Stand out, be different, don't be a Mailchump!

Using Aweber, Constant Contact or Mailchimp? Well here's how to do so and not to look like a monkey!

Whichever email system your company uses to send out your email communications, make sure you make it your own.

Ensure that whoever receives the email knows who it has come from. How many times have you opened an email and thought ‘not another generic template I don't recognise’ *delete*? My guess is quite a few.

Avoid this happening to you by having a custom template designed, creating a brand for your communications that is unique to you as well as aesthetically pleasing and in keeping with the rest of your marketing communications.

Don’t hide the company logo away in the bottom corner, display it loud and proud as an integral part of the template. If your customers are familiar with your brand (which I imagine they are) then they will associate it with good service, quality and reliability. So make sure they can see it.

Use company colours for your template, automatically relating it to your brand. Once customers associate these email communications with your brand they will take the time to read the contents and click on the links, driving new and old customers to your site.

If you are already sending email communications; newsletters, e shots, e-zines, whatever you choose to call them, then you will have an established database. This database will have been collated from customers (data collected from purchases), potential customers (data sourced) or almost customers (those who have signed up to receive emails.) More often than not you will be sending different communications to different segments.

But if time and budget only permits one template and one design – KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Nobody wants an overly showy template, your customers want to be able to locate the information they need, they don’t want to be shifting through fancy typography and hidden java games to get to their discount code.

So in a nutshell, keep it branded, make it your own - but don’t show off!

Need some help with a custom branded email template? Want to make sure that ALL of your marketing communications follow your company brand? Drop us a line now for a free brand appraisal at info@whype.co.uk or visit our website at www.whype.co.uk

What does your brand say about you?

What does your brand say about you? Are you sure?

Now, more than ever before, it is oh so important to keep a finger on your online pulse. You need to know what people are saying about you and with the use of the internet it is easier than ever.

The internet gives customers a barrier to hide behind; it allows them to speak their feelings more freely than if they had to do so in a shop, for example. The down side of that is that their feelings could be positive or negative, and you have no control over what they are saying.

Luckily, there are tools that allow you to monitor what is being said about your brand online; Google Alerts and SocialMention being two of the better ones.

Once you have established what people are saying about your brand, the glory of the internet is that you can reply in real time, taking the time to address concerns, thank people for positive comments, and in general interact with your customers and increase the power of your brand.

The internet allows you to speak back to your customers, address the issues that they may be tweeting or blogging about. Reply to their tweets/blog/facebook, ask what the problem had been and how you can help. This interaction will bring the brand a personal touch and hopefully, restore (or increase!) customer faith in your company.

It may be that consumers are responding online to changes that have been made to your products or services; listen and take note. You may have made some brand changes they don't like – but at least you will know! Or they may be talking about how great your brand is – if you're not monitoring then you won't know!

It is a lot easier to collect customer feedback online than anywhere else – after all, who really fills out customer feedback forms?

Monitoring your brand online is free, cheap and easy – are you doing it?

You can set up Google Alerts to email you every time your company or associated key phrases are mentioned online – so you needn’t waste valuable hours searching the web for them.

Similarly SocialMenton does all the searching for you, even creating a positive to negative ratio for all the mentions; searching blogs, twitter, facebook as well as online newspapers and news sites.

http://www.socialmention.com/

http://www.google.com/alerts

Of course there are more complex, expensive online media monitoring tools but if you are a small company and intend to keep your monitoring in house then between Social Mention and Google Alerts, you will have most ground covered.

Do YOU know what's being said about YOUR brand online?

Promoting your website offline – what, no computers?

Believe it or not, it’s not all about the internet. Those business relationships and affiliate networks still matter, so don’t neglect them.

Forming partnerships with other brands has been a favourite marketing method of many who have gone before us. An ideal partner will share your target audience but will not be in competition with you. A good example would be a health club and sports clothes.

You can grow these relationships by, for example, creating joint literature – allow the health club a page advertorial in your monthly brochure and vice versa, exploit it as much as you can.

