mobile useage 2011

Here are my top ten insights to help plan a successful mobile campaign.

1. Work, rest and play – customers use mobiles for business, home, shopping and leisure. In fact, 86% of mobile internet users are using their devices while watching TV.
2. Mobile access – a recent survey revealed that over 72% of people access the internet via their mobile phone.
3. Website friendly – a website that appears on a mobile phone is not the same as a mobile site. For many businesses, a separate mobile website is a good idea.
4. Mobile website – has large images and the navigation is clear and easy to use. The whole experience is completely different to a standard website.  
5. How customers connect – do they prefer to respond by email or by text? It takes 90 minutes for the average person to respond to an e-mail, 90 seconds to respond to a text message.
6. What they want – do your customers compare products, want to place an order or track a delivery?
7. Socially mobile – over 30% of smartphone owners access social networks via a mobile browser so ensure your marketing strategies are connected.
8. SMS text messaging – 160 characters can remind and confirm, inform and alert. Texting can improve customer service and make it more personal.
9. QR codes – allow users to download information onto their smartphones from your print advertising, the same way that a barcode gives the till a price at the supermarket.  
10. Apps - smartphone applications are innovative ways to connect with customers and leapfrog your competitors for little cost and little effort.

2011 mobile statistics

Mould mobile into your existing marketing to ensure it complements and enhances what you’re doing already. Mobile can be a fantastic tool for your business. If you have any other ideas about starting a mobile campaign, share them in the comments section below or on Twitter.

how to blog

 Here are our 10 good reasons to start blogging or to be a better blogger.

1. Drives traffic to your website - regular posts keep your website fresh and insightful and gives people a reason to revisit.
2. Engage with your audience – aim to provide useful information, ‘how to’ guides, consider how you can solve their business problems.
3. Makes SEO sense - it’s good for search and you have potential to add keywords to improve search rankings.
4. Source original content - communicate regularly and build up a meaningful relationship to encourage recipients to purchase in time, not immediately!
5. Collaborate with others - invite guest posts, interview with partners or customers to help maintain interest and interaction.
6. Establish a reputation – be open and engaging and record real-life experiences to help build trust and encourage referrals.
7. Share expertise – be passionate about passing on your knowledge, your style can be less formal than a corporate website.
8. Showcase products - offer ‘behind the scenes’ information about your products and encourage customers to share comments.
9. Content for newsletters - blogging content can be recycled and used for social media and newsletters.
10. Add podcasts/videocasts – record interviews and upload YouTube or Vimeo content; embed links to encourage others to pass along.

If you need a blog or want to share ideas about improving your blog, mention them in the comments section below or share on Twitter.

email marketing concept

Here are 10 golden rules to get closer to your customers.

1. Sign-up – encourage people to sign-up to your email service and continue to check and review it.
2. Segment lists – check who have recently engaged with you and those who have not.
3. Manage expectations - make it clear what people will get when they sign-up and be sure to deliver it.
4. Right data - use Preference Managers within campaigns so recipients update their own personal information.
5. Relationship - communicate regularly, build up a meaningful relationship to encourage recipients to purchase.
6. Message - send valuable messages, e.g., remind customers if they have left something in a basket.
7. Images – the design of your emails and the images you use can make or break a campaign.
8. Use results - use the feedback you get from email campaigns to improve future ones.
9. Save costs - use automated emails to remind or confirm a service to save you costs.
10. Social media - encourage reviews of a product to be posted on Facebook via an email.

email marketing

Go back to basics and focus on getting the small things about your email campaign right. If you have any other ideas about improving email campaigns, share them in the comments section below or on Twitter.

personal signature

You can expand awareness of your brand in a clever, simple way on a daily basis. Turn your email signatures into a marketing mechanism. Here’s our top ten tips to make your email signature work harder!

1. Website – promote your website and make sure it directs the visitor’s attention to pages to help increase sales.
2. Mobile – ensure that it displays well on your mobile, it’s unprofessional if it doesn’t.
3. Blog – a link to fresh content on your blog is more engaging than a static website homepage.
4. Free tools - using the free tool, WiseStamp, you can create a dynamic email signature.
5. Social media - add links to your personal or corporate accounts, both are good options.
6. Pre-events - add your stand number, be creative to help spread the word about the event.
7. Marketing offers - promote offers such as ebooks or webinars to expose to more traffic.
8. Case studies - share successful customer stories highlighting useful data.
9. Industry research - publish a link to research facts and figures in your marketing sector.
10. Free consultation - promote a free consultation or even a demonstration of your product.

social media buttons

Overall it’s really important that your email signature looks polished and professional. If you have any other ideas for what your email signature can promote, share them in the comments section below or on Twitter.

