At Generate UK, we love to impart our knowledge. It helps other businesses with their online marketing and it demonstrates all of the great services that we provide.

June 30th saw us present yet another of our locally renowned seminars at the beautiful Donnington Grove Country Club, this time in the Kennet suite. Around fifty delegates from companies spanning a whole variety of industries attended, including people from CSC, Hyperbole, Verbatim and many, many more. We kicked off the seminar with some light refreshments and networking and with the excellent weather, the mood was fantastic. Once much of the coffee had disappeared, our attendees were ushered into our very own Mr Joe Baily’s introduction and presentation. Joe discussed the way in which we here at Generate UK operate and work with clients, as well as discussing the underlying foundations and technologies that should support a business’ online marketing activity. Will your CMS grow with your company, or will it stop working as soon as your growth explodes? Does your marketing roadmap include the latest social media platforms? Are you missing out on any key marketing activities, like e-mail marketing for example? This helped open some eyes and hopefully encouraged our attendees to look at the road ahead, why update your strategy now… When the wheels of the underlying vehicle will fall off in the near future? You might as well get both right now to save a lot of heart ache and expense in the long term!

Michael Robinson then took the reigns and went on to explain some of the jargon and terms commonly used in the Internet marketing industry. Many questions were asked and many were thusly enlightened on the subjects of ‘Black hat’ vs ‘White hat’ SEO techniques and ‘Google Bombing’ among many others. This demonstrated that in having knowledge of all the different SEO and Internet marketing approaches, we can better advise and improve upon our client s online activity. This put to rest many of the doubts our delegates had regarding things like Google AdSense, Pay Per Click, Keywords and link-building where they had bad experiences in the past when working with less experienced or ‘black hat’ agencies.

The seminar was then adjourned for another round of tea and coffee so that we could make our way around and speak to many of those who attended as possible. We found that our delegates had differing reasons for attending, but many were surprised by the planned scope of the event and were very much looking forward to seeing the rest of what we had to offer.

Having set high expectations with the first half of the event, it was then down to our guest speaker Mr Ian Summerfield from Optim IP to continue the trend. Ian presented on the subject of Cloud Computing, a technology that has been around for quite sometime, but is only just entering the mainstream. Ian certainly delivered; his presentation roused many questions as some of our attendees could not believe that they could compute with incredible power, on inexpensive devices through a service provided from half way across the globe. Ian illustrated that the use of Cloud Computing is not a question of if, but when. Microsoft is giving the cloud their full backing, and more and more charities rely on cloud computing as a cheaper, more flexible alternative to maintaining their own infrastructure. Not only this, but many other platforms will migrate to the cloud from film rental, to console gaming which will dramatically change the way businesses utilise their marketing channels and the way in which they manage their customer engagement. This gave our audience much to think about as they were about to be instructed on the use of design in marketing.

Matt Lewin and I presented on a number of related subjects that determine whether or not your website design is current. I began by introducing on-page SEO, navigation and web standards as well as their affects on accessibility and design. Many people do not give these points the consideration that they deserve and to illustrate their significance I showed how many larger organisations have been sued for ignoring these points. After all, in not adhering to these guidelines, you could be damaging your user experience for up to 48% of your audience.

I then handed the talk over to Matt so he could talk our audience through the importance of designing a website with their key marketing activity and priorities in mind as well as demonstrating how a company web page could be better built for user interaction through portals and social platforms.  The reason being that marketing is moving to a more integrated and interactive paradigm and some smaller companies are falling behind the trend and could potentially be losing business as a result. Matt also talked our delegates through the process of determining their site sizing and layout so that it engages the user in all the right ways, ultimately delivering better returns and conversions which should be a part of every businesses marketing strategy.

To top off an already brilliant event, our very own social media guru Mr Ian Fergusson began to convert our audience into becoming more social media savvy. Ian shocked our audience with impressive facts and creative figures on the sheer volume of social media users and then went on to tell us that if Facebook was a country, it would be the 4th biggest country in the world behind the US based on registered users alone! If that was not shocking enough, Facebook itself has seen a dramatic shift in demographic from 16-18 year olds to mainly 45-54 year olds! So it is certainly no longer a ‘kid’s thing’ which makes it a marketing tool to be considered much more seriously as part of an integrated marketing arsenal. This talk was well received all round with many delegates asking for training and tips on how to leverage these platforms properly themselves.

After the presentation, we took questions from the floor and explained some of our fields in more depth. We were then locked into deep marketing conversations with many of our delegates 1-on-1 to advise them on some of the marketing issues they had stumbled across quite recently. We talked these through with them and suggested ways they could perhaps revisit these activities and tweak their approach to better their results.

