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Is your brand colour sending the right message?

Kylie Fennell
Recently I came across a relaxation and day spa business that used red as its primary brand colour.
I immediately questioned the colour choice and the feelings it elicited. Unconsciously I wasn’t drawn to this business and consciously I was turned-off by its in-your-face bright red.
Given a different type of industry or business, such as fast food, red is a perfectly logical choice.
However, it’s not a great colour choice for an environment that promotes well-being and relaxation.
Brand colour decisions can be made with little thought but can have long-term impacts on the success of your business.
Many businesses may underestimate the impact of colour choices when developing their visual identity.
Colour is a powerful tool that can be used to influence consumer behaviour at a conscious and sub-conscious level.
It is important to choose colours that send the right message for your business, industry and customers and apply them to all of your customer touchpoints; your website, social media, product packaging, advertising, signage, business cards, marketing materials, shop fit-out.
So it’s important to have an understanding of the meaning of different colours to get the most out of your visual identity.
Colour meanings
EmpowerYourself with Color Psychology has some detailed information on a lot of different colours but here is a summary of a few of the most common colours used by business.
Red – energy, passion, action, strength and excitement. It stimulates the physical senses such as the appetite and a call-to-action, making it a popular choice for fast food restaurants. It can be associated with aggressiveness and anger, especially if over-used.
Orange – risk-taker, extroverted, optimist, sociable, self-confident. It also stimulates the physical appetite. It does imply affordability but can also be interpreted as cheap if not used carefully.
Yellow ­– warm, optimistic, uplifting, creativity, logical reasoning and aids decision making, impulsive (another reason why it is popular with fast food restaurants). Too much yellow can cause anxiety and agitation.
Green ­– growth, vitality, new life renewal, sense of calm, health and healing. Darker green can relate to money and wealth and prestige. If over-used and not used carefully it can have a materialistic connotation.
Blue – considered one of the most popular and safest colours to use. Can indicate honesty, dependability, trust, reliability. If over-used it can be perceived as boring or conservative.
Choosing colours
Ideally you should consult an expert in branding or design to help develop your visual identity and its colours.
If going it alone, choose a suite of primary and secondary colours that complement each other and represent your business and industry appropriately.
Do some more research on different colours and test them. Mock up some logos with your proposed colours and survey friends and family on how they feel when they see a particular colour.
If you have already established colours and now are concerned they may be sending the wrong message, consider reviewing your visual identity.
A lot of businesses review their brand and logos every few years.
You don’t have to completely move away from a particular colour if you are wedded to it or have invested a lot of money into it. You can choose a different tone of the same colour to achieve the desired result.
There are warm colours such as red, yellow and orange and cool colours such as blue and green. However each of these colours can be made warmer or cooler and completely change the impression given. For example a bright neon orange has a completely different feel to a subdued terracotta.
Once you have the right colour or colours, use it consistently across all of your communication touchpoints.
It’s ideal if you can get a RGB or CMYK breakdown or PMSnumber for your chosen colours. This way they can be preserved and replicated accurately on screen and in print. Talk to a local printing shop or designer if you need assistance with this.
You can also speak to a marketing and communication expert to ensure your colour choice supports your overall branding and positioning. Your colour choice should reflect your overall brand story and vice versa.
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What the blog?! Why you need a blog and anyone can do it

Kylie Fennell
Blogs are one of the most under-utilised and misunderstood marketing tools a business can lay its hands on. Anyone can start a business blog and the best news is that it can be done for free.
For nothing more than a little planning and your own time, you can create a business blog that drives all of your online marketing efforts and boosts your traditional promotions and advertising.
Now before I go on, we need to dispel some myths and mis-conceptions you may have about blogs.
To have a successful blog you do not need to:
  • be a tech-head or computer wizard
  • be a great writer
  • be a celebrity
  • spend hours a day typing away at your computer in your PJs/trackie dacks – though that is completely optional. 

You do need to have enthusiasm and a commitment to blogging on a regular basis, such as once a week or fortnight. The rest is relatively easy. Just follow my blogging guide below.
What is a blog?
A blog or weblog is a simple way to get your viewpoint into the market and bring together online and social media marketing efforts. Your blog should form the basis or primary source of all of your social media activities. 
You should use Facebook, Twitter and other social media to drive traffic back to your blog and website. 
How does it work?
The blogger writes about a topic and uploads it to the internet on a blogging platform, such as WordPress or Blogger.
People interested in the blog, can go to the blog’s web address by typing the url address into their browser, just like visiting a website. Users can then read the blog, as and when they choose.
Most blogs also have built-in tools and plug-ins, which allow your audience to subscribe to blog updates via email or RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. This means, whenever you update your blog, your subscribers will receive notification.
Don’t worry about the technological components of this, as the tools are usually built into your blogging platform’s templates as ‘options’. FAQs and instructions are also usually available on your blogging platform.
Users can also share your content on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn via buttons or ‘plug-ins’ usually built into the template.
Additionally you can allow users to engage and comment on your content (if you enable comments on your blog).
Some people may not like the idea of letting strangers make comments on their content, so you can use various moderation options available on blogging platforms. This can allow you to moderate or check comments in a range of circumstances and check for offensive language. You can also restrict comments to ‘members only’ if you wish.
You may choose not to allow comments at all. This option is not recommended as the aim of a blog is for people to engage with you. If they can’t comment, they can’t engage. Additionally, regular comments also contributes to optimising your blogs for search engine optimisation (SEO).
Also keep in mind that if your moderation is too rigorous that users may be put-off from engaging. For example it is reasonable to moderate comments added to a post after 14 days (it is harder to for you to manually monitor comments made to old posts). You can choose this as an option in your platform. You may also be able to moderate a users first post only, to demonstrate the first time they are not a trouble maker. You can even have an automated message that explains this in a polite way.
  
