What is a blog and why does every business need one? Join Emma Goode and Kathy Ennis from 24Degrees where they will tell you why every business needs a blog and how you can start yours today.
Digital doesn’t have to be complex or over-burdening.
Naked Marketing have put together a few simple tips for how you can use digital to out-think your competition. The workshop covers websites, SEO, PPC and Social Media – hopefully inspiring you to use ‘now’ as the perfect time to get digital. Make a cuppa, sit back and soak up some knowledge.
NatWest Business Builder: Revenue Streams
Many businesses will be particularly worried about cash flow over the coming weeks and months. These seven steps can help to reduce the impact of fluctuating cash flow.
For businesses that are much busier at certain times of year than at others, coping with swings in the amount of money coming in can present a significant challenge.
From retailers that make the lion’s share of their sales in November and December, to leisure and tourism companies that prosper in the summer months, seasonality is a fact of life for firms in many sectors.
But while turnover and profitability might be healthy on an annual basis, such businesses can face serious – and, in some cases, fatal – cash-flow problems during off-peak periods.
We’ve talked to accountants and business-planning experts to find out what steps firms can take to deal with seasonal revenue fluctuations.
In many businesses, management’s involvement in day-to-day operations means they do not have a lot of opportunity to step back and think strategically about the future direction of the company.
For seasonal firms, this is not the case, says Dominic Shaw, director of accountant Aston Shaw.
“If you’re in an off-peak period, try to plan ahead for those peak periods,” he explains. “That might be looking at the resources you’re using and how they might best be best utilised.
“Use this time also to set your direction for the future, for example by looking at different opportunities – if you can do that, you can manage your way through the rollercoaster ride that a lot of business owners find themselves on.”
John Buchanan, performance senior manager at accountant HW Fisher, says that forecasting is especially important for firms with seasonal revenue variations.
“It is vital to forecast your financing requirements in order to ascertain your likely needs and how your business model might be tweaked in order to maximise the available cash,” he says.
“Cash budgeting is a particularly good area to look at; you should understand when you are going to need additional staff or funds to buy stock.”
Shaw adds: “If you need finance, banks will want to see forecasts of where you think you are going to be, what your commitments are and where you are going to spend your money.”
Marco Soares, a business coach at MarcoSoares.co.uk, says in some cases he advises clients to create a 12-month cash-flow forecast broken down week by week. “This way you can identify when and how big your cash gap is – which is important information.”
If you do need some form of finance to smooth out cash-flow fluctuations, the most suitable type will depend on how your business operates, Buchanan says.
“So for large businesses, you could have mix of overdrafts, term loans, and asset-based finance such as leasing vehicles or plant and machinery. If you are seeing a large build-up of stock maybe stock finance is appropriate.”
He adds: “If you need vehicles, the advantage of asset-based finance is that you don’t need to have a large outlay to purchase them: you are going to be able to spread the payment.”
Businesses can also explore matching loan repayment terms with peak and off-peak periods, Buchanan says. “If you’re a seasonal business, you can agree a variation so you pay more based on when your turnover is going to be up. If you are a retailer, for example, you want to agree to lower repayments during August, September and October as that is when you are building your stock levels.”
Buchanan says: “The assets you require when you are busy might not be needed at all times, so it is useful to look at how that might be structured; for example, could you lease them rather than buy them?
“I know a building contractor that uses temporary fencing around their sites. Once they did their sums they found it was cheaper to buy the fencing rather than rent it, and then sell it for scrap after the work had been done.”
Shaw adds: “For most businesses, trying to recognise what the variable costs are and to keep them to a minimum is very important.”
One of the most significant variable costs companies face is wages, Buchanan says, and dealing with staffing levels is one of the biggest challenges for seasonal businesses.
“You’re going to need a core of skilled staff who work for you all year round, but for the busy periods you’re likely to need temporary or fixed-term contract staff,” he explains. “It’s particularly useful to take advice from an employment lawyer when putting these contracts together.”
Soares says that businesses could consider offering short-term work to people who might find it fits with their lifestyles, such as students or retired people looking to supplement their pensions.
A long-term solution to swings in cash flow is to make your business busy all year round.
Buchanan says: “Can you reduce the seasonality of your business through diversification? This means looking at additional products and services you could offer using your existing skill set that you could sell in that down period. “So if you make lawnmowers, say, you could switch to making snowblowers in winter using the same manufacturing skills. You don’t want something that makes your business significantly more complex, and you’re looking for something that you can employ your existing staff in.”
Soares says that “making hay while the sun shines” is another way of ensuring your business can survive through quiet periods. “Make sure you really maximise the good periods and have clear goals around how much is required to balance out the troughs,” he advises. “What is needed here is a combination of good sales and marketing activity, and maximising margins.”
