I recently had the fantastic opportunity to present at The Woo – Bambi Gordon’s Big Fat Marketing Day for Small Business.
I have embellished on the presentation content and uploaded it to SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/AndyLoft/demystifying-the-web
Make sure you check it out and don’t forget to leave me a comment!
Thanks to Bambi and Greg for their encouragement!
Andy Jones
Technical Team Leader
The Loft Group
Thanks to Clare Rowlands, Senior Graphic Designer for writing this article.
Branding is not just a logo. The logo is incredibly important as it is the face of your business, but branding is also about all the supporting graphics, colour palettes, tone of voice and personality that a business uses to differentiate themselves from their competition.
Your brand needs to:
Before talking to a design team, you can ask some questions of your business:
You can use the answers to these questions to help your design team understand the direction your business is heading in, and develop a brand that is relevant and exciting.
Thanks to Andy Jones, Technical Team Leader for writing this article.
Those new to marketing on the web are often confused about SEO. In this blog post I will simplify and demystify SEO and address some common misinterpretations.
First up, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation.
Secondly, SEO is the process of optimising your website to better cater for search engines.
SEO does NOT involve the optimisation of search engines, only the optimisation of your website!
SEO can be explained in 3 simple points:
Using these points as a guideline, I will demonstrate the process:
Now you’re probably asking yourself “how can my business website rankings be improved?” or “how can my business website get listed on page 1 of the search engine results page?”
As a Search Engine Optimiser I can tell you now that in order to rank on page 1, there are many factors that contribute to a healthy ranking. The main factor is that search engines make their money by giving away limited information on the way their search engine behaves. After all, it would be commercial suicide for you to go blurting out your internal business information / trade secrets.
The factors that Search Engine Optimisers have uncovered to date can be broken down into 2 categories; On-page SEO and off-page SEO.
On-page SEO refers to the code that holds your website together and the textual content within the website. A few positive on-page SEO factors are:
Keywords!!!
A few positive off-page SEO factors are:
Page Rank
Hyperlink Text
Site Age
Before I conclude this blog post, I thought that it would be interesting to point out that end users often take search engine results as gospel. So much to the point where end users may modify their original search term because they feel that their search term was not descriptive enough or incorrect.
I hope my examples were clear and easy to follow, if your head is spinning, feel free to contact me on andy@theloftgroup.com.au
Thanks, and happy web browsing 
Thanks to Andy Jones, Technical Team Leader for writing this article.
I have been using the Internet and visiting websites for over 14 years. As a keen sportsman and avid golfer, the first website I ever frequently revisited was www.golf.com. The content on this site included PGA tournament results, news headlines, equipment reviews, educational resources and an online golf game. A leaderboard displaying the best daily scores enticed me back to the website, as I vowed to claim the bragging rights associated with being ensconced firmly atop the rankings.
Although I was 14 years of age, I understood the underlying concept. The www.golf.com website marketing team wanted to keep me on their website for as long as possible and keep me interested in returning to their website. There are a heap of golf websites online, but the team at www.golf.com had the best strategy to maintain user interest and website revisits. The key ingredient in their digital marketing arsenal was INTERACTIVITY.
It is a common occurrence to see a website sport fantastic search engine rankings and a high bounce rate due to the lack of interesting content or interactivity on their website. I want to step you through some crucial weapons that will help maintain revisiting users through interactivity.
Host a blog and ask for user feedback. This is a simple and effective way to prevent your website from becoming a ghost-town. Provide information to your audience on how you can help them achieve their aspirations. Provide your audience with interesting and engaging content. Ask them questions and encourage them to respond. Why not even take a back seat and make your audience become the contributors? Ask for topics and set discussion themes. For best results, you’ll need to respond as quickly as possible, otherwise the novelty can easily wear off.
Run a webinar on a relevant topic to your industry. Webinars do not have to be formal, in fact you can pre-create a webinar. A fantastic website to help you setup your own webinar is www.slideshare.com.
Encourage audience interactivity on your website by providing them with tools. Loft client Endeavour Financial Services have loan calculators, while Loft client OptimumHMS has an energy profile. Loft client Tom Smitheringale of One Man Epic has expedition tools on his website, informing users about the climate and conditions associated with his record breaking North Pole expedition. If you can provide your audience with interactive features that aid your sales process, you’re saving yourself time and money.
Share your information using social media. If Facebook was a country, it would be the 10th largest in the world. With this in mind, you should snare the opportunity to share your content with an audience that substantial. You can use Digg, StumbleUpon or Twitter to achieve the same result. Establish a list of followers, and you’re on your way.
While interactivity is essential in creating return visitors, you should also ensure your content is written for PEOPLE and not SEARCH ENGINES. Too often I stumble across a website that has been keyword stuffed to take advantage of search engine algorithms. The SERP results might be fantastic, but if the website content is boring, this can contribute to a high bounce rate.
Last of all, proof reading your content is essential. Simple spelling mistakes such as ‘thankyou’ (sic) or using the wrong variation of there/their/they’re even your/you’re is enough to discourage a user from revisiting your website.
With these tactics in mind, feel free to contact The Loft Group for advice on how to turbo-charge your website and hit the ground with the wheels spinning.