The benefits of blogs
+      Search engine optimisation – blogs rank high in search engine results especially if they are regularly updated and have comments on them. In most instances, blogs will rank much, much higher than corporate websites. The more traffic on your blog, the more leads you get. The more posts, the more your overall site traffic increases.
+      You can provide important background information and context in a blog, which you couldn’t provide in a tweet or on Facebook
+      You have the space to provide better and more valuable content to your readers
+      It uses simple software which is often free (WordPress or Blogger are two examples) ­– anyone can have a professional looking blog up and running in minutes
+      You can position yourself as an expert by providing insights about your field of expertise or industry
+      You can build trust by providing valuable, consistent and authentic content
+      You can voice your opinion about key industry issues (in a controlled manner)
+      You can gain insights from your customers and test new ideas/products.
But I’m not a writer
You do not have to be a great writer to have a successful blog. The most successful bloggers write in a conversational style that resonates with their audience. 
What do I write about?
First of all, write about what you know. Write about things you are passionate about. Also consider what your point of difference is to other blogs out there.
Once you decide on your overarching theme, stick to it.
Ideas for blog posts can come from anywhere, but her are a couple of ideas.
+      Create post with lists eg. “Top 10 tips for a Successful Blog” or “25 Tips to Increase Traffic to Your Blog.”
+      Interview Bloggers or an expert in your niche. Post the Q&As on your blog or even better – upload the audio interview – this helps with web traffic and don’t forget to include a photo
+      Ask a colleague, staff member or another expert to ‘guest write’ one of your blogs
+      You can also use HitTail to help automate the process and come up with ideas that will help you gain additional organic traffic. They will give you recommendations for topics based on your existing search traffic and their algorithm to identify the best opportunities.
Also apply the same approach that you use for developing content for your other social media sites.
What platform do I use?
There are a lot of free/or mostly free platforms available with ready-made templates.
The most popular platform by far is WordPress. Google’s Blogger platform is also popular. Most have easy tutorials, and offer custom domains. Your website provider may also have a blogging facility built into its website templates.
Frequency
You should aim to publish on your blog about once a week (this could increase to two a week or decrease to once a fortnight depending on how you are inclined). There is no need to post daily unless you really want to and people are engaging with your blogs on a daily basis.
Key tips
+      Ensure your blog and posts clearly link back to your website, especially if your blog is hosted separately from your website. You should also link from your website to your blog.
+      Use images/video/audio as it gives the user something to pin to or share and it ranks higher in SEO. Also tag or name your image with keywords that may also come up on search engine results.
+      Submit your blog to search engines (see more below)
+      Submit your blog posts to social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon and Reddit and blog community sites. Bizsugar is one of the top free Blogging Communities. Check out the community though before you submit to it. You only want to be associated with credible or reputable sites.
+      Comment and interact – respond to comments left on your blog (appropriately) and leave your own comments on other reputable blogs (where you can add value), leaving a backlink/URL linking back to your own blog. You should then acknowledge and/or respond to valuable comments on your own blog, in order to engage conversation. Even better, you may sometimes pose a question to your readers to engage them.
+      Don’t comment for comment sake – only comment on other sites when you can add a comment of value.
+      Follow other influential blogs – the blogging community is all about helping each other out and supporting each other as everyone will win out.
+      Set up an RSS Feed such as Feedburner so users are easily aware of new content (it is usually built in to the template)
+      Use keywords in your content. However the keywords must be relevant otherwise Google will penalise you for keyword stuffing, use Google Trends to identify popular keywords being searched.
+      Create labels for your keywords so users can search your blog for related topics.
+      Promote your blog – on your web, in conversations, on other social media, on business cards and other promotional material, in email signatures, at networking events, to journalists, to other bloggers, to friends and family
+      Ensure spelling and grammar is correct
+      Make sure there are no broken links in your content or in comments. Especially in older posts, regularly check it for links which no longer work or lead back to questionable sites. You will be penalised by Google otherwise. You can clean up broken links using CommentLuv Link Cleaner.
+      You can setup Google+ Authorship distinguish and validate your content in search results.
+      Embrace guest bloggers – partners, experts, employees are always great sources to ask to submit blogs for you. You should review the content though before you publish it.
+      Do not take criticism personally. You will receive opinions, or feedback, and if somebody is nasty, there are options to block users or blacklist them. Take on board constructive criticism and respond to it swiftly and appropriately, and ignore the troublemakers.
+      Stay on topic – once you have chosen a key theme for your blog post or for the whole blog, try and stick to that theme.
+      Use internal links – link to previous relevant posts especially if they were popular ones.
+      Use simple easy-to-navigate layout – avoid Flash or unnecessary coding on a page, ensure the loading time for images and pages is not too long by making the template simple and compressing the images.
+      Use Google Analytics to track the visits to your blog. Most platforms also have statistics built into the platform dashboard for you to track.
+      Be patient and persevere because the time you invest will eventually pay off. If you build it (and provide valuable content and promote it) they will come!
Submitting Your Blog to Search Engines
You should submit your blog to search engines including Google, MSN/Bing and Yahoo.
Otherwise search engines may not recognise your blog. All you need to do in this case is to submit the URL of your blog to them just to notify them of your newly created blog.

Comment SPAM­

Occasionally you may receive a notification that someone has commented on one of your posts. The post may not appear to make any sense grammatically and is unrelated to your blog’s content. It is annoying and can lead to your blog being penalised by Google.
It usually involves links to another website. This is an out-dated and automated tactic used by marketers to try and improve website ranking in search engines. While search engines are onto this, the practise is still used as it is relatively simple to post comments enmasse to many blogs at the same time.
You can avoid these SPAM comments in the following ways:
+      disable commenting on your blog all together (generally not recommended)
+      moderate and delete comments as they appear (this would need to be done regularly and can be time consuming depending on the number of comments). You could also moderate first time commenters and after that allow them to post un-moderated.
+      A third-party spam filter such as Askimet or Defensio, which examines comments and either holds them for moderation or deletes them. It may not stop all spam.
+      A spam blockersuch as Bad Behavior which stops the comments from reaching your blog and can even prevent them from finding your website in the first instance. It may however indiscriminately discard legitimate comments along the way.
+      CAPTCHAs(Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) use challenge-response tests to ensure comments are coming from a person and not a computer. This may ask the commenter to re-type some text, symbols or answer a question. Some blog platforms have this facility built-in.
+      Nofollow Comment Links mean spammers will gain no search engine result benefit.WordPress and most other blogging platforms do this by default or is offered as an option.
+      Blacklist and block troublesome spammers by their names, email addresses, URLs, or even their IP addresses. Your blogging platform eg WordPress should have some advice on how to do this 
+      Disable comments on older posts. Older posts are often targeted by spam as they are less moderated. Many blogging platforms allow you to delete comments on posts after a set time period.
If you do start a blog, don’t be disheartened if it takes time to build a following or for people to engage with your blog. Remember Keep Calm and Blog On and most of all ‘have fun’.
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Get the biggest bang for your marketing (or no) bucks in 2014

Kylie Fennell
It’s time for your new year’s marketing resolutions.
The new year is a great time to review your marketing strategies and plan ahead for the remainder of the year. 

marketing 2014 Kylie Fennell small business marketing
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/freedigitalimages.net

