Set Up Google My Business

Set up Google My Business

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If you’ve been watching our Smart Cow ‘Marketing Minute’ videos, you’ll have seen that our focus over the last few instalments have been optimising your Google My Business Page.

In this video we look at the basic set up of your Google My Business page.

Set Up Google My Business

Once your business is verified you will be able to make amends to your listing. To do this log into your Google My Business account and select ‘info’ from the left-hand column. 

Here you can update your business name, locations, area served, opening hours as you did when you set up. In light of the current situation with COVID-19, this is a good one to remember and keep on top of as it allows you to change the details that may be affected such as opening times or contact numbers if you are working remotely.

This means that when a prospect searches for you online they can swiftly see your trading hours and contact information. No need for second clicks to a website or social media account.

You can also set up links for appointments, you can add products and services opening date, business description, photos and much more. Make sure you complete as much as you can. 

There are features here where you can add special hours for holiday periods, or you can mark as closed or even remove the listing completely. 

Make sure that you keep all this information as up to date as you can as it will help with your listing. 

If you’ve missed any of the previous videos in our series, you can catch up here.

Inbound Marketing strategy

How to achieve growth with inbound marketing

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This blog covers some of the steps to consider to help you achieve growth with your inbound marketing strategy. Right now, businesses are vying for attention online as we’ve all shifted focus to conducting business remotely. Our networking events and exhibitions have gone for now, and everyone is searching online for services and products.

With 89% of B2B buyers and 81% of consumer shoppers starting their online search for products or services by turning to Google, how do you get your business in the mix? How can you generate web traffic via search engines and get good qualified leads who are interested in your products and services visiting your website?

Here’s a few tips on achieving growth with an inbound marketing strategy that attracts leads that are right for your business.

Who are your customers?

If you don’t already know who your core customers are, then you need to. This will ensure that any inbound marketing is targeting the right people, with the right messages and when they want to hear from you. This means that your budget is more efficient and provides a better return on investment.

Be consistent

Now you understand your target audience and their needs and challenges then you need to tailor content for them. You need to make your messages consistent across all marketing platforms. Creating a core message document with a tone of voice specific to your business helps. As well as creating an online buyer persona of the person you would like as your customer.

Being consistent helps build trust for your brand.

Content marketing

Now you need to attract customers. Part of your lead generation strategy is to get people to your door and that means to your website. Therefore, great content is what you need including keywords that will help with website optimisation and your website rising in search rankings.

We recommend you have a blog page for your website which allows you to update relevant and unique content regularly to your website. Include your researched keywords in a blog post not only for SEO but to continue that consistency of messaging.

This is all part of lead nurturing. You want to engage with your prospects and maintain your existing customers. So become that thought leader with interesting content offering advice that solves their problems. Know any industry legislation that will impact their business and provide informative templates and eBooks that can help grow their business. 

Be professional yet approachable

Having a relevant social media account can help with this, especially of you are an accounting firm. However more often than not accountants are inclined to the think that social media is not the right channel for them. However, it’s worth remembering that social media is not all about Tik Tok and photographing food. Your audience is somewhere on social media.

It’s about thinking of the right social platform relevant for the people you want to reach. For example, LinkedIn is perfect for networking and ideal for reaching out to SMEs in a professional manner. However, don’t dismiss the virtues of Facebook. If you think of Facebook as another search engine. If for example your accounting firm has a company page on this channel then this helps reassure people about your firm.

Inbound marketing agency in Surrey

If you’re looking for qualified leads become a lead generation magnet with the help of Smart Cow. Take a closer look at our marketing services or book a consultation and we can discuss digital marketing strategy that is best to achieve your business goals.

We specialise in digital marketing for accountants as well as providing digital marketing services and web design for local businesses within Croydon. If you’re looking to grow your business, get in touch.

Find out more about lead generation strategies for your business in our blog.

Responsive Web design croydon

Website design and development key steps

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With the second lockdown in place across England, now is an ideal time to review your website for necessary updates to help potential customers navigate it easily and remind people of your any new services.

We find that most of our clients looking for web design and development already have a website but it’s somewhat out of date, perhaps on an old WordPress website version that could do with some new plugins or complete overhaul. With that in mind, we thought we’d run through the key steps to website design and development so that you know what to ask for from your developer. Even if you are just refreshing your website it will provide you with important tips to consider.

1. Website purpose

Before you embark on creating your website you need to have its main purpose at the back of your mind so that the website can be developed to your requirements and business goals.

Do you just want a brochure website with an overview of services or do you need e-commerce functionality for people to purchase products? Either way, know what you want from the outset to prevent any additional costs at later stages to add functionality.

If you haven’t already established your target audience then now is a good time as this could greatly impact the look and feel of your website. Follow our tips to create an online persona for your business.

2. CMS website

We tend to design websites on a Content Managed System (CMS). This gives you, the business owner, the ability to update content yourself once the website is created.

3. Security

Ensure you have established security at early stages include an SSL certificate as well as an updated privacy policy. A captcha is another security measure to determine whether users are human which you can add to forms or logins. Captcha helps to prevent bots from accessing these areas.

