Web Design | Web Development | SEO | Analytics | Small Business | Ursus Media Blog » marketing http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:20:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Is your website failing your business? 30 reasons why… Part 3 http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/07/is-your-website-failing-your-business-30-reasons-why-part-3/ http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/07/is-your-website-failing-your-business-30-reasons-why-part-3/#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:00:19 +0000 Adam Moore http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/?p=582

After another cliffhanger last week here’s the final part in our list of 30 reasons why your website is failing your business.

We meet a lot of people who are wondering whether or not they should invest their hard earned cash in a website redesign. They’ve already spent (sometimes a significant amount of) money and yet, for some reason, their web site doesn’t seem to be delivering results for their business. When we look at their site the reasons are usually pretty obvious but sometimes they’re more obscure.

Occasionally we have to tell people that their site is in fact doing more harm than good and that’s never a happy moment.

Here’s the final part of a list that, although by no means exhaustive, covers lots of the more common problems. Some of these things are more significant than others but they all have an impact. Let me know what you think….

Part three…

21. Not accessible

I’ve alluded to this elsewhere in this series. In this day and age you have a duty to try and make your site as accessible to as many people as possible regardless of their ability. I know a blind lady who knows more about the internet that you and I put together. She has a large disposable income, shops online regularly and does lots of research online for business. If she comes across a site that isn’t accessible she won’t phone you up instead she’ll just go elsewhere. There is also legislation on the horizon in the UK which will mean that your site (B2C sites first), will have to be accessible.

22. Poor usability

If a user has to engage their brain in order to use your website then it’s too complex. Do the granny test again or ask a five year old to accomplish some tasks on your website. Usability is a science in its own right but think about gadgets and websites that are pleasure to use – that’s good usability.

23. No call to action

You’ve gone to a lot of trouble to attract users to your website but are you asking visitors to your website to do something? Here’s a clue – the answer should be yes? It could be as simple as calling you (’call us now!’), or buying something (’buy now’). The web is direct, immediate and fast. Don’t muck about just ask the question. Be clear and maybe even be cheeky.

24. Long sign up process

Don’t do it. On the web you need to remove as much guff as possible from your sign up processes. Think about Amazon and their one click buying process or The Book Depository with their checkout and sign-up on one page process. The more steps in any process and the more likely it is that people will drop out. The more personal information that you ask for and the more likely it is that people will drop out. Don’t lose business simply because you have some need to know your customer’s inside leg measurement. Unless you sell trousers online of course.

25. Frames

You might not even know if you site has been built using frames but any web designer can tell you – maybe for free.  Your customers won’t be able to bookmark pages when they’re in your site so even if they find something they’re interested in they won’t be able to come back. But they’ll be so irritated by this time they probably won’t want to. I wouldn’t. Search engines don’t like them and find it hard to see the content – if they can’t see the content they can’t index you properly so they won’t. If a customer enters on a subpage they might find that some or all of the navigation is missing. Again, do you really want to irritate your potential customers?

26. Excessive use of Flash or Flash intros

Flash is a proprietary software that is useful for creating cool web effects and animations. Some websites are built entirely in Flash. They often look really cool. Oh, unless you’re using an iPhone. Or an iPad. Or you live in the country and have a slow web connection. There’s a lot of debate amongst developers about the use of Flash but essentially content displayed in Flash is largely inaccessible, it can slow down a website, if you’re one of the 2 million iPhone users in the UK it’s invisible and there are alternatives available. As for flash intros, read #3 again and add that argument to this one.

27. Ads that users can skip

There are some very big sites that have video ads that appear when you go to their website. You can skip the ad if you can find the little cross in the corner but essentially you are forced to watch an advert before you can see the content you’re looking for. The only organisations that can get away with this have unique and compelling content that cannot be found elsewhere. If you think you’d like to earn some extra pennies with this kind of advertising you’d better be certain that people will tolerate the ads.

28. You hired a black hat

Did someone promise you the top spot on Google? Did you hire them? The only people that can promise the top spot on Google is Google. And they won’t. Apologies to all the self proclaimed ‘web gurus’ out there but that’s a cold hard fact. The chances are that if you hire someone and within a couple of weeks you ended up in that coveted number one spot (for a competitive search term), they did something to deliberately fool the search engines. It’s impressive and exciting. Briefly. As soon as Google et al recognise that you’ve manipulated them (your site remember), they will penalise you and send you tumbling back down the rankings. There are legitimate ways to work your way up the rankings so hire a professional and be patient.

