A growing number of resort and spa destinations are spreading their wings and reaching a wider customer base via social media. With the help of social networking platforms they are broadening their branding efforts and connecting with potential customers that they might not have reached through traditional advertising.

World-famous mountain resort company Vail Resorts now pours 80% of their marketing budget into a social media strategy. With this, the company has launched three new websites each with their own Twitter account. Each website targets a slightly different audience but the one thing everyone shares is a love for skiing and snowboarding and now Vail Resorts has provided an outlet to keep everyone updated with their news and events.

‘The Canyons’ began using social media two years ago by launching an employee-run blog in conjunction with Twitter and Facebook accounts. They began to understand the power of social media when they held a contest giveaway on Facebook. Overnight their number of fans grew so quickly that they started to think about more social media strategies.

Vail Resorts, ‘The Canyons’ and many other resorts are now realising that social media is the only realm where anyone can do effective branding. With advertising space, you’re limited by size and cost whereas with social media you can actually talk about all things relevant to you, as much as you want and for very little cost.

The click of a mouse may now be just as powerful, if not more so, than word of mouth but just don’t forget that successful social media strategies do require dedication and consistency.

When it comes to quality versus quantity, quality should always take precedence. ‘The Canyons’ take on social media was growing with substance and that’s more important than growing in numbers, because numbers don’t guarantee staying power. Whilst you want a lot of online followers, you only really want to communicate with people who are genuinely interested in using your service.

Above all, know your audience. Like with any individual or company leveraging social media, resort owners must accept that they’re no longer in complete control of their brand. However, research and attention to detail goes a long way in monitoring how a business is perceived.

There’s a time to be nice and there’s a time to not. This idea of being disagreeable upsets many people, in particular the mediators out there and the people pleasers. Whilst I am inclined to roll my eyes, you may be inclined to use your charm and often you’re right. But sometimes, it’s not a matter of pleasing everyone and who can resist a good debate?

You see, I’m not afraid to be controversial when I’m writing. And you shouldn’t be either. Here’s why:

•    Do you remember learning about the “flight or fight response” at school? A time when something threatens you and your adrenalin starts pumping. Well, reading something that makes you mad is the print equivalent of being challenged by a rhinoceros. But the key difference is – instead of running away, you read more, and you read faster. You become engaged. You care. And that’s exactly the kind of reader every writer wants.

•    Strong opinions will make some people dislike you but it will also make some people LOVE you. As Kasabian said at last nights Brit awards: “You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.” Nicey-nice writing won’t offend anyone, but it won’t excite anyone either. Did you know that some of the best-selling books on Amazon are the ones that 50% of people hate?

•    When people read strong opinions, it forces them to think – if only to defend their own point of view. Never underestimate the value of getting people to think – especially when they’re thinking about you, your service or business.

•    People who feel strongly will step forward to tell you so. And that’s the best thing of all, because suddenly, you’ve achieved interactivity. That’s the first step in building a relationship with your potential customer.

Now I’m not suggesting you go out and be controversial for the sake of it, just remember that you don’t have to be “safe” all the time. Don’t have an allergic reaction to anything that might be the tiniest bit controversial. Otherwise, your words will be bland and boring, and you’ll send your readers to sleep.

Take a look at our own 'My Nasty,' Simon Cowell for example. A man best known for saying what he thinks even if it is slightly controversial. You've heard the boo's but have you also seen the amount of fans he has? He gets more respect for saying what he thinks rather than saying what he thinks people want to hear.

Writing should be vibrant and lively with strong statements. You have to understand that you will cause some people to disagree and if you disagree with this blog, then good!

Website content is the foundation of everything you hope to achieve through online marketing. I think we’ve even mentioned on this blog before, that content is King. Your website should contain content that is engaging, informative and easy to read.

However, if you need to improve your conversion rate, you content has to contain a much more focused message. This way you will be able to engage your visitors and get them to take your desired action. When you’re thinking about what message to give, ask yourself what message do I want my visitors to receive?

There’s a fine line between getting visitors to do what you want them to do - sign-up for a newsletter, purchase a product, etc. - and what the visitors themselves want to do. You have to create content that converts.

So how do you do that?