We love to help people and businesses with their online marketing and the feedback we received on the number of free tools we gave away and the advice we included in our seminar was astounding. So much so that we are currently planning another event to invite you all back to! If you would like to request access to the presentations from our great speakers, then please click here.
I look forward to seeing you all again in the future!

Kind regards,
John King.

On the 11th March Speed Networking Berkshire partnered with Donnington Grove Country Club and Generate UK to host a networking event which saw 37 business professionals from the Berkshire area meet in unique circumstances in a serene and tranquil environment.

Speed Networking is a unique concept which sees individuals meet other individuals through one to one speed meetings. You literally have 90 seconds each to inform each other of your business and to discuss the opportunities or synergies between your two companies.

The idea is not to push your business too hard, it’s to engage and see where the potential opportunities lie. It might not be the person in front of you who represents the opportunity; it may well be a business partner, a colleague or friend that denotes the opportunity?
After round one where half of the room had met each other there was a break for refreshments as this style of meeting whilst enjoyable can be pretty exhausting.

Generate UK were exceptionally proud to partner and sponsor the event and following the break we presented and discussed ways for businesses to increase internet revenues. Throughout the 15 minute presentation Generate UK discussed why online marketing represents such a good option for companies and highlighted the different activities available to help generate more from a website.
In summary the presentation focused on:
•    Increasing Traffic
•    Increasing Reputation
•    Increasing Conversation

Through increasing your internet footprint via quality content you can significantly increase online traffic and reputation, and through analytics an organisation can set realistic objectives to monitor and increase online conversion rates through enquiries and sales.

Following the presentation the event resumed to the second round of meetings. Speaking with people after the event the feedback was extremely positive and these were comments from people who were new to Speed Networking.  Speed Networking is a simple yet effective concept and represents a great way to network.  The event was certainly a worthwhile exercise and on a personal note it really opened my eyes to how other businesses operated.  I would certainly recommend any professional who wants to meet new people and engage with different businesses to attend.

Generate UK met Speed Networking Berkshire last year whilst attending an event themselves and after a number of meetings and discussions which were based on similar values, principles and objectives in business the two businesses seemed to be a good fit to form a professional working partnership.

Drawing on a current relationship with Generate UK, Donnington Grove Country Club hosted the event which represented a fantastic opportunity for the Country Club to show 37 local business professionals the meeting and conference facilities available at Donnington Grove.

The event showed why business partnerships can be exceptionally fruitful and forming successful alliances can only enhance reputations and potential opportunities for business.

Successful partnerships are borne from two companies who possess similar business values however, be warned we would strongly advice companies looking to partner with other organisations to do their research first, as it’s your reputation at stake and certain affiliations could possibly be more damaging than prosperous.

I have to admit that it was unusual for me to be out of the house quite so early on a Sunday morning but this particular trip was for a good reason.  I was off to support the Generate UK leadership team in the Reading Half Marathon, one of the biggest of its kind in the world.  It was an early start to what was to become a really lovely day.

As I stood on a street corner munching my way through a sausage and egg mcmuffin and clapping between mouthfuls, it struck me just what an impressive sight 16,500 people running through Reading town centre really was.  It also crossed my mind that I might miss the Generate UK team that I had so wanted to support in the masses.

I needn’t have worried however; I spotted them as soon as they turned the corner in their matching burgundy vests emblazoned with the “Tommy’s” logo.  Tommy’s, the charity that Generate UK were proud to be supporting fund research and provides information on causes and prevention of miscarriage, premature birth and stillbirth.  Joe and Mike seemed to be in good spirits and looked like they were enjoying the run.  They were running at a good pace but didn’t stop for a chat as both of them had their sights set on achieving a good time.

After watching the Generate team run off into the distance I stayed in place clapping and cheering other competitors.  The novelty costumes always amaze me especially on what was becoming a particularly warm day, there were a couple of Smurfs, Fred and Wilma Flintstone, Scooby Doo and a Giant Bear to name but a few.

I took a walk to the ten mile mark, an area of the course that I am told feels to the runners as if the end is nigh, one way or another!  At this point you are able to watch the runners coming towards you for approximately half a mile.  It’s incredible; there are some that have barely broke a sweat whereas some look close to death, unfortunately by this stage Joe was firmly in the latter camp!
I am pleased to announce that Mike and Joe both finished the race, Mike with a time of 1hr 51, Joe with 1hr 58 beaten at the finish line by the two Smurfs.  Whilst both suffering from fatigue Generate UK were incredibly proud of their achievement and the £600 raised for Tommy’s will certainly go to helping a worthwhile cause.

