Join us at Little Massingham Manor, in the heart of the Norfolk countryside. The Manor offers a calm and inspiring setting to step away from the day-to-day and make meaningful business connections.
Who is it for? Anyone is welcome at this event, and it is open to both members and non-members. Refreshments We will be providing a selection of coffee/tea/water and squash. Please inform us of any dietary requirements upon booking. Cancellation policy If you have booked tickets for this event and can no longer attend, please notify us at hello@norfolkchambers.co.uk.
Digital marketing refers to the type of promotion for your business that is done in the online environment. If you have a website, a blog, a social media account for your business or send emails to your customers, you are already doing digital marketing. The job is to find out what you are doing and how you are doing it, and then to make some minor (or occasionally major) changes to make your efforts more successful.
Digital marketing involves:
SEO: Your lovely flashy website is worth nothing to you if people can’t find it. Modern SEO is a combination of external authority link building, on page coding, content in abundance, links to social media. It is not likely to be the panacea for success, however, just an integral part of it.
Social media: Are you on Facebook? What about Twitter? Should you be using Pinterest, Instagram or StumbleUpon? What about Tumblr & WordPress? The number and complexity of social networking platforms can be daunting to say the least. In order to increase the efficiency of your time spent socially marketing your brand, you may need help. There are over 300 social media bookmarking sites on the Internet – choose the ones that fit your business.
Website design and development: Whether you need a brand new website for a new business or product, or want to revamp your existing web presence. Affordable starter packages for new businesses can include web hosting, but you may want to build a huge eCommerce website featuring thousands of products. Cheap sites are normally cheap for a reason: poor code, repetitive theme, poor mobile experience, poor viewer one generally!
Email marketing: Email is still one of the most powerful ways to reach out to your customers. Get it right, and you’ll develop brand loyalty, customer referrals and ultimately, more sales. But get it wrong and you could be doomed to the ‘junk’ folder forever. Think about your message, your audience and your calls to action.
Branding: From logo creation to a complete branding strategy for your business, your agency should be able to assist you in exuding business quality through your brand.
..and none of this matters at all if you are either not competitive or you simply don’t answer the phone when it rings with an enquiry!
Having a website in the 21st century is much like having a shop front in the 80s; a good balance of brand identity, a fancy window display and plenty of footfall is key to getting people through the door. The methods however, are very different. The sandwich board employee has been replaced by a business savvy search engine working for all of the businesses on your patch – and you need to engage in some heavy schmoozing to make sure they’re shouting loudest about your business.
Getting traffic to your website is only one of the challenges. Here’s 7 key things your website needs to have from the start if you want to hit the ground running:
1. Branding & Design
With so many templates and themes available for web builds, many sites are just blending into one. Make your website stand out with eye-catching branding and a memorable design. Like many creative processes, there will always be trends in web design and branding, with new possibilities and innovative features being developed every day. Ensure your site uses the best new functions to communicate your message, but don’t include functions just because they are available to you.
2. User Experience
There’s nothing worse than landing on a website, looking for an answer or product and not being able to easily find it. Make sure your structure and navigation is clear and user-friendly, with a bold introduction to your products or services instantly present. Use of white space helps the user to digest the information in manageable chunks, while creative copywriting and striking images complete the experience. Clear call-to-actions will guide the user to your chosen communication method. E-commerce sites should feature easy search and filtering functions, and an optimised route to checkout.
3. Mobile/Tablet Testing
More and more of us are using mobile devices for online search, and combined mobile and tablet visitor figures are now outweighing desktop computers for the majority of industries. If your website isn’t responsive, you really are missing out; Google have split their algorithm so that results for mobile searches are different to desktop searches – based on mobile-friendly scores. Make sure that you’re testing your website on all mobile devices to ensure that it displays and folds as you expect it to and doesn’t have any nasty design surprises.
4. Loading Times
Websites that take ages to load are sooooooooooo annoying, most people will click ‘back’ in their browser and go to the next search result if your website doesn’t load straight away. Image sizes, too many scripts, poorly developed plugins and poor hosting can all cause delays in your loading times. Google frowns on slow load time because its users don’t like it, so it is likely to hurt your search rankings as well as being a huge pain for your users.
5. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Optimise your website for Search Engines by ensuring that you have keyword-rich Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, Image Alt Tags and website copy from the start. Your website will naturally tell your audience what you do, but make sure it includes the exact words or phrases they’re searching for so that Google knows to point them in the direction of your website.
6. Clear Message Delivery
If your online marketing is up to scratch, your website’s home page is your business’ opening pitch. Don’t let it waffle on with pre-amble; make it clear upfront exactly what it is you do and why your business is the best choice. Be aware of using relevant keywords in your copy and make sure your design is clear and easy to follow for your users. Focus the copy more on the benefits you offer to potential customers, rather than yourself.
7.Online Marketing Plan
Having a well-designed, easy to use, responsive website is just the beginning. You need to make sure that you have a strategy in place to get customers to your website. Online marketing is essential to get your website noticed, not just by your customer, but also by search engines, who will be valuable asset in directing customers to your site, and not your competitors’. Whether you choose SEO, pay-per-click advertising or social media marketing, make sure you have your sandwich board out for all to see.
There is a lot to cover when you’re building a website but if you get it right, your website can be a 24hr salesman working hard for your business.
Nu Image specialise in responsive website design in Norfolk and further afield, so if you need any help building, maintaining or marketing your website, give us a call, we’ll be happy to hear from you!
WHO SHOULD ATTEND? CEOs, MDs, founders, and senior leaders of ambitious mid-market businesses across Norfolk and beyond. Whether you’re new to AI or already experimenting, this session is for you.
TAKEAWAYS: ✔ Clear understanding of AI’s real business impact ✔ How to approach AI commercially, without the jargon ✔ Practical next steps for your business ✔ Fresh thinking on AI’s role in people nd marketing ✔ Network with peers navigating similar challenges
Many web site owners face a problem. Their search engine marketing strategy is failing. They don’t know why and they equally don’t know what to do to ensure a ranking on page 1 of all search engines, not just Google.
Here are some reasons I have come across why this might just be the case:
1. Your goals are either wrong or not clearly defined: If your web site is not getting traffic to it and is not ranking, how can you expect it to be on page 1 for the most valuable term(s) in your sector? You must start by targeting key terms or phrases. Try to optimise multiple pages with different key phrases with lower competition on each. The more high rankings your site has for the phrases which attract lower competition the more likely your site will get high rankings for the most competitive terms available.
2: You are not taking seo (search engine optimisation) seriously enough as part of an overall digital marketing strategy, of course: This isn’t a process which you can start and then just let go (unfortunately for you). It takes time to make things happen. SEO is an investment for your company and therefore you should treat it as any other investment – with care, time and attention. What worked last year may not necessarily work this. What techniques were employed are likely to be ever-changing.Monitor. Assess. Prove. Repeat.
3. Your focus is all wrong: Some site owners are obsessed with ultra long title tags, stuffing keywords in to meta tags etc. Others will constantly submit their site to the engines in the hope that this will bring higher rankings.
Don’t chase the latest trend. You will fail. If you succeed it will only make the difference between position 10 and position 9 – not great enough to warrant the time needed to achieve this menial goal. If your website is not listed on page 1 on the search engine of choice, then you have not even got the fundamentals right!
4. Your key phrases are wrong: A massive mistake a lot of people make. There are tools like Google’s Adwords Keywords tool, but this is totally directed toward the advertising push of Google toward their services. There are other open source tools (free on the web) which you can find, but most are inaccurate at best. The issue of misguided keywords is probably the most popular and people are left scratching their heads as to why they are not ranking. It is not always the case that the number of searches equates to the number of clients/business transactions you will make on-line. It may actually be better to find more targeted phrases and get a foothold with these, before attacking the main phrases. If nothing else this will give your site a higher level of authority with the search engines.
5. Your links to your site are wrong: To get highest rankings on any search engine you must have good, relevant, high quality back links. However, there is a balance in this covering averages, as there is with all things online. Links can and should be a mix of do follow and no follow, exact match and phrase match, and padded; again in balance. Automatic links or paid links do not work. Actually, they can cause issues with Google which could see your link disavowed, and your website come up negatively on Google’s ‘radar.