Take time to review what has worked for you, what hasn’t and what you should focus your efforts on when marketing in 2014.
So what are the hot trends in marketing for 2014? The two biggest marketing trends in 2014 are a carry-over from 2013. They are digital marketing, which includes social media and content marketing.
The great news for small businesses is both of the these trends can be leveraged for little cost.
Beyond that there are a few simple things small business can do to get the biggest bang for their marketing buck or in some cases no bucks.
Here are five tips to maximise your 2014 marketing efforts.
1. Digital marketing
Your onlineand social media presence should form one of your biggest marketing priorities in 2014.
Revisit your website and check whether it is still helping you achieve your marketing goals. What do you want users to do once they get to your site? Do you want them to make a purchase? Do you want to encourage customers to visit your shopfront? Do you want them to sign up to a newsletter? Is the website achieving this, and if not change it and keep it up-to-date.
Make sure the user can get what they need from your site in the easiest and quickest way possible.
Review your social media accounts in a similar way. Are you achieving your objectives through social media? Have you been keeping your social media account up-to-date? If not, perhaps consider paring back the number of accounts to the ones most relevant to your business and focus your efforts on them. Otherwise you will need to be disciplined and devote more time to social media.
Remember to be active and engage, deliver value to your connections and evaluate your success through free analytics and built-in tools such as Facebook Insights, Followerwonk for Twitter and Google Analytics.
2. Content marketing
Content marketing does not need to be terribly complex. In its simplest form it is about providing content that is relevant and valuable to your target audience.
Ensure your content is tailored to your target market and packaged and delivered in a format, style, frequency and timeframe most relevant to them. Focus on giving away lots of value in your comment.
3. Be a problem solver
It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, or what products or services you sell, we are all in the same business.
We are in the business of solving problems for our customers. There is also a difference between being a good problem solver and a great problem solver. The difference is brilliant customer service.
Go the extra mile for customers when you can. They will remember it, appreciate it and hopefully reward you with repeat business or word-of-mouth support.
Have a positive attitude to difficult customer requests. Instead of saying ‘No I can’t do that’, use the phrase ‘What I can do is…’. Anticipate customer needs and aim to exceed their expectations.
Know you customers inside out and speak directly to them. Consider creating a customer persona to better understand them.
4. Review your brand story
Once you are confident you fully understand your customers, you may want to review your brand story.
What is your business’s story? Have you got a one page story about your brand that clearly articulates who you are, what you offer and your point of difference?
If you don’t have a story, it’s time to write one with the writing tips found under tools on our website. If you do have one, it is time to review it to ensure it is still relevant to your target audience.
Once you have your brand story clear, make sure your key messages flow through all of your communication and marketing materials.
5. Don’t be afraid to try something new
There’s no harm in trying something new when it comes to marketing – provided you have the budget and resources you need and you stick to any relevant laws and regulations.
One of the best avenues for trying something different is via social media.
There are always new platforms and tools and most of them are low or no cost. You can immediately gauge the success of these activities via engagement and analytics. Venture out and try new features and platforms and have fun. Stick with what works for you and discard what doesn’t.
Just remember like any marketing activity, you need to have clear goals in mind and your marketing needs to support these objectives.
So now all you need to do is come up with your marketing resolutions – easy – the hard part is sticking to them. Just know you can always turn to an expert to help with your marketing in 2014.
Happy New Year and may all of your marketing dreams come true in 2014 – Kylie Fennell

The 5 best marketing and business books – Christmas gifts for business owners

Kylie Fennell
As a business owner it is a constant challenge to keep up-to-date and inspired to learn and try new things in business and marketing.
For Christmas I wanted to share my five best business and marketing books, which would make great stocking fillers for any business owner.
Some of the below books have been around a while but are still completely relevant and interesting summer reads.
small business marketingThis is an autobiography jam-packed with business ideas and inspiration. Learn where the Virgin mega-brand all started and how it continues to lead the way in marketing and business. 

This book reveals Sir Richard’s unique story, his personal philosophy on life, the Virgin brand and business. As a hugely successful international entrepreneur, adventurer and icon, and chairman of the Virgin Group, this book has something to interest everyone.


The book also describes the effect on the Virgin Group of 11 September, the rise of Virgin Blue, the flotation of Virgin Mobile, Sir Richard’s world record attempt with the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer and taking Virgin to the final frontier, as Virgin Galactic is poised for a new era of commercial space travel. 


Jan Carlzon, was CEO of SAS Airlines (1981-1994) and is credited for bringing the airline back from the brink of collapse. 

small business marketing Kylie Fennell

The airline went from losing $17 million a year to making a $54 million profit within a year.
A huge part of his success was his ‘Moments of Truth’ philosophy and focus on customer service quality.
Carlzon drove a message across his organisation that every ‘moment of truth’ or point of contact with every customer or stakeholder made a difference. The book focused on delegating away from management and giving front-line staff the authority and responsibility to make decisions so they could resolve any issues on the spot. He promoted a culture where employees regardless of their level were empowered to make decisions, if they could immediately solve a customer’s problem.
Carlzon accepted that by delegating decision-making down the chain, sometimes mistakes would be made occasionally, but these mistakes could be forgiven.
“Mistakes can usually be corrected later; the time that is lost in not making a decision can never be retrieved.”
The book also shows how the airline adapted to what was a reasonably new customer-driven economy.
           
Carlzon decided that SAS should cater to business travelers, who tend to be decidedly less price-conscious than tourists. Accordingly, he geared the line’s operations to the demands of a commercial market, emphasising such unique selling propositions as on-time departures, convenient schedules and comfortable seating.
Carlzon’s service-oriented plan paid off dramatically and provides some great insights.
Global marketer Martin Lindstrom, who has been on the front lines of the branding wars for more than 20 years, provides an insider’s look at how companies obscure the truth and manipulate our minds to persuade us to buy.
small business marketing Kylie Fennell

He draws on all he has witnessed behind closed doors, exposing the full extent of the psychological tricks and traps that companies devise to win our hard-earned dollars.

Lindstrom reveals how advertisers and marketers intentionally target children at an alarmingly young age ­– starting when they are still in the womb!
He also talks about how marketers and retailers stoke the flames of public panic and capitalise on paranoia over global contagions, extreme weather events and food contamination scares.
Additionally the book highlights the first ever neuroscientific evidence proving how addicted we all are to our iPhones and our Blackberry’s (and the shocking reality of cell phone addiction – it can be harder to shake than addictions to drugs and alcohol).
There is much, much more to shock, intrigue and entertain you in this book. You should also be able to pick up some less insidious marketing tips to use yourself.
This is a must-read for anyone feeling a little bamboozled by what to do with online and social media marketing. 
small business marketing Kylie Fennell

A great refresher for anyone who has been wedded to old-school marketing and PR or anyone just venturing out.

It offers a step-by-step action plan for harnessing the power of modern marketing and PR to communicate with buyers directly, raise visibility and increase sales. It shows how large and small companies, nonprofits, and other organisations can leverage web-based content to get the right information to the right people for a fraction of the cost of big-budget campaigns.
It includes up-to-date information, examples, and case studies plus an examination of popular tools such as Infographics, photo-sharing using Pinterest and Instagram, as well as expanded information on social media such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.        
Ever wondered how a trend becomes a trend? This book explains the idea of a tipping point when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips and spreads like wildfire. 
small business marketing Kylie Fennell

It will change the way you think about selling products, communicating messages and changing behaviour.
The author describes how readers can apply the tipping point principle in their own lives and work. The book provides case studies on how a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate.
So I hope I have left you with some sources of inspiration for injecting some new life into your business and marketing efforts in 2014.

In the meantime, we wish you and your families a safe and Merry Christmas. Find out how you can boost your marketing efforts.

