Monday 31 January 2011
Sunday 30 January 2011
Saturday 29 January 2011
Friday 28 January 2011
Thursday 27 January 2011
Wednesday 26 January 2011
Tuesday 25 January 2011
Nonverbal Website Intelligence - Invisible Forces Behind Effective Online Marketing http://goo.gl/pH2Li
And the other side of the argument..The five suppliers you should avoid like the plague http://goo.gl/NxCh4
We have all met these for our sins. The five clients you should avoid like the plague http://bit.ly/i7aSDZ
Monday 24 January 2011
"U can suppress art exhibits,plays and books, but U cant remove Gukurahundi from people's hearts. It's indelible." http://bit.ly/hY0kwU
How Banking and Insurance Go Together
For many years the banking industry has been looking to diversify their current banking business by moving into what they see as the booming general insurance business. A synergy between banking and general insurance organisations is a given these days because retail banks are offering insurance services & products to increase their non-interest incomes while insurance companies are offering banking services & products. Financial institutions are therefore competing against each other and only the best solution providers will achieve the edge that banks and general insurance systems are striving for.
So, for a bank that is considering moving into the general insurance market, there are two main choices:
If they decide to go it alone they need a system that will cater for this two-way synergy. They need a system that is comprehensive and based on a highly flexible technology suited for any financial organisation’s insurance solution. They should look for a system that has a feature rich underlying architecture and that is component-based system so that they can customise the solution to fit their front office and back office requirements.
Banking organisations that want to sell insurance under this business model will need a tried and trusted technology that will empower them to write general insurance in a profitable way. They will need a system that allows them to:
Many leading financial service companies now offer retail banking services and general insurance products and services. In order to service their customers they need to ensure they have the right general insurance systems in place to enable them to manage this business profitably.
JMR Consulting UK Ltd and IDIT IDI Technologies are working together to bring the IDIT general insurance software solution to the UK Market. To find out more about the IDIT solution, please get in touch by using the contact form, sending an email to info@jmruk.com or calling us on 0845 052 0900.
So, for a bank that is considering moving into the general insurance market, there are two main choices:
- they can partner with an existing insurance company
- or go it alone.
If they decide to go it alone they need a system that will cater for this two-way synergy. They need a system that is comprehensive and based on a highly flexible technology suited for any financial organisation’s insurance solution. They should look for a system that has a feature rich underlying architecture and that is component-based system so that they can customise the solution to fit their front office and back office requirements.
Banking organisations that want to sell insurance under this business model will need a tried and trusted technology that will empower them to write general insurance in a profitable way. They will need a system that allows them to:
- sell banking insurance products via the traditional, direct, broking or online insurance models
- supports complex banking insurance products using sophisticated, localised CRM, policy administration, automated product definition, rules engine, workflow, claims processing and technical accounting modules
- utilises an advanced two way communication module for optimal communication with clients
- provides scalable online banking insurance services and transactions immediately & easily
- exploits existing customer networks & loyalty to leverage new insurance products and cross sell
- has the flexibility to respond to changing regulatory and market conditions
Many leading financial service companies now offer retail banking services and general insurance products and services. In order to service their customers they need to ensure they have the right general insurance systems in place to enable them to manage this business profitably.
JMR Consulting UK Ltd and IDIT IDI Technologies are working together to bring the IDIT general insurance software solution to the UK Market. To find out more about the IDIT solution, please get in touch by using the contact form, sending an email to info@jmruk.com or calling us on 0845 052 0900.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/anh21
How Banking and Insurance Go Together
For many years the banking industry has been looking to diversify their current banking business by moving into what they see as the booming general insurance business. A synergy between banking and general insurance organisations is a given these days because retail banks are offering insurance services & products to increase their non-interest incomes while insurance companies are offering banking services & products. Financial institutions are therefore competing against each other and only the best solution providers will achieve the edge that banks and general insurance systems are striving for.
So, for a bank that is considering moving into the general insurance market, there are two main choices:
If they decide to go it alone they need a system that will cater for this two-way synergy. They need a system that is comprehensive and based on a highly flexible technology suited for any financial organisation’s insurance solution. They should look for a system that has a feature rich underlying architecture and that is component-based system so that they can customise the solution to fit their front office and back office requirements.
Banking organisations that want to sell insurance under this business model will need a tried and trusted technology that will empower them to write general insurance in a profitable way. They will need a system that allows them to:
Many leading financial service companies now offer retail banking services and general insurance products and services. In order to service their customers they need to ensure they have the right general insurance systems in place to enable them to manage this business profitably.
JMR Consulting UK Ltd and IDIT IDI Technologies are working together to bring the IDIT general insurance software solution to the UK Market. To find out more about the IDIT solution, please get in touch by using the contact form, sending an email to info@jmruk.com or calling us on 0845 052 0900.
So, for a bank that is considering moving into the general insurance market, there are two main choices:
- they can partner with an existing insurance company
- or go it alone.
If they decide to go it alone they need a system that will cater for this two-way synergy. They need a system that is comprehensive and based on a highly flexible technology suited for any financial organisation’s insurance solution. They should look for a system that has a feature rich underlying architecture and that is component-based system so that they can customise the solution to fit their front office and back office requirements.
Banking organisations that want to sell insurance under this business model will need a tried and trusted technology that will empower them to write general insurance in a profitable way. They will need a system that allows them to:
- sell banking insurance products via the traditional, direct, broking or online insurance models
- supports complex banking insurance products using sophisticated, localised CRM, policy administration, automated product definition, rules engine, workflow, claims processing and technical accounting modules
- utilises an advanced two way communication module for optimal communication with clients
- provides scalable online banking insurance services and transactions immediately & easily
- exploits existing customer networks & loyalty to leverage new insurance products and cross sell
- has the flexibility to respond to changing regulatory and market conditions
Many leading financial service companies now offer retail banking services and general insurance products and services. In order to service their customers they need to ensure they have the right general insurance systems in place to enable them to manage this business profitably.
