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Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em laugh

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Make sure your content lives up to the expectations of your witty company name

With 40% of UK consumers more inclined to use a business with a witty name rather than traditional, is it time to revisit how your customers view your business?

The recent research by Vistaprint listed the most popular named businesses including ‘Spruce Springclean’, ‘Surelock Homes’ and ‘Planet of the Grapes’. While these names certainly do create stand out on the high street – online and offline – the brand needs to live up to its name and deliver the customer experience that is expected.

When you start out or you’re thinking of a rebrand, take a moment to create a company profile that mirrors your ethos and thoughts. Keep it simple, say what you do and end with a quirky phrase to emulate your fun company name.

Keep this philosophy in mind for any communication you do and try to keep a similar tone of voice with whatever channel you’re using to communicate with your audience.

With email marketing being one of the most successful ways of reaching your customers, making sure the content of the email is fun like your name suggests is key, but ensuring that you clearly indicate what the offer is in the subject line is just as important. Don’t let the joke take over from what you want the customer to do which is open the email and grab that special offer.

Ultimately people want to know what you do so don’t lose sight of that with too much comedy. It’s all a balancing act.

Email marketing agency Croydon

If you need a helping hand building an email marketing strategy, get in touch with us at Smart Cow Digital Marketing for expert advice on how to conduct an effective digital marketing campaign! As email marketing experts in Croydon, we can create your initial email template, write content and distribute to your database.

Blog as part of content marketing strategy

How Wi-Fi is shaping the small business workspace

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Coffee shop, bar and restaurant operators find opportunities with freelancers, SMEs and start ups by offering free & fast Wi-Fi

Often known as the ‘Third Space’, the local coffee shop offers a place away from the office or from home. It provides the opportunity for collaboration and brainstorming or simply a chance for to think. But, most importantly for freelancers, start ups and SMEs alike it’s somewhere to run a business from.

Research has revealed that more than a quarter (27%) of UK small business owners work from coffee shops rather than their usual office space*. Shared or co-working workspaces have cottoned on to the fact that a buzzing, cool and trendy coffee shop fronting the paid for members only workspace areas can entice new customers through the door, not only for coffee but it acts as a way to attract sign ups for permanent membership.

Whether simple café or co-working space coffee shop, what these spaces have in common is a Wi-Fi hotspot. You can have the best small batch coffee on the high street, perfectly smashed Avo on toast and vegan friendly protein balls but if you don’t have Wi-Fi, that’s either public or easy to register with, then you may as well say goodbye to enticing new customers through the door during the pre- or post-lunch period.

But, it’s not just the local coffee shop that can benefit, small business owners also work from restaurants (14%) and bars (11%)*.

If you’re a small business or start up in the local area, then Croydon has some new co-working spaces to explore such as Tomorrow (which includes Byte Café) and The Exchange Workspace at Matthews Yard. Plus, check out independent coffee shops such as Crushed Bean and Smoothbean. Even the Cronx bar, based in the new BoxPark, has tapped into this opportunity and has mobile and laptop plug points dotted all around the shipping container interior.

So, what are you waiting for. If you’re a freelancer or start up go and explore the spaces to work in Croydon. And, if you’re a café, bar or restaurant in the area, think about tapping into these potential new customers to boost pre- or post-lunch sales.

Good website design needs onsite SEO to convert sales

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It’s a ‘tale as old as time’ – beauty is only skin deep. But it’s not just a fairy-tale or a Disney movie, what’s beneath really does count. You probably don’t realise but you come across this analogy every day when searching on the internet. A well-designed and stunning website amounts to nothing if it cannot be found and this is all down to the detail behind the pages. This is where you need to optimise the website and a good SEO campaign can deliver the results.

Don’t get carried away with a good looking website

It’s an exciting time when you create your new website – the possibilities are endless. Whether it’s to launch your business or to reinvigorate your existing brand, importance is placed on the look of the website as it’s your shop window. But it’s crucial to ensure what’s behind the pages has substance and relevancy.

Work closely with your website development team to make sure they have a good understanding of your business. This ensures you will have the right keywords and Meta data in place to build on page optimisation. Utilising a strong keyword can see the business rank 1.5 positions higher* than with no keyword. Also, ask your development team to look at what can and cannot be seen because this will all affect your website’s rankings.

Ask yourself ‘is my website easy to navigate?’

Once someone has reached your website, information should be easy to navigate and quick to find to prevent people leaving as soon as they arrive. This is known as the ‘Bounce Rate’ or, as we like to refer to it, the ‘Miranda Hart Swoop’. Think of it like this, you go into a shop because it looks interesting and the window display is relevant. Then, only a few steps in the door you realise it’s not selling what you expected. This is where the right content is really important. Ultimately you want anyone looking at your website to find what they want, pronto.

Local web search

It’s also worth noting that 72% of consumers who do a local search visited a store within five miles** which is vital for businesses building up a service in a local community. Having an effective SEO campaign in place means that people can find you. An SEO expert can tailor a campaign to help build your website’s authority so you can reap the sales benefits.

SEO agency Croydon

As a digital marketing agency in Croydon, we’re well placed to to build your website on page optimisation. Call on 020 3137 1826 or saymoo@smart-cow.com.

Source: *Local SEO Guide, 2016, **WordStream, 2016

Smart Cow exhibiting at The Business Show 2017

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We’re excited to be exhibiting at this year’s prestigious Business Show, from 16-17 November at Olympia, London.

We’ll be joining Flexicom Solutions at stand 772 in the SME zone, where visitors will be able to take advantage of our combined experience in IT and digital communications.

We, the Smart Cow team, will be showcasing our know-how in digital marketing, and giving visitors the chance to take advantage of our free Google AdWords offer, as well as our Constant Contact email marketing free trial.

While, Flexicom Solutions will be offering its expertise on implementing communications and IT upgrades for businesses.

Together, we’re offering visitors the opportunity to enter a competition to win a Fitbit Charge 2 in our exclusive Business Show prize draw.

Simon Cripps, owner, Smart Cow comments: “Joining forces with Flexicom Solutions for this leading business show made total sense. Our stand offers attending SMEs and start-ups a one stop shop to get the lowdown on the best solutions for IT and communications through to digital marketing, web design and SEO. We also share the same ethos where we really get inside a business to understand aspirations and goals to ensure clients reap the benefits.”

The Business Show has established a reputation as the country’s leading business exhibition built on a blend of highly respected speakers, interactive features and industry leading suppliers. Over 25,000 visitors from aspiring, developing and expanding companies are expected to attend.

Check out what is happening at the show and register for a visitor pass. Don’t forget to pop by our stand 772.

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