Shaw adds: “During the peak periods, you need to put money away and plan for those off-peak periods. And leaving money in the business will also benefit its long-term health.”
Further Reading
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kathy Ennis, LittlePiggy
If you’ve been thinking about taking the leap into working for yourself, now could be an ideal time
2021 is finally here, bringing with it a healthy and much-needed sense of optimism for the future. And, even though 2020 was not a typical year (by any means), I am still being asked the same, start of year questions about how to start a small or micro business at home.
Interestingly, this massive sense of optimism has trickled into business.
Recent research indicates that even with 2020’s challenges, three out of four business owners are feeling confident about generating success this year.
So, if you’ve been thinking about taking the leap into working for yourself, now could be an ideal time. And, if you are one of those people who want to know how to start a small or micro business at home, read on.
Setting up a home-based business isn’t particularly challenging in the UK, at least from a practical point of view. All you have to do is tell HMRC that you’re trading. Oh, and then make sure you pay your tax bill on time.
But if you also want that business to be successful and make a profit, you’ve got to do sit down and do some thinking and planning.
In their eagerness to just get going, lots of new entrepreneurs set up businesses without asking themselves ‘why’.
Why they’re starting that particular business, or why they’re the right person to start it – right now.
Asking yourself questions like these will help you understand your business and instil a sense of purpose that will sustain you, even when times get tough.
So if you are thinking about how to start your small or micro business from home, always begin with the basics. Ask yourself the who, what, why, when and where questions.
Let’s say you want to start a yoga business.
You might have the qualifications and the passion, but you’ll also need to consider the practicalities of
As I said previously, you have the yoga skills and qualifications as well as a passion for your craft. But do you have any business skills?
What do you know about business operations, financial management and marketing?
‘Business’ is a skill-set. Your passion and practical and applicable skills will only take you so far. To make a business work you will need to develop a set of business skills also.
Then there is actually operating the business from home. For example, have you got the technology needed to run your classes online? How will you check that the participants are doing everything safely?
If you’re going to run any type of business from home, you may also need to check with your mortgage and home insurance providers, and any relevant authorities, to make sure you’re legally able to use your home as a place of work.
Drawing up a simple checklist of practicalities before you start your business will help you avoid problems and pitfalls later on.
Following on from what I said about ‘business’ being a skill set, you should make a list of all the different skills that go into running a business.
Then, decide which ones you want to concentrate on yourself (and the ones you can do – easily), and which you will outsource to others.
Yes, you should be thinking of outsourcing from Day-One!
If you thought micro business owners and side-hustlers had less to worry about because they haven’t got teams of staff, think again!
No matter how many people work for a business, the vast majority still have essential things to take care of. Things such as using IT, managing legalities like data protection, and keeping on top of financial record-keeping.
(It still shocks me that I regularly speak to business owners who have been trading for years, yet they’ve never thought about serious issues like data privacy.)
Working for – and by – yourself from home means you will most likely need extra support in some areas. We can’t do everything by ourselves, and nor should we.
Mine your network to find the right people, ask for recommendations. If that doesn’t work, use sites like Fiverr to find freelancers to do the work you need. If you can’t afford to pay a professional, you could consider an exchange of services instead.
In my experience most new small and micro businesses will lose their first ten customers. How? Because their owners are too distracted by the fun and excitement of setting everything up.
It’s so easy to get pulled in, and it’s also completely understandable! After all, you’re starting the thrilling journey. You’re turning your brilliant idea into something that’s going to help others, AND make you some money.
It doesn’t get much better than that!
But with the right planning and preparation in place from the start, you can set yourself up for lasting business success.
If you’d like to learn more about how I can help you on that journey, why not book a complimentary, half-hour Breakthrough Session?
Just pick your favourite date and time, and I’ll take it from there.
Text marketing is an effective way to reach a captive audience with targeted messages.
Getting to the point is vital when it comes to text messaging. You have 160 characters to capture your recipient’s attention but you want to get there in less if you can. Keep messages as short as possible while still including all the relevant information, this is certainly not the place for waffling. You also need to bear in mind that recipients need to understand the value in your message, otherwise they will label you as spam and feel irritated by the intrusion on their day.
Great ways to add value include offering vouchers or discount codes, segmenting based on customer behaviour to ensure the messages they receive are relevant, and using texts for appointment reminders and other useful information. By using text messaging in a way that is useful for your recipients you reduce the risk of being ignored and help recipients see the value. The best messages will address the recipient by name, state who you are, and why you’re messaging them, with your offer front and centre.
You don’t need us to tell you that all marketing you put out should have a clear call to action. The whole point of marketing is to encourage the recipient to take action and engage with your business, so calls to action are really important.