Tell me… Could you describe and explain social media and online marketing to your grandma, in such a way that she could confidently use it to potentially better a business? I know I couldn’t.

I did however go to a seminar today on this very subject that did exactly that! No the room wasn’t full of ‘grandmas’, but it did break down the mysterious lore that is social media and online marketing into easily digested nuggets of knowledge.
This seminar was hosted by Generate UK at the spectacular Donnington Grove in their ‘Cloud Suite’. The ‘Cloud Suite’ is a luxurious room lined with lovely old paintings, overshadowed by a fantastic painted ceiling. There was free tea and coffee, there was glorious sunshine and there was a friendly buzz as attendees began to arrive.

We were all seated in some rather fancy chairs and we covered a variety of things from e-marketing myth busting to the fundamentals of the ‘twitterverse’. I already knew some of the basics that were covered but it was nice to see that all the fundamentals were explained so that everyone else understood the more advanced things that were to follow. Overall it was very well presented and it left no one guessing.

Over the course of the morning I mentally noted a number of clever marketing devices for later use. I learned that no more are the days where one could simply post a few thousand identical links all over the Internet to rank their page from ‘unheard of’ to ‘the industry authority’ in a matter of weeks; nor can you purchase links on leading websites to boost your own rankings… Well, not without major repercussions anyway. The emphasis nowadays is on natural link building, quality and content with a hint of tweeting; although the ‘Tweeting’ is optional.

Natural link building is the activity that promotes the recommendation of your online presence by getting other online entities to refer to your site naturally via a link; this could be as a point of interest, or perhaps in the form of a recommendation of your products or services. This is done of their own accord. This is now necessary because the search engines have ‘wizened-up’ to those manipulative chaps that have previously gone out to the marketplace to spam every existing website with their own links and false recommendations; all in a bid to rank higher on the search engine results. The current digital marketing paradigm now dictates that it is better for a company ‘footprint’ to grow gradually over time as more and more web users begin to trust the site in question and recognise it as an authority in the field.  For those of you that didn’t know, an online footprint is the measurement of your own online presence size… Yet another vital thing I learned today that I have lovingly passed on to you.

Now, can you tell me of something currently going on in your life or workplace that you’ve told other people about? I bet you can. Yet, many companies with an online presence clam-up and communicate next to nothing. If you have some experience in a particular field, enough for you to generate money from, it must be worth shouting about surely?
This is where we come on to the subject of quality and content. I learned today that some companies are beginning to embrace this as a guideline for their online activity. Not too many years ago the majority of companies had a static website that was occasionally updated with some generic company news. Nowadays however, the early adopters of new digital marketing methods and technology are beginning to share their knowledge, views and information online. This interactivity allows users to communicate with the company in a dynamic fashion allowing the aforementioned businesses to stay firmly on the industry pulse; this is due to their grass roots interaction with the end consumer, so businesses are more aware of what these consumers are thinking right now.

How is this done? In a surprisingly simple way actually, it’s all a question of sharing targeted, interesting and relevant content with the web surfers you want to attract to your business.  This does require that you embrace some of the new social media platforms that have recently come to power though i.e. Facebook, Twitter, del.icio.us etc. So although the process may seem straight forward, there is a significant learning curve involved which puts many companies off.
Let me give you an example. Imagine you and I run a fashion outlet for customised clothing and accessories. We could do our traditional market research, develop prototype designs and then hope that when these items finally go on sale they will indeed, sell. This is admittedly, a very short-sighted example but now imagine this; instead of doing our in-house research with a few participants… We opened up a website listing all of our latest designs. We could then use a platform like Twitter to ‘Tweet’ (post information about) those designs to the masses whilst linking back to the main site. This would then open the door to other ‘Twitterers’ (Twitter users) for them to offer valuable feedback on our designs and to perhaps make some valuable recommendations for change. Not only that, but by engaging with the fashion conscious community on Twitter, we could explore what other people in the field are talking about and then throw in our own ‘two cents’ on the subject. We have just outlined a way to improve our customer interaction, improve our market research and product design process as well as establish ourselves as an authority in the field of fashion by expressing our expert opinion in up-to-the-minute conversations on the subject; all the while building natural links and generating traffic to our sales website, hopefully earning some extra money. Of course such a strategy would require much more thought and planning, but such a scenario is not uncommon where clever individuals have managed to leverage this powerful technology to their own business benefit.

