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Recently we were approached by a journalist and asked a number of questions that relate to digital marketing, in particular how it can help drive business for small, medium and large enterprises in the UK. It’s always nice to be asked for an opinion on the market and our views on different technologies; as a result we thought it might be useful to post the full interview on the blog.

[1] What would your key advice be to any SME that is taking its first steps with online marketing?

Don’t be afraid to become a Geek! Unlike traditional above the line marketing, online marketing is measurable and provides you with a wealth of stats, information and measurements. So our advice to any client in this situation is to analyse the data as much as possible. Identify trends and customer behaviours, drop what does not work and do more of what does work. For example, if you are using Search Marketing and have a high click through rate but low conversion rate, you know you need to work on making your landing page more compelling. The stats help you to make more informed decisions about your Internet marketing.
No SME should consider using online marketing unless they have access to statistics to analyse.

[2] Search marketing seems to have come of age over the last few years. How can even micro businesses take advantage of this kind of online marketing?

Search marketing is a great way to level the competitive playing field. By bidding on keywords that are relevant to your business, you have the same opportunity as any other business to drive highly targeted and qualified prospects to your site. For any micro business this is great news as it means the road to their prospects is significantly reduced, allowing them to create significant revenue streams quicker than would previously had been possible. The reverse side to Search Marketing is that it can also be an expensive waste of time if not done correctly, which often leads to micro businesses being burned and never using Search Marketing again, which is a shame because as a marketing tool it is awesome if used right. In our opinion, it is vital to the success of any campaign that you research your keyword/keyphrases thoroughly and have landing pages that help to deliver your campaign objectives.

[3] How can SMEs integrate their offline promotional activity and their online marketing?

This question largely depends on the market the SME is in. For example, if you’re an ecommerce store you could drive people to your web site with traditional flyers and brochures, using discount codes or coupons. We would advise consistent branding for both online and offline promotion activity, we would also advise any client to leverage their website traffic by collecting email information, which can be used in the future to send offers, newsletters etc to.

[4] Do you think the future of online marketing is mobile via smartphones? Will it become the mobile Internet that everyone is predicting, or a different kind of commercial platform that SMEs can use for promotion and advertising?

Smartphones are an additional channel, another way to reach your target market. I don’t think it is a replacement technology; instead it is something that you would use or cater to as part of your marketing objectives. If you’re building a new website now, you make sure that it can be viewed properly via a smartphone. So to answer the question, I don’t think the future of online marketing is mobile via smartphones exclusively, I think it is just another platform that people need to get used to. This is a great opportunity for innovative advertisers and there may be small niches where exclusive smartphone advertising works, for the majority it will be part of the digital mix.

[5] As consumers have become more Internet savvy how can SMEs position their enterprises to take advantage of this massive commercial channel?

Firstly, they should have an Internet Marketing Strategy. It’s amazing how many companies still do not have such a strategy in place, only by taking the time to understand the potential market available to the SME, will senior stakeholders make the necessary investments in terms of skills and technology. Next they need to identify which technologies will suit their business, for example can they streamline their ordering process by offering ecommerce? Following this they need to look at Web 2.0 technologies such as blogging and social media and understand why they should be taking advantage of these channels in order to increase their revenues, branding, leadership and online conversations.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of companies who are still not considering the Internet as a viable channel for increasing their sales opportunities. This is usually because of fear of the unknown or because of lack of skills, it’s a real shame as if they do not act soon, their competitors definitely will.

[6] No business can ignore the social networking space that has rapidly developed with Web 2.0 technologies. But marketing to this sector has proven very difficult. How or even should SMEs place social networking within their digital marketing? Or is it still too early to commercialise this space?

Web 2.0 and social networking should play a large part all SMEs digital marketing strategy. However, first they need to understand what Web 2.0 and Social Media actually are and what it could mean to their business. This is a major hot topic for us at the moment; we have covered it in the past on the blog. You might find these previous posts useful as a way to answer this question.

10 Reasons why companies do not adopt social media

10 most popular excuses UK businesses use for not having a blog

Business benefits of social media

This post defines (in our opinion) what social media is and how it can help businesses:

How social media can help your business

[7] Email marketing is the digital equivalent of direct mail but with spam still the scourge of the Internet, how can SMEs use this marketing channel effectively?

When we speak about email marketing with clients, we use the term “Enterprise Email Marketing”, this is because we think that email marketing has evolved in the last few years and if done correctly, is a hugely sophisticated form of marketing. The most important piece of advice we can give SMEs about how to use emarketing more effectively is to make yourselves aware of your legal responsibilities, love your data and analyse every single one of your email campaigns.We’ve got more advice about email marketing and using it effectively here:

Generate UK email marketing tips

[8] With masses of press display advertising moving online, the website banner ad seems to be the advertising channel of the day – at least at the moment. What are the key skills that SMEs need to master in order to get good ROI from their banner/display advertising?

Good ROI from banner advertising is dependent on your ad being clicked and the page that is clicked to being strong enough to convert the visitor. We advise our clients to think along the following lines:

Objective – What is it? Traffic, sales, special offer email signups? If you’re paying for a banner ad, what is it that you’re encouraging people to do?
Banner – Is it compelling enough to make people click, is it appropriate to the site it is being shown on, is it in a good position.
Landing Page – Will your landing page convert? Does it include a call to action? Is it easily understood what it is that you want your visitor to do?
Test – Move your banners, try different messages, try different sites, sizes, colours etc
Analyse – Analyse the data, which banners were more affective? Which sites were better for you? Most click throughs?
Repeat – If something works well, do it again.

[9] Viral advertising has seen some of the most successful online advertising of recent years. But as with social networking promotions, viral seems to need a special understanding of the target market to be successful. How can SMEs exploit viral marketing in their enterprises?