Finding the right design agency boils down to how well you understand each other. It’s so important to have the confidence in a designer that you know will deliver on time and on budget. Here’s some advice to take some of the pain out of the whole process, from the beauty parade to the delivery.

alexandrapatrick brand identity

 Here are our top ten design agency selection tips.

1 The brief – what do you want to do? Is it branding, logo design, a full communications package? A design to work both offline and online?

2 Fixed ideas – try to have an open mind and consider design alternatives. Having a precise design in mind can restrict creativity. What are your objectives – let the designer interpret them.

3 Price is right –  a good designer should be able to estimate and justify their costs. Encourage them to explain the value they will deliver.

4 Completer, finisher – how passionate are the team about your business? What did they find out about your brand to surprise you? And are they the sort that complete on time and on budget?

5 Team-mix – weigh up the benefits of working with a freelancer or an agency. Who will give you the time and attention you deserve. Ask for testimonials with their proposal.

6 Track record – take a look at their portfolio. Does their work have the ‘wow’ factor you’re looking for? How do they approach a range of briefs?

7 Win, win – are you confident their design will win you new business? Will it win over your existing customers and engage new ones?

8 Any gaps – anticipate potential gaps, do they offer all you need, for example if you require a new website can they bring on other team members to develop and build the site if required?

9 Big picture – can your designer deliver a style that won’t date and won’t damage your brand? Make sure it’s focussed, clear and visually appealing.

10 On message – will the new style support your brand messages and elicit positive emotional responses to support your online and offline marketing?

Following these steps should help you secure an agency that will make your business more successful.

How well does your design agency perform? Join the conversation and follow us on Twitter

alexandrapatrick qr code

They were originally invented in Japan to track component in factories. Today, they add web content to a far-reaching range of media and objects, even a virtual store!

Here are the 10 most popular uses of QR codes for business…

1. Business cards – instant contact details stored in your phone, plus you can add to corporate stationery too.
2. Websites – add to your ‘contact us’ page to instantly download your contact information.
3. Maps and signage – ‘point and find’ ‘you are here’, works well for guidance to get to events, theme parks and companies.
4. Posters, banners store windows – direct response codes on physical objects, you’ll even see them on t-shirts that you can give away.
5. Coupons and special deals – redeem offers in specific locations within a time limit, great to encourage the person to act now.
6. Add to social media – linked to a Facebook, LinkedIn or Google Plus page they’ll draw people to your website.
7. How-to-advice - immediate support, visualised in video or audio format, works well for DIY, recipes, cooking advice.
8. Customer reviews – directs potential purchasers to find out what others think of a new product.
9. After sales care – if you’re struggling to assemble a new purchase, you can find an extra pair of hands online to support via the QR code link.
10. Extra special – via a QR code, gain the reward of a gift or discount if you sign up for a newsletter.

Currently in the UK QR codes have a novelty factor. And there are plenty of examples of the link going to incorrect information or even not working at all. So if you’re considering the QR code route, do your homework and don’t leave your customers feeling you ‘could do better’!

Do you think QR codes could work for your business? Join the conversation and follow us on Twitter

alexandrapatrick pinterest

But this is where it gets interesting for business. Pinterest is driving more traffic to company websites and blogs than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined. It became the fastest website ever to hit 10 million unique users. As you can see above, the visual content is organised in themed boards. Here we’ve shown  how we’ve had fun with our favourite “keep calm” slogans, one of our most popular boards.

keep calm slogans

Each image is called a “pin” – see our chocolate cheesecake. People can like your “pins” or “repin” (copy) them to their own boards, or comment and share them on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow them all or just one board, like our delicious ‘chocolate treats’. 

chocolate cheesecake pin

Here are our top ten facts about “pinning” to get you interested…

1 It’s invite only so you need to request an invitation to join.

2 Your boards are full of all the things that (P)interest you or your customers.

3 People are pinning about food and drink, places to visit, favourite designs and much more.

4 It’s not just imagery, you can pin video hosted by YouTube. Your pins can go viral.

5 Create a collaborative board where you and others “pin” content.

6 Showcase your products (with prices), to drive awareness.

7 You can “pin” with an iPhone app wherever you are.

8 Pinterest is generating huge traffic for brands, retail, travel, charities etc. back to their websites.

9 It’s converting more browsers into buyers than any other social media source.

10 Spread the word by adding a sharing functionality to your browser, website and blog.

Our own pinning is driven by what inspires us, our favourite work, mixing images up and making it connect. We give you visual inspiration on what to cook, show what happens behind the scenes, suggest where to travel, share favourite designs… we want our fans to share back their tastes and interests with us.

