There’s a sense of urgency about getting people to your website in these cash-strapped times. Once you’ve got them there – a tactical and detailed exercise in itself – you have to keep them there, make them buy something, anything.
The innocent browser will have little idea of the almost-science behind getting any website to sit at the top of the search engine list. If it’s not there, looking as though it’s the biggest shop in the street, browsers won’t bother to search far for it, will get bored and amble off through cyberspace. Opportunity lost.
So how do you get to the top? Like any shop, it’s not enough just to be there, however great your products, your prices, or however smartly you’ve dressed your metaphorical shop window. Reputation counts, having a recognized name, a trusted history.
Beyond that it’s necessary to get yourself noticed by the search engines before the customers can find you. There are things the search engines like, such as links from your website to other top-ranking sites. This gives your site some ‘reflected glory,’ whether or not you are worthy of it. You just need to know the right people. Ask them to place a link back to your site. If they won’t, it’s never going to be much of a romantic partnership, so delete them and move on, find another cyberpartner to boost your ranking.
You can advertise on other people’s sites, on GoogleAds, facebook ads but these will cost. So, if you need to achieve that desirable top-of-the-list celeb glow, you’re going to have to get yourself a web-savvy copy writer. Keywords, that’s the thing.
Forget reams of text, pages of waffle, fluffy descriptions of your stuff. If you want to shift the gear, select a few well chosen words, put them in the right place, and you’re away. (Discovering the weird and random words web browsers type into the Google search box can lead you to a strange world but you’ll never have to meet them.)
Remember that search engines have some old fashioned values, such as preferring honesty, clarity, simplicity, and ethics. Tell it like it is. State what you’re selling, build your website so visitors can nip round it in a trice, find exactly what they want, hit the BUY NOW button, and be off - result. Every visit and every click monitored, recorded and analysed for your statistical satisfaction.
Oh, and another thing, the buzz word these days is ‘interactivity,’ so connect your site up to facebook and twitter and let your customers tweet away to each other about you, and your products. Sweet talk or scandal, get a dialogue going, entice them back to your cyberlovenest, seduce them with your special offers, and clinch the deal.
NB Training from Rob Edlin of Falmouth based Niddocks - internet marketing for businesses large and small.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
e-Marketing 3
Stafford Sumner of www.jarrang.com gives an overview of e-Marketing. jarrang don’t bother with social media but specialize in email marketing, business to business, using mailing lists.
They have led hundreds of campaigns and sent millions of emails on behalf of their clients and have proved that email campaigns are:
Cost effective, immediate, flexible, interactive, measurable and environmentally friendly.
Targetted emails are welcome whereas Spam is a nuisance so it’s important to research your mailing list, discover what the recipients are interested in, either hobbies or products, and narrow down the list so the campaign is more likely to hit interested people – and not be deleted before reading. Some companies opt to supplement email campaigns with occasional high quality postal mailings, ie brochures- their promotional material sending a tangible message of quality and style.
This is a sophisticated method. The measurable element includes basic statistics such as how many emails were sent and at what time, then quantifies how many of those were delivered, bounced back, opened, read, how many were ‘clicked through’ to the company website or unsubscribed. Conversion is hard to quantify (so don’t promote this to possible e-Marketing clients) but reports can show how many browsers then went on to buy from the website, and how much they spent, calculating an average spend, or how many looked and left.
Known percentage rates inform whether each campaign is successful so the approach can be varied, ie trying a different time of day, writing a more attention-grabbing, irresistible header, making buying easy when the website is accessed. Analysis of each campaign is essential. Less than 10% failure is fine, 15-30% view rate is good, above 30% view rate is very good.
Foisting your products onto people is not only irritating - speculative emails are illegal unless they are business-to-business. The consumer will choose to look for your type of product and the web is a shop window. If your website persuades browsers to sign up for emails or newsletters then you’re fine to contact them until they unsubscribe. It’s important to put the recipient in control.
Note – avoid sending out a campaign after Christmas and big spending (utility bills in Jan too) or at the end of the month, but try soon after pay day.
They have led hundreds of campaigns and sent millions of emails on behalf of their clients and have proved that email campaigns are:
Cost effective, immediate, flexible, interactive, measurable and environmentally friendly.