Get Social
No, not social media again. Actually get out there, meet your peers, meet your customers and go to talks and lectures by those in your field. Continue to learn. While attending events where you may meet potential customers, take your time to talk to them, find out what they know about your brand and what they think of it, they can be as useful to you as your product can be for them.

Although, don’t just attend any old event. They can be expensive, after hours and at times – tedious. Attend networking events for your local area, the Institute of Directors or Chamber of Commerce is a good place to start. If there aren’t any networking groups in your area, create one.

PR
If you are taking control of PR yourselves, then start by creating some case studies. Start with satisfied customers and their stories; include a good quality photograph (journalists and editors love photos!) Get on the telephone to trade magazines as well as business magazines to see if they would be interested in featuring your case studies. Get in touch with your local business magazines and business pages of your local paper, speak to them and see if they have any features coming up that you may be able to comment on or provide a quote for. The more people read your name and your companies name the more likely they are to visit your website and buy from you.

See if you can offer your expertise to a local Uni or college. Their PR teams would then deal with the PR! Not only will you be helping young talent but you will be putting your brand name out there, with both potential employees and customers.

Seminars
Promoting them, sponsoring them, attending them, speaking at them; anything to do with high profile seminars in your field – you should be there. Getting to know your peers and customers on a personal level will provide great word of mouth marketing for your organisation. Industry seminars can often be very insightful. With high profile speakers (this could be you!) attendees can learn from each other, share skills and often help each other out from a business perspective.

Further to speaking at seminars, why not host an online webinar? If you have an exciting product launch or an exciting announcement to make why not do so through a webinar, this is a low cost option and carbon friendly as nobody need travel anywhere. You could look into hosting regular webinars around a series of topics, making a name for yourself as an expert in your field. Webinars also involve those taking part to visit your website and provide contact details – pop those onto your email marketing database!!

As we've said before, having a website is great, but not unless it gets visitors, and at Whype we're dedicated to not only giving you a website that works, but also helping you (with articles like this) to make the most of free and low cost ways to promote it.

If you like our articles, please consider Tweeting, Facebooking and sharing them – we'd really
appreciate it!

So you've got a website – now what?

Having a website is all well and good but what are you going to do to help promote it? The days of SEO being the be all and end all of website promotion is well gone, and some would say “Thank goodness!”

Marketing your website is no longer just about creating and keeping your own audience. By creating a buzz online through other websites and social media sites, you are able to access other audiences, who you may not have done previously.

Social Media and the internet has taken off in a big way; 80% of the population work and play online, so it has never been more important to step up and start being social online.

Here are just some of the ways you could promote your website:

• By uploading material to YouTube, contributing to online discussions and creating podcasts – on a variety of topics, you have the ability to connect with audiences and customers who may not have been within your initial ‘target market’
  
• A blog gives your company a voice, pretty much like this one. It allows you (the customer!) to read and experience the ethos of the organisation. By regularly talking and engaging with your customers it allows them to feel part of the brand or organisation.
  
• Social media – become active on Facebook and Twitter. That is where your customers will be ‘hanging out’ so you should be too. Engage with them, don’t just create a profile and update it – use it. Talk to your customers and ensure that you add value, join in with conversations – give your opinion and provide links to your website.
  
• Your LinkedIn profile is essential for those B2B relationships – make sure your profile is up to date and relevant. Link it to your brand’s Twitter profile as well as your personal one. Let people know what you are about as a person – and link them back to the company website (see the theme here?!) LinkedIn is also a great platform to raise awareness around your work experience, by listing how many years’ experience you have in a field or any awards you may have won will allow both your peers and your customers an insight into your professional life.

These are just a few ways in which you can promote your website externally – having a great website is a great start, but if you're not promoting it then what's the point?

At Whype we not only design fantastic websites, we give out free information such as this to help our customers make the most of their new promotional tool.

Need a free website appraisal? Contact us now!

