10 Topic Ideas for Effective Video Marketing Online

Having read our previous post on video marketing, you understand why it’s important to help market your business effectively, but perhaps now need to come up with the ‘Big Idea’. Since this is often the stumbling block for many of us, we’ve put together 10 ideas suggesting topics that you could use for your video marketing [...]

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Why is video marketing important and how will it help your business?

Video marketing may not be a new phenomena, but it is becoming an increasingly important marketing tool.  Not only can it support SEO but it can also increase customer engagement.  Consider this: People like things quickly. With more and more content available online, people are more likely to engage with yours if it’s condensed into a brief and succinct video. An easier [...]

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Brand Management – Why branding is important for business success

Branding is fundamental for business success. Not only should it encapsulate the very essence of a company but strong branding will also ensure that a business stands out in a competitive environment. Through creative and effective branding, companies can: Differentiate themselves from their competition giving, customers a reason to choose them first. Give customers and [...]

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Cookie Law Compliance – What Are Your Options?

As the deadline for compliance with the new EU cookie law looms (26th May 2012) many and quite possibly, most, businesses are still considering how (or even if….) they are going to comply.  The below information aims to give you a starting point and consider which option is best suited to you and your business. Where do I start? The ICO [...]

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The EU Cookie Law and The Challenges Businesses Face

In our last blog post we recapped the basics of the cookie law; what cookies are, what the cookie law is and what is expected of businesses to comply. In this post we consider the challenges that businesses face and the likely impact on them, following compliance with this law. Public Awareness & Acceptance Generally speaking, [...]

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10 Topic Ideas for Effective Video Marketing Online Why is video marketing important and how will it help your business? Brand Management – Why branding is important for business success Cookie Law Compliance – What Are Your Options? The EU Cookie Law and The Challenges Businesses Face

Mar
23

Google Analytics – What to look for when measuring your website performance.

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Google Analytics - What to Look for When Measuring Your Website PerformanceAre you measuring your website statistics on a regular basis?  If not, you should be.  Whether you use your website as a ‘shopfront’ to sell your services to other businesses or consumers or your website is an e-commerce site, it’s essential to monitor website performance.

Programmes such as Google Analytics can be installed quickly and provide vast amounts of critical insight free of charge. Better still, you don’t need to be a web developer to use or understand Google Analytics, but you will need some time.  And it will be well worth it.

You will be amazed (and sometimes possibly overwhelmed) at the amount of information available to you and will need to decide which metrics to track so that you can measure performance of your website and other marketing activities.

With this in mind, here’s a brief outline of the areas that you will want to analyse to gain an understanding of who is visiting your website, how they are finding it and what they are doing when they get there.

  1. Visits & Visitors.  Traffic is important, you should not only measure the number of visits your website gets in a given period (let’s say a month), but you should also measure the number of unique visitors as well as the number of returning visitors.  You want to make sure that your marketing efforts are generating new (unique) visits but also that you do have a stream of people returning to your website.
  2. Engagement. This can be measured in a number of ways.  Firstly you want the bounce rate to be as low as possible and ideally want to reduce this or at least keep it the same, month on month.  In comparison you want to increase visitor engagement, which can be measured by the average number of pages per visit as well as the average time spent on the site.  The more pages and the longer the time on the website, the more likely you are to be reaching your desired audience.
  3. Traffic Sources.  It’s important to identify where your web traffic is coming from.  Here you will be able to see how many visits have come direct (they may already know your website address or have accessed it via an email or from a business card, a printed advert or other promotional material) and how many from referring websites. Referring website are particularly interesting as the present opportunities to generate more traffic.  Referring websites could include links from online directories, your blog, comments made in forums etc.  If you are advertising on other websites – it will also show which websites are actually driving traffic to yours.
  4. Keywords.  This is a huge subject alone. But in brief, the analytics will show you which keywords and keyphrases are resulting in traffic to your site.  Some will be as expected and others you will be surprised at.  The important thing here is to measure engagement for these keywords to see which work best for the content on your website.  E.g. if one of your main key words has a high bounce rate and results in very little time spent on the website, you either need to reconsider your top keywords or improve your content to ensure that it is more targeted to that user.
  5. Website Content. Now that you have a good understanding of how your visitors are finding your website, you can overlay this with how they are behaving on your website.  Again there are a number of metrics that can be analysed and you will be able to see which pages are the most popular, which generate high bounce rates and which are the most popular landing and exit pages.  This insight will help you to determine the most popular content as well as any pages or areas which need to be improved to keep visitors engaged.