Targetted emails are welcome whereas Spam is a nuisance so it’s important to research your mailing list, discover what the recipients are interested in, either hobbies or products, and narrow down the list so the campaign is more likely to hit interested people – and not be deleted before reading. Some companies opt to supplement email campaigns with occasional high quality postal mailings, ie brochures- their promotional material sending a tangible message of quality and style.
This is a sophisticated method. The measurable element includes basic statistics such as how many emails were sent and at what time, then quantifies how many of those were delivered, bounced back, opened, read, how many were ‘clicked through’ to the company website or unsubscribed. Conversion is hard to quantify (so don’t promote this to possible e-Marketing clients) but reports can show how many browsers then went on to buy from the website, and how much they spent, calculating an average spend, or how many looked and left.
Known percentage rates inform whether each campaign is successful so the approach can be varied, ie trying a different time of day, writing a more attention-grabbing, irresistible header, making buying easy when the website is accessed. Analysis of each campaign is essential. Less than 10% failure is fine, 15-30% view rate is good, above 30% view rate is very good.
Foisting your products onto people is not only irritating - speculative emails are illegal unless they are business-to-business. The consumer will choose to look for your type of product and the web is a shop window. If your website persuades browsers to sign up for emails or newsletters then you’re fine to contact them until they unsubscribe. It’s important to put the recipient in control.
Note – avoid sending out a campaign after Christmas and big spending (utility bills in Jan too) or at the end of the month, but try soon after pay day.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
e-Marketing 2
Toby Parkin of http://www.uknetweb.com/ says be networking savvy with social media as well as business media. It’s no good using LinkedIn to ask frivolous questions such as ‘Hey, dudes, how’s the surf looking over at Porthtowan?’ You’ll be ticked off, ‘go to facebook’ and quite right. facebook is a place for friends, acquaintances, people you once met on holiday, or spent time with at college – fine for catching up with any news but less about making good business contacts.
Linkedin is for AB users, 35-50 years old and wanting to use the site to make those good business connections and promote their own business, and you can manage your company’s reputation by monitoring www.twitter.com – the microblog site for brief updates (facebook also show status updates). Select all comments about your subject, sign up for google.com/alerts and twitter alerts. This way, you can begin new relationships with people who twitter, increase sales, and act fast to respond to postings, engage with complaints, and create opportunities to enhance your reputation.
facebook is useful for the lighter hearted stuff so no harm in posting that you’re on holiday, spending some time on a course, or maybe researching something interesting to your own business or that of others. That kind of information could prove useful. Loading up your business logo instead of a picture of grinning students will help with credibility.
Use http://delicious.com/ as a fantastic resource research. Here you can look to see what people have shared and save hours in your own search of the internet for the best whatever-it-is-you’re-looking-for. Technorati is a useful blog search engine so search this to find postings that relate to your work or interests.
Using social media will help your business to identify your audience and aim messages at them, so select the correct types of media for your service or product. Find out exactly where your future customers hang out in cyberspace depending on their interests, ie travel, dance, sci-fi, food, or various sports. If your business is surf wear or surf boards, try checking ‘best break’ sites, ‘best beach’ sites etc. Catch the hobbyists and make them your target market.
Linkedin is for AB users, 35-50 years old and wanting to use the site to make those good business connections and promote their own business, and you can manage your company’s reputation by monitoring www.twitter.com – the microblog site for brief updates (facebook also show status updates). Select all comments about your subject, sign up for google.com/alerts and twitter alerts. This way, you can begin new relationships with people who twitter, increase sales, and act fast to respond to postings, engage with complaints, and create opportunities to enhance your reputation.
facebook is useful for the lighter hearted stuff so no harm in posting that you’re on holiday, spending some time on a course, or maybe researching something interesting to your own business or that of others. That kind of information could prove useful. Loading up your business logo instead of a picture of grinning students will help with credibility.
Use http://delicious.com/ as a fantastic resource research. Here you can look to see what people have shared and save hours in your own search of the internet for the best whatever-it-is-you’re-looking-for. Technorati is a useful blog search engine so search this to find postings that relate to your work or interests.