29. Meaningless domain name

Before you leap in and buy a domain name have a good hard think about it. If you sell toffees and your name’s John Smith you should probably steer clear of  johnsmith.com. That said jsmithtoffeemaker.com is probably a good bet – not to mention probably available. If possible try to make the name describe an action rather than an identity (although it might be possible to do both). Always go for a top level if you can .com .org or .co.uk. If you end up with jsmithtoffeemaker.tv everyone will think you’re an online tv channel.

30. It’s not your website, it’s you

If you have a website and people get in touch with you then please, please respond to them. Quickly. The web is instant. It’s all about instant gratification, instant information, instant availability, instant everything. If you think it can wait until later, you’re sadly mistaken. I recently made an enquiry for the same product on four different websites. One didn’t respond at all. One responded within 24 hours – not bad. One responded within 11 minutes – much better. The company that got my order responded to me in three minutes flat. They were quick, keen and professional. This stuff isn’t easy but you can develop processes that allow you to respond very quickly even if you’re a tiny company.

Essentially all of these things require attention because they adversely affect the users experience on your website and with your business. If there’s one lesson to take away from this series of posts it’s that visitors to your site will not tolerate a poor experience.

If your web site is out of date we can advise you on a sensible and cost effective way to put it right. If you ultimately need a new site and we design and build it for you, you now know of at least 30 things that won’t let it down.

The next blog post will be along shortly. I promise no more cliffhangers for a while but you don’t want to miss out you can subscribe to the blog. If it’s easier just let us know and we’ll send it to you in an email.

Ursus Media are based in Swindon, Wiltshire and specialise in web design, development, eCommerce and online marketing for small and medium businesses throughout the South West.

]]> http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/07/is-your-website-failing-your-business-30-reasons-why-part-3/feed/ 0 Is your website failing your business? 30 reasons why… http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/06/is-your-website-failing-your-business-30-reasons-why/ http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/06/is-your-website-failing-your-business-30-reasons-why/#comments Tue, 22 Jun 2010 05:45:44 +0000 Adam Moore http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/?p=544

We meet a lot of people who are wondering whether or not they should invest their hard earned cash in a website redesign. They’ve already spent (sometimes a significant amount of) money and yet, for some reason, their web site doesn’t seem to be delivering results for their business. When we look at their site the reasons are usually pretty obvious but sometimes they’re more obscure.

Occasionally we have to tell people that their site is in fact doing more harm than good and that’s never a happy moment.

Here’s a list that, although by no means exhaustive, covers lots of the more common problems. Some of these things are more significant than others but they all have an impact. Let me know what you think….

1. Lack of focus

What exactly is your website for? If you don’t know how will your customers? Think about what you want your website to do – is it simply a showcase for your products or services, does it need to encourage people to call you or sign up for an email newsletter, are you selling online? ‘I just think we need a website’ is not a clear business objective. ‘We need a web presence so that users can find and contact us’, is. A good web marketing company can help you define these objectives but you know your business better than anyone. You wouldn’t advertise on the side of a bus unless you had a good reason for doing so.

2. It’s on it’s own with no support

I’m really sorry to have to tell you this but a website is just part of the marketing mix. If you invest in a website and expect it to suddenly deliver customers and revenue you’re likely to be disappointed. The more tightly you can integrate all of your marketing efforts (on and offline) the better.

3. Splash pages

If a web developer is offering you a ‘free custom splash page’, move along and move along now. They are offering to put a free and for gratis barrier between your customers and the information they’re looking for site. It’s beyond stupid. Tell them you want something of value instead. We occasionally have special offers – sometimes we’ll even include something for free. But it won’t be a splash page.

4. Hidden contact details

If visitors to your site cannot immediately see a way to contact you they’ll lose all confidence in you. You must make it easy for people to get in touch in a way that suits them.

5. Automatic audio/video

If I arrive at your website and it plays a video or music at me as soon as I arrive I will leave. And I might be a potential customer. I might even be interested in your video. You’ll never know. Let your visitors be in control of their browsing experience; it’s not your place to tell them what to do. You can steer them in the direction you want but it’s never a good idea to force a user to do something.

