Using both platforms can be highly beneficial for you business, ad campaigns do well on Facebook and Instagram and encourage growth in your reach and engagement. In 2015 Facebook bought Instagram and now you are able to run ad campaigns on a single interface. This can save a lot of time setting them up as well as monitoring them, you are able to control and survey all your campaigns at once.

Business Manager

Business Manager allows you to access pages and ad accounts from social media all in one place. It’s a Facebook tool, but you are able to use it to run Instagram adverts too. Once you are logged into business manager, you are able to add all of your Facebook pages as well as Instagram accounts, you can claim pages you own and request access to pages also. Business Manager allows you to monitor and make changes to everything on both platforms in one place.

How?

If you’re already on Business Manager then you’ll need to head over to business settings. This will lead you to ad accounts, here is where you’re able to claim business pages on Facebook and add your Instagram account. Once you’ve added your pages & accounts you are able to click the link on to them and create ad’s – located in the top right-hand corner.

Creating ad’s on Business Manager is simple, they do a lot of the work for you. One of the most attractive things about using this tool is being able to choose your objectives. You have the following options to choose from:

It’s important to think about your objective before you choose one. What’s going to benefit you the most and what is the purpose of your planned campaign? Business Manager has a wide range of options to suit almost everyone broken down into specific categories of; Awareness, Consideration and Conversion. It’s important to remember, not every single objective option is suitable for Instagram. If you select an option that isn’t compatible, you will not be able to run that ad on Instagram but will still be able to set it up for Facebook.

After you’ve decided your objective you’ll have to choose your ad set. Depending on which objective you have chosen, this could be broken down differently. Ad set is where you can choose a target audience, budget, schedule, placements and more. This allows you to personalise your campaign and make it work the best it can for your business. Finally, you’re able to create your ad and choose how you’d like it to look. Here you have the option of a single video, single image or multiple (carousel) images.

After you have made your final decisions, it’s time to run your ad. You are able to come back to Business Manager at any time to view your ad’s performance, you’re also able to extend ad campaigns if you feel it’s doing well and would like to continue. Thanks to Business Manager, setting up ad campaigns is easier than ever. Once you are confident with setting up campaigns, you’re able to set up multiple ad sets. This can be a huge time-saver if you have a lot of ads to run or have many different Facebook pages.

It is important to note: if you are not using Business Manager’s Ad Creation and are using Power Editor, you are still able to run Instagram ads as well as Facebook ads.

Why?

More than 1.8 Billion people use Facebook and over 500 million people use the Instagram app monthly. Advertising on these platforms has the potential to dramatically improve your reach, engagement, website visits and even sales. It’s simple to set up, non-time consuming and your ads are optimised for you, ensuring they reach the highest possible amount of users.

60% of Instagram users say they discover new products on the app, a further 45% take action after being inspired to by a post. Your product could be the next thing they discover.

There are a few steps you can take to make the process more manageable for yourself. While you do start at a disadvantage due to lack of knowledge and experience in making a website, you can learn some valuable things and use valuable tools to get a great start on your website.

You need a plan

Preparation is key when building your website. It may be tempting to rush into designing and trying to get something up and running but you need to do a bit of work before you get there. You need to know what you want your website to do and what you want from it. Before you start designing and creating content for your site you need a solid base.

A great way to plan your website out would be to make a blueprint. Doing this allows you to make changes to the plan easily if something needs to change. It also gives you a good structure to follow, ensuring you don’t miss anything out. Set goals for your website and give yourself a clear picture of where you want to be.

Do your Research

A lot of the work that goes into making a website is research. There are a few areas that should be of interest to you.

Competition

In order to have a successful website, you have to look at your competition. Looking at a website selling the same, or similar, products to you is a great step to take. Check the standards of their websites so you know where yours needs to be. You can learn a lot from investigating their marketing strategies and CTA’’s.

Studying competitors websites gives you insights into essential parts of a working website. While you’re researching make sure you look at each aspect of the websites including their appearance, how easy it is to use/navigate around and their marketing techniques used. Looking at your competition is an essential step to making a successful website as it gives you an idea of what standard your website should be.

User Experience

Making your website easy to navigate around is crucial when building your website. You want users to know where to go and how to get there. It’s important users are able to get from one place to another on your website with ease. This applies to desktop, mobile and tablet. Many people work very hard on their site for a desktop user but are lacking when it comes to mobile or tablet use.

When building your website you should ensure your content is laid out in a way that is appropriate for the user. For example, condensing your content and using a read more option could be highly beneficial for you and your users. This allows users to find content faster as they don’t have to scroll through pages of information and content that’s irrelevant to them.

Marketing Techniques

If you’re not focusing on marketing it is highly unlikely you’ll generate many sales through your website. Getting your website up and running is only part of the work that needs to be done. People won’t just automatically find your site, in order to gain visitors you need to use marketing techniques.

Having a good knowledge of online marketing is key. It requires research, unfortunately many sole  traders building websites don’t have experience in online marketing. Looking at what your competition is doing would be a great start to give you some ideas. If you study techniques, do good research and educate yourself enough you could learn and implement some great marketing techniques.

We’ve built a full, easy to follow course teaching you how to create a successful website. The course takes you through the whole process of building a website as well as teaches you techniques you need to know. Throughout the course you’ll gain essential knowledge you need to build your website. You can access it here: www.fuzzbooster.com

As featured in

Many people underestimate the power a good plan and structure can have when it comes to blog posts. Aimlessly writing about topics that may, or may not, interest your audience could leave you with less traffic than you had hoped for. Luckily there are a few steps you can take to writing a successful blog post.

Plan the Post

Planning is an essential step in writing a blog post. Making sure you have everything structured will help you a great deal when it comes to writing the post.

One of the first things you want to do is make sure you’re aware of your target audience, who they are and what they would be interested in seeing in this particular post. Researching into who will be reading the post will ensure users find it informative and interesting, hopefully bringing them back to your website for future posts.

Once you’re aware of your target audience the next step would be to plan a topic to write on. When initially choosing your topic you don’t need to be too precise, knowing the topic you want to cover is a great start. Some people benefit from choosing their topic and thinking of a few areas around the subject they would like to write about. Giving yourself different options is great if you’re still at this point not entirely sure what you want to post or have a few different ideas floating around and want to see which would work best.

Eventually, when you’ve chosen your specific topic you’ll need to title it. Remember, you can always edit a title so if it isn’t exactly how you want it to be in the beginning, that’s not a problem. Your first title is a starting point for yourself, a general round up of what this post is about. For example, my first title for this post was ‘How to Write a Good Blog Post’. As you get deeper into the post and it’s more structured you can change the title accordingly.

An extra part of planning is the visual aspect of your blog post. Before you start writing make a short list of any graphics or images you want to use in your post. Even if you don’t have the specific post to hand, planning the placement and theme of the images could save you scrambling around for fitting visuals once you’ve finished.

Structuring the Post

When it comes to structuring your blog post you need to have a very clear idea of what you’re writing about, this is why you need to have a set topic first. As you already have your rough title, the first thing you’d want to do is set out an intro.

Your introduction paragraph is the first paragraph your visitors will read so you want to make it captivating and informative. In this paragraph, you should ensure you’re telling the reader what they are going to gain from reading this post, what they will learn. The more you draw them in the more likely they are to read your entire post.
After you have your intro done it’s a good idea to start planning your subheadings. Subheadings break your post down making it easier to read. People would rather ready 4-6 smaller broken up sections of writing than one long post. It also makes it easier for them to find a specific piece of information they’re looking for as they can search for it under the relevant subheading. Once you have these planned out, you can start writing the bulk of your post.

