Web Marketing | Norfolk-web-marketing-blog

Archive for the ‘Web Marketing’ Category

New FunSongs website using fun illustrative design!

Monday, February 15th, 2010

We launched our latest website today for our client FunSongs. Charles Goodger who runs FunSongs hired us to give the site a complete makeover and fun was on the menu!

By using illustrative design techniques we were able to get over the message that learning English is fun, something not always possible with educational based projects. The site selling action songs packages is primarily aimed at international schools teaching English as a second language.

Before & After

FunSongs before makeover AFTER

The client is extremely pleased with the outcome and we’ve received much praise surrounding the design. We wish Charles and his team every success with the new site and FunSongs in the future.

www.funsongs.co.uk can be visited here

Posted in Branding, Clients, Company Information, Graphic Design, Internet, Web Design, Web Marketing | No Comments »

How Twitter has Successfully Worked for Us.

Monday, December 14th, 2009

We’ve been social media users for as long as I can remember, in fact it’s fair to say that this business has been built solely on the back of various social media channels. This said we only started to harness the power of twitter no more than 3 months ago although to be fair the methods of approaching twitter are the same as any other social media tool it’s just a case of learning the little idiosyncrasies.

I admit it was a time thing that was most off putting, how was I supposed to shoe horn in one more thing to my working day? But, one day I read an article and the last parting comment was this:

The train is leaving the station with or without you

This was a general reference to social media but in particular twitter as that is the forerunner at the moment. The next day I was on that train brandishing first class tickets yelling at the driver to take off the brakes and get this train moving full steam ahead. The one thing I can say without doubt is ‘why didn’t I start tweeting earlier?’.

Twitter success
It takes a while to get established and in the first few weeks getting stuck in and finding your feet does take up a lot of time but we’re confident we’re taking the right approach to our tweeting (open to opinion though) because of our achievements with it so far in about 6 weeks and 600 or so posts.

So in no particular order of importance we have: Found 2 new suppliers, have been invited to show at an exhibition (which went very well), am talking to one contact to do some consultancy for them, have been invited to guest blog with good exposure, had the opportunity to quote for work (2 largish contracts so far) we otherwise wouldn’t of, connected with people who have been asking about our service that we otherwise would of missed and we’ve actually won some work!

But maybe more importantly we’ve forged some fantastic relationships with people and anticipate doing more deals within the next month or so and all as a direct result of twitter alone. All within approx 8 weeks, although to be fair the productive parts have been in the last month or so.

We’re firmly on that train now, are you? If you are looking for help and/or advice regarding the use of Twitter for your brand or indeed social media in general then do get in touch via our contact page. We can provide your business with various social media based products from twitter backgrounds up to training seminars/workshops.

Your comments are really welcome, please leave them below.

Posted in Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, Web Marketing | 1 Comment »

Information Overload – Causes and Symptoms

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

communication A Sunday edition of the Times carries more information than the average nineteenth century citizen accessed his entire life. Information used to be as precious as diamonds. And now? Well it’s so plentiful that most of it ends up being overlooked, ignored or thrown away like rubbish.

As of February 2007, there were over 108 million distinct websites and increasing, as of October 2008 there were 183 million (I couldn’t find any stats for 2009). That’s a lot of information and it’s growing daily. This doesn’t really include real time social media data like facebook and twitter as well.

When and how does it happen?
Information overload occurs when we receive more info than our brain can process. Even if it is good information, too much of a good thing just is not good anymore. Doesn’t matter if you’re an info addict, information overload affects us all.

So what’s the effect of info overload?
This amount of data so which we are open to carries a cost. It’s physical, mental and financial.

There are 3 ways in which people respond: They become overwhelmed and shut down, they labour over whether they’re making the right decisions or they just ignore you and move on. Is that what your readers, visitors and potential customers are doing right now, moving on?

People aren’t looking for more (information). It’s relief or escape from all the pressure of more is what they’re looking for. Are you causing pressure or giving relief?

What are the overload symptoms?

Productivity Loss. People can easily get lost in the details. We waste time focusing on unimportant information and lose sight of the goal and purpose.

Mind Clutter. The noise created by media and other sources of information clutters our minds and takes away from our inner peace.

Lack of Time. We all have the same limited amount of time in a day. Instead of wasting time filtering through information, We’d rather spend the time on bringing more enjoyment and fulfilment into our life.

Lack of Personal Reflection. We find that if we are constantly consuming information, then we forget to connect with ourselves (and others).

Stress & Anxiety. Information inflow makes us feel like we have more tasks to fill our lives than we have time for. Often, we might suddenly feel nervous without understanding why. Every piece of information demands our time. Even if we ignore it, a part of us saw that data and recorded it within our subconscious.

