Internet Marketing Advice - SEO Newcastle & Internet Marketing Success for Your Business

We are Moving to a New URL

2009-10-24T07:14:00.002+01:00

From today our online marketing blog has merged with Mancala Today. From now on you can find us at http://www.mancalatoday.co.uk

Is this the end for Yellow Pages?

2009-07-17T14:32:00.003+01:00

This week saw the latest edition of the Yellow pages distributed around Newcastle city centre. This photo shows what I saw on my way back from a meeting. A wheelie bin with a pile of Yellow Pages stacked up next to it!

I'm not sure what this picture tells me other than they companies these were delivered to did not need the Yellow Pages or thought it was surplus to requirment.

My belief is that the days of Yellow Pages and similar directories are well and truly over. Why would you thumb through a directory when you can have all the information about the services you are looking for at you finger tips via a computer or mobile phone - what is more you can often get much more information about these business online that you could ever do in the Yellow Pages. At the end of the day your business could be spending hundreds or thousands of £££'s each year on advertising in these directories only for your advert to end up dumped next to a wheelie bin in a back alley of Newcastle!!! What a waste.

Spend your adverting budget smarter! Make sure you are trying out new ways to make contact with prospective clients. My first port of call, use the money you would spend on telephone directories on advertising using Pay Per Click Advertising.

Of course there are some businesses who will make more money than they spend in telephone directories and to those business I say keep doing it.... but also try Pay Per Click advertising.

And don't stop there. There are dozens of ways to attact customers online, try one out each month and you could be looking at a different business this time next year.

Relaunch of ecommerce store to buy your PA Systems from

2009-06-16T16:18:00.005+01:00

The New PA Super Centre website has now been launched.

The new website builds on the success of the old website and has improved the experience for the website visitor greatly.

Built for Suffolk based PA Super Centre who are part of Gofer Ltd, the new site allows users to compare products as well as create customer accounts and get much more detailed information on the products. The new website will be backed with a Pay Per Click advertising campaign as well as using email and search engine optimisation to attract new, relevant visitors.

Please take a look at www.pasupercentre.co.uk.

PAsupercentre is one of the UK's leading suppliers of PA Systems and Sound Equipment. Gofer are a leading supplier of sound equipment and cabling to major UK venues and festivals including Glastonbury, Tea in the Park as well as live bands. The website has been built using Magneto Commerce by Newcastle SEO and Internet Marketing agency Mancala

Do you run an ecommerce store? Want help?

2009-06-02T23:58:00.002+01:00

Back by popular demand we are running a new internet Marketing Seminar/

The focus this time is on all the essential information you need to run a successful ecommerce store. The seminar will show how you increase the number of qualified leads to your online store and persude them to buy - we will also tell you how you can get them back to your store and how to increase the average value of a sale.

Worth a couple of hours of your time?

Find out more at our website for Internet Marketing Seminars

Magento Commerce

2009-04-22T23:43:00.002+01:00

We are now creating ecommerce stores using a product call Magento and frankly it is fantastic!!

For the last six months our developers have been learning the ins and outs of this sophisticated and versitile ecommece store creator and are now offering this expertise to you and your business.

The important thing to remember when developing an ecommerce store is to get your calls to action in the correct place. Don't forget the purpose of your store... to make you money!! Make your key products easy to find, clearly price them and where you can offer upsells and cross sells.

Magento makes this easy to happen and we can help you implement your store.

Blog Post appear in Google Quicker than normal web pages

2009-03-31T12:37:00.004+01:00

Something I have noticed recently is that Google adds blog posts to it's index a lot quicker than normal web pages.

I posted an article on a sister blog last night ( www.buymagazines.co.uk ) at about 11pm - by lunchtime today it was in the Google index - amazing. Of course this could have been a coincidence, but I have noticed this time and time again - so here are my tips on getting your blog index rapidly.

Make sure it is already being visited by Google. The easiest way to do this is to get a link to your blog from a website that is already in the Google index.
Make sure you have a xml sitemap and submit it to Google Sitemaps. Automate the site map to update at least once a day.
Get links from other blogging websites if you can.
Update your blog regularly.

And that is all there is to it.

Happy blogging

Updating the content on your website

2009-03-23T23:13:00.003Z

One of the most effective ways I find to maintain high positions in search engines is to make sure that you do the following

Regularly update the content of your website - search engines periodically visit your website and look at the content on it. If your website has changed since the last time it visited it will see that you have 'current' website which is likely to rank better than your competition that is not as well update.
Try and add a new page every week (at least). As your website grows you will increase your opportunity to target search phrases.

Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation are the keys to your business's Internet success.

New Magazine Subscription Review Site

2009-03-11T12:33:00.002Z

If you are looking for somewhere to get honest reviews on magazine subscriptions then you should look no further than www.buymagazines.co.uk.

The site is aimed at those who are looking to purchase a magazine subscription but want to know a bit more about other peoples experiences when ordering via the internet.

Visitors are encouraged to post comments and rate the magazine.

Check it out at www.buymagazines.co.uk

Bubble on the Tyne - Plans to build a bar on the Tyne

2009-03-02T14:13:00.003Z

So here is a client of ours who has decided he wants to get planning permission to build a bubble like structure on the Tyne, just off the swing bridge, which will be an upmarket bar. Ali owns La Riviera (an Italian Restaurant on the Gateshead side of the Swing Bridge) and can be seen talking about the Bubble on the Tyne Project to the local news).

You can also find out more by visiting http://www.bubbleonthetyne.co.uk/

Customise your Trainers....

2009-02-27T00:02:00.001Z

Check out these guys Sneakart.com. They are a North East company and are going on to great things. You heard it hear first, these guys have a fantastic product and I urge you to take a look.

For those looking to customise trainers or something different for any friends, family, children who like to be individual take a look at there massive range of stickers and sneakskins (the name of the transfers) at Sneakart.com

Take a look at this video which shows how easy it is to customise your trainers.

Compare Apples with Apples, have your website specified by Professionals BEFORE you get any quotes

2009-02-26T14:18:00.006Z

Before you go out and spend your hard earned money on a website or ecommerce store why not consider having a web site specification done for you.

Unless you are building and running ecommerce stores everyday how are you suppose to know what is the best approach when building a new one? Luckily we do...

Why not get us to do the hard work of the specification for you - and then you can send the specification out to tender and get the best price. So instead of having to consult three or four web developers (only to come up with three of four different solutions leaving you at the same point you started) - give them all one specification, interview them and get their prices - they will all be playing on a level playing field and you can compare apples with apples.

We charge a small fee for doing this, but it WILL save you money in the long run AND you will get the website you want not what someone thinks you want.

Give Alex a call on 0191 241 6726 for more details today.

New Blog Launched

2009-02-23T23:05:00.002Z

Mancala has launched a new blog. Mancala Today is the official blog of Mancala - Newcastle based SEO company.

The blog will give advice, background and general chit chat about Mancala, its staff and what is happening in the world of Internet Marketing.

Please feel free to check out the blog today.

Mancala Today

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft colabarate to launch the Canonical Tag

2009-02-16T16:34:00.002Z

So what is a Canonical Tag?

A big problem with large website is the amount of duplicate content caused by the same page being displayed but with different URLs. This is a problem we at Mancala have already gotten around by rewriting out URLs to be search engine friendly - but the Canonical Tag reinforces this even more.

How does it work? basically a tag is included in the code of your web page to tell the search engines what the definitive URL is for this page. That is then the page that should appear in the search engine results.

So what? Well it means that in the future the results you get from searching should contain less duplicate information from the same website and so you should get to the content you want easier.

Simple.

