Many businesses reply on web based applications for their communication and to help with other aspects of the business. Some companies use web based applications to enable them to create quotes for customers, maybe in the work place or even at the customer’s home address. When considering what you need in your web application, firstly ensure that it is going to work for you. You will need to have good web access in and away from the business that allows multiple access if you have more than one person accessing the system at one time. Web applications work great as long as the internet connection is reliable and that the staff members know how to use it properly. You may be able to have your web based application cover a number of things such as quoting, sales invoices, payments and communication. Having all the systems in one place can often save time and money but be aware that if for whatever reason the system goes... Read More »
Knowing how and where to invest your marketing budget
Marketing can seem quite complicated to many business owners and often you will not find out what works and what doesn’t until you have tried it. With so many different ways of marketing and all companies giving you slightly different advise it often it a trial and error for a little while until you find what works. When you are doing any sort of marketing it is important to be able to try and track the response it has had as much as possible. If you are doing leaflet drops for example, you may put a dedicated phone number on or a voucher code to find out how successful they have been. If you are going to be doing web marketing such as Google Adwords then there are some great stats packages out there which will allow you to monitor the traffic to your site and see if they have been refer from another website or a search engine. It will also track visits you... Read More »
How much should I spend on marketing?
Many business owners will ask how much they need to spend on marketing. The truth is there is no set amount, it all depends on the type of business you run, the level of competition, how many products or services you want to market and the geographical locations you wish to target. Ideally before you go and speak to a marketing agency you need to consider what you would be able to spend on marketing. Ideally you need to have an initial budget and also an on-going monthly budget. Once you have this then you can speak to the agency and advise them of what you want to spend. They should then be able to run through the options with you as to how they suggest using your budget. If your budget is really small then they may suggest an increase or that you choose specific areas to target first to ensure that you get some return on your investment. You should look to increase... Read More »
Checking your website is mobile friendly
Many people use their mobile phones to browse the internet and search for products and services that they require. Many business now have a website but not all are mobile compatible. Having a website that does not look and function correctly on mobile devices can not only be frustrating to your customers / potential customers and cause them to leave but can also have a negative effect on your website rankings. Google offer a tool where by you can check if your site is mobile compatible, which is very easy to use. If your site is not mobile compatible, you will need to get your programmer to re-rite the code to ensure it is or to create a mobile version of the site that will automatically redirect through if a viewer is browsing through a mobile device. Making sure that certain elements resize and that all the tabs / boxes etc. are clickable is essential on a mobile site along with ensuring that the text... Read More »
Keeping in contact with your web developer
When you have a website created, you may not feel you need to do much with it for a matter of months or sometimes even years, but not staying in touch with your web developer can be fatal. So many clients approach us saying that there web developer is no longer taking their calls or they simply have not got any active contact details for them and this makes any future changes and updates hard. Often a web developer will need FTP access to your site in order for them to make changes to it and the only person that will be able to give them this is the developer who is hosting the site. The hosting company may be reluctant to speak to you if the account is not in your name and therefore you may have to start again by building a new site and possibly even buying a new domain name.