With Smart Messenger Text Messaging you can create rich messages, with links and attachments, to encourage action. Attachments are a effective way to encourage engagement and, with Smart Messenger, have the added bonus of being able to track click-through rates. You can upload documents, photos, audio and even video to create a better experience and give your recipients really useful interesting content. Links can be used with great success in text messaging, so if you’re not able to say everything you need to in your message include links to mobile-optimised landing pages.
Personalisation is definitely your friend here, the more targeted and personal you can make your messages, the better. Creating a sense of exclusivity in text messaging can significantly increase click-through rates so make your recipient feel special.
If you’re sending out a discount code or promotion, your customers should feel as though they’re receiving a hot tip that no one else knows about. It goes without saying that if you’re using text marketing as a way to remind customers about upcoming appointments, you should definitely be personalising every message. At the most basic level, you should be including recipients’ first name but any additional information is a bonus. A great example would be recent activity and interactions with your business to suggest other products or services they may enjoy.
Timing your message correctly is really important. While they’re less intrusive into people’s day than a phone call, you’re still contacting them so you want to make sure it’s at a convenient time. You’ll need to experiment with different timings to figure out the best time to send to your list, with detailed text marketing reporting it’s easy to see what’s working and what could use a little tweaking. You can also prevent messages being sent at unsociable hours.
Smart Messengers detailed reporting includes delivery information, opt outs, and the ability to track campaign attachment and link clicks.
Whenever you send out marketing you always need to give recipients the ability to manage what they receive from you, and text messaging is no different. This could be in the form of opt-outs or updating their preferences. You also need to make sure you have permission to contact them in the first place, whether it’s via an opt-in form on your website or from capturing information during a visit, at point of sale or other means. You must be clear about how you’ll use their data. If you are unsure, speak to one of our inhouse GDPR data practitioners for some free advice.
If you’d like to discuss how text marketing could work for you, get in touch.
You can find this article and many more from Smart Messenger here
When we say, “Just call us!” we mean it and remember that our support is unlimited. Our friendly team are based in Norwich, UK and are ready to pick up the phone.
Norwich University of the Arts Alumni Start Their Own Animation Business
The Business Development Team at Hethel Innovation have been working with Studio Goblin for a number of months now, as part of the business support work conducted at NUA’s Ideas Factory. Studio Goblin are an animation company based in Norwich city centre with clients all around the world.
One of the earliest interactions with Studio Goblin was to help them get found more on Google. The team helped them to improve their SEO, as originally Studio Goblin did not appear even when searched directly. Since then the team has continued to work with Fraser and Luke on how they work with clients, how to find more clients and how to put themselves forward in the best way possible.
One big area of discussion between Studio Goblin and the Business Development Team has been how to improve the journey their customer’s go on. A continued stress point for Studio Goblin was the nature of bringing a client on board, and getting the right information out of them. After discussing at length with the team, a multi-pronged attack was thought of collectively. In order to remove steps of information gathering, one approach will be to improve the contact form on the website. Upon initial contact with Fraser and Luke a potential client will be asked for more details, including reference videos, length, project brief, and if they have a storyboard or character sketches. All this is information that SG have to ask for, and so by including it on their website in the future it will be a way of freeing up more time for the creative work the team excel at.
To compliment this direct approach, there has also been a lot of discussion about the use of blog posts and how Studio Goblin can demonstrate their expertise and thought leadership on the topic of animation, providing deeper confidence in their ability to potential new clients, as well as helping clients understanding of the level of work that goes into animation projects. This will also feed into SEO work as blogs are a great way to improve the discoverability of a site.
It has been a pleasure to see Studio Goblin grow over the past few months, with the team there reporting continuous growth of the brand and the projects they are undertaking!
JMS Group
I am thoroughly bored of podcasts. Anyone else? Everyone seems to have a podcast right now; and lockdowns around the globe prompted countless individuals to create millions more hours of pointless drivel. Why even bother?
Ouch! Was that a touch cynical? Yes! I cannot lie— I LOVE podcasts!
But—to some degree—is there an element of truth in thinking there are no interesting angles on any given subject left unexplored? Apple alone (far from the only place to get podcasts) carries more than 550,000 shows—north of 43 million individual episodes—and that number, like all internet statistics, climbs by the minute.
Most likely you will have recently taken one of those new podcasts for a spin. Perhaps you listened to one episode, maybe one and half? Weeks went by, and you eventually got the message ‘iTunes has stopped updating this podcast because you have not listened to any episodes recently.’ You unsubscribed. I do the same, many podcasts do not even survive the full duration of Episode 1. So, it is understandable that you might wonder if you have missed the boat for launching a podcast. Do listeners have the appetite for any new shows?