JMR Consulting UK Ltd and IDIT IDI Technologies are working together to bring the IDIT general insurance software solution to the UK Market. To find out more about the IDIT solution, please get in touch by using the contact form, sending an email to info@jmruk.com or calling us on 0845 052 0900.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/anh21
Over two-thirds of insurance industry intermediaries (69%) think that fraud is getting worse http://goo.gl/beGDZ
Friday 21 January 2011
American Banking and Market News - Anthony Burke – WSI Consultant Completes an Advanced Internet Marketing Certification http://goo.gl/UkKHj
Mobile marketing will find its stride in 2011, though ‘app-athy’ may set in, Forrester says http://goo.gl/rq2iE
Thursday 20 January 2011
Conversion Architecture - Leading the horse to water AND making it want to drink! http://goo.gl/g8Iao
More than 200 billion lines of COBOL code with five billion lines added to live systems each year http://goo.gl/iKPKZ
Wednesday 19 January 2011
Tuesday 18 January 2011
It's long been derided as a vehicle for the vacuous, and a web fad which will fade away,Twitter proves its worth http://bit.ly/eT4ZnE
Monday 17 January 2011
Conversion Architecture - Leading the horse to water AND making it want to drink! http://goo.gl/g8Iao
Solvency II Stress Test
In recent weeks we have posted a couple of times about Solvency II topics and have included a post outlining the main aspects of the Solvency II initiative. Solvency II is also a great opportunity for employees and consultants to update their skills and knowledge and on the post about Solvency II for programme and project managers we outlined some of the opportunities that now exist.
Europe now has a newly founded insurance regulator, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), Based in Frankfurt, Germany, it has recently announced plans to launch the second Europe-wide stress test for the insurance sector at the beginning of the second quarter.
Some of the final details for the stress test are still being proposed and have not yet been communicated fully but the main facts, know to date, around the Solvency II stress testare summarised below:
The initiative is based on a request of the EU Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) and is being coordinated with the stress test being undertaken by the European Banking Authority (EBA) within the European System of Financial Supervisors (ESFS).
JMR Consulting UK Ltd recognises the importance of collaboration and information sharing to ensure companies meet Solvency II targets. With this in mind we have set up a partnership with other Solvency II practitioners called Gain-Line that offers the support you need to implement the changes demanded by the Solvency II directive, on time and at an affordable price. Our Solvency II service helps you avoid the drawbacks of hiring a traditional consultancy or the headaches associated with trying to recruit and develop specialist expertise in house.
To find out more about how JMR Consulting UK Ltd and Gain-Line partnership working together can provide a safe pair of hands for your Solvency II programme, please get in touch by using the contact form, sending an email to info@jmruk.com or calling us on 0845 052 0900.
Solvency II – a new regulator
Europe now has a newly founded insurance regulator, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), Based in Frankfurt, Germany, it has recently announced plans to launch the second Europe-wide stress test for the insurance sector at the beginning of the second quarter.
Solvency II Stress Test – main facts:
Some of the final details for the stress test are still being proposed and have not yet been communicated fully but the main facts, know to date, around the Solvency II stress testare summarised below:
- The Solvency II stress test will be conducted in cooperation with the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) and the respective national supervisory authorities.
- The goal of the Solvency II stress test is to identify and quantify the impact of the different stress scenarios on an insurer’s financial position in an adverse and very severe economic environment.
- Insurance companies play an important role in the social and economic cycle. Managing financial resources and providing a sound financial foundation is vital for policyholders to manage their own personal risk.
- The Solvency II stress test is one of a range of supervisory tools for assessing the strength of individual institutions and to evaluate if the current structure supports the stability of financial markets.
- It helps EIOPA to understand capital positions of insurers and insurance groups in adverse situations.
- To conduct the Solvency II stress test, EIOPA is seeking the cooperation of the European insurance industry.
- The test is targeted toward the European insurance sector and will include a minimum of 50% of insurance companies per country measured by gross premium income.
- Currently, EIOPA is preparing a Solvency II stress test proposal including the scope of the exercise, framework and economic scenarios under which the financial positions will be tested.
- Before finalizing the framework of the Solvency II stress test, EIOPA will consult national supervisors and insurance associations.
The initiative is based on a request of the EU Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) and is being coordinated with the stress test being undertaken by the European Banking Authority (EBA) within the European System of Financial Supervisors (ESFS).
JMR Consulting UK Ltd recognises the importance of collaboration and information sharing to ensure companies meet Solvency II targets. With this in mind we have set up a partnership with other Solvency II practitioners called Gain-Line that offers the support you need to implement the changes demanded by the Solvency II directive, on time and at an affordable price. Our Solvency II service helps you avoid the drawbacks of hiring a traditional consultancy or the headaches associated with trying to recruit and develop specialist expertise in house.
To find out more about how JMR Consulting UK Ltd and Gain-Line partnership working together can provide a safe pair of hands for your Solvency II programme, please get in touch by using the contact form, sending an email to info@jmruk.com or calling us on 0845 052 0900.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bmbog
Sunday 16 January 2011
Friday 14 January 2011
Thursday 13 January 2011
Are we too obsessed with Facebook? Facebook profiles are like belly buttons: Everybody's got one. http://goo.gl/gS55O
Ever worked with a project manager who made achieving amazing results seem effortless? The Path to PM Mastery http://bit.ly/hTdEk0
Wednesday 12 January 2011
Celent: "the time has arrived to understand the opportunities and threats of location aware services in new media". http://bit.ly/fnVwK3
Tuesday 11 January 2011
Let's start off the new year with lessons learned from a tough life on the front lines http://goo.gl/xmqIw
Where is Internet Marketing Going?
