There’s no point in putting together a wonderfully integrated marketing campaign if the words don’t ring bells for the readers. Writing good ad copy isn’t easy. The more I read other people’s marketing literature the more I realise that writing is a talent that not everyone has. There’s the architects firm which promises to “assist” its clients when I’m sure what the clients need is someone to carry out the job – not assist them. There’s the quantity surveyors practice that offers me the “best possible solution”. It’s so easy to fluff around the subject and not say exactly what you mean.Read More
Posts By: Stuart Dinnie
Seven – Digital Marketing
Internet guru Seth Godin, says: “If you have more than seven items in a pull down list, you have failed.” I don’t think he’s wrong particularly when he applies this to drop down lists; it’s worth reading [read Seth’s blog here].
There is undeniably something about seven… Read More
Speed could damage your profits – Construction Marketing
Speed, or lack of it, is going to become an issue again. How fast your page loads is already a factor in Google AdWords quality score but speed’s going to be added to the organic ranking algorithm. Now’s the time to check your loading speed.
Let’s say you’re selling construction sealants for instance. It might seem a good idea to show your visitors immediately the amazing range of epoxy sealants you sell but listing everything – from fixing sanitary ware to anti-vandal sealants -on the home page isn’t terribly clever and now it’s going to annoy Google too [Remember, relevant content is king].Read More
Honesty is the best policy – Construction Marketing
The – now rather inaccurately-named – search engine optimisation (SEO) business has been very hard at work for the past few years generating content to populate the internet and thereby raise search engine ranking. This is how it works.
A manufacturer of, for instance, vapour barriers and damp-proofing membranes writes an article containing all the relevant keywords. This is submitted and published by third party web sites – in this instance construction industry web sites and ezines. Prospective customers searching for the keywords “vapour barrier” or “damp-proof membrane” find the article, maybe they even click on the link to the manufacturer’s web site. But that’s not the only benefit of writing the article. The manufacturer’s web site is also rewarded with additional points towards its search engine ranking because the link is from a highly-regarded web site.Read More
Almost instant – Search Marketing
Search is changing fast – and I mean fast.
Google has now started providing real-time search results. So that means that if you post something on a social media platform you could expect to see it appearing almost immediately in a relevant search. Google’s real-time search which provides a stream of data within Google’s normal results page. It’s all suddenly very exciting again.Read More
Compelling web sites – Building Product Marketing
If you’re selling building products online there are several things you can do to help your customers to buy and help your search engine rankings at the same time.
Start by using the words that your customer will use. Yes, you might have your own jargon and especially in the area of the construction industry you work in, you will probably have your own jargon. But all the time there will be new entrants into that business or industry space. They won’t know your special language. So don’t alienate them. Think – what words would they use to search for your products? Use those words in your meta data, H1 and H2 tags and description text. Also, use those words in page content and product descriptions and if you can, for file names too.Read More
Simple but extremely effective
You know, it is the simplest things that are sometimes the most effective. I received an email the other day from a friend who’s recently moved job.
I have some inherent interest in what my friend is doing because it’s a move sideways into a slightly different world of work, so I read the email signature with great interest.Read More
Stop advertising and people start to talk
More than 48% of US adults believe that a lack of advertising by a retail store, bank or auto dealership during a recession indicates the business is likely struggling.
At the same time, a majority of consumers think businesses that continue to advertise are competitive and/or committed to doing business.
All this from the Marketing Vox blog. Read More.
Safe-crackingly good questions for the perfect website project brief
There are evidently many questions that can be asked from the outset to develop good brief and no doubt you’ve collated many of them already. From my perspective I want to know 4 things: The objective, the assets available, as much about the audience as possible and the journey you’d like them to take. With these questions answered you will be very well armed to create an utterly storming brief. Read More
Personal Branding
Self-help is not a new idea. Samuel Smiles wrote “The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual” back in the late nineteenth century (golly, how he could have made a name for himself today…).
Anyway, the logical next step on your road to a better personal space – once you’ve built up sufficient confidence and penned your life strategy with help from the world renowned Tony Robbins – is Personal Branding. In the grand scheme of things Personal branding has been around for about 37 seconds and yet it has a massive following and a multitude of experts. Read More