Introducing Magento Ecommerce

2009-02-15T19:09:00.002Z

We at Mancala towers have been spending the last few of months getting ourselves up to speed with Magento Commerce.

Magento Commerce is highly sophisticated ecommerce software which will make running an ecommerce store a breeze for our clients who take it up.

The first of these store will be coming on line soon and they are brilliant. From the front end ease of ordering (after all that is the most important thing about having an ecommerce store) and from the back end ease of management, Magneto and Mancala are providing top class solutions for any online store owner.

If you would like a free demonstration on how Magneto Commerce could change the way you run your online store then please just get in touch with us on 0191 241 6726 to arrange demo.

Jelly and Icecream Please - Mancala is six years old and better than ever

2009-02-12T12:33:00.003Z

Mancala reached a milestone yesterday... six years old! And we are stronger than ever before despite the doom and gloom in the market place.

When I started Mancala in 2003 there was only a small appetite amongst the north east business community for internet marketing. It was only business owners with real vision who could see the benefit of making sure their website was ranking high in the search engines - now of course it is common knowledge that the Internet is one of the best (and I believe the best) forms of advertising and attracting new business.

So what has changed in the last six years? well pay per click advertising has really taken off, for many business and clients of ours this brings in significant business - easily making more money than is spent - after all if for every £1 I spent I got £5 back wouldn't you just want to do that all day long? The problem with pay per click is that if you set it up wrong you could be pouring money down the drain - that's why we became Google Accredited Advertising Professionals so that we could set these campaigns for our clients and get maximum ROI (return on Investment).

Email marketing is now a necessary tool for any business serious about gaining leads and business from the internet. We set up sophisticated and effective email marketing campaigns for our clients with proven results.

What about those who's website does not work for them. We now carry our independent reviews of website for anyone who wants one (they don't have to be our client) and will tell them what is not working well and where they could dramatically improve the website and Internet marketing to not only get move visitors but to increase the number of enquiries or sales when a visitor arrives at the website.

We are looking forward to the next 6 years.... in two years time the Internet turns 20, it has grown up and Mancala will be there to make sure that our clients are running grown up sensible and most importantly profitable Internet marketing campaigns.

Now for some more jelly and ice cream!

Running an Ecommerce store or Online Store?

2009-01-12T23:42:00.002Z

Lately I have been spending a lot of time looking at ecommerce stores and what makes a good one and what makes a bad one. Well my research has come to the conclusion that there are a lot of bad ecommerce stores out there.

So if you are running an ecommerce store, or you are looking to set up a online shop of some description here are a few tips to make sure you head in the right direction with it.

Remember the purpose of your online store.... not sure what that is? well the purpose of your store is to sell your products, simple as that. So make it easy for your visitors to buy from you.
Most of your visitors do not know who you are... so there is a little trust issue that you need to overcome. Think about what sort of reassurances you would need to to buy from someone you didn't know. Here are a few ideas - have a prominent telephone number on the page - if they have a query they can give you a call. Offer them a money back guarantee on your sales if you can - if the buyer is not taking a perceived risk then this will help them make a decision to buy. Make sure your web store looks professional.
Give as much information about your products as you can - some of your buyers will only want the highlights of the product information BUT some will want to know everything - cater for both.
Make sure your website is search engine friendly! that means that every page, every category and every product page can we indexed by the search engines - in short it will help you get every product you list into the google database - and if you are lucky, you will get high rankings on every one of these and so lots of free customers!!
Try out pay per click advertising. Google Adwords is a good place to start.
Use Google Base to list all of your products - Google base is like a shopping comparison tool and can generate a whole load of traffic for your website.
Ask friends and family to try and buy certain products from your website. watch them as they do it (but don't give them any help) - see where they struggle, you will be surprised. Try and improve on the areas where they struggle.

These seven tips are the bases for good ecommerce internet marketing. There are plenty more things you can do - so many ecommerce stores do nothing to promote themselves - make sure your's isn't one of them.

SEO Newcastle is now on Twitter

2009-01-08T15:46:00.003Z

In an experiment to try out all the new fangled communications devices on the internet I have set up a Newcastle SEO Twitter account. For those of you not familiar with Twitter it is basically blogging for the text generation.

I will try and use my Twitter account to give short sharp SEO tips. Please follow me by Visiting Twitter and then click on Follow! (that sounds a little desperate - but is still a heart felt plea).

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

2008-12-23T11:54:00.001Z

At last, WCAG 2.0 guidelines have been released!! So what?
Well a hot topic for quite a few years now has been the accessibility of website for the disabled, whether that be visually or physically impaired. The web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) where set out by the World wide Web Consortium (W3C) to standardise the way in which website were built for the visually and physically impaired - problem was that the requirements were so ridged (and in some case ridiculous) that it restricted creativity and functionality - many web developers were frustrated.
The good news is that the new guidelines take into account many of the new forms of media available and make a little more sense.
Find out more by visiting the web content accessibility guidelines online at W3C

Have a great Christmas

Merry Christmas

2008-12-19T17:16:00.002Z

This could be my last posting for this year (I say could because depending on how the mood takes me I may publish something else). So Christmas is here again. Its been a tough year for the high street - the Internet has faired better but times will be more challenging - I'm not trying to be doom and gloom, there is enough of that about without me joining the band wagon - This is the first time the Internet has existed when a crisis has occurred and the country heading towards a recession. It is going to challenge a few, a few will give up, but I believe that this is the time for online business to really become creative and step up to the plate.

I predict that next year will be a tougher year for ecommerce - it will be more competitive and cut throat - but it is also an excellent opportunity to get really good at marketing your business. The Internet is still the place to be and think about it, if you make your self a strong contender now then when this is all over you will be in a really strong position.

I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. We will be back on 5th January and ready to help you implement your Internet marketing strategy.

Make sure you have your Products in Google Base!

2008-12-08T11:42:00.004Z

There will be some of you who can remember when Google decided it was going to enter into the shopping comparison market. That is when you search for a product and a list of results for that product are presented to you with price comparisons against all the stores that sell that product. Googles version of this was called Froogle - which was a hit in the states, but struggled to get off the ground in the UK. Well now Google has Google Base - which is pretty much the same thing but is integrated into Googles Universal Search (or click on the Shopping tab in Google if you only want to search Google base results).

So what do you have to do to get into Google Base? Firstly you need to be able to export all of your products in to a csv file or xml feed. The information in here will tell Google the name of you product, the category it sits in and most importantly the price you are selling it at. It then makes this available for searching.

So for example, one of our clients sells PA Systems to the general public, bands and businesses - they have around 300 products - so we integrated a Google Base export. If someone now searches for a specific product that is in the company online catalog then it is like to come up in the Google search WITH the price next to it.

So why is this different to normal search engine optimisation (SEO)? well if you think about the mind set of the person who is carrying out the search - if she knows the exact product name she is looking for and when she searches not only is there a link directly to that product but there is a price as well - how much more of a qualified lead do you get? Should get pretty good conversion rates as long as your prices are competitive.

Give Google Base a go and see how it improves your ecommerce store.

VAT Changes and Ecommerce Systems

2008-11-26T11:20:00.004Z

So the Government has decided to decrease VAT to 15% in a bid to stimulate the economy and in turn help businesses...

Am I the only one of the opinion that in the short term (and lets face it, these measures were implemented with the short term in mind) this change will actually cause even more problems for smaller business running online stores?

Why is this? Well many ecommerce stores (especially older ones) have the VAT rate fixed in the system - so now the Government has effectively given these business less than a week to get this technical issue sorted. This means they have to get in touch with their web developers and potentially spend a lot of money sorting this out! The only winner in this scenario is the web developer and even then, with lots of clients suddenly needing a big change without time to book it in, headaches will abound in the next week.