Yes. Categorically, 100%, yes! Sure, the podcasting boat sailed a long time ago, but many of the passengers are creating total garbage— and inevitably fall overboard when life gets in the way. There is ALWAYS an audience for CONSISTENT QUALITY!
So, how do you create a consistently high-quality podcast?
Short answer: Signing up to a podcast platform, recording, syndicating, and promoting are just routine procedures and housekeeping. You need to get those things right but—even done well—they are not going to magically create a podcast anyone would listen to. Get your strategy nailed down before anything else! Reach a point of absolute clarity about why you want to launch a podcast, and who really needs it in their lives.
1. Produce entertainment or useful—actionable—information, not advertising! The business podcast arena is especially saturated; the category has been bloated by the low-to-no investment required to throw a handful of episodes into a free publicity channel. Creating a podcast with hopes it will become a promotional vehicle for your business is short-sighted.
Listeners are discerning, they can smell a superficial PR exercise from a mile away. Too many podcasters launch for no deeper reason than increasing exposure for their business or making a name for themselves. But, honestly, do any of us really want to listen to another narcissistic wannapreneur documenting their hustle and their gratitude journaling?
If you regularly create episodes that listeners are eager to hear—giving them something of value—good karma for your brand or personal reputation will take care of itself.
2. Prepare every episode. Almost every podcast I have deleted shared two common faults: they were freewheeling and unfocused. Two or three people had gathered in a studio, confident their collective expertise and humour would effortlessly align into a great podcast— but the result was often muddy, aimless, and lengthy. Episodes should be researched, planned, and produced.
You will no doubt have seen a celebrity on a chat show respond to a question (without a moment’s hesitation) with a word-perfect, truly hilarious, anecdote that just happens to be about their new movie. Wow! Are they simply gifted in the art of spontaneous sparkling conversation? Unlikely. The host and guest almost certainly discussed the setup question that would seamlessly segue into the story at just the right moment.
Prepare your questions, brief your guests, do your background research. Choose to wing it, and you will likely end up recording hours of rambling small talk.
3. Commit to the work involved. Planning and producing something that is worth listening to is seriously hard work, and it is going to occupy a lot of time in your calendar. Linda Holmes of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour said in an interview with The Guardian, “People have a really inaccurate understanding of how much work they [podcasts] are, both from a content point and especially from a production standpoint. People don’t understand that people who produce high-quality chat shows spend a lot of time editing and cutting them. Don’t be in the position of thinking that for the low, low price of a couple of hours of work a week you can make something that is going to make something that sounds like it came out of BuzzFeed.”
4. Deliver on time. Work to a schedule. If you promise a weekly show, deliver a weekly show. Delivering on schedule reassures listeners that you are committed, that you have a plan, that it is worth subscribing. Superficial vanity podcasts seem to be all-or-nothing; the host will use some downtime to upload an episode every day for a couple of weeks, then go AWOL for months while they work on other projects. Upload sporadically, or go quiet for too long, and subscribers will assume you quit.
5. Consider outsourcing production. Full disclosure, JMS Group is a recording studio near Norwich that regularly records business podcasts, so I am somewhat biased toward capturing the very best audio possible! That said…
You can record a podcast on your phone with reasonable—but less than ideal—results. As a minimum though, I would start out purchasing a high-quality condenser microphone, headphones, and a professional audio interface for a couple of hundred quid on Amazon (check out Focusrite’s excellent Scarlett range). The results will be dramatically more professional than using the inbuilt microphone on any device. Plus, you can use the same kit to seriously dial-up your audio quality on Zoom calls.
So— with inexpensive equipment available for next-day delivery, it might feel like wild extravagance to consider booking a professional recording studio. Yet, many business podcasters (especially those recording with multiple guests or connecting with guests remotely) choose to hire a studio— strategically delegating parts of the process that do not require their personal attention. Preparing a quiet room for a recording, arranging two or three microphones, making sure the audio is capturing correctly, then spending hours editing the episode, writing accompanying text, and getting it all uploaded is— well, a faff that someone else can worry about!
Artists creating albums are often booked into top-flight studios to work with big-name producers and engineers. Most artists are entirely capable of operating a studio themselves (they likely have decent studios at home) but booking somewhere else gets them ‘in the zone’ and frees them to do the stuff they are best at, while someone else takes care of the technical stuff. A pro studio also brings more pairs of ears—and more years of experience—to an album than if it had remained a solo endeavour. An experienced producer can be transformative.
The same will be true for your podcast; you could do it all yourself—you might even really enjoy doing it yourself—but if producing and engineering are not in your wheelhouse, there are plenty of ready-to-roll podcast recording studios that can make you sound like a professional right from Episode 1.