I’m sure that will be enough to get you started and to gain an insight into how your website is performing and whether or not other marketing activities are helping to generate traffic.  There is so much more available through Google Analytics, which we will be looking at in future posts.

We’d love to hear from you as usual.  If you have any tips or advice please do leave us a comment, likewise if you are struggling with Google Analytics or have any questions, please feel free to ask.


Filed under: Legal Marketing, News, Online Marketing, Small Business Marketing

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Mar
15

What are the benefits of outsourcing your marketing to an agency?

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There is no denying that marketing is becoming more complicated.  Without a dedicated and effective marketing team in place, it is difficult for businesses to keep up to date with the latest tactics, channels and strategies .

For companies with limited resource, it can seem overwhelming to plan and implement an effective, well-rounded and integrated marketing strategy.  Perhaps as a business owner you find that the marketing responsibility falls on yourself but you don’t have the time to dedicate to it,  or perhaps someone else in the company is managing it simply because there is no-one else to.  Without the right person or team in place how can you be sure that your marketing is as effective as it can be?

If you are questioning this you are probably already considering looking for some marketing support.  One of the ways an external company or agency can help, is through an outsourced marketing solution.  The level of support would depend on your exact requirements, but the idea is that you outsource your marketing activity to the agency.  The agency can then act as your marketing department or as an extension of your existing marketing team, to offer additional expertise and strategic guidance.

So what are the benefits of Outsourced Marketing?

  • By working with an agency that is experienced across all marketing channels (from traditional to the latest social platforms) you will benefit from objective advice on the channels and activity that you need to focus on to reach your target audience.
  • You will benefit from a team of skilled and experienced marketers without the cost associated with employing someone and / or training and developing them.
  • The value that an outside perspective can bring, can not be underestimated.  You can benefit from fresh ideas rather than tunnel vision.
  • You can use these services demand, as and when you need them.  At DAA Marketing  for example, we don’t have fixed contracts or fees, we tailor our service according to what our clients need.  This may be ongoing support, consultancy or ad hoc short-term projects.
  • It is the responsibility of your agency, rather than you, to keep up to date with all the latest marketing trends and news and incorporate the most relevant updates within your campaign.
  • You can save money.  You might reduce costs through reducing headcount; by improving your marketing you will improve your return on investment; your time can be spent on running the business, allowing you to grow your business and increase your turnover.
  • You will benefit from a professional service as you are the client, rather than an employer.
  • You can spend more time on managing and developing your business and doing the other things you feel you should be doing to move it forward.

And that’s just a few of the benefits.  If you are struggling to do everything then perhaps outsourced marketing is something you should consider.  Through improving the effectiveness of your marketing campaign and making cost savings, you may even find that it doesn’t cost you more than you are spending now.

Outsourced Marketing - Law Firms need to fully outsource their marketing, by Catherine Gannon

 

But don’t take our word for it – this article written by Catherine Gannon, (Managing Partner at Gannons) for Managing Partner advises law firms to fully outsource their marketing, if they want to improve their business development.

And whilst tailored to law firms, the principals are still highly relevant to other businesses. Law firms should fully outsource marketing to improve business development

If you want to talk more, please get in touch with DAA Marketing.  Or feel free to browse our website.

If you have any comments, we’d love to hear from you – do you outsource your marketing?  What other benefits do you see?


Filed under: DAA Marketing, Legal Marketing, News, Online Marketing, Outsourced Marketing, Print Advertising, Small Business Marketing, Social Media

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Mar
08

Does your website deliver a positive user experience on a mobile device?

