Marketing

Social networking is a great way for SMEs to find and keep customers, but it’s not without risk – a number of well-known brands have had their social accounts hijacked recently.

Scientists at the University of Portsmouth have found that correctly labelling your tweets can vastly improve your customer’s experience on Twitter.

Surprisingly, the best price and best value is at the bottom of the customer’s priority list. See what’s at the top.

How often have we heard sayings like “you never get a second chance to make a first impression” and how often do we put that into place in our own businesses? There’s no faster killer of sales and repeat business than a poor first impression.

Social media marketing shouldn’t happen in a vacuum. How to integrate offline and online strategies.

Made a major flub in front of the whole world on social media? Here’s how to respond.

Local businesses miss out on potential website traffic by choosing hosting providers based in other parts of the world

Have you ever seen something you wanted in a shop, tried it, checked the price online on your smartphone, found it was cheaper, and walked out? Welcome to the world of “showrooming”.

A virtual assistant who complained on Twitter about what she claimed was late payment of a bill she was owed has discovered she is now facing a libel battle that could cost her £150,000.

Many businesses see the task of marketing as generating leads for salespeople to follow-up. I suspect this is because people have a picture of a sales funnel or sales pipeline in their minds

In March, Twitter announced that it would be discontinuing popular TweetDeck smartphone apps this coming May. TweetDeck for Android and iPhone will be removed from their respective app stores and will stop working shortly after.

Now we’re heading into the Easter Holiday season, many business owners and salespeople will get the call me back after the Bank Holiday objection, yet fail to deal with it well enough. I’m sure you’ve had people say those words or something similar to you?

The average SME spends £23,810 a year on marketing and given the prominence of smart devices, just under half of those questioned say mobile forms part of that outlay. However, only 8 per cent have a mobile optimised website with a further 10 per cent looking to invest in this space this year.

Deciding how much you should spend on marketing is a big question not only for small firms but those with sales and marketing departments. Fergus Gloster, managing director EMEA of marketing software company Marketo investigates.

The amount spent on local advertising will increase 12.3 percent and the amount spent on digital advertising will double by 2017, according to a new study.

This week I ran a seminar on the ways businesses can use Linked In as a sales tool to generate leads. It made me think of a situation that happened to me recently, where I was contacted over Linked In by a company that was trying to sell me some video email marketing.

After reflecting on the sensational case of a company’s social media presence being hijacked by a disgruntled employee, legal specialist Sue Ball from Verisona Solicitors explains why, whichever way you look at it, someone is getting off lightly.

Let me reflect on the folly of a business strategy that relies on undercutting your competitors to win sales.

What works today is the exact opposite of what worked a decade ago.

Advertising does not have to be expensive in order to be effective. There are a number of very affordable advertising techniques that can bring you additional business without costing you a fortune.

Almost three quarters of all workers like to check their social media feeds on their smartphones during business meetings and conferences according to a new poll.

An at-a-glance guide to the media sharing phenomenon taking the internet by storm.

Many companies appreciate the benefits that branded merchandise can bring. By printing their logos and slogans on popular items such as t-shirts, baseball caps and keyrings, they can increase awareness of their brand and promote their company to a wider audience.

Media barter is fast becoming the smart way for marketers to deliver efficiencies on their marketing spend. But how does it work and what can it deliver for your business? Frances Dickens , CEO of the Astus Group, the UK’s largest media barter company, explains:

According to latest figures from ZenithOptimedia, 2015 is set to be the year that spend on internet advertising will overtake the combined newspaper and magazine ad spend globally. With over 1 billion internet users globally, it’s no wonder that there has been a continuously growing appetite from marketers and advertisers to reach this online audience.