Posted on July 15th, 2008 by Adam in
Marketing Sales and Marketing - cost or investment? Which mindset do you have? Regardless how you perceive it, history has shown that companies who continue to invest in Sales and Marketing during an economic downturn stand a better chance of surviving it. Those who cut their spend, reduce their sales potential and lose out.
Inflation has just hit 3.8%, up 0.5% since May. This is an 11 year high and much greater than our Governments 2% target. As a result the Bank of England is unlikely to cut interest rates, currently 5%. The BBC and Financial Times both report daily on the impact of oil prices and the credit crunch on our economy. It is not going to improve overnight.
It is not enough to offer a fantastic set of products and services, unless of course you can survive on repeat business!. Your message needs to get to your potential customers. Your message will come in a variety of forms from advertising and web presence to verbal and sales materials. It is even in the emails and invoices you send. If your message is not up to scratch change it. If your message is not reaching your target audience or the wrong audience, change that. Continual improvement and investment will help you survive this economic downturn.
Despite it’s importance you cannot rely solely on SEO for your eMarketing:
- Google has 25.8 billion pages with a .com ending and 1 billion with .co.uk - that’s a lot of competition. In competitive sectors (e.g. loans, property, games) it may be very difficult to get good rankings.
- Only the search engines control what they display, where and when. Rankings cannot be guaranteed by anyone else! Occasionally they change the rules and that can be catastrophic for your rankings.
- Some companies may employ black hat techniques to improve their results. We refuse to use them as you will eventually be blacklisted.
- Successful SEO does require a high degree of specialist knowledge which is reflected in the cost. The initial SEO work can be quite substantive and, as importantly, does require on-going maintenance.
Most people would agree that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the most important elements of search marketing. Why pay for the initial expense of SEO?
- The cost is fixed regardless of the number of clicks so in the longer term it provides better value for money
- Generally 80% of the clicks come from the natural listings and 20% from paid listings
- Research shows some searchers NEVER click on the sponsored listings as they believe the natural listings give better, more relevant results
- Combined with paid-search it can also offer a highly targetted audience
Last week we launched the new 1st Class Window Films website. That site has been created to showcase the range of films that 1st Class can provide. The site also contains important information about the benefits of installing a window film system.
We worked closely with John deBraber of 1st Class Window Films to create the final site. The testimonial below highlights the great working relationship we developed during the process.
“Bad Robot came to our rescue after experiencing lets say an unprofessional web design company, they visited my company and listened to what I needed, within two weeks they had my now fantastic website up and running. I would recommend Bad Robot to anybody who wants to get things done professionally, one of their many skills is their ability to listen and understand what you want. 10/10 John den-Braber 1st Class window Films Ltd”.
http://www.1stclasswindowfilms.com
Posted on June 17th, 2008 by Adam in
Marketing Market segmentation is simply taking the markets you operate in, or would like to operate in, and dividing them into smaller units. Focussing on segments allows you provide targetted messages and offers, resulting in higher conversion rates; a more effective use of your marketing dollars.
There are many ways to segment your markets. Common approaches include:
- Geography: Physical location eg country, county, city etc.
- Geodemographics: Lifestyle information eg age, car ownership
- Social Class
- Type of Business
- Size of Organisation
Once you have created suitable segments you will need to validate them before you create segment specific offers and marketing communication. There are no standard tests but if you satisfy yourself that you can answer the following common questions you should be well underway:
- Is the segment big enough? - can you make enough profit?
- Is the segment sustainable? - will it be there long enough to make it profitable?
- Can you reach the segment? - can you identify and contact potential customers?
- Does the segment respond differently? - two or more segments respond the same combine them
Posted on June 5th, 2008 by Adam in
Marketing So what really is marketing?
According to the Chartered Institute of Marketing it is the management process which identifies, anticipates and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably. What does that mean for most businesses? Simply put it’s how you decide what you are selling, to who and at what price.
Typical marketing tasks
- Identify existing or future customers
- Identify their needs and/or wants
- Identfy likely changes in these needs/wants
- Create products and/or services to match
- Ensure existing and future customers are aware of your offer
- Enable customers to get hold of your offer
- Ensure you are making a profit
It is clear to see that every business does these activities, whether inside the owners head or within a marketing department. A more structured approach to marketing is likely to give you better results.
Using external style sheets is a great way to change the whole look and feel of a website without actually altering the sites structure or content. A Cascading style sheet or CSS file is an external file that holds all element properties for your website; so within this file are font sizes, colour schemes, rollover images, background images, page structure, page margins, etc etc. The list is quite literally endless of the things you can control and manipulate within the CSS file. Since web standards (W3C) stated that websites should be constructed using XHTML and CSS, external style sheets have become around 50% of the initial development process.
The great thing about CSS is that it has to be one of the easiest languages to write, it uses plain English to define the element properties; and using a text editor such as Dreamweaver all the properties are made available from a list so you don’t even have to remember them.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that CSS is a simply a basic language, the full potential of CSS is now starting to rise to the surface, with publications such as Dan Cederholm’s Bulletproof Web design (http://www.simplebits.com/), which highlights the advanced layout structures and website effects that can be achieved using this language.
XHTML and CSS is a great starting point for any budding programmer. They teach you the basics and introduce you into other languages such as PHP and Javascript. You don’t need any fancy software to get started. Simply load up notepad. Get yourself a couple of tutorials of the internet, give it a go and see what you can achieve.
Digital photography means that more people than ever are taking photographs, even if some are of dubious quality (See blog “Has going digital ruined photography?”).
More people than ever now also have access to a home computer and together with increased popularity of image manipulation software, this means that many people are realising for the first time that the picture they take is not just an end in itself, to be filed away and forgotten about. In fact nearly all images taken on a digital camera need to be manipulated to a greater or lesser extent. Too many people think that the camera does it all for them. Not so. In the days of film cameras you took the photographs then had the film developed. The same principle applies to digital. You take the photographs then you tweak (or develop) them using a program such as Adobe Photoshop.
Of course, we should still strive to get out photographs as right as possible at the taking stage, but it is nice to know that we are able to “fix” things later on the PC. Once the realm of specialist darkroom technicians or design studios, anyone can now manipulate their images.
With just a little knowledge of Photoshop it is possible to turn any digital photograph into almost any image – maybe even a good photograph! We can now alter colours or even turn them to black and white. We can tint, tone, adjust brightness, contrast, focus, twist, distort, manipulate. We can remove lamp posts from sticking out of people’s heads, change skies, add bits in, take bits out, and apply a whole gamut of special effects. In fact if you can think of it, it can be done – the only limitation is the extent of your own imagination.
As Albert Einstein once wrote, “Imagination is more important than Knowledge” …and how right he was!
Chris U’Dell has launched his own business blog entitled shaking up insurance. MD of Business & Domestic Insurance Services Ltd, Chris sees his blog as communication tools designed to provide relevant insurance information to collegues, clients and clients; both current and potential.
www.chrisudell.co.uk
If you’re looking for property in Egypt, then Jood Investments have more fantastic offers. These two developments are based in Hurghada, Egypt.
We have developed micro-sites to showcase these developments for them
www.coral-sea-hurghada.co.uk
www.pearl-vista-hurghada.co.uk
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