The basics however are centred on sharing relevant, quality content with other users in an engaging way so that these users will interact with your business. Got a new product line? Tweet it. Planning a big PR event? Set up an events page on Facebook. Little things like this as part of a wider marketing plan can really level the playing field when competing for business against larger faceless corporations. Consumers like to know there is a bit of humanity in the business workings somewhere, something they can relate to. This is what makes quality content sharing on these innovative platforms so damned powerful.

WELCOME to Generate UK’s Festive Online Marketing Workshop.

Date: 9^th December 2009

Time: 9am-12.30pm

Venue: Donnington Grove Country Club - click here for directions

A workshop designed to help participants understand and embrace a number of key online marketing activities.

The workshop will be dynamic and focused on sharing experiences with clients, partners and each other providing the dos and don’ts when it come to implementing a proactive marketing strategy!

The workshop will discuss:

• The principles of SEO – what are they?
• Business Blogging – to blog or not to blog?
• An effective website – do you have one?
• Email marketing –does it work?

The workshop aims to be delivered in an informative yet relaxed atmosphere helping Marketers and business owners become more knowledgeable when looking to contribute to their online marketing strategy for 2010.

On top of this you’ll have a chance to network with industry professionals through an hour of speed networking! Plus you’ll be entered into a special draw to win a round of golf or dinner for two!

The workshop is limited in numbers so please register here to avoid disappointment or call 01635 550431 to book your space.

www.generateuk.co.uk

Last week I attended my first Speed Networking Event at Windsor Racecourse and thought that it was certainly worth a Blog post! Initially I was pretty sceptical and didn’t really know what to expect, but I have to say I was really impressed.

The event was hosted by Speed Networking Events who are committed to growing Speed Networking throughout the UK.

I really enjoyed the afternoon and left feeling pretty exhausted! The format involved 20 different companies and you literally had three minutes (one and a half minutes each!) to tell each other about yourself, your business and how you could potentially help each other. After only 5 mini meetings I had already met some really interesting people and a few potential business opportunities!

Whilst not all 19 meetings represented an interest for me, I did find it fascinating to hear about people’s views, hear their enthusiasm and understand their business pains, all within 90 seconds!

After 9 meetings we stopped for a break during which we received an excellent presentation from John Shenton who represented a company called BIA who helps companies improve business growth through people communications. After some tips from John as to how we should approach each of our mini meetings and some more light refreshments, people then entered into the second phase of meetings with renewed vigour.

The idea is a simple yet effective concept and the event was certainly a worthwhile exercise, it really opened my eyes to other businesses and I would recommend any person(s) who want to meet new people and engage with different businesses.

For more information about an event in your area visit Speed Networking Events

The seminar titled “Increase your Internet Footprint” was delivered by Generate UK on Wednesday April 15th at Donnington Grove Country Club and was summed up by one delegate, “The information was fantastic and I’ll certainly be using much of the content to help me increase my own web site’s Internet presence, thanks!” Sara Hodkin, Group Marketing Manager, Fish Brothers Swindon

The seminar was designed to help businesses understand what online marketing opportunities there are available to them (many of which are free) to help increase their web site footprint on the internet.

30 attendees were present to soak up the fantastic surrounding, friendly atmosphere and great content. The slides are available to download here, if you attended or registered for the event please check your email as a password has been provided to you.

Generate UK commenced by providing their top ten tips to increase a web site’s footprint. Initially it is important to understand exactly what an internet footprint is, why it is important and how it can be good for a business.

A number of online activities were then explored including Business Blogging, Online PR, Link Building, Online Advertising, the power of Video and File Sharing, Search Engine Optimisation empowering local optimisation, utilising Forums and Online Communities, the power of Social Media, offering Content to increase reputation and various ways to offer content online encapsulating podcasts and RSS feeds.

Before implementing these activities Generate UK explained that it is vitally important to have your web site correctly set up and the basic requirements were discussed. This included the visibility of a web site through the correct web language and the different browser technology people use, how accessible it was, looking at a web site’s navigation and how Google interoperated it as well as W3C standards. Making a web site easily found should be at the top of the agenda and how important on-page optimisation is, in particular keywords and the processes that any web manager should undertake. Lastly Generate UK discussed the importance of content and how content can play a massive part in helping a web site grow and advance within the search engines.

After light refreshments Generate UK explored a number of tools available to the attendees specifically through Google search engine and how these could impact a web site. These tools included Google Blogger, Local, Knoll, Alerts, Feedburner, Orkut, Analytics, Webmaster tools, PPC (Pay per Click) advertising and Youtube!, now owned by Google and the third biggest search engine.