6. Slow loading sites

If it takes forever for your site to load you’ll lose customers and Google will penalise you. If your site takes more than about 8 seconds to load you might want to review how it’s been coded and how and where it’s hosted.

7. Poor page layout

There’s no excuse for this and any decent web designer should be able to get this right. Do the granny test – give your granny a list of 5 or 6 simple tasks that you’d like her to accomplish on your site; find the phone number, add something to a basket, find a core product. If she fails have a rethink… or ask us for some advice.

8. First impression of your business

‘Never judge a book by its cover’. Never has a saying been more wrong. Studies suggest that users make up their mind about a website in less than the blink of an eye. Your website is like a shopfront or the reception at your office. The difference is that it’s not just visible to people on the high street or that visit your office: it’s visible to everyone on the planet with a computer. A website is the cheapest marketing investment you can make in terms of the number of people that you can reach but it’s also the most visible so you’d better do it properly.

9. Animations, scrolling marquees, animated gifs

If your designer has included any of these things please put them back in their time machine and send them back to 1995. There was a time when these things were novel and eyecatching but the web has grown up and so have it’s users. If you ask us to include any of these on a site expect us to be um… honest.

10. Not tested in any browser other than your own

Websites render differently in different browsers. It’s amazing how often we see a site that looks beautiful in Firefox but awful in Internet Explorer. This is often the hardest bit for DIY web designers and developers to get right. You should test and code so that a site works well in all modern web browsers. Older browser often have less functionality but your site should also cope well with these and degrade gracefully.

11. There’s no useful information on your site…

…and that’s what we call a cliffhanger.

Part two will be right along next week. If you don’t want to miss it you can subscribe to the blog or if it’s easier just let us know and we’ll send it to you in an email.

]]> http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/06/is-your-website-failing-your-business-30-reasons-why/feed/ 3 Twitter Weekly Updates for 14-05-2010 http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/05/twitter-weekly-updates-for-14-05-2010/ http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/05/twitter-weekly-updates-for-14-05-2010/#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 18:01:00 +0000 Adam Moore http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/05/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-05-14/

]]> http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/05/twitter-weekly-updates-for-14-05-2010/feed/ 0 Simple social media marketing http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/05/simple-social-media-marketing/ http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/05/simple-social-media-marketing/#comments Fri, 07 May 2010 07:30:50 +0000 Adam Moore http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/?p=39

Social media marketing is a black art for many companies.

Engaging with your customers online can be very scary if you haven’t done it before. Although it has its challenges it can offer brilliant insights into what they think of you. It can also give you the opportunity to head off issues before they get out of control and win support from a sophisticated and sceptical audience.

Beyond the simple idea of talking to your customers in the way that suits them best (which has to be good), it also extends the reach of your organisation way beyond the bounds of your own website and can add a lot of value in terms of search engine optimisation (SEO), which is something I’ll discuss in a later post.

In a previous post I discussed talking to your customers with Twitter. In this superb article, originally posted on Marketing 2.0, Lois Kelly offers another 12 ideas to try.

“Many companies still think of Facebook or blogs when they hear ’social media’.  Here are 13 approaches and my assessment of their value and cost.

Shareable content

1. Social tagging: add social media bookmarks/functionality on every page of your site. This will increase your keyword relevancy and organic search rankings, reducing paid search costs. Value: High/Cost: Low

2. Social mediafy your campaigns: create content people want to share; tap into right social media rigger points, places and people. This will increase viral effect, getting greater reach for less than paid media, traditional PR. Value: High/Cost: Moderate

3. Badges, widgets, ringtones: make it easy for people to promote your company ‘wearing’ badges, sharing branded music. Value: Low/Cost: Low

4. Embed customer reviews/recommendations in your site: Online reviews are second only to personal advice from a friend as the driver of purchase decisions. So why not make it easy for people to decide when they come by your site? Value: High/Cost: Moderate

5. Create a YouTube channel, strategy: We live in a video world. Marketing needs to, too. Value: Moderate/Cost: Moderate to High

6. Take blogging to the next level: move from corporate mouthpiece to more of an online media property with high value to customers and prospects. Value: Moderate/Cost: Moderate