Using social media will help your business to identify your audience and aim messages at them, so select the correct types of media for your service or product. Find out exactly where your future customers hang out in cyberspace depending on their interests, ie travel, dance, sci-fi, food, or various sports. If your business is surf wear or surf boards, try checking ‘best break’ sites, ‘best beach’ sites etc. Catch the hobbyists and make them your target market.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
e-Marketing 1
gendall is a design consultancy based in Falmouth, Cornwall. Darren explains how to transmit a compelling company message across multi-media:
Firstly, it’s essential to understand the brand. What voice does it have? Is it quirky and funny, elegant and classy, or practical and no messing?
Secondly, this message needs to be designed and written in a fitting style and tone. Are the photographs transmitting the same message as the text? Quirky images and funny text or perhaps stylish photography and smooth prose.
Thirdly, get the message out. So what’s the best way? Always holding the ‘character’ of the brand in mind, everything has to match; the website, links to Facebook and twitter, brochures and mailing material, flyers and posters.
Sound simple? Hardly. Step one means taking the time to thoroughly understand not only the product, but the entire company and the guiding principles of the boss/es. This includes their personal values, such as whether their driving principles are money or perhaps the environment, and what is their behaviour. If this is a green company, do the directors drive low emission cars? Or, if the main man is striving for a silky, corporate image, perhaps he slides into work in a long, shiny black sedan with an engine so quiet it barely purrs.
Check out their attitude, from the company bosses, through admin staff to catering. For that company message to be as accurate as possible, and to send a clear, congruent message, all those staff need to be singing the same song. So, get them together; pack them in a room and throw questions at them, play games with them, watch and listen as they build strong teams and sharpen up.
Finally, when you’ve put away all the coloured paper, glue and glitter pens, flipchart brainstormers and dirty coffee cups, you should all have the same sense of who/what that brand voice is. It’s a character on its own. It has personality. All the rest follows.
Note: Brands to look at for clear messaging and style
http://www.duchyofcornwall.org/aroundtheduchy_duchycottages.htm http://www.pendennis.com/
Firstly, it’s essential to understand the brand. What voice does it have? Is it quirky and funny, elegant and classy, or practical and no messing?
Secondly, this message needs to be designed and written in a fitting style and tone. Are the photographs transmitting the same message as the text? Quirky images and funny text or perhaps stylish photography and smooth prose.
Thirdly, get the message out. So what’s the best way? Always holding the ‘character’ of the brand in mind, everything has to match; the website, links to Facebook and twitter, brochures and mailing material, flyers and posters.
Sound simple? Hardly. Step one means taking the time to thoroughly understand not only the product, but the entire company and the guiding principles of the boss/es. This includes their personal values, such as whether their driving principles are money or perhaps the environment, and what is their behaviour. If this is a green company, do the directors drive low emission cars? Or, if the main man is striving for a silky, corporate image, perhaps he slides into work in a long, shiny black sedan with an engine so quiet it barely purrs.
Check out their attitude, from the company bosses, through admin staff to catering. For that company message to be as accurate as possible, and to send a clear, congruent message, all those staff need to be singing the same song. So, get them together; pack them in a room and throw questions at them, play games with them, watch and listen as they build strong teams and sharpen up.
Finally, when you’ve put away all the coloured paper, glue and glitter pens, flipchart brainstormers and dirty coffee cups, you should all have the same sense of who/what that brand voice is. It’s a character on its own. It has personality. All the rest follows.
Note: Brands to look at for clear messaging and style
http://www.duchyofcornwall.org/aroundtheduchy_duchycottages.htm http://www.pendennis.com/
Thursday, July 02, 2009
LAST CHANCE HARVEY. Dir Joel Hopkins. 2009
Loser Harvey Shine (Dustin Hoffman) heads for London to attend his daughter’s marriage to a young man he’s never met. Estranged from his family, and close to being dropped from his jingle writing job, his isolation is flagged up by him being booked into a second rate hotel alone while the rest of the wedding party are all bonding in a rented house.
Singleton Kate Walker (Emma Thompson) works at Heathrow and gets set up for a wretched blind date by a work colleague which only reinforces her sense of separation. Harvey flies in and he and Kate miss each other twice. They meet only at the point when Harvey is sufficiently humiliated to feel the need to offload to a stranger and she’s it. Kate persuades Harvey to return to the evening wedding reception and he takes her along. Buoyed up by her presence, Harvey does the right thing at last, reclaims his dignity, the love of his daughter and some respect from his ex-wife.
