When websites were first going mainstream in Australia, the word  ‘strategy’ was a bit strange and unknown.  It was used by high-level brand managers from the old print / radio / outdoor media advertising crowd but wasn’t really applied so much for websites.  At that time, hardly any other designers knew how powerful Google was (including those old school ad people) and it was really just a matter of reading the Google patent docs to find out what Google wanted.  You’d then put your optimised web pages up (Home, About Us, Services, Contact, Privacy, Terms –  remember those basic sites?!) get some good titles and keywords in there and voila – huge traffic, much enquiries.

Not so simple today hey?!  Now we have external signals to contend with and a complex digital system with many more website and marketing tasks to attend to – and a lot more competition.

This is why strategy is now standard.  We need to spend time on what’s most effective.  Let me walk you through an example that shows the value of strategy. Continue reading →

Have you noticed competition is heating up?  If the number of ads I’m seeing on the socials are anything to go by it seems like the pool must be getting smaller with the same number of people fishing.  Many organisations are now putting extra effort into marketing.  For small business owners it’s quite often social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn that get attention first.  Usually a page and organic posting and then moving on to advertising.  Whilst there will always be something new on the list of social media options, remember that social media is designed to be ‘social’ and marketing fundamentals still apply if you are using social channels for business.

So lets look at a couple of situations I see that can easily be improved when using social media as part of your online marketing strategy. Continue reading →

The launch of a new or redesigned website is a great milestone for web developers, project managers and site owners but website managers and digital marketers know the fun is just beginning.  The success of a site is heavily influenced by what happens in the months after a website launch.  Business owners understand this, they’re usually right across what everyone else is doing online (competitors for example), but most are too busy to implement and there are so many things to do.  We see bits and pieces going on in all the social channels but in our experience few are managing their website well and even fewer have any clear goal overall that ties together all of their marketing efforts.   So we often see websites languishing in the ‘I’ll get to it soon’ basket and social media gets the most attention because it’s easy to access.  But is this strategy effective? Continue reading →

HINT: Google search visibility = enquiries

If you haven’t had a website that sits at the top of page one you probably don’t quite understand the reality and value in being there.  What’s so great about being up the top of page one?  Well, if it’s page one for a search that’s relevant to your business then visibility = enquiries.

Google organic results are trusted (because organic = not advertising) and those trusted results generate lots of enquiries from people who are actively looking for what you do.  People searching are usually doing so because they are ready to buy. But isn’t it all just too hard?  Actually, no. Continue reading →