What Do Your Email Communications Say About You?

We send and receive emails every day, some we read and take note of, others we open and delete.

You want your email communications to be the former. There is so much noise and hype in the marketing world; you need to understand how to make your communications worth reading!

Here are our top tips on how to create eye catching, relevant email marketing communications.

Drive site traffic through customer reviews

Remember all those satisfied clients who have given you great feedback? Put it on your website!

These are not only a great way of engaging with your audience but they are great for SEO purposes. You can also drive site traffic through promotion. Create an email communication with a link to a product review – including customer reviews and feedback. After this, step up your game by dividing your audience into segments so that customers receive content that is relevant to their purchasing behaviour.

Engage with social media

There’s that phrase again, social media. There is no getting away from it. Use your email marketing to increase your twitter following, place a link on your emails to your profile encouraging people to follow you. The more people you have engaging with you online, the more you can involve them with your brand – allowing them to feel a part of it. Someone once described it as creating a corporate family, letting the man on the street have a say in your brands decisions, this will have an impact down the line, after all – the customer’s always right, right?!

Increase activity through a targeted and personalised approach

• When a new subscriber signs up to your email communications, send newcomer communications;  welcome emails, introductory offers – this gives them an incentive to return to your site. Highlight key areas of the website that may be of interest – i.e. special offers, customer reviews etc.
  
• Take a note of what email communications are particularly effective. After you send each communication keep a record of who has contacted you and about what. See if sales have increased. Also, the opposite, if you have sent out a communication and sales have dropped and calls have stopped coming in, maybe it’s worth looking into why.
  
• Separate your database into sections, who is going to be interested in what? Personalise the communications you are sending them, will a 65 year old retired gentleman be interested in half price bikinis?! Hopefully not. (Unless of course, that’s the type of market you’re in!)
  
• Have a look through your customer database, reward regular customers with retention deals, % off items, for example. Similarly, through incentives to those who have not purchased in a while. What did they last buy and when. Send them a special offer to entice them to come back. They may be thinking of going elsewhere so it’s important to engage with them and let them know they are still a valued customer even if they haven’t purchased for a period of time.

Refer a friend

Ensure all your communications have a ‘share this’ button, allowing your database of customers share your news with their friends. Similarly, a ‘tweet this’ button or a ‘share this on facebook’. The more platforms you can get FREE publicity on, the better, especially as these recommendations are coming from one of your existing customers, people will take more note.

Eye catching design

Don't just use plain text, or a standard template – make sure that your email communications stand out by having a custom design that matches the rest of your marketing materials. Think about it – would you send out your brochure as a black and white photocopy? Of course not! So don't treat your email communications as if they don't matter – in some cases it could be a person's first impression of your company – make it a good one!

For eye catching email designs and bespoke newsletter templates, see our main website or drop us a line at info@whype.co.uk.

Tell us how you make your email communications stand out in the comments below!

Using your website as a route to market.

It takes seven seconds for people to form first impressions – so you make sure those seconds count. The same should go for your website. More often than not, your website is the first thing people see. It needs to act as a marketing tool for you but also as a source of information for your customers.

Here are a few items that we believe your website should have:

• A compelling introduction – tell me that I'm in the right place in the first two sentences,because if you don't, I'll be pressing that back button and visiting your competitors instead.

• The ability to collect visitor information – people are much more likely to enquire if you provide some sort of contact form on each page of your site, with a strong call to action encouraging them to get in touch.

• A user friendly interface – if people cannot find what they’re looking for then they’ll leave and go elsewhere. It’s as simple as that. Make sure everything can be accessed within a few clicks.

• A blog – not only does it show visitors that your website is consistently up to date, it provides extra content and brings the search engine spiders in, thus being good for SEO – win win all round we say!

• Compelling, interesting copy. Your website is one of your strongest sales tools – it gives you the opportunity to communicate directly with your consumers. Copy should be based around your core USPs – what do you find yourself telling potential clients at new business meetings? Is that on your website? It should be. Your web copy needs to read well, it needs to set you aside from your competitors and it needs to make your customers want to pick up the phone.