Know What's Hot for 2011, and Prepare Your Business for These Online TrendsIt's the year for social media marketing. In 2011, businesses will be executing social tactics that are fully integrated into the overall marketing strategy. Every company needs a social media marketing strategy and the right resources to manage it.
Mobile marketing is on the go. Mobile marketing is on the go. The increase in smart-phone use and relaxed download caps on mobile phone plans has seen mobile marketing gain momentum. Tablet devices should now be a mainstream consideration in your digital marketing strategy.
2011 will see a new era of online video content, re-introducing the human element and changing the nature of communication; making it dynamic, interactive and instant. Video will be used more for mainstream online content and advertising.
SEO is going to be complex (if it isn't enough already!). Competition for Google heats up with Yahoo, Bing, Search.com, and social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Getting your business on the first page of search results will become tougher. Mobile search and geo-location will further increase the challenges and surprises for search engine optimizers.
Get in touch with us at WSI, if we can help you with your marketing efforts for 2011
Monday 10 January 2011
Refresh Your Online Presence for 2011
Tips to Get Your Online Marketing Ready for 2011
It's time to strengthen your online presence, so that you can take advantage of the emerging Internet marketing trends in the coming year.
1. Go mobile. Is your website easy and enjoyable to view on a mobile phone? With more and more iPhones, iPads and Android powered smart-phones in use, mobile marketing will expand beyond mobile messaging. Mobile email, mobile websites and mobile applications are already viable marketing channels. Make your website mobile-friendly now!
2. Use video. Video is an incredible way to connect with people online. Video will help your website get "super-optimized" for search engines. A page with video has a strong likelihood of being ranked higher than one that's purely text-based. With high speed Internet and lowered cost of video production, the impact of video in marketing is ever-increasing.
3. Social media marketing is maturing. Is your website ready to take advantage of the reach and influence of Facebook and Twitter? With Facebook Credits and social commerce sites such as Groupon, your customers can actually start their purchase decision cycle via these sites. Get ready to harness the commercial value of the Facebook 'like' button, since peer recommendation will be more powerful than the push model.
4. Is your website optimized for localized searches? Today, every major search engine like Google, Yahoo! and Bing is serving up local results to make things easy for online users. Does your business figure in the top ranks of these search listings? Dominating the local space is the stepping stone to big business outside. Make sure your search and social marketing strategies factor in location-based opportunities.
5. Content still rules. Continue to offer free information to your customers. Paid content will continue to suffer in 2011, and if users can find your information elsewhere for free, then they will go there for it. Your business should go beyond advertising, preaching and pushing products. Be useful to your audience - provide material that's useful to them.
6. Tweak your email marketing strategy. Email marketing still remains a proven way to achieve business objectives. Segmentation and targeting will allow you to deliver a tailored and relevant message to potential customers to give the best possible click-through and conversion performance.
7. Upgrade your website. Edit, reword and improve the look of your website to make sure it's relevant and up-to-date. Set unique titles and descriptions for each page/post of your website, which is critical for SEO, and also for feeding your site into social media channels. Generate an RSS feed so that visitors can subscribe for updates via a feed reader or email.
8. Set up analytics. Use Google Analytics or something similar to spell out your marketing goals, integrate it with your online marketing program to see how you are progressing. Evaluate results from your specific online marketing activities (i.e. shopping cart, PPC ads, social media channels, etc.) so that you can see how well each is doing for you.
It's time to strengthen your online presence, so that you can take advantage of the emerging Internet marketing trends in the coming year.
1. Go mobile. Is your website easy and enjoyable to view on a mobile phone? With more and more iPhones, iPads and Android powered smart-phones in use, mobile marketing will expand beyond mobile messaging. Mobile email, mobile websites and mobile applications are already viable marketing channels. Make your website mobile-friendly now!
2. Use video. Video is an incredible way to connect with people online. Video will help your website get "super-optimized" for search engines. A page with video has a strong likelihood of being ranked higher than one that's purely text-based. With high speed Internet and lowered cost of video production, the impact of video in marketing is ever-increasing.
3. Social media marketing is maturing. Is your website ready to take advantage of the reach and influence of Facebook and Twitter? With Facebook Credits and social commerce sites such as Groupon, your customers can actually start their purchase decision cycle via these sites. Get ready to harness the commercial value of the Facebook 'like' button, since peer recommendation will be more powerful than the push model.
4. Is your website optimized for localized searches? Today, every major search engine like Google, Yahoo! and Bing is serving up local results to make things easy for online users. Does your business figure in the top ranks of these search listings? Dominating the local space is the stepping stone to big business outside. Make sure your search and social marketing strategies factor in location-based opportunities.
5. Content still rules. Continue to offer free information to your customers. Paid content will continue to suffer in 2011, and if users can find your information elsewhere for free, then they will go there for it. Your business should go beyond advertising, preaching and pushing products. Be useful to your audience - provide material that's useful to them.
6. Tweak your email marketing strategy. Email marketing still remains a proven way to achieve business objectives. Segmentation and targeting will allow you to deliver a tailored and relevant message to potential customers to give the best possible click-through and conversion performance.
7. Upgrade your website. Edit, reword and improve the look of your website to make sure it's relevant and up-to-date. Set unique titles and descriptions for each page/post of your website, which is critical for SEO, and also for feeding your site into social media channels. Generate an RSS feed so that visitors can subscribe for updates via a feed reader or email.