1. If your company is good at something, prove it! This means providing strong customer testimonials and case studies. Why not allow your customers to leave reviews on products? Visitors won’t just take your word for it anymore, that want to know what everyone else has to say.  
2. Think about your audience and create messages that appeal to them. When you write, keep them in mind all the time. People won’t buy what they don’t understand. Explain things in a language your visitor understands; don’t presume they’re an expert.
3. Use video. We’ve talked about the growing importance of video many times recently and this is because around 80% of your traffic will click on a video more than any other type of link. Video will increase your response rates.
4. Forget ‘We’ ‘Our’ ‘Us,’ it’s all about ‘You’ and ‘Your.’ Keep focused on the customer at all times.
5. Put your contact information where people can see it. Don’t make it hard for them to call or email you. Include this information where it can be clearly seen, throughout your navigation.
6. Focus on customer challenges, especially if your customer is coming to you looking for an answer to a question or solution to a problem.

People often assume that once content is written, then it’s done, finished with. This is definitely not the case! How often do you want visitors to return to your site? Well, then that’s how often you have to update your content.

If visitors come to your site and find the same thing as last time, chances are they’re not going to be around for long. Bounce rates will increase and your conversion rates will drop.

Keep in mind you have two audiences visiting your site: potential customers and search engine spiders. You need to make your content relevant for both. And the search engine spider loves nothing more than fresh content. If you’re wondering how you can update your content everyday, the answer is blogs. It’s the simplest way for you to upload new content and establish yourself as an expert at your field at the same time.

With all this talk of Twitter, Facebook and social media, you may think that blogging is a thing of the past. Well don’t! Blogging can in fact be a part of social media because the ability to comment on blog posts leads to engagement between the author and user.

Blogs can still drive big-time traffic to websites and an example of this has recently been illustrated by the launch of e-commerce site, Alice.com.

Alice.com sells everyday household items right from the manufacturers, rather than through middleman retailers. When it launched in June 2009, by July it had doubled its traffic to 387,000 unique visitors, according to Compete.

Guess where the majority of that traffic came from? Well, according to Compete, it came from word-of-mouth from blogs. In fact, its number one traffic source was Blogger.com. Not Twitter. Not Facebook. Not search.

Blogger accounted for 18% of Alice.com's referral traffic in July and on top of that, Compete says Alice's conversion rate jumped to 3.5% in July as well.

Of course, you have to give bloggers something to talk about to get valuable blog traffic. It's no different than getting people to talk about you on social networks or through any other form of word-of-mouth marketing. It starts with your product. Clearly Alice.com, had something that many people wanted to talk about.

As long as you can keep your bloggers (consumers) happy, your business too could enjoy a successful future.

1. What’s your goal?

Make sure that when you redesign your website you keep what is important – not the colour or font but the increase in visitors, leads and customers. Focus on the RESULTS you want. So stop worrying about a colour scheme and start thinking up ideas to improve your online marketing.

2. Protect your assets

A website redesign can actually have a negative impact on your marketing results. There will be things about your existing website that your customers will actually like or automatically associate with you.  You need to find out what those assets are: great content, keywords you rank for, inbound links to individual pages, conversion tools? You need to protect these during the redesign, remember that you still have a say and "web design experts" are often just that; experts in design, not marketing.

3. Content that attracts and converts

To quote Seth Godin: "I'm going to go out on a limb and beg you not to create an original design. There are more than a billion pages on the web. Surely there's one that you can start with? ...Your car isn't unique, and your house might not be either."

If you have a tight budget, you’d be better investing in great copy rather than a fancy design. This is what people care about the most; this is how they find out about you and what you do. That doesn’t mean having a blank website; the design should still be good but not necessarily unique and expensive.

4.  Content Building

By putting an ongoing content building strategy in place you will be able to build and build your website and keep it full of fresh content.  A 100-page website is likely to attract more visitors than a 10 page website and therefore growing the business quicker. Obviously don’t throw in 100 pointless pages - make sure these pages are slowly fitted in and the content is interesting and relevant. If you don’t fancy writing thousands of words of content then blogs and news feeds are quick and easy ways to create more content.

