LexisClick Online Marketing

How important is it to have a good careers section on your website? Looking at the vast majority of small and medium sized businesses’ websites, the careers section is usually languishing as an afterthought to all the sales messages and service related information. Considering that for most businesses their people are their most important asset, shouldn’t they be making more of their website to help them attract the right people into their company?

We are in the process of revamping our careers section: we’re certainly guilty of neglecting it. As part of the process we have taken a look at several careers pages from leading employers in the UK. As with the websites in general  the quality of the careers sections vary quite significantly and it is very obvious which businesses are using their websites as an important tool in attracting the best people.

Two careers sections that really stood out for us were Innocent Drinks and McKinsey Consulting. Read more…

Marketing General recruitment, recruitment marketing

During some downtime today, I got a text from a friend who’s, how shall I put this, not exactly a fan of marketeers and marketing. He likes to tease me, in a friendly way of course, about what I do.

Today he reminded me of the late, great comedian Bill Hicks and his less than positive opinions of advertising and marketing bods. A quick spot of YouTubing later and I was chuckling at Bill’s observations, albeit a little uncomfortably beneath my devil horns. Read more…

Marketing General, Social Media Marketing

The above quote came from Kevin Eyers, MD of LinkedIn Europe, on the opening day of the Social Media World Forum at London’s Olympia.

Eyers also warned of an information overload – 76million emails are sent every day, and a quick search on the term “future of social media” provided him with 150million results in Google. How many people, he asked, would go beyond page one? But, importantly, he posed another question: “Just because it’s on page one, is it the right result for me? Or have they just got great SEO?” Read more…

Marketing General, Social Media Marketing facebook, Google Buzz, Social Media Marketing, social media strategy, Twitter

Next Monday and Tuesday, March 15 and 16, sees the Social Media World Forum Europe event in London. LexisClick will be attending and I can’t wait to spend two days immersed in the social media world.

Social media is a tricky thing for companies, with many not knowing exactly how to use it to best benefit their business. I spend much of my day immersed in social media strategies, but still think I’ll learn a great deal at this event. Read more…

Marketing General, Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketing, social media strategy

The deal struck between Microsoft and Yahoo! Last week, which sees Yahoo!’s search facility being powered by Microsoft’s technology for the next ten years, could have big implications for the future of search.

Yahoo!’s website will use Microsoft’s Bing search engine as Microsoft endeavours to take a larger share of the search market from the über-search giant Google. In return, Yahoo! will manage Microsoft’s search advertising business. Yahoo! will receive 88 per cent for ad sales accompanying search results on its site.

Rather than stepping out of the search market, as some rivals have suggested, Yahoo!’s Yoelle Maarek told the Daily Telegraph that the deal was actually “liberating” Yahoo!, enabling its team to focus their energy on front-end search innovations instead of making back-end tweaks.

This is an exciting time for Yahoo!, who also recently announced a partnership with Twitter that enables users to access personal real-time Twitter feeds from their Yahoo! homepage. These deals are both parts of Yahoo!’s goals of becoming more social and increasing its advertising strength.

But what does this mean for the future of search? Could the Google Giant really be under threat?

In three words: We doubt it.

Google has been getting some bad press recently, and is currently subject to European Union antitrust investigations. The online community wasn’t exactly “buzzing” about Google’s entry to the social media market, and in Italy Google executives were jailed after a video of a boy being bullied was posted on the site.

The thing about Google, though, is that it is constantly innovating while competitors chase to keep up. It has recently announced that it will be buying Picknik, an online photo editing service, while the latest beta of browser Chrome includes automatic translation options and enhanced privacy. And among the flurry of bad news last week, Google also launched a new advertising service, DoubleClick for Publishers, which combines AdManager with the DoubleClick DART platform – giving batter ad placement algorithms and enhancements to tracking and reporting of ads.

I think the Yahoo!-Microsoft partnership is an interesting move and ensures that energy and innovation continue to be injected into the world of search at some pace – which can only be a positive thing for everyone.

Read the full Daily Telegraph interview with Yahoo!’s Yoelle Maarek.

Marketing General, Search Engine Optimisation Google, Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Yahoo!

Mystery abounds in the music world over the identity of iamamiwhoami, an unknown (or at least for the moment unrecognisable) artist taking YouTube by storm.

The mystery videos, which feature a distorted blonde female singing, have caught the eye of Shane Richmond at the Daily Telegraph, who wrote an interesting piece speculating as to the singer’s identity, while music bloggers and fans are busy trying to guess the puzzle.