• Easily accessible contact details. The top right-hand corner is a good place to put them, after all – you do want people to call or email don't you? If they can’t find the details then, well, they won’t!

• Links to your social media profiles. You do have social media profiles such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc., don't you? Then let people know – give them the chance to follow / friend / contact you in the way that they feel most comfortable.

• Free info. It seems paradoxical but by giving away free information (checklists, tips, hints, reviews, etc.) you actually inspire loyalty and confidence. And where will those loyal visitors think of going when they need your products or services? Guess!

• Link Building. By seeding the downloadable content on other (relevant) sites and linking this back to your site, you automatically gain more traffic to your website – and if you’ve followed all the tips above the phone should be ringing in no time!

Not sure whether your website is up to scratch? Let us give you a honest no technobabble review – for free! Post your website address in the comments box below and we'll be in touch!

Did you know you no longer own your brand?

Your brand no longer belongs to you - really it doesn't. You probably think it does, and consider yourself in full control of your brand, but put bluntly, you're kidding yourself.

In the past, yes, you would have 'owned' your brand and would have been able to influence the way you were seen. Corporate guidelines, careful advertising, strict policies and more would have made sure that the outside world saw exactly what you wanted them to see.

So what if you were losing customers hand over fist because of your inability to deliver on time or your prices were wrong? It didn't matter because your website told everyone that you 'deliver on time and under budget'.

So what if you were only 2 cheques away from bankruptcy? No-one would know because you told everyone how well you were doing when you went to networking events.

So what if you had a high staff turnover because they were dissatisfied with the company? Who would ever find out? You made sure the people who mattered knew your high turnover of staff was because you expected the best and nothing but.

Yes, in the past, people saw what you wanted them to see, and probably believed it.

But that's changed now. In this day and age of Social Media, YOU don't own your brand, everyone else does. Your customers. Your staff. Your suppliers. Even people you probably don't even know right now.

See, in the past there were limited channels to express satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a company. Even if you were seething with anger at some of their claims, you could only really tell your friends and contacts, and maybe write a letter to the local newspaper, hoping that they had the guts to publish it. Similarly if you were ecstatic with a company's services, your chances to express that satisfaction were limited.

Not now. Now there's Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and various online business forums, GetSatisfaction.com and other online review sites, and more. There's email, blogging and easy to set up websites.

You've wronged a customer? Within a few days it can be all around the Internet and almost every potential client of yours will hear about it.

You've provided excellent service? Again you could be reaching potential clients through the power of the Internet.

But the scary thing about all of this is that YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OVER IT. 'They' do.

You can't stop people Tweeting, blogging and writing about you, whether that be positive or negative.

So what to do now you don't own your brand? Well the best thing you can do is be the best that you can - think of every potential contact as someone who could be an advocate or an aggressor towards your company. The saying 'do unto others as you would have others do unto you' is trite, but true.

Don't let your brand suffer at the hands of the people who now control it - think carefully, think Social Media.

==

Michael Storey is the founder of Whype, a firm of branding experts, web designers and graphic designers based in Bristol.

7 Instant Signs Your Website Could Need a Revamp

It's easy to look at your company website and think it 'looks OK', it 'stacks up against the competition' or 'it'll do for now'.

But more than ever now, the first place people look for information on a company is their website, and if yours isn't up to scratch then they're probably not going to stick around!

Here are 7 signs your website may need a revamp:

1) YOU can't find information on the site. You know that there's a page on blue widgets SOMEWHERE but you've got no idea where it is! You even resort to Google to find it, until you have to go back to your webmaster and ask them for help. If you can't find info on your site, how do you expect your clients to?

2) You have a clip art / stock image / flaming logo. Once upon a time it was OK to have all of these things (although we're not to sure about the flaming logo, it has to be said!). Now, customers expect to see a professional looking site that's not stuck in the early 90s.