8. Set up analytics. Use Google Analytics or something similar to spell out your marketing goals, integrate it with your online marketing program to see how you are progressing. Evaluate results from your specific online marketing activities (i.e. shopping cart, PPC ads, social media channels, etc.) so that you can see how well each is doing for you.
Ultimately, success in the field of Internet marketing will depend on your company's ability to provide the best customer experience. If you can build and nurture a real and meaningful relationship with your customers online, success will be yours. To learn more, contact your local WSI Consultant here in Sussex
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bl5v6
Where is Internet Marketing Going?
Know What's Hot for 2011, and Prepare Your Business for These Online Trends
It's the year for social media marketing. In 2011, businesses will be executing social tactics that are fully integrated into the overall marketing strategy. Every company needs a social media marketing strategy and the right resources to manage it.
SEO is going to be complex (if it isn't enough already!). Competition for Google heats up with Yahoo, Bing, Search.com, and social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Getting your business on the first page of search results will become tougher. Mobile search and geo-location will further increase the challenges and surprises for search engine optimizers.
Get in touch with us at WSI, if we can help you with your marketing efforts for 2011
It's the year for social media marketing. In 2011, businesses will be executing social tactics that are fully integrated into the overall marketing strategy. Every company needs a social media marketing strategy and the right resources to manage it.
Mobile marketing is on the go. Mobile marketing is on the go. The increase in smart-phone use and relaxed download caps on mobile phone plans has seen mobile marketing gain momentum. Tablet devices should now be a mainstream consideration in your digital marketing strategy.
2011 will see a new era of online video content, re-introducing the human element and changing the nature of communication; making it dynamic, interactive and instant. Video will be used more for mainstream online content and advertising.
SEO is going to be complex (if it isn't enough already!). Competition for Google heats up with Yahoo, Bing, Search.com, and social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Getting your business on the first page of search results will become tougher. Mobile search and geo-location will further increase the challenges and surprises for search engine optimizers.
Get in touch with us at WSI, if we can help you with your marketing efforts for 2011
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bl5un
Solvency II for Insurance Organisations
Solvency II is not just about capital!
Solvency II is a fundamental review of the capital adequacy regime for the European insurance industry. The main aim of the Solvency II initiative is to establish a revised set of EU-wide capital requirements and risk management standards that will replace the current solvency requirements in most European insurance markets and insurance companies.
On a couple of earlier posts, we have outlined at a high level the main implications ofSolvency II. We also blogged about the contract opportunities for project and programme managers to get involved in Solvency II for Insurance and how the opportunities that exist in this field.
Thomas Steffen, Chairman of the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pension Supervisors (CEIOPS) has quite rightly pointed out that “Solvency II is not just about capital. It is a change of behaviour” He makes the point that effective risk management and policyholder protection are required to be embedded into the organisation, especially in its operational and decision-making procedures. It is not just about models, pillars and compliance, it goes much deeper
General Insurance companies need to act
Insurance companies and related organisations aiming for the internal model approval through IMAP (internal model approval process) will need to produce high quality internal models and processes, which are used by the organisation, to demonstrate commitment and compliance to the Solvency II standards. If a company’s board and main business teams do not buy into the internal model, it is difficult to see how the regulators will. For Solvency II initiatives to be successful in insurance organisations, it is critical to engage with the main business teams and boards early, to obtain their input, gain their understanding and to build models that work with their business requirements.
To provide the boards senior management of insurance organisations with the ability to qualify the reasonableness of key assumptions used in the model, a comprehensive approach to stress testing is required. This is essential to allow management to take full account of the risk dynamics of scenarios within the model.
A highly structured control framework around inputs, model calculations, and model output validation is required. If implemented successfully, such a framework will result in a model that is not only used throughout the organisation, but more importantly, a model that is trusted and valued by all management teams.
JMR Consulting UK Ltd and Solvency II initiatives
JMR Consulting UK Ltd recognises the importance of collaboration and information sharing to ensure companies meet Solvency II targets. With this in mind we have set up a partnership with other Solvency II practitioners called Gain-Line that offers the support you need to implement the changes demanded by the Solvency II directive.
How JMR Consulting UK Ltd can help
To find out more about how JMR Consulting UK Ltd and Gain-Line partnership working together can provide a safe pair of hands for your Solvency II programme, please get in touch by using the contact form, sending an email to info@jmruk.com or calling us on 0845 052 0900.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bl5st
Anthony Burke - WSI Consultant Completes an Advanced Internet Marketing Certification http://goo.gl/d80uy
Sunday 9 January 2011
Friday 7 January 2011
Anthony Burke - WSI Consultant Completes an Advanced Internet Marketing Certification
- World’s Largest Digital Marketing Franchise Awards Anthony Burke with a WSI Advanced Internet Marketing (AIM) Certificate
Etchingham, East Sussex, 8/1/11 - WSI, the world’s leading digital marketing franchise, is proud to announce that one of its franchisees, Anthony Burke located in Etchingham, East Sussex has successfully completed his Advanced Internet Marketing (AIM) Certification for 2011.
The AIM Certification Program consists of an advanced curriculum covering topics such as senior level search engine marketing techniques and the latest in social media marketing, including content marketing and syndication, online reputation management and customer communication strategies. Participants undergo an extensive training program complete with both theory-based education and hands-on practice. Anthony Burkehas successfully earned all the credits required to become WSI Advanced Internet Marketing (AIM) Certified for 2011.
