Using video on your website

A Great way to boost user interactivity and to enhance your website is by including video. People say pictures tell a thousand words; well if that is the case then a thousand moving pictures tell a million words.

An embedded video can be a great way to advertise a product, or to get a message across to the viewer without them having to scroll through pages of text. Sound and moving objects will attract the user’s attention and keep them interested and entertained, especially if they been trawling the internet for hours looking at nothing but text over the last several sites.

Using video is becoming increasingly popular throughout the internet with big corporate companies such as Audi, Nike, Adidas and Levi’s all using video on their home pages. The effect is stunning integrating the video with the rest of the page gives the site a whole new dynamic and certainly separates them from their competitors. 

The examples above use video in a very bold way to advertise a product, but video can be used more subtly just to enhance the look of your site. This can be done by using a Flash animated banner or company logo.  Animating these elements should make them stick in the viewers mind.

Just before you start thinking that you want a completely animated site with all the bells and whistles, be warned there are a couple potential problems. Video and animation are not entirely browser friendly and additional software called plug-ins must be installed before the browser can display the video. You could potentially loose a huge chunk of your target audience by including too much video and animation for this reason.

My tip with video and animation is that less is more. Don’t saturate your site with them as that will increase page load times and deter potential viewers. Use it subtly and integrate it with the rest of the site to create an improved user experience. 

What you need to know about Networking to get results

Business Networking is a boon to solo professionals and SMEs. In fact, for some of us it’s our main way of getting new business. ‘Word-of-mouth Marketing’, as they call it, is very powerful indeed.

But there’s more to effective Networking than a row of jollies in your diary. There’s a skill to learn. An etiquette you need to perfect.

The first and, in my humble opinion, the most important rule is this:

Networking is NOT selling.

It’s about building relationships and growing a network of people who you can help and who can help you. The work comes from those relationships.

There is nothing more off-putting than going to a networking meeting and having someone pin you in a corner and try and hard-sell you.

Equally irritating – and stupid – is being ignored because you’re not an obvious, immediate customer, as this story from my friend Michelle McDines, the House Coach, illustrates.

‘A guy came up to me at a networking meeting and asked who I was and what I did. I told him, and he said: “Well, there’s no point me talking to you. You won’t buy anything from me.”

‘So I stared him straight in the eyes, smiled and said, “Try me!” He gave me his spiel, and I replied: “You’re right, I won’t. But I know about twenty people who might be very interested in what you’ve got to offer. And that’s how networking works!”‘

Indeed, it is.

It’s about building up trust, being remembered and being referred. It is not about coming away from a meeting with a list of done deals.

Don’t forget, people refer people they like, respect and get on with. Michelle admits that she can’t remember a thing about that obnoxious guy’s business. ‘And with an attitude like his’, she told me, ‘I wouldn’t refer him to anyone I know, anyway.’

So, now you know.

How to create your own email footer

Given last years changes in UK law we thought you would appreciate knowing how to create a simple text footer in MS Outlook.

Step 1 - Open the editor

• From MS Outlook select Tools from the top menu
• Look down the popup menu and click on Options
• Look across the tabs and select the Mail Format tab
• Look down the panel and under the Signatures banner click on the Signatures button
• Look down the panel and click on the New… button
• Enter a meaningfull name for your footer - we suggest use “Disclaimer”
• Click on the Next > button

Step 2 - Enter your message

• Copy & Paste the following text into the text box

This email and its attachments are confidential and are intended for the above named recipient(s) only. If this has come to you in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email from your system. Statements and opinions contained in this email may not necessarily represent those of Bad Robot Limited. Please note that email communications may be monitored.

The registered office of Bad Robot Limited is The Court, Alexandra Park, Prescot Road, St Helens WA10 3TT. Registered in England - Company No. 05981740.

• Important: Change the text to reflect your company details
• Click on the Finish button
• Click on the OK button

Step 3 - Ensure its working

• Under Signature for new message select your message name - if you used “Disclaimer” then select “Disclaimer”
• Click on the OK button
• Create a new message & check the footer
• Email it to yourself & check it again !!

If you run into difficulties you can always give us a call.

Are your emails legal?

Every company should list its company registration number, place of registration and registered office address on its website as a result of an update to the legislation of 1985. The information, which must be in legible characters, should also appear on order forms and in emails. Such information is already required on ‘business letters’ but the duty is being extended to websites, order forms and electronic documents (including email).

The new legislation came into force last January and requires:

• The name, geographic address and email address of the service provider. The name of the organisation with which the customer is contracting must be given.  This might differ from the trading name. Any such difference should be explained – e.g. “XYZ.com is the trading name of XYZ Enterprises Limited.”

It is not sufficient to include a ‘contact us’ form without also providing an email address and geographic address somewhere easily accessible on the site. A PO Box is unlikely to suffice as a geographic address; but a registered office address would. If the business is a company, the registered office address must be included.