Billed as a romantic comedy, there are comic moments but something fundamental is missing here. This pairing doesn’t work. London is filmed at its beautiful best, edging towards Autumn, as the pair walk along the South Bank, but to carry the audience into the illusion that Hoffman and Thompson could fall in love, some emotional manipulation would have helped suspend disbelief. Harvey’s wedding speech, however well judged, is not enough to make a strong, modern woman fall at his feet.
Good performances from both actors, and a particularly fine moment from Emma Thompson, excellent throughout, when she drops her reserve and displays her vulnerability and fear. Superbly done.
As Harvey is supposed to be a jazz pianist, and loves writing jingles, music could have been used to good effect to influence the mood of the piece, manipulate the audience, and carry us with the characters as they fall for each other. In one scene, instead of calling to her, Harvey plays the piano, captures her attention and softens a moment when her jaded resolution has reasserted itself and this works quite well. In another scene a lively band makes them laugh and move in response, changing the energy momentarily and, of course, there is dancing at the wedding. But weddings are soon eclipsed by real life and we need to be more certain that these two hit it off.
Singleton Kate Walker (Emma Thompson) works at Heathrow and gets set up for a wretched blind date by a work colleague which only reinforces her sense of separation. Harvey flies in and he and Kate miss each other twice. They meet only at the point when Harvey is sufficiently humiliated to feel the need to offload to a stranger and she’s it. Kate persuades Harvey to return to the evening wedding reception and he takes her along. Buoyed up by her presence, Harvey does the right thing at last, reclaims his dignity, the love of his daughter and some respect from his ex-wife.
Billed as a romantic comedy, there are comic moments but something fundamental is missing here. This pairing doesn’t work. London is filmed at its beautiful best, edging towards Autumn, as the pair walk along the South Bank, but to carry the audience into the illusion that Hoffman and Thompson could fall in love, some emotional manipulation would have helped suspend disbelief. Harvey’s wedding speech, however well judged, is not enough to make a strong, modern woman fall at his feet.
Good performances from both actors, and a particularly fine moment from Emma Thompson, excellent throughout, when she drops her reserve and displays her vulnerability and fear. Superbly done.
As Harvey is supposed to be a jazz pianist, and loves writing jingles, music could have been used to good effect to influence the mood of the piece, manipulate the audience, and carry us with the characters as they fall for each other. In one scene, instead of calling to her, Harvey plays the piano, captures her attention and softens a moment when her jaded resolution has reasserted itself and this works quite well. In another scene a lively band makes them laugh and move in response, changing the energy momentarily and, of course, there is dancing at the wedding. But weddings are soon eclipsed by real life and we need to be more certain that these two hit it off.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
GENOVA. Dir Michael Winterbottom. 2008
Colin Firth is cast as single dad again, a role he plays convincingly. Recently the slightly harassed father of two small children in ‘Then She Found Me,’ this time his daughters are older, 10 and 16 at a guess, and his concerns are different for each one.
Tragically widowed, he’s offered a change of scene – to leave the US and take up a teaching post at a University in Genova, maybe too early for his stunned daughters. His approach to them both is sensitive and relaxed but each character copes very separately with the sudden loss of wife and mother.
The youngest girl is traumatized by feelings of guilt, an astonishingly natural and convincing performance drawn from Perla Haney-Jardine. Disturbing hallucinations cut her off further from her father and sister and, during occasional nightmares, her distress is searing. The older sister (Willa Holland) detaches herself from her father and sister, sampling the Mediterranean life of sunshine and sex, disguising her fragility by playing the epitome of cool.
Striking cinematography puts the audience firmly in the characters’ various viewpoints; we walk the streets of Genova looking up at the buildings, taking narrow dark alleys, losing our way, and Winterbottom’s direction creates a strong sense of unease, uncertainty, and vulnerability.
This is a film in which not a lot happens but it’s cinema as a sensory experience, visual and atmospheric, using light and shadow, inducing claustrophobia, building tension. The climax is necessary and important, in a scene of chaos and threat, of city traffic and panic, and the very real possibility of a second disaster, awakening the older sister to the central issue facing them all, the family is pulled back together. Very fine, realistic, and sensitive.