Ron McArthur, President of WSI, says, “As a leading provider of digital marketing solutions to businesses around the globe, WSI strives to ensure our Consultants continue to increase their knowledge of Internet marketing best practices and stay abreast of today’s fast-changing trends. The Internet and digital media are changing at a rapid pace and new technologies are emerging quite frequently. The Advanced Internet Marketing (AIM) Certification is a program to keep our Consultants’ expert status at peak levels, as they continue to stay well-educated on the latest trends, techniques and best practices of the Internet space. We are extremely proud of Anthony Burke who has completed his WSI AIM Certification”.
Anthony Burke, WSI Consultant based in Etchingham, Sussex says, “ the AIM Certification means a lot to my business and my clients and strengthens the WSI brand through a rigorous focus on building credibility, expertise, communication and leadership skills and a commitment to lifelong learning as part of the certification programme.”
With more than a decade of experience as a global leader in the Internet marketing industry, WSI recognizes that becoming an effective learning organization is the foundation for long-term success. More importantly, WSI understands that learning within the organization must keep pace with the rapid changes taking place in its growing business environment - the Internet and digital media.
The WSI Advanced Internet Marketing (AIM) Certification Program offers WSI Consultants the opportunity to enhance their knowledge on Internet marketing techniques and best practices through a series of advanced courses and hands-on activities. The program curriculum is reviewed and updated on an annual basis to allow WSI Consultants to renew their certification every year.
For more information about WSI’s online marketing services, please contact Anthony Burke at: 01580 819529 or Anthony@wsionlinebiz.co.uk Or you can visit http://www.wsionlinebiz.co.uk to learn more about WSI.
For digital marketing tips, strategies and ideas, follow WSI online | Twitter: http://twitter.com/wsionlinebiz | Facebook: http://facebook.com/wsionlinebiz | LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonymburke.
About WSI – we simplify the Internet:
WSI is the world’s #1 franchise offering digital marketing services to suit the needs of multiple industries. The company has the world’s largest Digital Marketing Consultants’ network and a strong head office in Toronto, Canada. WSI Digital Marketing Consultants have helped thousands of small and medium-sized businesses realize their online marketing potential. By using innovative Internet technologies and advanced digital marketing strategies, businesses can have a WSI Digital Marketing System tailored to their individual needs to elevate their Internet presence and profitability to new levels. In 2010, WSI was the proud recipient of 6 Standard of Excellence Awards at the Annual WebAwards Competition organized by the Web Marketing Association (WMA). WSI has been ranked the #1 Internet Services Franchise in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500 listing for 10 years in a row. Entrepreneur Magazine also ranks WSI at #13 among the Top Home Based Franchises and #49 in America’s Top Global Franchises. With the support and cooperation of its customers, franchise network, employees, suppliers and charitable organizations, WSI aims to help make child poverty history through its global outreach program.
For more information about WSI’s offerings and business opportunities, please visit our website at www.wsidigitalmarketing.com. For digital marketing tips, strategies and ideas, visit our blog at: http://blog.wsidigitalmarketing.com/. Please follow us online at: http://twitter.com/wsisocial, http://facebook.com/wsisocial, http://ca.linkedin.com/in/wsisocial.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bkufc
Why Landing Page Design is so important because you only have 2 seconds - Glory or Gloom?
Landing Page Design - Only 2 seconds - Glory or Gloom?
Research shows that visitors to a web page take between 2 to 8 seconds to decide whether they have come to the right place. Your landing page can either hold their attention in those precious 2 seconds or watch them click away from it. If they stay, you now stand a better chance that they will go find what they came looking for by following through on the call(s) to action you set for them. What this means is that a mere 2 seconds is all the time you have to achieve conversion or face failure.
Landing Page - A Gateway to Your Brand - First impressions count, so make sure they're great!
Similar to a store's window display or signage, a landing page is often the first touch point for your brand. A potential customer's impression of your landing page goes a long way in determining and influencing his or her experience with your brand. It's up to you to ensure that this impression is a positive one, because you can be sure, it will be a lasting one!
From a design planning and layout perspective it helps to keep in mind that:
- A majority of users will quickly scan a landing page like a magazine or book cover - left to right, diagonally across and down the page and back to the top.
- A strategically designed landing page will have the main message front and centre at the top of the page.
- The call to action or conversion tool (form, button, coupon, etc.) will be also be very close to the top on the right-hand side.
- The main body text will be above the fold and neatly formatted for easy scanning.
- These are the fundamentals that can help optimize the results of your landing page
Will Your Landing Page Work? - There's only one way to find out - Test, Test, Test Again!
Now if there was a single way to ensure that every landing page designed following best practices would deliver the same great results, business on the Internet would be a piece of cake. But that isn't the case. Audiences of landing pages are living, breathing, thinking human beings with changing needs, wavering emotions and often unexplained behavior that is beyond anyone’s control! What’s the solution then? TESTING. Every landing page, no matter how expertly designed and cleverly crafted should be tested to arrive at a variation that works best and facilitates maximum conversion.
Be aware that if your visitors have stayed beyond the 2 seconds you can do much more with their mindshare. Not every visitor may convert right away. Many will want to know more about your company and products / services. There are some that will linger, click on the link(s) to other pages of your website (so make sure you have some good ones in there), take their time to get more information before clicking on your form or call to action button on the landing page.
Thursday 6 January 2011
Video Marketing for Business
19 billion views on average for online video
...your business too can engage audiences with video
Judging by the astounding growth of online video viewership (close to 125% in 2009), there is no doubt about the tremendous opportunity that has emerged for marketers. Sure, online video still has a long way to go before it gets close to television viewership but eMarketer predicts that online video viewership will nearly double to 11.8 billion total hours in 2010.