How to write brilliant social media content

Kylie Fennell 2 comments
So you have set up a business Facebook page that you diligently monitor and update once a day with snippets, pictures and videos, which may or may not feature a cat playing a piano.
You may have ventured out further and have been tweeting your thoughts on the latest reality TV show.
If so, you are probably congratulating yourself on taming the social media beast. And so you should.
What happens though if you start to notice that people are not engaging in your posts or updates? What happens when hardly anyone is liking/sharing/commenting/re-tweeting or clicking on your updates? More importantly how do you fix it?
By far the most important component of any marketing activity is content. Content marketing is more than a buzz word, it is the foundation of all marketing activities.

The same rule applies to social media marketing. Your social media content must be relevant and valuable to your target market.
Without this, your social media marketing efforts will be largely wasted.
Here are some tips on developing brilliant social media content.
80/20 rule
It is terribly tempting to blast your followers with promotional copy, promos, offers and sales.
While there is a place in social media for promotional opportunities, especially if they are well managed, by far the majority of your posts should be non-promotional.
Remember when most people are using social media, they are using it in a “social” sense. They are not in the headspace for hard-selling.
A 80/20 rule of thumb can be used as a guideline for posts. That is, for every self-serving promotional post, you should have at least four relevant and interesting content posts. These should be a mix of your own content and re-posts of relevant content written by others.
Posts can be purely entertaining (such as cats playing piano), or personal (such as personal images or anecdotes), but will be most effective if they connect with someone and elicit an emotion, whether that is laughter, empathy or gratitude. It should also have some connection to your business and its products or services. For example, a boutique may post a photo of the owner in their daggiest prom dress.
You should like or follow similarly minded pages that feature content that will be relevant to your target audience.
Content ideas
Here are some tips to help you identify content relevant to your target audience.
+      Think about your audience as people or “personas” rather than demographic profiles
+      Tailor your content and approach – ensure your content is tailored to your personas and packaged and delivered in a format, style, frequency and timeframe most relevant to them.
+      Focus on giving away lots of value – some call this giving away the secret sauce. Don’t always ask for something in return. Why give away the secret sauce? Remember you are in the business of solving problems. Your potential customer has a problem and your content may help solve it, at no cost to them. When they need more help hopefully they will come to you and share the information or experience with everyone they know.
+      Stockpile content – squirrel away content ideas and trends as you come across them. You never know when something may come in handy, especially if it is not time critical. You may come up with ideas anywhere from on the bus, in the shower or driving. It may be something as simple as a road sign, an anecdote a friend has told you or a news feature. Have a pen and paper on hand, or use voice memo on your phone (handy when in the car), or type notes into your phone. Tear out pages from newspapers or magazines as you see something that interests you. Compile your ideas in a hard copy or electronic folder. You may even like to input them into a spreadsheet with specific columns so you can search by particular fields
+      Ask your audience – ask your followers what kind of content they would like to see. This doesn’t make you sound stupid, it demonstrates you really want to engage with your customers.

Finally, be concise – as with any writing keep your content to the point, especially with Twitter where you have limited characters. If you are posting links, take advantage of free url shorteners that create a super-short link for you. Google’s and bitly’s url shorteners are probably the most common.

Call-to-action
Regardless of your overarching social media goal, one of your objectives is likely to be to get people to click it/view/like/share/re-post/comment in some way, shape or form. This would be in the hope it would lead to further awareness, increased traffic and hopefully sales. It also has the added benefit of increasing the likelihood of someone seeing your post (since the more people who comment or share it, the higher up it moves in a feed) and improve search engine optimisation (SEO).
Getting people click it/view/like/share/re-post/comment is a good basis for engaging your audience, and if it isn’t, it is time to review your objectives.
To achieve the above objective there needs to be a clear and persuasive call-to-action.
Keep in mind people share or comment on content based on how they want to perceived by others. So they want to look good/funny/intelligent/caring by liking or sharing something. Certainly high quality and valuable content will go a long way in achieving this. So you may simply go with adding a simple “like this post” or event a question at the end of your post with the hope people will engage with it.
This is a great starting point, but what else can you do to improve engagement? Momentus Media conducted a study of 20,000 Facebook profiles which found that asking a stand alone “question” will result in 23% less engagement that no question at all.

This does not mean questions should be avoided – it means you have to craft your questions more carefully. In fact you need to demand an answer. Sounds pushy right – well it works.
Here is an example:
Question only: “Coffee or Tea. Which is better?
Question with a demand: “Coffee or Tea. Which is better? Tell us in comments”
You may not believe this but research has shown that people are more likely to go to the effort of doing something, if they are told to do it.
Blogger Ryan ‘Haight’ Mail explains further:
“Look at any of the top 100 YouTube channels. They all end with:
“What do you think about turtle racing? Tell us in the comments! And remember to hit subscribe!”
They do this because it doesn’t matter how funny you are, the majority of people will finish your video and go, “Ha! That was funny– omg a cat playing piano. *click*”
And then they’re gone.”
By adding their call-to-action and couching it in a demand, they may have just got some more engagement, possibly even a lead for their email distribution list and SEO.
Let’s explore this concept a little further by using conditionals, such as ‘comment/like IF [condition]’. Eg. Comment if you think tea is better than coffee, or ‘Like’ if you think tea is better than coffee.
Have you noticed again how we are ‘telling’ rather than ‘asking’.
Now time for a little reality check, from Haight Mail who explains why aiming for a ‘Like’ is also a great option.
“People are Lazy. Comments are great on Facebook. They usually include words — sometimes they’re spelled correctly,” he says.
“But ultimately they’re a lot of work. So even with a call to action, people are less likely to interact the more work they have to do. So use this to your advantage and make it easy. You are 216% more likely to get people to click ‘Like’ than you are to have them actually write a sentence.” [Momentus Media]
So in summary, have a call-to-action, and let it demand or tell the audience what to do. 
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The mega-brand of Christmas – 6 marketing ideas for the holiday season

