Total Marketing Solutions

It’s been a while in the making but we are now ready to launch our new website. It’s taken us quite a while to get this far, lots of blood, sweat and tears - but we’re sure it will all be worthwhile now we’re live. To find out what all the fuss is about please visit the site and take a look around:- www.totalmarketingsolutions.co.uk

So how have we gone about it? We’ve literally followed our own advice - the advice we give our customers if a new website is one of the strategic recommendations we make following our usual rigorous review and audit of their business.

Step one, obvious though it seems, was to identify our business objectives for the site. It’s surprising how many companies decide they need a website “because everyone else has one”, without thinking about what they want it to do for them. Your objective might be to increase new customer account registration, it might be to increase the number of sales leads or enquiries generated. Whatever your objective/s, you can use your web analytics to measure any improvements and then tweak your website further if required. As strategic marketing consultants, our objective for our new website was to primarily increase the number of quality leads generated - we needed to make sure we clearly communicated how we work, with the emphasis on strategy development.

The next stage is to look at how customers will use the site and how their experience can be improved. Again, web analytics plays an important role here. You can look for potential problem areas like drop-offs and take steps to solve them. We found that whilst we had a significant number of visitors to our existing site, this didn’t translate into the number of enquiries we would expect. And a large number of enquiries were from companies looking for an advertising agency - our message was not as clear as it should have been. We want our new website to scream “marketing strategy development” from every page, whilst leaving potential customers looking for strategic help convinced we are the right company for them to do business with.

The final - and perhaps the most challenging  - stage, is to go through each page with a fine toothcomb, ensuring each one works as best as it can for you. We’ve taken a close look at each one of our existing pages, re-written or tweaked it, added new pages and content - it’s still a work in progress and the good thing about websites is that they are never cast in stone and are always a work in progress.  So what have we been looking at on each of our pages?

• We’ve stepped up the optimisation of the site, making sure all copy, titles and labels are able to improve our natural search results.
• We’ve also removed content that just wasn’t getting visited and focussed on improving the content on the key pages, making it easier for visitors to the site to get the information they need quickly.
• We’ve also used our web analytics to make sure we cover as many search terms as possible to avoid any “No results” keyword searches - so if you type in “marketing consultants”, you’ll find TMS at the top of the page. You’ll also find us under “marketing strategy consultants,” “marketing consultancy,” etc - you get the point! Don’t just think of the one search - try to think of as many different permutations of what you do and use web analytics to identify the main ones. Then build them into your site.
• We’ve also taken time to improve our home page - making sure we communicate our core messages quickly, whilst making it easier for visitors to find out the information they need in order to progress to an enquiry.
• We’ve also reduced the number of steps visitors have to take from our home page to begin key processes, like looking at case studies, finding our what we do and - of course - making an enquiry.
• We also hope that, having tweaked the layout, design and colours used on each page, this will improve click-thru rates and encourage visitors to visit more pages - in other words, to really get to know us and ultimately, gain a greater understanding of how we can help them.

Time will tell of course and rest assured that, as with any new website, we shall be monitoring our web analytics very closely after launch to see just how our new website is working for us.

We’ve just come across a fantastic free ebook courtesy of John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing. With so many people talking about the impact and importance of social media, it’s great to find a really clear opinion on what is proving to be for some a rather confusing medium. In this free ebook, John talks about the importance of  social media for business. It’s well worth a look and should provide some valuable insight into how to use social media for your own business. Let us know what you think!

It’s a question I ask myself many a morning before swinging into blogging action. A business blog like this one is very different from Facebook or twitter – it needs a different tone and feel, whilst adding to the overall value and effectiveness of the website. 

Many of our customers are still to dip their toes in the muddy waters of blogging to add a further dimension to their website. Lack of time and confidence in their writing skills are quoted as the main reasons for their reticence, whilst some still remain unconvinced of the value of blogging.

One of our favourite bloggers from across the Pond is Seth Godin, and he’s noticed the same thing about the different motivations business people have for adopting any new activity - including blogging.  

According to Godin, there are four types of people in the world.People who want to do things because those things are interesting.  People want to do something because everyone else is doing it.  People who are too satisfied, too scared, too shy, or too lazy to do anything anyway.  And then people who want to do things because those things actually work! So, if you’re still hesitating about launching a blog and unsure of the benefits it could bring, try completing the sentence below:

I should blog because…

Blogging helps me bring my message to my niche market.

Blogging’s the latest “thing” and I don’t want to be left behind.

Everybody’s doing it.

I want to improve my online presence.

I can better reach potential customers 

Blogging is just one tactic in my overall marketing plan, but I want to take advantage of every opportunity to help my business.

All of the above????

So what are you waiting for? It’s time to take the plunge and add a new dimension to your website.