http://www.rhc.uk.com/library marketing resource library en matt@rhc.uk.com Copyright 2009 2009-03-25T09:54:18+00:00 http://www.rhc.uk.com/library/using-a-creative-agency/ http://www.rhc.uk.com/library/using-a-creative-agency/#When:16:18:09Z Recognising the importance of design is a corporation's first step to creating great design. The second step is talking to a good creative agency immediately. Every physical representation of a company's image that people notice, whether it's a letter written on the corporate stationery, a product and its packaging, a brochure or annual report, a logo in an ad, a sign, graphics on a vehicle, or a name badge worn by a receptionist, offers an opportunity to win respect and admiration. Businesses can successfully shape favourable consumer opinion by intelligently controlling these many forms of their communication programme. be noticed In today's message-saturated environment, communication programmes that produce positive results must stand out in order to get noticed. Thanks to the successful use of design agencies by professional sports teams, major manufacturers, and even Hollywood Studios, people have become graphic design sophisticates. Today's young businessmen and women, have been brought up on TV, computer games, and brand name everything, respond only to high quality design. That's why successful businesses commission specialist agencies to plan and produce business communications. They realise that they need professionals to help them plan which message to send out, and how to deliver it with effective impact. For further information relating to this particular article please call 01256 70 40 70 or e-mail 2008-11-05T16:18:09+00:00 http://www.rhc.uk.com/library/web-copy/ http://www.rhc.uk.com/library/web-copy/#When:12:42:07Z language is the new corporate identity Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.Rudyard Kipling so e-brands need to talk! With the new electronic age the way we communicate is really changing. The internet is making us all look again at the way we speak, write and do business. This is because we are in the middle of the most fabulous global conversation there has ever been. language is the central element of the web That language must feel right for the audience in its tone, modulation and approach. Internet communication, whether it’s e-mail or someone visiting a website, is truly one-to-one. This relationship shifts the control to the individual. The site doesn’t approach them; they approach it, and they can work through it in any order they like and leave at the click of a button. Beware: the on-line customer is tough, impatient and gone in a click. Some strong advice for businesses wanting to create really effective copy for their website: leave your ego at the door. change the way you think There are a whole host of reasons why having great copy on your website can drive brilliant results for your business, but the bottom line is this: you only have a matter of seconds to grab and hold the attention of potential customers. While the design and look of your website is very important, great copy is absolutely fundamental to getting good results from your site. Copy must engage the reader immediately, speaking directly to their problems. This sounds straightforward enough in theory, but most digital media experts agree, most professionals need to change the way they think about writing for the web. Creating genuinely effective website copy requires a fundamental shift in perspective for most writers. The single biggest mistake people make, is to focus on themselves, on their products and services. Most companies when they set out to create an online marketing initiative are way too egotistical. Their websites are organised around what their products and services do. All about features… not benefits! Well no one cares that much about your products and services! What they really care about are their own problems and how you can help them to solve them. know your audience What marketers need to do instead, is to think very carefully about who their potential customers are, and what they need. Do this simple exercise. Make a list of the various categories of customer who will be coming to your site. These are your ‘buyer profiles’. Now, flesh out these buyer profiles. Build a story around them, to help identify what their needs and problems are and how your business will solve them better than any of your competitors. Take a small hotel, for example. In this case, some buyer profiles might include an independent business person, the travel department of a large corporate with headquarters nearby, a young couple looking for a venue for their wedding reception and a family on holiday. We recommend you don’t create information about your hotel online until you can identify what are the specific buyer profiles of the people who are coming to it. Once you know who your target buyers are, you need to ‘interview’ those buyer personas. Find out, in their words, who they are and what problems they have that your organisation’s products and services can solve. help them - not yourself This shift in perspective is incredibly effective at boosting the effectiveness of your web copy and will drive more business through your website. The old approach to copywriting fails because it assumes that the audience is already interested in your product. In fact, what they are interested in is finding solutions to their own problems. The big step, is forgetting about your own ego, forgetting about your own product, and thinking instead about what the problems are that you are going to help solve. If you can understand what motivates a person to be interested in your product and what their problems are, then you are not just rattling off what’s great about what you do. Understanding the buyer will help