Essentials to Getting OnlineMARK WALTON AND RACHEL MURRAY – HYDRANT

Hydrant

Digital agency based in CarlisleWeb Design and Web Development, Online Marketing and Support

@TeamHydrant0845 862 1111www.hydrant.co.uk

Hydrant

What we do: Web Design Web Development Online Marketing Search Engine Optimisation Web Apps / Mobile Development

What do we make? Mobile Apps Learning Management Systems Web Applications And… lots of websites!

Overview

1. Creating and managing your website 2. Getting people to see your website 3. Marketing your website 4. Engaging with your audience 5. Managing everything

1. Creating Your Website

Why do I need a website for my business? Point of Contact First Impression Available 24/7 Reach New Audiences Promoting your Business Although, It's actually better to have no website

at all than to have one that makes your business look bad. Your site speaks volumes about your business.

1. Creating Your Website What should the website do?

Your website needs to give an idea of exactly what your business does

Include business information (contact details, location, opening hours)

Include FAQ’s Keep content fresh and updated Include an online shop?

1. Creating Your Website

What do I need? Domain Name Hosting Conduct Competitor Research Website Design and Development E-Commerce – Payment Gateway,

Operations and Resources Content Management System Outsource Support and Maintenance

1. Creating Your Website Domain Name:

It should be your website name Generic or Brand Name Long or Short Com, co.uk, org, net Should you have more than 1

1. Creating Your Website

E-Commerce Sites – What else do you need? Shopping Cart Payment Gateway and Merchant

Account Customer Support Good Hosting Order Fulfilment

1. Creating Your Website

HTML: The code used by web developers to tell internet browsers what they should be seeing.

Javascript: A web programming language which allows the designer to embed programmes into a web page.

Flash: Often used to embed animations or videos into web pages.

DNS: The internet 'phone book' which translates what you type into your browser into binary IP addresses.

URL: 'Uniform resource locator': essentially another way of saying 'domain name

IP address: Your site's Internet Protocol address is the binary equivalent to the domain name.

1. Creating your website

You may choose to use a supplier/agency/designer to help create your site … so what do you provide in the brief? Features, technical constraints and preferences,

software and functionality Include background information, timescales

and expectations Ideally, get a techie to help you write it!

Invite companies to respond

Consider Responses and

Interview

Assess, Contract and Begin

1. Creating your website

Why conduct competitor research?• Understanding the market• Forecasting the potential for the market• Understanding what competitors are

offering• Keeping tabs on competitors' prices• Determining offerings in ancillary

markets• Finding new customers and better

targeting to customers

.

1. Creating your Website (Examples)

1. Creating your Website (Examples)

1. Creating Your Website

Checklist Register your domain name before you start If the domain name you want is taken, you can

contact the owner Register more than one domain name for extra

coverage Hire a designer/developer who has worked on

similar projects Provide the designer with a clear brief of your

requirements Keep your website updated and looking

professional

Workshop – Create a Brief

Create a brief to provide to an agency/ designer/ developer on the requirements for either an updated website or a new website for your business

Include: Features that you require technical constraints and preferences Software and functionality background information Timescales Expectations and deliverables

2. Getting people to see the website

SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines using natural search results.

SEO is: Creating a great, seamless user experience. Communicating to the search engines your

intentions so they can recommend your website for relevant searches.

2. Getting people to see your website

Search engines want to do their jobs as best as possible by referring users to websites and content that is the most relevant to what the user is looking for.

So how is relevancy determined? Content Site Performance Authority User Experience and Site Navigation

2. Getting people to see your website

Update your Meta Deta Create Backlinks How do I do this?

2. Getting people to see your website Think about…

What defines a conversion for you? What are your goals? Do you know your assets and liabilities? Focus on your Meta Data (title tags and

meta descriptions)

2. Getting people to see your website

Google Analytics Google Analytics is a powerful tool to

analyse traffic to your website Create a Google Analytics account Install - add your Google Analytics code

into your website Set Webmaster Tools Measure and track site traffic

2. Getting people to see your website

2. Getting people to see your website

Checklist Update Meta Data Gain Backlinks to your site (Directories,

Press Releases, Blog Articles, Social Networking)

Submit site to webmaster tools Get Google Analytics to measure and

manage site analytics Regularly check site traffic, how people

are getting to your site, what they are searching for and how can you improve on that

Workshop

Consider a product that you sell, or a service that you offer and consider how you would like people to find you on Google.

Create the SEO Data for your product or service in the following format including Keywords, and description

3. Marketing your Website

Write great content Blogging Pay Per Click and Search Engine

Optimisation Email Marketing Word of Mouth (Forums, Comments) Press Releases Social Media

3. Marketing your Website

3. Marketing your website

Blogging Comment on various blogs in your niche is a great way to build

awareness for your site as well as build relationships with bloggers in your niche. Another great result from this is that generally if you are commenting on other peoples blogs, they’re more eager to check your blog out and comment on yours.

Tell people about your new site – and keep them updated of any changes and new additions!

