Nick Baggott's CRM and Digital Marketing Blog

Free event - Thames Valley New Business Show at Mad Stad, worth attending....

I have spoken at one of the Berkshire Media Group events in the past - they are excellent events. See below for more details from their press release....

Thames Valley Berkshire LEP and the Berkshire Media Group are Collaborating for Growth with New Business Show

• Business Show 2012 to take place on 18^th April at the Royal Berkshire Conference Centre,  Madejski Stadium, Reading, Berkshire
• Co-sponsored by SEGRO,  Bracknell Regeneration and Reading UK CIC

Berkshire, 13^th February 2012 - The Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (TVB LEP) and the Berkshire Media Group (BMG), the county’s largest independent newspaper publisher, are pleased to announce the first ‘Collaborating for Growth - Business Show 2012’, a one day event to encourage business growth in the Thames Valley which will take place on 18^th April from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm.

Organised in joint partnership between TVB LEP and BMG, Business Show 2012 is expected to attract over 50 local business exhibitors and in excess of 600 visitors. Free to visitors, the show is designed to accommodate every business professional and maximise business potential with high-level speakers, exhibitions, seminars, networking opportunities and workshops.   

Steve Lamb, Chair of Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (TVB LEP) and senior director at Oracle comments: “Thames Valley Berkshire has a thriving economy and has done pretty well. However, we now face intensified global competition from Europe and the fast emerging Asian economies.  We need to act now to stay ahead and to do this we need to act in a more integrated and joined up way. TVB LEP will work hard locally, nationally and internationally to keep the businesses we have and attract more. But we need the business community to get involved to help us achieve this.  The power behind TVB LEP is the collaborative momentum that we can create together to drive our economy. The 2012 Business Show is all about how we can collaborate for growth and how businesses can get involved.”

High-level speakers for the event include serial entrepreneur Kevin Gaskell.  Kevin has led the iconic brands Porsche, Lamborghini and BMW.  He also founded epyx, a market leader for automotive e-commerce.  As CEO of EurotaxGlass Kevin created a world leader in automotive business intelligence.  Kevin has been recognised as a ‘top 40 leader under 40’ and he now acts as Chairman to a number of companies. 

Marcelle Speller, OBE, Founder and Chief Executive of Localgiving.com will also be speaking.  Localgiving.com provides small, local charities and community groups across the UK with an online fundraising platform to help them become more sustainable. Marcelle is also a trustee of the Community Foundation Network and founder of the Ardbrack Foundation. Marcelle has worked in director and board level positions for multinational companies including American Express, Avis and Inter-Continental Hotels, and co-founded Holiday-Rentals.com, Europe’s leading website for advertising private holiday homes. 

Kevin and Marcelle will be joined by a host of other inspiring speakers including Eamonn Dolan, Manager of Reading Football Club’s Academy Team who will be talking about finding the stars of the future and Matt Rogan, Commercial Director for personal development company Lane4.  Matt recently co-authored a book ‘Britain and the Olympic Games: Past, Present, Legacy’ Also presenting is Henry Hirsch coach of Reading Rowing Club and Jim McNeil who founded the Ice Warrior Project. Jim is a Berkshire entrepreneur and accomplished polar explorer with over 26 years of Artic travelling under his belt. There will also be presentations from TVB LEP led by Steve Lamb on TVB LEP goals for 2012 and how Thames Valley organisations can get involved.

The event is co-sponsored by SEGRO, Europe’s leading commercial property, investment and development company based in Slough, Bracknell Regeneration, the regeneration programme for Bracknell and Reading UK CIC, the economic development company for Reading. The event is also supported by key business membership organisations including the Institute of Directors for Berkshire, the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses.

Amanda Gee, CEO for the BMG comments: “If you are serious about doing business and you are keen to help encourage growth in the Thames Valley area then this is an event no organisation can afford to miss.  We all have a role to play in making Berkshire a great place to live, work and do business, and this show is all about forming a united, collective voice to help economic growth in the area.”

Building on this theme, ahead of the show, TVB LEP is hosting its SME Forum on 22^nd February 2012 entitled: “Selling to the Big Guns” where the headline speaker, successful Berkshire entrepreneur David Griffiths from Fiscal Technologies will share his experiences of setting the right model to successfully sell into both large corporates and the public sector. The event starts at 8.00 am and finishes at 10.00 am and is being hosted at Johnson & Johnson Medical Ltd, Pinewood Campus, Nine Mile Ride, Wokingham, RG40 3EW.

 

TVB LEP is business led and made up of key leaders across the business, education, the voluntary and community sector and six unitary authority areas of Berkshire: West Berkshire, Wokingham, Reading, Bracknell Forest, Royal Borough of Windsor, and Maidenhead and Slough.  

