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

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.

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.

You know that niggling feeling, something at the back of your mind that just keeps nudging you… just when you’re sitting down to relax, at the end of another busy day. Something that you know you should have done, but just haven’t got the time, but it still needs doing. Want to know what it’s likely to be?

…

It’s updating your blog. A simple post to your blog/website that keeps it looking fresh, keeps it current and most of all makes it look like your company is still alive! It’s also a great way to help promote yourself on search engines (Google et al give your site a better rating if it’s kept up to date).

Thing is, it’s so difficult to do. You don’t know what to write, you haven’t got any ideas and so you just keep putting it off. How do I know? Because I am that Chief Procrastinator. I’d win medals for it  – it’s just so much easier to meet a client’s/colleague’s deadlines than to apply your own.

It’s hard for SME companies and individuals to change the way they work and adapt to a different style of marketing. It’s not like the days when marketing  was planned months in advance and case studies, brochures and adverts were all planned in the schedule. Now it’s tougher, it’s more instant and that takes a different mentality. You’ll be glad to know that we find it just as hard, that even as we preach to our clients about keeping websites up to date (even doing it for them sometimes!) there we are neglecting our own house.

However, last year we implemented a few pointers to try and make it a bit easier to adapt to the worldwide blogosphere and thought they may help you.

5 tips for blogging along like a good ‘un:

1. Don’t rely on just one person to blog – If  you don’t have a dedicated web editor on your payroll, you can’t expect someone to be responsible for all the content unless it’s in their job description. Plus it’s nice to have a number of contributors and views coming from your company. It adds to the personality. We actually have a bit of a rota here at wow to help people know when it’s their turn and so they can plan some ideas for articles.
2. War and Peace it ‘ain’t – OK so I can never write one word when 15 will do but the reality is that a blog post doesn’t have to be a novel. One simple paragraph that gives an insight into your company, or a snappy comment into a recent event or news article will do.
3. Plan it – You plan all your marketing in advance – blogging should be no different. Make a plan of content 3 months in advance for each week so that you’re not scrabbling around for ideas. If something more urgent comes up then use that and hold on the post for another week. The best thing about blogs and online content is their immediacy.
4. The magic number – Decide a realistic aim for the number of posts per week/month/year. Base this number on how often you think you’ll have something that readers would be interested in. For us, we generally think that’s once every 2 weeks, there are others that aim for every day, some once a month or every week. The aim is to keep your site up to date, to enable search engines to find you, however if it’s full rubbish, the readers won’t come back so it’s a pointless exercise.
5. Add value – Why do people want to read anything you write? There are plenty of ways to tell them about your new widget, bling or souped-up service, that’s not what a blog is about. It’s not simply a place for news releases. It’s stuff that can add value to a readers day. It’s an insight into your culture, your personality and your ideas. Leave the reader with something that helped them, or enriched their day – even if it’s just a little laugh during a hard work day.

So there it is… it’s not a definitive guide and I’m sure you have other tricks and tips – but it helps us. You’ll see from our blog role that we don’t always keep to it. (What do you think spurred this post?! Last time I blogged was January – 3 months shameful, I know). Paying customers always come first, but we’ll continue on with our quest to stay on top and tame that blog – good luck with yours.

Once upon a time, time itself made you money… In today’s world, time is money and now both time and money are limited.

Every industry has expert consultants who charge various amounts for the time they spend advising you on things like how best to run your business, get more clients, make more money, save your money etc. Employing these experts can be money well spent – especially if it improves you business as a whole.

Design and marketing is no exception to the rule of charging for expertise, after all, any good marketer knows that if a good marketing campaign costs you a lot, imagine what a bad campaign can cost you! However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go some way in trying to reduce the cost of marketing and it doesn’t mean looking to you’re your friend’s 14 year old who has their own Mac. No, there are simple steps you can take to eliminate incurring unnecessary charges with design and marketing agencies. Here’s a few tips:

• 1. Use your time at the beginning wisely: If your submitting a brief to an agency, make sure you’ve fully prepared it before handing it over. A golden rule – always confirm everything with the decision maker of your company before you give anything over to an Agency. There’s nothing more frustrating than you putting your heart and soul into a project, not to mention your budget, to discover that it’s not what your boss had in mind. It’ll cost you more than your sanity to hear that! So check you’re all singing from the same hymn sheet.

• 2. Advise the agency of any restrictions you know of, give clear concise instructions about your goals and what you are expecting and supply brand guidelines.

• 3. If you’re writing the copy – try and supply fully approved copy or make it clear to your agency if it’s not finalised. That will stop the agency spending time on fiddly typography that is going to change anyway.

• 4. Provide any images you want included – this saves time for an agency in searching for photo library shots, or preparing photography.

• 5. Finally, work out a schedule between both parties and stick to it. You’ll be surprised how often timetables slip and costs spiral because clients haven’t kept to their deadlines.

These five steps, will go a long way to allow an agency to do your job efficiently, effectively and succinctly and the final cost should be as you agreed before the starting the project. A good agency can save you a lot of time, a lot of money and create designs and campaigns that will seriously improve your business. But it is a joint partnership. Working together can make a massive difference to your bottom line.

Want some more tips? Read our ‘really useful stuff’