Top Search Engines for December 2011

Marketing General, Online Advertising, Search Engine Optimisation Ask Jeeves, Bing, Google, Search Engine Optimisation, Yahoo!

This presentation will take you through how to build a marketing plan in 6 Easy Steps.

It’s ideal if you:

• have never been involved in marketing before and someone has asked you ‘to do’ some marketing

• you work alongside  a maketing department and would like to understand more about what they do
• are being told you need a marketing plan and need to know where to start.

Need more help… feel free to give us a call.

ps. at the moment we’re unable to post the presentation here, but if you’re interested please feel free to call me to request a copy – Janet 01202 788333

(Author – Janet Oglakci, BSc, MSc, MCIM, Chartered Marketeer – Marketing Manager LexisClick)

Marketing General business benefits, marketing measurement, marketing plan, marketing planning, Online Marketing, planning

As it’s the first week in January, it’s crystal ball gazing time and not one to be left out we’ve taken a look at the many predictions around what will be the next big thing in Marketing in 2012. We’ve selected a few of what we think are the hottest trends. So read on to discover why the only place to be seen this year is on screen. And if you’re feeling downcast by tales of economic woe, how brands will be ready to divert your attention through gamification and interactive apps. Find out why your purse could soon become a collector’s item and community focused initiatives are set to capture the hearts of consumers.

Digital wallets
Contactless payment devices such as near-field communication (NFC) and QR codes will enter the mainstream in 2012. When used in smartphones, they encourage customers to merge their wallet with their mobile phones. Surveys suggest consumers are ready to embrace this trend. Two-thirds of UK shoppers say cash is inconvenient , according to 2011 surveys by Barclays and PayPal. According to Juniper Research, 300 million devices will be on offer to allow consumers to “tap and pay” through NFC by 2014. It is estimated the value of contactless payments and ticketing using NFC will reach $113bn (£72.4bn) per year by 2016 around the world. (Source: Stylus.com)

Welcome to the cloud
Businesses will invest large amounts of money in cloud computing and mobile technology next year. According to the report: IDC Predictions 2012: Competing for 2020, 2012 will see more money spent on mobiles and tablets than PCs and 80 per cent of commercial applications are set to be on cloud platforms. “The UK is underinvested in IT –  and with advertising and consumer spending rapidly moving online and kit becoming out of date, some rise there is likely,” points out chief executive of the Centre for Economic and Social Research, Douglas McWilliams. (Source: IDC.com, Insight.com)

Local marketing and partnerships
As the clean-up efforts following the London riots show, community love is on the rise. This year will see a resurgence of local marketing to tap into people’s collective devotion to their local community. While the internet by nature is international, there is a growing market for local websites and scope for businesses to tailor websites to specific localities. Brands are also set to tap into this trend for collective working as partnership marketing becomes more common. This will not just be about tactical value-based promotions but about strategic alliance with other brands. (Source:23red)

Screening
In 2012, if it is not on screen, it’s not worth seeing. Touchscreens and tablets have made it much more convenient for consumers to view online while they are on the move. UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has tapped into this trend by partnering with television provider Sky, allowing shoppers to watch sports events while they shop using in-cart iPad docks and speakers. In 2012, video consumption will soar as brands increasingly use this channel to engage with customers. Video brochures, video newsletters, and regular video communications will become standard features on websites. According to Cisco, 80 per cent of all internet traffic will be driven by video by 2015. (Source: Trendwatching.com, Milwardbrown). Running in tandem with this is the prediction that mobile is set to overtake the desktop PC and laptop – which is why it’s more important than ever to ensure that you have responsive web design to allow for the multitude of devices that your potential customers can access your site via.

Playfulness
In a bid to escape from the grim news about the economy, consumers will become more responsive to entertainment and escapism. Big brands will become more playful, using gamification and other “funware” that use points, puzzles and level progression to attract and engage customers. Social tools and technologies that enable people to interact with TV programmes will explode in 2012. Viewers will be able to interact with TV and producers will draw on this data for creative inspiration. Services such as Bluefin Labs and GetGlue indicate traditional TV ratings may be bolstered by “social ratings” as advertisers start to take into account how a show is travelling beyond the TV audience. (Source: Milward Brown)

LexisClick is a full service digital marketing agency, we specialises in helping businesses grow by using the power of digital marketing, with services such as web design and build, SEO, PPC, email marketing, and social media.