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Have you optimised your website for use on a mobile device yet?  If not, please read on….

We are aware that mobile phones and tablets are playing an increasingly important role in everyday life, our lives in fact.  And the more we use them, the more we expect from them.  Considering this – have you even considered or looked to see what your website looks like on a mobile device? If it has not yet been optimised for mobile, the chances are that the user experience will not be great.

Yesterday, we published an article on fourthsource.com discussing why companies need a tailored mobile presence and how all businesses should be looking into setting up a mobile website or presence, now.  The following stats help to explain why:

  • There is an estimated 1.2 billion mobile web users in the world.
  • Mobile-broadband subscriptions have grown at 45 percent per annum over the last four years.
  • It’s forecasted that by 2014 mobile internet will overtake desktop internet usage.

This is a powerful prediction and one which businesses can not afford to ignore.  Creating a mobile version of your website does not need to be expensive and for many companies could simply be one page.  The important thing is that it provides exactly the right information the user will require on the move.

To read the article in full, please use the following link: Why your website needs a tailored mobile presence now!

For tips,  advice or even a quote to build your mobile website, please contact us and we’ll be happy to respond.

 


Filed under: Legal Marketing, Mobile, News, Outsourced Marketing, Small Business Marketing

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Mar
07

Small Business Marketing – Free Tools to Improve Your Marketing

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Following our previous post on advertising and marketing your small business for free (Small Business Advertising and Marketing – For Free!! 5 Top Tips) we thought we’d add to the list and give you 5 more tips. We hope you find these as useful as the last.

  1. Mail Chimp - Free Emailing Tools for Small BusinesesEmail Marketing. If you run email campaigns and either execute them via your own email system or pay someone else to, you might be interested to know that there are some free email clients out there that can help.  One particularly good one is Mail Chimp – as part of a basic free package; you can send up to 2,000 emails per month; you can choose from a number of design templates for your email/ newsletter; and it will even provide insights that measure the success of your campaign.  It also provides a central subscriber list which will be automatically updated should anyone choose to un-subscribe.
  2. Google Analytics - Free Website Analysis for small businessesWebsite Analysis.  Hopefully you are already analysing the traffic coming to your website – if you’re not this is something you should address – particularly if your business depends on people finding you online. You don’t have to be a data analyst to have a basic understanding of what is driving traffic to your website and it doesn’t even need to cost you anything.  Google Analytics is a free tool, that allows companies to monitor web traffic and provides detailed insight into the traffic sources, keywords used for searches, bounce rate, user engagement, location and much, much more.
  3. Small Business Marketing Tips - Alexa.comMonitoring the Competition.  There are various websites that you can use to monitor your competitors. Alexa.com is one of these sites and will provide information on a website’s rank, the top search queries, related links, bounce rate, and even the average number of pages viewed.  Providing you with some very insightful data.
  4. PR.  We all love a bit of free publicity – but are you taking advantage of it?  So long as you target the right publications and create interesting and relevant stories and comments to share, you should enjoy success.  But remember you will be competing with various other companies all trying to achieve the same so make sure your article or story is likely to grab the attention of the journalist or blogger not just your target audience.
  5. Market Research.  Market research is essential for any business.  We might think we can easily define our target market and what makes them tick, but without carrying out any kind of market research your efforts could be going to waste.  There are some websites that are around just for this purpose and let you conduct a number of surveys a month for little or no cost.  They are definitely worth looking into and include surveymonkey.com, zoomerang.com and smart-survey.co.uk.

To ensure success marketing requires an ongoing commitment.  By implementing some or all of these into your marketing strategy you will be able to measure the effectiveness of your current marketing activity and refine it to improve results.

Please comment – we’d love to hear what you think.  What free tools do you currently use and do they help?

In our next post on small business marketing for free, we will be looking at social media.


Filed under: Legal Marketing, News, Online Marketing, Outsourced Marketing, Print Advertising, Small Business Marketing

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Mar
02

Facebook Business Pages – How to Increase Fan Engagement

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So you’ve built up a Fan base for your company page on Facebook, which is great. You are also posting regular content, but not quite getting the desired response (if any) from your Facebook fans.  Don’t worry you are not alone.

