content and pages of text. Links between pages should work properly to avoid irritation.

Secondly, the way that the pages are set out needs to be uncluttered with little text and only a few images. Too many flashing, scrolling images and banners can make the visitor feel uneasy and will result in them leaving the site.

Colour and typefaces should be adapted to fit your website and ultimately your business. Blue is a colour traditionally used to convey trust and is used frequently by financial institutions for this reason.

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How to find out how well your website ranks

When it comes to websites, rankings are very important. You need to know how well your website is preforming in terms of the search engine rankings on Google and Bing for example. When someone types in a keyword or a phrase for a product or service you offer you want to appear as close to the top of the search results as possible. The further down the pages you appear, the less likely you are to receive a click through to your site. You can manually type in your phrases and see where you appear, but this can not only be time consuming but also not accurate as Google may show you different results to the general public as often it promotes sites you have visited on your personalised search results. There is software out there that will find this information for you. Depending on how many terms you want to track and how in depth of an analysis you want should influence your choice on which software to go with. The cost of the software varied quite a bit and it is worth asking to see if they will give you a free trial before you commit to an on going subscription.

Some great marketing companies have even created their own ranking software that often works better than many off the shelf ones and allows them the control to add in additional features if there is the call for it.

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How to use email marketing for your business

If you have a business and currently use or want to try email marketing then you need to put some time in to carefully considering the content that is included in the email and importantly, the subject line.

Although it can work very well for many businesses, there is a way in which it needs to be done to ensure that it is successful otherwise it is likely to fail. You will get the best results if you email direct to your own database of customers rather than using a cheap bought list which may contain a lot of out of date email address etc. IF you are going to use a mailing company such as Mail Chip to send out your email, then they stipulate that you have to have the consent off everyone that you are emailing and bought lists will not be accepted. This is especially important since the introduction of GDPR.

The subject line is of massive importance on an email as it is often the first thing the viewer will read and can be the deciding factor between opening the email and deleting it. Knowing what to put on a subject line can be tricky and you must remember to restrict the length of your subject line to ensure that it is seen.

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Saying in contact with your web developer

Having a website created or updating can be exciting. You will often sit down with your programmer / designer and talk about what you want. They will usually then go away and either create visuals for how the website will look and function or they will give you a detailed description of exactly what will be included on the site.

You may feel that once you have agreed on the specifics you no longer need to keep in contact with them unless you need to ask them something, but losing contact with your designer / programmer can lead to a number of issues later on down the line.  It may be that you have your website built, it goes live and is just left to tick over for a few years. After this time you may want to make some changes to the site, but find that you can no longer get in touch with them. This can cause a number of issues as if you do not have access to the hosting / domain names you may struggle to get control  

Often a web developer will need FTP access to your site in order for them to make changes to it and the only person that will be able to give them this is the developer who is hosting the site.

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Can the colours used on your website affect sales?

When you are browsing the internet either for information or to purchase a product or services you will see that many sites use colour to influence their visitors in some way so when developing your own website which colours should you avoid and which should you choose and how might this affect your business?

Research has been carried out into colour psychology and its effect it on people’s perceptions of a brand and their behaviour and even though not everyone agrees it does seem to have some credibility.

The colours you choose for your home page should say something about your business. For instance, if your website is promoting a business which is mainly outdoors, green and other natural colours would be a good choice whereas if your company provides activities for children a vibrant colour scheme would be more appropriate. Be aware that too many primary colours together can give an unprofessional impression so choosing two colours is probably a sensible choice.

If your website is going to be aimed at a particular gender, then some colour schemes are thought to be more successful at promoting your business. If you want to appeal to male clients black, blue and green are thought to achieve results whereas female clients prefer colour schemes based on blue, purple and green.

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Is your website attracting your target clients?

Target clients are a group of people who you consider to be specifically interested in your products and services and as such are the people who you want to find your website amongst the vast array of websites available online. How do you ensure that your website is attracting these clients and that they are clicking on the appropriate links to find the information they require?

A meeting with a recommended web designer to discuss your options is an excellent place to start as they will be able to advise you on the best way forward. Your marketing budget can be discussed, and most web designers will be able to provide an effective website to fit your budget within reason.

Make clear at this meeting who your target client group are and discuss your ideas for how to direct your clients to the relevant pages of your site. If your website has broken links or too much irrelevant information potential clients will become frustrated and look elsewhere so it is important that the site is well managed and kept up to date. This can be done in house which can work out cheaper or can be undertaken by a web management company.

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Be sure not to forget your mobile visitors

If you have a company website then it is worth spending some time analysing the stats. Some companies use their own analytics package that is attached to their hosting or you may wish to use Google analytics which offers a user friendly comprehensive analytics program that is free to use.
When looking through your stats you may be surprised as to how many visitors view your website on a mobile or tablet device. More and more people own smart devices such as phones and tablets and are using them to browse the web and make purchases online. This information can be vital as you can then check to see what it is they are viewing and if it is showing all the information you want it to.
Checking your site regularly on these devices will allow you to quickly notice any issues where content is not displayed correctly or missing entirely. If you do have this issue you may notice that the bounce rate is higher or returning customers levels are lower on the mobile devices.
Be sure to correct any issues that you have and when new content is added or structural changes are made to the site, that these are replicated on the mobile version.

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Pay Per Click – getting the most out of your campaigns

PPC is also known as Pay per Click is a way of advertising your business using paid for ads online. Many companies often reply on this method of marketing to drive a lot of traffic to their site, and if set up correctly and with the right budget, it can be very successful.
It can be a little expensive, so Pay per Click may be something you only want to use occasionally alongside Search Engine Optimisation for your website to boost your organic listings.
If you have a PPC campaign set up or are looking to create one then I would strongly advise speaking to a professional. It is relatively easy to create a basic campaign yourself, but without having the correct settings and keywords you may find that you waste a large percentage of your budget on unqualified visitors.
Within most PPC campaigns, such as Google Adwords for example you can select targeted locations, times to show your ad and create keywords that trigger your ads. You can also add in negative keywords that you do not want your ads to show for thus cutting down on wasted clicks.
If you are not confident in doing your own Pay Per Click campaigns then you may want to use a specialist marketing company to set up and possibly run the campaigns for you. This can often get you a better return on your investment.