7. Use social sharing sites: Got great content? Share it and tag it where people can find it. Like on Slideshare.net. Value: Low/Cost: Low

Engaging

8. Create a Twitter channel, strategy: There’s a reason why Twitter, which has grown from 4 million 54 million users ini the past year, is disrupting Facebook, email and blogging. Head on over to Pistachio to get all the stats and good business cases on this trend. And then just get on so you experience what it’s all about. Value: Moderate/Cost: Low to Moderate

9. Create ambassador programs: So many of your employees and customers want to help your company by commenting on blogs, Twittering, facilitating communities. Figure out a way to make it easy for people who love you to share the love. That’s word of mouth at its best and social media makes it easy to activate. Value: High/Cost: Moderate to High

Insights/Ideas

10. Create a system to monitor social media conversations: Track issues and trends good and bad to be able to react; ’see’ how campaigns working or not and adjust; get competitive insights, nip problems before they’re big problems; inject Web 2.0 into customer service function. Value: Moderate to High/Cost: Low to Moderate

11. Tap into the wisdom of your crowds: hold webstorm brainstorming sessions and online raves to get ideas from employees, customers, partners on how to solve problems small and big, how to do things better, how to stop doing things that aren’t so valuable. You’ll be able to cut costs, prioritize more easily, find new ideas. Plus when people participate and feel heard they’re more likely to share positive word of mouth about your company. Value: Moderate to High/Cost: Moderate to High

12. Map your social media ecosystem: use social analytics to understand what’s being talked about in your industry about your company; your social media hot spots; who your advocates and detractors are, and what content your audience likes. Value: Low to Moderate/Cost: Low to Moderate

Communities

13. Bring people together: develop specialised communities for like-minded people to share advice, get help, offer help, learn, solve problems, be entertained, create new business models, or change the world. One of the secrets to community success: tapping into deeply-felt and/or widely-felt issues. Check out The Tribalization of Business site, with results from last year’s study and the 2009 survey to learn more about communities. Value: High/Cost: Moderate to High”

Most of these ideas cost very little and present little or no risk to your organisation. Some might not be for you but I would suggest that at least one or two of these things should form part of every company’s social media strategy.

Ursus Media can develop your digital marketing strategy, help integrate it with your overall marketing approach and help you engage with your customers in many different ways. If you’re not sure where to start we run regular courses in social media for business and can teach you how get the maximum benefit from your social media efforts.

]]> http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/05/simple-social-media-marketing/feed/ 0 7 Reasons to blog for business http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/03/7-reasons-to-blog-for-business/ http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/03/7-reasons-to-blog-for-business/#comments Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:30:24 +0000 Adam Moore http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/?p=352

From a business point of view there are lots of good reasons to write a blog. The best business blogs give their readers a more personal perspective on sometimes impersonal corporations and allow them to engage in real dialogue with those in charge. A good blog can foster a loyal following of fans that will help you market your business in ways that would otherwise be impossible.

Here are 7 reasons to blog for your business:-

1. Become established as a thought leader in your industry.
This will appeal to customers who will visit your site or even subscribe to you as source of reliable knowledge and to potential customers who will see that you have your finger on the pulse and you understand what you’re talking about.

2. Foster a community.
You never know, you might end up engaging some of your competitors in conversation and find that you could work together. This happens a lot in creative industries; why should yours be any different?

3. Share knowledge.
Well why not? Educate and inform people and you’ll quickly find that they have a greater understanding of what you do. Take this article for example; after you’ve read this you’ll have a better understanding of blogging for business. If you ask us to build a website you’ll at least understand why you should consider adding a blog to it. If you do decide to write a blog you’ll have thought about what it needs to do for your business and maybe even have a content plan in place.

4. Court the search engines.
The search engines love websites that have lots of regularly updated, relevant content. If you blog little and often it will massively help your websites ranking on the likes of Google. If you link to other relevant sites and they link back to yours you’ll get even more of a boost.

5. It’s a ready-made PR channel.
Every so often you can insert a bit of exciting news about your company. The people that follow your blog and find it interesting will be pleased to hear the odd snippet of good news about you. We’ve just launched a special offer and moved offices and I’ve blogged about both. Now though we’re back to business – something useful for you. Don’t overdo the ‘news about us’ angle. It can backfire. Blogging is a type of social media so you give something to your readers and with a bit of luck they’ll give you something back maybe some free feedback or a community of eager testers.