3) You don't have a CMS. A Content Management System means that you can update your website's text yourself at any time. No waiting for you web designer to stop playing World of Warcraft and no having to stack up updates until there are enough to justify them. Adding and changing content with a CMS is child's play – you NEED a CMS!

4) You have no images at all. Dull dull dull.... next!

5) The message of each page isn't visible in the first screen of text. It may be obscured by a huge flash header, or you may just have garbled your way through 500 words. I want to know that you can do what I want in the first 2 paragraphs, and I want to see them quickly!

6) You don't have any contact details on your site. Apart from this being against the law in some cases, what makes you think I want to give money to someone when I don't even know where they are based?

7) You don't give a phone number. In much the same way I want the comfort of knowing I can call you if I need to. Chances are, I won't need to, but I'd like to know that I can.

There are many more ways to tell that your website needs a revamp, but how many of these 7 sins are you committing?

Are you on a mission to give benefit with a competitive edge?

What a mouthful!

So let me explain a little further.

The web, and Web 2.0 in particular, has given the power to customers in a way that has never been seen before.

Before the web, brands were simply 'presented' to customers – no interaction, no real method of feedback, and sometimes without a care for what the customers think!

That's all changed – customers are now blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, posting messages in forums, making videos on You Tube, and even making their own websites to talk about brands – both in a positive and negative way.

Customers can shape your brand as much as, and indeed probably more in some cases, than any advertising campaign or marketing drive.

Which is great if your customers are behind your brand, believe in what you offer and wan to put out good messages about you.

However – if you don't handle your brand properly, you've got problems. Those bad statements made about you on the web are there for everyone to see, and for everyone to watch how you handle them. That's the power of the Customer vs the Brand these days.

So how do you get your customers to enthuse about you? Well in the days of the Social Web, it's about more than making money. It's about giving your customers something to believe in, something they can get behind and something that matters to them. And most of all it's about being authentic. As long as we are authentic in the messages we convey, we will have a very strong chance of being provided with Word of Mouth Positivity.

So how to do this?

• Mission
• Benefits
• Competitive Edge

First write a simple and honest Mission Statement that tells your customers what you stand for and want to achieve.

Then sum up the benefits you bring to your customers. Show them how you've improved the lives or fortunes of others, and how it can be done for them.

Then make sure you're competitive. This doesn't mean being the cheapest, it means having a compelling message that makes that customer choose you over someone else. Because they believe in you.

And then make sure that you and your employees push these messages at all times. Live them and breathe them, because if you don't believe in them, how can your customers?

We'll talk more about Sales Messaging in future blogs, but in the meantime, protect your brand and make it your mission to give benefit with a competitive edge – you never know who might be talking about you!

Are you safeguarding your reputation? Or are you scared of branding?

Branding. It's a scary word isn't it? It reminds you of HUGE corporations such as McDonalds and Microsoft. Brings to mind the thought of you writing cheques with a lot of zeros on the end. Branding is for big business isn't it? Not for small or medium sized businesses such as the one you own. You don't need branding, right?

WRONG!

Let's look at it another way: do you worry about your reputation? Out in your town, your village, at the local pub, picking up the kids at the school gates - do you worry about your personal reputation, want it to be good? Of course you do - let's face it, no-one wants to be thought of in a negative way or have other people look down their noses, now do they?

Well, branding IS about reputation - in fact we'd go so far as to say that Branding IS reputation.

So let's change that mindset a little:

* For Branding, read Reputation

* Don't think about building a Brand, think about building a Reputation

Doesn't that sound a little less scary? And a whole lot less expensive?

See, branding doesn't need to be expensive for you two partner Accontancy firms or one man band retail website owners, or any number of other businesses out there that don't have multi million pound marketing budgets.

It's not just about press and TV ads, huge marketing campaigns or massive direct mail attempts. It's about REPUTATION. It's about YOU.