 

The Berkshire Media Group offers a portfolio of paid and free local newspapers and local websites serving a selection of markets across the Thames Valley. Newspapers in the portfolio include: Reading Chronicle, Woodley & Earley Chronicle, Reading Midweek, Bracknell & Wokingham News Series, Ascot News, Bracknell & Wokingham Midweek, The Villager, Slough & South Bucks Observer, The Royal Windsor & Maidenhead Observer, Midweek Observer and Newbury & Thatcham Chronicle

 

For more details on the event please visit: www.bmgevents.co.uk. For more details of the membership of TVB LEP please visit: http://www.thamesvalleyberkshire.co.uk.  For more information on how to attend, exhibit or sponsor this event please contact Gemma Keeping on 0118 955 3390 or email gkeeping@berksmedia.co.uk.  If you would like to register or find out more about the TVB LEP SME Forum on 22^nd February please visit: http://www.thamesvalleyberkshire.co.uk/roadshow/event/sme-forum/

 

Media Contact:

Paula Elliott

C8 Consulting Ltd

paula@c8consulting.co.uk

+44 118 900 1132

 

 

Periodic table of SEO Factors

Just found this neat graphic of SEO factors from Hubspot's Inbound Marketing University   blog. 

SEO is the most important element of your Inbound marketing strategy and this simplifies (or at least does for the visually minded) the complex world of SEO. 

The original source is Search Engine Land, and you can download a copy of it from their site

Paul Boross - The Pitch Doctor

Paul Boross works with me at Google. Paul is also knows as The Pitch Doctor. Check out his video on my YouTube Channel under favourites. Some great tips for presenting and pitching.

How and when to use social media

This is part 2 of the series... some tips on using social media...

Tip 1: Consider the role of social media in your marketing plan

• Social media is very good for developing customer engagement, building reputation, thought leadership and word of mouth referrals. It is all about long term brand development
• It is not so good for new customer acquisition, awareness generation or short term sales leads. This is because typically the only people who are likely to follow you are those that have a relationship with you already.
• However, if you create content that is interesting enough to be referred to by others, then your existing customers may send it onto their contacts, retweet it or link to it.

Tip 2: Focus on a few key social media channels

• The big 3 social media channels are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
• Google accounts for 9.16% of all UK web visits. Facebook is second with 7.69%. YouTube is 3^rd with 2.48%. Twitter is 20^th, but rising fast. Source http://www.hitwise.com/uk/datacentre
• Linked In is the largest B2B social media site, but usage has plateaud and participation levels are much lower than the big 3. You should have a presence on Linked In, but don’t expect the same level of interaction as you will get on the others.
• Blogging is the key social media channel for B2B and small businesses, as it is simple, search friendly and ideal for thought leadership. Remember, you should talk rather than sell on your blog. Comment on the news, your industry, recent research and articles, rather than constantly selling your products and services (that is what your web site is for...).
• You may also consider a strategy where you focus on influencing existing blogs, groups and communities by commenting or starting discussions in those channels. It is often better to speak where the audience is now, rather than driving them to your channel.

Tip 3: Have a presence in all channels, but focus...

• You need to be accessible, so have a page on each of the big 3 and Linked In. However, if you have limited time, then focus your efforts on a few channels and simply link to those from the other pages. For example a small B2B firm could focus on blogging, Twitter and YouTube, but have Facebook & Linked In pages with links to these channels.

Tip 4: Consider your tone of voice and target audience

• What impression do you want to give? Do you want to speak as an independent  guru / expert giving advice on the industry, or do you want to be a brand ambassador, who only talks about what your company is doing, or maybe you want to be a facilitator, suggesting discussion points and asking for reader comments? You need to take a position and be consistent with how you talk to your audience.
• Your tone may depend upon your relationship with your audience. Who are they? How knowledgeable are they about your content? How do they view you?

Tip 5: Integrate social media with your marketing comms

• Use social media to communicate with existing contacts about what you are doing, such as future events and launches, white papers you have written, new web tools you have developed. Publish new content on your blog and short videos on YouTube and then use Twitter or Facebook to drive people to them.
• For example, create a Twitter # for your events, so if attendees tweet about what they have learned, you will be able to find out what they are saying. http://hubpages.com/hub/Why-Use-Hash-Tags-On-Twitter

Tip 6: Use the free measurement tools

• YouTube Insights http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_insight - tells you how many people have watched your video, who they are, where they are, how many dropped off before the end etc
• Google Alerts www.google.com/alerts. - This tells you when anyone writes about you on the web. Set up a Google alert for your company / brand name and personal name. Bear in mind it only works well if you have a distinctive name. Set one up for “John Smith” and you will be flooded with irrelevant alerts.

 

Tips on how to build a web site with limited resources and technical expertise

I have just written a couple of short advice sheets for a charity. It is for marketers who want to do some digital marketing, but have limited budgets and experience. Here is part one...

Tips on how to build a web site with limited resources and technical expertise

Tip 1: Decide whether to build a Web site or blog

• Do you need a web site? Writing a blog would be simpler. A blog doesn’t need the same degree of technical knowledge and can be built quickly. A blog is simply a simple web site, where the posts are in chronological order (web log). Tips on blogging are within the social media tips document.