3. Marketing your website

Press Releases Build Links Opens up to a new audience Full of keywords and association to the business Local encouragement: In-Cumbria, Cumberland

News, News and Star Boosts online visibility

3. Marketing your website

Choose where your ad can appear Decide on a budget Decide on content/ advert (Headline,

Description) Pick keywords that can help your ad show

in searches Monitor results, and change accordingly Decide on Landing Page Decide on ROI

3. Marketing your website

Checklist Write great content for your website Let others know by marketing Send your first email marketing

campaign Issue a press release Share links to your social media profiles Write a blog post Start telling people that you are online

4. Engaging with your audience

Small business owners who haven't gotten started with social media might be overwhelmed, intimidated and confused by sites like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube when they consider what to do and what not to do when using these sites for business.

Good news is, that it is easy to get started using social media and it can be fun and open up the possibility of new opportunities.

4. Engaging with your audience

Design every element of your profile to best reflect your business. Your name, bio, website and profile picture should all work together to tell your story.

Over time, your Tweets will convey your own voice and style. Don’t be afraid to let your personality come through, or that of your employees

Engage - The right content converts people into customers, and turns customers into advocates.

Follow and Learn - But before you begin, it’s a good idea to follow and observe businesses similar to yours to see what they are doing well, and to learn from their mistakes.

Promote your @username

4. Engaging with your audience

Good practice when using social media Sharing relevant content – consider what followers want to see Monitor Staff Profiles – Policies in place, restrictions Don’t join to many networks – time demanding Measure what works – see what you are doing right, and keep doing

that Cross Promote – Tweet your pins, Facebook about your blog Don’t rush to speak, listen first!

4. Engaging with your audience

FacebookSetting up a business page on Facebook is very simple and something that every business owner can do no matter how un-tech savvy they are. Learning the lingo of Facebook Interact with other brands, businesses and organizations Engagement and interaction are the name of the game on Facebook Growth takes time and don’t get discouraged

4. Engaging with your audience

What is Twitter all about? It's a platform wherein users share their

thoughts, news, information in 140 characters of text or less.

Twitter makes global communication cheap and measurable.

Profiles are (usually) public. Users "follow" each other in order to keep tabs on and converse with specific people.

Your username, profile pic, header image and bio should also reflect who you are

4. Engaging with your audience

In short, Twitter is a relationship building and relationship maintenance tool; the most obvious business use of Twitter is to meet potential customers and leads the same way you would at networking event or tradeshow.  

However, you can also use it to: 1) Develop and promote your brand 2) Interact with your customer base  and track what people are saying4) Create buzz around upcoming events 5) Help individual employees act as liaisons to the public 6) Promote other content you’ve created, including webinars, blog posts or podcasts 7) Develop direct relationships with bloggers and journalists for potential PR placement 

4. Engaging with your audience

What can you gain from social media? Increased brand awareness and creditability Increased website traffic and website engagement Higher average order values More repeat business, increased loyalty Reach into new and existing markets Insight into customer opinions and opportunities More sales and increased profitability

4. Engaging with your audience

Checklist Pick one social media site to start – find out where your audience is, and go there! Create a social media time budget – limit your time to fit into your schedule Clarify your goals and objectives – What do you want to accomplish? Outline your approach - Will you be a communicator, present a mix of personal

and business information? Complete your profile Sit back and watch – spend some time observing and learning the ins and outs

before deciding how you will approach the social media site to promote your business

5. Managing everything

On paper, this whole checklist might seem like your business should run like clockwork. In reality, you will not get everything right the first time (no one ever does).

You might be losing customers during checkout, your content might not be competitive enough to show up in search engines, your business value offering might be misdirected , and so on..

It is important to regularly analyse how your online business performs and look for areas of improvement.

5. Managing everything

Checklist: Regularly check analytics and monitor site traffic Keep content updated on site Keep Tweeting and sharing things online Let people know about your website Engage with your audience

This will help you position your marketing efforts and improve on under-performing areas, while driving home your advantage in areas you are succeeding.

Hydrant Start

Hydrant Start is a low cost solution for the ‘standard’ requirements we hear on many project enquiries.

It also allows you to update text and images yourself to keep your site up to date without additional cost. We’ve listened to feedback from our clients and developed a tool that is simple to understand, extremely easy to use and charged as an ‘all inclusive’ easy to budget monthly cost.

All products including above starts at £15 per month plus VAT

Hydrant Start

Each site includes: Unlimited pages. A clean design that can be enhanced further if your

budget allows Site performance overview, with visual graphs and

charts. Self service content management system. Hosting with 1 mailbox (More can be purchased). Access to online knowledge base and ticketing system. 5GB Storage Technical Updates

Workshop

Consider all the elements discussed today and plan the five steps of getting online for your business.

1. Do you have everything to create a website? – What do you need?

2. How are you going to get people to see your website? Think about Search Engines, keywords and listings

3. What marketing will you do? 4. How will Social Media help? In what

ways? 5. How will you manage it all?

Hydrant

Digital Agency based in Carlisle

Web Design and Web Development, Online Marketing and Support

@TeamHydrant 0845 862 1111

Mark Walton Rachel Murray