Copyright © 2010 Clair Wescott 2010-07-30T07:23:38+0100 2010-07-30T07:23:38+0100 http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. http://www.i-com.net/blog/ http://i-com.net/images/icom-net.gif http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. I-COM International blogmaster at i-com dot net Clair Wescott Clair Wescott en SEO, SEM, Web Design, Web Development 1440 http://www.i-com.net/blog/adwords-tools-are-no-comparison-to-real-day-to-day-ppc-management-283/ During a recent update and optimisation of one of our many Christmas PPC campaigns, I noticed Google Adwords recommending hundreds of new keywords for one of our accounts. Here at I-COM, we're always looking for new ways to extend our clients' reach, so I decided to look into the suggestions. When I reached one ad group in particular, constructed for Bangles designed to hold lovelink beads, I was amused to find Google suggesting that we add the keywords Susanna Hoffs Bangles and walk like an Egyptian. Despite being impressed by the connection, as a one time fan of the 80s pop band that was the Bangles, I was amused by the apparent failure of Google and its tools. It just goes to show that Google doesn't get it right every time, and no matter how many tools you use there is nothing that beats good old common sense and the human touch! Search Engine Marketing 2009-12-07 16:05:15 http://www.i-com.net/blog/adwords-tools-are-no-comparison-to-real-day-to-day-ppc-management-283/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/greggs-the-baker-and-the-under-used-twitter-account-282/ During a recent conversation I was surprised to learn that Greggs the Bakers had a Twitter account. I was even more surprised to see that they had a massive number of followers yet seemed to be doing nothing with it. As you can see the account has remained dormant since July and they have tweeted a grand total of 14 times since joining. It seems to me that the business really is missing out on a huge opportunity. Greggs should use this account as a master account, and should then set up a separate account for each store; for example I-COM's local Greggs would be #GreggsLincolnSquareMCR. The benefit of this would be that each store could tweet directly to its local area, giving a large company a really personal touch. They could easily set up a directory of stock, automated tweets such as Sausage Rolls out of the oven in 5 Mins or all pies now half price which could be tweeted throughout the day. Both would drive sales and help build brand loyalty - we all know how annoying it is when you get a cold sausage roll, imagine if you could pop down to Greggs knowing that they'd just come out of the oven! This strategy would also give Greggs the opportunity to discover and respond to bad customer service through any #fail tags. Overall a win win situation for Greggs as a company and their customers, and also fantastic for branding and PR. Social Media Marketing 2009-12-03 16:22:10 http://www.i-com.net/blog/greggs-the-baker-and-the-under-used-twitter-account-282/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/streaming-cctv-online-good-idea-or-disaster-waiting-to-happen-246/ I have just read a news article that a company plans to launch a service called Internet Eyes that will stream live CCTV footage. If you spot a crime happening on the feed, you can send a screen grab to the owner of the shop.  The pull for the public is there will be a reward of 1000 per month for the user who spots the most crimes. Although quite clearly a good deterrent for petty crime such as shoplifting and vandalism, victimisation is a real danger through wrongful allegation - the site intends to have a gallery of criminals, which sounds, to me, like a gallery of alleged criminals and which, if for anyone who happens to be unlucky enough to be in the screen grab, will potentially violate the privacy of the victim of the crime or the innocent passerby. What about the privacy of the person who may be caught, perhaps, buying a surprise for a loved one who then happen to see the image? I want to know who is going to protect the person who becomes an internet star overnight because they tripped and fell and someone has decided to post the video onto YouTube or Flickr?  What about the poor chap who's had a wardrobe malfunction of some kind and they become a laughing stock when the image is leaked onto a forum or social media site?  At the end of the day, privacy seems to count for nothing! Everything we do is being monitored the websites we visit, the places we shop, what we buy, even what we watch in our own homes is being recorded! We need to draw the line somewhere and making this information public is where it should stop. Internet 2009-10-07 08:34:58 http://www.i-com.net/blog/streaming-cctv-online-good-idea-or-disaster-waiting-to-happen-246/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/go-on-give-your-consumers-a-quick-flash-198/ Although it will be hard to believe for anyone who saw the queues outside many Mark & Spencers yesterday morning all looking to buy merchandise for a penny, the retail landscape is feeling the effect of a decline in sales. This is not just exclusive to the high street either and despite record profits for ASOS last month the recession is hitting those in the cyber space with just as much force.So, what can you do to beat this trend I hear you cry. Well its the web! There are always new and exciting ways to promote your company and products. One of the new ways to attract lots of business and sales in a short period of time is through bringing the offline phonemenon usually likened to top and up-and-coming designers to your ecommerce site - the flash sale.Whats a Flash Sale? Flash sales are when you hold a sale over a very short period of time - hence the name. For an online company it would not be advisable to hold one for more than one hour. The discounts you offer would have to be enough to attract visitors for this once in a lifetime chance to purchase from you for the best price possible. The benefits are that you are putting a sense of urgency into the buying cycle through putting a time