A busy week this week with over 8 meetings with potential customers and again it was clear that companies really do need help in guiding them through the maze of ideas the internet has to offer. But a few key factors need to be addressed first.

What is the purpose of the website, do you want a website to:

1. Look nice and show customers a style and image?
2. Generate real sales leads?
3. Earn money online?
4. Sell Products?

These questions have sub categories but they are the basis of setting up a web marketing strategy and getting the true benefit of investing in your brand. The investment you make needs to be planned and measured. Your brand can be made or lost in the blink of an eye if you do it wrong on-line.

Learning these factors in web design and marketing is a process that I have worked on over the past 15 years and hundreds of campaigns later. So if you hear about someone offering you web design services and these questions don’t come up. . . Walk away and give Cada Media a call on 053 9430748

This is a very interesting question and one that comes up all the time, even today we have a caller to the office looking for a price for “web marketing”. Trying not to bore them with the different options I explained that it depends on how much they wish to spend and the scale of the project.

Web marketing is a process that we “web designers” split up into packages in bite size chunks that companies can afford and also understand. It is a science, computer science that changes each day as technology and search engines change.

The methods we use are all above board, called “White hat” methods. This is an important point as many so called web designers will use sneaky tricks to try to cheat google, and when google find out about these tricks you can imagine the result . . . Yes, the can de-list your business and effectively make you ex-directory.

Web marketing should be taken seriously and at Cada Media we respect our clients, we respects search engines guidelines and build structured online marketing campaings for companies who take the Internet seriously too.

Call Dave Jordan of Cada Media Ltd today to start marketing your business. Tel 053 9430748

This is a question that was brought up at a business meeting last week as I was talking to a new business in Wexford and the person involved was newly hired. They were eager to prove their worth in the company. Having listening to his experience and his interest in technology I explained that the Internet is an area that many owners of businesses often don’t understand or have the time too. If he could help them then he would be of move value to the company.

I had my old bosses voice ringing in my ears as I was saying phrases like, “bring me solutions to problems, don’t bring me problems” etc. An old adage but true to every era.

Understanding the Internet.

I would like to suggest that you put together a suggestion for them along the lines of using the web to increase the profile of the buinsess, reduce running costs and hey why not go for increase sales by selling online or even accepting payments online if you are a service business.

Here is s short list of some suggestions to use in your proposal.

• Use a VOIP phone system, such as Skype or the Irish voip service called MyDivert.com
  • This will give you free skype to skype calls, cheaper call rates especially if you sell internationally and remember with broadband improvement the call quality is perfect and you don’t even need a pc anymore. You can plug a voip phone straight into your broadband.
• Using Emails instead of letters. Sending your correspondence by email with dramatically reduce your turn around in waiting for the post to be delivered and returning answers to you. Example: instead of sending out a printed customer survey, lets say costing €1.50 for letter, envelope and return envelope, stamps, why not set one up on www.surveymonkey.com and the results get emailed to you!
• Using PDF invoice to email invoices. Why not email your invoiced directly to your clients, are you still printing them out and posting them in the hope they get there sometime soon. Email them!
• Cutting down on stamps. We use only 1 box of stamps per month and in the next few weeks we will be cutting that down to 1 box per quarter.
• Using open source such as Open Office instead of Microsoft Office. Open Office will do everthing that MS Office will except it’s free and better!
• Start a company blog. Starting a company blog helps the business get in touch with its clients and potential customers by giving them an easy access, less formal method of asking questions before they buy or hire you. It allows you to explain your products in detail. Its what is expected these day. We dont just sell on price, we sell on quality and expertise, so demonstrate that on your company blog and be able to discuss your products and services
• Use Micro Blogging sites like twitter to get your point across in 160 characters or less!, basically this allow people to be able to follow everything you write including special offers and news.
• Create a business Facebook page where your customers can see more about you and you can push them towards your website.  Example: Berney Saddlery Equestrian Shops in Arklow and Enniscorthy started a fFacebook campaign recently to help promote themselves online and to go to where people are hanging out these day, “Facebook” with nearly 1,000,000 registered users in Ireland, it is the place to be. With in a few months they have over 4,000 fans. That means when they update their profile with news of a clothing line being 25% off till lunchtime and that message get emailed to 4,000 people,  Now are stamps starting to look expensive? They are to me.
• Remember the Internet is not just on computers, with more and more mobile devices now being used to access the Internet such as the Vodafone 360 and iphones it’s becoming the norm to carry the internet around in your pocked disguised as a phone!
• Sell online or if you just want to get paid faster starting accepting payment over the phone via a Virtual Terminal from WorldNET TPS This system can cost from as little as €30 a month and accepts Laser/Visa/Master cards. All you need is a broadband connection and a pc, so it suits companies in offices etc. They even have an App for the iphone!

If you can go to your boss with some of these points in a format of a plan to save the company money and promote them cheaper than they could image. . . they should be impresses or nervious, nervious of their future in business.

Help grow your business in a recession, call Dave Jordan of Cada Media Ltd

We had a good talk with a client yesterday about registering a domain name for their business. They have registered one domain and were under the impression that they had reached the amount they were allowed to register.

A company can register as many domains as they wish, as long as they have the documentation to back up the claim to the domains.

Products that you sell could be registered or services that you provide can be registered too. We have registered domains for companies who have multiply products

Protecting your business name.

Often companies will wonder about which domain extension to go for the .ie or the .com The answer is buy both. If you don’t, then expect another business to buy your name and redirect it to their own site or they just just sit on and and no allow it to go anywhere. They can hide who registered it and simply let it rot away doing nothing.

