Today is The Day GOOGLE Changed The Game

It's a real game changer! 

Googles NEW algorithm which comes in effect as of today makes the need for a responsive website design absolutely necessary, rather than a nice-to-have. We at Blick Media can help you implement a mobile friendly site.... to help stop your business from disappearing from the rankings. 

Google's algorithm changes have a long history of seriously affecting businesses using SEO to bolster their brand, often without much weight behind the content they are publishing. 

Since 2011 Google has made several changes to how it works. First was an attack on terrible work done by countless SEO companies; stopping content farms, false backlinks, false likes etc... Many businesses and organisations were forced to start writing good content. Previously, SEO campaigns were good enough to favour those who could spend a lot. But Google hit back and has come down heavily on those sites who relied on unethical 'black hat' SEO tactics. 

So Google keeps changing the game... and now comes the biggest game changer of them all, and it starts today! 

Google is due to make a major update to its mobile search algorithm on, in a move expected to cause ripples across the web. Websites not deemed mobile-friendly will be dropped down the search rankings, dramatically reducing the number of visitors to a site. 

Find out if your website is mobile friendly by clicking here. 

Act now before you start loosing your search engine rankings and start loosing business! 

Do you need a mobile website?

Do you need a mobile website?

The answer to that is almost certainly ‘YES!’ - If you don’t have a fully mobilised website then you are missing out by not connecting with millions of prospective customers.

Common questions we are often asked are: 

What is the difference between a mobile website and main website?

A true mobile website should be a super fast, condensed version of your main website, enough information to spark interest, but without all the bits that will clog-up and slow down connection speed. Mobile users will not wait the same as those searching from behind their desks, sitting in their comfortable chair. It’s all about speed of delivery! 

Technology that functions perfectly and looks great on your main website is probably not going to function on a mobile website. Everything about a true mobile website is specifically designed for people on-the-go.

Typically, the mobile version includes a limited number of the many pages that are displayed on your desktop version. However, it will include a link to your full desktop website so that visitors have the option to find additional information.

When a smartphone user comes to your website, an “auto-detect” will recognise the device they’re using and then send that visitor to the mobile version (for example, “m.yourdomainname.com,” rather than “www.yourdomainname.com”).

Do you need a mobile website if you have a responsive designed website? 

It would very much depend upon site content.

A responsive designed website is a website designed for use on desktops, tablets and smartphones. Rather than creating a separate version of your website exclusively for smartphone visitors (as is the case with a mobile website), the content on a responsive website adjusts to fit the screen dimensions of your visitors browsing device. Think of it as having one website for many different devices.

The downside to a responsive mobile website is that although the information looks great and everything works, is that everything is viewable! - The user still has to search through unnecessary information that will be slow down the mobile user, risking loosing their interest, and their business!

Ready to Talk About Mobile for Your Website?

Schedule a free digital marketing assessment today to discover how a mobile website can benefit your business.

Adding .html signature to iPhone and iPads

Adding a .html signature to your iPhone or iPad is easy, just follow these 10 simple steps below and you can add your signature to your device in a few short minutes.  

Step 1: Send the signature you wish to add to yourself via e-mail so that the e-mail is received on your iPhone or iPad.  






Step 2: Open the e-mail with the signature attached on your iPhone or iPad. Click on the .html signature file 

Step 3: Select the selection tool on your iPhone or iPad by holding your finger on the screen 















Step 4: Drag the blue highlight box with your fingers so that it cover all the signature, and press copy 

Step 5: Click on Home button 

to return to home screen 

Step 6: Click on Settings button 

Step 7: Click on Mail, Contacts, Calendars button 

Step 8: Scroll down and select Signature from menu 

Step 9: When you open signature delete default message Sent from my iPhone/IPad 

Step 10. Select Selection Tool (as in Step 2 above), then press Paste 

That's it the signature is in your device, you can different signatures if you require, if you have multiple e-mail accounts on your iPhone or iPad. Hope this helps!

If you want your own .html signature contact Blick Media today!

What's your businesses USP?

Your USP is especially important when your product or service is similar to those around you. Very few businesses are one-of-a-kind. Just look around you: How many clothing retailers, hardware stores, air conditioning installers and electricians are truly unique? 