Viral videos are of course, nothing new. In fact, they predate sites such as YouTube and Google Video, originally being emailed and forwarded on from one friend to another. With the exponential grow of video and social networking sites, the popularity of virals exploded, and we all have our own particular favourites that we remember months or even years after we first clicked on them.

It goes without saying that virals can be amazing marketing tools – think of the Cadbury’s drumming Gorilla, for example, viewed more than a million times – but what makes a really good viral?

First, and most important, content is king. Humour is vital, of course, but funny is not the only thing that matters – your content should also be suitably different, unlike anything a viewer has seen before, which will make them more likely to want to talk about what they’ve seen, share it with their colleagues and friends.

Your viral content has also got to be something most people can identify with. For example, if you are selling a piece of high-level computing equipment, the ‘geek’ jokes that go down well among your colleagues might not have enough mass appeal for a wider audience (for that read your target customers) to find humour or that word-of-mouth factor in.

The guessing-game element from the iamamiwhoami videos acts as a perfect hook, as bloggers love having a mystery to solve. Names being tossed into the ring as potential stars of the campaign include Little Boots and Christina Aguilera, and if one of them turns out to be the true star, there will be much loved kudos for the blogger who named them first.

Short and sweet is another often-told message about viral videos. Put yourself in your target audience’s shoes: perhaps they’re sneaking a five minute break at work, or are sent a link to your viral campaign in an inbox containing 40 other messages. Remember time is precious – videos of two to three minutes are more likely to be watched and shared than an eight-minute epic, no matter how well produced or funny it is.

For information about how we can help with online marketing, contact us today.

We want to know what your favourite virals are – what stands out to you? Among mine are the hilarious FAIL blog and the Where The Hell Is Matt? series featuring Matt Harding dancing all over the world.

Let us know your favourite virals by leaving a comment on this thread!

Inspiration, Marketing General Online Marketing, online video, viral

I’ve just finished listening to a very interesting webcast by UK Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, during which he was asked about the competitiveness of the UK’s digital economy.

Osborne likened the development of super-speed broadband to that of canals, railways and road systems in centuries past, and I think that’s a fantastic analogy.

Should the Conservatives get elected at the next election (rumoured by pretty much everyone to be in May) they have plans to utilise part of the BBC Licence Fee to pay for the rolling out of superfast broadband to help ensure the UK remains and grows as a competitor in the digital economy.

Listening to Osborne’s speech, I couldn’t help thinking that the same was true for the UK’s millions of businesses.

A recent report by Kelkoo reveals that UK consumers were responsible for almost a third of all European online sales in 2009. The average annual spend by consumers in the UK was £1,102 on 37 items, while the rest of Europe spent, on average, £774 on 20 items.

Kelkoo forecast that in 2010 UK online retail sales will grow by 12.4% to £42.7 billion, while total retail sales will grow by just 1.7%. European online sales will grow by 20% to reach £153 billion.

Bruce Fair, Managing Director of Kelkoo UK, said of the findings: “2010 is when we will really start to see online sales achieving a significant share of overall retail trade in the UK. While the retail industry is showing slow signs of recovery, the online shopping sector bucked the trend in 2009 delivering double-digit growth, and is expected to continue to perform strongly in 2010.”

That means that getting your online marketing strategy right is more vital than ever this year.

With so many businesses, large and small, online, what you first need to think about is what makes your business stand out from the crowd. Can you offer the best prices, the fastest service, the most knowledge and professionalism in your market?

Identifying what it is that makes your business unique – and will attract and retain the customers you want – is an essential part of your business’s online strategy. Then there’s social media – how best can you use it to market your products and services?

These are just a couple of points you must consider when planning your online sales and marketing strategy. For expert advice on all aspects of online advertising, marketing and web design, contact LexisClick today.

Marketing General, Social Media Marketing Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Social media for business, Social Media Marketing, Web Design

Confidence and optimism are returning to marketing budgets, the latest IPA/BDO Bellweather survey reports.

While marketing spend fell for the ninth quarter in a row in the final quarter of 2009, the rate of that fall was at its slowest for almost two years, since the first quarter of 2008.

The survey reports that 35% of the firms questioned saw prospects improving, indicating confidence in the recovery from recession. This is, of course, still a slow and careful process.

Internet advertising budgets were among the winners, being revised up for the second quarter in a row., and while marketing spend was revised down in sales promotion and main media, this was at a slower rate.

