The National Legal Trade Exhibition came to the BT Convention Centre last week, and Ph.Creative were of course one of the top local businesses to join the action.

This was a great opportunity to showcase our distinctive brand, the expertise of our ingenious creative team, and get out there and network with the people!

 

Always one for challenging the norm, and in true Ph-style, never being partial to a table-clothed trestle table, a few leaflets and branded biros, I donned my creative cap and got to thinking outside the box.  Over a coffee-fuelled brainstorm with the team, we pondered over a concept for our exhibition that would really make us stand out from the crowd.

 

As a surprisingly enthusiastic response was drawn from the childlike cartoon sketch of my exhibition stand vision…  

 

 

 

Ph.Creative Surgery was born...

Free IT Health Checks for those sick and tired of ineffective SEO and suffering aches and pains with online marketing strategies.

And who better to provide Analytics Assessments, Website Consultations and a serious injection of fun, than the inspirational mastermind of Search, ‘Dr’. Google Dave. (Who was more than happy to be assisted by his three networking nurses!)

Ironically, Dr. Google Dave came down with Swine Flu (no, really!  Get Well Soon Dave!)  and so Dr. On-Call Matt donned the white coat, with great success.

 

As the exhibition visitors filtered in, Ph.Creative Surgery was in full flow, consulting and advising on website effectiveness and prescribing remedies for the ailments of unsuccessful online marketing tools to the masses.

Bryan Adams presented yet another outstanding seminar on Online Marketing Tactics, which further prompted some technophobic patients to bob along for a check-up.  And if one mastermind lecture wasn’t enough, the medical team took a mid-afternoon respite to attend Sales Guru - Andy Bounds’ enlightening seminar, which was nothing short of inspirational team-building.

Diagnosis: Another great day at the office!

Having made a memorable impact (be that positive or negative!? You decide) Ph.Fever was certainly in the air!

If you missed out on your check-up this time, fear not... it won’t be long before the Doctor is back in town! (Or in case of an epidemic, give us a call!)

                                                                

 

 

 

 

 

When it comes to getting your email to the necessary person, it is no longer the case of contending with the PA. Unfortunately the biggest problem you’re going to have now is that your email will be automatically flagged as spam.

Luckily for you, I’ve come up with ten tips so you can try to make your email bulletproof.

1. If you get no response to your email, how can you ever be sure it was really delivered? Instead of sending a follow-up, which is usually going to get on the recipients’ nerves, ask the recipient in the first email to get back to you with a quick note. Just letting you know that they have received the email indicates that no instant reply to your email is necessary.

2. Always keep the senders name and email the same, if you change it suddenly then you might not be recognised and consequently you will be named as spam. This means you won’t be able to contact them again.

3. Never put a link before the important information, otherwise they’ll be sent to a page and they’ll have no idea why. As soon as they get back to your message they may report you as spam.

4. Follow up your email with a letter to their postal address. In the letter, refer back your email with the date and time it was sent. This will establish contact and hopefully start building a relationship.

5. Always communicate with your recipient personally. Spam-filters will automatically award emails without a name with spam score points (By default, this spam filter flags messages with a score greater than 5 as spam.) So make sure you provide your recipient with an exact name and contact information.

6. Offer subscription to your newsletter and let the recipient know when to expect it. That way they know when your emails are coming and they will know what it is straight way. They will also become accustomed to receiving your emails at that specific time every week.

7. Always insert the current date in the content. When the date isn’t mentioned or it is provided incorrectly, the newsletter will be given spam score points.

8. Make sure you verify your subscribers with signup confirmation. This means that when your user subscribes to your mailing list, they will be sent an automatic email to confirm their subscription. This way you avoid contacting incorrect email addresses, which may lead to being reported as spam.

9. If your newsletter has too many closed tags, too many graphic images or structural tables then it is going to score many spam points. Besides which, many readers use Outlook, which automatically blocks images. If the users don’t understand the mail then they’re most likely to report is as spam. Therefore keep your newsletter simple. Colorful backgrounds, tables, JavaScript’s and web forms shouldn’t be in newsletters.