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Tom Vaughan-Mountford is an expert in audio and video marketing for SMEs. He has more than twenty years’ experience in production and post-production for broadcasters, major advertising agencies, and name-brands. He is a regular writer on the media industry, a columnist at Brand Chief Magazine, and an author. Tom is a senior creative at JMS Group, a long-established commercial production company and sound recording studio near Norwich.
24 Fingers
Let’s face it, we’ve all had times when we’ve popped a post up on Instagram, and…well…nothing. Or at least, not a lot. Sometimes, posting on social media feels a bit like shouting into the abyss. And almost without fail, it’s the post that you really worked hard on, and really want to do well, that is the one that bombs. But what if there was a failsafe way that you could guarantee engagement on your posts? Wouldn’t you snap our 24 fingers off? For many Instagramers, this is why they enter into the world of engagement pods.
But, before you nestle yourself in amongst your fellow peas in one of those aforementioned engagement pods, let us have a little word in your shell-like: do your research, and know what you’re getting into. Because we’re here to tell you that Instagram engagement pods, unfortunately, don’t always work.
Of course, you may be wondering what on earth an Instagram engagement pod even is. Well, the long and the short of it is several Instagrammers who form a group (or ‘pod’) in order to increase the engagement on each other’s posts.
The usual set up is that once a day, you all share the link to what you’d like boosted. This is either in a private message on Instagram itself or on another platform entirely, such as WhatsApp. Everyone in the pod then goes and leaves a bit of love on the post. This is done through adding comments, likes or shares to each other’s posts, usually within a short space of time in order to trick the algorithm into thinking your post is the most popular thing since sliced bread.
A great way of boosting engagement, yes? Well, yes and no. Yes, you can get lots of likes and comments very quickly, which is always an ego boost if nothing more.https://giphy.com/embed/KJCsv8KcpwHjG
But unfortunately the algorithm is cleverer than we think, and becoming cleverer by the day.
So, as we were saying, the algorithm is cleverer than we think: in 2018, Instagram announced that it was committed to reducing inauthentic activity. This included cracking down on bots, fake accounts, spam and, yep, you’ve guessed it, artificial engagement.
And you may wonder how it can tell that you’re using an engagement pod. A like’s a like, right? Like, it is, but like, when it comes from the same set of users on every post, and the same sort of comments are applied to your posts time and time again, the algorithm can certainly don its super sleuth outfit and keep an eye on inauthentic activity. And if Instagram does suspect your account of using an engagement pod to boost your likes and comments, it could suppress the reach of your post. Or worse: you run the risk of being banned from the platform altogether *gulps*.https://giphy.com/embed/ZikyVyLF7aEaQ
Aside from the risk of being given the boot from Insta, there’s much to be said for being authentically you. We’re not about to get all motivational quote on you, but think about it: if you’re an influencer and it transpires you’re using an engagement pod to boost your likes and comments, you won’t appear to have that engaged following you sold your services on originally.
And for brands who are part of a pod, unless it’s very much in line with your niche, do you want to be commenting on other people’s posts as your brand? Besides, the usual ‘nice photo’ comment won’t cut the mustard; you need to make sure it’s meaningful if you want to trick the algorithm, which can be time consuming. Furthermore, likes very much do not equal sales when they come from engagement pods; these people are your peers, sometimes your competition, so they are less likely to buy from you than organic followers.
And on top of all of this, if you’re skewing your analytics with fake engagement, how are you going to work out how your posts are really doing, going forward?https://giphy.com/embed/64afibPa7ySzhFAf00
If you do decide not to go down the route of using an engagement pod, what can you do to boost your engagement naturally? Well, if you’ve been listening to anything that your Aunty 24 fingers has been telling you for the past however long, there are lots and lots of things you can do:
And if you need more ideas for increasing your Instagram engagement, we’ve got a course for that. If you want to know more, get in touch and let our very own 24 fingers drop some love on your posts in the form of good quality, engaging social media planning, training and management.
You can view the original blog and more from 24 fingers here
Buxton Three Two – Insights
In March, we hosted the first episode of Buxton Insights: a series where we share our knowledge and expertise. This time, we talked about The New Norm, and the available opportunities for traditional Business to Business (B2B) businesses to move to a Direct to Consumer (D2C) model. Keep reading to find out how you can build a D2C channel in 4 easy steps.
CHANGE
Let’s start by looking at what’s changed over the past year. At the start of the pandemic, executives were asked how quickly they expected to see an increase in customer demand for online sales. They estimated that it would take 585 days. In reality, it took only 22 days.
This shift towards digital isn’t new, but it has been accelerated by Covid. The digitalisation of consumer behaviour has progressed 3-4 years in less than 1.