In conclusion: To get anywhere on the search engines does not necessarily have to cost a fortune. Neither should the time needed to attain long term success be undervalued or underestimated by you. If you are in a geographically targeted market sector your improvement should be seen more rapidly than if you are not. However, be warned, as already mentioned on here many times over the years, the understanding of rank, Meta information, competitive analysis, page speed load (quality of hosting), social media engagement and quality of code, coupled with commercialism, ease of use of website for the viewer, and a clear and simple defined path, coupled with trust by using SSL certificates across the site, and by being open about your business, should have viewers and engines beating a path to your door. Failure in any one element may be tolerated. Failure in more may not! Chris.
We are thrilled to announce that we are working with award-winning company Catalyst2, focusing on helping them increase their visibility on Google through search engine optimisation. Catalyst2 are based all over the UK and provide managed hosting and dedicated servers, amongst other hosting products starting from £1 per month. Founded in 2000, they have become one of the leading hosting companies in the country and have won several ISPA awards for their customer service, providing 24/7 support for all their customers, including ‘Best Business Customer Service‘ in 2016.
How we have approached the Catalyst SEO project
We were conscious that Catalyst have a very big website, especially since it has been going since the year 2000. So our approach has beento make a small number of relevant changes, rather than try do too much at once. So we started with keyword research, working with the Catalyst team and confirming which keywords to target. We then selected which landing pages on their website would target each of these pages and optimised the meta-titles, descriptions, URLs and content accordingly.
Next, we want to maximise the user experience by removing any crawl errors, broken pages and broken links to ensure a smooth journey for any customer. By compressing images and cleaning up code, we have increased the site speed for both mobile and desktop from around 50/100 to 80/100 and this is a continued working progress to make the site as fast as possible.
In terms of the link strategy, we have added Catalyst to a few strong local websites to consolidate their positionas a local business – and also adhere to a recent Google algorithm update that is more local-SEO focused. With over 5,300 links pointing to the Catalyst, we have analysed the links in great depth, deciding which to keep and removing any via the Google disavow tool (or simply contacting the webmaster to remove these links).
Results
Despite only working on the Catalyst2 website for one month, we have already seen their ranking for ‘website hosting’ and ‘dedicated server’ jump around 25 spots, from page 6 to page 3 – so we are hopefullyon track to reach page 1 by the end of the year or sooner.
Export documentation helps businesses move goods more efficiently and can financially benefit both parties in the process. HMRC requires exporters to demonstrate compliance, even if the process is outsourced to agents or forwarders, failing to do so could incur time & financial costs.
This course focuses on what export documents are, what is required, and the benefits of best practices for exporting.
Learners will:
Sources of information on documentary requirements.
The importance of trade deals.
The documentation necessary for international consignments.
The required information to complete a document.
The role of origin and preference documents.
What is proof of export, and what documents to use.
This expert led course is part of the accredited BCC Foundation Award in International Trade. Each session will be followed by a short assessment to complete the training module, completing six modules earns the BCC Award in International Trade.
In the event you are no longer able to attend this training course, please note you must cancel or request a transfer of your place at least 7 working days before the course. The cancellation must be in writing and sent to export@norfolkchambers.co.uk indicating the name of the course you are cancelling for and delegate(s) details.
If a booking is not cancelled and the delegate does not attend, full event costs will still apply.
Export documentation helps businesses move goods more efficiently and can financially benefit both parties in the process. HMRC requires exporters to demonstrate compliance, even if the process is outsourced to agents or forwarders, failing to do so could incur time & financial costs.
This course focuses on what export documents are, what is required, and the benefits of best practices for exporting.
Learners will:
Sources of information on documentary requirements.
The importance of trade deals.
The documentation necessary for international consignments.
The required information to complete a document.
The role of origin and preference documents.
What is proof of export, and what documents to use.
This expert led course is part of the accredited BCC Foundation Award in International Trade. Each session will be followed by a short assessment to complete the training module, completing six modules earns the BCC Award in International Trade.
In the event you are no longer able to attend this training course, please note you must cancel or request a transfer of your place at least 7 working days before the course. The cancellation must be in writing and sent to export@norfolkchambers.co.uk indicating the name of the course you are cancelling for and delegate(s) details.
