A retrospective of marketing driven changes to everyday life over the last ten years,

The fast food we ate

McDonalds went from a gaudy supersized children’s fast food chain to a bistro-esc restaurant with great coffee, locally sourced food and free Wi-Fi that we’re lovin’ while KFC and Burger King stayed the same. The average high street gained coffee shops from Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Pret a Manger. Subway made us fresh sandwiches.

The cars we drove

Aston Martins went from a rare sight to a common occurrence. You could buy an SUV from Porsche. Volvo, Rover and Saab went bust. The Mini returned, this time from the Germans. China grew the largest car industry in the world. We bought cars more often and the government gave us discount. We filled our tanks with chip fat. We could buy an electric powered sports car.

Where we shopped

Woolworths lies empty. We went from cheques and signatures to chip and pin. Empowered shoppers scanned barcodes into our phones to compare prices and bought online.

The computers we used

Apple went from an awkward brand for graphic designer to must have desk decor. Microsoft released Vista and we hated it. Laptops shrank into notebooks and then further into netbooks.

The phones we didn’t just talk on

Nokia and Samsung bought us cheap mobile phones and we texted. BlackBerry enabled us to email, Apple empowered us to do everything else, Google made it all open source.

The TV’s we hung on our walls

The lure of more pixels saw us flock en mass to buy new flat screen HD TV’s and BlueRay players. Our DVD collections became redundant. Video recorders became PVR’s and we stopped watching adverts.

We all joined the catwalk

Brands such as Gucci and Armani became available in nearly all cities. Burberry fought a perilous association with a consumer we branded as chavs. Primark gave it all away for less.

The music we stole

MySpace brought us bands we’d likely never have heard of. Consumers saw no value in music and shared illegally. The traditional industry was smashed by a new industry offering it at the right price, or even free.

What we ate

Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda rewarded loyalty with store cards. We demanded  local produce and no more plastic bags, they responded. M&S returned with a seductive voice and Waitrose gave us wider aisles. Aldi and Lidle cushioned our cuts in personal spending.

The next ten years

All the success stories came from companies that embraced their markets needs and, despite the scepticism they had to battle, their hunger and perseverance to give more value rewarded them.

All those who failed did so by not adapting or communicating fast enough to meet demand.

Is your business preparing for the next decade or still catching up with the previous one?

Social Media Development is a hot topic in the business world right now, many want to (some need to) target customers via these fast developing channels. At Cookies & Java we are fortunate enough to have some great in-house knowledge and experience. A lot of which comes from our resident blogging expert Jo Alcock who speaks regularly about the topic at conferences and has attracted over 700 followers on Twitter.

In this guide we’ll quickly go over some of the basic thinking behind the topic and we’ll also show how we helped a client in this area. 

Let’s Talk Strategy – The Marketing Basics

The first step any marketer needs to make is to objectively look at the wide range of social media options out there and consider the relevance to their target market and the potential ROI. While certain methods and channels are considered hot topics it could be very time consuming mistake to assume they must be of value to your business.

In It For The Long Term – Don’t Make It An Event

While these channels can certainly accelerate growth for business the reality for many will be nurturing ongoing growth over a long period of time. So if you do decide to enter this world be prepared to put the hours in regularly supplying content to your users, or to outsource your businesses social media development tasks.

The good news is there are many tools out there to help automate the distribution of your content. For example the blogging platform WordPress now supports the automatic posting of new blog notifications via Twitter. Also most social networking sites now support automatic posting of existing blog content on company profile pages.

Interact, Analyse, Grow

Of course what constitutes good content in your target markets mind is unique to your situation; anything not relevant and purely promotional will be simply seen as spam. Do your customers want company news? Or do they really want interaction?

It’s also important to consider the feedback loop, there are many online tools which can help with this, for example the excellent FeedBurner service now owned by Google is an essential tool for anyone with an RSS feed.

Case Study – Gentech International

Since our relationship began with Gentech we’ve helped them produce and distribute news stories direct to customers via a newsletter.  When we re-developed their Web site in early 2008 we had social media strongly in mind. We developed a bespoke new CMS driven news section that allowed users to subscribe via their chosen news reader and receive instant notification of new stories. In July 2008 we took this up a level with the creation of company profile pages on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook all of which we configured to automatically updated with the latest Gentech news.

