Encyclopedia

Blog is a contraction of ‘web log’. A blog is an online journal. It is chronological, so the most recent entry appears first. There are many reasons why you should have a blog for your enterprise. Here are seven of them: 1. Google likes to find blog within a website. If the search engines notices that something has changed within your website (i.e. that you have uploaded a new blog entry), it makes them happy. Imagine being a crawler and visiting a website that never changes. You would probably think: how boring. You can keep their interest by blogging frequently. 2. Writing makes you think. Talking about your area of expertise is fine. Writing about it is another thing entirely. In order to write something which is worth reading, you really have to think about it, don't you? 3. Your blog can feed your newsletter. I have lost count of the number of business people who have said to me: “What can I...

Body copy is a copywriting term. It denotes the main body of text within a marketing piece. For example, an advertisement has (1) a headline, (2) body copy and (3) a call to action. During my copywriting training workshops, I ask the attendees whether short or long body copy is best? Invariably, 90% of people are in favour of short text. "No one has time to read all that stuff," they tell me. However, someone at the back of the room says: "Write as much as you can." I proceed to have a debate with them. It transpires that they have tried short and long copy in various forms of promotion. They have found that long body copy gets better results. More engagement, more website visits, more enquiries, more sales. The reason is that when someone is in the market to buy something or has an interest in a topic, they want information. They are happy to 'read all about it'. If you have bought a property: did you read the surveyor's report? If you...

Building a brand is a central part of your marketing strategy and it should be included within your marketing plan. ► If your business is 'just you', then you are the brand. ► All enterprises should 'think brand'. ► All of your marketing activities affect your brand. ► Your brand is built on your values. Strong values create strong brands. “The art of marketing is largely the art of brand building. When something is not a brand, it will probably be viewed as a commodity. Then price is what counts. When price is the only thing that counts, the only winner is the low-cost producer.” ~ Dr Philip Kotler Values Values are the basis of branding. Here is a list of some of them: Authority, Change, Communication, Cooperation, Creativity, Excellence, Happiness, Health, Helpfulness, Imagination, Integrity, Knowledge, Leadership, Learning, Love, Positive thinking, Privacy, Professionalism, Security, Service, Teamwork, Trust, Value List your values and ensure that staff, suppliers and customers can find them. Brand qualities Successful brands display certain qualities. For example: * They are...

Broken links within your website are bad news from an SEO and visitor's perspective. Here is a free broken link checker that we have used for many years: https://www.brokenlinkcheck.com...

Here is a website that will generate business names for you: https://namelix.com At the time of writing, it is free to use. Various filters can be applied, in order to generate different types of names. PS If you use namelix, you would have to check to see if anyone else is using the name, i.e. via a Google search, domain search and by looking at the Companies House website....

Here is free to use website button generator: https://www.clickminded.com/button-generator You can specify the background colour, which, incidentally, should be green as research has shown that this is the most effective colour for a call to action button. :)...