Andy Viner, Head of Media at BDO shed some light on the reasons why internet marketing has rose amid total advertising decline “Certain areas of marketing spend such as internet advertising continue to grow, driven largely by technological factors such as the expansion in social media together with the desire of advertisers for increased measurability and accountability and a lower cost of investment”.  Andy’s got it spot on, in times of economic hardship, businesses need the most bang for their buck where marketing and advertising is concerned.  Internet marketing, if done carefully, is a cost-effective way of integrating a marketing strategy for your business and is a tactic that has been used by many businesses throughtout the recession.

Working through the recession, we have worked with many clients looking to bring their web presence up to speed, however, with a tight budget in mind.  Our team have successfully completed lots of projects by working directly with the client every step of the way.  Interested?  Or just would like to know more?  Give one of our team a call to arrange an informal meeting on 01925 572555.

Graph source:  Bellwether Report 2010

Used correctly, business blogging can build relationships with your clients, add value to your business and provide you with valuable advertising that differs totally from any other type of marketing.  However, used badly, it can have some not so great consequences.  Using the 5 points below, think about a blog for your business as yet another way to draw more important customers to your site.

1. Inform your audience. Too many businesses make the mistake of simply trying to sell themselves through their blog when really your blog is an opportunity to forge and maintain relationships with clients and besides, who wants to read yet another sales pitch week after week?  Instead, choose topics that are informative and interesting and related to your industry.
2. Be professional. This sounds obvious but it is important to remember that each time you publish a post, it is a reflection on your business.  Treat your blog as though you are talking directly to a customer, so, hopefully,  that means no swearing or being generally impolite!
3. Be personal (but not too personal!)  . A blog should help to build a friendly face for your business therefore an interesting or funny story could add some personality to your blog.  However, it is important to bear in mind to not be overly personal, steer clear from personal issues and keep your blog voice positive.

4.   Be objective. Decide who you are writing the blog for;  is it for current clients or prospective clients?  This will give your blog a strong purpose, allowing you to be succinct with the topics you choose to write about.  A good strategy for any business blog is to take a view of your industry as a whole, picking up on bits of interesting news or developments whilst frequently going back to your own business.

5.   Keep it frequent. Your audience will rapidly loose interest if your content isn’t fresh and regularly updated, for some, this may mean a new post daily, for others, maybe only weekly.  However, before making the commitment of starting a blog, have a think about how often you would need to post and if you could keep up with it.  It is a bad reflection of your business if a client enjoys your blog for a month, only to find after that time it isn’t being used anymore.

Well, hopefully the above points have given you some ideas to ensure that your blog succeeds.  It is an old fashioned view that blogs are simply for fun, as we have seen with social media such as Facebook and Twitter (which is actually a form of ‘micro-blogging’!), these forms of communication can form a highly lucrative part of marketing for your business.

If your unsure of how to include blogging within your marketing strategy, give one of our team a call or email to see how we can help you.  For some of our current clients, we solely manage their blog, therefore we are in charge of setting up the blog and content creation for the blog on a regular basis for businesses who struggle to find the time to keep up with regular posts.  As well as creating and maintaining the blog, we can also intertwine it with social media such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn thus ensuring you get the best possible results from this invaluable tool.

1. Get the right frequency. Depending on your business, the timing and frequency of the emails will differ.  Say you have a website for a restaurant, the best time to send out emails would be every Wednesday or Thursday giving people time to plan their weekends or if you have a business site, Friday would be a poor time to send out a newsletter, whereas Monday may be better.
2. Give something valuable. If you want people to pay attention to your emails, create valuable content such as advice, tips or discounts.  It is pointless to just send links to your website, with an average email opening rate of 10-30%, you have to do more than this.
3. Make subscribing or opting out as easy as possible. Too many companies make this simple mistake, if you make it difficult for people to sign up or cancel the subscription, they will not sign up in the first place.   
4. Set up a ‘Reply-to’ email address. When creating your newsletter, make sure the reply field has the email of the person who can deal with questions about the site, rather than just an email that has been set up for the purpose of sending out the newsletter.  This is also important in forming relationships with prospective clients, which is the reason why businesses use email marketing anyway!
5. Test your emails on different platforms. There are lots of different ways that people may view your emails, whether its on Gmail, MS Outlook or even on a smartphone. Some platforms have problems opening complex emails, so at least make sure they look similar on most of them.
6. Make sure your newsletter will not be classed as spam. Most spam detectors are clever but sometimes your email can get stuck in a spam box.  Again do some testing and speak to your web expert for advice on this. 
7. Use email marketing to pursue social and interactive media. Through email marketing you can help build an online community for your business connecting it to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter via links.  New and interactive media such as videos have also proved successful in newsletters.

As I’m sure your aware Optimise Internet already help a number of clients with their email marketing, however, in a few weeks we will be launching Optimise Mailer.  Optimise Mailer is a solution for all email marketing needs, whether you just need a template for the email or you want our help from start to finish, we can assist!  In the meantime, remember these tips to keep on top of your email marketing or give one of our team a call or email to see how we can help you.

Immedi-let approached Optimise wanting an entire concept for their online presence.  Our team were more than happy to help and we successfully came up with a logo and complete design for their website.  Take a look here.

Anyway, enough about what we have to say, this is what Danny, Head of Immedi-let thought of the experience:

“I have been pleased and impressed with the level of service received from the Optimise team throughout the design process.  They take a very personal approach, which was vital for me, allowing you to have an in depth input into the site content and design.  They were constantly in contact with queries and suggestions, and made the process very simple indeed.  Most importantly I am incredibly satisfied with the finished article and recognise the importance of it as the vital component in my business.  I have already began to recommend Optimise to peers and will continue to do so”

Another happy client!  We look forward to continuing our work with Immedi-let and wish them luck for the future.

Warrington First wanted a basic website that would act as a virtual notice board displaying future events and contact details but with a new logo too.  Take a look for yourself here.

Optimise have also become a sponsor of  the Warrington First website, a position we’d like to thank them for!  In return we will be continuing to maintain and update the site for them and we will also be in charge of their email marketing campaign, updating it on a monthly basis.