you to be a much better salesperson. The great news is that you probably already know a great deal about your customers. By applying that knowledge to the rewriting of your web copy, you could revolutionise the effectiveness of your site. To find out how we can help your business growth through the web please call 01256 70 40 70 or e-mail 2009-01-21T12:42:07+00:00 http://www.rhc.uk.com/library/business-web-site/ http://www.rhc.uk.com/library/business-web-site/#When:09:21:01Z so much choice If you are looking for a web company to build (or re-build) your company web site, you may have already realised that there is not only a huge choice of companies and individuals who can help you, but there can also be a vast difference in the web site cost depending on who you choose. So, what should you look for when you are choosing a web company, and how much should you be paying for your web site? value Ultimately, a web site for a business or any organisation, is not about the cost - it’s all about the value. As a marketing tool, an effective web site can deliver you [arguably] a higher level of return-on-investment than traditional off-line marketing tactics and create a more engaging experience for your customers that you can leverage. So the first question to ask yourself is… how much could a web site that delivers sales enquiries be worth to my business? For instance, if a sales lead is worth £200 to your business, how many sales leads would you need to get from your new web site to see a return? Obviously you need to set a realistic time frame to measure your return. At rhc we work to about 12 months. Ie. If your web site cost £10,000, you should reasonably attract a similar amount of profit back from leads within a year. Now of course this is a rule of thumb. Even though you are paying a company to design and build your web site, you will still need to ensure quality of content and hope (ensure) that your web designer knows how to make the most of it. You need to be committed to your web project and what it can to do to transform your business profile online. This is where the £500 you are paying your brother’s son’s friend’s uncle may not be as ‘worth it’ as you first thought. expertise There are companies that offer web design or web build services that come into the process from their own specific specialism including: Designers IT Professionals Marketing or PR Consultants Hobbyists However, delivering a return on your business web site needs a little bit more knowledge than design and web programming to make sure that you get business leads and, unfortunately, that expertise tends to cost more up front. On your part, you need to understand what you want from your web site and what you can realistically expect and that is where a good web agency can be worth their weight in gold with a consultative approach. purpose What is the purpose of your new web site? A good web agency will discuss with you why you actually want the web site. When this is established, you can work to assign a set of realistic goals for the site that are geared to your business model, ie. how far your customers would be prepared to go online for you to make the sale and how you would realistically deal with any enquiries you do get. audience analysis Different people need different things. The motivations of a B2C audience will be very different from a B2B audience and this needs to be addressed on your web site and in your sales messaging online. Also, how technically aware and proactive is your industry online and where does your company fit? A web agency should offer value, working with you to deliver appropriate messaging to your web site to attract the right kind of traffic and drive it through your web pages to your web site goal. web design Design is subjective. What you like, may not be relevant for your audience. A creative web agency will challenge your pre-conceptions and be able to rationalise a design style for your web site to make it more visually engaging for your customers to take action and deliver to your overall business objective. Whether you have an existing brand in place, or are looking for a refreshed identity, the design of a web site is about interface design, rather than graphic design. Aesthetically pleasing web design must balance with customer usability. web content Knowing what to write and how to write it on your web site will help attract search engine traffic and visitors interested in what you have to say, hopefully leading to actual enquiries. Many companies do not write for the web and miss an opportunity in terms of search engine traffic. A web agency with web copywriting knowledge can advise you on what to write. Not just the service pages, but case studies and articles that are of value to the web, and to your audience. Compelling web content will engage people at a much high level than traditional marketing speak, and, if your pages are optimised correctly, you may also attract incoming links to your web site, which can improve your search engine rankings. features and enhancements Some people get carried away with features they have seen on other web sites that they have liked and want to apply them to their own site. This is all well and good but does it help or hinder your web site goal. Remember, we want real business-related results. Your web agency should advise on features that enhance your web site experience and prevent you from adding features for features sake. cost So, how much should all this be costing you? If you choose an agency to purely on the figure they quote you, the opportunity cost may well outstrip the highest estimate you received in lost revenue further down the line. A web company should be looking to deliver you return on investment by optimising your web site to drive relevant visitors towards your goal. On your