Keep your web site and blog content fresh

Real time search…

According to one industry expert, regularly updating a website with fresh, relevant content will become even more important in terms of search engine optimisation (SEO) as real-time search gets bigger.

Jaamit Durrani, SEO engineer at Fresh Egg, wrote on the Econsultancy blog of  how incorporating constantly updated web content onto a site can help give e-retailers “a competitive advantage”.

“If you have a blog on the site (and you should), categorise your blog  posts properly and have them feeding into category pages to include the first couple of lines,” he advised.

Also effective as a way of keeping a website fresh are User-generated content and reviews he added.

Mr Durrani went on to say that landing pages and content on product pages should also be regularly updated to show search engines that a website is “alive”.

Earlier in December, Google announced that it was introducing a real-time search feature to its offering. Live updates from relevant blogs, the latest news stories as well as social networks now appear on the search engine results page.

The legal profession still needs to market…

Marketing the legal profession

An incoming Conservative government may slow down the pace of change in the provision of legal services. Could this have a detrimental effect on marketing and communication within the sector?

Shadow Justice Minister, Henry Bellingham has said that any incoming Conservative government would slow down the pace of introducing Alternative Business Structures (ABSs) to the legal profession.

In an article featured in the Law Society Gazette of November 19th 2009  he is reported as describing ABSs as ‘one more assault on the high-street solicitor’, Bellingham predicted that big names would enter the market and cherry-pick the more lucrative work. ‘They’ve done it with conveyancing, they’re going do it with will writing and they’re going to do it with other types of legal work,’ he said.

From an independent viewpoint I can understand the concerns but what worries me from a marketing and communications standpoint is that the introduction ABSs will encourage smaller firms to wake up, smell the coffee and take marketing seriously and help them to realise that they need to communicate more effectivelywith their audience.

Many potential legal services clients are nervous about the mere thought of anything legal and certainly have the perception that any conversation will cost an absolute fortune. Despite this, many law firms have been slow in reaching, out preferring to sit back and wait for clients.

The Legal Services Bill and ABSs will create a need for this mentality to change I just hope the pace doesn’t slow down too much.

Is competitive tendering killing entrepreneurs?

On two occasions recently an associate of mine has responded to invitations to compete for design work, one from a local authority and one from an FE college.

To take the college job first. He submitted his outline ideas together with reams of paperwork. The result was that they liked the design work but because his liability insurance at £5m wasn’t considered enough and he did not have an approved quality standard registration they were unable to take it further.

The local authority outlined details of their campaign requirement on their web site and asked for 2 sets of costings, a budget option and a higher grade option. However the designs for both should be of ‘award winning’ standard and as part of the costing/pre-pitch process, those showing an interest should also submit an outline of their proposed design ideas.

I have several issues with this type of practice, which, like communism, may appear good on paper but in reality is totally unfair particularly at a time when small businesses are suffering and the Government are encouraging entrepreneurship.

• Liability insurance for design work completed to brief is an irrelevance
• Quality standard proceedures for the self employed and mico businesses are an unjustified expense and have no bearing on producing good design work
• A designer has a portfolio of work that provides a basis on which to make a judgement unlike an accountant etc. And yet you would not ask an accountant to do part of the work ’up front’ before engaging him.

The time taken to prepare two sets of costings and sample designs ON A SPECULATIVE basis could take up to a week. An agency may be able to afford that time but for someone working for themselves that equates to a considerable investment.

If the Government and opposition are really serious about promoting the option of becoming self employed then it’s time that these unfair hoops that we have jump through were removed, only then will we have a level playing field.

Social media budgets are set to increase in 2010

Social marketing to grow…

One of the more important marketing growth areas over the last 18 months has been that of Social Media. Although not all products benefit to the same degree there is little doubt that whether for selling or PR some kind of social web presence is required.

 Recent surveys by industry leaders suggest that online marketing will make up the majority of travel companies’ advertising spend in 2010.

According to bigmouthmedia’s 2010 Travel Report, which was compiled from a survey of the firm’s travel clients and users of tnooz.com, the e-marketing proportion of overall advertising budgets will grow from the present 50 to 57 per cent over the coming year.

60 per cent of respondents to the survey indicated that the budgets allocated to Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media would increase in the coming 12 months.

It was also noted that the development of social media strategies is considered to be one of the biggest challenges currently facing the travel industry.

Anneli Ritari, senior travel strategist at bigmouthmedia, said: “There can be little doubt that the travel industry now truly appreciates the power and reach of digital marketing, with the proportional spend rocketing upwards from only 38 per cent in 2008.”

Last month, a survey by bigmouthmedia and Econsultancy covering all industries found that 86 per cent of UK companies plan to boost spending on social media ventures in 2010 as many of them see it as a useful marketing tool.

Adapted from Direct News.

Marketing tip for today

Look at your present marketing tools and stop anything that is not working. Many small business owners utilise 2 or 3 types of publicity, which they with because they are comfortable with them.

Communicating…

Is your website accessible?

At present it is believed that 80% of websites currently fail to meet the most basic level of accessibility, Level A.  If your business or organisation uses the web as a key communication or marketing tool then your website is inaccessible to over eight million people in the UK.

People with a range of disabilities frequently encounter problems when browsing websites. This affects not only blind people, but a vast majority of people with poor eyesight across all ages and demographics, who would like the ability to hear, enlarge and modify the text provided on websites.

It may not have occured to you or your designer but increasingly, you should be aware that the Disability Discrimination Act legislation also covers websites and making the information contained on them accessible.

Time to consider how a blind person accesses your website

Blind and visually impaired website visitors are no different to any other client or customer, they require and deserve the same access to products and services, that fully sighted people take for granted.

When they visit your website, they may be using an audible browser, which allows them to listen to the text on each page. This also reads out navigation links, giving them the option to navigate to different sections.

Your website is a communication and sales tool, if has not been designed by someone who is aware of accessibility issues, it will probably render your website useless to audible browsers. That’s an awful lot of potential business being missed!