 

 

 

 

 

Despite Facebook having been around for what seems like forever, businesses are still learning how to best use it for them.   Some business pages seem to have nailed it, whilst others are struggling.  If you’re one of the latter, we’ve got some tips (Courtesy of Jeff Bullas Blog -10 Powerful Tips to Increase Fan Engagement on Facebook ) to share that will hopefully help you.

Jeff Bullas’ top 10 tips were taken from Research by Buddy Media.  The research, which was obtained during a 6 month trial period in 2011 from the top 100 retailed Facebook pages, reveals what companies can do to increase engagement with their fans.   These tips consider timing, frequency and content of posts and answer the following questions:

  1. What is the best time to post on Facebook?  The research showed that it was best to post during times when fans were not at work, in particular between the hours of 8pm and 7am.  The first tip therefore is to post during “non-busy” hours, when your audience is likely to have their ‘own’ time.
  2. What is the best day to post on Facebook? To improve engagement the researched showed that it is best to publish on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
  3. How often should you post every day? The research showed that relevant content posted less frequently worked better with an ideal frequency of 1 to 2 posts in one day.
  4. What is the most effective weekly post frequency? It’s important to avoid overcrowding your fans’ news feeds – otherwise they are likely to hide your posts or may ‘unlike’ you.  The research findings suggested that posting one to four times was better than five or more Posts in a given week for retail brands.
  5. How long should posts be? Keep it simple and to the point – Less is more, be concise.  The research indicated that posts between one and 40 characters generate the highest level of engagement.
  6. What content should I post? To encourage response, ask questions. Although questions generally received slightly lower overall user engagement (‘likes’ and ‘comments’ combined) this type of Post generates more than double the amount of Comments as “non-question” Posts – encouraging your fans to interact and discuss.
  7. Facebook post structure.  According to the research, one of the most underutilized Post techniques is one of the most engaging.  Posts that employ the fill in the blank strategy (eg. I like…..) generate Comment rates nine times higher than other Post strategies. The data supports that this is a proven strategy unique to the retail industry, yet less than 1% of retail brands are utilizing this tactic.
  8. Key words for Facebook offers.  When it comes to deals, fans look for a straightforward offer. The top ten sales keywords were analyzed to determine which receive the most user engagement. The data indicates that retail brand Posts containing the sales keywords “$ off” and “coupon” receive the highest fan engagement. Retail brand Posts containing “$ off” receive a 55% higher user engagement rate, followed by Posts containing the word “coupon,” which is 39% above the average. Popular sales keywords, such as “sale” and “% off,” receive the lowest fan engagement.
  9. Coupon offers  Fans engage well with coupons. When offering coupons, don’t make fans do the math. The data indicates that “$ off” offers generate twice the engagement of “% off” offers for the retail industry. Even small “$ off” discounts – less than $10 – receive 17% higher engagement than “% off” promotions, showing that fans prefer tangible cash discounts, even if the actual dollar discount is small.
  10. Keep posts simple  While interesting content can be added to Wall Posts in the form of links, photos and videos, the research suggested that simple Posts achieve the most engagement. The two most effective types of retail brand Posts contain a single photo attachment or use only words. Status-only Posts – Posts only containing words – received 94% higher engagement than average.

That’s it for now I hope these 10 insightful tips can help you to increase fan engagement of your business page.  Although the research was based on retailers, many if not all of the tips should still apply for other businesses. It’s finding the balance between too little and too much and interesting yet simple content.  Put yourself in the position of your pages’ fans before posting – are you likely to comment, share or like the post?  If not, what could you do to encourage interaction from yourself?

To read Jeff’s article in full please see below.

Source: 10 Powerful Tips to Increase Fan Engagement on Facebook


Filed under: Facebook, News, Online Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Media

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Feb
29

Pinterest for Businesses – Should they and how can they use Pinterest?