Online video is not all about what you can show…
...it's about what your audience can imagine! Google's 2010 Super Bowl Ad was a 52 second video. If you haven't seen it before, take a quick look now. Lost in Paris aren't you? The video didn't do that. You did! As your eyes followed the text and online search on your screen, your mind wandered off picturing everything from chocolate to coffee, Le Louvre to the Eiffel Tower, Parisian models to French couture, and more! See how plain text scrolling on a screen and simple, really subtle, unobtrusive music can have that effect on you? No images, no photographs, no fancy graphics or use of color, and yet, the video makes you see so much, within the realm of your own imagination! That’s the power of online video.Sure, Google is one of the biggest, most well-known companies in the world today and they paid an astronomical figure to play this video during Super Bowl. (CBS charged 3 million dollars for a 30 second commercial!). But think about it, you could create a video like that sitting in your own office or home. The most important thing is to get your brand into the mind of your customer. And to do that, you have to think like the customer and find a niche that you’d like to occupy.Understanding market trends and following best practices in online video marketing can help you gain terrific results without having to spend too much time, money or effort on it.Here at WSI we have a wealth of experience in Internet marketing and can help your business take advantage of online video -- get in touch today on 01580 819529!
Wednesday 5 January 2011
Pay-Per-Click and Web Analytics Go Hand in Hand
An overview of PPC and Web Analytics
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising can also be described as Point of Interest advertising - you are aiming to catch your customers' attention at their highest point of interest - right when they are searching for you! It is an advertising model in which sponsors acquire online ad space, but are only charged by the host when a search user clicks on the ad.
Web Analytics gives you data that you can leverage to better understand how visitors are interacting with your website. It enables you to gauge metrics such as the percentage share of industry visitors to your site; the campaigns competitors are running and how well they work; benchmarking search marketing; industry conversion rates, and more.
How PPC and Web Analytics Work in Tandem
…what's the common thread?
Web Analytics reports primarily throw light on: Visitors, Traffic and Web Content. You can measure data with regard to critical factors such as:
- Time spent on site
- Site bounce rate
- Direct traffic
- Referring sites
- Search engine traffic
- Unique (first time) visitors
- Average page views per visit
- Top landing pages
- Top Exit Pages
- Paid and Unpaid Keywords / Phrases
You can group your visitors by paid search and organic traffic, geographic regions, by separate landing pages, genders (if you have products that cater to specific genders), age, etc. A big plus that’s common to both Web Analytics and PPC is segmentation - the process of looking at specific groups of visitors, analyzing their behavior separately and targeting their needs with different PPC ads. At every stage of running a PPC campaign, you can test the results to tweak and refine your ad copy, landing page or conversion mechanism and call to action until you achieve the set goals. Web Analytics equips you with the insights you need to be able to do this.
At WSI we are trained experts who can generate comprehensive reports using your analytics program. These reports will show you the actual search phrases people used before finding your PPC ad and eventually getting to your website. By using advanced keyword research tools more phrases and long tail keywords can be identified for your campaign to bid on. You can literally take a PPC campaign, expand the keywords from dozens to hundreds and watch the traffic increase dramatically. Best part is, you will also see your average cost-per-click (CPC) go down. More revenue, more savings, more conversions!We can help you find out more about your website visitors and drive more conversions through your PPC campaigns. Call now on 01580 819529 to set up a free, no obligation consultation with one of our PPC consultants
Online shoppers spent $30.8 billion this holiday season, up 12.8% from $27.3 billion last year, comScore reports. http://goo.gl/MmwJW
The future of the Web is social. What does that mean? Google is trying to figure it out. http://goo.gl/OzJqz
Tuesday 4 January 2011
Public Relations and Social Media combining powerful forces to boost credibility
Reputation is a Result of Perception...hearing and seeing is believing
Image management or reputation management is really a case of managing perceptions. How your target audience (public) perceives your brand is what decides whether positive ties (relations) will emerge, grow and flourish. An airline may have a long-standing safety record with no major accidents in its history. And yet, bad food, discourteous service on board or even seemingly insignificant elements like poor sound quality of announcements can lead passengers to doubt the pilot's skill or aircraft's technical quality. Unreasonable perhaps, yet true; and not much anyone can do about it without good PR management!
Effective public relations, both offline, online and in combination with social media must follow a cyclical approach of:- Research - Make an informed choice of which PR and social media channels are best suited to get your message across. Different stakeholders for your organization will frequent varied media based on their needs, interests and solution seeking efforts. Thorough research can help you decide on critical factors like timing, reach and forum / platform for interaction.
- Strategic Planning - This is the stage where you analyse your research to gauge audience motivations. Plan your PR messaging or work on an action plan of what to say, how to say it, when and where.
- Skilful Implementation - Any good PR exercise leverages a positive voice. This could be a leading news publication writing an article about your company, your CEO (or official spokesperson) being interviewed on TV or radio, a YouTube video of a happy customer offering a testimonial while demonstrating the use of your product, bloggers expressing their satisfaction (excitement?) about your service, and so on. No matter which one or combination of many voices it is, PR doesn't just happen; it needs to be supervised. Of course, you can get lucky and a great PR piece may come out of nowhere; but if you let it go nowhere after that, you've lost an opportunity!
- Evaluation - You plan your PR strategy with specific goals and objectives in mind. So after each PR deliverable is complete, it makes sense to evaluate the effectiveness of your exercise in relationship building.
- Measurement - How far does your PR campaign take you towards achieving overall brand reputation enhancement? Even if you didn’t spend money to garner PR and social media publicity, account for your valuable time and resources. Measuring ROI with criteria like media touch points and outreach of positive messages helps determine what's working and what's not.