Why was the cost and inconvenience of this change not taken into consideration? The main difference between VAT and other forms of tax is that it relies on the VAT registered business collecting the tax from the customer on the Government's behalf. A simple 2.5% change will require all sorts of manual and automated systems being changed - and for many small business already up to their eyes in bureaucracy this is just one more thing they could do without - at potentially their busiest time of year.

To make this worse it all changes back again in 13 months time!! So we have to undo what we have just done.

I hope, along with pretty much other one else, that these new tax cuts stimulate the economy, but what a pain in the backside this will be for many in the meantime!!

The All New Google SearchWiki is now LIVE!

2008-11-21T10:50:00.003Z

Have you noticed the subtle change that occurred today on Google searches? If you have a google account and you are logged in then it is all change on the Google.

Google SearchWiki is here. So what is search Wiki? Well it allows you to start having control over the results you get when searching. You can add website, remove website and comment on website in your search.

It is not clear at this stage why Google has done this, but you can be sure as eggs is eggs Google does indeed have a plan up it sleeve. I believe this is the next step in Googles quest to provide the most relevant information to the searching public. If you were not aware, Google is rumoured to be favouring local searches - that is if I am a looking for a plumber and I am carrying out my search from Newcastle, then the results on the search will weight the results to websites that are Newcastle based plumbers - so the results will be different to someone in Ipswich carrying out the same search.

What I believe Google are now starting to do is collect information from the people doing the search who will rank and comment on sites that are important to them and Google will put a weighting on this.

All very interesting.

Full Internet Marketing Partner Services UK

2008-11-14T19:17:00.003Z

Mancala have just launched a new service to traditional marketing agencies. We are now offering Full Internet Marketing Partner Services in the UK.

Now the 'R' word is being knocked about by economists and bankers (I personally hate the word because as soon as it is said too many people become negative and it becomes self fulfilling - but I digress) it is clear that traditional marketing agencies are beginning to feel the pinch. Why? well their clients want to know exactly what the marketing and advertising money is being spent on and traditional methods do not accurately give you that. Internet Marketing can give that and more and more business (from the enormous blue chips to the smallest one man band) are using the Internet to find their customers.

We already have some big names on board. If you run a marketing agency but don't have the Internet marketing skills - never fear - talk to us, we can offer this as white label service so your client need never know, or we partner with you. Please check out the page on the website

http://www.mancala.co.uk/Services/Full-Internet-Marketing-Partner-Services-UK.mspx

Launch of our Internet Marketing DVD

2008-11-07T15:01:00.002Z

By popular demand we have finally got round to launching our very own Internet Marketing DVD. The DVD includes a two hour presentation on how you can make your business a success of the internet using out straight forward techniques.

If you cannot attend one of our Internet Marketing seminars but want to get significantly more success from your website the I would recommend the small investment of £27 including VAT to buy this DVD. Not only that, if you implement some of the ideas in the DVD and you improve your business success online then we offer a no quibble money guarentee!!

The DVD is not for everyone - it does require the commitment from you to implement some changes to how you run your website. It is for those who are looking for a massive change in fortunes online.

You can order now at the Mancala Website.

Search Engine Optimisation - SEO Newcastle

2008-10-21T23:17:00.003+01:00

Here at Mancala we don't just specialist in SEO in Newcastle. Of course SEO is a big part of Internet Marketing, but don't be fooled that it is everything to do with Internet Marketing.

Ask yourself this - if I drive a lot of traffic to my website is that enough? Well I will help you out if you are struggling to answer this. NO if is definately not enough. Have a think about how you are going to convert these extra visitors to leads or sales - most website are bad to woeful at doing this.

Download my podcast on Internet Marketing where I give some real tips on how you can generate leads from visitors.

Car Finance and Car Loans

2008-10-21T23:09:00.003+01:00

We have a new client on board who has a slighly left of centre approach to car finance and car refinance.

Did you know that if you own your car you could use car refinance instead of taking out a loan - you are using the equity in your car to raise money. Of course in a time when it is difficult to get a loan from a bank this could prove rather useful to some.

For those of us who have good credit ratings they will also guarantee to beat any reasonble quote on the marketing for car loans or car finance.

Check them out. IFA Car Finance.

Check the Car Finance blog

The Enterprise Show 2008 - For those out there wanting to start a Business

2008-10-21T01:23:00.003+01:00

The last couple of weeks has seen us taking our Internet Marketing seminars out on the road. The Enterprise 2008 shows organised by Business Link in the North East has been starting to make its way around the region in a bid to encourage more people to set up their own business venture. Of course we at Mancala are right behind this - so much so that at most of the venues we are running FREE Internet Marketing seminars.

We have already run these seminars at Newcastle (St James Park) and Middlesbrough (Teaching and Learning Centre) and I've got to say it has been fantastic. I think it is fair to say that people looking to start out in business these days are much more savvy than maybe I was 7 years ago when I first thought about going it alone. Firstly, they know that Internet Marketing is the way forward when you have a limited marketing budget and secondly there is so much more advice and guidance from people who have been there and done that which was less forthcoming a few years ago. Of course what these guys are hungry for is how they can do a lot of this themselves and that is where our two seminars has hopefully helped and meant there are a few less pit for them to fall into.

Everything you need to know about Internet Marketing, 40 minutes on the essentials of Internet marketing. This was a 'what you need to know' guide to setting up your first successful Internet marketing campaign. It about how you convert the visitors to your website into leads or sales, and of course how to keep marketing to them.

Then there was Driving Traffic to your Website, which was a 'what it does on the tin' guide to getting qualified, lead generating visitors to your new website.

The feedback from these seminars was fantastic and I am looking forward to the next Enterprise Shows at Alnwick Garden (8th November) and Durham Cricket Club (22nd November). If you are around any of those days come along - the show is free and if you come to our stall or seminar there is an opportunity for you to enter a draw for an iPod Nano just for signing up to our newsletter. Can't say fairer than than.

Deryck

PA Systems and Sound Systems to make a noise about

2008-10-14T22:30:00.003+01:00

We do work far a field on all sorts of search engine optimisation projects. One of our latest client is a well know sound systems supplier based in Suffork. PA Supercentre provides PA Systems to buy for any one who needs to be heard - this might be a touring band to a church who would like the vicar to be noticed.

PA Supercentre are based in Ipswich and their parent company, Gofer, are well known in the festival circuit regularly supplying equipment to festivals such as Glastonbury, Tea in the Park and Reading.

Of course we know that PA Supercentre are market leaders in their field, but if you would like more information about complete pa systems for your band, or maybe a sound system to fill your room, how about the right kind of microphones or even mixing desk - you should be contacting the guys at PA Supercentre. And what this space for their search engine rankings to go through the roof nationwide!!

Alternative Ways to Get Visitors - Social Networking Optimisation

2008-10-14T00:49:00.004+01:00

I often talk about search engine optimisation (or SEO) to help drive good quality traffic to your website. I also promote pay per click advertising (or PPC) as an alternative way, and a quick win way of getting traffic to your website.

Well I am going to look at a few other alternatives that will also help you get visitors. How about exploiting the advertising potential of Social Networking websites such as Facebook, Myspace and Bebo? These website collect (or more accurately are volunteered) masses of information about the people who use them. What do they do with this data? well now they are offering you the opportunity to target the exact niche for your business. Admittedly you are more likely to succeed in some markets more than others but here is the crack -

If you have a product, say you sell very baggy jeans - you know the sort I mean, the ones that seem to be below the bum line yet still just about stay up - well you business would know that the age group to target these is the 16 - 24 year olds. But there is more, you are likely to know people in this age group who are into Hip Hop music are likely to be interested in your product. Well the likes of Facebook will allow you to specify that you only advertise to these people when they are looking through Facebook. Something worth trying out? I think so. Try our Social Networking Optimisation

Business Link Enterprise Show 2008

2008-10-07T10:35:00.002+01:00

Mancala are running two seminars at each of the four Business Link Enterprise Shows.