5. Don’t forget the basics

Any website built today should always include the basics: a blog, RSS, landing pages, SEO.  They’re inexpensive, and they’re effective.  A blog is a great way to create content on an ongoing basis, RSS allows some content from your website to be automatically pushed out to other websites, landing pages actually get value out of your traffic and SEO gets your new website the attention it deserves.

One of the most important things about being a blogger is to make sure that you’re unique.

This a massively popular market, so you really do need to stand out. There’s no point in being a little fish in a big pond, you need to be the big fish.

To do this, you will need to get your readers to connect with you in a way that makes them want to visit time and time again. There may be plenty of other bloggers out there talking about the exact same thing as you, but it is your identity and style that makes you stand out.

Essentially, developing your blogging identity involves branding yourself to your readers and visitors. Your readers will immediately associate characteristics with you and your blog which means that people will actually read your posts; they will wants to see what you have to say.

Here a few tips on how you can find your own blogging identity:

 Don’t expect your blogging identity to be developed overnight. You have to work out what works for you and what generates a response from your reader.

 Think about what makes you different, what makes you stand out. Develop these features, emphasise them if you need to but make sure you stay consistent.

 Now you have to tell your readers that this is what sets your blog apart from others. Do you want to be the girl with amazing photography or the guy with the tongue-in-cheek content, when you decide - tell your readers.

 If you find it hard to differentiate yourself, ask the opinion of other bloggers, your readers or even friends who can be completely honest with you.

 What is the best thing about your blog – your quirky writing style, your amazingly designed blog or the huge amount of followers you have?

 Think about your potential target market and how they would respond to your identity. You have to keep them in mind at all times to make sure they continually fit together.

 Think about your long term goals, what is the purpose of your blog? Make sure your identity helps you achieve your goals, not the opposite.

 If you’re completely stuck then take a look at some of your favourite blogs, what is it that you like? The style of writing? Their unique approach? Don’t copy the blog but use it to help you find your own identity.

Visa Europe say that yesterday, Monday November 30th was the busiest ever day for online shopping in Europe. Over 3,000 transactions were carried out every minute on a Visa card across Europe yesterday alone.

The volume of transactions was also expected to increase by 13% compared with the same day of last year. This figure was in fact a whopping 16% growth rate for ecommerce, despite overall consumer spending being down to 7% in general.

Around 4.5 million transactions took place on November 30th, with the busiest period for online sales around lunchtime and another peak around 7pm.  Over the course of the day, approximately €220,000 was spent on Visa cards every minute.

Last year, December 1st was the busiest day for online sales with over €280 million spent on Visa cards across Europe. The continued growth in online spend is further shown by the fact that spend on Visa cards has already surpassed 2008’s peak on November 2nd, 2009.

Visa bases its predictions on up to the minute spending data and previous years’ Christmas spending trends. Over €1 in every €9 spent in Europe is on a Visa card, making this data one of the most reliable indicators of trends in consumer spending, Visa has said in a release.

On the High Street, the last Friday or Saturday before Christmas is usually the busiest shopping day but with Christmas falling on a Friday this year, Visa Europe predicts the busiest day will actually be Wednesday, December 23. Visa expects to process over 27 million transactions across Europe worth around €1.4 billion on this day alone. This represents a 9% growth in spend on 2008. The busiest time is expected to be from 11am to 12pm on Thursday, December 24 when Visa will process up to 850 transactions per second, compared to 731 in 2008.

Speaking with a Director at a leading credit card brand, it would appear that the trend for online spending is set to continue outweighing high street splurging.  Many individuals are currently being more savvy with their money, paying off debts and saving their salaries in the run up to Christmas.  It is now common for smart shoppers to head to the high street to assess and select luxury goods in the flesh, then return home to find a better deal online. With the vast array of comparison sites, options to negotiate and the comfort of shopping from our own home, it is inevitable that the trend to spend online will continue to rise.

It gives me great pride to announce that last night, Bryan Adams, Managing Director was awarded Young Entrepreneur of The Year at the DLIB Livercool Awards.   

As I’m sure you’ll agree, this award was greatly deserved by Bryan - a true business leader that has made great waves in the creative industry and grown his vision into the huge success that today, is Ph.Creative. 

