Marketing a classical string ensemble

By Nigel Temple2 Comments
One of our recent projects has been marketing a classical string ensemble. Fedora Strings is an ensemble of conservatoire-trained musicians who can be hired for wedding quartets, trios, duos or solos. Each member is an accomplished musician in their own right and has played in some of the best professional ensembles in the UK. No matter the quality of the 'product' it still has to be marketed. Joanna Borrett and her fellow musicians believe in continual marketing. They have recently launched a new website - www.fedorastrings.com - which has a series of recordings which visitors can play, directly from the homepage. These include the Flower Duet by Delibes, I Got Rhythm by Gershwin and an Irish reel (which shows product diversity!) Joanna blogs regularly, as you can see here: http://www.fedorastrings.com/blog/ Joanna tells us that her Google search engine rankings are doing well and that she is receiving booking enquiries via the site, which was built by www.totosites.com - which specialises in small business websites. During...
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Creating new ideas for your business

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
Creating new ideas for your business should be high on your list of priorities. In a fast changing world, money gravitates towards the innovators. New ideas can add value to your products / services, your brand and your business. Anyone can produce new ideas on demand, as long as they believe that they can. In the 21st century, we are all busy. This certainly applies to business owners. We work long hours, in order to get everything done. When you are working, your mind produces 'high energy' beta brainwaves. When you are relaxed, calmer alpha brainwaves are produced. It is easy to become a workaholic. You may find yourself feeling guilty, when you are not 'working' during office hours. There is so much to do! Replying to / sending emails, handling phone calls and attending meetings are seen as work. Going for a walk or sitting there and not doing anything isn't. Interestingly, our most creative ideas arrive when we are not working....
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The elements of marketing success

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
"What are the elements of marketing success?" or "How successful will this be?" I am often asked these questions by business owners, managing directors and nervous investors. They may be about to launch. Or they may be about to kick their product or service hard enough so that it is, hopefully, propelled into orbit. The product or service itself is only one part of the jigsaw puzzle of success. Here are some of the other jigsaw pieces: VISION Successful people know where they are heading. They know their compass bearing. No matter what happens during their journey, they keep on course. Do you have a clear vision of your future business? If I spoke to you right now - could you describe this picture to me in detail? BUSINESS MODEL The internet, rising competition and economic turmoil have disrupted entire industries. The ubiquitous use of technology has slashed costs, made old skills irrelevant and created new opportunities for fast learners. Does your business model reflect...
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How to make blogs easier to read

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
We're going to discuss how to make your blogs easier to read. If I had to choose one piece of advice, it would be to decrease the length of your sentences. We recently built a website for Ringrose & Co (they offer advice to companies in financial difficulties). www.ringroseandco.co.uk I was talking to their MD, Mark Smillie and we were discussing blogging. Here is the feedback I gave him, regarding a draft blog entry he wrote. Here are his draft words (IP = Insolvency Practitioner): oooooOOOOOooooo Our perspective is different to the IP who must give fair and impartial advice to all concerned with the Limited Company, we will give best advice to the client, who can benefit from over twenty years’ of experience in this area. oooooOOOOOooooo I suggested that Mark cut the sentence lengths down. This is the quickest way of increasing 'readability'. So the above could become: Our perspective is different to the IP. They must give fair and impartial advice to all concerned with...
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Long tail and short tail keywords explained

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
What are long tail and short tail keywords? 'Keywords' = words / phrases used by search engines to find relevant web pages. Some keywords are used frequently. Within SEO* these are known as 'short tail keywords'. As they are so popular, it is relatively challenging to rank highly for them, within organic search results. Other keywords are searched for less frequently. They are known as 'long tail keywords'. Interestingly, according to Google, some 20% of the searches they see on a daily basis, have never been used before. It is quite possible to achieve page one rankings for long tail keyword phrases. However, the trick is to stay at the top and also to convert this traffic into business. Within The Marketing Compass, we recommend that our members have an alphabetical list of keywords. Generally, it is a good idea to have a balance of popular (short tail, or 'broad') and less popular (long tail, or 'narrow') keywords / phrases within your website....
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Small business marketing strategy

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
Here's a short story about small business marketing strategy... David (not his real name) was a client of mine, a few years ago. He was a left brain thinker. An engineer by training, he liked a structured approach, logical steps and processes. He worked endlessly on his marketing plan and talked about the detailed elements of his website and promotional mix. He was never in a rush and preferred to think everything through carefully. Stephanie (not her real name) was another client. She was chaotic to work with, never wrote anything down and was always moving onto the next great thing in marketing. She didn't like plans and used to say to me: "What's the point of plans? They never work out anyway and they take so much time. Let's get out there and DO SOMETHING!" Stephanie liked to talk about the 'big picture'. She felt that the greater the number of playing cards you throw up in the air, the greater...
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Write some marketing copy every day

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
Here's a tip: don't start your day by checking your emails. Write some marketing copy every day instead. Within The Marketing Compass, some of our members love to write, whilst others find it a challenge. Both groups are busy! It is all too easy to let the writing slip. Remember that 'content is king' for your website. Regular blogs will attract Google, whilst Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, amongst others, require a regular supply of words. When it comes to writing, 'little and often' beats 'big and infrequent'. In January 2011, I started writing The Marketing Compass Manual. This has been a busy year, however, I have managed to write over 48,000 words using this principle. Feedback, anyone? By the way, 'copy' = 'marketing words', as in 'advertising copy' or 'web copy (i.e. website words). I trained as a copywriter from 1983 - 1986 and I spent three years writing advertisements, brochures, leaflets, press releases, case studies and technical articles. I used to sit...
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PeerIndex – a quick introduction

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
PeerIndex uses algorithms to map the social web. Authority on the web is built when you participate in meaningful exchanges of information, via platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The type of information you share reveals a great deal about you, your knowledge and your connections - which PeerIndex seeks to measure. PeerIndex factors in your speed of response on the social web, the quantity of your interactions and how you share information. Your recommendations can be used to measure your knowledge (or authority) within a given subject area. Relationships are complex things and PeerIndex claims to have a way of measuring these, online. Your authority rises when you are Retweeted, Facebook Shared, +1'ed or commented on by someone who is an authority on that subject. As always - you are welcome to ask questions about PeerIndex. Visit: www.PeerIndex.com See also: www.klout.com Read a brief introduction to Klout here. Join us COMPASS membership is FREE! * Create a profile & promote yourself * Hyperlink back to your...
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What is anchor text within a website?

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
What is anchor text within a website? = a hyperlink which contains keywords. For example, within the following hyperlink.... <a href="https://www.marketingcompass.co.uk">The Marketing Compass</a> ....."The Marketing Compass" = the anchor text. A more helpful version (for us!) would be: <a href="https://www.marketingcompass.co.uk">The Marketing Compass - small business marketing advice and answers to marketing questions.</a> Search engines examine anchor text, in order to figure out what the destination web page is about. They are doing their best to be helpful to the searcher. Think of it this way: Google would like to know as much as possible about the subject of the page to which the link points. So inserting keywords into anchor text helps Google to do its job. Tip: if someone wants to link to your website, send them a pre-prepared hyperlink (along the lines of the one above - but with your URL / keywords within it). Here is another tip - within your website, all of your links to other websites should open up in a new browser...
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