To find out how we can ensure your marketing is on trend in 2012 take a look around our website www.lexisclick.com or give us a call on 01202 788333.

From the LexisClick Marketing Team

(Adapted from Trends for 2012 from The Marketer January 2012)

B2B Online Marketing, Blogging for business, Email marketing, Marketing General, Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Web Design

The end is finally nigh for IE6. Microsoft announced Tuesday that Internet Explorer 6 usage in the U.S. has dropped below 1% and is at 7.7% worldwide.

“So as we kick off 2012, we call on the rest of the world – make it your new year’s resolution to end IE6 and move to a modern browser like IE8 or IE9,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post.

So keen is the software giant to move beyond Internet Explorer 6 that they’ve launched a website – ‘The Internet Explorer 6 Countdown’ that bears the slogan ‘Moving the world off Internet Explorer 6′.  On the website IE6Countdown.com Microsoft is making a concentrated effort to get users to move away from the decade-old browser with messages such as ‘it’s time to say goodbye’.

The goal of the website is to get Internet Explorer 6 usage to drop to less than 1% worldwide. Current UK usage is 1.4%.

If you’d like to join the campaign to encourage Internet Explorer 6 users to upgrade visit www.ie6Countdown.com.

Are you still using IE6 let us have your comments!

(Information  sourced via Mashable.com)

Marketing General, Online Marketing, Web Design

Peeks have seen a big uplift in conversions from their email marketing campaigns by using themed bespoke templates designed by our in-house design team. If you’d like  a bespoke email template designed to your requirements click here or give us a call on 01202 788333

B2B Online Marketing, Email marketing, Marketing General, Online Advertising, Online Marketing

We love ‘to be’ and ‘to get creative’ – here’s a design project that we’ve worked on recently. The brief was to create a stand out look and feel for a Women’s only networking group, aimed at management professionals and business owners. The organisers wanted a creative solution that would help them stand out in a busy market place. The design together with the positioning statement incorporates both the fun element of the group and its educational  purpose.

To date the concept has been used on their marketing collateral, email template, pull up banner stands and business cards.

To find out more about our Marketing Services click here.

If you’d like us to give you a fresh look  contact the Design Team at LexisClick on 01202 788333.

Fun Corner, Inspiration, Marketing General, Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Uncategorized, Web Design, design

Here are some really useful Google search shortcuts for you, all you need to do type the following into Google!

site:www.example.com/ – Indexed pages in your site
allinurl:www.example.com/ – Pages that refer to your site’s URL
link:www.example.com/ – Pages that link to your site
cache:www.example.com/ – The current cache of your site
info:www.example.com/ – Information Google has about your site
related:www.example.com/ – Pages that are similar to your site

Marketing General, Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation

Blogging for business, Marketing General, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing

On checking our email stats recently I noticed that a fair proportion of those receiving our newsletter will be reading it on a mobile. According to stats from comScore around 20% could be reading it on a smartphone and if your target audience includes professionals from the business market, that number could be even higher.

Here are a few tips that I’ve come across recently.

Use a large font size. Mobile readability requires larger fonts than those used in email for desktop consumption. An iPhone’s iOS, will automatically adjust any font to its minimum 13-point standard. An even-larger font is recommended for body copy – 14-point minimum, along with a 22-point minimum for headlines.

Keep things simple. A streamlined screen makes it easy for a mobile user to do what they want to do. So resist the urge to load the screen with complex navigation bars, social sharing buttons and calls to action. Also consider single-column layouts that de-clutter small screens.

Choose colour palettes carefully. White text on a gray background might look elegant on a desktop monitor; but in the battery-drained, low-contrast atmosphere of a mobile device, it could be virtually impossible to read.

Consider ergonomics. Since most of us operate smartphones with a single hand, place important navigation and social sharing buttons within easy reach of a user’s thumb.

Finally by observing how your email messages render on a range of screens, you can make it easier for subscribers to engage with you.

If you’d like a customised email design for your company give us a call on 01202 788333.

Email marketing, Marketing General, Online Marketing

A recent report from Econsultancy states that companies are still grappling with the isue of measuring social media (SM), though fewer are reporting that they are unable to measure ROI (37%) compared with 47% last year.
The three most important SM metrics reported are direct traffic from SM sites, brand awareness, and customer engagement, which have little to do with ROI! See the table below fo breakdown of responses…

From The Social Media Team at LexisClick

Blogging for business, Marketing General, Social Media Marketing