Ph.Creative would like to express sincere thanks to everyone who voted, and supported us, and say that we are proud to have established long-term relationships with all of our clients and associates. 

I’d like to express my congratulations to both the Ph.Creative team, and to Bryan – a creative genius, an inspirational leader, and a great friend. 

May our dream continue…

What everyone asks first is, how many visitors did we get to our website? 

No matter how long you’ve had your website, your analytics tool, who you are or what you do! This is always the first question, your natural instinct.  So let’s look at a couple of variations: 

Visits 

Also be known as ‘total visitors’.  Simply put how many people visited your website in a given timeframe.   But, in this metric the same person could visit you website 5 times in a day and it would be counted five times.  This leads me onto... 

Unique Visits 

This is basically home many ‘unique’ people have visited your website in a given timeframe.  So, it doesn’t take into account repeat visit, well it does but it won’t include users who visit your website, say 5 times in a day. 

For example: I visit the BBC website 5 times in a day (to keep on top of the sport of course!). This would show as: 

• Visits:     5
• Unique Visits:    1 

I do this for a week: 

• Visits:    35
• Unique Visits:    1 

Why should you care and what you need to care about? 

They provide the foundation of the activity coming to your website.  I personally consider ‘unique visitors’ as more important of the two, as this in ‘new’ people coming to you shop, business.  How do they react, what actions do they take, how quickly do they leave, and a host other insights can be gained. However loyalty and ‘recency’ are also really important in building relationships and selling more – but we’ll be talking about this in the next week or two. 

So, pretty straightforward but you’d be amazed how people can get confused, so let’s all get on the ‘same page’ and I’ll define some more basics over the next week or so and then we can get down to some real conversion busting tips. 

Google Dave 

PS...Remember post your comments; let me know what you’d like to know.   

Saturday the 31st October and I wake up rather excited.  This Saturday, wasn’t going to be any ordinary day. This day would be the day I abseil 120ft down the world famous Liver building. I peer out the window, no sign of rain and not too windy, it’s a good start. I dig out my trainers (not seen them in a while!) put on some comfy clothes and suddenly started to feel a twinge of nerves. I drag my boyfriend away from his PS3 (for moral support of course!) and off we head to meet my fellow ph dare devil buddies. As fate would have it, we meet in a bar around the corner – needless to say, the temptation for a drink is high but sadly prohibited. I guess if anyone’s going to jump off one of the UK’s tallest buildings, they may as well have a clear head!  Feeling pretty calm now initial nervs have gone away, Helen seems confident too, as for Steve, I’ve got the suspicion he’d rather be elsewhere!  

At registration we’re given a rather fetching black t-shirt to wear and some sweets. These soften the blow that we’ve got a 2 hour delay! The two hour wait allows for plenty of time to really realise what we’ve got ourselves into and watch the other participants. No one appears to be falling to their death, so all look’s good to me. There’s a large crowd of people watching, a DJ playing and a generally nice ambience to the day. Before we know it Group 2 at 2pm - aka team ph is up.

Once at the top of the building (but still inside) we’re fitted out in a harness, a helmet and some ridiculously big gardening style gloves!? After the long wait, I’m very eager to get it over with, I’m feeling decidedly confident about the whole thing. Helen, Steve and myself are lead outside on the top of the building to wait out turn. Helen goes first and I watch her disappear to begin her decent, I’m eager to have my turn. Steve lets me go next, he’s looking a bit a peaky and I wonder if he’s going to bail? Just then a fully grown, super tough looking man comes barging past us close to tears ‘Sod that’ he says! Uh oh, is it really that scary?

It’s finally my turn, a skinny little guy sucking a lolly attaches me to my ropes and instructs me to back my heels up the edge…it is the most unnatural thing to back up to the edge of a 120ft building! But once I’m over the edge, I’m loving it! It’s amazing to be that high up. I take in the views as I go down but it’s over in minutes, gutted. I want to do it again! I see Helen once I’m back on the ground and am glad to see Steve made it too! We’ve all done it!!

We all agree it was a brilliant experience a fantastic opportunity to raise money for The Stroke Association.

For our next challenge we’re thinking bigger and better….a sky dive? Watch this space…