6. Building relationships.
Let’s be honest, your website exists to help you sell.  Your blog however is a forum where your main objective is not to sell. It can help you establish a more personal relationship with your customers some of whom will engage with you much more deeply and on a less formal footing. They’ll see your blog as a way to talk to you on a level playing field and you should embrace this. These people will be your most loyal supporters.

7. You might learn something.
Seek out information and write stories that interest you. Expand on them – maybe turn these stories into a series. You might learn something useful in the process and be able to add even more value to your company’s offering. Think about your readers and what you can give them.

I think these are all pretty good reasons to write a blog. If you can think of any more or even if you disagree with me (cough splutter), let me know.

]]> http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/03/7-reasons-to-blog-for-business/feed/ 0 A very special offer from Ursus Media http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/03/a-very-special-offer-from-ursus-media/ http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/03/a-very-special-offer-from-ursus-media/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:35:15 +0000 Adam Moore http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/?p=325

It’s rare that I do an unashamed plug like this in the blog. This is generally where you can come for good quality information about all things webby for your business and all you normally get dotted around my posts are subtle hints that you should be using us for your digital media projects.

Every so often though I’m going to reserve the right to tell you all about something that I think is too good to miss. This offer is for those of you who are just starting out in business or who just need a very simple website. Remember anything that we create for you will be designed and coded to the highest standard and built so that it can grow with your business.

The offer’s really simple: £495 for a 5 page website that gives you everything listed below:

  • Unique professional design
  • Four pages with your own content (text and images)
  • One contact us page with a built in form
  • A custom error page just in case
  • One .co.uk domain name
  • Two email addresses of your choice
  • Hosting for your new site for a year
  • Coding to the highest, best practice standards
  • Guaranteed W3C standards compliant
  • Thoroughly tested to work in all standard browsers
  • Optimised for the search engines – Google here you come
  • A simple CMS so that you can update your own site
  • Basic site statistics
  • Built to be scaleable to grow with your business in the future
  • We’ll project manage things for you throughout
  • If you’re in a hurry just let us know – we can be very fast
  • You can talk to the project team at any time
  • Peace of mind of knowing exactly what it costs: just £495!

The catch? Well there is no catch. You do have to order your swanky new site before 1 May 2010 and some terms apply but that’s it. Read more about the offer.

Related items:

]]> http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/03/a-very-special-offer-from-ursus-media/feed/ 0 7 Questions to ask your web developer http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/03/7-questions-to-ask-your-web-developer/ http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/03/7-questions-to-ask-your-web-developer/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:33:18 +0000 Adam Moore http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/?p=283

I was recently asked by a client ‘what’s the difference between you and them?’ and they referred me to one of these big ‘off the shelf’, design shop websites.

Good question. This big design shop had lot’s of lovely looking sites in it’s portfolio, a very slick website (not to my taste but pretty slick) and some very, very good offers. They even gave away lots of free stuff with every commission. If you’re in the market for a new website this kind of thing is hugely attractive.

I know from experience that there’s almost always something hiding behind a shiny website with unbeatable offers that means money for old rope to the people that invest in their ‘expertise’. A little investigation proved me right.

But rather than pointing fingers and criticizing I’m going to give you the tools to find out exactly what you get for your money. This is just a list of questions that you can ask anyone in the digital media industry whether they’re multi-million pound digital media agencies or pimply faced youths beavering away in their bedrooms (and some of them are very good).

So 7 questions to ask before you commission a web designer:

