Britnett Client Helpful Tips
Integrating Your Business Website With Your Business
March 2008

>> Use The World Class Service You Already Have
Website Re-design
Site Tidy-Ups
Search Engine Optimisation - SEO
Add new pages
Add Shopping Carts
Associate Domain Names
Additional websites at discounted prices
New!  We now have the option to 'Migrate' all your website and its content to one of our new world class platforms.  See below - talk to your AIA now for more details.

Take a look at your site and let us know what you would like changing - I think you will be pleasantly surprised what we can do for you.  Please contact your Authorised Independent Agent AIA NAME HERE with 'any' questions.  *Feel free to reply to this email Now and I will pass on your questions to your Authorised Independent Agent.

Here is a good new service for you.  Copy your website up to one of our up-graded Server/Packages.  If you are in CarverONE I strongly recommend this up-grade.
 
>> Migration
We have successfully Migrated over 40 sites now from CarverONE to CarverTWO and CarverADV.

Cost is specially discounted for you as a Valued Client, we suggest your contact your Authorised Agent ASAP.  If your site to be Migrated is large (say over 130 pages) please check the timing and availability.

Here are a few sample Migrated sites: 

www.britnett-carver.co.uk/jeppsllp
 
www.britnett-carver.co.uk/periodhousestore  To ADV

www.britnett-carver.co.uk/chameleon

www.britnett-carver.co.uk/addisonsproperty

www.britnett-carver.co.uk/top100of
 
Contact your Authorised Agent to order - please allow two weeks to completion.
 
>> Permanent Redirect - By Design
 
How the CarverONE Migrated Site 301 Permanent Move Redirect Works
 
All pages in the old site are redirected to the home page of the new migrated site, as opposed to the corresponding page on the new migrated site.  This is by design.   This way is more reliable, especially for search  engines... they'll visit any page on the old site and be redirected to the  home page of the new site ... from there, they can spider all pages on the  new site. 

If directed to corresponding page on the new site and migrated pages are removed/deleted.... a visitor to the old CarverONE page would then get redirected to a deleted page therefore get the 'Page not found' error, with nowhere to go.  By redirecting  to the home page of the new migrated site, it doesn't matter whether the  intended page (i.e. the user going to the page on the old site) exists or not.  Any adverts I.E. AdWords etc will be directed to the CarverTWO Home page.

Britnett Client Helpful Tips
Integrating Your Business Website With Your Business
December 2007

Driving Traffic to Your Website

There are lots of ways to drive traffic... and it's always better to have lots of traffic streams pushing people to your site rather than just relying on one. If your business is dependent on one traffic source such as search engines or Google AdWords then your business is hanging by a thread. So how do we €˜Drive Traffic €™ to our websites?

See listed below 27 Perfect Places for Your URL to help drive traffic.

27 Perfect Places for Your URL

1. Business Card
2. Merchandise Bags
3. Brochures
4. Postcards
5. Voice Mail Greeting
6. Purchase Receipts
7. Your Business Window
8. Print/Newspaper Ads
9. Company Or Personal Car
10. Pens/Pencils
11. Stationery
12. On Other Local Business Websites and directories (If they are free)
13. Local Community Portals
14. T-Shirts
15. Press Release
16. Yellow Page Listing
17. Coupons
18. Letterhead/Envelopes
19. Direct Mail Pieces
20. Employees' Uniforms
21. Company Cheques
22. Fax Cover Sheet
23. Flyers/Leaflets
24. Print or Email Newsletters
25. Free Booklets & Handouts
26. Answer Machine Message
27. Any advertisement you place whether on-line or off-line publication €¦ the rule is to dedicate 25% of your off-line publication to your website URL and what it will do for your visitors.

Always state what your site visitor will find when they get there i.e.
View all our products...
Full contact details on our site...
Order on-line here...
Latest special offers on our site...

I saw one on the back of a bus recently €œSee where this bus goes...

5 Things to Know About Using Images

>> Image Ratio
Beware of a "good" image to text ratio - We recommend a 30/70 image to text ratio as a healthy mix for maximum deliver-ability. (30% Images and up to 70% text) Why? If your website is image heavy you run the risk of slowing your site response time. I've recently been looking at a heavy image site that looks fantastic once loaded but if I was a new visitor it would take too long to load and I'm finding that one key across multiple websites that run too slow are image heavy. The modern way seems to be more image and less text. If you want to go this way just make sure your images are kept light - see below. Also search engines are blind to images!