The key to getting the best out of your marketing budget, no matter how big or small it is, is to ensure you’re spending wisely – getting the best possible results for your outlay. Whether you’re focusing your marketing spend on email marketing, online SEO, online advertising or a mixture of options, it’s always a good idea to seek expert advice.

Companies such as LexisClick live and breathe online marketing, and can help you make the most of your marketing budget.

To read the IPA Bellwether Report, click here.

To find out more about LexisClick’s services, click here.

Marketing General Online Marketing

I was just clearing up my emails and came across a newsletter from our accountants. The newsletter had an item in it by Nichalas Bates author of  “How to beat the recession”.

Now that we seem to be emerging from the worst of it, there are still some useful points to take on board from here. Most are common sense, but they are usually the ones we need reminding of!

1. Get back in your “war room” and review your “beat the recession” plans. If you don’t have any, see point 2.

2. Set a new plan for the next 12 months of continuing tough times.

3. Having made it this far you must be doing plenty right.

4. The key is to know what that is: Where are you making profit? Where are your sales growing?

5. It is unusual during a recession for consumers to stop spending all together, whether it’s wine, consultancy or heating systems. You need to target them.

6. As the economy improves, there will be a huge amount of spending, which didn’t happen during the recession. Stay in touch with your customers and remind them of your products or services.

7. Sell the benefits, the value. The logic of buying your product or service may seem obvious to you, but then you work with it every day. Explain it well to someone new and reluctant to spend money.

8. Sell what is special about your solution compared to the competition.

9. Sell urgency – why do they need to buy now?

10. Run mini-workshops for the team on handling objections, doing cold calling or writing proposals (quotations)

11. Think 1% improvement. If you improved your business by just 1% each month, over time, the improvements would be huge.

12. Keep the team informed. Don’t leave them in a state of anxiety.

13. Work in your business: answer calls, have a tidy reception.

14. Work on your business: improve, invest, inspire…

15. Make sure there is time for fun, whether its a pizza or the cinema.

16. Encourage people to go home on time.

17. Celebrate all success.

18. Understand why business is lost and learn the lessons.

19. Know your competition, but don’t copy them. Do it better.

20. Book the “war room” session, today!

Marketing General

I have to admit to having gathered a few years under my belt (or is that beers) and although there are times when you think back to how it used to be in the ‘Ad Agencies’ of the past – more of that in future Blogs – need to check with the lawyers first!

I do on occasion reflect upon the past and just think of how it really compares to today. Let’s just take one aspect, others will follow, but for now in advertising terms let’s consider Adwords vs ‘good old fashion advertising’. Of course back then we would be classing this brief string of words as ‘classifieds’ and not the ‘curvacious blonde WLTM for fun & frolics’ type of ad more the ‘one careful owner only 60,000 miles’ masterpiece!

Nowadays the ads are severely restricted in terms of space & content 25 characters for a header and 35 for each line of text but their impact and relevance can be massive. Gone are the days when 20 or 30 phone calls from an ad were deemed a success now we measure in clicks and goal conversions that can run into hundreds. What does it all mean though? Well it all adds up to measurability and for marketers of the past that fearsome word ‘accountability’, as we can all see exactly how the ad has performed, however, there are benefits. We can change an ad in minutes, run it , monitor it, assess it’s success and adjust as necessary – brilliant!

Now we can actually make our customers money work harder and go further and bring a greater return on investment, providing it’s managed correctly and the results should speak for themselves!

In the 70’s and 80’s you often had days in between insertions and even then you couldn’t be sure of their success – okay you received a few phone calls but if we changed just a couple of words, would that make a bigger difference? The customer didn’t have the deep pockets that would have been necessary to go through the ‘assessment’ cycle or in fact the time – what can be achieved now in a few days would have taken weeks.

A step forward? Certainly it’s made everyone in the media sharpen up their act as you cannot sit still, relax or even have a proper lunch without consulting your Blackberry or iPhone for the latest results.

As for the man (or woman) in the street it now means that they can engage with the world – promoting their skills, products and services (note to self before publishing best delete women in the street here) providing them with every opportunity to prove themselves as leading copywriters and creatives – yes Adwords has finally given the (ad) ‘power to the people’!

Who cares about the past, well mark my words you’ll be writing something similar, or just thinking it to millions in 20 or 30 years from now and what will YOU be yearning for?

Marketing General Add new tag, Adwords, Google Adwords