Lastly, your conclusion. Here you want to round up the post and sum up your key message. Your conclusion doesn’t have to be long but it should still be informative. You should include a CTA in your conclusion to encourage engagement with your posts. A call to action is when you ask the reader to do something, for example, ‘share this post if you found it useful’ or ‘comment if this post helped you out’. Encouraging the reader to take part in engagement is an important step to growing your blog.

Adding Visuals

It’s a proven fact that people prefer to read articles with something else to look at, not just writing. You could include diagrams, charts, images, graphics… Anything to make the post look a little more interesting. Your readers will appreciate the post more. Visitors are more likely to stay on the page and read the entire post if they aren’t just faced with 3000 words. Visual aspects break the post up, just like subheadings. Make it interesting.

Add your images or graphics in after you’re done writing. This way you can find the place they fit best. Refer back to your plan but if you need to change the placement of something you can do so.

Editing and Proofreading

You’re not done when you finish your conclusion. A crucial step in writing a blog post is your proofread. You wouldn’t want to write a top quality, informative post and publish it with spelling mistakes and errors. Leaving in mistakes can damage the quality of the post so reading through two to three times is imperative.

Check for spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and any information in your post that may need tweaking. Here you may find parts of the post you’d like to remove and even space to add information in. When you’ve highlighted all the aspects that may need changing you can edit your post accordingly. One of the things you should look for is the flow in the post, make sure each section leads on from the other and it isn’t extremely choppy. Everything should be in your post for a reason. Remember to give it a final proofread to make sure everything makes sense and you didn’t miss anything.

SEO

Search engine optimisation is the name given to the action of trying to improve your websites ranking on search engines.

Search engines, like Google, rank pages based on relevant useful content that has been linked back to by other pages. Essentially, creating content that others find useful and interesting or something they learn from means people will want to share it with others. A lot of people do this by posting a link to the page on their website.

How to Incorporate SEO into your Posts

The most important thing is to write relevant, useful content that uses keywords used by people searching for information. Choosing your keywords is an important part of SEO. You need to make your page easy to find. When choosing your keywords think about what potential visitors would type into a search engine to find the information. You also want to make the blog post appealing to the reader.

Make sure your content is easy to share and easy to link to. You want people to be able to quickly and easily share your content. The easier it is for a visitor to do, the more likely they are going to do it. This is where share buttons are useful, many blogs have them at the bottom of posts. This makes sharing that specific page on to social media very easy and extremely quick. Including a CTA at the end of the post, like we talked about doing in your conclusion, reminds people they are able to share your content. Make sure you lead them to these share buttons or tell them exactly how they can do it.

When focusing on SEO it’s important to remember that the quality of your link backs is far more important than the quantity. Great websites won’t link to poor content and this is why it’s essential that you are focusing on making your posts the best that they can be.

Keywords

As mentioned earlier, keywords are what enable people to find your post. They are the words and phrases people will use when searching on engines like Google. Keyword research is the best way you’ll find what words and phrases you should be using. Researching how people are looking for the information you have or the product you’re writing about. Looking at similar websites or posts that rank highly in search engines is beneficial as you can see what keywords and phrases they have used in their quality posts.

Developing a list of keywords to use throughout your posts and website should be one of your priorities when it comes to SEO. Keywords that are relevant to your content and what the reader is looking for are going to really help when trying to rank higher on search engines. You can use your editing stage to add in more keywords if you feel your post is lacking. It’s also a good idea to use a keyword in your post title.

Meta Description

Another large part of SEO is your page’s meta description. The meta description is the small excerpt below the page title that shows on a search engine. It should be a descriptive piece of text around 160 characters that lets the reader know what the post is about. If you look at quality pages that rank highly on search engines you’ll see that their meta descriptions often start with a verb such as learn, master and discover. Let the reader know they’re going to take something away from the post.

Keep going! Upping your rank on search engines won’t happen overnight. Be consistent with uploading content to your website and continue to make sure they are all of a steady quality. Creating posts using a structure and planning is something that will become more natural the more you do it. You should use a structure for every post you write. It ensures all your posts will be the same sort of quality which is imperative for ranking higher on search engines. Practice makes perfect and there is always room for improvement so take your time looking into ways you can write your posts and research into what you should include.

How do I go Live?

Both Facebook and Instagram allow you to go live from your smartphone very easily. On Facebook head over to your newsfeed, underneath your ‘what’s on your mind’ box there is a tab that says ‘live’, press it and you’ll be able to start streaming. On Instagram head over to your story, click as if you were about to add to it, swipe left along the bottom from normal to live and you’ll be able to start your live story.

If you wanted to go live on Facebook on your PC or laptop you would need to download a streaming software. On your software, you’ll need a streaming key. To find this head over to your Facebook page, press publishing tools, you’ll see a video tab, once you press that you should see a live button. Once you press the live button you’ll get a pop-up with your streaming key on it, this is what you’ll put into your software.

Facebook vs Instagram

Facebook and Instagram live are very similar in many ways. Live sessions on both platforms share these features:

• They both allow you to see how many people are viewing your live stream.
• They both allow likes and comments from viewers so you are able to engage with them.
• Both platforms will send followers a notification, as long as their push notifications are on, as soon as you start a live stream.

The main difference between the two is permanency. On Facebook, you are able to save your video and have it stay permanently on your page. This enables people to continuously engage, like and share after you are done streaming live. This is a great option to have especially if you’re trying to reach people worldwide, who may not have been able to watch your live broadcast.

Unfortunately on Instagram once it’s gone, it’s gone. After you are done with your live story there is no option to save it, it’ll just disappear. One thing Instagram is great for is enabling you to reach new people. If a live story is popular enough, it could end up in the ‘top live’ section on the explore page, enabling new people to see it.

Why Should I go Live?

Live streaming on both platforms can have many benefits for your business. Going live allows you to connect with an audience at the touch of a button, it’s a fast and effective way to get a message across to your followers.

Behind the Scenes

Most people love getting in on something new, live streaming is showing your followers an otherwise ‘off-limits’ world that they don’t usually get to see. Everyone loves to see behind the scenes so make the most of it. Show them what it’s like to work with your brand, how a product is made or the thinking process behind new things!

Product Previews

Live streams are a great way of showing a new product to your followers and giving them information on the launch. It lets people see how something works before they buy and gives you a chance to promote it as well as answer any questions they may have.

Host an Interview

Interviews are seriously popular on live streams. You could interview a brand owner, a co-worker, an influencer or a special guest. It’s up to you who you choose but it should be someone who can speak about your brand and give your viewers a new opinion.

Tutorials and Demonstrations

Live broadcasts are the perfect place for tutorials. Show your viewers how to best use some of your products. You can also use this time to answer FAQ’S about certain products or your brand in general. You could use products you have already released or include a new product you want to inform viewers about.

Q&A’S

This is one of the most common uses for brands on a live broadcast. It’s a time for you to sit and engage with viewers and customers, answering questions about your brand. This stream allows you to bring a personal touch to your business, showing you want to help and answer as many questions as you can. It also makes great use of the fact people can comment on your live broadcast and watch you respond instantly.

It could be a great idea to have a schedule for people to get used to, you could go live on a certain day at a set time once a week. Regardless of if you have a timetable or not, it’s great to promote your broadcasts before you go live. Make sure people are aware of when and where you’ll be going live so they can make sure they’re free and with a device they can watch you on.

