locally.co.uk

Tag: online marketing

  • Growth Vouchers – everything you need to know!

    Have you been looking at your website recently? Have you been thinking that it could do with a re-vamp or an upgrade?

    Or, maybe you struggle with the cash flow; some days and weeks the money comes pouring in and yet other, weeks the work is there and being done, but the bank account is drier than the Sahara.

    Your website might look better with a modernised logo, or maybe you would like it to be more responsive and mouldable to your changing customer base. Maybe, you would like it to feature higher in the search engine rankings but know that to achieve this, it is going to take some work and effort, all underpinned by a good dollop of time but, you just don’t have any more seconds in the busy working day to spare.

    Maybe if the books were managed better, and not something tagged on to your busy day, completed at 11pm with one eye closed; if you had a system that produced invoices…

    You know you can pay someone to do it, but the profits are just about starting to take shape and spending a huge amount could wipe out the small surplus you have and…

    What does come first, the chicken or the egg?

    It is the question to which the answer has been lost in the midst of time. But, with the business ‘chicken and the egg dilemma’, there could be some much needed financial help on the horizon, in England at least.

    Growth Vouchers

    The end of January 2015 will usher in a new research programme, as announced by the UK Government, and it is something that YOU, as a local, small business can take part in. And it includes financial help to spend on aspects of your business that you may need help with – and Locally could be an agency to help.

    What are Growth Vouchers?

    Essentially, it is a subsidised business support scheme delivered through randomly allocating Growth Vouchers to small businesses. And with £30 million in the pot, it promises to be an exciting scheme. If you receive a Growth Voucher, it covers up to 50% of the cost, covering 5 key topics that help small business grow.

    But, you need to register and your business in the frame to possible receive some of these Growth Vouchers…

    What kind of support could a Growth Voucher be spent on?

    There are 5 main categories and all have been identified as being areas where small businesses can sometimes struggle to gain not only helpful, strategic advice but, by not being able to compete in these areas, are staying in the shadow of larger competitors.

    The 5 areas are:

    • Managing cash flow, as well as the scourge of late payments and the tricky negotiating of additional finance
    • Developing skills, and employing staff
    • Improving leadership and management
    • Marketing and attracting new customers, and keeping them coming back too!
    • And make the most of digital technology, such as creating a website, updating your website, creating content…

    Right, let’s talk money!

    Growth Vouchers are up to a maximum of £2,000 BUT, the voucher match funds what you put in so…

    You spend £1,000 having a new website developed, including training and with fabulous content and great blog. You would pay £500 and the Growth Voucher would match this with 50% of the cost, so £500.

    Can you spend the whole £2,000?

    Yes and more if you like but, the Growth Voucher maximum is £2,000. You may choose to spend £5,000 on a fandangle website, with ecommerce option and all kinds of gizmos and gadget, with the voucher covering £2,000 of the cost and you stumping up the other £3,000.

    You will also need to be aware that you pay the supplier first and then claim the 50% Growth Voucher back from the Government.

    So, can anyone person or agency, business, company etc. be a Growth Voucher agency?

    Companies who can and do offer these kinds of services in the 5 key areas will need to register with the scheme, and show that they pass a minimum set of standards. This, of course, is the obvious solution to making sure that every small business, regardless of where they are in the country get the same high standard of advice and product.

    Interested? Thought you would be…

    If you are a small business looking to tap in to the scheme you will need to register and if you follow this link, you can do it right now – https://www.gov.uk/apply-growth-vouchers

    You will need to have some information to hand to complete the process, such as your Unique Tax Reference if you are self-employed, or you company registration number etc.

    Am I eligible?

    In order to run the scheme, there needs to be a definition of ‘small business’ and, the eligibility criteria for taking part and possibly receiving a Growth Voucher are:

    • You must employ 249 employees or less
    • You must be registered in England
    • You must also actively sell goods and services
    • Be an independent company, with no more than 25% of your business owned by another company
    • And your turnover should also be less that £50million

    IF you are selected for a Growth Voucher, you will need to find an approved supplier and the only place where you will be able to get this information is the Enterprise Nation marketplace. As the scheme gathers pace, more suppliers will comes online and you will have a wider choice.

    As you can imagine, there are some big names and organisation driving this as it is a great way of making the small business market place in England a buoyant, thriving one.

    The Locally Perspective

    We will be keeping a close eye on the scheme, simply because any help in gaining advice and support in these 5 key areas is the key to a thriving business. We’ll keep you updated on changes too, so keep calling back.