The key to effective selling in this situation is what advertising and marketing professionals call a "unique selling proposition" or “unique selling point” (USP). Unless you can pinpoint what makes your business unique in a world of competition, you cannot target your sales efforts successfully. 

Pinpointing your USP requires some hard soul-searching and creativity. One way to start is to analyze how other companies use their USP’s to their advantage. This requires careful analysis of other companies ads and marketing messages. If you analyze what they say they sell, not just their product or service characteristics, you can learn a great deal about how companies distinguish themselves from competitors. 

For example, Charles Revson, founder of Revlon, always used to say he sold hope, not makeup. Some airlines sell friendly service, while others sell on-time service. 

Each of these is an example of a company that has found a USP "peg" on which to hang its marketing strategy. A business can peg its USP on product characteristics, price structure, placement strategy (location and distribution) or promotional strategy. These are what marketers call the "four P's" of marketing. They are manipulated to give a business a market position that sets it apart from the competition. 

Here's how to uncover your USP and use it to power up your sales: 

Put yourself in your customer's shoes 

Too often, business owners fall in love with their product or service and forget that it is the customer's needs, not their own, that they must satisfy. Step back from your daily operations and carefully scrutinize what your customers really want. Suppose you own a pizza parlor. Sure, customers come into your pizza place for food. But is food all they want? What could make them come back again and again and ignore your competition? The answer might be quality, convenience, reliability, friendliness, cleanliness, courtesy or customer service. 

Remember!, price is never the only reason people buy. If your competition is beating you on pricing because they are larger, you have to find another sales feature that addresses the customer's needs and then build your sales and promotional efforts around that feature. 

Know what motivates your customers' behavior and buying decisions 

Effective marketing requires you to be an amateur psychologist. You need to know what drives and motivates customers. Go beyond the traditional customer demographics, such as age, gender, race, income and geographic location, that most businesses collect to analyze their sales trends. For our pizza shop example, it is not enough to know that 75 percent of your customers are in the 18-to-25 age range. You need to look at their motives for buying pizza-taste, peer pressure, convenience and so on. 

Cosmetics and alcohol companies are great examples of industries that know the value of psychologically oriented promotion. People buy these products based on their desires (for pretty women, luxury, glamour and so on), not on their needs. 

Uncover the real reasons customers buy your product instead of a competitor's

As your business grows, you'll be able to ask your best source of information: your customers. For example, the pizza entrepreneur could ask them why they like his pizza over others, plus ask them to rate the importance of the features he offers, such as taste, size, ingredients, atmosphere and service. You will be surprised how honest people are when you ask how you can improve your service. 

If your business is just starting out, you won't have a lot of customers to ask yet, so "shop" your competition instead. Many retailers routinely drop into their competitors' stores to see what and how they are selling. If you're really brave, try asking a few of the customers after they leave the premises what they like and dislike about the competitors' products and services. 

Once you've gone through this three-step market intelligence process, you need to take the next - and hardest! - step: clearing your mind of any preconceived ideas about your product or service and being brutally honest. What features of your business jump out at you as something that sets you apart? What can you promote that will make customers want to patronize your business? How can you position your business to highlight your USP? 

Don't get discouraged. Successful business ownership is not about having a unique product or service; it's about making your product stand out - even in a market filled with similar items. 

The Paperless Office Prediction!

The prediction of a paperless office, which was made way back in 1975 in a Business Weekly article entitled ‘The Office of the Future’ accurately envisioned numerous things, except for the paperless office aspect - in fact paper usage in the office environment (and in our homes) has drastically increased since back then. This is largely due to the computer systems and electronics that were supposed to do away with paper. The end result is we send everything to printers and paper consumption is only going to increase as the population grows. 

However that does not mean that the whole concept of less paper in the office is a bad idea, of course not! Using less paper is, as we all know better for our environment, if only we didn’t need it so much - or do we? Virtual marketing materials offer so many advantages you would be foolish to ignore them. No expensive printing costs! No postage stamps! No envelopes! Fewer trips to the post office! Plus it can save you a lot of money! All without a single tree being cut down! 