Your reputation is the thing that dictates the kind of product and delivery your customers expect. Let's go back to McDonalds for a minute (figuratively, not for a Big Mac!). When you walk into any McDonalds restaurant, you know EXACTLY what to expect. You know that by their reputation. By their branding. Now think about your local greasy kebab and burger shop. There's one in every town, but their reputations vary wildly, and in some places you'll be taking your life into your hands stepping over the threshold. Thought twice about buying that burger and chips? The chances are it was their branding that stopped you - how the shop looked, the look of the menu, the reputation the shop carried.

Ask yourself, as a small business owner: Should I worry about my reputation? Without a doubt the answer is yes, of course you should. With the correct branding, your business can develop and grow.

Many small businesses are started by people wanting to be their own boss, and the first thing they do is put their own name on the business. John Smith's Accountancy Services. Mary Jones - Interior Designer. Lucy Abbott & Co. But in a few years, they've outgrown the name - maybe they now have staff, maybe they want to delegate responsibilities but customers continue to ask for the figurehead of the company, maybe there's another John Smith in the area. It's of great importance that you think through the name of your company from the beginning, and a branding expert will help you to do that. They'll help you to think about the shapes and colours that represent your business, what impression your logo exudes, how to produce flyers / websites / brochures that will encourage people to buy.

So that X years down the line you won't be looking at a name change, confusing customers and suppliers alike.

Remember, there is a psychology behind every buying decision made by every customer, and every details of your branding and reputation is taken in by them on a conscious and subconscious level. Your branding can be the difference between gaining a sale, or losing it to a competitor. When we put it like that, isn't it worth considering your reputation?

We'd love to help you make the most of your brand - why not contact us now for a free brand review?

266 Of The Best Business Card Designs

The modern world is undoubtedly a switched-on place. Online is the place to be. But for many businesses there is no transaction without a meeting in the old fashioned real world. Many of our relationships have become 'virtual' but you still can't beat meeting someone, talking and shaking hands.  And in the world of short attention spans it is more important than ever to leave people with a lasting impression. A great business card design can be a great way to grab attention and inspire others. If you get it right you will have that person passing your business card around saying 'look at this'. Here is a collection of 266 amazing examples of inspiring business card designs.

If you would like to know where you can get business cards like these created - contact us here, we can help.

Whype Branding showreel

A Showreel of Brand Identities created by Whype in Bristol

Whype Design, Branding, Web Showreel

A selection of branding, design and web site work from Whype - made in Bristol

Web Design Long Showreel

A selection of web designs from the portfolio of Whype - made in Bristol

Top Ten tips to create a great website

When Whype creates a website we start by designing them. We don't try and build them to our technical know how or a specific system. We look at the needs of the client and try to figure out the best solution for them. Once we know what the plan is then we design it. All the strategy meetings can't really affect what the designer will be able to create - they can advise and assist but if they aim to control then the design will suffocate under the mountain of pressure from the committee.

I came across this article by Seth Godin which puts it all into 10 great tips for creating a great website

how to create a great website

" Here are principles I think you can’t avoid:

1. Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a dealbreaker.

2. Change the interaction. What makes great websites great is that they are simultaneously effortless and new at the same time. That means that the site teaches you a new thing or new interaction or new connection, but you know how to use it right away. (Hey, if doing this were easy, everyone would do it.)

3. Less. Fewer words, fewer pages, less fine print.

4. What works, works. Theory is irrelevant.

5. Patience. Some sites test great and work great from the start. (Great if you can find one). Others need people to use them and adjust to them. At some point, your gut tells you to launch. Then stick with it, despite the critics, as you gain traction.

6. Measure. If you’re not improving, if the yield is negative... kill it.

7. Insight is good, clever is bad. Many websites say, “look at me.” Your goal ought to be to say, “here’s what you were looking for.”

8. If you hire a professional: hire a great one. The best one. Let her do her job. 10 mediocre website consultants working in perfect harmony can’t do the work of one rock star.