Tragically widowed, he’s offered a change of scene – to leave the US and take up a teaching post at a University in Genova, maybe too early for his stunned daughters. His approach to them both is sensitive and relaxed but each character copes very separately with the sudden loss of wife and mother.
The youngest girl is traumatized by feelings of guilt, an astonishingly natural and convincing performance drawn from Perla Haney-Jardine. Disturbing hallucinations cut her off further from her father and sister and, during occasional nightmares, her distress is searing. The older sister (Willa Holland) detaches herself from her father and sister, sampling the Mediterranean life of sunshine and sex, disguising her fragility by playing the epitome of cool.
Striking cinematography puts the audience firmly in the characters’ various viewpoints; we walk the streets of Genova looking up at the buildings, taking narrow dark alleys, losing our way, and Winterbottom’s direction creates a strong sense of unease, uncertainty, and vulnerability.
This is a film in which not a lot happens but it’s cinema as a sensory experience, visual and atmospheric, using light and shadow, inducing claustrophobia, building tension. The climax is necessary and important, in a scene of chaos and threat, of city traffic and panic, and the very real possibility of a second disaster, awakening the older sister to the central issue facing them all, the family is pulled back together. Very fine, realistic, and sensitive.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
FAR NORTH. Dir Asif Kapadia. 2008
Sara Maitland’s short story is set in the Arctic, filmed in barren icescapes and stony shores. Saiva (Michelle Yeoh) has cast herself out into the cold wilderness, cursed: all who love her are doomed, so she keeps moving, away from people, eking out her existence. Her only company is a baby she saved from a massacre when she was a young woman, and the girl is now full grown.
The two women hunt seals, birds, deer, and keep warm under layers of wolfskin, pitching their yurt in bleak landscapes amidst the Arctic winds. The silence of the film is calming, the script is almost wordless, but the cinematography is rich with facial expression and graphic killing scenes.
The film opens with Saiva hungry to the point of desperation. Cradling the head of one of her dogs, she soothes it, caresses it, then cuts its throat. The meat is tough but the two women have to live.
Into this menacing territory stumbles Loki (Sean Bean), close to death and at their mercy. Saiva’s curiosity about this ill equipped man is her weakness. She saves him, tends him and he tells her he is an escaped POW, on the run after being ordered to kill women and children. Soldiers venture into the icy wastes to track down and kill the nomadic people but Saiva and her adopted daughter have managed to evade them.
Two women and one man in a small tent... it seems that Loki is warming to Saiva but, when the daughter notices, she competes, and wins. Young, pretty and flirtatious, unbroken by tragedy, she and Loki become lovers and plan to leave the lifeless ice to seek a community where they can raise a family.
In this astonishing film, Saiva gives Loki life and he repays her by taking from her what is most precious, company. She stands alone, bereft. The climax to this story is unexpected, shocking and macabre.
The two women hunt seals, birds, deer, and keep warm under layers of wolfskin, pitching their yurt in bleak landscapes amidst the Arctic winds. The silence of the film is calming, the script is almost wordless, but the cinematography is rich with facial expression and graphic killing scenes.
The film opens with Saiva hungry to the point of desperation. Cradling the head of one of her dogs, she soothes it, caresses it, then cuts its throat. The meat is tough but the two women have to live.
Into this menacing territory stumbles Loki (Sean Bean), close to death and at their mercy. Saiva’s curiosity about this ill equipped man is her weakness. She saves him, tends him and he tells her he is an escaped POW, on the run after being ordered to kill women and children. Soldiers venture into the icy wastes to track down and kill the nomadic people but Saiva and her adopted daughter have managed to evade them.
Two women and one man in a small tent... it seems that Loki is warming to Saiva but, when the daughter notices, she competes, and wins. Young, pretty and flirtatious, unbroken by tragedy, she and Loki become lovers and plan to leave the lifeless ice to seek a community where they can raise a family.
In this astonishing film, Saiva gives Loki life and he repays her by taking from her what is most precious, company. She stands alone, bereft. The climax to this story is unexpected, shocking and macabre.
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