Many people have a preference when it comes to platforms but it’s a good idea to use both to reach a different audience on each. Over 100 million people watch a video online every day, as long as you’re using your live streams to bring your audience useful, interesting information, you should get great engagement and improve your reach quickly.

Have your website link in your bio.

Instagram haven’t made it particularly easy to drive traffic to your website as the only place they allow a clickable link is in your bio. One of the most effective actions you can take to generate website traffic through Instagram is making use of the space in your bio and add your website’s URL. A great tip is to include a caption in your bio, directing users to the link that appears below it.

You are able to change the link as many times as you wish, meaning you can direct traffic to a specific page whenever you like. This is particularly handy when promoting new blog posts or new products. It’s always a good idea to track traffic coming from social media channels, you can do this by using a Bitly link. Bitly allows you to shorten links and measure clicks so you know exactly where your traffic is coming from.

Using Call’s to Action

With Instagram only allowing you one clickable link in your bio, you need to be clever with calls to action. Every time you upload a new post you are able to write a caption, this is where you can include your CTA’s. You need to encourage users who are seeing your posts to go to your account and click the link in your bio. There are many clever ways you can include CTA’s in your caption’s such as ‘click the link in our bio for more information’ or if you’re selling something you could use ‘order through the link on our profile’. You’re also able to leave a CTA in your bio for new followers.

The main thing to remember when using calls to action is to keep them as simple as possible. You want your audience to be able to follow the CTA with very little effort, making them more likely to complete the action.

Use Relevant Hashtag’s

Hashtags are the best way to achieve exposure on Instagram. It’s important to use hashtag’s relevant to your brand so like-minded users or potential customers can find your posts.

Researching the most used hashtag’s in your niche is the best place to start. Don’t be afraid to try different hashtag’s in different posts to see how they work for you.

91% of top brands use seven or less hashtag’s in their posts, quality of your hashtag’s is much more important than the quantity. It isn’t recommended you use over 10 hashtag’s per post. Using the best high-quality hashtags for your niche will bring you more exposure than using less relevant ones.

Engage with your Community

Building a relationship between you and your audience can be a simple but highly effective step in driving traffic to your website. Instagram really do it best when it comes to community, it’s so easy to connect with like-minded users.

There are many different ways you can engage with your followers on Instagram. One of the best thing’s you can do is encourage conversation on posts, you can do this by including a CTA in the caption. Something like ‘comment your favourite products from our brand’ or even just asking how their week is going so far works really well. Once your followers are commenting on your posts it’s important to try and reply, this can add some personality and helps build trust with your audience.

Another great way to engage with you community is re-posting their posts. If someone has posted about a product or service they purchased from you and has a positive caption, it is a good idea to re-post this on to your page. This can benefit both of you as well as help to create extra content for your page.

Instagram Ad’s

Ad’s are a brilliant way of reaching new users and potential customers. You are able to set a specific target audience, or you can let Instagram show users it feels are appropriate based on gender, age group and interests. There are a few different types of ad’s you can display on Instagram:

Carousel Adverts – Users are able to swipe through a number of photo’s, or video’s in one advert. These adverts are highly beneficial to advertisers as it allows brands to showcase more than one product or service at the same time.
Video Adverts – You are able to advertise through a 3 – 60-second long video, with or without sound. Many potential customers find video’s more engaging than picture’s which is why this is a great option.
Picture Adverts – adverts will appear in the form of whichever image you choose to promote. As with any of the above options, these include a space for you to add a caption which could include a
CTA.
Stories Adverts – In August 2016 Instagram introduced stories. Here you are able to place a video advert. These ads will appear after, or during, someone Instagram story. Anyone who views that account’s story will be able to see your advert.

All four types of adverts have multiple benefits but all include a direct link to a web page you would like to drive traffic to.

Use Influencers

In the last few years, social media influencers have become a huge marketing tool on most platforms but especially Instagram. The power an influencer has to bring you new website traffic is huge but you want to choose your promoters wisely.

Each influencer is different. Some require payment for promoting a product whereas some will show and review a product or service if you are willing to give that product to them for free to test themselves.

When it comes to choosing influencers, bigger isn’t always better. For example, it would be more beneficial to select an influencer who has 10,000 followers with great engagement over an influencer with 50,000 followers and low engagement. People with higher engagement are more likely to have a good relationship with their audience, meaning their followers would trust their reviews more.

Create Exciting, Relevant Content

Your content is what most users see first on Instagram. You want to create inviting, intriguing content that is exciting to the eye and makes your audience want to see more. Users are going to see your pictures or video’s before they read the caption, so you want to make sure it’s gripping for them.

Some great ways to make your content more exciting are mixing between video’s and pictures, incorporating bright colours and even having a theme. Themes have become a big trend on Instagram, they make sure all of your content matches in some way to make it flow nicely on your page. A lot of accounts go for a white theme with pops of colour and some use a certain filter on all their content. Themes aren’t everyone’s first choice, they’re very hard to keep up with, especially if you are re-posting other users content.

Your audience is following you because you create content that interests them. Keep your content relevant to your niche as this is what your followers are most likely to interact with. Over time you will be able to gather information on what type of posts do best with your audience and will be able to post more of what they like to see.

You are able to generate good website traffic through Instagram as long as you are aware of your analytics and what your audience want to see. By following these 7 steps, whether you are just starting out on Instagram or have been there a while, you should see an increase in your traffic very quickly.

Customer reviews really influence the online shopping experience. They can make or break whether prospects choose your firm or a competitor. HubSpot, for example, place customer reviews third in their top ten influencing factors for online shoppers. And 61% of shoppers check online reviews before they decide on a purchase.

Just as people check goods out, they also check you out as the service provider. As a firm you put a lot of hard work into delivering the best service to your customers, and your relationship with clients is proof of that. Having third-party reviews on your site showcases the care you take in satisfying clients, and this really helps convince new visitors that yours is the company to trust.

Firms like Feefo, Trustpilot and Reviews.co.uk offer a very neat format:

* An email is sent to your customers to prompt them for feedback (you can chose your own wording and add your branding to these). Customers can write a review and leave a star rating for you.

* These appear on your website and give you an edge over your competitors’ products. You can also respond to the feedback, showing customers how you take care of any issues.

* If you have a Google AdWords campaign then your star rating will appear there, too.

* Better still, installing a ‘widget’ puts an unobtrusive link to your highest star ratings on every page of your site, so prospects will always see your good feedback as they are checking you out.

Everything embeds seamlessly into your site and looks very attractive – in more ways than one. Having a ‘Testimonials’ page that updates live as the reviews come in has become a sure-fire way to get customers to trust a firm to deliver the goods.

If you’d like any help with setting up a testimonials page or a website that incorporates third-party reviews then please get in touch.

With 16 years in the business, London Video Productions have chalked up a broad range of successful projects and industry experience. They came to Codastar for a website that could showcase their work and attract new clients.

The firm make videos for business, marketing, events, education and charities, music videos, drama and documentary. We needed a site that could quickly establish the range of genres LVP work in.

We created a fully responsive website with a high visual impact. The homepage offers all the content needed to establish the firm for any type of client. The firm’s showreel plays in the background and a bold call-to-action prompts visitors to view it.

After brief introductory text there is a banner of notable clients’ logos (all helping to convince). Below this are illustrated links to each of LVP’s services.  Hovering over these brings up some explanatory text and a link to more information on the dedicated pages.

Further ‘Portfolio’ pages offer a selection of videos for each genre to give visitors a flavour of what LVP can offer.

