Social Media, Websites, Wordpress, Workshops & Upcoming Events
On Friday 16th July Alison & Frankie will be attending the 2010 WordCamp. This year LA Marketing & Design are proud to be bronze sponsors of the event to be held in Manchester. WordCamp is held over 2 days and is an informal annual gathering of WordPress publishers, designers and developers based in the United Kingdom. It’s always good to keep up with the latest developments and discuss ideas with like minded people.
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I’ve been speaking to a client recently who I think was daunted by their current website, with the knowledge that they knew they had to update it/upgrade it, yet didn’t have any idea where to start. Does this sound familiar? It can become a little overwhelming.
Never fear, help is at hand. When it comes to understanding and knowing what information a basic website requires I have the answer. It’s like a book, you need a Start, a Middle and an End. Leave the design to the professionals, just concentrate on the content – which is your business.
So let’s start with Your Story…
Always start with a Home page, which can be, if you like, treated as landing page. This is where your potential customer normally arrives, so make the most of it. Think then what you want them to do once they arrive there? Do you want them to Call You? Email You? Search the rest of your site? Make it easy for them to get to the information they want.
So, after you’ve thought about the Home page, move on to basic products and services. What products do you offer and what services do you give? If initially you’re not looking to sell online, then a good image of your products with brief descriptions should suffice (don’t fall into the trap of writing chapter and verse, this is a real turn off on the web). Short, punchy information is key. I also recommend professional photographs, on the basis that the potential client would like to see what he is getting – make the quality count! Forget quantity.
So, now lets have a showcase of your good work with maybe a few testimonials from clients, and if you have a number of good images then maybe have some links to a gallery. You can use this to its real advantage with great images.
And finally, the client needs to know where you are and how to get hold of you. A good contact us page with postcodes.
Perfect. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. No so daunting now! Just a good story.
PS: Now then, Your Story Part II is having a good map of how to find you (ie in Google), to get to read your story in the first place…
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I’ve had many conversations with many people of late about marketing their business – or for that matter, any business. It’s true that when times are tough, the first area historically that businesses cut will be their marketing. And what’s more, they may even decide to do it in-house themselves! Now why do people believe they can do this?
I heard a great keynote speech recently that went something along the lines of:
“Do you pay a professional Accountant to manage your end of year accounts? Do you pay a professional Financial Advisor to manage your financial affairs? The answer of course is YES. So why then do some business people believe that they can cut costs by doing their own marketing?”
The truth is that good times or bad times, marketing is paramount. Your brand reflects your business, which in turn reflects your reputation. Refer back to your business strategy and remind yourself why you are doing business? Where are you headed? Remind yourself of your long term and short term goals. It is all only achievable by getting your marketing right. Here are some tips that don’t cost a fortune that will may help:
The moral of this story is, focus on what you do and do it well. If you need professional help with your marketing, it doesn’t always cost the earth. Feel free to drop me a line or call me, I’d be happy to help!
Don't be blond about your marketing
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For every web developer/designer, we all know that it is fairly simple to create a table using a bit of html, and the issue can sometimes be that the clients do not. This became an issue recently when one of our clients wanted to update the website themselves, and add tables as they pleased. Of course, we can always do it on their behalf, but of course this then defeats the point of having software whereby they have the opportunity to manage it themselves.
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COURSE NOW FULL
Start your journey here into the world of Social Media
If you have heard all these buzz words: “facebook”, “linkedin” “twitter” “blogging” and are not sure where to start, and have made the decision to incorporate Social Media as part of your business strategy, then this would be the perfect place start to your journey into the “blogsphere”.
By popular demand, we are holding a 1 day event that will be the start of your education into Social Media. We will discuss all these platforms and how best to use these tools within your business to maximise marketing your business online. By the end of the day, you will be familiar enough to start to implement these tools into your Social Media business strategy.
We’re delighted to be working with Luke Williams from Web Matters in Bournemouth on this course. He brings with him a wealth of experience in Social Media, and how best to incorporate these free tools into your business to get your brand out there. He has been using them for many years now and is willing to share his knowledge and experience to help you promote your business.
Spaces are limited to a maximum of 10, so this will be on a first come first served basis.
Please bring a laptop that can connect to the Internet wirelessly . If you don’t have a laptop available, please let me know at the time of booking.
9.30 – 9.45am Introduction
9.45 – 11am Overview and Introduction to Social Media
11am Tea/Coffee
11.15 – 12.15 Strategy Groups, working together to discuss best practice.
12.15 – 1.00 Lunch
1.00 – 1.45 Workshop Blogging
1.45 – 2.30 Worskhop LinkedIn
2.30 – 3.15 Workshop Twitter
3.15 – 3.45 Tea/Coffee
3.45 – 4.30 Workshop Facebook
4.45 pm Close
TBA – Watch this space
The Royal Chase Hotel, Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 8DB
£195 plus VAT, (£229.13 inclusive) including lunch – payable in advance at time of booking
Spaces are limited, so to reserve a space, book now
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Yesterday I attended our first NRG meeting of 2010 at Bath University. It was good to catch-up with the regulars and also to meet some new people. The guest speaker was Martin Warnes of Warnes Id Co, who gave a really interesting 20 minutes on branding and identity, an area within which he has thirty years experience. Read the rest of this entry »
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The BNI White Horse Chapter based at the Corsley Centre in Wiltshire has returned after the Christmas break. Yes it is good to be back, but words cannot express how frustrating it was just looking out of the window at the snow and simply wanting to get back to work.
This country just grinds to a halt at the very hint of anything that resembles snow. In this day and age with such a vast array of technology at our fingertips; how is it that our economy suffered an estimated £600m per day according to the Federation of Small Businesses. I am not one to get on the ‘blame culture’ band wagon, however I do wonder if as a nation we shouldn’t take a deep look inside ourselves before we make wild broad sweeping accusations.
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If you have ever spent time looking for a plugin for your Wordpress site you’ll know that while there are lots out there it’s not always very easy looking for the right one. What you find may not be easy to use or you may not actually find one that does all that you want it to do. Read the rest of this entry »
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In 2010 LA Marketing are going to be fully embracing the whole professional social media and networking arena. Online Social Networking has been picking up momentum for the last few years, starting with simple personal comments or opinions; this medium has now developed into a super highway of information covering a wide spectrum of subjects.
It is natural that there will be a backlash against this kind of activity, to have a massive multi-lane motorway built in your back yard apparently overnight is a daunting concept, even more scary is trying to find your way onto it! Read the rest of this entry »
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Sponsors of WordCamp UK Manchester 2010
Spam Comments on my Blog
Blogging, Wordpress, Wordpress Top Tips
So you’ve got your Wordpress Blog but you are having a problem with Spam comments. One obvious route you may take is to stop people from commenting altogether. Now on the face of it this may seem to be a reasonable step to take but you would be defeating the point of having a Blog. Read the rest of this entry »
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6 months ago, Dave