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Why is Social Media Important for Businesses

May 4th, 2011 No comments

An interesting video for all businesses and marketing departments to watch, it was made to promote the book Socialnomics. The video is basically a slideshow of interesting facts about social media, (this is V2 updated in 2011).

Points to watch out for are – the number of years it took for a new thingamajig to gain 50 million users :

  • Radio 38 Years
  • TV 13 years
  • Internet 4 years
  • AND Facebook only took one year to gain 200 million users!

WATCH THIS VIDEO :-
Read more…

Categories: Business

eCommerce website – start with a spreadsheet of your products

May 3rd, 2011 No comments

Masai eStoreWe installed an eCommerce system on one of the Masai websites. Refining product descriptions and cleaning up multiple photos per product, together with working out shipping costs took quite some time.

If you have more than 20 products you really need to have them detailed on an Excel spreadsheet; – top row – product number, name, full description, price, weight, product options, stock quantity, etc.

The spreadsheet data can then be imported into the eCommerce catalog, you then format the descriptions and set up the individual product options. And triple check everything.

The image on the left shows a sample product page – main product photo, title, description, price, optionals – some of which change the price, enlargeable thumbnails of extra photos. Click the image to see the actual webpage.

Work out your packaging and shipping costs for each product too. For the UK – FedEx have different rates for England, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Island, Channel Islands – there isn’t one UK rate.

Categories: eCommerce

FOMO – The Fear of Missing Out – what you need to know

May 1st, 2011 No comments

I found this interesting Slideshow from JWT all about a powerful emotion called FOMO – the fear of missing out.

Brands can make use of the existence of FOMO to fine-tune messaging, offers, contests and more to tap into fears of missing out. Altho there is no cure for the common FOMO, businesses, marketeers and brands can focus on easing it, escalating it, making light of it or even turning it into a positive.

Do you fear your business is missing out by not getting a better website and marketing online effectively? – If you think so – call me on +44 (0) 1543-415423

See the SLIDESHOW: Read more…

Categories: Business

A few new websites created recently

April 7th, 2011 No comments

kp events websiteWe’ve been busy with a few new sites this last month: two for Masai Omega Automotive and one for KP Events.

Masai / Omega manufacture a range of high quality Land Rover accessories. In addition to web and graphic design Masai wanted an instructional video, an eCommerce system and some copy writing too.

KP Events needed their old website modernised – in fact both clients took advantage of our excellent Wake Up Your Website Service.

masai-panoramics2

The KP Events website now looks radically different and the owners are 100% happy. The brief was basically – make it blue, lively, modern, neat, clearer navigation, and make the back-end easier to use too.

For both sites we did a lot work in Photoshop – cleaning up photos, making graphics, cleaning logos, making sprites and route maps, etc. Also created a few PDFs.

Categories: Website Design

Making a video in a hurricane

April 4th, 2011 No comments

We also made a video for Masai / Omega Automotive, basically an instructional video of how to fit one of their flagship products – The Masai Panoramic Tinted Windows to a Land Rover Defender. That was a very winding day! And its not easy filtering out wind noise.

Categories: Video Production

Hiring a Web Designer

May 27th, 2010 No comments

Like many things, you get what you pay for when hiring a web designer, but the resultant website and its ability to achieve your business objectives is very much dependent upon YOUR input too.

Let’s use the analogy of custom building a desirable house……

blue print for house design

Read more…

Categories: Website Design

Wake up Your Website – The Stroke Comedy Club

April 28th, 2010 No comments

We came up with the idea for our brilliant Wake up Your Website service after being asked to create a better website design and brand image for The Stroke Comedy Club in Lichfield, Staffordshire. www.strokecomedy.com

The website was old fashioned, badly laid out, had slow loading images, didn’t portray the quality of the club and its massive success, and the business owner was not enjoying adding updates or promoting it. So we had a meeting and started planning the improvements.

As you would expect, the revamped site’s function is to quickly give details of forthcoming shows but we also wanted to include everything that people would want to know – how to get tickets, directions, who’s played there before, what the club is like, etc. Read more…

Categories: Website Design

Modern Marketing Strategy

June 18th, 2009 No comments

Make sure you’re barking up the right tree!

Aimed at business managers and entrepreneurs – this post is just to start you thinking about ways to improve your marketing efforts in 2009 and beyond.

New Economic Era – New Marketing Plan, The Customer Experience, Pain Points, Behavioural Data, Online-Shopping, Marketing in a Recession, Generation X, Y, Baby Boomers and Traditionalists. Predicting the Future.

Read more…

Categories: Business

Asking for Business Referrals – Handling Objections

April 14th, 2009 No comments

Objections and Hesitation – What to do when simply asking your clients for referrals doesn’t work. PLUS thank you gifts.

This blog is for any firm or individual that has clients and a client base, rather than customers. It follows on from our other blogs on Referral Marketing and from info on our main website. Referral Marketing is the best business development strategy there is for Service Providers…

Simple is best – it’s easier to ask with just one sentence, it’s clearly faster and efficient and less likely to be left out of a meeting than a long rehearsed speech on why you want referrals and how the system benefits the client, etc. However, you need to memorise a longer set of effective phrases when you come up against resistance to referral giving.

Read more…

Categories: Business

Getting FREE leads from External Connections

April 14th, 2009 No comments

Referrals From External Connections
This blog is for any person or firm that has clients rather than customers.

Referral Marketing is the best business development strategy there is for Service Providers…

…Accountants, Financial Advisers, Solicitors, Dentists, Designers, Architects, Plastic Surgeons, Builders, Vets, IT Services, Website Designers, Stylists, Trainers, Consultants, Printers, Landscape Gardeners, Brokers, etc.

Other service providers and professions other than your own have clients that may also need your services; your clients might also need their services. So it makes perfect sense to be proactive about it. Working more holistically and referring your clients to other carefully selected providers and professionals will compliment your own offering, bringing ‘added value services’ that your clients will appreciate and remember you for. In return the service providers and professionals are also more inclined to refer their clients to you, which is the main objective.
Read more…

Categories: Business
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