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Pinterest growth chart - statistics for 2012 - User statsForgive me for yet another Pinterest post…..  it seems almost impossible at the moment, to escape the consistent stories, articles and posts about this rising star of social media.  But…. I have to confess that I am ever so slightly addicted!!

And it would appear that I am not alone.  According to this chart (created by Statista and based on comScore research) which tracks the average minutes per visitor across all social platforms , January 2012 saw the average Pinterest visitor (globally) spending an average of 89 minutes on the site .

This is a phenomenal amount, particularly considering that what was the new kid in town, Google+, only managed an engagement level of 3.3 mins per user.  It is no surprise that Facebook boasted the greatest level of  engagement with a hefty 405 minutes.

With Pinterest’s level of engagement looking set to continue, the benefits for businesses jumping on the Pin-wagon are glaringly obvious to me.

For B2C businesses pinboards can act as a showcase for their products or services.  The more creative the are with their pinboard, the more pinner engagement and followers they will generate. The important thing to think about is how best to use the content to make sure the pin boards are rich, interesting and creative.

Etsy's Page on PinterestFor example, a clothing retailer might put together seasonal outfit boards to showcase their clothing range; a spice manufacturer can post pictures and recipes of foods that have been created with the spice playing a key role; wedding companies can create mood boards for different wedding themes and related products. The list goes on.

The company can (and possibly should, to enhance the board’s value to the pinner) also include images that have been pinned externally – but that will enhance and complement their own pins.

For B2B companies providing services, fear not, this needn’t be a road block.  You just need to get creative about how you use the pinboards and you could reap the benefits.  Pinboards are great for visual content that you may already have, for example team members; social / fundraising events showing the team culture, any other images that reflect the company brand and help users visualise the essence and people behind the brand.

Infographics are storming away on Pinterest – these and any other data led graphic could easily be pinned to enhance the message of the pin board or to create a resource to attract users.  You could also use strong images from blog posts; covers of free guides or ebooks that you have published and even logos of and photos of happy customers – adding value by including testimonials within the description.  In fact, when you put your creative mind to it, the options are endless.

*** But *** Before you get too carried away with buzz surrounding this new shiny marketing platform – it’s important to assess whether or not it’s right for your business and right for now.  Does it fit within your overall social media strategy? Will it help you to achieve your objectives?  Will it help you reach your desired target audience?  Is it appropriate? Whilst this is currently a free tool to use, it will require time spent which isn’t free.  So it might be a good step to re-assess your marketing plan to help you make your decision.

In the mean time here are some pinboards to check out:

Chobani Yoghurt  |  Etsy |  Mashable  |

Would love to hear your thoughts on Pinterest….

Chart source: Statista, source comScore.


Filed under: Legal Marketing, News, Small Business Marketing, Social Media

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Feb
28

Pinterest – Still all the rage. Here’s our round up of all things Pinteresting this week

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Pinterest - Online Pinboard Social MediaSo we know that Pinterest is still a relatively new social network – but one that is growing at a staggering rate.  Particularly now that every marketer and blogger is writing about it!  We also know that Pinterest is image based and acts as a global notice board – allowing people to create and share ‘pin boards’.

From personal experience, I can understand how Pinterest is quickly becoming more addictive than other social media platforms.  It is easy to spend hours browsing, sharing and creating without even realising the time has gone.

Who is using Pinterest?

An article in the Metro newspaper today reported that whilst 83% of American users are female, a surprisingly high 56% of Brits are male. This indicates that the social media network is used differently around the globe.  (Source – Pinterest is the Place to be for Online Marketing in 2012.  See below infographic for breakdown:

pinterest

What business owners and marketers now need to consider is whether – and how – they can use the popularity of this platform to generate traffic and conversions.

Why is Pinterest so popular?