Here’s the crux. Too much info will lose you customers and affect your profits, I can’t put it any clearer that that can I?

So how to make sure we don’t overload?
Well in the next blog post we’ll look at just that so make sure you come back to find out. Don’t miss out and subscribe to our blog RSS feed or twitter feed to get notifications of our new blog posts.

Your comments are really welcome, please leave them below.

Posted in Web Marketing, communication | 2 Comments »

Frickin’ Elephants Help Effective Communication

Monday, November 9th, 2009

When it comes to good communication it’s not so much about sending the right message as it is getting the right response. The right message assumes you and the other person will respond in the same way. A person’s understanding shows up before you do, and that is the reality of the message you send. It’s not what you say; it’s what people hear. And, while you might not be able to control what people see or hear, you can do a better job trying to anticipate it.

I heard a story about a grandpa helping his four-year-old grandson learn to read. The boy pointed to a picture in a zoo book and said, “Look, Grandpa! It’s a frickin’ elephant.” The grandpa took a deep breath and asked, “What did you call it?”

His grandson repeated himself.

“It’s a frickin’ elephant, Grandpa! It says so on the picture!”

And, so it did. When the grandpa looked down at the picture, it read,

“A F R I C A N Elephant.”

It’s not what you say; It’s what people hear

When looking at logos and any of your marketing materials it’s importnat to ask serious questions about the message that’s being portrayed to those that will see them. Here’s 4 quick pointer questions for you to consider.

Does this graphic support or compete with the intended experience for your audience?
Does this logo (or any marketing material) help accomplish the desired objective or not?
Does it have potential to attract or repel?
Does it add to or take away credibility?

When it comes to your website you only have 3 seconds to communicate that right message to your visitors, that’s less time than it takes to read this sentence.

What’s your message and how is it being heard?
Do you think about what you might say will be taken by others and how it might affect them or do you just think about what you have to say and go and do it?

I wonder what open and candid feedback you might get if you were to show your communications (whether it be your website, newsletters to clients or internal messages) to others before sending them? Would the feedback you get back match that of the desired goal of the communication?

Is the communication you’re sending actually opening doors rather than closing them?

Your comments are really welcome, please leave them below.

Posted in Graphic Design, Social Networking, Web Marketing, communication | 1 Comment »

Social Networking and Business Success

Friday, November 6th, 2009

If you haven’t read our article ‘Social Networking and Business Image’ then it may be a good time to read it as we cover the first two ‘musts’ when you decide to embark on social networking. There are 100’s of sites to get involved in but you may eventually decide to stick to just one site because it suits your business and works for you so our guide covers them all in a general non-subjective way.

Business success can be achieved if you approach social networking in a certain way and following on from our last article we have written some further tested points to follow.

Cutting Costs Through Social Networking
We have already established that social networking can offer up more leads in return for our time and our willingness to appear less formal than perhaps we do in a face-to-face environment. Social networking sites have been established to connect us and they are free, plus you can receive instant feedback on your products.

You may eventually decide to stick to just one site because it suits your business and works for you so our guide covers them all in a general non-subjective way. However try a few sites and find that final one where there are good quantities of like-minded people, people that are passionate and want to socialise in your area of business and you will build a following that you can market to, for free.

Through all of this, remember to say who you are – anonymity is no longer a good idea, why would you hide your true identity if your business is a trustworthy one? Build trust and you will build loyalty.

No Direct Sell
The whole idea of getting into social networking is not to promote your business but to raise awareness in an indirect way, give it personality and ultimately build your business success. This is done by interaction, engagement and getting conversations going. The wrong idea would be to sign up to, say, Twitter and start hard selling your products. Firstly this does not say much for your business ethic so, as we mentioned in our last article, try to remain a little laid back that you would usually – people do expect less formality. Secondly it tells your followers that you have your blinkers on and perhaps are not interested in them and that’s a good way to turn people off.

Try a bit of humour, you are there to network not sell and there is a big difference. Once you have a good group of followers that are interested in you and your industry you can throw in some subtle messages regarding the product or service you are looking to sell. Again we are talking about trust and loyalty so interacting with people and engaging them in a quick bit of chat will tell them you are aware of them and are not simply connecting to sell them something, they will feel a little more comfortable with you and your business this way.

For most SME’s spending money on advertising campaigns will soon, if it hasn’t already, become a complete waste of money as 95% of people don’t take any notice of most advertising. We do believe that businesses are going to be very disadvantaged by not involving themselves in social networking and perhaps getting to know people that may well be their potential customers.

Posted in Social Media, Social Networking, Web Marketing, communication | No Comments »