The show is aimed at encouraging people looking to start new businesses. I have got to say that I am so pleased to be able to run these seminars - if I had know the significance of Internet marketing when I was starting Mancala I would have got to where we are now a lot quicker.

Find out more about The Enterprise Show

If you know anyone who is looking to start a business, even if it is currently a distant dream, then please point them in direction of The Enterprise Show website where they can book on line and reserve their places on the free seminars.

The seminars we will be running are -

1pm - Everything you need to know about eMarketing
3.15pm - Driving Traffic to your Website (not in Alnwick)

Visit The Enterprise Show Website

Ask.com has a face lift. Will anyone catch up with Google

2008-10-06T21:57:00.003+01:00

Ask.com has had a bit of a face lift. Is this an attempt to eat into Googles market share?

Probably. But it is still difficult to see the day when Google is not the dominant player in the market. Ask is probably the only search engine that is making any positive dent in the Google empire - but ironically it relies on Google to make its money - the sponsored adverts display on the results pages of Ask are actually Google Adwords, these ads are server by Google to Ask and then a commission is paid if anyone clicks on the ad! So Google is in a no lose situation with this, if they lose market share to Ask they are still getting the advertising revenue.

I guess Google will keep an eye on the share that Ask gets, after all they don't want any one muscling in too much and getting to big for thier boots.

Good luck to Ask is what I say, a little competition didn't do anyone any harm.

Next Internet Marketing Seminar Date Release

2008-10-01T13:18:00.004+01:00

The next internet marketing seminar date has been announce. Put this date in your diary

Thursday 23rd October at Blackswan Court, Westgate Road, Newcastle.

The seminar covers everything you need to know to get started with your businesses internet marketing strategy and includes hand outs and online resources.

It will be time and money well spent.... and we Guarentee that with a money back offer - if you don't think your business will benefit from the tools and tactics described in the seminar we will give you your money back... simple as that.

Book today by visiting our website: http://www.mancala.co.uk/seminars.mspx

Internet Marketing and the Credit Crunch - what to do, what to do

2008-09-22T14:01:00.005+01:00

When the going gets tough make sure you spend your marketing budget right!!

I was reading about how businesses are tackling the fear of recession a few days ago. Of course now is a really good time for a lot of businesses to roll out the excuses for not doing well, business is drying up - customers are not spending - generally bad times ahead!! I don't happen to agree and there a lot of businesses out there who are approaching this time of difficulty with a very upbeat and positive attitude.

In the early nineties when the last recession hit us one of the first budgets many companies would cut would be the marketing budget - of course this made things worse, not only were customers leaving (going bust or tightening their belts) but there was also no process to attract new customers. This was insane in my opinion - but I can't blame them.

Now some businesses will want to do the same, but I would urge them not to. The trick to marketing is having a budget and spending it wisely. So I would suggest the following

1. Monitor every advert/ piece of marketing to find out how much businesses it brings you - if you are unsure if something is working i.e an advert in a newspaper, then stop it - chances are it is not working and until you are sure it is you should not be wasting your money.
2. If something is working, replicate it.
3. Start off small and test if something is going to work. Don't commit a huge budget to something that you have not proved will work for your business. You should always be prepared that you may lose the money you spend, so only spend what you can afford to lose.
4. For the ultimate in traceability do most of your marketing via the Internet using Pay Per Click, email marketing or Search Engine Marketing (SEO)

I strongly endorse marketing on the Internet, it is proven to be the most effective form of advertising EVER. If you want to find out more why not attend one of my Internet Marketing seminars which will give you the lowdown on how you can make Internet Marketing work for your business.

Internet Marketing Seminar - New Date Announced

2008-08-12T19:11:00.002+01:00

The next date for our highly popular Internet Marketing Seminar - Internet Marketing for Business - has just been announced. This time we will be running it from our own new offices on the Westgate road.

The seminar covers the simple yet effective methods you can implement (without the need of some technical wizard).

Please come and join us on the 25th September at 2pm for a 3 hour seminar that will change how you promote your business on the internet. We even offer a money back guarantee!!

Visit our website for more information - Marketing on the Internet

If you are unsure what the seminar is about, listen to our podcast. You can find this by going to www.mancala.co.uk/podcast

Good News if you Trade Online - The Internet is completely bucking the Credit Crunch

2008-07-28T16:59:00.002+01:00

It's a great time to be an online trader. The Internet is fast becoming the first port of call for shoppers with sales up 38% on the same period last year.... that's incredible when you consider that high street sales were down 3.9% in June. (Read the Sundays Times Article )

Many organisations are now investing heavily in Internet marketing to ensure that they beat the credit crunch - and who can blame them, year on year Internet sales have massively grown by almost double each year - it is expected that 50% of all sales will be carried out online by 2011.

Of course this isn't just happening in the retail sector, the service sector needs to make sure it is keeping up. In my experience most people do not use telephone directories to find a business, be it a plumber, electrician, accountant or lawyer - their first port of call is to do a search on the Internet. If your website is not figuring near the top of those searches then you are not going to generate any business from the web - and with all that extra money being spent you are missing out.

That is where a great internet marketing strategy comes in - imagine how much more successful your business would be if you coud -

Drive more traffic to your website
Convert that traffic into leads for your sales staff to follow up
Be able to continually marketing to those leads until they turn into a sale

Are you doing that at the moment with your website?

Consider your website as an additional sales person, and invest in some Internet marketing .

I have created a podcast on the basics of Internet marketing . Download it and listen to see what you could be doing.

If you are interested in my next Internet marketing seminar then visit www.marketingontheinternet.co.uk to find out about the next session.

Don't be satisfied with just beating the Credit crunch, you could actually improve your business!!

Some Useful Google Search Tips

2008-07-16T15:59:00.001+01:00

We all take Google for granted these days, the reliable search engine that almost always finds us what we are looking for. But did you know that there are many tools built into Google.

I've created a list of my favourite tools to show you how you can get much more out of the most popular search engine. Please try these out, it may change how you use Google.

1. If you would like to find out who is linking to your website type link:www.yourwebsite.co.uk - this will list all of the sites that have a link back to yours. Useful when you are doing search engine optimisation

2. How about you want a definition of a word and don't have a dictionary handy. Try define: followed by the word you want a definition of e.g. define:internet. Google will return a list of definitions and the websites where you can find out more detail.

3. Need a calculator? simply type in your sum into Google - e.g. 6+6 (hit search button) and the result will come back 12.

4. What about if you want to know the weather. Type in weather and your nearest city and hey presto, you have a 4 day weather forecast.

5. To find out how your stocks and shares are doing just type in the four digit stock exchange code. This will give you charts on how that stock is doing that day.

6. There is a currency converter. So if you wanted to convert £'s to $'s you might try something like - 150 GBP in USD. You can do this with measurements as well - try 10 inches into centimetres.

7. Google will also have a crack at finding the correct spelling of a word for you - just enter it into the search box and see what Google suggests.

So there you have it, Google is a bit more than just a search engine. I use it for the above and much more, it means I don't have to trawl the internet quite as much.

Another Successful Internet Market Seminar

2008-07-11T16:07:00.002+01:00

Once again we ran the Internet Marketing for Business seminar and I have to say that this one was even better than the last.