  1. Are your sites made with ‘tables’?
    Tables are part of the code that a website is made from. They’re fine for things like price lists or time-tables and once upon a time most sites were made this way. Now though it’s bad practice and usually means that search engines like Google can struggle to see the content of the page. This is fundamental to a websites performance in search results. Generally developers creating websites using tables are cutting corners. It’s like buying a lovely new car with no engine – there’s no disputing it’s a car but let’s be honest: it’s performance is going to be limited.
  2. Are your websites standards compliant?
    This leads on from question one and frankly if that doesn’t set of alarm bells this one will. There are industry standards for website design and development and every organisation developing and designing websites should aim to comply. The risk is that you will end up with a site that may not be indexed by Google and may not be available to all of your potential customers. At worst you could find yourself in hot water with the law as there are moves afoot in the UK to ensure that all websites are accessible to a minimum standard. At the very least ask if they:
    - Use CSS to seperate code and content
    - Validate their sites with the relevant tools
    At the bottom of our website you’ll see two little icons with ticks next to them. This means that our site validates for both code and CSS.
  3. What do you mean by SEO?
    Search Engine Optimisation is a process by which the performance of a website on search engines such as Google is improved. This is a gradual and ongoing process that will push a site up the rankings with measured and careful changes to the code and content of your website. Some people will claim to provide free SEO with a new website – make sure you know exactly what this means. We optimise every site that we build so that it can be quickly and easily indexed by all of the search engines and we see this as simple best practice.
  4. Is that really free?
    Let’s get one thing straight – there is no such thing as free. Sorry but that’s just the way it is. What free really means is ‘included’. That’s ok. It’s marketing speak. We’re all used to it. If things are included or ‘free’ that’s fine but you should find out where they’ve made savings. We occasionally run package offers and include lots of things in the price but we don’t work for free. We will build down to a price but we won’t sacrifice our standards so what it means is that some features and functionality that you might want right now will have to wait until your budget catches up with your ambitions – which brings me to next question.
  5. Is it scaleable?
    If you’re a new business your budget will be limited – for now. Before you commission a new website ask if it can grow with your business. Can your web designer add additional pages and functionality to the site that they make for you without having to start again or make huge changes to your existing site? Can they refresh the overall look and feel of your site regularly so that it’s the best shop front your business can possibly have now and into the future.
  6. What secondary services do you offer?
    It’s important to know whether or not your web developer has the necessary skills and resources available to help you make the most of your online presence. Find out if they can provide some or all of the following:
    - Support
    - Online marketing
    - Social media marketing
    - Training
    - Search Engine Optimisation
    - Copywriting
    You may not need these additional services now but the chances are you will in the future. Discussing these things will also give a good feel for the overall skillset of the company you’re talking to.
  7. How will you ensure that my site is delivered on time?
    How do they manage projects? If the company you’re talking to can’t deliver work to you on time they’re no use to you. It doesn’t matter how cheap they are. For example we use an agile project management process call Scrum. This means that we deliver projects on time and communicate with you regularly. You’ll know exactly what’s going on every step of the way and when we need something from you (images or text perhaps), we’ll prompt you.

I hope this doesn’t sound too much like some sort of ‘infommercial’. There are many great companies out there creating stunning websites but at the same time there people who give a great first impression that just doesn’t stack up when they’ve got your money. Shop around, ask these questions, decide whether or not you like the person you’re dealing with and only when you’re completely happy should you commission them.

Ultimately that old chestnut still rings true: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

If you need any help with your web project please feel free to get in touch with us. Whatever your plans we’ll provide you with a free, no obligation quote.

]]> http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/03/7-questions-to-ask-your-web-developer/feed/ 2 Beginners Business Tweeting http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/02/beginners-business-tweeting/ http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/02/beginners-business-tweeting/#comments Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:28:24 +0000 Adam Moore http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/?p=255

Unless you’ve been swanning around on another planet (and if you have, welcome back), you’ll have heard of Twitter. I guarantee your customers have heard of it.

Twitter is a social networking tool that effectively allows for small talk on the web. Using it has been likened to being at a cocktail party full of interesting people, all of whom are happy for you to introduce yourself and have a chat. They’re at the party themselves because they’d like to chat to someone they find interesting and so on and so forth.

On the face of it, it’s a pretty frivolous idea but people are doing exactly what they do at parties. Some of them have a laugh, some of them are silly, some of them are sharing great ideas and some of them are networking.

It has the potential to help you open dialogues with customers on their terms and is at the same time an effective marketing and customer care tool. But you have to get it right.

DON’T PANIC

Let’s deal with the marketing value of Twitter first and I’ll revisit the customer care aspect in a later post. There are lots of people and organisations using it to sell products and services and increase brand awareness. Inevitably some are good and some are bad.

If you use Twitter in the right way you will have an open, welcoming and visibly growing audience at your finger tips, providing you with constant, quality feedback and helping you spread the word about your business.

