Marketing is a very vast and every changing topic and as a business owner you may struggle to know exactly what forms of marketing you need to do and which ones will give you the best return on your investment. Google Adwords is a great way to market a business especially if you want to see quick results. It is not always the cheapest method of marketing and usually should be done alongside other marketing techniques but if you are after instant results, it may be the way to go. Google Adwords allows you to choose specific geographical locations in which to target, which can be very useful if you only supply goods or services locally to you. You can create various ad groups with keywords or phrases which when searched, will trigger your ad to show. This allows you to target specific groups of people searching for a product or service you have and will make sure that you don’t waste money on clicks from customers that you cannot make a sale with. Another advantage to using Google Adwords is that it can be very easy to track the results through their statistics package which also integrate with Google […]
Rebranding your business – how to do it with little disruption
There may come a time when you feel your business needs a bit of an overhaul and you want to rebrand it. Rebranding can not only help to take your business to the next level but can also help give your employees a boost. It can sometimes be a fresh start for all. Sometimes rebranding a business can be risky, especially if it is still a relatively new business. You need to ensure that your customers are aware of the rebranding and the reasons as to why you have done it. Often it is simply a case of you have out grown your previous branding and want to bring it up to date and ensure that it reflects your company as it currently stands. . Be sure to instil continuity by rebranding across all platforms of your business i.e. website, signwriting and social media. You have a few options when it comes to a rebrand, you can either do it yourself or hire a branding agency to take you through it. A branding agency will have lots of experience in this and be able to steer you in the right direction so that it does not negatively impact your business.
Bespoke content management systems
A content management system is the back end of a website where you can upload content, manage your products and sometimes make small design changes. You can have your website built using an off the shelf content management system such as WordPress or you can have a bespoke one. There are many advantages to using a bespoke or custom CMS, but if you are a small business who is looking to stay small, then it may not be recommended. A customer CMS system will often cost a lot more than an off the shelf CMS and therefore as a small business, you may find that you do not use much of the additional functionality and end up paying well over the odds for what you need and want. Bespoke CMS systems are perfect for business who are looking to add functionality to their website quite often and need to be able to adapt the system if their website is going to be quite unique. Often complex ecommerce websites will need to be built with a bespoke CMS system. The only issue with this is if you want to move the website to another company you will not be allowed to […]
Direct marketing through mobile devices
With more and more people using mobile devices, it makes sense that in order for businesses to increase their brand awareness and sales/ enquiries, they need to ensure that they are marketing to these types of visitors. Almost all of us have access to a mobile device and with more people opting to use their mobile for access websites and downloading apps than using a desktop computer, direct marketing through this avenue is essential. The beauty with mobile marketing is that you can reach people instantly. You can create a notification and have it displayed on thousands of phones or tablets in seconds. When creating an app ensure there is a way for people to opt in to receive notifications. Make it appealing for them to do so by telling them the benefits they will have by receiving notification such as being the first to know about upcoming sales or product launches. You may also chose to set up personal notifications specific to that user, so you may be able to notify them when a repeat order is due or when they need to book in for an engineer visit for example. This will not only boost repeat business but […]
Receiving feedback from your customers
Customer feedback is vital and most successful businesses put a lot of time and effort into finding out what their customers think about their products or services. It may be that they want to know what their customers think about their website or if they could offer any other features that would make the ordering process easier, for example. They may also be interested in knowing how you would rate a product or service they supplied. This information can be like gold dust and if you act on it and make improvements where needed, it can really help improve the overall experience your customers have. Some website do this with great success but other companies struggle to get a response from surveys they send out. When someone places an order with you, ask them if you are able to contact them in the future regarding the experience with your business. Once you have permission you can then add them to a mailing list to send out an email asking for feedback. If you can personalise the email showing their name and the item they bought, you are more likely to get a higher response rate than if you sent out […]