We all know that too many cookies are bad for your health but they’re also the subject of a new EU privacy law that comes into force this month.

Cookies are little bits of information that are stored on a user’s computer when they visit a webpage, used to remember things the next time they visit: e.g. the user’s preferences, log-ins and settings.

A new privacy law recently came into effect requiring all websites to ask visitors for consent before using cookies not deemed ‘strictly necessary’ (like those used to store ‘shopping basket’ items).

The Government will begin enforcing the law from May 2012 so now is the time to take a look at whether all those cookies are vital or whether you comply with the ‘ask before storing’ rule. Contact us if you’d like a FREE check to identify the cookies that your website uses and a quote for helping you with compliance.

Too many cookies really are bad for your (website) health. Read more

Grab your eggnog, warm up the mince pies – it’s time for Christmas Charades… and you don’t have to act even if you get it right; we’ve taken care of all that for you! Bag yourself the chance of winning a camera and watch us and our finest acting skills; guess all 10 charades that we’ve prepared for your delight and delectation and we’ll enter you into the prize draw.

In the past, marketing was often a very wooly experience – you sent out a million flyers and hoped 0.05% recipients responded. The web changed the ‘finger-in-the-air’ approach and marketing finally became transparent. Most of you will be aware of google analytics – the free tool that lets you monitor your visitors, what they look at – even where they’re from or how they found you.

Now, with social media playing a major part in the marketing mix, there are a few useful measurement tools to add to your toolkit.

Firstly – if you’re a tweeter – there’s Twitter Counter – statistics of user numbers, tweets and retweets, not only that but with the pro account you can track phrases and general sentiments. If your future lies in 140 characters then this could be useful.

Then there’s the big ‘FB’, Facebook. They’ve recently added a lot more to their ‘Page Insights‘ tool. This is the doorway to ‘likes’, page interactions even gender and age breakdown of your typical user. As Facebook starts to take business more seriously we can see this tool becoming even more in-depth.

Finally, a tool that has been around for a while but isn’t always fully utilised is e-shot measuring. If you send out eshots, consider using some of the online apps such as campaign monitor or mailchimp. These applications will show you some great insights into what your recipients like or dislike, how many opens, click-throughs or forwards you’ve generated.

And this is just a start, as the web and social media grows and budgets shrink it’s going to become imperative you know how effective your marketing is.

… we’ve had great feedback to a recent questionnaire sent to our clients. With such a great response we’ve analysed, we’ve learned and we can now fine-tune our offer and be as proactive as we’d like to be.

Thanks to all who participated (you know who you are). Congratulations also to the winner of the iPod shuffle who has been notified.

Thanks once again one and all, good to be working with you.

No matter who you are or how successful you are in business you learn something new everyday.

So, you know that you know your stuff, after all, you don’t run a successful company for years blagging you’re way through projects and spending clients money on a whim. You’ve worked hard for the client list that you’re proud of.

But then the day comes when you are asked to submit a proposal – to show your abilities. You work hard as a team, you come up with some fantasically creative ideas, within budget and the timings are not an issue. You submit your proposal and wait for the call.

Seems straight forward enough right? WRONG… this falls within the ‘some you win, some you loose’ scenario. You didn’t win, and it hurts. However discovering why you didn’t win can be just as important in terms of experience as the winning for the development and progress of your company.

Asking the client for valid reasons why you weren’t successful can reveal invaluable lessons for your business. And a good marketing manager should always tell you where you didn’t meet their expectations. For example, from the lesson that we recently were given,  our client told us “We loved your ideas but you didn’t explain the process, the chosen agency explained in detail how they would go about making things happen, which proved to us their experience.”We were so excited by our creative solution we didn’t explain how we’d come to that conclusion. We should have been more earnest, given more assurance.