If you get it wrong you have the potential to alienate millions of people who between them have a massive web presence.

again DON’T PANIC

Although you can get it wrong it’s quite hard to do. You have to remember that Twitter is a conversation. As soon as you try and broadcast, unless you have a genuinely useful stream of information, people will tune out and they’re gone. This is a simple and (at least for the moment), free way to engage with millions of people. The key word here is engage; announcement after announcement about how great you are won’t work. No matter how great you are.

So what you need is a strategy. Ideally you already have a social media strategy, perhaps as part of a wider marketing strategy, which will outline your approach to the various social networking sites. If you don’t, don’t worry, you can hire us to write it for you.

I’m not going to write a strategy for you here; partly because we do this for a living and like to get paid for our work and partly because I don’t know anything about your brand or organisation. That’s no reason for you not do dip your toe in the ‘twittersphere’ so here are seven completely free tips for you to try:

  1. Twitter is free but not effortless: You will get out of it at least as much as you put in but you need to devote some time and therefore resource to it.
  2. Think about the tone of voice for your tweets: Twitter is informal but it’s not generally rude and it’s like (I know I’ve said it before) being at a party. It’s a party with your customers or people who know your customers. They’re enjoying the witty banter but they are paying attention and they will remember that they’re your customers so you must too.
  3. Share: Twitter is a community which means people share things. Share information with others. If you add a web page, write a blog post or even just stumble across a piece of news (even vaguely) related to your sector, share by tweeting a link. Comment on it if you like but share it.
  4. Follow people: You don’t have to wait for people to follow you before you can follow them. Work out if they’re a customer, a potential customer or in a related field and follow them. Say hello at the same time – it’s only polite.
  5. If someone follows you, follow them back: They’ve voluntarily engaged with you so you should return the favour. There are tools available which allow you to do this automatically but I’d suggest that you check that they’re real and that they engage with other real people. I’m proud to say that I’ve been followed by Barack Obama (I’ve still got the email to prove it) and although I know it was probably automatic, I’ll choose to believe that he followed me because I’m cool.
  6. Talk to people: This is all about the conversation. You must engage with people and try and answer every question. If someone asks for your opinion and you feel it’s relevant and appropriate give it. If you can’t answer a question, for whatever reason, don’t be afraid to say so or to suggest an appropriate alternative.
  7. Ask for things: If you want to know something – a bit of impromptu market research for example ask people, need bit of testing of a new product or service – ask. This is part of the give and take of a community.

If you want to try Twitter you’re welcome to start by following us – just remember to say hello and mention that you read this post.

If you want to learn more about using Twitter for business Ursus Media run courses to help you get it right first time. We’ll help with your accounts and provide all the necessary tools and instruction to ensure that you and your team can use Twitter efficiently and effectively. Just give us a call or drop us a line.

]]> http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/02/beginners-business-tweeting/feed/ 2 10 Reasons your business needs a website http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/02/10-reasons-your-business-needs-a-website/ http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/02/10-reasons-your-business-needs-a-website/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:30:56 +0000 Adam Moore http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/?p=205

Even in this, the internet age, is it a given that every business needs a website?
The simple answer is yes. Sorry; were you expecting something else?

I suppose that you want me to quantify my answer with good clear reasons. After all someone from a company that designs and develops websites is bound to say that.

