I have spent literally hours online recently trying to find an easy to use video tool that anyone can use and that doesn’t cost the earth. I really only wanted a couple of basic things: the ability to upload my own images (multiple) or footage, the ability to add text over the top of images, and the ability to download as an MP4 without losing resolution or the video being resized. That’s not really a lot to ask…. or so I thought….
Content strategy
What message does your company’s font send out to customers?
Setting colour aside, do you know what your font says about your company? Fonts can have a gender bias, an age slant and tone of voice. A font can have tone of voice, I hear you say? Definitely. There are big shouty salesy fonts, clean clear professional fonts and friendly approachable fonts – here are … Read more
Why am I a bit of a snob about WordPress?
There is a perception that building websites with WordPress is easy, and it is, as long as you want a very basic website with no real functionality. As soon as you need your website to do anything – display a gallery, show social media, provide a contact form – you move into the realm of … Read more
A picture tells a thousand words
Choosing the images to go with your company page on Facebook or Twitter profiles are key to how you want to be seen by your customer. One really good image can say what you do or what type of company you are in seconds, keeping potential customers on your profile for long enough for them … Read more
Lost in translation
Working with businesses who use multiple languages can be quite challenging. Everything, from titles and text, to captions for images and links to the correct language translation page needs to be thought of, including disclaimers and error messages. The meaning of language There is also the possibility that a marketing message can be lost in … Read more
Which social media channel to use?
Which social media channel do you use? Do you know why? Have you looked into whether the channel you are using suits your business or your target demographic and their buying habits or do you “have a Facebook page because everyone has one”? Different social media sites for everyone Different social media channels attract different … Read more
Check your copy
I have a number of amusing stories relating to proofreading (well, amusing to me but probably not always the person involved). I won’t recount them all here, but there was the time I was interviewed and the current brochure was passed across to me – with a glaring error on every one of the hundreds … Read more
Page speed insights
I’ve done two SEO reports within the last couple of months for businesses in two different industries and both of them had serious page load issues. This can have a serious knock on effect for both SEO and engagement or conversion. Optimise web images Site 1, a luxury travel brand, had used big glossy images … Read more
No one is signing up to my email newsletters
Let’s overlook the obvious first check to make, which is how many people are visiting that page, and take a quick look at another issue that might be the cause. I tried to sign up this morning to a good cause – it had quite an unusual spam check, I thought – the email newsletter … Read more
My inbox is full
My inbox is full of emails from Pay4Later, Paypal and Channel Advisor regarding Singles Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday with tips on how to use email marketing to maximise the benefit of these key retail dates and gain those extra sales. It’s also full of the eCommerce retailers that I have signed up for … Read more
Know your panda from your penguin?
I was asked recently to explain the difference between these two algorithm changes made by Google in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Panda, named after a Google engineer, was designed to root out real content. It was no longer enough to stuff a bunch of keywords onto a page to achieve page one ranking. Google got … Read more
The perfect product page
I’m a fan of simple layouts and one of my constant gripes is product pages on eCommerce websites. I just don’t understand why shop owners feel the need to cram endless pieces of twaddle onto their product pages. I want a price and a big buy now button at the very top of the page. … Read more
What’s wrong with my website image?
There’s a problem with my website – this image isn’t showing. My images don’t look right, what’s wrong? I have spent a great deal of time over the years troubleshooting image uploads on websites. Sometimes, the issue is caused by the file name; the file has been uploaded with a space so it has been … Read more
We have no marketing plan
Two of my customers, reasonably sized companies turnover in the millions, have no marketing plan, nor any kind of digital strategy that I have been able to unearth. Maybe it’s because they also don’t have a marketing manager, like a lot of businesses*? They do a bit of this with this company and so and … Read more
We want Twitter/ Facebook/ Google+/ Instagram/ Pinterest/ Linkedin…
“We want social on our site”, I get told. My first question is why? Does your target market hangout on Google? Is Facebook suitable for your B2B business? What are you hoping to gain from being on these platforms – sales, brand recognition, customer support? What type of social works on your website? I can … Read more
Copywriting woes
A friend of mine is a freelance copywriter and she has just taken part in a survey of UK copywriters, most of whom were grumbling about the state of the industry. It seems that a copywriter suffers from the same problem that a graphic designer does, the customer often thinks they know better than the … Read more
Employee training on the web
An awful lot of business owners, especially small business owners who are too busy to do it themselves, delegate ‘the website’ to the nearest employee. This can be a good thing or a bad thing and depends on the competence and interest level of the person involved. Early adopters A computer savvy youngster might not … Read more
Lies, damned lies and Analytics
We’ve all been told that we need to pay attention to visitor analysis on our website, but how much of what we can see reflects reality? As the bastardised phrase above says ‘lies, damned lies, and statistics’ – statistics need to be interpreted and Google Analytics is no different than any other data set. It … Read more
Good website design doesn’t make me think
Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug was a great read when I first read it over ten years ago now and so I am delighted to find that he has written a follow up revised version since (2014). I’ll admit, a lot of what Steve talks about I think of as common sense – in fact the strapline for the book is “A common sense approach to web usability” but I am surprised at how many people, good web designers among them, don’t take a logical approach to a website layout.
Get the price right
No, this is not checking the prices of the products that you are actually selling against competition so that you can add enough markup to ensure a good margin, but the boring old job of data entry into the database on your website. I’m currently wading through hundreds of product options correcting someone else’s erroneous … Read more