- Continuity - Sporadic or random PR exercises can only generate short-term and short lived publicity. Reputed brands are built on consistent and sustained PR initiatives.
Here at WSI, our digital marketing consultants are online PR experts trained in the techniques that will deliver the highest ROI on your online PR campaigns. Call now on 01580 819529 to set up a free, no obligation consultation for your business. Or fill out a simple online form to get in touch.
2011: The year you weren’t expecting - A calendar of the obscure and surprising in the year to come http://goo.gl/suvKx
Internet Users Are Hungry For information that is useful, relevant, current and NEW http://goo.gl/MDq0G
Monday 3 January 2011
How to Start an Effective Mobile Marketing Campaign Part 2 of 2
In our previous post on mobile marketing we outlined the importance of permission based marketing and how to build an opt-in list. In this post we are going to identify the main steps that you need to complete to make your mobile marketing campaign a successful business marketing campaign.
3. Identify Your Target Audience
Collect names, emails, mobile phone numbers, and other useful information about your opt-in customers and group them into similar demographics and interests. Understand the target demographic, sex, age and mobile technology skill level to determine what mobile strategy best suits your customer. Your customers are more likely to respond to your offers if they are highly relevant to their interests. Target a niche market that has strong interest in your product rather than focusing on the masses. Build a personal dialogue with your customer.
4. Create your Message
Understand the big picture, first, and then determine which mobile solution fits into the overall marketing objective. Unlike other channels, mobile marketing can reach consumers making a buying decision anytime, anywhere (including at the point of sale). Each industry will require a different strategy, call to action and campaign so be sure to visit M3Mobile360 Strategies, Campaigns and Case Studies for details. Remember, consumers are constantly inundated with marketing messages, so be sure to provide them with something simple, relevant, and of interest. Make sure your message does more than drive traffic to your site but engages your customer, generating an on-going and sustained dialogue with your brand.
5. Define Your Objectives and Leverage Mobile’s unique Advantages
To get results, messages not only need to be opt-in, they need to be personalized and targeted to the customer. If the messages aren't relevant, the consumer will not respond.
a. Objective - First determine the mobile campaign program objective. Do you wish to increase sales, build brand awareness or create customer loyalty?
b. Demographics - Pay attention to your customer’s profile. What are they most likely to respond to? Is the customer a teenager interested in ringtones or a family looking for dining discounts. Utilise which products or promotions have interested the consumers in the past. Use previous surveys to gain a better understanding of the individual. In summary, determine what you have to offer your targeted consumer.
c. Include a Call-to-Action - A successful mobile campaign depends on an effective call to action. After you have identified who will receive your message and what that message will be, include a call to action to entice the customer to act. Your mobile campaign will not generate activity if you do not require a response of any kind. Good call to actions include: Click here for a 20% coupon, text for a schedule of events, click to a landing page, opt into auto responder messages or just call. One of the benefits of SMS is the brevity, as a limit of 160 characters forces the sender to be precise and allows a quicker response from the consumer.
d. Timing - is everything and the time of day or year can influence response rates. Successful mobile campaigns reach their customers at the exact moments when they can be most effective. When a customer’s phone beeps with a text message they look at it 95% of the time. Timing can allow restaurants to advertise for daily lunch specials at 11:30, instead of promoting one special for the whole week. Timing allows a retail store to generate buzz in an empty store with instant random specials. The WSI platform allows you to schedule outgoing messages up to a year in advance.
e. Quality not Quantity - Your Customers have entrusted you by opting-in so don’t inundate them with messages. Think very carefully about the message that will be most relevant to them. Start with what you think your customers would be interested in, not what you'd like to sell them.
f. Personalise - Use this collected data to engage customers on a personal level with information or offerings relevant with the user’s preferences and relationship with the brand. A customer who interacts often with the brand should receive a more personalized message than someone who just sent his or her first SMS message.
g. Sell to Current Customers - One advantage of mobile marketing campaign is its ability to generate new customers. However it is also important and profitable to engage and sell more to current customers. Current customers already know and trust you, so it’s not as difficult to get them to buy additional services or upgrade current ones. Make sure to offer special promotions to your current customer base.
i. Location - Google's new location-finding technology enables you to take advantage of someone's physical location when targeting your messages. Delivering the right message, at the right time and in the right location is a marketer’s dream.
6. Set Measurable Goals / Track results & Adjust
Set a measurable goal to your mobile campaign from the start. Do you want a certain number of new customers or a determined number of visits to your web site? Track the response to your mobile campaign and determine if customers are taking advantage of your offers and whether or not you’re reaching your goals. Periodically conduct surveys to find out what your customers like or don’t like about your offers and make adjustments to your campaign if necessary.
7. Multi-channel Marketing
Mobile Marketing is most effective when used with other advertising media. Make sure to coordinate your mobile offers with your email, mobile website, web presence, radio and print advertising efforts. Mobile can enhance and pull together all other advertising channels into a cohesive message.
Is your business planning on how to use mobile technology to market your products and services? Are you using mobile technology to build your brand, are you using mobile technology to communicate better with your customers. Our WSI Digital Marketing practice can help you with your planning so contact us on our Digital Marketing contact page
3. Identify Your Target Audience
Collect names, emails, mobile phone numbers, and other useful information about your opt-in customers and group them into similar demographics and interests. Understand the target demographic, sex, age and mobile technology skill level to determine what mobile strategy best suits your customer. Your customers are more likely to respond to your offers if they are highly relevant to their interests. Target a niche market that has strong interest in your product rather than focusing on the masses. Build a personal dialogue with your customer.