  • Images pinned will usually inspire, trigger laughter, or amuse Pinterest users.
  • Pin boards can clearly demonstrate design and creativity in a way that only images can.  A picture speaks a thousand words….
  • It’s simplicity is appealing – it is much easier to pin or re-pin images that inspire you than it is to think of what to write for a Facebook or Twitter update. This simplicity means that it can easily be used in users’ spare time.
  • Members can post and organise almost anything into any category  that suits them.  Whether they want to create virtual recipe books, decorate a bedroom or shop for outfits – this is the perfect platform to collect and store things they have seen whilst trawling the web, that otherwise they may have forgotten.
  • This is viral sharing at its’ best – any member can follow any pin board or pinner.  Making it incredibly easy to get inspiration from other users and share what you find with the rest of the community.

How can Businesses use Pinterest?

For some businesses, Pinterest can fill a missing link between the rest of their social media activity.  Constance Aguilar of Abbi Public Relations compiled a list of five ways that brands can use this visual channel to boost engagement with their customers. This is just a snippet of the complete document but it gives you an idea:

  1. Contests. Use Pinterest to host contests for “best Board” or give away prizes for the most “Repins” on a topic (topics can be open to “Pins” from others, or a selected few).
  2. Product approval. Find out how people feel about a new product’s look, well before launch. Track the number of times your photos are repinned, and what comments users add to the stream.
  3. Showcasing your personality. Use photos to showcase your brand’s personality. Magazines can post past and present photos to share places they’ve covered. Local politicians can start a “Board” highlighting their community work. In the description, link your pin to the original story; descriptions often get repinned along with images.
  4. Showcasing your company. Large operations can organize Pinterest boards around their different departments. One marketing firm started a Board for its public relations efforts. And its design department’s Board showcases the logos and webpages the team has created.
  5. Creative communications with customers. Repin customers’ product interpretations, giving them a way to further relate to you! Repin shots of your customers wearing or using your product; it’s a great way to recognize their creativity.

So that’s it for this week, but no doubt there will be more next week.  Happy Pinning!


Filed under: News, Online Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Media

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Feb
21

Small Business Advertising and Marketing – For Free!! 5 Top Tips

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A large part of running a successful business is knowing how to market it effectively.  This means, as well as investing money into well planned and targeted advertising / marketing campaigns, you should be taking advantage of as many of the free opportunities available to you as possible.   Here’s five essential tips to start you marketing your company for free.

Five essential top tips for marketing your business for free:

  1. Telephone Directories.  Make sure that your business has taken advantage of its’ free listing within the relevant classification of the telephone directory (Yellow Pages, Thomson Local and Phone Book).  If you are doubtful of the relevance of this media channel for your business, then just remember that these publishers hold vast databases of businesses throughout the country – databases which then feed into an online directories, mobile directory apps and 118 services.   You don’t want your competitors to be visible when you are not.
  2. Local online directories.  There seems to be an ever-expanding list of online directories which provide businesses with free listings.  Content varies according to the individual directory – more established directories will offer less as part of the basic listing, but will allow businesses to buy adverts that include web links, more content and priority over basic listings in results.  Smaller online directories tend to allow more content including weblinks, photos, keywords and detailed descriptions.  Why should you get listed on these directories? 1) they are free, 2) they rank highly on search engine results  giving you more exposure in local search results and 3) for directories allowing website links – this will build links back to your site also helping to improve the SEO of your website.
  3. Search engine listings.  Much like the online directories, you need to claim your local listings on search engines.  Once you have ‘claimed’ your listing, you will be able to enhance it with relevant content such as descriptions, business hours, photos and so on – which give prospective customers the information they need and also increase the chance of being contacted, over a competing business that hasn’t bothered providing additional information.  It’s important to claim these listings as the search engines give them more prominence in their search results.  And as you will know, it’s crucial that you are found when people are looking for your services.
  4. LinkedIn profile. If you feel like you should belong to a social network but don’t know which one or understand the power of relevance of Twitter and Facebook – then you should start with LinkedIn as the first step. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, has over 120 million members and is growing rapidly. Small businesses can really benefit from using LinkedIn to connect with trusted contacts as well as exchanging knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals.  Simply setting up your personal profile so that you can connect with clients, colleagues and any other contacts is a must, to start.
  5. Testimonials.  If you have any client or customer feedback or have been given testimonials – use them! What better way to sell your services or products than through your customers? Testimonials and client referrals are incredibly powerful and will give prospects the reassurance they need to use your services or buy your products.  The more feedback you have the better – if you don’t have any, then simply request some from current or past clients.  You can also use feedback to strengthen your profile on LinkedIn – where you can request ‘recommendations’ that will be added to your profile.