The seminar was held at La Riviera Restaurant on the Quayside which for those who are not familiar with it is a great quality Italian Restuarant Newcastle & Gateshead.

During the Internet Marketing Seminar we covered the three principles of great internet marketing.

Driving visitors to your website - this could be using SEO, PPC and email marketing - plus a whole host of other tools and options - including blogging ;)
How to convert the traffic ito leads and sales.
Using continuous marketing techniques to convert the leads into sales

The comments we got back from the seminar were great -

"Very good presenter and easy to follow presentation. Good hand out material and all very relevant" - Sue Pender, Business Link North East

"Excellent - all made sense. My concentration do not slip at all which says a lot about the quality of the presentation" - Maggie Cottier, MSC Training, Newcastle

"Really well covered, informative, relevent and practical with REAL tips. Very Good" - Penny Jones, Business Link North East

"Very understandable, pitched at a 'Laypersons' level. Excellent" - Judith Falla, Business Link North East

"Enjoyed the whole session" - Peter Moran, Newcastle City Council

"Well presented and very easy to follow. Informative" - Bruce Allison, Design Aid

We are running the next seminar in September - please visit www.marketingontheinternet.co.uk for more details - or if you want a taster of what it is all about why not download our internet marketing podcast

What are the implications of using Brand names in your Google Adwords?

2008-06-13T10:44:00.003+01:00

Published with the kind Permission of Matthew Rippon, Property Lawyer with BHP Law Newcastle.

As Published in the NEBusiness Blog - 12th June2008

"EIGHT years or so ago a refreshingly clean search interface developed by Larry Page and Sergey Bryn overtook the likes of Yahoo! and MSN to become the web’s most popular search engine.

At the time, many asked how the site was ever going to make any money. As Google powers forward, it makes you wonder whether those commentators were living in a parallel universe.
Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing. It’s doubtful that even Page and Bryn perceived then that Google would, within a decade, become one of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful companies. But if information is what powers the world economy, then Google must be the 21st Century’s Standard Oil.

In 2006, Google’s advertising revenues in the UK overtook Channel 4. Late last year, it reached a par with ITV.

Although Google has a diverse product range these days, it is still the AdWords service on the search engine that provides its most significant revenue stream.

For the uninitiated, AdWords are the little text adverts that pop up to the right of your search results. Containing a short title (25 characters), two lines of description (each 35 characters) and link to another website, they are triggered by your search query.

Such a powerful tool can be used in very damaging ways of course, which is why Google operates a procedure through which trade- mark owners can complain to Google about the unauthorised use of trade marks in AdWord advertisements. Google investigates and usually suspends the advertisement in question. The trade- mark term in dispute is also then blocked from further use in AdWords for the future.

If you’re looking to start using AdWords, you might want to use a competitor’s trademark term in the text of your advertisement. For example, if you enter the term ‘Waterstone’s’, an AdWord advert for WHSmith pops up.

Google still processes complaints relating to the use of trademarks in third party AdWord text, but since April, it no longer accepts complaints about keywords. And keywords that were previously the subject of a successful complaint will be unblocked.This has caused fury amongst some big retailers.

Teletext has threatened other travel agents with litigation if it finds its name used as a keyword. And a consortium of brandowners including Arcadia are thought to have discussed whether any action may be taken against Google.

It’s a murky area. To be an infringement, the trademark in question must be used “as a sign”.
Those brand owners would have to establish first that an infringement had occurred and this would mean convincing the courts that the keywords in question were a sign even though they didn’t appear in the adverts themselves.

The problem is that there hasn’t been much litigation on this subject. Of course, the mere existence of Google’s previous policy didn’t prevent the brandowners from litigating this issue before. They just chose not to, preferring the quicker and cheaper results generated by going direct to Google. So they have been hoisted by their own petard.

At times like this, I like to come back to the core function of a trade- mark – that it should act as a guarantee to the consumer of the trade origin of the goods or services to which it is applied. If you lived in London and wanted to buy electronics, you might head to Tottenham Court Road where you’d see all the biggest names side by side. I wonder whether WHSmith’s advert next to the search results for Waterstone’s is really so different?"

Internet Marketing Seminar Newcastle

2008-06-04T17:37:00.003+01:00

Our next Internet Marketing Newcastle seminar has been announced.

Internet Marketing for Business
Thursday 10th July 2008
La Riviera Restaurant - Gateshead Quayside

To find our more visit www.marketingontheinternet.co.uk

The seminar is delivered by Internet Marketing experts Mancala Technology.

The last seminar was sold out so book your place early.

Visit www.marketingontheinternet.co.uk to reserve your place today.

Search Engine Optimisation Goes Glamorous

2008-05-07T16:18:00.002+01:00

Why celebrities are getting into search engine optimisation and why you should be too.

The word in the Internet Marketing Business is that even celebrities are getting their noses into it. It was reported that stars are paying to have their online images cleaned up. It has been discovered that celebrities with not so squeaky clean pasts have paid specialist web placement companies lots of money to get positive results at the top when you type in their name.
Most often it is Google who get targeted more as it accounts for 80 per cent of all internet sources. This works in the same way as most search engine optimisation and web placement companies work to get your key phrases at the top, so by performing search engine optimisation on names there is more good references at the top and bad references move down the page, and because most people never go past the first page of Google it is becoming more popular to get the squeaky clean image right on the front page.

Internet Marketing Seminars In the North East

2008-04-14T20:49:00.004+01:00

Internet Marketing for Business Owners
8th May 2008 - 1.30pm, La Riviera, NewcastleGateshead Quays

How can your website be the hub to all your leads generation and new business?
This seminar will show you in practical and easy to understand steps what you should be doing to generate great quality business from your website. We are so confident that you will benefit from this course that we are offering a Money Back Guarantee if you are not satisfied.
Book your place for only £97 + VAT

Places are limited - book online now at http://www.marketingontheinternet.co.uk/

“Extremely interesting and able to put technical content into easily understandable chunks”
Les Hodgson, Next Level Financial Management Ltd

About the Seminar
How much are you taking advantage of the internet? Does your internet marketing strategy get you business, or (as it is for many businesses) could you do much better?

Internet marketing for business owners will give you the practical information you need to kick start your internet marketing strategy. The seminar will show you how all the pieces of the Internet marketing mix can be linked together to obtain truly amazing results.

The seminar will cover:

Generating leads from your website
Driving traffic to you website
What you really need to know about Search Engine Optimisation
How Pay Per Click campaigns can work for your business
Effective email marketing
Integrating all of the above to get amazing results
Monitoring exactly how effective your internet marketing is

“This was a ‘Keep it Simple’ guide to Internet marketing. It was delivered clear and concise without confusion or patronising the recipients”
Jackie Marston, Jam Marketing & PR

At the end of the seminar you will have developed your first internet marketing strategy and be ready to take advantage of the customers the internet can deliver to you!

About your Expert
Deryck Harlick has eight years experience in Internet Marketing and is an expert in his field. He has implemented Internet Marketing Strategies for FTSE 100 companies and large blue chip organisations but now shares his expertise with smaller enterprises.

Deryck brings with him a wealth of Internet Marketing knowledge that is unparalleled in the North East. He is committed to helping businesses get the most from the internet and believes that every organisation can increase their number of leads and sales using his very simple techniques.

Book Today
Book your place today for only £97 + VAT
SPECIAL OFFER
Book now and receive a second place on the course for less than half price! Only £47 + VAT
Places are limited so book online today at http://www.marketingontheinternet.co.uk/

“What a great investment! For years we have been told how important a website is to a business, but as a busy organisation we have not had the time really to get the best out of it. Mancala’s seminar helped us identify both a useful internet marketing strategy and how we can deliver it. It cut through the techno-babble and straight towards helping our bottom line.”
Andrew Willson, Director AQCT

Money Back Guarantee
We are so confident that you will find this seminar informative and beneficial for you and your business that if you attend and are not satisfied then we will give you your money back.