4. Develop your sitemap

Work with your web developer to create a sitemap. Sometimes a suggested map can be included in a proposal if you have already had in depth discussions. However, once you instruct a developer to create your website then the site map will be the first task to agree as the whole structure of the website will be based on this. Your web developer can offer advice on making your website easy to navigate which helps with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

5. Website design

If you’ve followed step one of this process then you will already have established your website purpose. This needs to be communicated with your web designer along with providing an understanding of your company values and branding. This helps a web designer to get a good understanding of your business. Allowing them to create a mock design for you – usually a wire frame. This allows you to see the homepage and perhaps one or two core pages so you can understand how the other pages will look too.

6. Content marketing

It’s not called a Content Managed System (CMS) for the fun of it. Your website needs content. You will need to establish up front with your web designer what content you already have, whether you need content edited or written from scratch. This can impact on the overall cost. Usually content is transferred from the old website or provided. If you need help with this, then make sure you get a quote initially for content including imagery so that you are aware of any additional costs.

7. SEO

Check with your developer that the website will be optimised and mobile friendly. SEO includes activity such as completing the meta descriptions. alt tags and H1 headings.

As SEO is a long-term strategy, you will need to keep up with adding fresh content to your website with keywords to help it rise in search engine rankings.

Just because you will have a new website, you still need to provide signposts to it to help people searching for services to find you. These include adding links into social posts, completing your Google My Business page, communicating with customers via email with website links. This all adds to your awareness. So, if your website is new you might want to consider a PPC campaign to give it a boost in search engine results pages (SERPS).

8. Review your website

You usually get a couple rounds of amends included in a web design quote. So, make sure you spend time reviewing it and flagging anything you think needs amending. Once you approve your website then you may find that any other changes cost money. It all depends what agreement you have in place, so check this up front.

9. Ongoing, maintenance and backups

Once everything is approved and your web developer has tested the functionality then you can go live.

When you get a quote for your website ask about ongoing costs for hosting and technical support. Most web developers will include a fee for weekly backups and updates to plugins. However, you may feel you want more support. So ask what is offered, whether that’s onsite SEO, blog writing or a complete digital marketing package.

Website design Croydon

Remember that the website is the centre of your digital world. Anything you share on social media, through email marketing or in a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign should all link back to your website. Therefore, all digital marketing activity should have a consistent look and feel to help brand awareness and encourage loyalty.

We are a web design company in Croydon. Out digital marketing services include creating bespoke websites for accountants and other businesses, SEO, link building, social media marketing and PPC.

Read more about our web design services and get in touch for a consultation or a free website review.

Mobile phone accounting apps

Accounting apps to help small businesses

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Covid-19 has affected everybody over the past nine months. People have had to adapt to working from home, communicating via video calls, making their living rooms their new office and so much more. Employers have had to work out the best and most efficient way to run their company remotely.

We have collected information on apps that may be useful for your company and allow you to access live information about various developments across your business for remote working such as time tracking, organisation, making payments, and accounting tools.

Time tracking

The pandemic has left many employees and employers alike working remotely from home without a clear idea of when it will be safe to head back into the office – or in some cases whether they ever decide to go back into the office. Because of this, it is key there is a structure or system in place to keep track of what tasks are being completed and by who.

Whilst you may have already implemented a way of working remotely, by now you may have discovered that you need to make adjustments to systems and processes so that they work even better.

App suggestions to track time, organise work and connect employees include:

  • Deputy: perfect for time tracking, connecting employees, managing payroll HR
  • Harvest: reporting and invoicing. Its timesheet data creates invoices based on tracked time. Ideal for small businesses including accountancy firms.

Making payments

Getting paid quickly and efficiently is obviously an important part of your business, so why not try and make it as quick and easy as possible?  Finding an app which can do this will also ensure those making the payments are able to do so with ease.

App suggestions for virtual payment

  • PayPal: Send money and shop
  • Worldpay: Suitable for small businesses from card machines to online accounts
  • Square by Xero: Sell, manage accounting, bills, cash flow and more.

Accounting tools

There are many apps out there specially made for accountants. Whether its budgeting, forecasting, reporting, business data, sales, marketing, comparing performance across the industry, and much more, there are apps out there for the task at hand. As well as the time tracking apps mentioned previously, there’s two accounting stalwarts.

  • Sage Accounting: 4.6 stars on IOS, assist in reducing time of admin tasks such as organising simple invoices, quotes and expenses
  • Xero: Ideal accounting software for small businesses covering bank transactions and invoices.

When choosing an app, don’t download the first one you see. Every app will have different features, some may work well for your business and others might not so take the time to figure out what would work for your business and workforce. Also, when introducing a new app or system make sure everyone understands how it works, this might mean prepping a presentation which gives a run through of the app. Whilst this might seem more time consuming, in the long run it will ensure a more efficient use of the apps.

Accountancy firm apps

Read our previous blog covering a variety of apps for accountancy firms. It’s interesting to see that apps such as Xero, Square, and PayPal, are still go to apps. This is because the firms constantly innovate, updating and adapting features to keep up with the ever-changing demands.

If you are looking to grow your business, get in contact with Smart Cow today for a free consultation on what digital marketing we can bring to the table to help your firm become a lead generation magnet.

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