 

Blick Media can convert printed brochures into virtual based versions, distributable to an infinite number of recipients. Distribute your online brochures, catalogues and magazines via e-mail or embed them seamlessly into your web site for online viewing. 

Perhaps it’s time you thought about looking at virtual marketing? Read more here. 

Do high street retailers have a future?

High Street vs Online Retailer 

Whilst the high street stores have struggled for sales, online shops are achieving great success. Why? If you like it or not the world is changing – people don’t want to drag themselves to the shops in the rain, snow etc., not when they can shop online and get everything delivered to their door. The choices online will always beat what’s available in the high street stores, at prices that simply can’t be matched by high street stores owing to their vast overheads.

The high street empty of customers

The big question is does the high street shop retailer have a future? We believe that retailers need to look towards spending a lot less on glitzy stores, and strengthen their online presence. Unfortunately if they don’t they will vanish alongside many others who once had strong brands. Take HMV the music store – this once giant on the high street failed to respond to this and look where they are now, with receivers! Perhaps if they had realised the power of the Internet, they would have adjusted their business model and closed a few high street shops, reducing their overheads, HMV could have used the funds that would have been available to build and develop an online presence, which worked. HMV had a very strong brand name, which has been associated with music for many years, but that was not enough to stop shoppers purchasing music online through other retailers.

When high street retailers do go online they must remember things are a little different on the web, competition is greater and your competitors are just a simple click away. Your store may have the monopoly on the high street, but it’s very doubtful you will achieve the same online. High street retailers have got rich with once huge profit margins, but those days are over. Profit margins online have to be lowered to remain competitive but you must remember your volume of sales will increase! After all, is it not better to sell many items making a little, or making no sales at all?

If you’re a high street retailer, looking for an online presence that works for you, contact Blick Media today!

QR Codes - Fad or not? It does not matter!

You will have seen them everywhere by now - printed on the corner of tickets, on posters, and even at the end of TV ads. Are they worth using in your marketing, or are they just a passing fad? 

For those that don't already know - a QR code invented in Japan back in 1994, is a type of two-dimensional barcode that can be read using smartphones and dedicated QR reading devices, that link directly to text, emails, websites, phone numbers and more! 

Are QR codes a passing fad? 

The simple answer is it does not matter! They are here now, and they do offer marketing benefits that simply are not possible by other methods and they provide consistent positive results. So weather they are a passing fad, or something else is going to replace it next week does not matter, it's here now! So take advantage of it now! 

Just remember - if you want to use QR codes for business or marketing purposes, then you should consider that people have higher expectations from scanning a QR code than they do simply clicking a link on a website. You should offer them something special or unique to people that have taken the time and effort to scan the QR code. 

Also remember that many people won't know what a QR code is or how to use it, so it may be a good idea to provide instructions. 

If you are interested in learning about what QR codes can do for your business, get in touch with Blick Media. 

Internet Marketing - are you being serious?

The vast majority of small businesses are unaware that they could be receiving high volume, high quality enquiries, leads, phone calls and sales via interested prospective clients; if only they had a professionally designed website that has been search engine optimized by an experienced SEO expert.

When a website is professionally optimized, it’s like moving a little shop from the back-streets in the middle of nowhere and relocating it bang in the middle of the high street.

Your website is a unique part of you marketing in one really important respect: it alone has the power to either destroy or to drastically increase the response rates of all your other marketing activities. So, if you send a mail-shot for example, be aware that the people that were interested in what you offered will visit your website before they decide to contact you (or not!). This means the quality and content of your website has to encourage people to completely trust you and see you in a wholly professional light.

Something else you need to know: Almost everyone now uses the Internet to ‘check out’ a potential service provider; before deciding whether to do business with them or not! That includes the people you market your services to. So, what is your website saying about your business?

E-mail Marketing if you have not started, you should!

E-mail Marketing a very powerful tool for your business. 

Email marketing is extremely cost effective and one of the most powerful marketing tool available to businesses today, this is because it provides consistent results whilst costs are minimal. 

Here are just a few things for you to consider, before you start using e-mail marketing. 

We strongly recommend that you build your own e-mail database, rather than buying one from a third party company. List's purchased like this are often over worked and are seldom the catalyst of any successful marketing campaigns. 