>> ALT Tags - Mouse Over Text
When you add an image you must give all of your images Alt Tags also know as mouse over text.
- This is easily added inside Carver websites. Simply describe the image to help your site visitors and to comply with DDA regulations.

>> Don't Duplicate
Don't keep adding the same image. If your image is added once within your website - once is enough. If you need the image to appear on another page simply use the same image source. Britnett Carver warns you if you attempt to add a duplicate image.

>> Keep Images Light
Don't use heavy images - Try to keep your images under 350kb because if they take too long to load your impatient site visitors will likely move on to their next website. If your images are too large, use a tool to make them "lighter" without sacrificing too much quality.

>> Link Your Images
Don't forget to link your images - make sure if you include an image you link off from it. Everyone expects to be able to get somewhere by clicking on an image.

Product Information: Quick HTML Colour Picker is a free Windows colour picker tool. With Quick HTML Colour Picker, you can easily pick any colour from the screen. You can preview the colour, use mouse or keyboard to select the colour you wanted, and get the colour in RGB and HTML format. You can cancel a capture by "Esc" key or right-clicking. Supports saving HTML colour value to clipboard automatically.

If you are not running a SEO service on your site now - start it immediately. It takes three months to establish a site in Google.

>> 3 Add Christmas graphics to your site.
Get into the Christmas spirit. Shoppers appreciate the convenience of buying gifts online. Retail shops during the holidays can be a nightmare. Make their experience at your site fun and light-hearted by adding Christmas-oriented images. Add one Christmas image and page right now. Tell visitors what you intend to do different towards the Christmas period. Have a end of season sale - suggest your visitors buy gifts for Christmas Now!

Another idea is to send your customers email newsletters full of gift ideas. This secures your relationship with current clients and lets them know you're thinking of them. Make sure your email list is OPT-IN. Britnett- Carver has an exceptional Email Capture Form as standard.

Note - Britnett Clients have access to the Britnett Graphics Team - speak with your Local Agent about new graphics for your business.



>> 4 Run special promotions.
Shoppers can't resist a good bargain. Discount items that aren't selling well. Offer a discount or promotion for several items if purchased together. Offer gift certificates or free shipping if buyers spend a certain amount of money. For last-minute shoppers, offer overnight delivery. Short of marketing ideas? Go to your local supermarket or retail electrical shed - look around you will see 2 for 1 deals, 10% extra etc.

Promotions are an easy way to establish a good rapport and attract people back to your site next year. If you do offer a promotion, make sure you mention it on every page. If you add information to the panels in Britnett-Carver this cascades to all content pages. The more people are reminded, the more likely they'll make use of it.

>> 5 Offer multiple payment options.
This assures customers that you own a legitimate site and you place their convenience above your own. Some people are nervous about providing credit card numbers online. Give your site visitors an option to call you to order or to ask questions. Any site with no phone number to contact should be avoided. If you are using the PayPal Gateway, add the PayPal logo to your site.

Make shipping information easy to access (I strongly recommend offering Free! shipping on all items if possible) by adding a content page listing the last date an order can be made for Christmas delivery. Save yourself the pain of customer complaints and returns by being honest about meeting set delivery dates.

We hope this helps you prepare for Christmas 2007. Start now - "Procrastination is the thief of time."

>>The Value Of Your Business Website.
Your company website is becoming more important these days. Especially if you have 'Integrated it with your business'. A client of mine has just sold his business for £2.1 million. His website was an integral part of the sale. Although the website is only a 40 page content website. Don't get me wrong, the website was only a small part of a very successful business, I was interested to note that questions were asked about the website status by the buyers agent.

>>Keeping Your Site In Good Health.
Do this:
Always Back Up Your Sites. As soon as you have made any content and/or structure changes make a back up. Whenever editing a site at any time and you are happy with what you have produced; make a back up. This is called a 'Good' Backup. Before you add any special HTML code etc make a back up. This way if it goes wrong you can restore to how it was at the back up point and start again. Therefore restore to a 'Good' state.