We know that we’re not going ‘back to normal’. Increased digitalisation is the new normal, and it’s making our lives easier and more affordable. With the ability to shop for anything at the click of a button, access healthcare on-demand, take part in events online through platforms like Clubhouse and Instagram, and work flexibly and remotely, digitalisation is saving us money and allowing us more time to spend with loved ones.
To change this now would be regressive.
The fall of Arcadia and Debenhams shows us that the high street has finally collapsed. Against this backdrop, John Lewis has spent £150m on a Milton Keynes warehouse that serves online operations, and M&S has announced that it will stock rival brands online to attract a greater customer base. The brands that fail to adapt risk being left behind – but those who have done successfully are dominating the market.
LOOKING FORWARD
For businesses who have been impacted by Covid, whose customer base has been impacted or those who are perhaps experiencing a ‘lumpier’ order book than before, it might be time to look at new strategies and opportunities to achieve growth.
A D2C SOLUTION
We believe in acting proactively, not reactively.
Acting reactively is building a website or an online channel for your B2B manufacturing business. It’s not thought through, it’s not targeted or strategic. It’s not the same as having a D2C brand.
When we talk about acting proactively, we’re talking about building a D2C model for your business. This is a carefully constructed brand with insight, analysis and the consumer at the forefront.
Here’s how to build a D2C channel for your business.
STEP 1: KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER
Get to know your customer. What makes them tick? Where do they shop? What music do they listen to? Understand how to connect with them on an emotional level.
STEP 2: DEFINE YOUR BRAND
Using your understanding of your customer, define your brand. What do you promise to deliver? What can your brand offer them that others can’t?
STEP 3: GET CREATIVE
Now that you know your customer inside out and what value your brand offers them, you can work out how to communicate with them visually.
STEP 4: PERFECT YOUR EXPERIENCE
Every interaction that your customer has with your brand comes into play now. Your social media channels, website, ordering system and product packaging influence your customer’s experience. If you’ve communicated with them well up to this stage, your new D2C brand will be a success.
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If you’d like to hear more about the 4 steps to building your own D2C channel, or how we built Dough and Glory – a D2C brand from a traditional B2B manufacturer – get in touch with us at buildbrands@buxtonthreetwo.com.
24 Fingers
There are some things that, no matter how hard you knock them down, they just keep coming back, again and again and again. Social media platform bebo is one. Sixteen years after it originally launched, it’s making a comeback in February, and this time it means business…
In case you have no clue what we’re on about, here’s a history lesson: Bebo was the brainchild of husband and wife Michael and Xochi Birch, who sprang it on an unsuspecting internet public in January 2005. The snappy little name was an acronym for “blog early, blog often” and it was soon a smash in the UK and Ireland.
As it reached around 80 million users in 2008, the Birch’s sold it to AOL for a cool $850 million (did they get it in tens and twenties, we wonder?) and scampered off into the sunset, a pair of happy bunnies.
Unfortunately, AOL’s timing was a bit rubbish, as their purchase coincided with the spectacular rise of a then-rather insignificant firm called Facebook… While the story of that platform is history, Bebo’s was still being written.
AOL flogged it to Criterion Capital Partners for a paltry $10 million, and in 2013, Bebo filed for bankruptcy. Cue the Birches, riding in like shining knights, snapped up their damsel-in-distress company for a single dollar (a bargain if ever we saw one) and launched it again under the snappy tagline: “Probably Not for Boring People”.
But, Bebo still couldn’t make the grade against the likes of Facebook and Twitter, so it turned to streaming software and then to esports tournaments, before being bought by Amazon’s Twitch in 2019 for $25 million and was switched off not long after.
But now it’s back in private beta and safely in the hands of the Birches – though if you do have an old account and you manage to get an invitation to take a snoop around, there’s no point looking for it, as everything’s been deleted.
Understandably, the online world was abuzz at the news, and it will be interesting to see how this version of Bebo fares in the growing social media pond that’s already packed some with big fish… We’ll keep an eye on it and let you know.
We’re 24 fingers, a digital marketing agency and a proud member of the 42 Club, Brentwood Chamber of Commerce, Excel Business Networking Group, the Trusted Business Community, the Organisation for Responsible Businesses and the Rotary Club of Brentwood à Becket. We help companies who are all fingers and thumbs with their social media grow their business and brand. Book your free strategy call here.
Bigfork – we’re the digital people
The Coronavirus lockdown forced a rapid change in consumer behaviour, seeing people move away from traditional “bricks and mortar” shopping.
If you are ready to join the ecommerce industry, it’s never been easier to start an online shop. We’ll guide you step by step through all the important decisions you need to make, and how to open your online shop.