Now Gentech stakeholders can receive the latest company news via whichever medium they find most convenient.

It’s that time of year again – we just hope you weren’t planning to cut back on the calories this Christmas! For 2009 we’ve gone chocolate crazy and all Cookies & Java clients should now be taking delivery of tins packed with four chocolate muffins, four brownies and four chocolate chip cookie bars.

We are talking to and hearing about more and more companies who have been using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) companies only to find their search engine rankings have not improved. Worse still in many cases those companies have learned that despite regular payments for SEO services their Web sites have not had any optimisation work performed, and for some they’ve suffered blacklisting and removal from Google listings altogether.

We’re providing this quick free guide to help bring business owners and marketing managers quickly up to speed with what SEO is, how search engines rank your page, how to avoid the scammers and how to approach search engines strategically.

Back Story

Search engines are essentially just pieces of software that search through and index code, they have existed for as long as Web users have needed to search for sites. During the mid nineties many search engines competed for dominance such as Infoseek, Lycos, Altavista, HotBot and Ask Jeeves. Compared to the search engines of today these systems were very primitive and naively relied on the honest creation of Web content to rank the relevance of pages to search terms.

Due to the primitive nature of the early search engines the software was easily mislead into ranking low quality unrelated content for popular keywords. Spamming the early search engines was very easy and as a result users often had to scan through lots of irrelevant content to find what they wanted.

In 1998 Google came onto the scene, not only did it offer a clean easy to use interface but its more sophisticated indexing algorithm gave better quality results.

There has always been a battle between search engine developers and those that try to abuse their way to the top of the listings. Spammers constantly work hard to find loopholes in the system while software developers fight to close those loopholes and penalise accordingly.

As a result of this the detailed workings of search engines are kept secret to help stop spamming and ensure better quality results for users.

As Google is by far the most popular search engine on the Internet this guide will focus on it. However many of the same rules that apply for Google apply to other popular search engines too. We’ll also stay away from over complicating this guide with information on Adwords and other Pay Per Click search engine advertising options, for more details on these feel free to contact us.

What actually is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation is the art of configuring Web sites so they effectively communicate their content with the search engines. As the search engines are software based they see only code and thus are programmed to make judgement based on factors the software developers program into them.

Optimisation consists of two core objectives:

• Making the content easily found and read by the search engine
• Showing structure to the content to establish relevance

Optimisation also has to take into account the many factors search engines consider when indexing a Web site such as:

• Hosting server details
• Domain name details
• Directory structuring
• Page titles
• Page descriptions
• Content headings

So essentially it is about communicating clearly with search engines. Sites that aren’t well optimised can inadvertently hide content so it never becomes listed or considered relevant to certain search terms.

Generally professional Web designers build Web sites that are already search engine optimised, and quality content will should its own way up the listings over time. If you are concerned you Web site is badly optimised there are free online resources available for Web site owners to check the optimisation of their Web site, we’ve included some helpful links at the bottom of this guide.

What Google PageRank is and why should you care about it

While search engine optimisation is critical for getting your Web site content indexed it plays a less significant role in search engine rankings than most people think. Search engine optimisation alone will not automatically get you to number one on Google, in fact poorly optimised sites can outrank those that are well optimised, and this is due to PageRank.

The PageRank system is the most significant thing Google brought to the world of search engines, it gives a Web page a measure of quality based on link popularity.

Google attributes the number of links from other sites to yours as a measure of quality; more incoming links suggests higher quality content. So the more incoming links you have to a page the higher its PageRank. But it isn’t just a quantitative measurement, an incoming link from a page with a high PageRank counts more towards yours. So it’s not just how many people link to your site, it’s who links to your site that counts.
Getting to the top of Google is a popularity competition and the more popular the search terms the more competitive it will be.

How SEO Scammers Work

SEO scammers often contact companies out the blue via phone or email. Their claims tend to be sensational and can provide figures and demonstrations that make their services appear highly valuable, it’s very easy for people to get caught out by these Internet age snake oil salesmen.

The biggest give away you’ve been contacted by an SEO scammer is when they guarantee success; this is simply not possible and should be treated with extreme caution. Some back this up with claims they have an exclusive relationship with Google but this will not be the case.

Be wary of SEO companies offering packages with varying subscription rates. SEO requirements are unique to each company and any solution should be bespoke.