If you report an error on your Carver site our Support Team will ask have you restored to a Good Back up. Unfortunately sometimes the answer is "What's that!" So please do it - its only a few clicks and can save a lot of potential head aches in the future.

Keep a Separate Data Backup
It's good practice to have one folder on your PC dedicated to website data. Add any data to be added to the site to this file first. When you do use the CMS system- pull the data from this dedicated folder. All content for the website will originate on a PC anyway, simply get into the habit of saving all website data to the dedicated folder. This folder along with all your office files should be backed up often.

TIP
An external hard drive for backup purposes can be purchased for about £50.00. Buy one with an external power supply.

Should you make a mistake
If you make a mistake when editing a page, for example you delete a paragraph of text by accident, you could simply go to another page without submitting your changes. This way your changes will not be saved, you can return to the page that will show your accidentally deleted text.

>>Congratulations to The Furniture Seller.
My site of the month. This site is packed full of information and products, it has a line of text that I find exciting: "Our site is updated daily." www.thefurnitureseller.co.uk

>>Creating A Secure Password
With the growing number of hackers and malicious users in the Internet community, user names and passwords have become a hot commodity. In order to secure your information, whether it is your Britnett website password, or email account passwords, Britnett recommends that the following conventions be used to create secure passwords:

• Minimum of 8 characters
• Upper and lower case letters
• Special characters such as: '#', '$', '*'
• Combine numbers and letters

While the above is not a sure bet that you will never have a security breach, by creating more secure passwords, the likelihood of having your password compromised by someone "guessing" it becomes less and less likely. It is best to memorise any passwords or save in a secure place. Also if you keep client data this should also be password protected.

>>Email Marketing
A very powerful way to market and keep your company name and brand in front of your clients and potential clients. Send timely news and up dates to your clients and potential clients you have spoken with. Email is so cheap compared to mail shots you can afford to invest a little time writing your emails. Always have links to your website, preferably a dedicated page as opposed to just sending visitors to your home page and making them work to find what they want. Keep It Simple! and Easy For Your Visitors! With site stats or a counter you can measure the success of your email by looking at your site stats after an email has been sent. (If you do not have site stats on your site - ask your Local Authorised Agent to add a counter to any page on your site for you - this is a FREE service).

But tread carefully. Make sure all the people you email know you and give the recipients an option to Unsubscribe. If you use Britnett Carver this automatic facility is included with the software.

If you use Britnett-Carver you will see you can view your site stats by the page. Go to Admin then click Reports > Site Visitors > By Month.

>>How Come We Receive a Load of Spam Emails?
There are three ways Spammers get our email addresses:

1. From bought lists - Spammers buy lists from other websites and blast them out in the hope you respond. Its a huge numbers game. Ignore all Spam. Don't reply.
2. Software exists that will crawl the Internet looking for email addresses then add to a bulk list automatic - then Spam them out.
3. Guess software will guess an email address. Favourite targets are the likes of AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail. Its a safe bet that johnsmith@aol.comexists. So this software churns out guessed email addresses like this in the hope it hits. So never reply to Spam email as this confirms this is a real address. If you do you will receive more Spam.

A good client once jokingly said "I am receiving a lot of Spam emails about Viagra. How do they know I need it?"

>>Google AdWords - Fast Marketing
An amazing new way to market. These adverts appear on Google and its partner sites as Sponsored Links or Ads By Google. You can place an advert in minutes with a link to your site or a specific page in your site. This way you can 'Buy' site visitors looking for your company or what you do. See them to the right and sometimes at the top of a Google page after you have searched. AdWords have proved so powerful that the traditional press and magazine advertising are struggling and starting to use them them selves. Even big TV advertisers like Johnson and Johnson have changed their advertising budgets due to AdWords and other Internet advertising.

You can open a Google account from google.co.uk. They charge £5 account open fee then you simply pay per click to your site. Make sure you set a low daily budget to start and end the campaign say in 2-4 months to allow you to monitor results. The default end campaign date set by Google is 2010. If you are a BizSub client Britnett Support and your Authorised Agent will manage a Google AdWord account for you. BizSub information.