If you have not already started building a mailing list, start building one by asking all your existing clients and contacts if you can add their email address to your list. (Important) Never just add people to your email list. You must have their permission, otherwise they will regard your emails as spam.  Then, ask if you can contact them from time to time via email with a newsletter or special offers or announcements.  This will get you your initial list and give you something to get started with. You should also add a email sign-up box on your website. 

We recommend that you do not send more than one or two email messages in any month, no-one likes being bombarded with constant messaging, it's annoying and one of the quickest ways to loose contacts from your list. 

Finally, (and this is very important) ask your readers to forward your emails on to their contacts.  If the content is good enough, they will – but never assume, always ask them.  Include a message at the end of every newsletter, which says; “if you have had this email forwarded to you by a friend and you would like to receive a regular copy, you can join our readership here.” (Then link from that text, to the newsletter sign up page on your site.) 

Please remember: with e-maiI marketing it is important to check and abide by the rules governing email marketing in your country. 

ICO New Corporate Image cost a staggering £38,399.83

No joke! This is what the ICO do with YOUR money. 

After looking through the Information Commissioner's Offices (ICO's) website we have seen that they have had a new corporate image designed, hardly a great leap forward, however what's even more amazing is that according to documents on the ICO's website, they spent a staggering £38,399.83 on their new 'Corporate Image' (£28,520 on "Corporate identity design - research, concepts, proposals, design and production of manual").

The ICO are the people who are responsible for the ongoing 'Cookie' fiasco which has led to them to relax/reevaluate the law relating to cookies owing to the fact that so many people simply ignored them.

Personally I think they need to sort themselves out before they worry about a new logo! Especially when this country is in a recession. What an amazing waste of public money!

Message to ICO: Next time your looking to rebrand yourself, give us a call here at Blick Media, I know we could do a far better job and it would cost considerably less than £38,399.83 that's for sure!

Blick Media would love to hear your thoughts on their new corporate image, do you think it's a good use of public money?

The Cookie law is changing again!

The ICO have new advice! 

The ICO have announced a new update to their advice. The new advice is now that simply requesting a website would constitute implied consent - removing all together the need for explicit consent. This is a bit confusing as the new law states that explicit consent is required for all non-essential cookies . This appears to be a bit of a back-down on the behalf of the ICO, perhaps it's because of the lack of conformity from some of the online giants, whatever the reason for this - we think it's a good move!

The new advice is now as follows:

1. Implied consent should be good enough if the cookies in question are unobtrusive enough and documented in a privacy policy or similar.
2. Implied consent probably wouldn't be good enough for more intrusive cookies, like the third party cookies set by behavioural advertisers. 

The grey area still is that Google Analytics is a third-party cookie that could be considered as being among the most intrusive on the web. However we don't believe the ICO are overly concerned with Google Analytics. We think the lawyers from Google will sort something out with the ICO and agree a path forward that will ultimately not affect users overly. Could this advice change again - Yes! It seems that this new interpretation of the new EU cookie directive seems to be more feasible, however it seems that things can change as often as the weather at the ICO.

We would love to hear your thoughts on this?

EU Cookie Law - Is it working?

The EU Cookie Directive is Now LAW! 

You may already have seen there are many solutions popping-up all over the web in an attempt to comply with the law, but not everyone is conforming. There are many major e-commerce websites that have failed to respond fully or have simply ignored the deadline. 

Why?.... We think the answer is quite simple, most business owners have no idea what the cookie law is, nor do they know if it effects them! The answer in all probability is 'YES', this law effects you if your business has a website. 

Most modern websites use cookies, which is quite normal, and are not viruses as many people believe. These small files which are automatically placed on the users computer are there to remember settings and aid the overall functionality of the website. The new law now requires website users to have to opt into accepting these cookies. Is this fair?.... It's a bit like having to sign something before you can enter a shop before you can browse or buy something, is that right?... No! But that's the law! 

As the EU Cookie Directive is less than crystal clear, we think there is much that will happen in the industry over the coming weeks/months. Blick Media will be posting up news and information about this new law as things evolve. 

Blick Media's opinion is, whilst we can't see fines being issued in the early days of this new law, we can't see it going away, so you can either take a chance, or play it safe and make the adjustments to your website, the choice is yours!