Many businesses had to turn to online marketing and sales during the Covid pandemic as their physical shop or business premises had to shut down. The businesses that were able to continue trading could only do so virtually so a website or social media accounts were vital.

As we see lockdown restrictions lifted and more and more people being able to resume more of a normal life, it may be that you feel your online business is not needed anymore, but there is always a need for online marketing. It may be that some of your customers are not local to you so would never of used you had it not been for your virtual presence. Often the biggest cost in time and money is the initial set u of a website or social media profiles. Once all this hard work has been done, it makes sense to keep them running. You want to give your customers and potential customers many different ways of communicating with you and making a purchase from you. Even after all social distancing measures have been removed, there may be some people that still do not feel confident going out in to shops yet, so it is important to offer them other options.  

At present online marketing is even more important than ever. Many retails still have not been able to open their doors since we went in to a second lock down and some shoppers are still shielding meaning that ll their shopping is now having to be done online. In order to get a piece of the pie you need to make sure that your website and products can easily be found on the search engines such as Google.

One way to instantly improve your rankings for some of you main keywords / phrases is to set up a PPC campaign. PPC stands for Pay Per Click and is a form of online marketing. You essentially set up adverts online that people can click on to be taken through to a specific page on your site. You then pay a fee for each time the advert is clicked. This can increase your traffic in minutes and help you compete against some large businesses.

It can be relatively easy to set up a PPC campaign but making it affective can be a different matter. You do need to know a what you are doing when it comes to setting them up. If you are not going to be using an agency to help you then you need to have a good read through all of the information about the different settings for campaigns and ads/ ad groups.

The recent Covid pandemic has pushed many businesses in to having to go online. It has made them have to adapt their businesses much more quickly and move fast if they want to keep up with the competition. The number of new domain names registered over the past 12 months has shot up as new businesses have started up and existing businesses that did not have a web presence has realised the importance of trading online.

With so many people being furloughed or working from home, many people have finally found the time to start looking into other business ventures. It may be that they have been making something as a hobby for some time now, but never really got to sell their products. Working from home has given people the perfect opportunity to try out these new ventures and get their ideas and products to market. A certain amount of these business unfortunately wont last or will close when working returns to normal, but for some it has been a life changing experience and allowed them to make a lot of money. For those businesses who are already established, trading online is likely to be here to stay now and they will be able to and another avenue to their marketing opportunities.

Planning ahead for your business has been harder than ever this year. It has been very unpredictable and there have been times when things seemed like they were starting to get back to some sort of normal and then we have had to go back in to a lockdown again. Trying to plan how and when to market has been tough and many businesses may not have made it through this year. It is vital that the ones that have survived continue to ensure that they stay ahead of the game and that there busy continues to thrive in 2021. You cannot plan exactly what to do next year as no one know what the situation is going to be but you do need to have ideas in mind which can be adapted if needed.

If you have been lucky enough to get some financial help from the government you need to decide what to do with it. In order to keep trading you will need to do a certain amount of advertising and marketing. It may be that change your marketing strategy to focus completely on the online aspect if your business has now moved online. If you have started trading online you will probably continue to do so even when things return back to normal.

Christmas is creeping up on us very fast the is year and businesses have already started flooding the market with their products. This year has been like no other and people are starting to buy Christmas presents a little bit earlier than usual, maybe because they are concerned that we may go in to another lock down.

If you haven’t already, you need to start to market your business and products to ensure you don’t miss out on potential sales. Social media is a great way for many businesses to start to market their products and reach people instantly.

Christmas marketing campaigns by the major retail brands have become more elaborate by the year, with social media now playing an integral part. Year upon year these companies compete for the best Christmas ad and often refer to social media to get their viewers exciting and discussing it. With much of social media free to use, you do not have to spend a fortune advertising on these platforms. Often all you need is a bit of creativity and time. Social media allows even the smaller businesses to compete as ads can go viral within a few minutes of going live and reach thousands of people.

A new website is a big step for any company, not least of all because a good quality website will not be the cheapest option. It always pays to carefully consider a new website for your company, so here are some of the major things you might need to think about:

• Load speed. This is an important one. Websites that load too slowly lose visitors, as they won’t have the attention span to stay. Prioritise load speed at all costs.
• Ease of use. People need to be able to find what they want and to understand your website. User experience is a primary concern.
• Ongoing maintenance. A new website isn’t the end of the process; it will need to be updated continually. See if you can continue to work with your agency to keep your website up to date – this might involve content changes, changes to individual pages, tweaking based on performance, and more.

Calls to action are used on a website to help you direct a user through your content and take the right action from it. They help to shape a user journey, something that is so important when you want your website to do a job for you. Deciding on the calls to action you will use, and the ways in which you will position them, will help you to achieve results.

Above all, your calls to action need to be clear and easily interpreted. Everybody who enters your website needs to be able to understand what they need to do and how they are meant to behave based on your website content. If you want somebody to call you, or send you an email, make sure they know that they should do this and have all of the details to do so. The same goes for an eCommerce website; make sure people can buy what they want.

A website isn’t something that lasts forever. You will probably be very happy with it when it goes live, and when it does everything that you want it to do. But it will age, and website design trends will change, and functionality will change, so you might feel your website is no longer doing what you need it to do. This is perfectly normal, and the average lifespan of a website is a few years, before it begins to look outdated.

Speak to your web design agency. They might be able to give you a website refresh for a lower price, especially if you already have lots of photos they can use and you already have the copy on your existing website. It is well worth the money to update your site when it is starting to feel old or tired; you will once again be able to be up there with the competition.

A website isn’t just a marketing tool (although of course, it has an important function as one). It is something that reflects your business, tells people what you are all about and gives them the information they need. This is why it’s really important you are proud of it. Your website is something you can direct people towards, put on your business cards and any other marketing literature so that people have easy access to it. This will help to reduce enquiries over the phone, giving people the answers they need via your website. As long as you are happy to point people in the direction of your site, you will be making your life a lot easier.

If your website is old-fashioned or has limited functionality, you may be reluctant to tell people about it – especially people you already know. A good website can save you a great deal of time, and ultimately, money.

Web designers will create the designs for your website before it is built by programmers and developers. They will get the look and feel of your website, so it is important you like what they do. How do you go about choosing a designer?

Many designers will work for an agency. Some are one-man bands, which has pros and cons – it will probably be cheaper but may be of lower quality if they don’t have input from a team, and the process may be slower. If you want to get a feel for a designer, look through their previous work and see if you like their style. You should be a little suspicious of designers who don’t have a portfolio.

Many designers will not give you a quote straight away. They will learn about your needs first. This means they are putting together a unique design for you and won’t just be using a template. The finished product will be more unique and will have more personality.