These may not be the most exciting tasks that you can implement to promote your business and admittedly some can be fairly time-consuming BUT they are important and will give you results.  And as they are free what have you got to lose?

If you are a business owner/ partner or manager and simply can’t give this the time it needs, we can always help out.  In addition to our team of skilled consultants, media experts and strategy developers, we also have an excellent administrative team in place who would be more than happy to manage all of your listings; making sure they are accurate and in the right places. Contact DAA Marketing for more or visit our website.


Filed under: Legal Marketing, News, Online Marketing, Outsourced Marketing, Small Business Marketing

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Feb
21

Small Business Advertising and Marketing – For Free!! 5 Top Tips

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A large part of running a successful business is knowing how to market it effectively.  This means, as well as investing money into well planned and targeted advertising / marketing campaigns, you should be taking advantage of as many of the free opportunities available to you as possible.   Here’s five essential tips to start you marketing your company for free.

Five essential top tips for marketing your business for free:

  1. Telephone Directories.  Make sure that your business has taken advantage of its’ free listing within the relevant classification of the telephone directory (Yellow Pages, Thomson Local and Phone Book).  If you are doubtful of the relevance of this media channel for your business, then just remember that these publishers hold vast databases of businesses throughout the country – databases which then feed into an online directories, mobile directory apps and 118 services.   You don’t want your competitors to be visible when you are not.
  2. Local online directories.  There seems to be an ever-expanding list of online directories which provide businesses with free listings.  Content varies according to the individual directory – more established directories will offer less as part of the basic listing, but will allow businesses to buy adverts that include web links, more content and priority over basic listings in results.  Smaller online directories tend to allow more content including weblinks, photos, keywords and detailed descriptions.  Why should you get listed on these directories? 1) they are free, 2) they rank highly on search engine results  giving you more exposure in local search results and 3) for directories allowing website links – this will build links back to your site also helping to improve the SEO of your website.
  3. Search engine listings.  Much like the online directories, you need to claim your local listings on search engines.  Once you have ‘claimed’ your listing, you will be able to enhance it with relevant content such as descriptions, business hours, photos and so on – which give prospective customers the information they need and also increase the chance of being contacted, over a competing business that hasn’t bothered providing additional information.  It’s important to claim these listings as the search engines give them more prominence in their search results.  And as you will know, it’s crucial that you are found when people are looking for your services.
  4. LinkedIn profile. If you feel like you should belong to a social network but don’t know which one or understand the power of relevance of Twitter and Facebook – then you should start with LinkedIn as the first step. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, has over 120 million members and is growing rapidly. Small businesses can really benefit from using LinkedIn to connect with trusted contacts as well as exchanging knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals.  Simply setting up your personal profile so that you can connect with clients, colleagues and any other contacts is a must, to start.
  5. Testimonials.  If you have any client or customer feedback or have been given testimonials – use them! What better way to sell your services or products than through your customers? Testimonials and client referrals are incredibly powerful and will give prospects the reassurance they need to use your services or buy your products.  The more feedback you have the better – if you don’t have any, then simply request some from current or past clients.  You can also use feedback to strengthen your profile on LinkedIn – where you can request ‘recommendations’ that will be added to your profile.

These may not be the most exciting tasks that you can implement to promote your business and admittedly some can be fairly time-consuming BUT they are important and will give you results.  And as they are free what have you got to lose?

If you are a business owner/ partner or manager and simply can’t give this the time it needs, we can always help out.  In addition to our team of skilled consultants, media experts and strategy developers, we also have an excellent administrative team in place who would be more than happy to manage all of your listings; making sure they are accurate and in the right places. Contact DAA Marketing for more or visit our website.


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