So are you ready to get started on Pinterest? Join the conversation and follow us on Twitter

So your home page should be warm, inviting and easy to navigate. There are key components to a home page to help you generate more leads and encourage visitors to purchase online. Here are our top ten home page design tips using the SkiWeekends website as a best-practise example.

website desgin top ten tips

1 Have clear brand identity at the top.

2 Use a trackable phone number to monitor website only enquiries.

3 Engaging visuals – relevant, fresh, young, fun imagery that looks inviting.

4 Start visitor on their journey with visible navigation buttons to help search.

5 Check availability form encourages instant sales.

6 Quick links to access latest offers, cheap deals.

7 ‘Ask the team’ is reassuring and moves the visitor a step closer to purchase online.

8 Add credibility with ATOL & ABTA protected mentions.

9 Clear call to action ‘search’ button.

10 Facebook links to increase social interaction.

Other considerations might be to have a larger telephone number and more prominent social media buttons for Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus in the top banner. Remember social sharing buttons too. Encourage visitors to share your home page with their network and it still allows them to purchase whilst online.

Don’t forget using bullet points, numbered lists, dashes, and headers helps make those chunks of text easy to scan through. And finally, with the growth in mobile phones and tablets, people are surfing the Internet more than ever. So make sure your site is optimised for browsing.

 So, how well is your home page designed? Join the conversation and follow us on Twitter.

right search keywords

Here are my top SEO tips.

1. Search engines – make your site easy to find in all the search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo. Not everyone will arrive on your home page, so optimise all pages. Domain name choice is important too, consider building search words into the .co.uk /.com address.
2. Keywords – encourage people to find your site by using the words they might use to search for it. Consider using more on your home page which attracts the most natural search traffic.
3. Keyword tools – use a tool like Google AdWords to create an ad with the right keywords. Google Analytics will help you find your most linked, most shared, most popular content. Tweak these pages to get more visitors.
4. Right keywords – or key phrases (combining several words) help people find exactly what they want. If there is an exact match to the phrase, Google thinks this is more relevant!
5. Use more links – use editorial links in the body of long copy and pages such as Home and About Us but anchor text relevantly. Encourage reciprocal links on other sites to your home page to boost rankings.
6. Optimise site structure – a big website needs a site map linking every page. The search engine robots will then find every page with just two clicks. A small site needs a navigation bar that lists your main pages and encourages easy navigation.
7. Social Media – Search engines use social indicators for rankings. Use FaceBook and Twitter and you’ll rank higher. Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube review links and improve the anchor text of your website.
8. Blogging – set up your own blog with relevant keywords. Contribute to guest blogs and make regular contributions. Or exchange articles, publish someone else’s with a link back to their site to get high quality links.
9. Tags – The titles on each page are the most important. Re-engineer them bespoke to your business. Remember to optimise headings in the main content too.
10. Unique content – have unique content/words for your important product pages, Google will rank and assess these against similar sites. Differentiate for engines and visitors too.

Creating an SEO friendly site doesn’t have to be too expensive or too time consuming. How optimised is your website? Join the conversation and follow us on Twitter

chocolate cheesecake recipe

Take the food industry. What’s going to get your attention? With or without an image for that mouth-watering new recipe? There’s no doubt that a feature with a professionally shot image will make you feel hungry. More importantly, it will secure more coverage.

mouth-watering ice cream

As a marketer, I’m convinced of the need of quality photography. Clients need a little more persuasion. Here are my top five tips for use of PR images.

1. Eye candy – a great shot of you, your team or new product will grab a journalist’s attention and secure those column inches.
2. Portfolio toolbox – consider carefully a variety of shots that will suit a range of media needs. Take food again – a shot of someone eating the product for a magazine, cut outs on a plain white background for an exhibition, close ups of packaging for your website.
3. Photoshoot – find a professional photographer that specialises in your business or understands what you want to achieve. They will have the all-important lighting, props, creative know-how to help paint the picture you need.
4. Keep it real – if you can’t afford a photoshoot, avoid the Photoshop route. It will look cheap and nasty and undermine your brand values. The picture will say a thousand wrong words! And please don’t be tempted to steal someone else’s photos.
5. High-quality – forgive me for getting technical, but journalists won’t use your photography unless it is high-resolution, over 300 dpi (dots per inch) and at least 1MB. Don’t forget to check you can send them by email too and they won’t clog up the editor’s in-box!

Remember, someone in the office with a digital camera who’ll do it for free will not earn you free publicity.

Do you think photography is important in PR? If you want to chat more about this follow us on Twitter