9. One voice, one vision.

10. Don’t settle."

Six Key Steps of a Viral Marketing Strategy

Is your website bringing you the business you deserve?

The internet can be likened to a huge and trackless wilderness for many people, so if you can signpost the way as easily as possible for them, then many will find their way to your door and look no further.


So here are six great ways to make sure your customers find your site, your products or services, and stick around long enough to start buying:

http://www.whype.co.uk/articles/create-more-business

Vector 'BBC' style weather symbols

We have some vector BBC weather style icons available for download and use:

They are available on Graphicriver.net

If you do use them please let us know where and how - just out of curiosity.

Does press advertising really work for small business - final conclusion

This is our last press advert in the chosen 'test' publication. We haven't had a sausage - not so much as a tug on the line let alone a nibble! Not a single enquiry.

What did we do wrong?

The answer is in the detail of course. Market conditions, the nature of the work we do at Whype, the proliferation of suppliers in our area etc. etc. I think that probably the publication may be wrong for us too.

We dipped a toe in the water of press advertising and it was cold! Oh well, onwards and upwards. So far it seems that the best methods of marketing ourselves is getting out to networking events and meeting people face to face.

We'll keep trying new things to see what floats and of course let you know how it goes. The next thing we are considering is a local business exhibition. Fingers crossed.

If you've got any ideas for marketing a small web and marketing design company do let us know, we'd love to hear about some positive experiences.

IDEA DNA - the secret to creative thinking

Designers don't simply produce designs, they create ideas.

And what are ideas? They are new combinations of old elements which you may not have considered before. The process of coming up with these new combinations is accessible to anyone who wishes to pursue it. It's not a walk in the park but I firmly believe that anyone can do it and should be encouraged to do so.

Does press advertising really work for small business - follow up

The second advert that we created has yet to be published - should appear in the next few days.

The first advert which asks 'do you need your website to attract more business?' and offers a FREE report to help you understand how to win more business through your website, has generated one response! A small company asked for a free report which we are happy to do but come on! You would think that there would be a bit more of nibble on the old fishing line than one.

The response actually came from a second publication we put the advert in. I visited a networking event in Bristol called Only Connect. Whype took out a full page advert in the delegate handbook which only cost £55. The company who contacted us were at the same event and asked for the report mentioned in the ad.

So far the answer to the question 'Does press advertising really work for small business?' is probably not. Obviously this depends on what you business is and where your customers are. As a business we have yet to find anything better than networking and developing solid relationships.

a Din design experiment

minimalist design communication using the Din font

How to make sure you are found on Google

Getting a good rank on Google is like gold dust these days - so many people fighting to get to the top. What do you do to get found? We have just posted a potted 'how to' on our web site. Follow the link:

http://www.whype.co.uk/articles/google-seo-olympics

We know that it's a complicated science but this link tells you about some simple things you can do to get started on the path to being found on the world's biggest search engine.

Does press advertising work part 2

Further to my previous entry about trying out press advertising to see if it really works for small businesses we have had to send out the next ad to the same publication. Click on the link below to go to the previous article.

Does-press-advertising-really-work-for small business?

We booked a series of adverts through the year. The next issue will be out in March and the copy deadline for the advert is Friday 5th Feb. We decided to take a different approach - change the message and the whole flavour of the ad to see if it had any impact on the response.

Does press advertising really work for small business?

It's true that with the proliferation of online advertising choices, that traditional advertising has become much more cost effective, and therefore easier to access for the small business.

BUT does it work?

The jury is still out so far as I'm concerned. I know that there are many factors involved in whether an advert works or not. Target market, publication, message, product or service, social influences, economic pressures, style of presentation - the list of excuses goes on and on. The 'need to know' is, does press advertising work for small businesses?

Just created a design store for Whype

Using Zazzle which was recommended by a couple of other bloggers I have just created a design store for Whype.

This design store will be dedicated to all things design and typographic. Just the one product at the moment but expect to see more soon - this is FUN!


Create personalized gifts at Zazzle.