4. Create your Message
Understand the big picture, first, and then determine which mobile solution fits into the overall marketing objective. Unlike other channels, mobile marketing can reach consumers making a buying decision anytime, anywhere (including at the point of sale). Each industry will require a different strategy, call to action and campaign so be sure to visit M3Mobile360 Strategies, Campaigns and Case Studies for details. Remember, consumers are constantly inundated with marketing messages, so be sure to provide them with something simple, relevant, and of interest. Make sure your message does more than drive traffic to your site but engages your customer, generating an on-going and sustained dialogue with your brand.
5. Define Your Objectives and Leverage Mobile’s unique Advantages
To get results, messages not only need to be opt-in, they need to be personalized and targeted to the customer. If the messages aren't relevant, the consumer will not respond.
a. Objective - First determine the mobile campaign program objective. Do you wish to increase sales, build brand awareness or create customer loyalty?
b. Demographics - Pay attention to your customer’s profile. What are they most likely to respond to? Is the customer a teenager interested in ringtones or a family looking for dining discounts. Utilise which products or promotions have interested the consumers in the past. Use previous surveys to gain a better understanding of the individual. In summary, determine what you have to offer your targeted consumer.
c. Include a Call-to-Action - A successful mobile campaign depends on an effective call to action. After you have identified who will receive your message and what that message will be, include a call to action to entice the customer to act. Your mobile campaign will not generate activity if you do not require a response of any kind. Good call to actions include: Click here for a 20% coupon, text for a schedule of events, click to a landing page, opt into auto responder messages or just call. One of the benefits of SMS is the brevity, as a limit of 160 characters forces the sender to be precise and allows a quicker response from the consumer.
d. Timing - is everything and the time of day or year can influence response rates. Successful mobile campaigns reach their customers at the exact moments when they can be most effective. When a customer’s phone beeps with a text message they look at it 95% of the time. Timing can allow restaurants to advertise for daily lunch specials at 11:30, instead of promoting one special for the whole week. Timing allows a retail store to generate buzz in an empty store with instant random specials. The WSI platform allows you to schedule outgoing messages up to a year in advance.
e. Quality not Quantity - Your Customers have entrusted you by opting-in so don’t inundate them with messages. Think very carefully about the message that will be most relevant to them. Start with what you think your customers would be interested in, not what you'd like to sell them.
f. Personalise - Use this collected data to engage customers on a personal level with information or offerings relevant with the user’s preferences and relationship with the brand. A customer who interacts often with the brand should receive a more personalized message than someone who just sent his or her first SMS message.
g. Sell to Current Customers - One advantage of mobile marketing campaign is its ability to generate new customers. However it is also important and profitable to engage and sell more to current customers. Current customers already know and trust you, so it’s not as difficult to get them to buy additional services or upgrade current ones. Make sure to offer special promotions to your current customer base.
i. Location - Google's new location-finding technology enables you to take advantage of someone's physical location when targeting your messages. Delivering the right message, at the right time and in the right location is a marketer’s dream.
6. Set Measurable Goals / Track results & Adjust
Set a measurable goal to your mobile campaign from the start. Do you want a certain number of new customers or a determined number of visits to your web site? Track the response to your mobile campaign and determine if customers are taking advantage of your offers and whether or not you’re reaching your goals. Periodically conduct surveys to find out what your customers like or don’t like about your offers and make adjustments to your campaign if necessary.
7. Multi-channel Marketing
Mobile Marketing is most effective when used with other advertising media. Make sure to coordinate your mobile offers with your email, mobile website, web presence, radio and print advertising efforts. Mobile can enhance and pull together all other advertising channels into a cohesive message.
Is your business planning on how to use mobile technology to market your products and services? Are you using mobile technology to build your brand, are you using mobile technology to communicate better with your customers. Our WSI Digital Marketing practice can help you with your planning so contact us on our Digital Marketing contact page
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/kf37
Digital Marketing Blog from WSI - 15 mind-blowing social media stats from 2010
Here is a summary of some stats recently published on the Econsultancy blog site. Assuming that these statistics are reasonably accurate, they highlight the importance and maturity level of the social media area. They also support the belief that the within a short few years any company that is not fully engaged in social media activities will lose a substantial section of its potential market to its competitors. Here is a summary of some of the stats:
- There are more than 3.5bn pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, etc.) shared each week on Facebook.
- There are now 11m LinkedIn users across Europe.
- Towards the end of last year, the average number of tweets per day was over 27.3 million.
- The average number of tweets per hour was around 1.3m.
- More than 700,000 local businesses have active Pages on Facebook.
- Purpose-built Facebook pages have created more than 5.3bn fans.
- 15% of bloggers spend 10 or more hours each week blogging, according to Technorati's new State of the Blogosphere.
- At the current rate, Twitter will process almost 10bn tweets in a single year.
- About 70% of Facebook users are outside the USA.
- India is currently the fastest-growing country to use LinkedIn, with around 3m total users.
- More than 250 Facebook applications have over a million combined users each month.
- 70% of bloggers are organically talking about brands on their blog.
- 38% of bloggers post brand or product reviews.
- More than 80,000 websites have implemented Facebook Connect since December 2008 and more than 60m Facebook users engage with it across these external sites each month.
Whilst these numbers are very impressive as with all numbers produced about the internet, they are out of date within a week of being published. However the message is clear and it is important to take a measured view of them. No single piece of information can be used to drive an online strategy, or be used as a forecast as to the direction any specific social media.
Post from WSI Digital Marketing in Sussex.
19 billion views on average for online video ...your business too can engage audiences with video http://goo.gl/Iroho
Sunday 2 January 2011
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