business savvy web workshop ken barrett msc. - director
TRANSCRIPT
Business SavvyWeb Workshop
Ken Barrett MSc. - Director
Programme Which type of Business doesn’t need an online presence?
The different types of Web Sites
How small businesses can get found online
How marketing has changed
Budget vs Brains
Social Media - How to use it to benefit your business
It's all about Connections!
Becoming a publisher
Some jargon explained, SEO, inbound links, Social Media
The best online tools to consider for your business
About me!
A Potted History 15 Years Web Consultancy & Project
Management Experience
10 Years Product Management Experience in I.T.
5 Years Lecturing in Web Design & Management Information Systems
MSc Information Technology
Post Graduate Certificate in Education
Prince2 Practioner
SCRUM Master
Qualified Geek!
About untangled web ltd.
Untangled web ltd supply web business solutions, software and services in the following areas: Web Content Management Systems e-Commerce Applications Web Site Design Web Hosting Online Helpdesk Applications Web Software Application Development
Some local clients
Which type of business doesn’t need an online presence?
No matter what your business is, potential clients will check out your web site and this is the first impression they will get of your company
Different Types of Web Sites
Static Web Sites vs
Web Content Management Systems
Static Web Sites
Static Web sites require web developer skills to create any new web page. This has the following drawbacks: Expensive to support in the long term Limited functionality No dynamic content No user login or secure area Often Out of date as soon as the site is live Often not fit for purpose
• If written in house may not conform to W3C guidelines or Disability Discrimination Act (D.D.A.)
• Advantages:• Very cheap in the first instance (£300 - £500)
Content Management Systems (CMS) are database driven web sites that provide flexible dynamic components for a web site
Company administrators can update or create new articles or upload photos without the need for expensive web developer skills
One of the benefits of a CMS is to allow you to add modules and components as your business requirements change
Web Content Management Systems
Web Pages
Administrators can: create any number of articles web pages, format text, add images and menu items
All with simple admin tools without any need for web skills.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions can be created and searched using a text search field.
Polls
Any number of polls can be created by administrators to gather information or opinions from users.
Contact Forms
Any number of contact forms can be created by administrators to allow users to send you information
Secure User Area
Registered Members can log in and see secure content
Banners
Banners allow you to charge sponsors for each click through from your site
Additional Components
Any web site should have the framework to allow you to add functionality as your business requirements change
Joomla! and Wordpress have hundreds of additional components that are available as and when your business requires them.
A small selection are shown below
On average each component can be installed and configured for £100
Calendars
A calendar can be created to show events as open access or to registered members
Online Forum
• Discussion boards for registered users
Email Marketing / News Letters
Document Management Component
Any number of document types (Word, Excel, PDF etc) can be uploaded by administrators and menu links created to allow users and groups to download them.
Subscription Payments
Social Networking
Project Management
Assign tasks to staff, set deadlines and monitor progress
Contact Management Component
Create Contact Profiles Search Profiles Document conversations, emails and phones calls
Customer Relationship Management Systems.
Online Helpdesk
Clients log problems, issues or orders which are automatically assigned, tracked and audited.
Event Management & Registration
How small businesses can get found online
Now that you have chosen which type of web site you want, how does it get found by potential customers?
It doesn’t matter how pretty your web site is if it can’t be found by search engines:
research by Experian Hitwise
It’s all about Connections
Google ranks every site in a variety of ways
The most important ranking is how important is your site to other sites.
Get links to your site from as many “relevant” web sites as possible (inbound links)
Optimise your site for search engines (SEO)
Ensure your site has search engine friendly addresses (SEF)
Become a publisher on your own site so that you can add articles and change keywords on the site often
How marketing has changed
The web is insidious.
You may be losing market share and not know why.
It may be down to the recession
It may be that competitors are much more switched on to new marketing tools using the web
Social Media – how can my company take advantage?
• Create a facebook page to advertise services
• Link to your main web site (google loves this)
• No corporate branding
• Avoid mixing friends with clients
• Individual Professional Profile
• Great for networking
• Link to main web site (google loves this)
• Informal short messages to followers
• Don't start unless you think you can contribute something every week
• Link to main corporate web site (google loves this)
• Integrate with main corporate web site so that tweets appear on the web site (google loves this)
• Great to get a message across quickly e.g. Venue change,
Google Analytics
• Do I need it
Budget vs Brains
Work out how much the web may increase your market share
Budget for it as you would budget for paper based advertising or other business benefit
Work out how much you can do yourself
Decide when you need to bring in a professional web developer
Some free web applications to consider
Q & A