10. Finally, check out some of tools and services available online to test your spam score. They’ll be able to check through the content of your email and report back with your score. It will take a bit of time but if your email has over 5 points, you can be sure it won’t even reach your recipient’s inbox.

Facebook Ads, or Facebook Advertising to those who aren’t up-to-date with the lingo, is a new revolution which gives businesses, both small and large, the chance to communicate with millions of people worldwide.

Setting up a Facebook page is no longer the extent of what the social networking site can do for your business. Facebook Ads will allow you to target your specific demographics from over 300,000,000 members worldwide.

For example, if your business sells luxury handbags then you would be able to advertise specifically to all women, aged 25-40. Facebook Ads also uses keyword associations, so expect to be reaching all women who mention their love of fashion on their own Facebook pages. The wide range of data available is an amazing tool for the right advertiser.

It is also important to remember to feature an image in your advert as this is proven to attract more attention and ultimately, more clicks.

Unlike typical paid search advertising, you won’t be bidding for keywords; you’ll be bidding on the demographic of the user.

Whilst this level of demographic filtering is just at the start for Facebook, it can still allow you to accurately target your advertising. However, in typical Facebook style expect this to be developed pretty quickly so who knows where this could lead to.

So, why use Facebook Ads?

- You can target millions of your target market with the click of a button.
- You will increase your CTR (click through rate), attracting many more visitors to your site
- You should see an increase in the number of customers you are able to attract
- You’re going to be up against far less competition than you would be in the paid search area

Hopefully by now, the optimist in you should be jumping for joy but be warned you should approach Facebook Ads with realistic expectations. It may not work for you straight away but don’t be instantly deterred, give it some time and then try again. Creativity is key; you want to encourage Facebook users to engage with you and if you manage that, well, you’ll be basking in Facebook gold.

In recent months the Search Engines business has become a little more difficult for Google with the release of Microsoft Bing, the Microsoft / Yahoo deal and newer players to the market such as the revamped Ask Jeeves and Wolfram Alfa. Google also faced competition from Facebook with their acquisition of the much heralded Friend Feed, praised for its ‘real time search’ engine.

In many ways although Google have been dominant in market share, when it comes to innovation they have consistently been a poor performer, especially over the last few months. Back in May Google Founder Larry Page even admitted that they had fallen behind the likes of Twitter that boasts 45 million users worldwide.

However today Google lifted the lid on its answer to all of the above, Google Caffeine, as it has been knick named. The change lies under the hood of Google and as such we will not see any change to the way that Google looks. Although still in testing phase, it is the beginning of a major change to the architecture of Google providing the “first step in improving the speed, accuracy and comprehensiveness of search results".

The Golden Goose of the Search engines has always been relevance. This is the reason why real time search is such a popular concept. Its lets you know what is happening right now on any given subject. That is what Google promise to offer with Google Caffeine.

While only in testing at the moment this new development promises to put Microsoft’s Bing in the shade. The trouble with Bing is that is it an alternative to something that users are happy with. Can Google deliver on its promise of something new?

Why not try for yourself and let us know www2.sandbox.google.com

Conversion is a fickle subject. You may not know this but, conversion rests upon opinion and shrewd judgement rather than figures. I'd like to share something I’ve learned about conversion which you may find interesting, it is a little tip bit I’ve used for some time now to increase website conversion. 

To increase conversion you take on the arduous task of testing and tweaking, a paradox which sometimes leads to dead ends. Testing and tweaking is a practical solution to increase conversion when you're already making sales. However, if you're not making sales then you need to take a step back, take an objective look at your content and ask yourself “am I connecting with the readers key needs?” and “am I capturing and engaging the reader?” or “am I sparking their interest?”

There is a common theory that on average a reader will view a product 7 times before making a purchase. It is no surprise then that long copy converts, but lots of content makes no improvement if it doesn’t engage the user in a way that captivates and stimulates their interest.

To stimulate the reader and increase conversion I use what I like to call the “lightbulb moment”.

The lightbulb moment happens when you spark the interest of your potential customers by telling them something about the product/topic that they didn't know. To achieve the lightbulb moment we need to take an objective look at the product we’re selling and compare it to the market we’re selling to and more importantly, what will stimulate the customers interest and spark the lightbulb moment.