  • Adding to your website strategy: QR Codes

    A New Year Technological Challenge!

    Online, local businesses are the back bone of the country but, stand still in the online world and you risk being left behind.

    As a forward thinking business, you need to be constantly looking and assessing which of the latest technological innovations are right for you and your business.

    We talked recently about creating to a live strategy for your website; design and launch are just two of the factors in creating a successful, online presence. Your website, as you recall, is a living breathing thing that must be nurtured in order to carry on expanding and thriving so that your business can too.

    And one way of doing this is to link your offline and online presence. But, sometimes we need a handy tool to be able to do this.

    QR codes are not necessarily that new anymore, BUT if you haven’t taken a serious look at them and what they could offer your business, then now is the time.

    WHY?

    We have talked in numerous previous posts about immediacy and the need consumers have about gaining instant access or gratification for whatever they are searching for. QR codes are a way of satisfying this immediacy.

    Like a barcode… but different

    Barcodes are everywhere, from the packet of biscuits we have bought to accompany our morning coffee here at the Locally office to the pods we use in a well-known coffee machine. Essentially, both barcodes and QR codes are the same thing, but the difference between the two is the amount of information that they can hold; barcodes are linear, can hold up to 20 numerical digits but QR codes are two dimensional and can hold thousands of pieces of information.

    And QR codes can also be linked to your website, as well as a whole host of other digital connections. All your consumer needs is a QR code reading program on their mobile – android and iPhones – all of which are available free through various app stores.

    And they came from where…?

    Developed in Japan over 10 years ago, the original creators, a subsidiary of Toyota, have not exercised their right to being the only company to use the patented technology, encouraging its use across the world.

    As a result, there is a huge range of example of QR codes being used by businesses, community groups, schools, colleges and anyone else you can think of!

    QR code is a quick response code and, once read by a smart phone, will install take your customer where they want to be; you can ‘load’ the code with whatever you want from accessing 25% off their order or free delivery or… the examples are almost infinite so let us group the type of applications you can use them for…

    • Sharing – there is no limit to how much you can share with these QR codes. For example, if you have an instruction manual for how your product works, convert it into a PDF and give it a QR code; this way, customers can always access or download their own copy. It saves paper and makes navigating to the section or pages they want, much easier too.
    • Community – customers are social beings and we all like to feel connected to a product or business. Again, we have talked about responding to enquiries through social media platforms etc. QR codes can enhance this liking and sharing feature that businesses and customers love; link a QR code to your Facebook page or to a noticeboard/comment area on your website.
    • Calls to action – essential in any marketing strategy, but also something that can be used throughout your community. Once you have connected with people, why not offer them special offers to reward their interaction, feedback and loyalty. Again, QR codes can carry this type of information.

    From rhetoric to practical applications

    However, QR codes sound all well and dandy but, what are the practical applications for your business?

    We have talked about linking your offline and online marketing strategies in a recent post and this is a perfect idea of bridging the gap between the two:

    Where
    • Back/front/both side of your business card
    • Brochures, flyers, leaflets or whichever printed media works well for your business
    • Posters, outdoor banners, roller banners
    • Tags and packaging on your products
    • Letterheads, compliments slips and other stationery
    • Menus
    • Invoices and receipts
    • Any other printed media you can think of!
    What
    • Manuals or instructions
    • Ordering additional or replacements parts etc.
    • Booking services online (takes you to calendar or contact form)
    • Directions to your business
    • Coupons, vouchers or money off code
    • Free downloads!
    • Feedback forms, comment sheets etc.
    • Anything on your website or social media presence
    Maximise impact of QR codes
    • Tell people what they are and encourage them to use
    • Link with your marketing strategy, both on and offline
    • Allay fears that they are complicated – their simplicity is their power!
    • Experiment with size, location as well as colour of QR codes
    • You can create a QR code ‘treasure hunt’ all across your range!
    • EXPERIMENT!

    Are they here to stay?

    They have been around some time and are a tried and tested technology. However, many smaller businesses associate them with larger, multinational companies and think that the technology is out of their league – never have you been so wrong!

    And so, your technological challenge for New Year 2015 is to tell us how you would use QR codes for your business!

  • Offline and online marketing – you really do need both

    … honestly, you do…

    Every business is acutely aware of the fact that it needs to market itself.

    Every business is also acutely aware that if they get it wrong, it is money wasted.

    Every business knows the importance of getting it right. In fact, the biggest influencing factor in the failure of any start-up businesses is lack of marketing.