Kylie Fennell 1 comment

It doesn’t take a marketing genius to appreciate the power of marketing leading up to and during the Christmas season.
Christmas is typically a peak selling season for retailers with sales increasing dramatically as people purchase gifts, decorations and supplies to celebrate.
From a marketing perspective, Christmas is more than the observance of a religious holiday and the celebration of the birth of Jesus. It has become a mega-brand and a marketing juggernaut for business.
For many who recognise the religious significance of Christmas, the heavy marketing focus on the holiday may not sit well. This is an understandable sentiment and personal beliefs, whether you celebrate Christmas tradition or not, should be respected. That being said it’s hard to deny the force of marketing and the sales opportunities it presents for business.
So I wanted to share some Christmas marketing ideas and tips to get your holiday sales season on track. But before I do, let’s take a look at the evolution of Christmas, as a celebration and a marketing brand.
Where it all began
The name Christmas means ‘mass of Christ’ and since around the 4th century, 25 December has been associated with the birth of Jesus. Prior to this, festivals were often held in December to mark winter solstice or harvests.
Over the centuries many other associations including gift giving have evolved, with the economic impact of Christmas growing steadily with it.
Christmas and December markets have been a fixture in Europe since the Middle Ages. The street markets are traditionally associated with the celebration of Christmas during the four weeks of Advent. They feature seasonal food and drink and often singing and dancing. The largest of these markets are significant trade and tourism drawcards. The annual Christmas market in Lincoln, England attracts more than 100,000 visitors over its four days and Birmingham’s Christmas Market boasts 3 million visitors each year.
When it comes to gift giving though, the biggest impact on modern day Christmas by far has been the association with Santa Claus. 
If Christmas is a mega-brand, Santa is arguably its poster-boy.
Santa Claus ­– the face of Christmas?
A number of figures are associated with Christmas and the seasonal giving of gifts. Among these figures is Santa Claus, which can be traced back to the Dutch Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas). Nicholas was Bishop of Myra, in modern-day Turkey, during the 4th century. He was known for the care of children, generosity, and the giving of gifts. He is said to have inquired after the behaviour of children during the past year before deciding whether they deserved a gift or not.
Saint Nicholas traditionally appeared in bishop’s attire and was depicted as everything from a tall gaunt man to a spooky-looking elf.
The depiction of Santa as a big, jolly man with a white beard has been largely attributed to Coca-Cola.  

small business marketing Kylie Fennell
Coca-Cola’s original 1931 ad featuring Santa

Back in 1931, Coca-Cola was looking for ways to increase the sales of its cold drink during the winter months and hired commercial illustrator Haddon Sundblom to create ads featuring Santa with Coca-Cola. For inspiration, Sundblom turned to Clement Clark Moore’s 1822 poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” (commonly called “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”). Moore’s description of St. Nick led to an image of a warm, friendly, pleasantly plump and human Santa. The new Santa was introduced at the 1931 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

From 1931 to 1964, Coca-Cola advertising showed Santa delivering toys, pausing to read a letter and enjoy a Coke, visiting with the children who stayed up to greet him, and raiding the refrigerators at a number of homes.
Along the way, Santa became synonymous with Christmas, and became the face of millions of marketing campaigns.
It’s more than marketing
Despite all the hype it is comforting to know that some people have not only embraced Christmas as a marketing opportunity, but have used it to “do some good”.
Rod Hyatt is a man who knows a “little” bit about Christmas, Santa and marketing.
Rod is Chief Operating Officer of The Fuller Center for Housing Australia, a non-profit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry dedicated to eliminating poverty housing worldwide.
Previous to this he worked in marketing and advertising with 15 years experience working for global brands such as Arnotts Biscuits.
More to the point, once a year Rod pulls on his beloved red suit and fulfils the role of Santa. 

small business marketing Kylie Fennell
Rod ‘Santa’ Hyatt. Image courtesy of Sullivan Portraits.
His first Santa gig was 27 years ago, for David Jones, but for the last 20 years he has co-ruled Santaland at Brisbane City Myer. He has even appeared as Santa on Japanese television shows and commercials.
It all started for Rod when his hair and beard grew white suddenly after surgery.
“People started to say I looked like Santa and I took a look at myself in the mirror and thought they were right,” he said.
He said donning the red suit was an obvious choice for him.
“I love working with kids. I have three kids of my own, six grand children and one great grandchild.”
Rod said he also saw it as a way of “giving back” and spreading the Christmas message.
He will also tell you that being Santa is serious business, with prospective Father Christmases having to attend Santa School.
When asked how much the role of “playing” Santa was about marketing, Rod explained that it was much more than promoting the latest toy.
“It’s about listening to kids, building relationships with children and their families.
“Sometimes a child will ask you for something personal that can’t be bought. Sometimes it’s heartbreaking, but it’s my job to listen to them and try to make them feel a little better.”
In conclusion, if this is what Santa can do for your customers and brand, what better marketing ambassador could you ask for?
This brings me to my top Christmas marketing ideas.
1. Embrace the Christmas spirit within
We can’t all be Santa, but we can all afford extra gestures of goodwill during the Christmas season. Take a moment to really listen to your customers and connect with them and their families. Genuine acts of kindness will result in customer goodwill, as well as a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.
2. Use seasonal messaging and images
Ensure your website and online presences feature seasonal keywords typically used at Christmas time. Focus search terms on longer keyword phrases rather than general terms to target your specific audience.
Other marketing materials also need to leverage Christmas messaging and create a sense of urgency. All materials, web and social media should feature seasonal images and shopfronts should be decorated festively.
3. Give gifts
This doesn’t necessarily mean giving away free products or services. It can mean rewarding regular customers through loyalty programs or discounts. You can offer free gift-wrapping. Even a simple handwritten Christmas card to valued customers can go a long way in building goodwill.
4. Optimise for smartphones and tablets
Most businesses should have a website optimised for smartphones and tablets especially since these devices are popular Christmas purchases.
If you have an on-line shop it is critical your website is optimised for smartphones and tablets, as more and more people buy via their mobile devices.
5. Be accessible
You should try and cater to last minute shoppers, as well as extended opening hours if possible. You should clearly publicise your opening hours on your website and other appropriate marketing materials.
6. Be social
Being social has two meanings. Christmas is a great time of year to network with important contacts. Attend industry events or functions where you can connect with people important to your business. Better still, hold your own function or take your valued clients out for lunch/dinner. Just take it easy though on the festive drinks and avoid the inevitable Christmas party karaoke session.
Secondly, be active in social media. Ask your connections/followers for gift ideas and recommendations. Offer giveaways or run a competition on Facebook. Share Christmas tips, bon-bon jokes or recipes. Ask people to post their daggiest Christmas photo, or worst Christmas present. Ask people to vote on Christmas subjects eg. full baked Christmas dinner vs cold seafood platter?
The key thing in all of your Christmas marketing activities is to engage people. And most importantly have a happy holiday!
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Pickles, planes and getting personal ­– good customer service is good business

Kylie Fennell

A few years back some colleagues mentioned they were out for the day to go to “pickle training”.
 
 
This statement perplexed me. Now I like pickles but we didn’t work in an area that had anything to do with food.
 
They went on to explain that pickle training was about providing exceptional customer service and how it makes great marketing and business sense. It made sense to me that good customer service is central to your marketing, and it all comes back to a pickle.
 
What’s your pickle?
 
The pickle philosophy comes from motivational speaker Bob Farrell.
 
Farrell co-launched his ice-cream parlours and restaurants in 1963, and sold the 55 store chain 10 years later to the Marriot Corporation. Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour Restaurants are still open today in several locations in the United States.
 
Farrell explains in one of his customer service videos that pickles are “special things you do for your customers that keep them coming back”.
 
Why is it called a pickle? It all started with a letter from a customer who had been visiting Farrell’s restaurant several times a week for three years. He always asked for an extra slice of pickles that he was given for free. Until one day the waitress said she would only sell him a side of pickles. The customer said he only wanted one extra slice of pickle, and was told they would only sell him an extra slice of pickle. The disgruntled customer wrote that he would never go back t the restaurant again.
 