Check for contractual clauses in their small print, there are often entries which clear the SEO company of any responsibility if they do not generate successful results.

Some SEO companies will only concentrate efforts to improve your ranking for searches on your company name. As it’s likely your company name is unique this is often an easy task to achieve.

SEO salesmen may demonstrate how a search for certain terms shows one of their clients ranking highly. This may have been achieved by unscrupulous tactics such as link farming or using a fake search engine client.

Ultimately if you have a relationship with a Web designer or agency who you trust then contact them before employing the services of an SEO company. If you have no one to talk to then by all means contact us and we’ll give you a second opinion

Ethical Search Engine Marketing Strategies

At Cookies & Java we approach search engine marketing strategically. We have the tools and knowledge to find popular niches on search engines. We can analyse your competitor’s efforts to establish where you can and can’t compete with them and suggest ways to search out and generate quality incoming links.

We believe the search engines should be treated with the same research, planning, creativity and dedication as all marketing channels.

Further Reading

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Google overview with further links

Web Site Grader SEO Tool: Use this tool to check your sites optimisation

During this economic downturn many large businesses are turning to freelancers to get the edge over their competition. Right now marketing is at its most important however many people are feeling the purse strings tighten as overheads are reduced. The danger for some is that a reduction in marketing spend may mean future business becomes compromised and a downward spiral may occur. For others they’ve found the answer – it’s to get more value from their suppliers by switching to from agencies to freelance businesses.

Generally freelance businesses have far lower operating costs so it’s likely a lot of those currently using agencies for their marketing communications could get the same service they are getting now for around half the cost.

The question is do freelance businesses offer a service comparable with agencies; the answer is yes many do.

It’s important not to generalise freelance businesses; like agencies they come in many forms. It is indeed fair to say that many are orientated to the cheaper end of the market and simply not suitable for large businesses. However many freelance businesses, like Cookies & Java, offer the services of professionals who cut their teeth in agencies but without such high overheads, and thus can offer agency standard service in a higher value package.

In fact it gets better than that; many freelancers can offer more dedication and focus than they could in an agency environment. Fewer distractions, more freedom, greater control all leads to higher quality, more focused work for the customer.

Where freelancers previously fell down was offering a pool of collective resources outside of their specialisation but global communications has changed that meaning most freelance businesses can sub-contract or suggest the services of others.

The only problem businesses may face is sourcing a desirable freelance business that isn’t already fully booked with work.

At Cookies & Java we’ve been very busy recently, we’ve had our heads down working flat out for the majority of this year and the workload doesn’t look to be easing until summer. From what we’re hearing that’s the case for similar freelance businesses all over the globe. It looks like those thinking of switching need to do so soon to guarantee availability.

When you consider that the market is getting tougher for agencies and their high operating costs are soaring the pressure is certainly on to take advantage now while the option is available. Some may find their current agency must raise its prices or worse still suddenly cease trading alogether.

Switching is one thing – finding a freelance business you want to work with is another.

Larger organisations are going to find it tougher to source freelance businesses that can offer the level of service they require. While the lower end of the industry is saturated with freelancers actively promoting themselves the higher end is relatively silent, particularly outside of professions such as Web design who cannot easily create their own promotional Web sites. These businesses often rely on word of mouth marketing and can require some thorough digging to unearth.

Of course if you’re reading this blog you’ve hopefully already found one!

So really the clock is ticking, if you have realised the benefits of switching from your agency to a high quality freelance business like Cookies & Java then you need to act fast to beat the impending bun fight.

Cookies & Java is nearly a year old and like most small businesses it was started on a very frugal budget which required some strategic marketing tactics to generate new business. Looking back has given us the chance to look at those communications avenues we explored and analyse how successful they were, plus gives us the opportunity to pass these ideas other small businesses. Please note our strategy back then was target small local businesses so the message and communications mix reflect that.

For specifics on suppliers we use and ideas of cost please email us as info@cookiesandjava.com and we’ll try to help where we can.

Vehicle advertising

This has proven a very rewarding method of advertising for us, not only does advertising on your own vehicle mean you are promoting your company everywhere you go put it also gives potential customers the opportunity to talk to you face to face. We’ve found that with some strategic parking in restaurant car parks local punters have been keen to approach us for a business card or quick chat. Vinyl graphic cutting is quite cheap even for a large sticker and if required most vinyl cutters can layout a sticker design for you, we designed our own and ordered it online, attaching it to the car was easy (don’t try to fit it in the wind!).