STOP PRESS: We are also giving away a limited amount of one to one evaluations with one of our advisors. The advisor will look at your website and your marketing activity and give you practical advice on what you could be doing to improve the number of leads you get.

BOOK NOW - http://www.marketingontheinternet.co.uk/

Internet Marketing Newcastle

2008-04-07T12:15:00.002+01:00

We are just about to announce our first Internet Marketing Seminar in Newcastle that will be open to business owners.

The seminars will cover what a typical business needs to know to develop a great internet marketing strategy.

The first Internet Marketing Newcastle Seminar will be on Thursday 8th May at 1.30pm. The location will be on the Newcastle Gateshead Quayside at the fantastic La Riviera Restuarant. More details to follow.

The Joy of Autoresponders

2008-02-24T21:11:00.002Z

This week I have been spending an unhealthy amount of time setting up a new marketing campaign on the Mancala email autoresponder.

I love autoresponders but I always find starting a new campaign as a bit of a struggle. i guess the comparison would be a writer starting a new book - the first few paragraphs are the hardest, but once you get started it flows.

Generally when I set up an email campaign on an autoresponder I like to get the first three emails done and dusted, that way I can sit back and think about how I want the campaign to end. Obviously the main aim is that the reader eventually becomes a client of mine, but it is what service or product I am targeting that dictates the direction of the email campaign.

Of course I don't always use just an email autoresponder in my marketing, quite often after several emails we may send a prospect a letter - even follow that up with a phone call and another letter. This is how online marketing and traditional offline marketing can mix very well and we find it works great. Quite often by the time we call our prospects they know what we do so well (and we have built up a relationship with our emails and letters) that they are desperate to talk to us and want us to help them out. This is the stereotypically win win and a great way to do business.

Microsoft Offers £22.4 billion for Yahoo

2008-02-01T12:00:00.001Z

A significant move in the world of online advertising. Microsoft has today offer a huge amount to buy Yahoo. Why? Well Microsoft and Yahoo and playing second fiddle to the all dominating Google. Is this a serious attempt for Microsoft (and Yahoo) to take a more significant slice of the online marketing pie?

We will wait to see what happens and what the detail of the any deal is.

UK firms Waste £3bn

2008-01-28T14:49:00.000Z

The following Article was recently published by Ian Williams, vnunet.com

The UK's small and medium sized businesses are wasting an estimated £3bn of investment on websites that are virtually invisible to search engines, according to a recent report.

Research by Microsoft's adCenter unit revealed that, although 2.79 million small businesses have an online presence, a hefty 62 per cent are not investing in search marketing campaigns to help potential customers find them online.

The survey found that 44 per cent of SMEs believe that search marketing is too time consuming, while 56 per cent consider it too expensive and 33 per cent too complicated.

This is despite the finding that 76 per cent of SMEs promoting their website on search engines see an immediate increase in sales.

To help combat this wastage Microsoft adCenter has launched a set of Search Marketing Guidelines to help small and medium enterprises set up and reap the benefits of search marketing.

"UK SMEs are missing a trick by not investing in search marketing campaigns, " said Nigel Leggatt, marketing manager at Microsoft adCenter.

"In today's world, just having a website is not enough. You have to drive traffic to your site to ensure you are front-of-mind with your potential customers. Search marketing is one of the most cost effective ways to achieve this."

It seems that small business owners already understand the power of search marketing to promote their business online, as 96 per cent said they use search engines themselves to find a product or service.

This is reflected by over half of SMEs claiming that they would be willing to set up search marketing campaigns themselves, and 34 per cent are planning to use search marketing in the future.

"A well-known website can allow a small business to compete on an equal footing with larger competitors, but only if the site can be found by potential customers," said Peter Scargill, IT chairman at the Federation of Small Businesses.

"Having an online presence is something that more and more small businesses are using to drive growth in the future, but they will be wasting their money if they do not make people aware of it."

The new guidelines set out to dispel the myths surrounding search marketing and offer a range of tips on how to get started with search marketing while making sure that the process is as quick, simple and cost-effective as possible.

Read the Full Article

Christmas online sales 'rise 50%'

2008-01-18T12:01:00.000Z

The proof is in that Internet sales boomed last Christmas.

From the BBC
"UK online sales rose by more than 50% in the three months to Christmas, according to an industry survey.
Internet sales between 1 October and 31 December hit £15.2bn, up from £9.61bn a year earlier, with electronics and clothing doing well, Capgemini said.
Firms with both a High Street and online presence, such as John Lewis, did best, the survey said.
For every pound spent on goods in 2007, 15 pence was spent online, pushing annual electronic sales to £30.2bn.
In 2006, for every pound spent on retail goods, the Internet spend had been 10 pence. "

Read the full article at BBC.co.uk

Of course not every web site will be a winner. The successful ones will be using all forms of online marketing to ensure that they get customers on to there site. The thing is that this sort of marketing is available to everyone, not just the big boys.

Now is the time to start thinking about how you can take advantage of next years Christmas sales, here is a quick checklist for you to get on with - start with number 1

Search Engine Optimisation. This the slow burn of the online marketing world, but can give the best long term results.... so start now. Make sure your site is listed in as many external sites as you can find, if you were to target getting you site linked into 5 sites per week from now until Christmas you would have around 250 incoming links to your site. Why is this important? A major part of the search engine rankings is links that are incoming to your site, the more you have the more important the search engines see your site.
Email Marketing. Store the email addresses of anyone who buys from you, encourage people to sign up to newsletters, get peoples email addresses and permission to use them! You are now in a position to regularly get in touch with them and give them offers.
AdWords Campaigns / PPC. Get started on an AdWords or pay per click (PPC) campaign.
Make sure your website has a Call to action, a telephone number to call, enquiry box to fill in and make it easy to buy your products. Don't be shy put these calls to action all over the place, shy bairn get nowt as they say here in Newcastle.

Happy New Year

2008-01-08T17:35:00.000Z

Better late than never, HAPPY NEW YEAR from all at Mancala.

Of course last year was an extremely busy year, especially at the end and this year has started in the same way. Christmas was a record breaking year for those of you with ecommerce - in particularly our clients had a bumper one - on line sales are bucking the general retail trend so it might be worth thinking about how you will make great sales this year.

I look forward to uploading more posts this new year.

Only one Week Till Christmas

2007-12-18T19:36:00.000Z

Its just one week to go until we get out our paper party hats and fall asleep on the sofa... and of course enjoy the festivities that surround Christmas. Here at Mancala and Webbeads we are winding down and looking forward to Friday when we close shop until the new year.

Of course Christmas would not be Christmas without a little magic show to get you in the spirit.... so I would like to present to you David Chesterfield, the worlds greatest Magician.

Happy Christmas, and we look forward to seeing you in the New year.

Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey

2007-12-11T00:15:00.000Z

From the BBC News Website-

"Internet retailers are flourishing UK shoppers will spend a collective £370m on purchases through the Internet on Monday, the highest ever daily amount spent online, a study estimates."

There will be an estimated £17.2 Billion, yes £17.2Billion spent online during the last 3 months.

If you didn't take advantage of this years record breaking spend on the Internet start planning now for next year. Slowly slowly catchy monkey, as a wise man once said.

Think about things like email marketing, start creating your database now - by the time next September comes (which is when you should be primed and ready for the Christmas rush) you will have a decent sized database to market your Christmas offers to.