Farrell immediately contacted the customer, thanked him for this letter, apologised and offered him a free hot sundae. More significantly a catch-cry was born. “Give ’em the Pickle.”
 
Farrell puts it simply. “When something happens with a customer and you’re not sure what to do? ‘Give ’em the Pickle!’ Do what it takes to make things right!”
 
“It may be about going the extra mile to make customers happy or putting your own personal stamp on customer service that sets you apart from your competition. At my favourite tyre store they literally run to greet me when I step out of my car in the parking lot. I’ve met garbage collectors who stop to start lawn mowers and coffee baristas who add a heart or other designs in the latte foam. Those are all pickles.”
 
Farrell’s philosophy is based on connecting with your customers, treating them how you would want to be treated. If you look and listen, customers will tell you want your pickle is.
 
Good customer service breeds goodwill between a business and its target audience and in the long-run it should improve sales and your brand reputation.
 
This is certainly not a new concept. Jan Carlzon, who is most noted for being CEO of SAS Airlines (1981-1994), championed customer service in his book ‘Moments of Truth’. His unrelenting focus on customer service quality brought the struggling airline back from the brink of collapse.
 
The airline went from losing $17 million a year to making a $54 million profit within a year.
 
Planes, people and profit
 
Carlzon’s ‘Putting People First’ program was focused on delegating away from management and giving front-line staff the authority and responsibility to make decisions so they could resolve any issues on the spot. He promoted a culture where employees regardless of their level were empowered to make decisions, if they could immediately solve a customer’s problem.
 
He said at the time: “Problems are solved on the spot, as soon as they arise. No front-line employee has to wait for a supervisor’s permission”.
 
“If anything goes wrong, the customer doesn’t care whose fault it is. He’s the one who’s going to suffer anyway. If we help each other we can put just about anything right and spare our customers a lot of grief.
 
“The only really valuable assets we have is a truly satisfied customer.”
 
Carlzon accepted that by delegating decision-making down the chain, sometimes mistakes would be made occasionally, but these mistakes could be forgiven.
 
“Mistakes can usually be corrected later; the time that is lost in not making a decision can never be retrieved.”
 
Let’s get personal
 
For me the corner-stone of good customer service and customer relationship marketing is personalising your interactions.
 
Personalised hand-written thank-you or acknowledgement notes and cards to your customers go a long way to building relationships. Happy birthday messages and discounts for special occasions are also great tools.
 
Customers remember and appreciate personal touches and hopefully will think of you first, the next time they need the product or service you offer.
 
Treat every customer according to his or her individual problem or request. And remember one size does not fit all.
 
You need to get to know your customer and having a customer relationship management (CRM) system is crucial to making real connections with people. Your CRM can be a simple spreadsheet or you can use sophisticated software, as long it captures key information about your customer and their purchasing history.  Just remember you need to ensure you follow relevant privacy laws when capturing and using information from your CRM.
 
After you have completed a service or sold a product, follow-up and ask for feedback. Create a dialogue or mechanism that allows you to identify customer problems and resolve them immediately.
 
Make yourself accessible and if you are a senior manager, get face-time with your customers. Put yourself on the front-line occasionally and ask questions, you’ll never know unless you ask. Being accessible also means responding to comments on social media, both positive and negative, in a timely manner.
 
So start having a conversation with your customers today. Identify what your pickle is. Strive for exceptional customer service.
 
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Why you need a customer persona or avatar now!

Kylie Fennell

Stop the press! Customers are people. Sounds pretty obvious doesn’t it.
Well you might be surprised to discover how often businesses and even marketers seem to forget this little gem.

Marketing 101 tells us that we must identify our target market or audience. 

We need to classify our customers by demographics such as age, gender, income, geography – you get the picture.

We build wonderful facts, figures and percentages about our customers, then use this data to inform our marketing activities.
Yes, we start to see our customers as a bunch of facts and figures, instead of real, actual people.
These days, clever marketers and businesses are creating customer personas or an ideal customer avatar, so they can better connect with their target market.
It shouldn’t come as a shock that when we engage with our customer base as a “person” rather than a “data-set” we will make better connections. Customers are people and want to be engaged as a person.
Now before you throw your marketing textbook out with the trash, I would like to point out that it is still important to understand the demographics of your target market.

What I am talking about is using your demographic information and data on your target market to build a customer profile and create a buyer persona or ideal customer avatar.
What are personas and avatars?
I have seen marketers refer to these customer profiles by several terms including buyer personas and ideal customer avatars. Everyone has a slightly different approach or definition but for the purposes of this column I will refer to them mainly as personas.
I first came across the term “buyer persona” in the New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott. He explains that a persona will describe everything from a buyer’s aspirations and lifestyle to interests and fears.

The Buyer Persona Institute says buyer personas are examples of the real buyers who influence or make decisions about the products, services or solutions you market. “They are a tool that builds confidence in strategies to persuade buyers to choose you rather than a competitor or the status quo.”
“Buyer personas should reveal how, when and why your buyer makes the decisions you want to influence… insightful buyer personas readily inform strategies for persuasive messaging, content marketing, product or solution launches, campaigns and sales alignment.”
The idea behind buyer personas is that you create people who represent your major customer groups.
Business strategist Marie Forleo encourages business owners to identify their one most important customer and build a customer avatar around them.
Forleo says most target market identification fails to drill down to one specific person, which is vital if you want to sell anything.
“The biggest and most common mistake people make is that they think they already understand everyone and know what they want.”

A buyer persona or customer avatar is an individual with a name, a picture and specific demographic and other characteristics. An avatar is not a real specific person; it is a composite of characteristics of many real people. It needs to be specific.

Business blogger and trainer Shae Baxter expands on this. 

“Your avatar needs to speak to your ideal customer in a way that when they do come upon your website, it’s almost like you’ve read their mind. You’ve identified their pain points, fears, frustrations, desires and dreams.”
Once you have gone through the process of creating your persona or avatar you can use this information to target your messaging, marketing materials and activities.