Set the Course and Measure.
Before you begin any marketing efforts- This includes advertising in press, magazines, Google AdWord, radio, TV and even the local free advertiser- you need to establish your campaign goals. You are going to spend hard earned profit from your business. So think at the start what you expect to achieve from the spend. Do this by determining a clear list of goals before starting the execution phase. E.G. Are you trying to build your brand? Increase site visitors by 5%? Sell more product? Build your database. Know what your expectations for the campaign are and be prepared to measure your success accordingly. What are you going to get out of your spend.

Once you have decided what you hope to achieve from your spend, measure whether or not you've been successful by determining a clear list of goals before starting the marketing, you can be sure you're on the right track once your campaign gets underway when you are measuring results.

How To Measure.
Make a note of your site visitors from your hit counter or Site Stats the day before any advert starts. After the advert has ran its course check site visitors again and compare to the last months hits. Your hits should show an increase. Always ask how your enquirers found you; on the phone, in person or through the site. You may be surprised. E.G. - If a lot of clients said they found your site after reading your local advert - up your budget on this. Your web site is your business. You want to buy visitors.

Set The Costs.
When you have your expectations set, you can begin to determine a realistic budget. What are you willing to pay for an enquiry, site visitor, phone call, a purchase or a chance to give a quote? I know a company who is willing to pay £90 for an enquiry - they expect to convert 1 in 10. Obviously, if you hope to introduce your business to a new region of the country, you need to come up with a lot more cash than if you want to increase current customer loyalty. As you start working out the numbers, err on the side of over budgeting. As most accountants will tell you - Think what you think it will cost - then double it. When you're building momentum and beginning to see results, running out of money could derail your success so budget realistically and budget part of the sale to go back into marketing. When you're thinking about budget, don't forget to factor in:

Advertising costs
Creative materials
Extra staff
Contest prizes
Lost revenue from price cuts

Get Creative
Your goals for the campaign will dictate how you express your message. If you were introducing a company brand for example, you might have a different approach than you would if you were selling discounted products. For example: if you want to shift old stock at low prices your message will be 'Stack em High sell em cheap'. Building your brand awareness will be 'Slow, thought provoking, memorable, cool, and a professional reassuring message'.

Once you determine expected results, you can begin to develop the creative messaging you need to communicate your message to the rest of the world. Again, your goals for the campaign will dictate how you express your vision.

During the creative planning phase, you should determine how you are going to support your campaign. Will you need to hire an outside agency to design banners and emails for you? Will you need to redesign your site or add special landing pages? Will your campaign have print advertising components? What about radio and TV? Try to think of all the different possibilities you might need so that your creative elements can have a consistent look and feel.

Penetrate the Market.
You've finally decided on the prefect messaging and designs to support your campaign. Now, it's time to let the rest of the world see it. Here's where your marketing plan comes into play. To support your campaign, you need scheduled ways to let your target market know about your campaign.

If a full-page ad in The Sunday Times or The Sun is out of the question. There are plenty of ways to support your campaign online without blowing your entire budget. In addition to email marketing and advertising on your own Web site, don't forget about trading banner ads and links with other sites, including your campaign in your newsletter and giving presentations at local organisations are all low cost options. You have an established business - now create a new department that just concentrates on getting business and getting your message out. Its all about contact.

Give it Time.
One of the hardest parts of a marketing campaign can be staying the course. I am guilty of giving up after a 7 day advert then a week later I get an order. Hopefully, you considered a realistic campaign duration during your planning stages. Keep in mind that it takes time to build momentum and you shouldn't expect to see immediate results even if you've poured more money into this campaign than others. One of the hardest parts of a marketing campaign can be staying the course and waiting to see if what you're doing is working. Keep measuring. This doesn't mean you can launch your campaign with a big bang and then forget about it for three months. It does mean, however, that you need to continue your efforts for a predetermined amount of time and measure the results you're getting before you abandon it altogether or take a whole new approach.

Try and Try Again.
Sometimes the slightest change can make a good campaign even better. Always talk to your clients about your marketing - after all they are the experts.

Would you like contact from your local Authorised Agent? Contact Usand we will instigate for you.

Warm Regards from - Britnett Support