The ‘About Us’ pages offer additional information about LVP’s team and experience. Pricing information is also given here.

To keep content on the website fresh and updated we provided a ‘Testimonials’ page where the latest quotes from clients appear, a ‘News & Events’ page where LVP can talk about their latest projects and updates, and a blog.

Having the regular news and blog not only convinces clients that LVP are a dynamic and successful firm but also helps boost and maintain their relevance in Google  searches.

The ‘Contact Us’ page offers a contact form and full contact details – address, phone and email. We included the firm’s location in Google Maps, as this ensures that London Video Productions will appear when people search for local filmmakers.

London Video Productions now have a website that will accommodate any type of client and on any device. The site communicates the firm’s skills and information impressively and quickly, and offers prospects every option for engaging and conversion.

At Codastar we had a growing number of case studies and new design and marketing services to show off. Our old website just couldn’t do them justice. A new site was needed, and while we had our design hats on we decided to create a slick and responsive site that visitors could explore easily on any device.

We were free to create easily navigable areas for all of our services, with portfolios of our work for clients old and new. In terms of maintenance we could also give ourselves a site that is very simple to maintain and update, and that can readily incorporate future services and developments.

But as for you, the visitor, all you have to do is scroll down. The site will take you through our services, our customer reviews, portfolio, case studies and contact form. Whatever you are looking for, the site can give you a quick overview of the company and offer all the information you need.

Our services are outlined in an illustrated section. Clicking under a logo takes you to a dedicated page for the service. Bullet point text lists the service features and benefits, and where applicable illustrative screenshots and videos explain things further. We placed a contact form right next to the text so that interested visitors could submit their project details. Our reviews average is displayed near the form to further establish credibility.

A selection of recent reviews is also embedded on the main page of the site, offering a link to the full Reviews.co.uk site. Some of our notable clients’ logos add further testimony to our design and marketing work.

Our portfolio section now includes all of the website and social media projects we have worked on with clients. Clicking under any of the icons takes you to a page of relevant case studies. A board of clients’ logos and branding then invites you to click on a case study to read about the work we did.

We offer further examples with our case studies on the main page. These allow us to take a detailed look at three of our projects (SEO/PPC, Facebook competitions and seasonal Facebook promotions) and give visitors a start to finish look at our work. These are fully illustrated, and offer facts and figures to show visitors the potential for their own projects.

To keep the page updated and looking fresh we included a feed from our blog. Our latest posts will always be on display if visitors are interested in our news and recent projects.

Finally a contact form is ready to take any enquiry. We provided our phone number alongside for visitors who would prefer to chat.

We’ve really tidied things up and found an effective way to showcase our work and clients’ projects. Codastar can welcome traffic from any device and always offer a smooth user experience. Whatever your project, the new site is ready to help.

Google have gone to the dark side, and on top of their ever changing algorithms, have increasingly introduced their ‘not provided’ notification.

Keyword research has always been a key part of any SEO strategy. Ranking for keywords, links for keywords, content rich with keywords, tracking keywords. They are…well, pretty key. However it seems more and more of organic search traffic has been branded with the”Not Provided” label, leaving more and more of your analytics left in the dark.

“I’ve got a very bad feeling about this.”

Google rolled out encrypted search in 2011, citing at the time it would affect only a “single digit percentage of all Google Searches”. However as of late, we among many other businesses have seen over a 50% chunk of search traffic falling under that category; which is simply shocking, with it only set to rise as more and more internet users find themselves within the roll out of further encrypted search.

But what does this ‘encrypted search’ actually mean?

Usually in the past, when a visitor clicked on a link in the search results of their chosen search and visited your site, you can view a full URL from the search engine and subsequent results page from whence that particular visitor came. Your analytics software would pick this up as an ‘organic search’ and divvy out the keywords as necessary for your digital marketing pleasure.

However now with so many users carrying out searches whilst signed into their Google Account (which is fairly common lets face it – especially with their recorded 100m active users) their search data is no longer deemed ‘anonymous’ so they have added a securer element to their HTTP.

Adding the ‘S’ to their HTTP results in your browser stripping out the ‘Referrer’ element of the process, leaving the entire digital process null in void. The browser only sends the domain name as your referrer instead of an entire URL. As a result, your analytics is only provided with “https://www.google.com” rather than a comprehensive keyword you can use for optimising….anything at all.

As “cause and effect” goes, this is the reason we are stuck with the unpleasant side affect of the ‘not provided’ problem.

“When I left you, I was but the learner, now I am the marketer.”

There is no doubt that as the use of HTTPS continues to rise, the subsequent effect on keyword research and SEO as a whole. It even affects the Google Premium accounts (an even sharper sting than the $90,000pa price tag).

Should the ‘NPs’ continue, we will soon be dropping the ‘SE’ for just an ‘O’, however when it comes to Google PPC, no such deductions seem necessary…

Whilst our keyword research is disappearing before our eyes, seemingly for security reasons, Google are ready to dish out the very same data when it comes to PPC/Paid Adwords traffic.

In short: Pay Google for your advertising and then they will wave the “privacy” reason given for “not provided” data and reveal everything…

As sceptical as we are, it seems there is little we can do about changing the situation (we refer of course to our prior article “Forget the ‘Barrel Roll’…does Google Search have us over one?“) and the relationship between marketers and our master seems to be waning day by day. But what can we do to improve things?

“I suggest a new strategy, R2..”

Well, whilst we can’t quite control the data we’re receiving from tracking keywords and rankings, we can control capturing our visitors when they’ve landed on our website.

As we can no longer see a large proportion of where people have come from, we can still control where they end up. Switch your focus from SEO to OSO – on site optimisation.

• Identify low and high converting landing pages, and ensure they not only align with your overall marketing strategies, but ensure they are promoted effectively through all your channels too.
• Give old content a revamp and refresh turning it into higher performing fresh content.
• Remember to re-promote and reintroduce high converting offers to your users to continue their success and conversions.

Oh, and uh.. May the force be with you.

As SEO Sepcialists, seo agency in London, we’ve put together some ‘top tips’ (5 to be exact!) to give you a head start to beat the rest to the finish line… A.K.A, achieving that top spot.

#1 Content Creation.

It doesn’t matter how much money you pump into SEO, PPC (pay-per-click) or any other digital marketing campaign. If you don’t have any content (and quality content at that), you won’t get anywhere at all. Not any more.

Firstly, lets face the obvious, having fresh new quality content regularly updated on your website is great for people visiting your site, and with regular content comes regular visits to see what’s new with “you”.

The added bonus with shareable fresh content, is exactly that – it is shareable. If readers deem your content worthy and interesting, they share, and others share alike. This in turn increases the number of external backlinks pointing at your website, further improving your SEO.

Secondly, and as importantly, regularly updated quality content looks great to Google. Fresh updates are picked up regularly from Google’s automated indexing programs, showing them that you are not only ‘current’, but you are a voice to be listened to when it comes to your chosen business or subject area.

Create a blog on your website (read our post about setting up a successful company blog here), a news reel for the company and events around the office, even downloadable products such as e-books all count towards key content helping your rank begin to climb.

#2 Keyword Planning.

Once you have created your content, take a step back and look at your list of keywords you are targeting and trying to rank for. Now, read back over your content (or of course, create more ‘keyword rich’ content!) and see if you can sensibly add in your keywords.

The operative word there is ‘sensibly’. Word of warning, don’t ‘stuff’ your content full of the same or similar keywords over and over again. Firstly, Google hates it, and will send you and your business page to search-engine-Siberia never to see the light of page one again (or a fair while anyway…)!