Today sees Gav and Nick in Sydney, accompanied by Mark Stewart of Classic Contractors.
The lads are attending the Small Business Champion Awards at The Westin.
Best of luck to the Loft but even more so Nick who has the opportunity to walk away as the Young Entrepreneur of 2009 Australia-wide! Our fingers are crossed for you mate!
The Brew has been a fantastic experience. It is encouraging that there are so many entrepreneurs thriving in Perth amid economic uncertainty. This experience is proving to pay dividends, meeting many enthusiastic business owners and company employees. The Loft have established some valuable B2B links which will be mutually beneficial moving forward.
I had an interesting conversation with a NetRegistry Marketing team member. Originally coming from a boutique agency background as a web designer (helping to promote other businesses), she has used her industry skills to step into an event management role. I find it fascinating that her skillset established through web design has been compatible with her new career path.
Back on topic, the “Branding… There is more to it than meets they Eye” presentation was successful. Graeme’s intervention proved to be a big help in providing a client’s view in the branding process. Nick confidently presented his involvement in creating the OptimumHMS brand, explaining the step by step process in a revealing ‘behind the scenes’ case study. The imagery used in the presentation was very powerful in representing the problem -> solution based exposé. We received some promising feedback after the presentation, with an influx of traffic at the booth. We are looking forward to participating again, whether it be at The Brew or at other conventions / exhibitions.
Over and out.
Andy
Technical Team Leader
Today sees The Loft Group at Challenge Stadium for The Brew – Small Business Expo.
The Loft Group will be manning their booth, along with 40 other B2B exhibitors.
The Loft Group Managing Director, Gavin Russell and Creative Director, Nick Williams have already setup the booth and are very excited about the opportunities today will bring.
Creative Director, Nick Williams and Technical Director, Andy Jones in tandem with Optimum Health and Management Services Proprietor, Graeme Wright will engage the audience in their “Branding… There is more to it than meets the Eye” presentation, scheduled for 2:30pm.
In website related news, the Portfolio has been updated with a collection of our latest work. Click here to view.
The Loft Group are excited about today’s proceedings, if you’re available, come down and make yourself known at The Brew.
The Loft Group Team
The Australian Small Business Awards are designed to reward the contribution made by the small business community in Australia. As the winner of the Western Australia Information Technology category, The Loft Group will now represent the state and progress to the national level where our nomination will be judged against other state winners. Nick Williams will be attending the gala presentation to be held on Saturday, 14th November at The Westin Sydney.
Everyone in our organisation is extremely excited about the opportunity to represent the state and achieve national recognition in the information technology category. The Loft Group team is focused on maintaining the commercial effectiveness of our work and adding value for the client through clear thinking and compelling creativity. A key element for our company has been the investment made towards developing an extensive knowledge base, experienced personnel and the infrastructure necessary to meet our objectives. All elements of our business have been structured to achieve the highest client service standards and deliver measurable results.
The Loft Group is a creative agency. We do everything you could ever need from a creative agency, and we do it very well indeed. Our forté is in identifying opportunity. With an ethos of close client collaboration we get to know your business and assist with positioning your brand through traditional and digital media alike.
Congratulations Nick, additional to our business achievement Nick has been rewarded as the West Australian Young Entrepreneur 2009. Nick will be acknowledged as a young entrepreneur at the national presentation evening for the Australian Small Business Awards where his nomination will be judged to determine the national winner.
The statistics against small businesses achieving success are well known, add a young entrepreneur developing his dream in a financial climate not seen or experienced before and surely most would bet on his demise? Nick has remained resilient, showing strength of character and the determination necessary to achieve success.
“Building client relationships is a strong value and a priority of my business. These relationships are based on respect for a client’s needs. This value is further enhanced by an over arching desire to maintain a unique, top quality product. This has only been made possible by surrounding myself with a great team of professional people who motivate and inspire me to achieve my goals.” Nick Williams
The Loft Group has built a reputation for delivering a suite of services that compliments Nick’s creative talents and business management style, he has provided clients with a level of intimacy and accountability rarely achieved, but too often promised.
So you’ve taken the plunge and invested a portion of your company’s revenue on a website. The design is fantastic, and there is a real buzz around the office about the way your brand is represented on the worldwide web. Your customers are fascinated by the functionality and are empowered to use your website… but can prospective customers find your new online home by performing a simple search for your company name using their favourite search engine?
Search Engine Optimisation and Marketing are essential aspects of your website project, but can sometimes be removed from the project scope in order to address budgetary concerns. The short term savings you may realise through eliminating SEO from your project may ultimately cost you in the long term.
If your prospective customers cannot find your company online, they may well find their way to your competition instead. By underestimating the importance of SEO, you have given away a free kick and scored a goal for the opposition before the match has even started.
The sales leads and enquiries generated by ranking on the first page of search engine results are likely to not only outweigh the costs of SEO, but help your business grow amid economic uncertainty.
By using The Loft Group’s proven methods and best SEO practices encapsulated within our Stimulate™ package, your customers will know where to find you. Contact us today for more information.
Andy Jones
Website Services Manager
The Loft Group