Would You Subscribe to Monthly Online Marketing Tips?
I am considering starting up a programme in which I would send out a monthly newsletter or PDF in which I would list online marketing tips. These might be ways in which you can improve the search engine optimisation of your website, streamline your Google Adwords Pay Per Click campaign or make the most of an e-mail marketing campaign.
Would you pay a small, monthly for this type of product? Say, £10? Would be good to get your thoughts so feel free to contact me with them.
Considerations When Choosing a Domain Name
When working on a new website, one of the things you will have to do is think of a domain name. There are various ways to approach this and if you need to look into it deeply enough, it can be very scientific. The main consideration I have when thinking of new domain names is whether it needs to be used as part of the SEO campaign or if it needs to be more of a “brandable” name.
If the domain name is to be used as part of the SEO campaign, this is often called a “discoverable” domain name. Making a domain name a part of a website’s SEO campaign is possible because the domain name is one of the factors that the search engines take into account when determining where to rank a website. If, for example, you had a website which was based around selling watches and part of your online marketing campaign was to generate traffic via search engines, then you would be wise to include keywords into your domain name.
A “brandable” domain is something that you hope will evoke interesting thoughts and feelings in people. These names are original words or metaphors that use the meaning of the website into account and which will of course not already be in use. Having a “brandable” name will also make the name of the website stand out especially if it is done correctly.
There are also other, more scientific considerations to take into account such as the linguistic design of the domain name that you choose and which can have a bearing on how well people can say and remember your name.
In summary, it is certainly worth taking time to consider what you would like to achieve with a domain name and how you foresee the website progressing over time. Is it something that you would like to see grow into a brand or do you require something a little simpler which communicates what the website is all about in a more straight forward way?
I hope that helps provide more of an insight into the thoughts processes of choosing a domain name for a website but if you would like more info or have some opinions of your own on this feel free to post a comment or get in touch!
Social Media and Why it’s Great
Social media is something of a buzzword and like all buzzwords within an industry is used by some people to maintain their own level of self-importance. I’ve found that social media can be a great many things depending on who you listen to but I like to think of it as method to share information and contact like minded people. It’s great that this form of communication can take place in so many forums online and that it is always evolving due to various factors such as hardware, how people access the Internet and the characteristics of people that are using it.
Currently, for me, I am using Twitter quite a lot as it’s great for sharing information, asking questions, finding out things that are relevant to me and helping people. With Twitter, as with most social media and socialising in general, you get from it pretty much what you put in. For businesses and organisations, Twitter can be very beneficial if used in the right way and this usually takes the form of contacting people who are interested in what you do as and when it is necessary. This may take the form of extended customer service or simply responding to comments about your business or you can be more pro-active by using it to generate an interest in what you do by offering something of interest.
Working with clients on social media campaigns is very exciting for people as the work I produce is truly unique to each client and can generate a huge amount of interest and trust. If you’re ready to truly be socialable online with people who are interested in what you do and want help in doing this, then feel free to get in touch!
The Key Parts of E-mail Marketing
E-mail marketing is one of the last forms of direct marketing to have the potential to work. If done correctly, it can really help you build great relationships with the people that receive your newsletter. To do this, a few key things are needed:
A Great Looking Newsletter
Recipients of your newsletter will want to quickly know who it is from and whether they can trust the source. If the newsletter looks great and maintains your excellent brand then recipients will automatically trust the newsletter and will be interested to find out what information it contains. Having a newsletter that looks rushed, ugly or doesn’t look how it should due to the software they’re using to read it with then the chances that they will respond positively to it will be considerably lowered. When reading e-mails, people do not have time to work out if they need/should be reading it!
Relevant Content
Are the people receiving this newsletter interested in the content contained within? If not, you need to ask yourself why you are sending it to them. To make content relevant, you can split your database into seperate groups defined by certain criteria such as age, location or interests and then send these different groups newsletters based on this criteria so that it is relevant to them. If you can’t think of good content that is relevant to a group, then hold tight and send one out when you do have content that they will be interested in.
People to Read it (Legally!)
When sending out an e-mail newsletter, you need to obviously have people to send to. There are various legal issues to consider when building up your database but, generally, the best way to build up your database is to gain persmission during the course of a tranasaction and to have textbox somewhere on your website with a tickbox that states the person entering their e-mail address gives the business permission for them to send e-mail newsletters. A common technique is to try and trick people into thinking that they need to tick the box so that they won’t receive an e-mail but why do this? If people do not want to receive an e-mail from a business or organisation and are tricked into being added to a database, then they won’t open it when they receive it! The best policy is to be open and transparent about these things as it’s about having people who are interested in you rather than trying to get everyone to sign up. Quality rules over quantity in this case!
Above are some of the key factors I consider when working on an e-mail marketing campaign. Of course, there are several others but I find with e-mail marketing, as with all marketing, keeping things simple and sticking with the methods above leads to great results!
Hello! My Work Principles Are….
I was thinking of what to write as a first blog post and felt that the most important first thing to communicate was my principles towards my work. When meeting someone it is easier to communicate this as it happens not only from what a person says but also in other ways such as how they’re dressed, body language, use of language, punctuality and more. However, when initially having contact with people through a website, the design and words used are the most important ways to communicate a person’s attitude towards their work.
Now that I have given you that, I can tell you what mine are! I like to be straight forward and honest with people I work with and am more than happy for them to do the same with me. Being clear on various things when working together makes everything so much more effective and enjoyable. I like to be creative and innovative in all work that I undertake and this often happens through the discussion of ideas that may not be the norm but which may help my clients to achieve their goals!
I like to be professional as well as have a friendly relationship with my clients and get to know them and their business. If I can have a drink with a client and discuss their work in an enjoyable, creative and straight forward way, then I can certainly work with them! Online marketing is only difficult if you make it so which motivates me to keep things as simple and jargon free as possible.
I hope that gives you more of an insight into the way I work!