Secondly, the key part of content writing (as highlighted above) is the ‘quality’ element. If your writing makes little readable sense, why would anyone want to read anything else you   post, or want to share it with anyone?

What you need to focus on are the search queries that yield the highest total traffic. To determine which keywords are most effective and which ones can be ceded to competitors, look at the traffic data for different search queries using Google Analyticz to determine which keywords are producing the most conversions.

#3 SEO and Search Engine Changes & Updates.

The internet is ever changing, ever moving, and SEO is no different. Keeping up to date with the industry you want to master is the best way of staying ahead of the game (and your competition).

For example, the latest Google Roll-out – “Penguin” – released a new set of regulations and areas of ‘black hat’ techniques that they are particularly cracking down on. 

When the new algorithm hit, hundreds of thousands were penalised over night (sadly, including some innocent websites wrongly identified by Google algorithm as infringing their rules), losing their top spaces to others than were deemed more compliant.

The thing is, these penalties were easily avoidable, if said websites and digital-bods had kept up to date with the news in the industry. By taking action right away, or jumping on a new technique or growing trend before your competitors, you could cement your lead in the organic search results. 

#4 Check out the Competition: Part 1 – Backlinks.

While it is of course important to monitor your own website and subsequent back-link profiles, it is always worth keeping a close eye on any changes in in the links or work your competitors are building. 

As with keywords, sometimes techniques with backlinks are a matter of trial and error; keeping an eye out for new partners and websites to work with for quality backlinks on offer, be it locally or nationally (or even globally!).

By monitoring your competitors’ back link strategy, you might stumble upon a potential untapped source that you too can link with and use new strategies to stay ahead.

#5 Check out the Competition: Part 2 – Onsite SEO Activity.

Knowing your foe is a key part of winning any battle, SEO is no different. Look at title tag structures, structure of keyword optimised headers, along with other key SEO onsite activity.

If you spot any major changes occurring in your competitors, it could be one of two scenarios. 

One, they have discovered a new way to optimise their page to challenge their status in the search results (perhaps from an eagle eyed spot on a SEO news website about a new change or method), or of course, they are already lagging behind in the search engine race, and rectifying/responding to a penalty from poor practice from the search engines.

Either way, they always say to keep your friends close, and enemies closer, and when it comes to digital marketing and SEO, this sentiment is safe in its place when it comes to knowing your competiton. Getting ahead is the easy part, but staying ahead is committing your SEO to the long haul. 

Remember, SEO isn’t a 100 meter sprint to the top spot, its more a marathon. Pace yourself and use our tips to maintain an ongoing long term plan to stay searchable indefinitely.

]]> https://codastar.com/blog/5-ways-to-stay-ahead-with-your-seo/feed/ 0 2534 https://codastar.com/blog/making-the-most-of-your-existing-facebook-fans/ https://codastar.com/blog/making-the-most-of-your-existing-facebook-fans/#respond Tue, 20 Nov 2012 12:30:42 +0000 https://codastar.com/blog/?p=2543 Read more »]]> Sometimes, its easy to get lost in the numbers of Facebook, and celebrating every milestone as you hit it. 10….then 100….soon you’ve hit 1000 fans and before you know it you have more fans than you know what to do with!

The key to real Facebook success; is not focusing on the number of fans (although of course; that is handy for engagement and your Edgerank rating – providing they are all ‘active’ on your page.) but what to do with the fans you actually already have.

Here is our guide to making the most of the Facebook Fans you already have.

Keep it Fresh.

Imagine walking past your favourite clothes shop, and every time you passed, whatever time of year, the store front and displays were always exactly the same. Same products, same ranges, same everything. Rather boring isn’t it? Now imagine that of a Facebook Page. If all you saw was the same old-same old every time you clicked; why would you keep clicking?

By adding fresh content regularly, you give your fans reasons to keep coming back time and time again. The aim of the game here is ‘Consistency’, and can be done with very little effort if you play it smart.

By using plug in’s and widgets; you can ensure that every time you upload a video to Youtube, photo to Flickr, or Blog Post to your website it is posted straight to your wall. With a few extra posts inbetween, you have yourself a fully functional and fresh page for ever fan that comes to visit.

Give them Something They Can’t get Anywhere Else.

Adding value to your existing fan’s live is relatively simple once you already have their ‘like’ and have access to your full page. The first step in realising the above, is remember your USP’s as a brand. What is it about you, that makes you, well.. you?

Once you have an idea of what your selling point is to the masses (and lets face it, its something you should already know inside and out!) its time to offer them something they can’t get anywhere else.

“Facebook Specials” can come in a variety of forms; VIP access to new services or products before they hit the ‘commercial’ market, free shipping just for Facebook Fans, a weekly/monthly special promotion.

This is great to tie in with new fans too; as first-time visitors can be immediately directed to an exclusive offer landing page, further incentivising new and old fans alike.

On top of the ‘specials’, remember to give a bit of insider information as you go. Fans who feel like they know ‘you’ as a brand, are more likely to remain faithful and tell their friends. Whether its behind the scenes looks at the office, or votes on a new menu or clothing item; giving your fans the chance to feel like ‘insiders’ makes them feel like they hold a stake in your company too.

Contests & Competitions.

A fantastic way to ‘give a little extra’ to your Facebook Fans, is provide them with exclusive and enticing contests and competitions.

The key in competitions and contest is of course creating a platform of interaction with your fans, about something other than anything too ‘sales’ related.

The first thing you need to be aware of for such marketing activities is Facebook’s guidelines related to such activity, requiring contests to run via an embedded app/tab rather than on the page wall, for example. (For further information about custom facebook app development and design work, we are here to help of course!)

Image led competitions are always a marketing winner, encouraging users to upload their own photos to the page and get creative. Be it a fancy dress competition, or a ‘placement’ contest (a photo of a distinctive product of yours in the most random and creative of places!), people love to use their imagination and have a bit of fun, so give them a reason to do so!

Follow our three steps below, to convert your Facebook Fans into actual paying customers:

Step One: Give Them Shareable Content.

When used effectively, Facebook is an incredibly powerful tool in your Social Media belt. However there is a very fine line between super-sales-success and spam, and Fans are all to eager to spot it.

The first rule of Facebook is: you *want* people to talk about it. More specifically, you want people to talk about you. Facebook is giving your brand a human face, a personality. You’re giving your fans a fantastic platform for engagement and interaction, so give them content they can interact with.

This is why our first step is all about engagement – not sales. Think about it, the more likes, shares, comments and fans you have interacting with you, the higher your EdgeRank score becomes, and more and more of your fans and friends (and friends of fans!) will see your posts.

Photos and ‘questions’ are great examples of fun, interactive content. Make sure you include clear calls-to-action such as “click here” or “share this” giving fans an added nudge into sharing your story. Test different approaches and tweak ’til you find the Facebook that ‘fits’ you and your brand.

Step Two: Turning Facebook Fans into Offsite Fans.

Once you have achieved optimum engagement with your Fans, Step Two is moving your fans to take additional action – taking a step outside of the Facebook realms.

(cue “*Gasp*…off of Facebook? Are you mad?!”)

When it comes down to it, it is going to take more than just a ‘like’ of a photo here and a ‘share’ of a status there to turn your Fans into customers.

Encouraging users to engage with your business adds a dimension to a slowly forming potential customer relationship.