How to create a persona or avatar

You are going to create a customer story. 
A story about a person. List all of the common traits of your ideal customer (including demographics) and use that as a starting point to create one specific person.
You should be give your person a name, age and occupation. Now ask questions about the person, such as:

o   What is their lifestyle?
o   What do they do in their spare time?
o   Where do they go in their spare time?
o   What do they aspire to?
o   What are their dreams?
o   What is their preferred communication style and channels?
o   What type of language do they use?
o   What entertains them?
o   What else do they like?
o   What social networks do they use?
o   When and how are they most likely to use social media?
o   How much time would they spend on social media?
o   When are they most likely to use social media? And using what device(s)?
o   Who is their favourite celebrity?
o   What kind of car do they drive? What kind of car would they like to drive?
o   Do they live by themselves or with friends/family/partner?
o   What television shows do they watch/books/magazines do they read?
o   What are their biggest life challenges and fears?
o   Why would they want to connect with your brand?
o   What problem do they have that you can solve?
o   How can you link your brand to their dreams and desires?
Delve into your brand’s persona – this is the fun bit. Imagine your brand as a persona and ask yourself the same kinds of questions. Look for overlaps between your brand and customer persona and use the commonalities to better connect to your persona.
Build a picture – pull together what you have learnt in images and words.
Your story may start to look something like this:
Jen is 23, single and works as a project officer. She works long hours and usually has her lunch at her desk. She has a lot of disposable income and goes to the gym a few times a week. She has an active social life and enjoys catching up with girlfriends, fine dining and going out to nightclubs. She is happy with her current life but would like to settle down and think about marriage in the next 3-5 years. She likes to read Vogue magazine and buys a lot of her clothes from Review.
The above information is much more useful than our target audience is professional women aged 22-27-years-old.
Based on the above persona we can start building a picture of what kind of content might connect with Jen.
You can create several key personas to represent your most profitable customers. The information can be quite detailed – in fact the more detailed the better, but it is for internal reference only.
Tailor your content and approach – now that you have a persona, you need to ensure your content is tailored to your persona and packaged and delivered in a format, style, frequency and timeframe most relevant to them.
This is true target marketing.
So what’s your customer persona? 
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Writing for business ­– 10 tips from the experts

Kylie Fennell

Over the years many of my clients and students have asked the same question.

“What makes good writing?”

This question shouldn’t come as a surprise to businesses out there.
We all want fabulous business and marketing content that will connect with our audience. We want to know how to best write for business.
Most of us know the importance of understanding our target audience and writing for them, but many despair because “I’m not a writer”. Ideally you would hire an expert to help with writing or editing, but this is not always possible with limited marketing budgets.
You wonder if there is a secret to writing for business.
Well there is. You can write any marketing or business communication material and make it effective, if you understand the fundamentals of writing.
The fundamentals never change, and for me the fundamentals are explained in an anecdote where Ulysses author James Joyce explained his day’s work. He had spent the day painstakingly writing two sentences. “I have the words already. What I am seeking is the perfect order of words in the sentence,” he is quoted as saying.

Good writing in its most basic form is having the right words in the right order.

Not terribly helpful advice I hear you say. Well perhaps bestselling author, the late Bryce Courtenay said it better with his mantra of  “keep it simple”.
Courtenay was well-educated with a formidable vocabulary, yet he never set out to be too “clever” with his writing. He was a proponent for keeping writing simple, clean, direct and honest. He hated long-winded and unnecessary description and it paid dividends throughout his career, first in advertising and later as an author.
Here are 10 other tips from acclaimed writers and authors that anyone can apply to writing for business.
1. George Orwell, author of Nineteen Eighty Four
“Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech, which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.”

2. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby author

F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Cut out…exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.”

3. James Patterson, author of Alex Cross series.

 “Pretend that you are sitting across from somebody, telling them a story and you don’t want them to get up until it’s finished.” 
4. Stephen King, acclaimed horror and suspense author
“If you want to be a writer you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot… If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time — or the tools — to write. Simple as that.” 
5. Ray Bradbury, science fiction author.
“Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things you’re doomed.”
6. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea author
Ernest Hemingway threw out many drafts before he was happy
“The first draft of everything is sh*t.”
 7. Joshua Wolf Shenk, best-selling author and essayist
“Get through a draft as quickly as possible. (It’s) Hard to know the shape of the thing until you have a draft…the old writer’s rule applies: Have the courage to write badly.”


8. Ken Follett, Pillars of the Earth author

“My aim in constructing sentences is to make the sentence utterly easy to understand, writing what I call transparent prose. I’ve failed dreadfully if you have to read a sentence twice to figure out what I meant.”
9. David Ogilvy, iconic businessman
  • Write the way you talk. Naturally.
  • Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
  • Never use jargon words like reconceptualize,demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
  • Never write more than two pages on any subject.
  • Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning — and then edit it.
  • If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
  • Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.

Highlights from a now famous internal memo, Ogilvy sent to all employees at Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency.

10. Just write
My tenth tip is to write, write, write. Like any skill, it’s something you need to practise. Write every day if you can. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, it could be an email to a friend, a cover letter for a job, just write. It will all help you in writing for business.
The good news is that there are hundreds of free tools out there to help you. You can access a bunch of free writing tips under tools and resources on our the mypr+ website or use any of the free following online tools. However beware when using some of the tools shown below as they may use United States English rather than Australian or British English. For reference, here is a great site with US vs British English word lists.
Improve Readability with MS-Word – this tool is built-in to MS Word and uses the Flesch-Kincaid readability tests designed to indicate how difficult a reading passage is to understand. Using simple calculations, it is able to break down text to gauge the level of education (or school grade) needed to grasp the writing, and how hard it is to comprehend overall. A score 90 and above means it is easily understood by an average 11-year-old, 60 to 70 is for 13 to 15-year-olds and 30 or under is best understood by university graduates. Don’t forget to use your spelling and grammar checks in MS Word as well.

The onelook dictionary search indexes more than 1000 dictionaries and allows reverse dictionary and keyword searches

This wiki is a guide on using punctuation correctly and has great cheat sheets.
Useful grammar lessons and tips can be found at the University of Ottawa site, Grammar Girl and the Capital Community College Foundation, which also has good general writing tips.
Other general writing resources can be found at betterwritingskills.com and infoplease.com

Common errors in the English language are outlined at this site and a great general Style Guide can be found at the Economist’s site.

So now there are no excuses. Let’s get writing.
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Inject some kapow! into your website ­­– 10 tips for small business websites

Kylie Fennell
Let’s make a list of marketing rules small businesses need to follow.
  1. Create an effective online presence        
  2.  There is only one rule.
Okay, there is more to marketing than just online, but I wanted to emphasise the importance of online marketing efforts.
Mastering your online presence is more important now than ever.
When I say online presence, I am talking about your small business website and social media platforms and activities.
One of the goals of your online and social media activities should be to drive traffic back to your website. But there isn’t much point in steering traffic to your website if it isn’t up to scratch. A well designed and well-managed website is essential in this ever-increasing online world.
Fortunately, you don’t need to spend oodles of dollars to get a website that makes an impact.  I have a few pointers to help you inject some kapow! into your small business website, without blowing your marketing budget.
1.    Secure your domain name
If you don’t already have a domain, it is time to choose a name unique to your business. Preferably the domain name should mirror your business name as closely as possible without being longwinded. Type your domain name ideas into Google and see how the name may already be used (you don’t want to be mistaken for another business with a similar domain).
Once you have a domain name in mind, check whether the name is available and then register it. If you are based in Australia you will most likely want to secure .com.au for your domain (you need to quote an ABN or ACN for this). It’s also a good idea to secure .com if it is available. Other options include .net, as well as .org for not-for-profits.
2.    Have a plan
Don’t jump straight into designing and building your website. You need a plan and a good understanding of this medium. If you already have a website this is a good opportunity to step back and review your site and see if improvements can be made.
Like any marketing activities, have a clear goal and objectives in mind. What do you want users to do once they get to your site? Do you want them to make a purchase? Do you want to encourage customers to visit your shopfront? Do you want them to sign up to a newsletter? Have your goals clear in your mind before setting out.
Don’t apply traditional advertising methods to online mediums and expect them to work. Traditional marketing efforts rely mostly on interrupting the consumer by using attention-grabbing advertisements and promotions. It has mostly been a one-way communication approach, which is completely at odds with the interactive and immediate nature of the web.
You need to deliver content specific to your target audience at the exact moment they need it and encourage two-way dialogue.
Recognise that people have not gone to your website because they want to be blasted with sophisticated advertisements. Users have a range of motivations to engage with your website. It may purely be for informational needs, or to make an immediate purchase. Most likely their initial encounter will be to find information they need to inform their buying decisions (the buying part may come later – much later depending on the significance of the purchase and the length of the sales cycle for your product or service).
Your job is to provide the easiest and quickest way for the user to get the information they need or to make an immediate purchase at the exact moment they want it. And limit the number of clicks they need to get to what they need!
3.    Understand and write for your target audience
Great websites do not have to be all-singing, all-dancing, creative masterpieces. The most effective websites all have one thing in common. They feature great content.