    It is on ongoing, evolving process; just as you finish one campaign, another comes along. Just as Christmas will come and go, another season will be upon us meaning the goal posts move once again.

    But, with the advent of the Internet, followed by the revolutionary effects of social media, businesses are plunged into a new era of marketing. The one size strategy that did everything now needs to be re-written.

    And this is where some businesses found that they faced a new dilemma; online OR offline marketing.

    Do you need both?

    Or do you have a strategy for one, and hope the other tags along?

    What is offline marketing anyway? Surely leaflets are dead and buried… aren’t they?

    Definitions: online & offline

    Before we hurtle headlong into a full and frank discussion, we need to make sure we are all singing form the same hymn sheet… otherwise, we will be at cross purposes.

    • Online marketing – is anything that you do online, from tweeting to statuses, to pinning photos etc. You should have a strategy for what is posted, where and when.
    • Offline marketing – is anything from adverts in local and national press publications, leaflets, postcards, business cards and anything you can possibly think of. Again, you should have a strategy for what will happen, when and why.

    BUT, the problem has been that the online world has somewhat dwarfed offline marketing strategies for a variety of businesses. Many assumed, as you would with the power of the Internet, that offline marketing was somewhat dead.

    Mmmm… it seems that this may not the case. In fact, a variety of experts have suggested that actually, the gap between online and offline marketing is actually shrinking. And so, as we near the end of 2014, look forward to 2015 perhaps now is the time to give some serious thought to both your business online and offline marketing for the coming year (we like some of these ideas – quick to implement and easy to do!)

    Offline becomes interactive

    The biggest change is that offline material is actually starting to morph in to online material. How many posters, banners, adverts, leaflets etc. have you seen that have a QR code printed on it? (We are going to look at QR – quick response – codes in an upcoming blog and how they can help grow your business).

    In fact, it now seems that every piece of offline marketing tool you use, it should have some form of nod to your online presence. This can be as simple as ‘find us on Facebook’ or ‘follow us on Twitter’ etc.

    And if we need to persuade you any further on the power of offline marketing, then we need to point you in the direction of some recent studies…

    Role models – take a look at some HUGE global companies who rely more on offline, traditional marketing over and above online. For example, eharmony.com and Esurance.com use traditional offline marketing techniques to draw people to their businesses. These companies still invest a huge amount – if not all – of their marketing budgets in TV commercials.

    The silver pound – don’t forget the spending power of the ‘older’ generation. A large proportion of the population are retired but with a pension, therefore they have the spending power. Even though the majority of the older population are becoming savvier when it comes to web, more of this age group can be reached via offline marketing. They are still responsive to TV commercial, direct mail, radio adverts and press ads too. If there was a group that would leap at the chance of a loyalty card or scheme, it is this age group.

    You know your customers…

    And so, keeping an eye on your customer demographics is important as this makes sure that your online and offline marketing are targeted in the right places at the right people, therefore you need to consider the tools that can bring these two forms of marketing together…

    • Tracking URLs

    Using URLs – i.e. website addresses – that are unique to certain offline marketing campaigns is a great way of seeing what is working, and when. Use a unique code for each separate campaign (this is why you see codes etc. on various campaigns so that the business can track where enquiries and customers are coming from).

    • Social media traffic

    A big factor in any company’s online marketing strategy is their social media presence and many companies have now realised the ability of social media to drive traffic to their company. And one way of doing this is to make sure that your social media platforms icons are on everything that you produce offline – and you could consider offering your customers who arrive at your destination via offline means a special offer.

    • QR codes

    Mobile technology is huge. We have mentioned QR codes at the start of the article and we are going to look at these in far more detail. But basically, unique information – such as a % off code – is included in this QR code which, when your potential consumer scans the code using their smart phone, they will be taken to an online destination. The beauty of these codes is that they can literally be included on anything from a banner to a newspaper advert.

    • Your website address – everywhere

    Just like you add the postcode to your address, your website address should, by now, be automatically featuring on every single piece of offline material, from your compliment slips to leaflets, adverts and the like. Many companies and businesses make the mistake of just adding the social media icons which gives the impression you are only online at these destinations. Whilst this is great for conversation, when consumers intend spending money, they need to have a feeling that they can trust you – and a website can do this.

    Which marketing technique suits your company? Can you see it changing in 2015?

  • The Power of the #Hashtag

    bigstock-Internet-Hashtag-51609199Hasthtags are commonly associated with Twitter, as a way of marking keywords or phrases but, they can also be used in other social media platforms (get a great run down here).