Tip 2: Why not consider a free web building tool?

• Just search for free web sites on Google. There is moonfruit, webs.com, GBBO....
• Moonfruit has built over 3.5 million free web sites. You just log in, choose a template and start writing. It really is that simple. They have a library of images and design templates and even e-commerce functionality. You can only build a simple 15 page site for free, but that should be sufficient to get you started. www.moonfruit.com
• Once you have built your free site, you can always upgrade – Moonfruit has a £4 per month service which gives you unlimited pages, paypal e-commerce functionality and more storage space.
• Moonfruit also has a series of free white papers and beginner’s guides, such as how to optimise your site to make it appear higher in Google.

Tip 3: Make it easy to find

• Communicate your web address in every customer touch point, your business cards, ads, email sign offs, blog, brochures....everywhere
• Optimise your site for Google. This is complex and the Moonfruit guide will give you more information. Key things to consider:
  • What is your web site address (URL)? Is it easy to remember and also the type of words that customers may search for?
  • Make sure you develop a set of keywords (words that people may search for when looking for businesses like yours) and use them consistently and frequently within the copy on your web site (this is called keyword density).
  • Tag all of your web assets with keywords. Every picture, link, illustration etc on your site, should be tagged with descriptive words, to show Google what your web site contains. Use the same words in tags that you have developed for keyword density.
  • Google also scans your site for links, so build links on your site from one page to another and make sure that the links are on words that are searched for. A builder should have links on words like “house extensions”. Don’t use “click here” or “learn more” as the link words.
  • Consider paying for some Google advertising. You can start with a budget as small as £10 and you only pay when someone clicks through to your site. It is simple to do www.google.com/adwords

Tip 4: Make it easy to use and find things:

• Have a contact us page and make sure there is a tab at the top right of your site to take you through to the contact us page – allow them to contact you by phone, email & include your postal address and a map to your location too.
• People expect your logo to be in the top left and for it to be a link back to your home page, wherever they are on your site

Tip 5: Integrate with social media

• If you have other marketing channels, such as a blog, Twitter, Facebook page or YouTube videos, then make sure there are links to these on your home page. www.addthis.com is a free site that will enable you to put a link with all of the social media logos onto your page.

Tip 6: Integrate with your other marketing

• Link to your event programme, email newsletter sign up or communicate product launches

Tip 7: Use the free tools to measure success

• Google Analytics is free. It will tell you how many visits you are getting, where people are coming from, what they searched for, how long they stayed etc www.google.com/analytics
• The Google Adword Keyword Tool will tell you what words Google currently associates with your site, now. This tells you what keywords your site is optimised for now.
• Google Insights for Search will tell you how often different keywords have been searched for in any time / date combination for any region.

Tip 8: Just get on with it!

• It really is not as difficult as you would imagine....

 

New Course on Media Planning

I am writing a new course at the moment on how media planners, plan and select media and how clients review media plans. If anyone has any comments, links, research or views that they think would be useful, I'd love to hear from you....

Happy to share results with any contributors.

Thanks

Facebook Stats - Social Bakers

This is a wonderful resource. Social Bakers is a site that provides lots of data and research on brands using social media, with an emphasis on Facebook. 

You can see which brands have the most followers.... Coca Cola, Oreo, Red Bull, Skittles, Converse...

There is also a list of brands on Facebook by industry sector, usage of facebook by country / continent (Africa is growing fastest, Indonesia is the 2nd largest market for FB).

There's even a list of biggest mistakes brands make on FB, such as posting too often, or deleting comments or responding too slowly.

If you are looking for info, stats or tips on Facebook. It is a great place to start. Check it out here - Social Bakers.

Facebook Deals

Facebook deals were launched on 31st December into key European cities. I have been travelling around Europe running workshops on facebook recently, so have been able to try them out in Uk, Spain, Germany and France. Pretty much every city had deals on offer when I used my iPhone to check in.

To learn more about Facebook Deals, check out the YouTube video. It tells you all you need to know...

Facebook Deals video

How engaged are your customers?

I came across a really cool recently to see how engaged your customers are and how effective your social media strategy is...

It is the Social Media Brand Engagement tool. Answer about 5 questions and you'll get an instant answer.

More interesting is which industries and companies score highest, so you can benchmark your performance against them. 

The top 5 is Starbucks, Dell, eBay, Google, Microsoft - no surprises there I guess. Kellogg's and Mercedes amongst others perform worse. Check it out. This is the benchmarkimng model

You can filter by industry - Pepsi lead FMCG, or by channel. And of course, you can rank yourself

It is a little over simplistic, but a good place to start. At least to find out who to put up as best practice

The perfect job for a marketing student or grad

The world's greatest football team (Reading FC) are looking for a student or grad to help build up their social media marketing. Why weren't jobs like this around when I was looking for my internship?

For those of you who are not up to speed with English Championship Football. Here is the link (RFC Social media role)