Before you even start your new online shop it’s essential that you research your competition.
Customers will browse your competitors’ shops or see their products in Google shopping feeds, so how do you persuade them to buy from you? Profiling your different types of potential customers is a great way of establishing what make them buy.
For example, if you’re selling a high-quality product at a high price, your customers will not be influenced by credibility (your brand, reputation, reviews) over price. In contrast, FMCG customers will be price led so can you offer lower prices, or faster delivery?
Once you’ve finished this work you can plan out your strategy for product range, pricing, delivery and your shop’s design and positioning.
How are you going to drive traffic to your site?
Many businesses don’t plan their marketing until after their online shop is live which is very much the wrong way around.
The other reason you need to have a marketing plan is the most obvious one – if you don’t advertise your website, no-one will know you exist.
Your online shop will not automatically appear in front of people, you need to make that happen with marketing. Make sure you factor in a good budget for marketing and don’t spend everything on building your new online shop.
The most common digital marketing tactics for online shops include:
If your business doesn’t have a brand, now is the time to address that. Don’t decide on a name until you know you can buy a good domain name for it, you can easily check domain availability on many websites such as 123-reg.
When creating your brand refer to your overall plan. For example, if you are selling high quality products at a premium price then your brand needs a luxury, high end look. Your brand is key in establishing credibility and trust with your customers.
Your brand is not just your logo, it’s also the style of your copy and images you use on your website. It’s vital to spend some time on this and hire a brand designer if you have the budget. Good branding and design is a proven “trust” factor and getting it wrong will damage your sales potential.
When setting up an online shop we’d recommended choosing an established platform such as WooCommerce for a self-hosted shop or Shopify if you’d prefer software as a service (SAAS). We’ll focus on these in this article, however there are other options available such as OpenCart, Magento, Bigcommerce and many more.
Self-hosted has the advantage of more flexibility in design and functionality with lower ongoing costs, at the trade-off of a higher setup cost. SAAS comes with many advantages such as lower setup cost, less maintenance and a plethora of features “out of the box”, though tends to have higher running costs and additional functionality can be costly.
Whichever option you choose, it will allow you to set up an online shop at a reasonable cost, and for most small businesses both options are equally valid.
You’ll need to decide what payment provider to use to process secure card payments on your online shop. There are many options to choose from including PayPal, Stripe and WorldPay.
They all charge different rates for processing customer payments and adding it to your bank account. For example, Stripe’s minimum charge is 1.4% of the amount paid plus 20p for each transaction. Some payment providers also charge monthly and set up fees, they may also require internet merchant accounts.
Shopify also offers its own payment service, WooCommerce supports most major secure payment providers via plugins.
Check comparison sites online to show you the pros and cons of each payment provider.
Whatever payment provider you choose make sure your online shop platform supports it before signing up (many do trial periods before you commit).
Determine your delivery costs and how orders will be shipped to your customers, if you have special delivery requirements such as table rates, weight-based shipping, or courier integration, make sure you check your platform of choice can support this.
As mentioned above, researching your competitors’ delivery charges is a good way of deciding what you charge. Customers will shop around and hidden / high delivery costs are big consumer turn-offs.
Many online shop platforms allow you to integrate with shipping calculation systems as well as drop shipping / courier companies to make this easier for you.
And there’s always the option of payments on invoice too if your shop has a B2B emphasis.
You’ve chosen your ideal platform and you can now start to finally build your shop. Here are the key activities:
Creating product pages in a platform is straightforward, however adding the right content will make or break your sales. Customers are more likely to buy from your online shop if your product pages inspire confidence and give them everything they need.
Key success factors for product pages are:
Your online shop needs lots of support pages apart from the product pages. Potential customers will have lots of questions:
As such, we would recommend adding the following pages to your online shop:
This is vitally important, before you go live make sure everything works.
If customers have problems buying from you, they are unlikely to return. We recommend asking people to try out your shop, get them to search for products and carry out test purchases (all payment providers will have a test mode so you don’t have to worry about card details for this). Watch or film their activities to see what issues may need addressing.
Below is a checklist of common things to check before going live:
Lastly, never plan your marketing campaign to coincide with launch day. Give it at least a few days to spot any niggles you may have missed while working on the shop, better to wait than lose your customer base because the checkout is broken.
And remove your test products!
Attracting and retaining loyal customers will be key to the success of your online shop.
We’ve already covered marketing tactics, also consider look at how you can attract first time customers through incentives to make the leap into their first order. These could be limited time discounts for new users, social media promotions and competitions, refer-a-friend discounts or doing something extra special for your first customers to encourage positive word-of-mouth.