part, you should be looking to measure any return you get, something that is often lacking client-side of a web project. How much a your web site cost should be is a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question, it is dependent on what you need and what you want back. If, however, your web company ticks the boxes above, you could be looking at the following price ranges in the UK from a reputable web agency: A small static web site with approximately 5-10 pages, design, coding, content and content optimisation £2,000 - £5,000 Content managed web site allowing you to add pages, upload content and images and create search engine friendly pages with compliant code output £8,000 - £15,000 Bespoke database or e-commerce web site with specific requirements and content-management facility £10,000+ conclusion It’s about value, not price. Take a look at other websites that the web agency has done before and speak to their owners to see if they have had the return you are looking for. Try searching for one of their websites in a search engine for a few different phrases to see if they come up. There is an old adage that if you “pay peanuts you get monkeys” but do not be fooled by the smoke and mirrors that some web companies give off. The proof is in the pudding, so see how far your web agency are prepared to put their money where their mouths is when it comes to what you need. 2009-03-25T09:21:01+00:00 http://www.rhc.uk.com/library/online-ads/ http://www.rhc.uk.com/library/online-ads/#When:09:46:16Z Online consumers of all ages are most receptive to digital advertising after 6pm, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau’s ‘Receptivity of the Online Audience’ report. A survey, which was conducted by Lightspeed Research for the IAB, asked people when they were most receptive to online advertising and what was the best way to gain their attention online. The most popular period was after 6pm, especially for those in the 25-34, 35-44 and 45-54 age brackets. Those in the 18-24 and 55+ brackets were still most receptive in the evening but were also more likely to be receptive earlier in the day, particularly between 2pm and 6pm. The research follows in the wake of last week’s YouGov “2009 Online Advertising Trends Report”, which found that 57% of consumers paid no attention to advertising on major websites and that banner advertising was lagging behind paid-for search marketing. a time and a place However, the findings of the IAB research, and the latter’s interpretation of the data, highlight the need for marketers to target consumers with advertising at appropriate times and in appropriate places. Interviewees were asked during what type of online activity they would be most receptive to advertising. The research revealed that people did not want to be interrupted by advertising when they were enjoying an activity that demanded their full attention, such as watching catch-up TV online. Conversely, the majority said they would be most receptive to advertising when they were either shopping online or researching the best shopping deals. According to the IAB, this finding highlighted that retailers may be able to capitalise on this finding by offering recommendations, special offers and price deals when internet users are involved in e-commerce activities. Respondents also said that they would be receptive to marketing when downloading entertainment files, reading the news, catching up on sports results, playing games online and social networking. know your audience Sorcha Proctor, IAB’s research manager, said: “This research highlights the need for marketers fully to appreciate and understand the consumer mindset when planning their online marketing campaigns. “Most significantly, the study highlights the need for retail brands to get in front of internet users at every point of the online customer journey and emphasises the need to respect consumers if they want them to engage effectively with their marketing messages.   2009-03-25T09:46:16+00:00 http://www.rhc.uk.com/library/positioning-a-company/ http://www.rhc.uk.com/library/positioning-a-company/#When:09:54:18Z Position is that one simple thing the company is known for, that one specific idea that first comes to mind when people think of the product or service. for example: Volvo is ‘Safety’McDonalds is ‘A fun place for kids’. To position a company or product, you need to first, identify one specific attribute that sets it apart from competitors. Just because a competitor could possibly say the same thing doesn’t mean you should not take the position. First one to plant their flag wins the territory. While positioning is how you want to be known, it must reflect reality. How the company really is known. Or how it can believably be known. For instance, the way people really think about the 7-11 shop on the corner is ‘convenient, but more expensive’. So you might position them with the line, ‘worth the convenience’. You could even build a campaign around that idea. Your positioning statement should reflect the way people really think- using simple language, real people really use. Keep it simple. Succinct. here is a useful checklist: Is it true? Is it easy to understand? Does it differentiate the product/service in an attractive manner and in a positive way from the competition? Is it expressed the way people will express it in their own words? Make sure you can ‘own’ it Avoid generalities Be tangible Be snappy and specific Forget generic or ambiguous You should present the same position in every Ad, in every communication, year after year, after year. Don’t stray from that one core idea. Unless you need to change a position that doesn’t reflect reality. Genius is in simplicity. Success is in consistency. People remember repetition – People remember repetition. 2009-03-25T09:54:18+00:00