Yes viral advertising requires an understanding of the target market; however we would argue that this is the same for any marketing venture to be successful. Some of the greatest viral campaigns have been incredibly simple and no one would have predicted how successful they would be. There is no special ingredient or secret sauce to make something go “viral”, it happens because it is something engaging that is released to the right audience at the right time. You could argue that the skill is in knowing where to release your content and to which audience, which again would come back to knowing your target market. Once you go viral, hold on to your coat tails as it will be a roller coaster ride for a few days.

[10] Successful online marketing is all well and good, but how can SMEs effectively track their campaigns to analyze if they are giving the expected ROI?

There are many great tools out there that will help SMEs track campaigns and analyse their visitor data. Most email marketing systems come built in with their own tracking tools, which allow the user to measure open rates, click through rates etc. The same is available for your web site via technology such as Google Analytics.
In order to measure ROI, one must first understand a campaign objective and what it is that the SME is trying to achieve. We would argue that having access to the metrics and the data is the number one reason for taking part in online marketing.

[11] As the publishing phenomenon of the last few years, the blog has taken the Internet by storm. How can SMEs use the power of the business blog as a marketing channel?

We’ve made a few blog posts about this very topic. What are the benefits of blogging?

What now? Do you have any comments about this interview? Would you have answered any of the questions differently? Please feel free to add your comments below or contact us.

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As a business, we speak about social media and the different facets of social media every day. Sometimes we raise the topic with clients because we see an opportunity for them to use social media to boost their traffic, or because a customer has raised the topic with us and they’re looking to learn more about the subject.

What we’ve learned is that many businesses in the UK are completely turned off by the phrase “Social Media”. Despite the phrase being around for a while now, it still has that connection to the consumer market; it’s still thought of as that “Myface” (sic) site where youngsters post their pictures of drunken nights out.

So this blog post is about exploring some of the more popular reasons we hear from businesses in the UK about why they are not adopting social media and what we think in return. There’s an opportunity for you to post your comments at the end.

• The bad press that has surrounded some of the larger social media sites can mean that some businesses are put off from even exploring the possibility for their company. Interestingly, these are the easiest to turn around as it is a case of realigning what social media for business is and where the benefits and the risks lay.
• The time aspect is often raised in relation to how long it can take to understand the different elements of social media, how long it takes to create content or indeed the time it takes just to take part in a community. In our opinion, this is not a good reason for not exploring social media. You should look at which facets have more resonance with your business, stick to these and do these well. The end game is to create more online discussions which will lead to more qualified customers knowing your brand and visiting your site, which hopefully will lead to more business, so it’s worth the effort.
• It’s not secure is something that we hear quite regularly. This is interesting as when you dig deeper into this subject, it’s obvious that this is a perception challenge. There have been some very alarming news stories about identity theft; however it comes down to using best practices and never giving more information away than is necessary.
• We’re worried about our brand is one of the concerns about social media that we agree with. It is absolutely paramount that you’re in control of the messaging and content that is being used and being associated with your business. This is why many of the larger US brands have adopted social media strategies that mean that all content and information they release is approved by them. The thought process here is that social media and online PR is not going to go away, therefore it is better to control what is being used rather than be controlled by it.
• It’s just a fad, is something that we hear quite a lot. In some ways, we can understand this; the hot new social media site of yesterday is often a baron waste land tomorrow. So why bother taking the time trying to keep up with what’s hot and what’s not? The trick here is to use the sites that are relevant to your market and your message. Try to use sites where a community already exists, if you prefer to build your own community be in it for the long haul.
• I just don’t get it and have no idea what social media actually is. Let us try to simplify it for you; Social Media is about online communications. Internet users have been communicating online since the mid nineties; it just was not called social media then. Social media for businesses is about using social media to enhance your brand, increase the number of conversations about your business and to drive targeted visitors to your site. This is in exchange for your business adding value and sharing their experience via a social media platform such as blogging or forums.
• What’s the value for us as a business? This is a great conversation to be involved with as this what it is all about. If someone could demonstrate the business benefits of taking part in social media, would you do it? If someone could walk you through a social media strategy and show you how to build your brand awareness, would you do it? The answer is probably yes if that new business is worth more than the cost of learning. The great thing about Internet marketing is that it is very measurable, so you should quickly be able to measure your return on investment.
• It’s just something for the youngsters, is something that we hear a lot. It’s probably a fair conclusion as well, however social media is a platform that the youngsters choose to communicate and receive their information on. Therefore, if this is a market that you want to sell to or take part in, then you must take the time to understand the medium. The ways that we communicate changes, 20 years ago there were no Internet and no mobile phones (barely) and look at how these two technologies have changed the way we do business.
• How do we manage the content? This is a concern usually raised by companies that are concerned with employees publishing rude, racist or abusive comments and are worried that posts of this nature will reflect on the business. This is a very important concern, however not one that should put you off moving forward with social media. Internal policies and guidelines are very important and making sure your staff are aware of their responsibilities will help you.
• The boss won’t allow us to use it is a very popular reason we hear from companies. This is about perception and probably one or two of the reasons we have already discussed. In our experience, a well articulated business plan that covers the benefits as well as how you plan to cope with the concerns is a good way to changes people’s minds. Most bosses are keen to increase their profits and revenues, if you can align your social media objectives with this, you should be ok. 

What do you think? Is our list accurate or are we doing UK businesses a disservice? We’d be keen to hear your feedback and comments, either use the form below or you can visit our contact us form. If you would like to discuss your social media requirements with Generate UK, quote the title of this post to lock in a 20% discount against your first purchase.