If a booking is not cancelled and the delegate does not attend, full event costs will still apply.
The client was looking for a venue hire only option so that they could minimise their costs and mould the spaces to be how they wanted them for the day.They needed a large main area with an additional breakout spaces and wanted to offer free parking and be within a short distance from public transport especially Norwich Station.
The client was keen to have exclusive use of the venue to ensure young people were safe.
We provided the client with the auditorium and use of the atrium on a venue hire only rate including a 25% discount for the charity.
Our flexible catering policy meant that the client was approved to allow delegates to bring in their own lunches to keep costs down.
The Auditorium was virtually emptied of chairs which meant the facilitators were able to make full use the space in the manner that their activities required.
The Atrium provided a light and airy alternative space to use during breaks.
They had peace of mind that the young people were not going to be lost in the venue with it’s simple layout.
Free parking was used and parents bringing their children were able to drop them at The Space without parking in the city centre or braving Saturday traffic. Attendees arriving at the station were able to make the short taxi ride and be at the space within 10 minutes.
‘Think big’ – not exactly a new saying in the business world. It dates back to David Schwartz’s 1959 self help book, ‘The Magic of Big Thinking’. Schwartz set out to produce a guide to achieving goals by changing habits and thought processes. Expect to sell more, and you will was the attitude to take, he said.
And expecting to do more business meant putting in the work. It meant gathering information on your market and finding out what people wanted.
In 1959 of course there was no internet; the digital world did not exist. There was a limit to the amount of data even the most dedicated business person could collect.
Fast forward to 2016 and we can collect information in such quantities that we’ve had to put a new label on the data sets that are now so enormous that ‘traditional’ data processing can’t handle them. We call them ‘Big Data’.
These vast data sets give us the opportunity to spot trends, see patterns emerging and make better informed decisions on strategy.
‘Big Data’ is one of the themes at the Chamber’s forthcoming annual September Technology event. It’s of vital importance, because it touches on so many aspects of the future of business. What I find interesting though is that in a very real sense it’s still hard wired into the original concept of ‘thinking big’. Get as much information as possible, do the leg work, know all you can – they’re all things that any pre digital pavement pounding salesman would say.
And now we can think bigger than we ever imagined. To turn these thoughts into business means we all have to embrace and use technology at every level of business; from the initial research to the manufacturing process, to the promotion and packaging.
In fact, as I said in this column just about a year ago, technology now is more than the future of business, it is business. We can no longer see it as an ‘add on’ or luxury. Technology is the conduit through which we design, make and deliver the goods and services that fuel the economy.
There are day to day challenges. Broadband speed is a constant problem in many areas for example. But it’s about thinking beyond that. It’s about seizing the opportunity we have to know more about our markets and customers, build dialogues with them, deliver what they want, and then remain in a relationship with them for business development.
Now that all sounds perilously close the pre digital definition of marketing. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just that with all the technology at our disposal now we can do what the marketeers of the 1950s always wanted to do – Think Big. Now though we can Think Bigger than they ever imagined!
Certain trade agreements allow goods to enter the market with preferential or zero duty, depending on the “origin” of their goods.
For example, if 50% of the good is domestically made, it will have favoured access to S. Korea. As members of the EU, European content counts as domestically sourced, so Brexit will have significant implications.
This course will detail an explanation on current preference and non-preference rules of origin, their implications for traders and guidance on how to establish origin.
The learner will know:
The importance and compliance for origin.
How to establish non preferential rules of origin.
Preferential rule of origin & origin documentation.
Cumulation of Origin.
Supplier Declarations.
This expert led course is part of the accredited BCC Foundation Award in International Trade. Each session will be followed by a short assessment to complete the training module, completing six modules earns the BCC Award in International Trade.
In the event you are no longer able to attend this training course, please note you must cancel or request a transfer of your place at least 7 working days before the course. The cancellation must be in writing and sent to export@norfolkchambers.co.uk indicating the name of the course you are cancelling for and delegate(s) details.
If a booking is not cancelled and the delegate does not attend, full event costs will still apply.