Use links for ‘external’ content, a link to your website or a news story that involves your company (in a good light, of course!). For fans to take this leap of faith offsite is a big step, so make sure you don’t overload on the sales push; give them something as a ‘thank you’ for trusting you. A discount or offer, a contest or competition to enter, a free e-book or webinar, give them reason to view you as a valuable business entity in the ‘real world’.

Step Three: Introduce E-Marketing.

Step three isn’t an obvious one, and is sometimes scoffed at as a current marketing strategy. The truth of it is; the key to successful e-marketing is the buy in from your fans from the get-go, and the power of the ‘opt-in’.

Instead of annoying your Facebook community by broadcasting sales message upon sales message, why not ask them to ‘opt in’ to an email (the use of a bespoke Facebook App design would come in handy here for a quick ‘fill out form’ to do so). By gaining approval from your fans,  you can market yourself to qualified leads right into their inbox.

Making your email marketing a success is rather simple, if you apply the same logic as you would any other marketing channel – create engaging social content, to balance out the ‘sales stuff’.

Include newsletters, blog updates, sign ups for webinars or free reports – all valuable content and will stop your emails heading straight for the trash-box.

Alternatively; nurture your leads with giveaways and contests with a “help now, sell later” type approach. Offering any sort of ‘free stuff’ be it a service or product; people will always sit up and listen. The key here is; if they like your product enough to enter a competition to win it – what’s to stop them opening their wallets at a later date?

By ensuring that you are adding quality content, and most importantly, VALUE every step of the way; your fans will trust you, engage with you, and ultimately, buy from and do business with you.

At this time of year, we all celebrate of course with our friends and family in person, however now – with Social Media becoming an increasingly large part of our lives and Business becoming more and more informal and ‘friend’ like in its engagement, people will want to celebrate with you too.

Put simply, Social Media drives Holiday e-commerce, so here is how you and your little elves can stay on top of your competition: 

The Holiday Seasons is a gift to businesses, and provides the ultimate in opportunities to engage with your customers. Using your social networks correctly, you can give a little back with deals to say ‘thank you’ to your existing customers, and a ‘hello’ to new ones with specific special campaigns.

So why focus on your Social Media? Well, last year, sales site Fab.com reported more than 50% of sales from Black Friday through to Cyber Monday (November 23rd-November 26th) came from people who joined via social sources, half of which were people who joined the site via Facebook. With online holiday shopping expected to reach $54.47bn this year, isn’t it time for you to start getting Seasonal with your Social?

Seasonal social campaigns and increased engagement are imperative at this time of year, especially for staying in front of price-driven customers who tend to slip on their loyalties for the next big bargain.

“Deck the Social Media Channels…” (fa-la-la-la-la..etc)

Step one in getting into the e-festive-commerce spirit – sprucing up your social media networks.

As you can see with the image above, you are only limited by your imagination (and a few little Facebook regulations) with ideas to create a seasonal social site to promote products, seasonal or otherwise.

Ruzzies (as used in the image above) are “Children’s Champions”, using a range of characters and inspirational letters to support children through various difficult situations they may encounter in life. Whilst this is an annual product, they have added a Seasonal twist to their product as well as their page.

When you see a visually stimulating image, when it comes to social media, you are inclined to share it with your friends and family. So, with a strongly designed Facebook Business Page, you will be well on your way to catching the eye of customers who may not have frequented your page in a while, and remind them that you are there.

As well as being aesthetically pleasing, the great thing about Seasonal Social Pages is that goes that extra way in Humanising your brand (we’ll look into this more a little later).

Professional Pages as always are essential when it comes to design work; and we are just the people to talk to. Give your Social Networks a makeover with a Seasonal Flair, to find out more about Social Media Design for the holiday season, check out our current offers.

Seasonal Sales and Gratifying Goodwill.

With Christmas fast approaching, people WILL be spending money, you saw the facts. The question is, are they going to be spending it with you?

Combining a bit of festive cheer into your promotions and exclusive offers to your fans will stoke that festive excitement; which when it comes to Christmas, helps add to the virility of your campaign. With the right campaign, the large scale word-of-mouth traffic to your business page and website will not only hook the one time fly-by shoppers, but will put you in front of a whole new audience, ones that if engaged with correctly, can become fans (and in turn customers) for the rest of the year. 

The easiest and simplest ideas for Facebook-commerce is a ’12 days of’ type giveaway, competition, or discount, or ‘Gift Idea of the Day’ with a discount attached to that particular product for 24 hours or similar.

Tailor your promotions to your business and your products and services. With the right spin, your Facebook Page will Sparkle.

(Holiday) Cheer-Filled Content.

The Holiday’s is a great excuse to kick back the office chair and engage on a more informal level with your followers and fans. As we mentioned earlier, this is the opportune moment to humanize your brand, and for your followers and fans to see past the logo and see ‘you’.

Give your customers an insight into life at your company, and show them that the festive cheer runs through your company, and not just a front for your Facebook.

Show off office decorations, or a group Christmas photo. Let them see the charitable work and your generosity throughout the festive season for local funds or causes.

Take the opportunity to post a mix of content; of course stick with your usual posts, promoting campaigns, discounts, news of the day, but include shareable content – funny pictures, an article that fits the festivities and will encourage users to comment.

Consumers seek personalised interactions on social networks, so give them what they want – be Personable! Fans will appreciate your products and services when your profile icon next catches their eye – not just at Christmas, but all year round.

The 'Wedding Savers' Linkedin page; as designed by Codastar Design.

A General Look….

For the new page, there are no actual ‘feature’ updates or add-ons, the new look is the overall feel and look of your page.

• Most importantly to your page’s design, you now have the option to add a cover-style banner image (similar to that of Facebook’s Banner) across the top of your page for added brand coverage and awareness.
• The featured page elements (such as ‘Company Updates’ and ‘Product and Services’ sections) are now far more prominently featured, with the ability for users to view those that have recommended your products and services to others in your networks.
• A refreshed look for the ‘Careers Section’ for Company Pages.
• A prominently displayed option for targeting your Company Updates to certain demographics and segments of your target audience.
• All Company pages are now able to be viewed on all iPhone, Android, and iPad applications.

So What Does This Means For Your Business?

With the new look of Linkedin, it is now far easier for users to gain exactly the right information they are looking for from the companies they care about in a far more timely and efficient fashion.

For you? This means you now have the tools to build a far more powerful way of building relationships with your target audience on Linkedin – resulting (if done correctly) in an increase in customer conversions and ROI in using the network.

Its a bit of a cliché, saying a “picture is worth a thousand words”, but it really is the case. Think about it; if you found a Facebook profile looking desolate and dreary, what are the chances you’ll ‘like’ them, or ultimately – even remember them?

Maximising the new image options will give you added advantage over your competition; will all new opportunity to represent your company and brand online – establishing your unique identity and stand out in the crowd.

With the new streamlined design, users can now find, follow (and most importantly) engage with the companies they are interested in. With this new simple to use navigation, it is ever more important to showcase themselves in an effective manner; but promoting products and services efficiently to the members and users that really matter. Of course, information can be overlooked all too easily if it is not easy to spot. Put simply, now more than ever, your page design is incredibly important to the effectiveness of your Linkedin Company Page.

The LGSFM Linkedin page; as designed by Codastar Design

So how do we design our page effectively?

There are some really simple ways to update and design your page effectively, making sure your page holds you in great stead against your competitors.

Step One: Header/Banner Image.

Did you know that your Banner/Header Image is clickable? No? Most people don’t. This is why a correctly designed Banner image will help convey your brand message in a more effective way that purely a block of text.

