The newsletter

This article has nothing to do with football. Just thought I’d tell you that before we get started. But seeing as you’re here and have an interest in goals – how many are there set on your website? And how can you tell when they have been reached? This is about how to set goals in digital terms from a corporate perspective, and it is really quite simple, so if you are interested in actually seeing how your site is working – read on. If you are merely scouting around looking for things to do with football, there’s plenty out there....(Read More)

B2B website owners have always looked for ways to make an impact on the internet. As soon as the first flat images were published on line, people began looking at using shadows, borders and bevels to make them stand out...(Read More).

Our analytic reports, from our predominately B2B client websites, show an escalating increase in smart phone visits, with this change being fairly consistent across our clients’ diverse industry sectors. Although still a small percentage of the overall visits, smartphones are beginning to become an important factor in website design and functionality....(Read More).

The Internet is the greatest library of information that the world has ever seen and Google is arguably its most conscientious librarian. Give it the flimsiest instructions and it will come back in microseconds with a pile of information; some of it irrelevant, some of it which hits gold and some of it which may be a bit wide of the mark but can lead you up new and interesting avenues.... (Read More).

When writing marketing content for the Web, you enter a different environment from the world of corporate brochures, sales leaflets and magazine editorial produced for the UK market. Whether or not your website is targeting an international audience, the visitors you get could come from anywhere and everywhere....(Read More).

Selling to the B2B market is the same as it ever was. You start by developing your qualified prospect list and then you have to keep stoking the fires of their interest until they’re nice and hot and ready for the sales approach. While at the same time you have to continually add new leads to the sales funnel as other prospects cool and go cold....(Read More).

Whilst figures for the uptake of Android phones rise inexorably and iPhone owners throughout the world fail to fall out of love with their shiny Apple friends, a tale of caution comes to my attention. Say it quietly, but take note: these Smart phones may not be good for your work or your relationships.... (Read More).

White papers have moved from government departments, through technical offices and into mainstream B2B life - providing an effective marketing channel for raising business profiles, getting known and building sales....(Read More)

Organising successful conferences and events is hard enough at the best of times, but now it's a lot tougher.

Volcanic ash clouds (Iceland has 130 active volcanoes) as well as intermittent strikes by airline and airport staff are making it increasingly difficult to plan and coordinate international events. If you've got speakers, participants and delegates coming from Europe and beyond, the success of this hugely expensive exercise boils down to just pot-luck - with all your hard graft accounting for nothing.

You need a contingency plan. You need a webinar back-up plan!(Read More)

How to get the best out of your website for the people who matter most - the visitors. How the science behind supermarket retailing can be applied to website navigation and metric reporting. A simple message from BrandBoost - The Digital Marketing People....(Read More)

There is just one thing to remember from this email that will protect you from the creeping tide of information overload that threatens to overwhelm your inbox and swamp the quality messages - Focus your attention....(Read More)

This story is a case of “if only.” It was a campaign that never happened because the means to make it happen weren’t there. It shows how social networks can deliver the goods, only they have to be invented first. Here goes....(Read More)

With the usual hyperbole associated with a new year the Internet has been rife with predictions for 2010 covering every whim and whimsy of online marketing. Having sifted through a lot of flotsam and jetsam that drifted our way we decided someone needed to give a more pragmatic view of how the year will pan out. So here are a few of our projections....(Read More)

Whilst George Orwell was predicting what the World might be like in 1984, in the real 1984 a small Californian company called MacIntosh released their first personal computer. This is a review of that....(Read More)

Fifteen years have passed since the launch of Netscape in 1994 when there were estimated to be 5,000 websites; the Internet research organization Netcraft started tracking the number of websites in 1995....(Read More)

And for those of you who just love looking at beautiful things, take a look at this....(Read More)

It has to be said that our competition in the last issue of LRB to devise a campaign for marketing Haggises to the Californians achieved little response ... in fact very, very little response....(Read More)

Anyone who doubts the impact of social networking sites should have read the news report about two girls, aged 10 and 12, who were trapped in a storm drain near Adelaide, Australia....(Read More)

As the two-way feedback loop of online communication becomes more and more sophisticated by the day, it becomes increasingly easy to target niche groups and to design specific marketing messages to meet their interests. The key to this enhanced level of engagement is what is known as database segmentation. It sounds complicated, but it isn’t....(Read More)

As a conceptual exercise in being part of the machinery of Social Networking and Digital Media Communications, we have come up with a particularly August-type idea. To match the mighty Ford, we think that we can market The Haggis to Californians. But we don’t know how....(Read More)

But what about REAL examples of Digital Media actually working? Who’s on board with the whole thing – any big names?

Well if you haven’t heard of the Fiesta Movement, here it is in a nutshell: Ford have given 100 New Fiestas to bloggers and Social Media Types in the US and have asked them to write about the car in cyberspace. No rules, no limitations, they can write what they like. They get a free car for six months, and the only thing they have to do is to carry out a monthly Mission in the vehicle and write about it, blog it, Twitter it or YouTube it....(Read More)

“Romeo?”
“Juliet! Great to hear your voice!”
“Look, I have to make this a quick call. Mum and dad want to marry me off.”
“They can’t! I won’t let them!”
“Don’t worry, Romeo. The Friar has given me this potion that will make me look dead. It’ll fool my parents and there’ll be no marriage. After a fake funeral he’ll put me in the old crypt. I’ll wake up the next day.  You can be there and we can run away together to Mantua.”
“Brilliant. You can count on me.”....(Read More)

Digital marketing and communications has a range of platforms to use and the list is growing. E-shots, e-newsletters, pods, blogs, forums, mobile phone messaging and Tweets are just some of the methods that can be used by businesses to increase awareness of their brands, services and corporate philosophy....(Read More)

Marketing and communications specialists like ourselves have had to adapt our writing styles to the demands of the web and Internet users. Every word has to count. We have to ensure that the message or story suits the target audience, while the text adapts to search engine requirements and, whenever possible, doesn’t get classified as spam....(Read More)

“The times, they are a-changing…” sang the lyrical poet Dylan before even he had an idea how fast things would change in the future. But the future is now, and the times, well, they’re still a-changing faster than ever. Businesses are presenting themselves in a more approachable style, loosening their neckties and demystifying their messages. Huge social and market changes, the entrenchment of the global reality and universal access to the prime means of communication have caused big rethinks about how companies talk to their customers….(Read More)

What should under-pin every web-strategy and under-line every decision is under-used nearly everywhere. Ignore web analytics at your peril – it is an essential tool in on-line marketing....(Read More)

This recession is leading businesses into uncharted territory with worrying blank spaces beyond the borders. However, the right products and services at the right prices will still find buyers and it is now easier to reach them than ever before....(Read More)

Look through a few blogs and you will find that Search Engine Optimists believe that they can gain search prominence by divine intervention. The truth is more earthbound, with primacy being gained by persistence, technical experience, persistence, specialist use of text and images and persistence....(Read More)