Once you have some customers, email marketing and Facebook groups are powerful tools to keep them engaged. Email marketing is often an underrated marketing activity, however it proven to work and extremely cost effective.
You only need to send one out once or twice a month, certainly don’t overdo them as people will stop opening them. It’s also worth having a template professionally designed as shoddy emails can undermine the whole experience.
Your emails should strike a balance of promoting your products and also having interesting content such as product / category reviews, competitions, industry news, funny or interesting stories.
Use a reputable email marketing provider such as Mailchimp or Campaign Monitor that integrates with your ecommerce platform. This will give your emails the best chance of reaching your customers as well as saving you time on building email lists and managing subscriptions.
Bigfork – we’re the digital people
How long is a piece of string?
It entirely depends on what type of website you want or need and how you choose to build it.
The quick answer is that you can set up a professional looking website yourself for free, with hosting plans starting from as little a few pounds a month. Or, if you want a unique website, made to your specification, you can spend anywhere from a few thousand pounds to literally hundreds of thousands in build and design costs.
So how much should you budget for your business website?
We’ll take you through the different elements that determine how much a website costs appropriate for your business needs and the type of websites available. There are many options to suit different budgets, and numerous ways to create a website, dependent on what you want to achieve and your website objectives.
Show off your services and generate leads with a brochure website.
Brochure websites are mainly utilised by small to medium businesses. They are often used to advertise services, demonstrate expertise, and display contact information with just a few pages. An example would be a plumbing company who want an online presence so that customers can find them.
The sort of content that a brochure site might include is:
These things provide the basics for a company website so they can promote themselves.
A basic brochure website is ideal for DIY web builders using platforms such as Wix, where you can choose from a range of pre-existing themes and templates, and then add your details. This is by far the cheapest website design and build option.
A custom-build website is created from scratch, with a bespoke design, built and coded to your business requirements. There is no template that will limit your wants, and can be linked with CRMs, social media or indeed any custom integration between your website and backend systems.
The benefit of custom build sites is that your website will be unique and designed to your requirements. They are also easy to scale up, giving added flexibility to grow your website as your business grows online.
This type of website does cost more and is dependent on the skill of the designer and the developer, which means choosing the right person or web design agency is vital.
One of the biggest factors in determining how much a website will cost is whether you want to sell online. An ecommerce website will significantly increase the costs when working with a web designer. Although it’s essential to understand that the additional costs of adding an ecommerce functionality to your website should be covered by the potential revenue from the increased online sales.
Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento are ecommerce specific website platforms, with advanced sales features for organisations of all sizes, from small businesses up to large online retailers.
Sell online with an ecommerce website.
A considerable factor affecting the design and build costs of a site, will depend on who creates it. There are pros and cons to taking the DIY route, hiring a freelance web designer or engaging a web design agency.
For a quick and easy way to get online, a DIY template website builder is an affordable option to get your small business website up and running.
You can start with a basic plan, and add to this if needed, however, these platforms do have limitations. If you’re not particularly tech savvy, don’t have the time or right skills, you can risk ending up with an unprofessional looking website that can damage your business and brand.
If you have a bigger budget and a vision for your website, working with a freelance web designer is worth investing in. Basically, you’re paying for the time and expertise of a professional to build a unique website. Hiring a freelancer is typically cheaper than going through an agency, as you’re only hiring a single professional to do all the work.
A good freelance web designer understands all the factors needed for a website, such as the design, usability and functionality. They combine programming skills with design creativity to build websites.
Always ask to see previous examples of their work and speak to their existing customers. And you can find that you get what you pay for when it comes to freelance web design services, so be wary of suspiciously low prices.
Working with a web design agency, ensures you will get a website to match your exact needs and specifications. They can do pretty much whatever you want, but it takes time and money.
When you hire a web design agency, you are paying for a whole team of experts, but this has the advantage of drawing on their vast experience and increased skill set. Specialists within an agency will include copywriters, graphic designers, developers, marketing experts and SEO experts.
However, you should assess agencies on their work and testimonials, and how closely they align with your intentions for your own website. The end result should be a professional website and an investment that will pay dividends in the long run.
Choose a web design agency to get exactly what you want.
You also need to consider what ongoing service and support you might need for your website.
If your website is vital to the success of your business, you need to make sure you have reliable support.
It has never been more important to invest in your online presence, no matter how much you are able to spend having a website will help your business prosper.
Having a plan and an understanding about the process of website design is essential if you are taking the first steps toward a website. If you already have a site, understanding the design process can offer you a wealth of useful information to help guide your choices about your new and improved website.
A website design brief helps to focus your thinking on what you really need from your web design, so you do not waste time and resources later on. A brief will also help your web designer understand what you want, resolve any questions, and give you an accurate cost.