This happens more than is publicized. We have astute clients that have protected their brands and business names by registering all the variations of their company and products and services. They have bought the .com, .net, .eu and .ie versions of their names.

Buying the Plural version of the products.

We often come across companies who have registered one version of their products only to be up the wall later when then see a very similar domain as their sitting above them in Google Adword Campaigns but that version has a “s” at the end instead of

Example:

www.StoneWall.ie

www.StoneWalls.ie

Both good names for a stone mason but they are to completely different domain names. If it was our client we would have got them both and closed the door to others grabbing the domain.

Another important one people usually for get about is putting “ing” at the end of the domain too!

www.fish.ie = online fishing and hunting shop in Galway

www.fishing.ie = Available to register to their competitors immediately!

See what I mean.

Expiring domains, are they any good?

With the recession in Ireland it is interesting to see the effect on the internet as many great domains are actually coming back on the market. Names that have been advertised on Tv and are house hold names. These domains would also carry with them a good page rank and listing in search engines.

We have registered a number of great domains for clients that are related to the construction/property market in Ireland that is struggling at the moment and we have grabbed the expired domains from their competitors and put up a page explaining that they are gone bust and maybe to contact the new owner of the domains with their query instead.

It has been a very successful way of gaining new inquiries and sales leads generation for our clients.

To grow your business in a recession, talk to Cada Media today.  053 9430748

Carolyn Ruth of Interior Design Concepts Starts Blogging

Local Interior Design Specialist Carolyn Ruth of www.interiordesignconcepts.ie recently approached Cada Media Ltd with a request to Increase her Website Visitors.

One way of doing this was to design a blog for Carolyn based loosely on her original website design, which, whilst visually attractive did not allow her to update it with fresh content as she wished.

Thus she now has a new Content Managed area which she can log into whenever she wants and can upload images, pdfs, graphs etc and talk about all things interior and related to the Interior Design Business be it Commercial or Residential.

Carolyn has worked on major projects  including the total refurbishement of locally known watering hole Toss Byrnes in Inch  plus she has worked on many hotels including the Riverside Park Hotel in Cork and The Anner Hotel in Thurles.

Carolyn however, also loves to work with Domestic clients and can help advise you on how to make the most of your home or recreation space.

Follow her blog to get tips and advice information on the do’s and dont’s of interior design.

We look forward to reading her posts !

www.interiordesignconcepts.ie/blog

Understanding the internet

One remark that comes up again and again is how “confusing the internet is”...

Indeed the world wide web is such a vast virtual organism that its hardly suprising that many folks are stumped when it comes to applying the latest web technology such as blogs, you tube videos, flickr photos , forums and google tools to their business.

For example a restaurant owner or blind manufacturer may be suprised at how the web can work for his /her business promoting their brand and ethos not justy locally in Gorey or Wicklow but internationally.

A few points about the web include:

• size doesnt matter,
• you get out what you put in ,
• believe in it and it will reward you
• and of course, content is king.

So don’t give up , why not call into us here at John Street Gorey and find out from our google guru Dave Jordan – no seriously, he has been called this by clients ..(in fact recent clients have  described a conversation with him as full of ‘new york energy’ ( I dont think he’s been to new york yet?) and how he ‘has basically explained the web to me“)…exactly how google and the web can promote and help your business grow…

The Web IS everywhere..Be part of it!

Rosa

It’s our first you tube video so here it goes . . . .

Why use a Newsletter for your business?

This another one of the frequently asked questions we get asked about how to use the Internet for business.  A email newsletter is a fast, efficient, cheap method of communicating with your clients.

You don’t even need a website!

There are many types of newsletter systems available both as hosted (on your own website) or as stand alone applications hosted on someone else’s website. Here are a few links to get you started.

• www.newsweaver.ie
• www.toddle.com
• www.constantcontact.com

We offer our own hosted versions on our clients website that have no monthly bills, you simply type up the newsletter and send. The system takes care of the legal issues like having an unsubscribe option etc. Note our systems wont charge you a monthly fee or won’t charge you per email.

Remember these types of systems will give you great stats, they will let you know who looked at the newletter, what part of it they clicked on to return to your website and much more.

To find out how a newsletter email system can help your business, call Dave or Roz on 053 9430748

Well are friends in Koo Restaurant are really showing us how running a marketing campaign really can be taken to many levels. Passing by the restaurant the other day on the way to work i now see they have another billboard and they have to only 100 yards away from the restaurant itself

Great Idea, having display advertising close to where your premises has always been of great benefit to businesses as people often make quick decisions and call in

Well Done Koo Restaurant, Keep up the good work.

So there I was working late in the office when the at around 8pm the phone rings . . . a mans voice asking for “Gorey Link” and something about a bus for Saturday night? I was confused as he said he was calling from a Koo restaurant. I politly said that in fact this number was “Cada Media, website designers in Gorey“. We said our good byes.

The phone rings again and It was the same voice looking for a bus. I repeated who we were and the call ended!

It then “clicked” to what was happening, so I dialed the number and the same voice answered. I said who I was and asked had he searched online for something and found us. He said he had looked for “Gorey Link”. I explained that we have operated an online business directory for Gorey Town called GoreyLinks.com for the past 3 years and that Google might have brought us up first. He had got our telephone number from there.

Again we said our good byes.

So whats the moral of the story. . . . . . we are great fans of Irony and seeing a business who used the internet as a last option on the “marketing plan list” turning around and using the Internet to find another business.

Classic !