Tis the Season to be Planning…

November 7, 2011 By

Christmas Social Media Campaigns

It’s hard to believe that it is November already and that can only mean one thing – Christmas is just around the corner!  Christmas is the ideal time to plan a special digital marketing campaign making use of your email list, social media promotions and adding some seasonal graphics to your website.  If you send Christmas cards or emails to your customers make sure you include your social media profiles to promote your online connection with your customers.

Versatile Marketing can help you plan your Christmas marketing campaign and it is certainly worthwhile to start the planning now.  Simple ideas which can work wonders for small business include an email mail-out with a discount code to your existing customers, a Facebook competition with a prize just in time for Christmas, a blog competition/giveaway and a Twitter campaign with some Christmas cheer for your valued followers.  Sending a personal seasonal message on LinkedIn to your connections can also be valuable for re-establishing contact with those individuals you’d like to do business with in 2012.  It is also a fabulous time of year to become savvy with YouTube and introduce some new videos to your online marketing.  As with any campaign your Christmas campaign should follow a well thought out plan with realistic goals which can be measured.  Happy planning!

 

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Is Your Website Letting Your Business Down?

November 2, 2011 By

Websites for BusinessI have a confession to make… I am constantly judging businesses by the quality of their website.  Now this probably has a lot to do with the fact that I am so involved in online marketing but I’m sure that I am like just like your average customer.  I want to know more about the business I am dealing with, I want to know they are a genuine business and that they will take my custom seriously – so surely a decent website isn’t too much to ask for??

The statistics in Australia are actually frightening!  A recent MYOB report into online marketing in Australia found that more than half of Australian businesses don’t promote or sell products and services online, with a quarter believing that a website wouldn’t benefit their business at all.

Interestingly, the report also revealed that businesses with a website are more successful – 32% reported a revenue increase in the past 12 months, compared to 22% of businesses without a website.  We can only hope that the quarter of businesses believing a website wouldn’t benefit their business read that statistic and took notice!  Businesses with websites are also more much likely to expect increased sales in the next few months, and they also display greater confidence that their revenues will increase in the coming 12 months.

If your business does have a website, how long has it been since you gave it a serious evaluation?  Is it up to date?  Are there enough quality images and does it do your business justice?  A website re-design or make-over doesn’t have to be an expensive exercise and the benefits can be enormous.  Traditional bricks and mortar businesses shouldn’t discount the opportunity to sell their products online to boost their sales and expand market opportunities.

There has been so much emphasis on social media over the past 2 years that many businesses have forgotten that it is their website which should be the backbone of their online marketing efforts.  Your website is ultimately the one thing within your control – no Facebook or Twitter changes will bring your website down.  A website should integrate with your social media marketing, if you are driving the traffic back to your site you need to make sure it is up to the job.

Here are some key considerations you should make when reviewing your website:

  • Loading times – is your hosting fast enough to cope with the content and the amount of traffic your site receives
  • Aesthetics – does your site look the part?
  • Navigation – a crucial element, website visitors have short attention spans – they want to find what they are looking for quickly.
  • SEO – have you covered the basics of on page optimisation?  Once this is taken care of look at off-site optimisation.
  • Integration with Social Media – if you are utilising social media then let your website visitors know!
  • Blog – a website review is the ideal time to consider creating a blog as part of your site design
  • Mailing list sign-up – email addresses are like gold… don’t discount email marketing as a way of converting your website visitors into paying customers.
If you are looking for some website feedback why not get in touch with us for a complimentary website review… we’d love to help you get more out of your website.
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7 Quick Twitter Tips for Small Business Owners

August 29, 2011 By

Twitter Tips for Small Business OwnersFrom personal experience of speaking to small business owners and marketing managers it has certainly become evident that Twitter is the most mysterious and misunderstood social media platform.  For some reason it’s become daunting for many small business owners, perhaps it seems too complicated… or is it just thought of as being a way to stalk celebrities?

Twitter is actually a very powerful social media platform but it certainly helps if you understand it.  Twitter means different things to different people… some use it as a media monitoring tool, others use it purely for fun, and many use it to connect with friends and/or colleagues.  I certainly recommend taking your time to get to know Twitter – it will be worth it!  In the meantime these quick tips will help you understand Twitter a little more.

  1. Tweets and messages must be a maximum of 140 characters but it is worth perfecting shorter tweets to make it easier for retweets.
  2. What’s a RT, DM or hashtag?  What do trending topics mean?  Make sure you check out the Twitter Glossary so you know the lingo.
  3. It’s okay to lurk for a while.  Just because you’ve signed up doesn’t mean you have to tweet 10 times a day.  It will take you a while to find your own rhythm and that’s fine.
  4. If you want to tweet links use a URL shortener like bit.ly or tiny.url so the link is condensed.
  5. Investigate Twitter clients like Hootsuite or TweetDeck… I promise you will thank me!  twitter.com is confusing – a dedicated Twitter client like Hootsuite enables you to track your lists, search topics and set up plenty of streams which makes monitoring Twitter much easier.
  6. Don’t feel obliged to follow people back, you’re allowed to be selective.
  7. If you start your tweet with @username it’s a reply, if the @username is anywhere else in the tweet it’s called a mention.  What’s the difference?  The difference lies in who sees the reply – yourself, the recipient and only people that follow both of you.  A mention is displayed to all of your followers (regardless of whether they follow the other person) so many more people are likely to see it.

If you are in Adelaide and you’d like to learn even more about Twitter we have a Twitter Workshop coming up in October – why not sign up and learn how to harness the power of Twitter for your business?

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