Marketing is very important when running a business. You need to think carefully about how you are going to do it and who will be responsible for it. You have a few different options as to who will manage your marketing for you. You may want to try and keep costs low by getting staff who you already employ to do your online and offline marketing or you may decide to do it yourself. This will only work if the person responsible for it has a good knowledge and has the time to carry out the tasks needed. If they do not have the relevant skills and experience then they may end up doing more harm than good. The other option you have is to use a third party. You can choose to outsource your marketing to another individual who has experience in the area (self-employed marketing expert). This may keep costs down a little, compared to using an agency, but does mean that you... Read More »
Author: Anthony
How to establish what your marketing budget should be
Marketing is a very important part of running a business and you need to think carefully about what budget you can put aside for marketing. The amount you may need to spend on your marketing can vary drastically from industry to industry and depending on if you are a large or small business. If you want your business to grow rapidly and are in a competitive industry then you will need to spend a large sum of money on your marketing every month. Some small businesses may only spend a few hundred pounds a month on marketing where as a large PLC may spend in excess of ten thousand pounds a month. Often the more you spend on marketing the better results you will get but some business simply do not have the funds to pump thousands in each month, and have to wait a long time to reap the rewards. You need to establish which forms of marketing will give you a quick return... Read More »
Careful consideration of the format of your website can help convert sales
Your website may contribute hugely to the success of your business. Some businesses get most if not all of their revenue through a website. If customers can purchase items directly through your website and allow customer to complete the payment process then you have an ecommerce website. These types of websites should be designed very much with the customer in mind. It needs to be easy to complete the purchase and make contact with the business should they have any queries. Trust is vital when it comes to ecommerce websites. If a customer trusts your business and your site, then they are more likely to purchase through you. Adding logos such as the PayPal logo or Visa Secured Checkout, can help build up that trust. You need to carefully think about the layout of your site, making your products or services easy to find, easy to compare and most importantly, easy to buy. If your website asks the customer for a lot of information during... Read More »
Using a local web programmer
If you are looking to have a website created then you may want to use someone local. There are many advantages to using a local web designer and programmer. It can make it easier when it comes to discussing ideas and passing material between the two parties. Firstly you will need to find a web developer that can produce quality work at a price you are comfortable with. It may be that you chose a freelance programmer to keep the costs down over a web agency but be aware that your project may take longer this way. Most companies will either use a web programmer that has been recommended to them by someone else or they may search online. If you use Google to search for a programmer or web agency localised results are often shown first making it is easy to see how far these people are away from you. Once you have found a number of web developers that you may be interested... Read More »
Understanding PHP jargon
If you are a self-taught programmer learning PHP you may feel a little overwhelmed with all the jargon and snippets of code you have to learn. Trying to remember every piece of code you will need to use to build a website is a massive task and one which takes some time. When it comes to PHP you need to think of it as another language. Once you can understand what different code snippets do you will start to understand when and where you need to use them? Often people start off by looking up the code that they need, but over time you need to start to understand what the code is actually doing and how it works. For example, understanding that one bit of code is referring to another page or a style sheet will help you learn where to use it and if there is a problem, trace it back to find out what is causing it. You may want to build... Read More »