The way I like to do this is to create a list under the concept of “you may not know…”

So to do this, visualise the product, think about the market and write down some bullet points.

you may not know: “you can actually…….”

you may not know: “it’s actually really simple and easy to…”

you may not know: “that other products don't xxxxx because….”

The whole idea is that debunking the readers micsconceptions with your positive facts about the product/topic stimulates them to understand that you and this product know better, that you understand it more and that you know how to make their life easier. This happens subconsciously and leaves the reader gagging for more information.

Capturing the readers attention like this leaves them with a desire for more information, you’ve effectively hooked the reader into a position were they want to be persuaded, so now it’s time to engage them again and again by bombarding them with more facts and give them a proposition or an offer they can’t refuse.

By creating and following a structure around conversion for each webpage of a site you can more effectively split test conversion because you will understand that each paragraph in the content has a purpose which is aimed increasing and developing conversion.

Do you understand conversion?

Head over to http://www.ph-creative.com and drop us line so we can give you the wealth of insider experience we have been using to increase clients conversion for years.

PS* We just updated the PH University! http://www.ph-creative.com/login.phuse 

To promote a website you need backlinks. Google and other search engines use backlinks as in indication of trust, when a backlink is found it counts the backlink as a kind of "vote" for the website. The more backlinks you have the better chance you have at reaching page 1 on Google for your chosen keywords.

Here are three tried and tested methods you can personally use to gain some backlinks for your website.

 

Article Marketing

Article marketing is in my experience one of the most popular and effective method of building backlinks without a budget to spend. There are many advantages to article marketing.

Advantages fo article marketing;

• Very relevant backlinks
• You can create the content yourself
• Content resides on a trusted domain
• Article directories allow other webmasters to reprint your article with the resource box intact which means more backlinks for you.

Google loves article directories, especially reputable directories like Ezine articles where each article is reviewed to make sure it enhances the users experience.

Google will reward you for submitting articles to article directories.

Articles should be compelling and always lead the reader to your call to action with a link to your website. Provide them with something they need, answer their questions. For lead generation a good article should always leave the reader wanting more.

 

Blog commenting

Blog commenting is a strategy where you search for blogs related to your niche and leave a respectful and relevant comment with a link to your website. A lot of blogs will allow you to leave these comments but most blogs attach a "nofollow" attribute to any URL in comments. The nofollow tag stops any PageRank or “votes” flowing to the target website so placing a link there provides no SEO value, however, a good well placed link can provide traffic and a way for Google to find your website.

Blog commenting is a good strategy but too much spam can have an adverse effect on your website, be careful.

 

Email Other Webmasters

Gather URLs to relevant and well trusted websites so you can write emails to them explaining the benefits of linking to your site and vise versa.

Just a basic email telling them how great their website is and how he/she can increase the page rank of their website if you link together.

Reciprocal linking is not as powerful as one way linking but these types of links are very relevant to your site if done properly and I believe are one of the best techniques for promotion and gaining the link juice you need to bolster your search engine rankings.

Things are really starting to get exciting here in the office today. With tomorrow’s Internet Marketing seminars almost fully booked, there’s a real buzz of excitement around the place.

We’re not the only ones, media websites all over the web reporting the run-up over the last few weeks. (The latest articles coming from Click Liverpool and the Liverpool Daily Post.)

The attraction is clear: 3 Internet Marketing seminars; 6 speakers and tonnes of information to boost your business online, all for free.

Seats are nearly fully booked, so to try and grab yourself one, head over to our booking page for more information.

It’s going to be great tomorrow, I can’t wait, and hopefully I’ll see you there!

In the last few weeks, more and more statistics have revealed a surge in people shopping and buying things on the internet.

Big players such as Littlewoods, Argos and Tesco have seen the number of extra online shoppers increase by millions, but how is this affecting smaller businesses within Liverpool, and how does this change the way creative industries should be working?

I believe that there should be a more consultative approach – seek first to understand, then design a strategy, and then execute the plan.

As a company, we have recently been approached by a well-known business who had spent a lot of money on their website.

Their business model relies upon visibility online to generate revenue, along with some functionality.

We were amazed to find that what they currently have simply doesn’t deliver what they want.