• If a company, the company’s registration number should be given and, under the Companies Act, the place of registration should be stated (e.g. “XYZ Enterprises Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 1234567″)
• If the business is a member of a trade or professional association, membership details, including any registration number, should be provided.
• If the business has a VAT number, it should be stated – even if the website is not being used for e-commerce transactions.
• Prices on the website must be clear and unambiguous. Also, state whether prices are inclusive of tax and delivery costs.

The Delete Key: A writer’s best friend

‘Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.’ Mark Twain

That well-worn phrase ‘less is more’ could have been invented for writing websites. Short, sharp, succinct and to the point – that’s the kind of copy your users want to read. And, be honest, that’s the kind of stuff you want to find when you visit a site, isn’t it? Not reams of padding.

But the finely honed phrase doesn’t just appear from nowhere. You have to work at it. So here’s my simple, Five-Step Technique for getting the results you want:

1 Open a new page and just write. Anything, everything – get it all out and say what you want.

2 Read it over carefully; get it in order so that the story flows.

3 Now – be prepared to delete. Cut out anything you don’t need: long-winded sentences; vague filler content; repetitions. Check words like ‘that’ and ‘very’ – see Mark Twain’s advice above. If it doesn’t add anything – delete!

4 Re-write wordy cliches like ‘on a weekly basis’, ‘in a position to’ or ‘for the purpose of’.

5 Leave for at least 30 mins (overnight is even better). Then re-read – preferably out loud and with feeling. Tighten up the copy where needed. (Repeat Step 5 if necessary.)

Et voila! You’ll have a lean, mean fighting piece of copy that really does the business.

Remember, you just can’t bore people into buying.

Online Networking

There are an increasing number of social networking groups available over the internet but there are some issues to consider:

Pros

• Enables you to find quality people who may not be familiar with you or your company
• Mutual connections help foster relationships and help you to begin with a little more trust and warmth than with a total stranger
• Allows you leverage with contacts you already have

Cons

• Getting started requires an investment in time to signup, enter your personal information, and add your contacts
• If you only have a handful of contacts you will get very little benefit since most systems only search for connections through your existing network
• Getting your existing contacts to invest their time to join is not easy

We recommend using the following network services:

http://www.linkedin.com/
Linkedin is an online network of more than 11 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries. A basic account is free and will get you a lot of the useful functionality. Upgrading to a business account will allow you to introduce yourself directly to people outside your network as well as increasing the methods other people can find you.

http://www.ecademy.com/
Ecademy is a Social Network for Business People founded in 1998 now with over 150,000 member profiles worldwide.

Ecademy allows you to add your products and services into its marketplace, which is searchable by all members. Your profile and marketplace entries are automatically included in Google (after a couple of weeks). Optimising your own profile is a fantastic way of getting a first page listing on Google.

Why would you use Brand Designer?

Brand design involves much more than producing attractive images or just graphic design. It is also about effective communication techniques. A good brand designer will help you get your business message across to your customers in ways that are more subtle, and therefore more efficient, than text alone.
 
Skilled brand designers will understand about marketing, customer psychology and the corresponding effects on these of combinations of colour, imagery and text. For example, a cartoon logo may be perfect if your business provides products or services for children, but that kind of image might not suit a more ’serious’ business such as one providing independent financial advice.

Choosing the right brand designer is a critical business choice

A brand (or graphic) designer creates brand logos and other imagery for use on business stationery, promotional literature, signage and websites. Your leaflets, advertisements and stationery provide an important representation of your corporate image to customers, so it is important to have these designed professionally.

Well-designed marketing materials and stationery can convey the impression of a dynamic, successful and trustworthy business, while badly designed literature can say exactly the opposite.

Choosing a brand designer who is right for your business is a critical decision, so make sure you Make the right choice!

Mass Submission Services - do they work?

I am confident that at some point you have received an email offering to submit your website to thousands of search engines for the low low cost of £79. The value may change but the message doesn’t - we can get you more traffic for very little money.

So what’s the problem?

You simply don’t need to be listed in a thousand search engines. Most people 99.9% in the UK use around 50 search engines between them. Out of that top 50 Google, Yahoo any MSN receive 85% of the searches. Knowing that where would you invest your time?

In addition some of the less scupulous mass submission services simply take your money and then generate spam email, which will give you know benefit and kill off your inbox!

Want better advice?

Have a look at this post search engine submission

Your Network

You already have a network and it is probably much bigger than you at first realise. Don’t believe us? Take a few minutes and write down as many of the following as you can think of:

• Family
• Friends
• School
• Alumni
• Previous jobs and ex-colleagues
• Clubs and Societies you belong to
• Business cards you have kept

Contact as many of them as you can and tell them what your company does and ask them for referrals – the people who you should be speaking to.

Plaxo [http://www.plaxo.com/] is a fantastic online tool for organising your contacts. A basic account is free and allows you to synchronise your contacts, diary, and tasks across several computers – very useful if you have both a PC and a laptop!

Plaxo automatically updates when your contacts update their information thereby saving you hours of administration. Upgrading to Plaxo Premium, for a small annual fee, allows you to manage duplicate entries, store more than 1,000 contacts, and view your contacts and calendar on your mobile phone.