  1. The internet is a global shop window
    Unless you’re very lucky you’re facing competition from all directions. A good website can extend your reach to anyone with a computer, anywhere in the world, immediately. They can see who you are, what you do and how you do it instantly. They can then make contact and interact with you all the while marvelling at how you’re absolutely the right people for the job.
  2. Communicate with your customers and clients
    I guarantee that most of your customers are already online. Perhaps they do business online, their banking perhaps; how many people do you know that have book a holiday online or ordered Christmas presents from Amazon? The web is an easy way to communicate effortlessly with your customers. Encourage them to get in touch with you. Get them to talk to you.
  3. Open yourself up to new opportunities
    You can open up your business to opportunities that you didn’t know existed until you got online and your shiny new customers from around the world got in touch. £3.8bn is spent online in Britain alone every month and some of that could be yours.
  4. Learn from the people on your site
    At the risk of making myself sound incredibly dull, I love the data that websites can provide. You can get an understanding of what people want and need, not just from what they say but from what they do. The data that you can gather from users of your website is empirical. You can adapt your website quickly and cost effectively based on real evidence as opposed to ‘gut feelings’. I know of a very famous online DVD rental company that increased sales by 10% overnight by changing two simple things on its website. The decision to do that was based on good hard data.
  5. Catch up with your competition
    Not a good enough reason on its own but I bet the competition are online. If they use their website effectively they’ll be picking up business from your potential clients. Don’t let them get away with it. Remember too that the web levels the playing field – you get the same access to the same clients as anyone else online.
  6. Work around the clock every day of the year
    Your website will work hard for you (at least it will if we build it), long after every other member of staff has gone home. If you sell online you can look forward to coming into work in the mornings and flicking though a pile of orders from around the world as you enjoy a nice hot cup of coffee.
  7. Save lots of money
    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The web is the most cost effective way of marketing and selling that there is. Do it properly and your website will make far more for you than it will cost. Don’t cut corners though or it’ll just be a white elephant with the name of your business painted on the side. The internet is complex and clever so hire a professional whose job it is to deliver value for money.
  8. Free advertising
    Your website is the perfect place to advertise. If you have a good flow of traffic you can tell people about new products and services, sales and special offers. You can even let them send information to their friends directly from your website. Remember your reach is global and constant so make the most of it.
  9. Portray the perfect image for your business all the time
    Keep your website up to date (little and often is the key here) and you can update your image and develop your brand continuously. The web is by far the most cost effective way to show people who you are and what you stand for.
  10. If you think you’re so great – prove it
    Show people how great you are. Show them why your cheese is better than Sainsbury’s, why you can deliver better service than the other dry cleaners up the road, why your widget costs twice as much as your competitors. Sometimes you need to show what goes on behind the scenes in order to make people appreciate just what a great company you are. Make people comfortable with who you are and tell them exactly why they should buy your product or service and they probably will.

So there you are: 10 good reasons why you need a website. And 10 equally good reasons to give us a call and get our help to grow your business online.

Related items:

]]> http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/02/10-reasons-your-business-needs-a-website/feed/ 1 Kiddicare – eCommerce Perfection? http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/02/ecommerce-perfection/ http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/2010/02/ecommerce-perfection/#comments Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:27:31 +0000 Adam Moore http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/blog/?p=168

Spending our days working on the internet we deal with a lot of businesses online and sometimes we’re left feeling a little cynical and thinking ‘wow… you could really do with our help’.

Every so often though we find a company that operates so well online we’re left speechless and wondering why every online business isn’t that good.

Kiddicare Kiddicare is just such a business. We haven’t been involved in any part of their operation but when we see something done really well we’ll talk about it here. Although the Kiddicare website leaves a little bit to be desired (in my opinion) it does work and the entire process from finding the right product to despatching the items right through to delivery and, in fact, beyond is superb.

The story unfolds below:

  1. Monday 25th January 2010 at 10:15pm: Order placed. Email order confirmation recieved immediately.
  2. Tuesday 26th January 2010 at 7:15pm: Text confirmation (not email), stating that the goods had been despatched and would be delivered the next day.
  3. Tuesday 26th January 2010 at 7:20pm:  Email confirmation as above.
  4. Wednesday 27th January at 8:26am: Email received stating that the order was out for delivery. A tracking code was included so that we could keep an eye on it ourselves.
  5. Wednesday 27th January 2010 at 8:26am: Text confirmation that the order was on the couriers van. This included an option for changing the delivery day simply by replying to the text message.
  6. Wednesday 27th January 2010 at 9:05am: Online tracking stated that delivery would be with us in a one hour slot between 12:22pm and 1:22pm.
  7. Wednesday 27th January 2010 at 12:42pm: Order arrives at home in Swindon, complete and in perfect condition.

So can you see why this was such a great experience? It’s not because the order was delivered the next day. It’s not because they were the cheapest supplier. Dealing with Kiddicare was a great experience simply because their communication to us, the customer, was superb. They’ve joined the whole process up from order to delivery and they keep the customer informed at every stage.

So if you’d like to be as good as Kiddicare and would like some help with eCommerce or online marketing; feel free to get in touch with us.

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