Ensure you use high definition banner images (no-one likes a pixelated picture!) that really conveys what your business is about. Include punchy key information to ensure those extra clicks and generate leads directly to your company page and website. Contact details and ‘Demo/Free Trial’ are great examples of how to make the image work for your business, and stand out. 

Step Two: Products and Services

9 times out of 10, if a customer is interested in you, they will be interested in your products and services – the other 1 is of course your competitors checking out your newly fabulous Linkedin company page design, trying to pick up helpful hints at where they are going wrong!

First things first; you can now add three large banners at the top of the section best representing your products/services along with a link to each back to your website. Ensure these (much like your main ‘banner’) is relevant, eye catching, and contains key calls-to-action and information.

Secondly; never forget about your image thumbnails. Drawing in your customers on this page is more important than you think. At the bottom of your page, users will also see an ‘also viewed’ box, listing similar companies providing similar services/products to your own. If you don’t hold a strong enough brand and interest – users can easily go elsewhere.

Don’t panic though, as well as this addition Linkedin allow your visitors to see people in their network who have recommended you. Make the most of this feature by asking existing connections and customers to complete reviews to give your page added definition – along with the chance to create added opportunities and leads.

Step Three: Speak to the Professionals

Of course, whilst the logic behind the update is sound and simple; it is incredibly easy to make steps that end up hindering your page rather than helping it. The update is completely ‘user’ focused, ensuring that users are getting the most of every page they visit.  If you don’t stand out, you will simply fall to the wayside and into Linkedin’s abandoned Abyss

The easiest way to avoid this? Speak to the professionals! Here at Codastar we have extensive experience in creating bespoke Linkedin Company Pages for a variety of businesses in a variety of industries. Our packages can be completely tailored to your needs; whether you need a tweak here and there or a full-on overhaul of your site.

To find out more, contact us today.

Ecommerce Website Design, Ecommerce SEO

C2 Furniture are an e-commerce company with a range of stylish and swish furniture and accessory products; with a key focus on their ‘Chat Board’ units. They wanted a website design that was as cutting edge as the products they wanted to promote.

With pictures speaking a thousand words, Codastar put together a pale palette of colours for the overall theme, letting the brightly coloured ‘Chat Boards’ stand out and catch their customers attention from the offset.

With a product that sells itself, the website was kept slick and simple, with clear tabs for usability and individual items with key information on the product.

With every aspect pieced together and clever content and coding; this e-commerce website design is efficient and easy to use, ensuring that it is not only fully optimised for SEO and online marketing strategies, but for its key purpose in existing – Sales. With easy to navigate and cleverly constructed pages; users can not only find the products they are looking for – but are also encouraged to further explore this online store, maximising their ROI and online engagement.

Across each page Codastar have placed firm calls-to-action and contact details, including social media integrations for cross platform use and overall brand awareness.

From content to coding, Codastar have put together a website with the ‘wow’ factor, much like the products it presents .

Nutrypos is at the forefront of Point-of-Sale (POS) Technology, developed by the food industry, for the food industry; providing consumers and customers with detailed nutritional advice for any business of any size. As an e-commerce website (selling software subscriptions to their product), their website is of the utmost of importance in their arsenel of sales and marketing tools.

Owner and Founder, Sergio, approached Codastar web design london with a vision for his product and his website, wanting something as cutting edge as his product.

As you can see below, Codastar leapt at the challenge, providing a complete website overhaul, from colour to coding to content.

With a product that really does speak for itself, Codastar wanted to put together a website that showcased its unique features and selling points, enabling users a clear navigational path through the website; minimising its ‘bounce rate’ and maximising its engagement and multi page viewing.

The ‘Home Page’ consists of clear calls-to-action and contact details, with scrolling images and information drawing in their customers from the offset.

Each page is completely user friendly and self explanatory, all of which featuring external links to Nutrypos’ social networks, encouraging and optimising cross platform conversation for the brand.

With clear concise branding, and an eye-catching colour theming – Codastar have ensured the ultimate in website success stories for a sales system ready to revolutionise the industry as they know it.

With their latest update; Twitter have taken to their towers and launched a new look banner image for your page – making a visually vivacious page even more important for your business when succeeding online.

Your New Banner Image.

Your banner image will appear (as it implies) across the top of your profile page on Twitter.  It essentially, serves as a backdrop for your main account information; including your profile image, username, bio, location and link.

As you can see from our own Twitter Banner; your main information is now easily viewed by anyone clicking on your page.

First things first, before worrying about your ‘backdrop’ – the key is to have the correct information featured in your box to begin with – before you start with an other design work.

Look at your page with your (currently) plain Banner, and see how your bio/information reads and sits on the page. Note, that your Twitter header doesn’t have any content limitations like the Facebook Cover Image; so don’t feel like you have to squeeze everything into the limited characters provided. Additions can be anything from web addresses, email addresses, special offers or themed pictures (seasonal ones work a treat on Twitter), plus any hastags or promotions you regularly use.

Once you have your bio/website et al completely up to date, next step is consider your design options to fully maximise the space you have to gain the most attention (for all the right reasons, of course!).

Designing Your Page.

The concepts, colours and combinations you can have for your profile background/profile photo/banner are endless, and when pieced together correctly, quite simply create a socially sensational jigsaw that will catch even the most infrequent of Tweeter’s attention.

Here are a few ideas that we’ve put together to get your creative juices flowing!

1. Use a single photo (as a profile image) to show the world who you are. For small businesses/sole traders, this is great for that ‘personal touch’, showing everyone that there is a friendly, lovely person on the end of your brand. Then, use your background to reflect your business, brand, products, services….the limit here really is endless. A casual shot of the office, a selection of cupcakes fresh from the oven, an array of colourful clothing and accessories…. this strategy is great for a black and white “this is me and this is what I do” approach to social networking.

2. Use your background image to show a photo that will inspire your users and community. Use a single photo that inspires your community. This is a fantastic design opportunity for charities and non-profit organisations; or if your company is working on a particular project that really helps people see the benefit of what it is that you do.

3. Use a larger image, and strategically/artistically place a profile photo overlapping, creating a ‘single image’ effect on your banner. When done correctly this can look incredibly effective (a rather noteable Facebook page used a similar idea for their banner image; recreating a “Where’s Wally” type group shot, with himself neatly placed in his profile dressed as Wally himself).

4. If you have a range of products or services, why not create a collage? Our twitter page (as above) has taken elements of this idea to showcase our work as a design agency, and clients we have worked with. This strategy allows your banner to convey multiple messages about your brand, without being too ‘stuffy’ and overwhelming in text.

5. If you are feeling particularly creative, or are working in a particularly creative industry – why not go all out and create a banner image with graphics and illustrations? This looks great if as above, you integrate your profile picture into the overall look of the banner with a stand out logo for your business. This option also gives great scope for additional text shown in a more ‘outside the box’ manner, rather than listing one point after another.

If you are interested in learning more about Twitter Banner design, or would like to recreate and redesign your other social networks, why not contact us? We can create completely bespoke designs and banners – check out our portfolio to see a range of our work and happy clientele!

If you’re a small UK business seeking to break out of your market niche into more sales, the first thing you’ll need is an e-commerce website design model organised around a sensible SEO approach. ‘SEO’ is one of those abbreviations among a vast number of ‘cyber terms,’ but if you don’t learn any, learn that one: It stands for ‘search engine optimimsation’.

