Archive for the ‘SME digital marketing’ Category
Tips on building a b2b presence on twitter
Sunday, January 29th, 2012Many business to business publishers and other organisations targeting senior executives are a little wary of twitter and not sure how to use it to grow their reputation, web traffic and ultimately lead generation and revenue. Somehow twitter often looks just a little bit trivial for a business audience. But there are real benefits in using it, even in less techy markets, as a research tool, news feed, customer service channel and additional publishing platform. Here’s some simple principles, gathered from b2b businesses I know, including one publisher which has grown its following three-fold in the last year. (more…)
Posted in SME digital marketing, b2b, content, marketing
How to migrate your website and maintain your sanity
Sunday, October 30th, 2011Moving house is generally regarded as one of the most stressful life experiences, up there with divorce and bereavement. For businesses, I’d hazard a guess that moving your website to a new developer or platform is as fraught a process as moving house. I’ve just moved one of my business websites (not this one) and thought I’d share the lessons I’ve learnt as they may be helpful to both small and larger organisations. Below are my top ten tips for migrating your business website while maintaining your sanity. (more…)
Tags: business website, changing developer, moving platform, small business websites
Posted in SME digital marketing, implementation
7 reasons Linked-in works so well in b2b marketing
Sunday, September 11th, 2011If your business is based on reaching and persuading senior decision-makers, then Linked-in should be a core part of your business development. There’s a real value in developing an extensive contact base and maintaining a professional profile on Linked-in. It provides an essential complement to the traditional techniques of live events, networking, email marketing and telemarketing. I’ve found it invaluable for getting insight into key topics, and creating opportunities to meet prospective clients and business partners. Here’s 7 reasons you should build it in to your b2b marketing: (more…)
Tags: b2b marketing, Linked in, networking, recommendations
Posted in SME digital marketing, marketing, news
10 tips for SMEs on how online content can drive new business
Monday, September 6th, 2010What makes your small business different? How do you reach new customers? How do you stay in touch with your current customers?
Using content cleverly on your website and in social media can help you reach more people more quickly and convince them to contact you, rather than your competitors.
Online content - copy, pictures, video, audio - is the key to better results on search engines, external links and convinces site visitors to get in touch. It’s also crucial to making the most of social media - an empty facebook page, blog or twitter feed is a poor advertisement for your business.
Small business owners can gain a huge advantage by thinking like a publisher and planning their online content strategy carefully. Here are ten tips for using online content to attract enquiries and build new business: (more…)
Tags: content, marketing, SME marketing, SME workshops
Posted in SME digital marketing, content, marketing
Five ideas for building quality external links
Sunday, August 15th, 2010Small businesses quickly discover that the key to success in natural search is gaining quality external links. Paid-for directories can’t compete with highly relevant, authoritative sites linking back to your business website. The bad news is that this takes time to establish. The slightly better news is that with a little creativity, and using your existing real-world business relationships, you can make good progress in a few months. The first step is to make a list of your 10 or 20 target sites for links and work out what you can trade with them, and how you can translate real world business relationships into quality inbound links. I’ve listed five approaches that have worked for SMEs I have encountered while running SEO workshops, and for my own business sites. (more…)
Tags: external links, search engine optimisation, SME marketing, SME websites, SMEs
Posted in SME digital marketing
10 tips for online networking for SMEs
Sunday, June 27th, 2010Small businesses tend to win business through referrals, and are recommended by people who already know the principals. How can SMEs accelerate this natural process to win more business more quickly? Here are my top 10 tips for using online networking tools to speed up the traditional methods of making personal contacts and building a reputation. They are based on my own experience and other SME’s whom I admire or have worked with. There’s a presentation that goes into more detail on the Penmaen Media slideshare page. (more…)
Tags: network marketing, online networking, referrals, reputation building, SME marketing
Posted in SME digital marketing, marketing
Driving relevant traffic via referrals
Sunday, March 28th, 2010It’s all too easy to get obsessed with optimising your site for Google and imagining that all your traffic will arrive via natural search. But there are plenty of products and services where search isn’t necessarily the route that prospective customers take. This is particularly the case for professional services, where generic terms are too competitive, and your customer may find it hard to express their rather complex requirement in a small search box. Then you need to focus more on how external links in related sites can drive relevant traffic to your site in their own right, which has the added benefit of enhancing your pagerank. The trick is thinking through your customers’ purchase process, and working out which online sites they will use to gather information before looking for a supplier. Here are five ideas to help you identify these types of links and build referral traffic back to your site. (more…)
Tags: book reviews, niche forums, Penmaen Media, personal brand, referral community, referrals traffic, SME workshops
Posted in SME digital marketing, b2b, consumer, content, marketing