Local media advertising

Most areas have a localised publication which circulates around the residents and advertising rates in these are very attractive. You have to keep in mind that even in a business to business market your potential customers might glance through publications like this so it’s always worth considering them. It’s also worth considering the national print directories such as the Yellow Pages and BT Phone book which also offer great deals such as a 50% discount.

Shop window advertising

As above if you are targeting local businesses your potential clients are likely to be shopping in the local shops and a lot of these have a notice board you can advertise on for a very good price. Most we’ve spoken to will be happy to do a deal on holding your advert there for 12 months. To make our advert stand out we had a box of postcard sized leaflets printed which fits nicely in the typical notice board format most local shops use.

Branded clothing

Similar to vehicle advertising branded clothing gives you the opportunity to promote your business wherever you go. We find some of our clients like to meet in coffee shops which are often busy with other business people who are likely to catch a glance at your message and talk to you. There are a few clothing printers who have very impressive online design software which allows you to layout your clothing design exactly how you want it. The cost of one off custom designs might seem high but we feel these items not only work as a promotional tool but also help build your brand image.

Online directories

Even if you don’t have a Web site online directories can be a powerful way to promote your business. There is now an abundance of local business directories on the net, most of which offer the option a free listing. Even if you do already have a Web site there is a chance these directories will be listed above you in the search engine rankings so it’s worth registering with them. The most important one in our opinion is the Google local business directory which is free to join and often appears on the first page of Google listings. At this current time we haven’t seen an online directory that can demonstrate any conclusive figures to justify any cost in being listed on their directories and do not advise paying for an enhanced listing unless there is a very significant discount.

Online Social Networks

While on the surface online social networks might seem to be a place for teenagers to tag drunken photographs of their mates these sites are being used more and more by business professionals to network and promote their businesses. The likes of Facebook and LinkedIn are an invaluable way of staying in touch with business colleagues while many specialist niche networks allow you to focus on specific market places. One of the more powerful features we’ve seen on Facebook is the option to create a company page for your business which you can promote to other members and link back to your Web site.

It is undeniable that search engine performance has become a major ongoing concern for modern marketers, those not on top of this are surely being left behind quickly. The good news is that due to the advancements in search engine algorythmns achieving a good page ranking for key words that truly relate to your business is easier than ever, so easy it’s almost become a by-product of building a high quality Web site and a sound online marketing strategy. What is worrying though is how many people still try to bodge, spam and force their way to the top using out-dated search engine hacks that only serve to damage the results they set out to improve.

Search engines such as Google are built on serving users with high quality relevant results for their search queries. Search engine developers are working constantly to find new ways to rate sites by the true merit of their relevance and significance while identifying loopholes and penalising the sites which try to fool the system.

Marketers need to consider which search engine terms they truly believe their business deserves a high ranking for and target those terms, trying to force an unknown irrelevant site to the top for various generic terms is futile and counter productive.

If you are doing any of the following you need to stop and rethink before you do too much damage:

• Relying on keyword meta-tags, this particular meta-tag is no longer considered relevant by the popular search engines and long lists will have a negative affect, new better meta-tags have been developed which perform better.
• Key word cramming by inserting many loosely related keywords into content can actually have a negative effect on your strongly related keywords.
• Link harvesting by submitting sites to poorly regarded directories can cause your site to be heavily penalised.
• Not having a Web master account with the likes of Google and MS,  binding your site to those search engines and supplying them with critical back end data is effectively closing the door on them.
• Actively trying to raise the rank of small new unknown microsites or brochure sites above well established content rich sites.

The fundemental rules for search engine success are simple:

• Build accessible sites which separate content from style.
• Keep all content relevant to your true target audience.
• Focus on good results in niche areas.
• Have an online marketing strategy to generate quality links
• Interface with the search engines behind the scenes
• Bide your time and be patient

The underlying conclusion to draw is that the age of fooling search engines is coming to a close and those relying on lazy keyword cramming are being homed in on fast. Those building Web sites that have quality design and content are already seeing good results, for example searching for “freelance design wolverhampton” sees this very site appearing three times on the first page, it’s a fanstic time for many of us while some laggards may need some drastic rethinking.