    They are, however, increasing in power and so if you have not relished the power of the hashtag yet, here are 5 key ways (and one bonus!) that you can use them on Twitter…

    (Not on Twitter?! As a marketing platform, and staying in touch with customers, it is a great platform and done that can see you reap huge rewards AND, 2015 could be the year that global wide commerce transactions comes to Twitter…)

    Hints and tips on harnessing the power of the #Hashtag…

    #1 Campaigns

    You can use the hashtag to quite literally spread the word about any campaign you are currently working on as part of a marketing or awareness raising campaign. The great thing about hashtags is you can be as creative as you like and can really bump start a campaign, as well as throwing it in to the spotlight.

    A working example – The Scottish referendum

    A bitter-sweet campaign that was as hotly debated on Twitter as it was on the media and on the street; statistics highlight the power of the #hashtag with the most-Tweeted related hashtag being:

    1. #IndyRef 3.75 million
    2. #VoteYes 1.1 million
    3. #Scotland 439,000
    4. #ScotlDecides 272,000
    5. #BetterTogether 224,000

    (source: https://blog.twitter.com/en-gb/2014/indyref-at-the-polls)

    #2 Reach

    Hashtags are also monitored by marketers as a way of seeing what interests and trends are currently ongoing around specific topics, and what customer could potentially be interested in. In other words, by Tweeting with a certain hashtag contained in the message, those people who use hashtags to find things or items of interest will pick up of these tweets… and you could have a far greater reach than you ever imagined.

    For example, keep an eye on current trends in current affairs etc. within the media and, if you can link it to your business, utilise this hashtag and extend that reach!

    #3 Twitter Chats or Hours

    Spend the smallest amount of time on Twitter and you will see that on certain evenings or days, the platform is awash with Twitter chats or ‘hours’. In this way, a hashtag becomes a searchable term and so quite useful for local, online businesses looking for customer, support or partnerships in their geographical area.

    Likewise, if you are in a certain trade or industry, it pays to make contact and stay in touch. Why not take a look at the local based ‘hours’ such as #worcestershirehour, #smallbusiness or how about #womeninbusiness? Log on to Twitter and in the search box at the top simply type in the # symbol and the term you are looking for and see what pops up!

    #4 Promote local

    Again, going to back to the emotional decision that drives a purchase, more and more people are realising the importance of sourcing products and services locally, and we are all for that! Hashtags can be a great way of harnessing your local-ness to potential customers, and you will be amazed at how strong any locally-linkde hashtags are.

    As well as the local #hours on Twitter, you can also push yourself in local conversations with a # followed by locations close to you. #Woking will place a local business on the map here; people love to shop local so harness this emotional decision people are making every day!

    #5 Plan future campaign

    You can also harness the power of the hashtag by doing some research as we have suggested above; NOW is a great time to get some products and services on there for the festive rush. If you online website has to great ideas for ‘hard to buy for teenagers’ why not orchestrate a campaign around this emotion or sentiment.

    Hashtags are also a great way of suggesting purchases in a Tweet such as

    “Christmas only 83 days a way! Great gifts #notlastminute2014”

    Don’t forget that purchases as an emotional decision, so once the excess of Christmas has gone, if you are a local gym or spa offering detox and get in shape packages, get Tweeting with your own hashtag and piggy back another. Tweets do not have to stick to using one hashtag; you can use your own and more than one!

    #A Bonus: A competitive eye

    Marketing is all about being pro-active and it is also partly about keeping an eye on what your competitors are doing too. If they are orchestrating a campaign with a #hashtag and it seems to be doing well, then why not replicate? At the same time, you can learn from the mistakes of others and avoid some common pitfalls.

    And again, it is a strategic marathon, not a spring… so take some time to promote #ilovelocally and you will be amazed at where the power of a hashtag (or two) could take your online, local business…

    Twitter is built for speed. 140 characters can say so much but it is there in a blink of an eye and then gone. Using a hashtag can keep in the archives and so the next time someone looks for #livingthedream, your Tweet and business may be the one that pops up!

    Do your research!

    Hashtags, as we said, can also be used on G+ and other platforms as a way of attracting people to your site or engaging people in conversation. Take a look at:

    Everything you need to know about the #hashtag in a great infographic https://www.bitrebels.com/social/twitter-hashtag-power-infographic/

    Jeff Bullas, known for his views on social media, also recommends taking a look at hashtags https://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/05/07/how-to-use-the-power-of-hashtags-in-your-social-media-marketing/