PPC was next on the agenda and Generate UK demonstrated how PPC can significantly increase a web site’s presence immediately within the search engines. It was at this stage when Generate UK invited Peter Meherne to the stage to discuss his experience of PPC. Peter is from Plain Words, a professional authoring and training company providing technical and business-related writing services and training to a wide range of industries. Peter explained that Plain Words have been using PPC to promote their services for a number of years and have experienced the pains and rewards from PPC. Peter went on to explain that keyword research should not be taken lightly and this process should be continually monitored. This can be done by understanding your keywords and phrases and approaching your keyword research through a more targeted approach rather than a too generic attitude, thus saving money and increasing your conversion rate.

After a well earned lunch break, Mark White from Better Business Blogging a partner to Generate UK talked about the Social Media, how it’s all around us in personal and business lives and the positive effect it can have on businesses. Mark explored the multitude of social media platforms available online to businesses and how a business can re-use the content within different social mediums to increase their reputation, brand and the opportunity to be seen.

Mark summarised by telling the delegates that social media is here, and is here to stay and it’s the businesses who embrace social media that will be the businesses who succeed online.

Generate UK summarised the event and after a question answer session and a free prize draw for a free round of golf or dinner for two, the seminar drew to a close with all of the delegates going home more knowledgeable within the online arena and ready to put their new information into practice.

The lucky winner of the draw was Peter O’Brien from Business Engineering Ltd, who selected a meal for two at Donnington Grove rather than a round of golf. A voucher is heading your way Peter; we hope you enjoy the meal.

For more information on Generate UK seminars please call 01635 551431 or send your details to info@generateuk.co.uk

Wow, what a tough year it was in 2008 and if you believe the papers and all the hype, 2009 is going to be an even harder year!

Businesses are going to strive hard to try and increase revenues whilst keeping an exceptionally tight rein on their marketing budgets.

So if companies are slashing their marketing budgets where are they going to focus their spend and how can companies be assured that the marketing channel they use will give them the return that they want?

In a just-released survey from eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit more than 64% of respondents say the current economy probably won’t affect their overall marketing budgets, but most report plans to increase or maintain their budgets for Email (83.6%), Online Advertising (77.2%), Keyword Search Campaigns (75.5%), Social Media (61.8%), and Video Advertising (38.2%). eMetrics’ analysis states,

“34.5% of respondents’ marketing budgets are negatively impacted by the economy but only 10-15% of respondents are cutting budgets on online channels. This would suggest that confidence in online marketing effectiveness continues to grow.”

According to the survey web analytics have become increasingly important to senior management.

“Web analytics helps us maximize the effectiveness of our shrinking marketing dollars by pointing out our strengths and weaknesses and providing an actionable roadmap to our most impactful ROI channels online. Tough times really do call for tough measures.”

You can download the entire survey results from the eMetrics web site.

So it appears that digital marketing is the way forward as through the use of analytics it is 100% visible and that means 100% measurable!  However a question which many marketer asked themselves on a daily basis, which online channel is best for me?

Many companies through using the analytics will trial a number of different campaigns and then through the metrics work out the best return on the investment made.  As the statistic show email marketing is the most popular activity and this is because through past experience for many marketers (mine too!) email has been one of the most cost effective routes to increasing communication, prospect engagement and subsequently business.

Online Advertising and PPC is also up there in the stats and this is because again it’s so measurable. You spend a £1 you get £2 back, brilliant let’s spend £1000! Of course it’s not as easy as this and to gain the returns, you need to put some thorough research into finding the right environments to advertise and research the right keywords. This will provide you with some good solid traffic that is most importantly, targeted!

Interestingly social media and video advertising have both come a very long way in a relatively very short space of time. Companies are finally latching on to the power of social media and the advantages of video advertising becoming viral often through the social media sites and can often catapult a brand to a next level.

If I was a business owner (with a website that has been optimised) experimenting with digital marketing for the first time I would obviously do my own research, however  I would most likely start by delivering some small targeted email campaigns (researching the appropriate email marketing software to deliver my campaigns).  I would then, depending on my product/services use some of my budget to trial and deliver a PPC campaign (I would have probably employed a company to provide me with some extensive Keyword research in the first place so that I’m making sure I’m not wasting my precious marketing budget!). 

In conclusion; do your research, there are many ways to market your company and the online spectrum has multiple channels. However one thing is clear in my head as well as many top marketing executives; is that Digital Media is certainly the way forward through these hard times when budgets are being slashed but you’re still being pressured to produce the result! 

What do you think? Do you have any new ideas to add? Please comment below or add to the debate. Please do not hesitate to contact Generate UK for more information and ideas about how to we can help you with your digital marketing in 2009.