Yes, they had a professional looking website and brand, but no attention had been made to ensure the site was visible to their target audience. Surely, as an industry, we can’t allow this to happen.

If we’re serious about helping local businesses make money online and thereby adding value through investment and creating more jobs in the city, we must help them win online.

A lot of work happening in our industry is too transactional, eg, “we provide this, you get this” without any perception of value or what the client will get during and after the work. The web is transparent. If people know what they are doing, we can track, test, learn and apply what is happening when we attract, capture and convert leads and customers for the site 

In the current climate, we have to go that extra mile and provide a service that delivers results more than ever, ensuring that local businesses have just as much of a chance as the big players

In the last few weeks, statistics from Nielsen Online have revealed that there has been a surge in people shopping and buying things on the Internet.

Big players such as Littlewoods, Argos and Tesco saw the number of extra online shoppers increase by millions, but how does this affect smaller business within Liverpool?

Although we keep hearing about the ‘doom and gloom’ of the credit crunch this clearly demonstrates that more and more customers are using the Internet to shop for products and services, whether they’re in research mode, or already well down the ‘buying cycle’.

Using the web is perfect in helping them find what they are looking for saving them time and money.

Here’s how many people searched using theses terms for services in Liverpool last month:

“Accounts Liverpool”	7,200
“Solicitors Liverpool”	14,200
“Flower Liverpool”	3,900
“Hotel Liverpool”	336,000
“Restaurant Liverpool”	73,600

This is purely ‘topline’ data, but clearly shows what is out there for our local businesses; large numbers of people are already searching for what you offer, right now.

So how do you help them, find you?

Local listing in Google Maps is a priority as it is free and quite straightforward to set up.  Simply open a Google account and click the ‘local business centre’ and follow the instructions.  Tip here is to include ‘Liverpool’ in the title for your advert.

If you sell products, check out Google Base, we use this with many of our clients, one sells electric patio heaters and they’ve see seen a 17% uplift in traffic - all free clicks.

Create a Facebook group page for your business and begin to invite and add friends.  Some of our local hotels, restaurants and bars have already grasped the agility of facebook as a ‘keep in touch’ tool.

I bet many of you have had invites to events and nights out already; if not, I’m sure you’ll be getting something coming to your inbox about Valentines day.

Other results based marketing channels include Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising but be careful- we have many clients who come to us and have tried going this themselves, wasting a lot of money.  The campaigns must be built with the right structure. We have a Health and Safety client who has gone from a ‘couple’ of leads a week, to approximately 50 per day (and on a similar budget), simply by building and growing his campaign through a results driven, creative process.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) - Put the effort in to get this right, and you’ll be receiving free pre-qualified traffic to your websites for the long term.  Delivering a great return on investment.

Email Marketing – use it to build relationships with your new customers, build loyalty, cross sell and if you’re really clever, encourage them to recommend your services to their friends (now wouldn’t that be nice!).

Remember… people are ‘typing in what they are looking for’ and by using some tools of the trade, we can discover how many and what they actually ask for.  Then use the various online marketing channels to attract, capture and engage…making you more money, even while you sleep.

Approximately 85% of all online traffic starts with a search query using a major search engine.

If you haven’t considered targeting those who are searching and trying to find what you offer…the chances are you’re missing a serious opportunity to drive new business.

The ‘brochure site’ analogy…”but I’ve already got a website”

Many people say, “we’ve already got a website” indeed we have many clients who come to us saying we’ve got a great website (and it wasn’t cheap!). To many businesses have a great looking website, but fail to harness the power and opportunity that search engine marketing provides.

Without customers visiting your website is like a supermarket opening a new store and not telling anyone where it is. Or imagine printing 250 000 leaflets that look great, but then locking them in the stock room – they would simply not be working for you!

Search Engine Marketing is ‘Pull’ not ‘Push’ marketing

What’s more search marketing is ‘pull’ not ‘push’ marketing. You’re attracting or ‘pulling’ customers to your website that are searching for you. You’re not ‘pushing’ your message out there in the hope that someone finds you…whilst being interested in what you have to say.

Search marketing helps you get more from your website. If you’d like some free advice and understand the opportunity that is already out there…why not get in touch and see where it takes us?