restriction on the sale. This will have an impact on those consumers who go away and think about a purchase before returning, or worse, forgetting. In simple terms, however, its like a normal sale but in a shorter time frame and it helps you drive sales in quiet times and/or sell off older stock. It is also good for brand loyalty as you're giving something back to your customers. This type of loyalty can even help attract new visitors to your site. Its as easy to do as, say, flashing. Through picking a time, date and promoting the sale you could be flashing in no time. This is also a good way to utilise social media marketing practices such as Twitter, Facebook, using related forums and even writing a blog on your own site to promote your impending flash sale. But dont do it too far in advance as a rule of thumb try and keep to the mantra of the flash by keeping it spontaneous - do not do it much more than 24 hours in advance. An email campaign going out to all existing customers will also help spread the word.Isnt flashing a risky business? Not every one has the CMS system in place to hold a sale within a very short time frame or a site that can handle a high volume of traffic / sales at the same time. So you do run the risk of crashing your site. Other concerns are selling stock at highly reduced prices and thus not making enough to maintain profit. But remember, you're in control of what you sell and how much you charge! Just make sure its at a significant reduction that is clear to all users - and remember at the end of the day its just a sale! So go on, expose yourself and get selling! Internet Marketing 2009-05-21 08:15:10 http://www.i-com.net/blog/go-on-give-your-consumers-a-quick-flash-198/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/knowing-your-consumers-goes-a-long-way-169/ I was recently planning a weekend away to Cardiff for a live event that I had tickets for. Not having ever stayed a night in a hotel in Cardiff I went to Google Maps, put in the address for the venue of the event I was attending and then searched for Hotels nearby - which search, as I assume you gathered, brought up a list of hotels. Now what I was not expecting was the carelessness of one of the largest hotel chains in submitting their German website to Google Local for Cardiff so I could book a room in German. Yes, you read correctly - if I wished to stay at the Hilton Cardiff, having found their website via Google Maps, I would have to be fluent in German. It could be however, that perhaps I am the one being silly, and they have a higher conversion rate from German tourists coming to stay in Cardiff than from English-speaking Brits. I dont really know why they have submitted their German website to Google Maps in the UK, but getting it right from the beginning and knowing your customer (and what language they speak) can go a long way towards getting that sale! Needless to say, I could not be bothered to find my way to the UK site as my time is far too valuable. Like most other people, I just went to the next link on Google Maps where I found what I wanted - from a competitor. So it goes to show that attention to detail is everything. If you send the message that you can't be bothered getting your advertising right then what hope do potential customers have that the rest of your service will be flawless? Sorry, but to me, this type of blunder does not inspire confidence! Moral of the story - check what you do and what the consumer sees because those one, two or even 1,000,000 people could be getting the wrong brand message from a very simple mistake. Search Engine Marketing 2009-03-09 08:45:28 http://www.i-com.net/blog/knowing-your-consumers-goes-a-long-way-169/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/going-old-school-back-to-basics-when-traditional-meets-the-online-marketing-155/ I have read of alarming numbers of companies jumping the PPC ship because they feel it is not right from them. Now, I would like to ask: Is it not right for them or was it not done right for them? As Google announced last month, it increased Q4 profits yet in the UK market share declined compared to the same period in 2007. What regularly surprises me are the unrealistic views that some companies hold of PPC. They believe that because they are spending money on paid search, great profits will follow. Just because PPC is online and accessible does not change the fact that advertising is still an art and getting it correct takes more than throwing together a list of related keywords, a couple of text ads and a credit card with no limit. In this current climate we believe that 2009 is all about going back to basics, which means getting things right from the beginning. As a business, you must stay focused on what you are, who you are and where you are going in order to succeed at a time when everybody has less money to spend. Creating a PPC campaign that yields results takes time and involves so much more than a bottomless budget and a few ads. In the first of a series I will ask you to assess your cuurent campaign through tried and tested traditional marketing methods. If you go back to basics and apply traditional marketing theories to your PPC ad campaign then it will be easier to spot potential pit falls. Using AIDA, the marking acronym coined by Strong, put your leading keyword into Google and ask yourself - Does my advert grab the users attention when compared to all other ads and search results? Is the ad text creating that all alluring interest to a level that makes some one want to click through? When you click through to your landing page, does it instill a sense of desire for your product or service? And, if all these other factors are in place, is your landing page simple enough to understand  with plenty of& calls to action to turn that desire into a sale? Once you understand what the user sees, you will be able to understand your performance levels and make proactive changes so your PPC campaign will work for you. Search Engine Marketing 2009-02-12 08:27:34 http://www.i-com.net/blog/going-old-school-back-to-basics-when-traditional-meets-the-online-marketing-155/