SEO — The opposite of ‘shut everything out’…

With the millions and millions of web pages competing ‘in the wild’ for Google’s (and other search engines’) attention, SEO is analogous to a magnet with its positive pole seeking to attract a search engine’s negative pole. The web designer (and contributing bloggers) have to achieve a design balance between sufficient text content and a user interface that takes the potential client right to the product or service with graphic based information, videos et.

The SEO ‘magnetism’ is via the search result page and is through a judicious use of words and phrases. Those words and phrases are the keywords on the website and they have already been tracked by search engines as the ones customers typically use when doing the millions and millions of web searches for products, services and information. So, text content still matters!

Judicious SEO vs. overstuffing…

Repeating SEO terms over and over in any web site in an attempt to gain a high place on a Google search page won’t work. In fact, in an article on Search Engine Land last March, ‘Google’s Matt Cutts announced that Google is working on a search ranking penalty for sites that are “over-optimised” or “overly SEO’ed”‘. The idea is to give web sites with the best content a better chance of a higher ranking than sites that go overboard with SEO.

Content integration is better.

Any understanding on web marketing has to be based on design integration that includes sensible SEO and how social media (Facebook, etc.) helps ‘stir the pot’ in a more prominent web presence. Once a website starts drawing customers, the web site has to display its wares in a way that will take the customer directly to the product or service that the SEO term attracted and close the deal with a user-friendly interface that doesn’t scare the customer off.

Where Facebook fits in…

Facebook design specialists know that this worldwide social platform can serve as a fantastic ‘mini-website’ that hooks new customers and their friends.  Facebook can also be a platform for ‘high-end’ graphics with banners and a dynamic time line design that displays your company history and accomplishments. You can embed content-rich media and apps and for added value integrate Facebook with feeds from your main website.

Where we come in..

Codastar can be your partner and guide to an optimised web presence. Contact us and see how our expertise in creating a strong online presence can help you increase sales

Here are our top ten tips on how to do exactly that:

#1 Ask Customers Where They Found You.

This should be a staple question in most sales processes or any sort of market research, but make sure that questions are formed in a way to give you satisfactory results. Follow up your question, so if a customer answers ‘Google’, ask them specifically what they searched for. Or if it was via Twitter, was it from search, or a recommendation? Understanding how people found you in the first place gives you a clear direction in which to focus your on-going marketing efforts.

#2 Combine ‘Social’ Information with Contact Information

When asking for contact information, have you ever thought of asking for a twitter handle along with an email address? Or if they have business page on Facebook with their telephone number? Most people wouldn’t think twice about cross-engagement, and are happy to give out this information as long as its relevant for them to do so, and they are looking to make a gain from it in the long run. Unless you ask, you are never going to know!

#3 Use Location Based Services/Check-ins

If possible, encourage users to ‘check in’ and use location based services such as ‘Gowalla’ and ‘Foursquare’ offering incentives in the long term to do so. For example, if you check into a place on Foursquare often enough you become the ‘Mayor’, offer a prize of some sort for the first person to reach that milestone – a discount on a product, a free starter or desert. Give people a reason to keep coming back (other than the reason of your exceptional product and service of course!)

Don’t forget to display check in details in your store/office so people know to do so.

#4 Referral Schemes

Everyone loves a freebie, so offering out free gifts or services to encourage engagement is a great way of getting yourself known online. Offer deals when you get to X number of followers/likes, give discounts for recommendations on Google+ Local/Yelp, enter users into a draw for every retweet/best use of a hashtag. You can be as creative as you like and use whichever method fits your service/product best, with minimal overall cost and maximum reach.

#5 Email

Remember to include links to your social networks on the bottom of your emails or any email marketing campaign. Chances are, if your customers have an email address they will be on at least one social network. Add in “Find us on Facebook!” type directives with hyperlinks to encourage users to explore your brand via other mediums.

#6 Cross Platform Engagement.

Always remind (and link!) your existing fans that you are available on other social networking sites. Post video content and link back to YouTube, let followers know your username on Instagram or Viddy, encourage Twitter users to visit Facebook and vice-versa. Some users might be more active on other social networks, and not be aware that you’re on it at all – its your job to keep them informed and up to date.

#7 Customer Support

Everyone loves good customer service, and social networks are a perfect platform for it. be wary if you are a small business or you find yourself managing your social media accounts on top of everything else day to day that you don’t neglect customers. Have a “we’re here 9-5/X-X” time slot (even the big companies such as the phone network providers do this) and reply and deal promptly with any enquiries.

The key to success in customer social support is prompt and reliable responses. Don’t leave customers hanging for days (or even hours in some cases) as it will only serve to have the opposite effect you desired and give your reputation on and offline a hefty knock.

#8 Exclusive Content.

When encouraging your customers to take the move to online engagement, give them a reason to take the first step. Offer a coupon to new ‘likes’, or exclusive ‘top tips’ to those on twitter or to those that have signed up for your blog/newsletter.

Of course, 15 seconds seems like no time at all…”impossible!” some may say, though at one time, the idea of conveying your brand’s message in only 140 characters seemed near-on impossible too. The key is to be creative.. yet concise.

So, with this in mind, we’ve put together 5 ways to engage with your customer successfully using just 15 seconds of video…enjoy!

#1 How To’s and Quick Tips

Quick Tips and How-To’s are a quick and easy place to start, no matter what your brand or business is.

Whether its how to customise or put together a certain colour scheme or outfit, or maybe pairing a certain wine with a certain type of dish or food, it is a fantastic way of adding value to your service. Once potential customers can gain value from your free content, they are more likely to take interest in your paid products.

‘Number’ your videos to make them easy to find and encourage users to view the entire series (chances are, if they come across you at #15, they’ll look back through your videos to see what other useful nuggets of information they can find).

#2 Competitions and Giveaways

Did you know that 70% of users use social media to participate in contests and competitions? (Hubspot, 2011)

You have probably already help the odd competition or two on your other social mediums (such as Facebook or Twitter) and using Video to host similar is a successful way of driving branded engagement and increasing your audience effectively.

‘Theme’ your competitions, and encourage interaction with entrants by asking them to post their entries by using Viddy with their answers or contributions. The short nature of a Viddy makes it perfect for users to contribute without it being too daunting.

Encourage ‘off site’ engagement in your competition with posts to your other Social Networks, but remember to use Usernames/Tags/Hashtags to track your entrants accurately.

#3 Customer Testimonials

Its no news that Customer Recomendations and Testimonials are beneficial to business, however there is nothing more convincing that hearing AND seeing it first hand. Ask satisfied customers to put together a short video for you to share on Viddy, explaining exactly why they are happy.

Having positive recommendations online “in person” adds a new dimension to your business, and gives you added credibility. Share people’s experiences across your social networks – and expose this your piece of positive PR to the world!

#4 Peak Behind the Scenes.

Customers are probably quite familiar with your products or services, but its unlikely they know exactly how it is that they came to ‘be’.

Using video to give your customers a ‘sneak peak’ into the inner workings of your company can engage with them more deeply than with traditional use of text or images.

Use short videos to add a personal touch, introduce team members who work on particular product areas, explain certain components or expert engineering, let people know what makes your company tick. Humanize your brand and make yourself relatable.

#5 Have Some Fun!

Like life, business doesn’t have to be serious all of the time. Using your imagination gives you limitless content. Whether it is Dave in accounts who has an extraordinary skill of juggling fruit, or using some post-it notes innovately to convey a message one by one with some funky music over the top, everyone likes to be entertained in one way or the other.

It is of course important to convey yourself professionally at all times, but mix up your content with some more creative posts and watch your audience and followers rise by the dozen.

[image via inc.com]