Get your search engine optimisation plan in place, you don't get to the top of search engines over night but you now have almost a year to get there, use the time wisely by getting links to your site and updating your content.

Promote your website in whatever way you can, business cards, flyer's, press ads - any form of offline marketing should include your website address.

Keep an eye on this page and I will keep posting tips on what you need to do, for may retailers Christmas is the most important time of the year, the same is true for online retailers. Good luck and hopefully next Christmas will be a great success.

Tell Your Clients About Christmas Ordering

2007-12-03T13:38:00.000Z

We are now in the final straight of what is for many the busiest time of the year online (in particular for those of you with ecommerce shops).

Now would be a good time to implement an email campaign to educate your clients on your final order dates if they want delivery before Christmas. This email campaign can also be used as a call to action - obviously if the clock is ticking then your email will prompt them into action.

Setting up Google Analytics on Your Website

2007-11-25T23:11:00.000Z

Not got Google Analytics? Here is a short video showing you how to get started with this powerful website statistics packages (and it is completely FREE)

A Little Often Goes a Long way WIth Search Engine Optimisation

2007-11-22T13:36:00.000Z

When was the last time you updated or added new content to your website? Yesterday? Last week? Last Month? NEVER!

I hope it is not the later, but don't worry if it is you can change that from now.

Search Engine Optimisation Tip - Did you know that many search engines check to see when you last updated your site and use that as a gauge as to whether your site is up to date and relevant - the logic here is that a site that has been update in the last month is going to be more relevant that a site that has not been updated for over a year.

So what to do about this. Well assuming you have access to edit and add content to your website (either via FTP or through a Content Management System) you should go in an make sure that the information on your website is up to date. It is? well start adding some content - Make it a once a week habit (once a day if you can really spare the time).

There is another added bonus of doing this - over time you will be building your website so it could have potentially hundreds of pages of content. Each of these pages is an access point for someone to visit your site via a search engine - the more pages you have then potentially the more Keywords and Phrases you will be targeting - before you know it you will have hundreds, if not thousands of daily visits to your website. What you do with that traffic once it is there is up to you (I'm sure I will cover this in a post some time in the near future).

Here are my tips on what to do if your imagination is struggling to think of how to update your site with new content -

Create an Articles Section on your website
Think of 5 articles related to what you do and write them up (try and make the article at least 300 words long if you can).
You now have 5 weeks worth of updates for your website.
Keep a notepad handy, when ever you think of a new article title jot it down. You will then start to develop a list for when you can't think of what to write about.
Keep with it. Short term you will not get much benefit from doing this - 12 months down the line, you will be amazed by the results.

Good luck

Free food on Offer

2007-11-07T15:32:00.000Z

We will very soon be launching a new site called Independent Restaurants Newcastle which as the name may suggest is all about the promotion of Restaurants in Newcastle. The site is live now, but the big launch event will be in the next couple of months.

The site is part of a marketing strategy to promote the diverse range of restaurants in Newcastle that do not form part of a national or international chain.

Anyway, enough of that preamble HOW ABOUT THAT FREE MEAL? The site is due to offically launch early in 2008 and as part of the launch many of the restaurants are going to be offering discounts, buy one get one free offers an the like (thats your free meal by the way, you didn't expect it to be totally free did you?). If you sign up to the enewsletter you will be sent this voucher booklet straight to your inbox as soon as it is ready!

To get the booklet go to the Independent Restaurants Newcastle website and sign up for the offer at the bottom left of the page.

This is a no strings attached offer, all you have to do is sign up to the Independent Restaurants Newcastle Newsletter - you will regually recieve other restaurant offers after that as well.

Crank up you Adwords Campaign NOW

2007-11-05T17:15:00.001Z

It's been a while since my last post but I thought I best get back online and tell you about what you should be doing now to get the most from your ecommerce store in the run up to Christmas.

Like any shop Christmas can be one of the most important times of the year, often contributing to a large amount of the annual turnover of a company. If you were running a shop you would want to be dragging people through the door when they have the money in there pocket and the intent to spend it. Well it is exactly the same with your ecommerce store.

It could be worth ploughing a lot more money into your Google Adwords budget to get those buyers onto your website. As long as you are measuring the cost per sale correctly you are likely to see this figure go down - which means your Google Adwords campaigns are running much more effectively. Assuming you are making a profit with these sales (and lets face it if you are not then Google Adwords may not be for you) then spend more money, up your daily budget. After all Christmas only comes once a year.

Good luck.

7 Top Tips To Choosing the Right Web Development Company For Your Business.

2007-10-05T14:09:00.000+01:00

Gone are the days when Internet Marketing was a tool that only those with a large budget or great technical expertise could actually make use of on a day to day basis. These days most businesses of all sizes and backgrounds recognise the important part that online marketing and web development can play in promoting and expanding their enterprise.

Baring all of this in mind, I’ve put together ‘Mancala’s 7 top tips’ when choosing a Web Development Company:

1. The first thing to think about is what does your website need to achieve to expand your business. This is important as many businesses can end up spending money on unnecessary features which may not directly be beneficial to them. It is important that you have a clear idea of what you would like your website to accomplish early on, as the greater the functionality, the more research and work will be involved which will inevitably push up you costs.

2. Even if this is your first foray in to online marketing check your developer credentials. It is important that you and your development partner should be able to communicate easily and that you feel you can trust them to deliver the best possible solution within your budget. By researching other clients the developer has worked for you can begin to build up a picture of how they work.

3. When it comes to reading through the developer’s proposals it is important to look carefully at exactly what is being offered. Developers will base their proposal on not just what you have discussed initially but also on what they feel they can offer you, which may include extra features and functions. By weighing up the practicality of how these will directly affect your business, you will find yourself in a better position to make an informed decision which isn’t just based on the cheapest/most expensive option.

4. Although not everyone can be an expert, it wouldn’t hurt to be armed with a bit of information regarding web development best practise. These include any legislation which may affect your business, including the DDA (Disabilities Discrimination Act) and The Companies Act. It’s also important to have an awareness of Search Engine Optimisation as having a great website is all very well but if it isn’t visible to search engines then it is unlikely to gain decent exposure. By making sure your potential development company are not only aware of these issues but can also elaborate on them you’ll know that you’re in experienced hands.

5. Getting your website off the ground and gaining a good spot in the search engines is all very well, but it is worth thinking about the future and how your needs are likely to change in the coming 2-3 years. It is important that your web developer will be equipped to offer you a good upgrade on your site, or a whole new system if needs be without compromising your SEO and putting your web presence back to the start. It may seem a long way off, but by discussing these issues now, you’ll get a greater idea of if you will be able to work with the development company long term.

6. Once your website is launched it is important you know exactly what it is you can expect from your web partner in terms of support and maintenance. For example will they provide support in terms of written user guides, through phone training, or be on standby should you need any extra advice or training? By setting out the details of a long term support plan you know exactly where you stand.

7. Finally, although it may seem obvious it is important that not only do your web developers have a good understanding of your business needs but also that they are compatible on a personal level too. Web development can be an involved business and it is important that you feel you can rely upon your supplier to deliver the best possible solution for your company.
For further information on this, Email Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Adwords Campaigns and other new media please visit http://www.webbeads.co.uk/

Hit’s Versus Visitors – What Are Your Webstats Really Telling You About Your Website?

2007-09-26T16:50:00.000+01:00

One of the most common queries I come up against time and time again from my clients is the confusion surrounding the difference between visitors and hits on sites. It’s a common misconception that is used to great effect in marketing and PR to dazzle target audiences with mid boggling statistics on the huge amount of hits a newly launched sites have received during its first month.