Great content comes from understanding your target audience inside out and catering to them.

Your website can’t be everything to everyone. Focus on your most profitable customer group – your target audience – and connect with them. Know what kind of information they want? How do they engage with the internet? Are they more likely to be accessing it via a mobile? How much time do they have to browse? If they are an older demographic do they require larger font size? What is your call to action and is it clear?
If persuasive writing isn’t your strength consider hiring a professional to develop your content or edit what you already have. It is a worthwhile investment.
4.    Build your site
Once you have a domain name, you need someone to host your website. Different website hosting companies offer different options and pricing structures. If you think ahead about what kind of functionality you need, you may be able to find a host that can meet all, or most of your needs.
Do you need a checkout facility? Email subscription form? Photo gallery? Ability to update the site yourself? Consider all these things and whether you have the skills you need to go down the DIY route or do you need a professional web designer?
For example, I knew that I wanted to develop my own website, using pre-built templates and an easy-to-use content management system. I didn’t want to have to download or purchase any software. I also wanted a provider that offered technical assistance 24-hours via phone and email.
Another great option if you do want to go down the DIY path ­– even just initially (as you can always improve or change design and hosts later) – is to create a free WordPress blog or website. They have great templates, which are incredibly easy to use. You can set up a site in minutes.
5.    Make it visual  
Incorporate visual elements as much as possible (as long as it isn’t too busy). Some of the most successful websites feature images as the main
design feature on their home pages.
Using graphics, illustrations, photos or videos will boost engagement and search engine optimisation. When you do include visual elements, also include a relevant description, caption or comments featuring key words.
Photos and video should be compressed or resized, to minimise loading time, and be reasonably professional looking. You can compress or resize images with simple programs such as MS Paint.
If you don’t have the budget for your own professional photographs you can purchase royalty free images quite cheaply from photo libraries such as Getty Images or Shutterstock. You can also use free services such as pexels.com where you can use photos for free as long as you credit them (always read and follow the terms of use).
6.    Keep it simple
While visual elements are a great idea, don’t overdo it or be too fancy with your design. Keep it simple with lots of clean space and minimal text.
Generally speaking, you should avoid moving objects and images, flashy design, music, pop-ups, scrolling screens and animation. These things increase the loading time and can confuse, overwhelm or frustrate the user. Exceptions to this though are creative type industries, which rely on these elements to connect with their target audience. If you do use these types of elements, they need to be done well and are best left to the professionals.
 Other tips to keep it simple:

  • Have a clear call to action on each page but restrict it to one per page
  • Restrict contact forms to five or less fields
  • Use a sans serif font such as Arial 12pt or Verdana 11pt for the body text and don’t use more than three different fonts throughout
  • Don’t underline words unless they are links
  • Use bold text sparingly
  • Limit text so users don’t have to scroll too much or at all
  • Use dark text on light backgrounds and light text on dark backgrounds
  • Aim for no more than 20% of your space dedicated to advertising
  • Ensure Contact information or a link to Contact information is on every page
  • Provide a link to get back to the Home page on every page
  • Limit the number of top tier menus to a maximum of eight (preferably six) – common top tier menus include: About Us; Contact Us; News; Products/Services. These can then drill down into sub-menus.
7.    Optimise your site for mobile devices
Depending on your target audience and what they use your site for, it may be worthwhile having your site optimised for mobile devices.
Smaller screens means information, images and menus should be simplified on mobile sites, and buttons need to be bigger. If most of your hits are coming from mobile devices (this is something you can find out via services such as Google Analytics) it may be worth the investment.
8.    Optimise your site for search engines
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is about enhancing your website so that it features high in search engine results.
There are companies that specialise in SEO and understand the ever changing search engine algorithms. Search engines also offer sponsored or paid opportunities to appear prominently in search results. However there are quite a few things you can do (which are virtually free) that will help drive search engine results and traffic to your site.
First of all, the more online engagement you get, the higher your results will be. This means being active in social media and blogs. Use social media to link back to your website and vice versa by including social media buttons on your website.
You should submit or suggest your site to Google, Yahoo and Bing so they can verify your URL and include it in their directories.
Ensure you use correct spelling and grammar and messaging is consistent across all of your online platforms.
Visuals, images, video and podcasts also tend to rate higher on search engine results.
Ensure your content features relevant keywords, which users are most likely to use when they are searching for your type of products or services.
Keep in mind, what you think is a keyword and what words people are actually searching for can be completely different. There are several ways you can verify what the most popular key words are.
Free information on hot keywords and trends can be found at Google Trends and Insights, Wordtracker and Ubersuggest. You can also type a search term straight into Google and see what predictive search options come up, choose a suggested search term and then directly below you can see how many search results there are.
You can also set up a Google Adwords account (for free), which helps you build keyword lists and use Google’s Contextual Targeting Tool. It will help you organise and structure keyword lists by building an Adword campaign. You won’t be billed unless you decide to proceed with the campaign and input your billing information.
Instead of single keywords, use longtailed keywords, but beware of over-stuffing your content with them. Only use keywords in appropriate context, otherwise you will be penalised by the search engine algorithms. Keywords do change over time, so review your keywords regularly.
9.    Keep your website up-to-date
Up-to-date web content not only looks professional and better connects with users, but will also help with SEO.
Make sure your content is always up-to-date, regularly renewed and accurate. Regularly check links and remove any that no longer work.
10. Evaluate
Evaluate the success of your website on an ongoing basis. Compare your results against your initial goals and objectives.
Website hosts can provide valuable information about your hits and the profile of how and when people are using your site. Monitor what pages people are viewing most and how long they are viewing them for. How long are they staying on your site? What are they downloading from your site?
You can also use Google Analytics, which gives an overview of the people engaging with your site.
So what are you waiting for? Get your kapow! on and let your website make a real impact.
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