blog

How Are Fivesite Clients Beating The Down Turn?

posted by: Heather  /  12 January 2009

2009 is already shaping up to be a busy and exciting year for Fivesite with enquiries at a record level. Our existing clients are continuing to grow and prosper too despite the current economic climate which is proving fatal for many other businesses.

You may wonder how this can be possible but it simply attests to the fact that the Internet is currently the most successful platform to generate business as well as maintain and promote your brand's message. And it doesn't break the bank. The digital activities possible such as online newsletters and blogs combined with the infinite marketing opportunities provided by social networks such as Facebook and video channels like YouTube means that contacting current and potential customers has never been easier, or cheaper!

Regardless of economic conditions it is important to know that companies can still do well, its simply about visibility.

Working with our clients we can increase their visibility by turning their online activities from passive to active. By doing this you can build a direct rapport between you and your target audience. For the consumer this is engaging, educating and will therefore stimulate their intent to buy.

An example of this would be to create your very own YouTube channel. Take a look at the channel we created for Discovery Foods at www.youtube.com/discoveryfoods The channel displays several videos with instructions on how to cook Mexican food with their products. It has been a runaway success with over 70,000 viewers!

YouTube is a hugely successful site and it was announced this week that even the Pope is getting involved! It is said that the Vatican is going to use the site in order to promote religious teachings by posting the Pope's sermons and blessings on the channel.

Recently the Monty Python lot created their own channel on YouTube, uploading loads of their best sketches. Within a matter of weeks the DVD climbed to No.2 on Amazon's Movies & TV bestseller list, with increased sales of 23,000 percent!

A new website worth mentioning:

www.twitter.com is a micro blogging site which is proving to be hugely successful! For example Stephen Fry, an avid user of twitter, has just reached 50,000 twitter followers on his account. Fry uses the blog to keep fans up to date with his movements and leans on his supporters for help and advice on problems he may face in his day to day life. After requesting advice on how to deal with a loose bat in his home he received 100s of replies within a matter of seconds by his fellow tweeters!
From a business perspective this heightened level of interactivity between customers could be hugely successful in relation to answering customer questions, technical support and advertising!

There are many other low cost ‘active' measures that can be taken such as SEO, PPC, SEM, email marketing, Facebook, online advertising, blogging and more. There's more information about these opportunities in our August and December blog entries so take a look.

I have only skimmed the surface of the infinite online opportunities we can provide to aid and promote your business so please don't hesitate to get in touch and we will be happy to help activate your digital profile!

To find out more contact us on 01234 292222.

Marketing Budget Been Cut?

posted by: Heather  /  02 December 2008

Online Advertising – A cost effective way to stay ahead during the credit crunch!

The credit crunch has put financial strain on everyone over the past few months and will no doubt continue to do so well into next year. For any business this is a worrying state of affairs and the importance to remain ahead is challenged by the lack of available funds to support this. The internet could be the answer.

The UK has the most active online population in Europe, with the highest average number of daily visitors (21.8m), the highest usage days per month (21 per user), and the highest average time spent per month per user (34.4 hours).

The average British internet user now spends 164 minutes online each day for personal use, the equivalent of over 41 days each year. This compares to 148 minutes spent watching television.

Key Differences Over Other Media

• Highly targeted
• Growing as opposed to contracting medium like magazines and TV
• Contextual and behavioral advertising capability
• Low cost reach and richness
• Highly measurable results
• Offers high and fast ROI 

The above chart clearly shows the leading online channels at this point in time although these are constantly changing.

In terms of what people are doing online there are four leading activities:

• The use of search engines
• Keeping in touch with family and friends
• Instant Messenging
• Gathering information

Evidently the main websites that need to be targeted are social networking sites and the big search engines.

Google is the largest search engine site, averaging 25.1 million UK visitors each month according to Nielson Online (Feb 2008). This is clearly an important site to target when planning any advertising strategy for your company. By simply being at the top of their results lists for example, will prove highly advantageous in attracting new customers for next to nothing cost wise. This means that when words associated with your brand are entered into the search engine we can make you appear in the top three results. Being in the top three results of a website such as google, which is favored by over half of web users, is a huge advantage over your competitors.

In a different field social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo are gaining numbers all the time and now over half of the UK’s 16 – 24 year olds actively contribute to and use social networking sites. This increase in online activity is interesting as it means that young people are turning their backs on television, radio and newspapers in favor of online communities which could mean the decrease in television’s power in the future. Advertising on these sites is incredibly cost affective due to the details that are available to us about the people we can target. This means less money wasted on advertising to the wrong people. This will obviously save you and your company a significant amount of money.

As you can see the internet is a force which needs to be reckoned with. The sheer number of active internet users is reason enough but regardless of this, getting a firm hold of the online market will be an important development for any company due to its growing influence and shaping of our society. The fact that it will be significantly cheaper than other advertising is a bonus that is perfect considering the current economic climate.

By utilizing Fivesite’s expertise and skill in online marketing you can breathe new life into your company’s future prospects, allowing you to continue to grow and develop despite current economic limitations.

To find out more contact us on 01234 292222.

Google, Yahoo, MSN... who's the real big daddy?

posted by: Alex  /  09 July 2008

There are three top search engines – Google, Google and Google.

Not quite true, but very nearly. In the UK 87% of searches are conducted via Google. Yahoo comes second and then you have the real also-rans.* And most of the also-rans piggy-back Google anyway.

Lesson number two:

If Google is king, then it’s the top three or four rankings within Google that scoop up all the business.

Think how you do searches yourself. Almost certainly via Google, and almost certainly you visit the top two or three sites displayed – depending on some key decision factors that we really do understand.

Back  to my point; imagine there are almost a billion people worldwide using the Internet everyday. How valuable to your brand and business do you think it would be if you were one of those first three choices? (Like our clients). You’ll need superlatives like ‘huge’, ‘substantial’, ‘enormous’.

Go to www.google.co.uk right now and type the words "Drainage", or maybe "Mexican Food" , "QS site support" or maybe something even more difficult "Flour for homebaking" and our clients' sites will appear in the top three results.

This is how and why companies you have never heard of last year have suddenly become global mega brands in a matter of months when traditionally it has taken decades to build global brands in this way.

To that end the most commonly offered services are:

First: Keyword research (86%)
Second: Competitor research (83%)
Joint third: Landing page development (81%)
Joint third: Copywriting (81%)

Hey, there’s something new. The biggest climber since last year is copywriting, which is why we now have the services of three of the UK’s top web copy writing specialists on board.

This increase reflects the growing importance of high quality content in driving good organic visibility on search engines. The technical side of SEO is still important, but it is not as easy now to make radical SEO improvements merely through technical adjustments as more companies are getting to grips with the basics.

As search engines increasingly rank sites based on their content, high-quality and original copy has become even more prominent. The good news is that good copy also works for humans (after all, they are your real prospects). Good copy also eases the way for valuable site links.

Social search activity is also a growing factor. As a result, we help our clients to create a presence on a range of well known social media sites, like Youtube, Facebook and Myspace. Check out www.youtube.com/discoveryfoods

By this time next year, there will doubtless be another site that will emerge as the new Facebook. Expect niche social networks to be much bigger very soon.
If you seriously want to get to the top of Google, then you are in the right place because we are seasoned pros at this kind of stuff.

* By the way, if you live in Russia then its Yandex that scores (which ironically translates to Yet Another Index).

To find out more contact us on 01234 292222.