Working in the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and New Media field as a whole for many years, this has long been a bug bare of mine and I hope to dismiss some of the myths surrounding it in the hope of educating consumers when deciphering their own webstats in the future.

First of all, Website owners should be most concerned with Visitors whom account for individual activity on a site. The difference between a Visitor and a hit is that a hit is created every time an action on a webpage is recorded or a page is loaded up.

For example logo’s, images, files, and graphics loaded as HTML, CSS and Java Script all create a hit when the page is loaded. This means that massive scores and counts can be created merely by one visitor navigating their way around the website depending on the amount of content on each page providing unrealistic totals.

It is also worth baring in mind that page counters are similarly misleading, as quite often they are set up to count page views, not unique visitors. Page counters are also susceptible manipulation, adding a new count every time the page is refreshed allowing webmasters to creative massive distortion in terms of actual recorded activity simply by continuously refreshing their site.

So there we have it, I hope that my mini rant about the ambiguous manner in which Webstats can be presented has helped to dispel some of the myths surrounding this issue. So next time you come across a press release boasting of hits instead of visitors you’ll know the score!
For further information on this, Email Marketing, SEO, Adword Campaigns and other new media please visit http://www.webbeads.co.uk/

Ecommerce Tips for Christmas 2007!... Already

2007-09-19T00:35:00.000+01:00

Although most of us have only just unpacked from our Summer Holidays the retail year marches relentlessly on, as I discovered to my horror in my local supermarket over the weekend. Keen to stay ahead of their competitors, giant retailers are unabashed at panicking their customers in to preparing for Christmas with the ever expanding array of seasonal foods and gifts available from September onwards.

Despite the palpitations it evokes in most of us it does bring home the importance of preparation for this period and it couldn't be more important to retailers this year as research shows that in the UK alone consumers will spend over £10 billion pounds in the run up to the festive season.

As a web design and development company Mancala Technology have begun to contact our Ecommerce clients with the following 7 top tips to ensure that we all receive a little Christmas cheer this year:

1) Planning is everything.
Take a tip from the high street and get organised early. Give your business or web development supplier enough time to produce timely and effective marketing campaigns on your behalf. This includes making sure your online marketing is in place, now is the time to make sure your Adwords Campaign is up and running and optimised to get the best return on investment (ROI),

2) Relevant Design.
Take the edge off the wide spread panic which Christmas normally induces by developing a seasonal motif that works along side your branding and creative copy but highlights the coming period.

3) Target your Homepage.
Your Homepage is the first port of call for most online shoppers so gearing it towards a creative and hassle-free shopping experience will seriously boost your traffic. Think carefully about your use of copy, the availability of useful information, and don't forget to ‘get creative' by providing quick solutions to finding the right gift. This may include the option to shop by budget, product or recipient for example. We truly believe that by providing a clear route around your site and providing ideas, will reduce your bounce rate.

4) Delivery.
This is always a bit of a hot potato with retailers. Eager to push ahead with proactive marketing, the logistics of delivering your product or service can often be neglected. By making sure you reconcile your stock, man power and realistic delivery times and dates, you should avoid the usual pitfalls. Remember that communication is the key and a concise explanation of your delivery policy from your Homepage (see top tip no. 3) should keep everyone in on the loop.

5) Email Marketing.
By drip feeding your customers with a well planned email campaign about the products and solutions you can provide for the coming Christmas you should create awareness with your customers and hopefully begin to reap Christmas related profits sooner rather than later.

6) Packaging
If, like me, you're a sucker for pretty packaging then you'll know how irresistible the option to spend a little extra to put the finishing touches on a great gift and be. It's an easy opportunity to generate extra revenue and also offers your customers a more complete service which they are more likely to re-use. However, remember the importance of planning to avoid becoming bogged down in the detail however pretty it may look!

7) Monitoring.
Finally, make all of the marketing tools you've used and developed over the Christmas period work for you throughout the year. By measuring your website traffic, sales, feedback, performance and statistics you can learn more about your customers shopping habits and how your service can be developed in the coming year.

We hope that these top tips help to take the edge off the Christmas madness, further advice can be found at our website http://www.webbeads.co.uk/

Don't forget to Email your Client List

2007-09-11T14:13:00.000+01:00

It is easy to forget that you have a list of clients who have bought your services/ products before. Don't forget to get in touch with them. Assuming you have done a good job they are more than likely to buy from you again - and it is a lot easier than trying to find new clients.

Make sure you make the effort to send an email out to them. See what happens

Email Marketing Newcastle

Christmas is coming! Well not quite but it is time to start thinking about it

2007-09-11T13:41:00.000+01:00

A reminder popped up in my calender today telling me to start my campaigns for Christmas. 'Its only September', I thought, 'Fenwicks haven't even started to clean there windows for there Christmas Display'. However I new my reminder was correct as Christmas does have a habit of creeping up.

This year I will be telling all my ecommerce clients to check their AdWords campaigns to ensure they are allocating the correct budget and are testing the campaigns so they are getting a maximum return on investment (ROI).

It is amazing how well AdWords campaigns perform at any time of year, but during the Christmas season it is the only sure way to get traffic to your website. There is another reason why you should be spending time now on getting this right - AdWords and the keywords you choose are ranked based on how much you want to pay per click (PPC) and also the 'quality' of you advert - if your advert has a high click through rate then it is likely that it will appear higher in the list of adverts. The higher it appears the more likely you will get someone clicking on it - so if you get started on your AdWords campaign now then come the crucial months of November and December you will (hopefully) have good quality ads showing high on the left hand side of the page.

I love Adwords. I really do believe it has been a revolution in marketing (not just online, any form of marketing). Of course if you are not sure what to do about getting your site promoted using adwords then get in touch.

Welcome to Online Marketing for SMEs

2007-09-07T13:47:00.000+01:00

Hi my name is Deryck, and welcome to my first post on Online Marketing for SMEs. I have been working in IT for 18 years, the last 8 of those years I have been involved with business large and small promoting them online. Currently I run Newcastle Based Web Design and Online Marketing Agency Mancala Technology Limited.

I decided to start this blog because I often come across ideas and suggestions that will help businesses like yours get a competitive advantage in the world of online marketing.

What is online marketing?
Online marketing covers a whole range of functions - I will list a few, but this is not an exhaustive list.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), the ability to get your site listed high is search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN (to name but a few). As someone once told me, getting to the top of Google does not happen by accident. By implementing a good SEO strategy over time you will see your site climb the rankings.
Google AdWords Campaigns, or Pay Per Click (PPC). PPC campaigns allow you to target the customers who are looking for you! Think about that for a minute. You only target people who are interested in what you have to sell at the moment thet are thinking about it - what other form of advertising lets you do that? I had a client come into my office yesterday who had tried all forms of offline advertising, back of newspaper, specialist magazines etc - he also tried Google AdWords and now he is scrapping all other forms of advertising. Why? Because the ROI from Google AdWords was streets ahead of any other marketing he did. I, of course am a compete convert to AdWords and I am now an Accredited Google Advertising Professional.
Email Marketing, how often are you getting in touch with your clients and prospects via email? for most SME's it is not often enough. The best chance of future work and product sales are through people who have bought from you before.

There are two types of email marketing that could benefit your business - Broadcast Emails, where you send all or a specific group of people an email containing an offer or any enticement. And then there are Auto Responders - these are great and I will be covering these a lot over time - basically an auto responder will allow you to set up a sequence of emails to go out over time. The recipient will receive these emails dependent on when you started sending to them.

That is the start of what I will be covering. I will try and get a post up every week, if not more often and I will be sharing my experiences which will hopefully in turn help you.