If you’ve got a Blog, a News letter is also a great way to deliver your existing blog articles, after all, your social media fans have seen your articles, so why not everyone else?

We’re big fans of iContact and MailChimp, these are both leaders in their field, however they’re not the only packages of this type, there are a good many others.

How much do they cost?
Email marketing is a competitive industry and things change often as the services constantly try to one-up each other. As of this writing, pricing for iContact and MailChimp is not identical, but it’s close enough that it probably won’t play a factor in your decision in most cases.

However, if you have less than 2,000 subscribers and send less than 12,000 messages per month, MailChimp is free. You’ll pay $29/month ($24.95/month with an annual discount) for an equivalent plan from iContact. This might make the choice clear enough that you stop reading now and click right over to MailChimp, but there are other things you may want to consider.

MailChimp

MailChimp’s “less is more” approach results in a less intuitive user interface. In many cases, you are shown only what MailChimp thinks you need to see to complete the current action (e.g., creating a campaign). That said, once you’ve figured it out, it’s very logical, just not what you’d expect at first.

We often build templates for MailChimp, and as far as we’re concerned one of its biggest strengths is that we can define editable areas, so with the right layout, it’s very easy for our customers to be productive, very quickly. Why is this such a big deal?
Well, many of its competitors have a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor that gives you full control of the content and layout of the email. But this comes at a price, and often results in broken layouts and hours of frustration spent lining boxes up. MailChimp’s approach with pre-defined editable areas, avoids this problem well.

MailChimp has many alliances with other software packages such as SalesForce, so if you’re looking to add email marketing on to a well recognised package, then MailChimp is the most likely to fit the bill.
Getting email addresses in to the software is easy, however watch out for MailChimp’s policy on generic email addresses such as info@, enquiries@, sales@ etc. If you’re importing email addresses from an existing source, these will be ignored.

MailChimp offers spam checking for paid accounts as well as an Inbox Inspector, allowing you to see your campaign in 30+ email clients as well as check for spammy content before you send, on a pay-as-you-go basis.

iContact

We generally find iContact much easier and more logical to use. It’s simple, intuitive and tidy, but watch out for the editing area. You have full control over the content and layout of the email, which can in some cases end up in disaster and needing some knowledge of HTML. Sometimes, if you’re not confident with all things IT, you may prefer the less is more approach of MailChimp.

iContact lets you edit inline, right in the message, so you can see what it looks like as you do it. With MailChimp, editing opens just that section in a new window so you lose the context of the whole message.
By displaying more on the screen, iContact allows you to get to pretty much whatever you need whenever you want to. Though the navigation is more complex than MailChimp’s, it’s also significantly more intuitive.
Importing email addresses is very simple, as is sending, previewing, spam checking and testing emails.

What they do the same
In both applications, messages can be sent immediately or you can schedule them to be sent later and both offer the ability to post to Facebook and Twitter automatically.
Both have multiple contact lists and can handle different campaigns with different sending email addresses.

They also allow you to imbed a subscription form in to your website that subscribes interested readers straight in to your mailing list. Want to see one in action? Go to our website www.fl1group.com and sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of the page and see for yourself.

So, which one is better?
The two services have very different looks. Whereas MailChimp’s is a very minimalistic look and feel, iContact takes a more direct approach, displaying more information and options, but in an organized way.

Based on this high-level review, if you’re a low-volume sender and cost is your primary concern, MailChimp is the way to go. You’ll get used to the interface after sending a few campaigns.

If you have lots and lots of contacts and send them lots and lots of messages or if you want to jump right in and start using the tool right now with the least amount of frustration, iContact might be a better fit for you.
Both MailChimp and iContact have loads of other features that might make one or the other a better option for you. If you’re interested, there are a lot of side-by-side reviews of these and other email marketing services on the Internet as well. Be warned, though, the results vary a lot between reviews.

Since MailChimp has a free plan and iContact offers a 30-day free trial, why not try them both and decide for yourself?

Caroline joins us who will be taking care of our marketing and administration. She will also be dealing with all the seminar and workshop bookings.

Some other bits of exciting news, following on from the success of our workshops last year we have added lots of new dates for 2012 – check out our Workshops page for more details. Amongst our old favourites we have a couple of newbies including our workshop run by Paul Simister from Paul Simister Photography, that will provide you with simple and effective tips on taking pictures for your website.

We kickstart our run of workshops with our popular Search Engine Essentials workshop. This is running on Tuesday 14th February 10.30am to 12.30pm and is almost fully booked so if you are interested in learning the techniques to get your business to the top of Google ranking then hurry and book your place now.

For a list of all our free workshops please click here.

After much demand we have decided to write a NEW Social Media Seminar. This is in a different format to our workshops in that it is longer, and more detailed. It will give you a greater understanding of Social Media and explain the different technologies involved. The cost of this seminar is £50 plus VAT and includes refreshments and networking opportunities. Places are limited so please book early.

Many don’t really know what the bills propose, or what we stand to lose. If you are not worried about SOPA/PIPA, then for the next four minutes, watch this video (by Fight for the Future).

The recent SOPA-related boycott of GoDaddy was all over the news, with many people expressing their outrage over the possibilities of SOPA, but when I ask people about SOPA and its sister bill in the Senate, PIPA (Protect IP Act), many don’t really know what the US bills propose, or what we stand to lose.

This video is without doubt one of the best summaries of what the new Bills propose and how it will impact the internet the whole world over:

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo

Here are a few pointers based on the software we’ve used and worked with over the last 12 years.

Being a guitarist, I liken choosing a CRM to being like buying a guitar.

You’d have heard of all different makes and models, and somewhere in the back of your mind you might dream that buying a Fender Stratocaster will suddenly make you play like Eric Clapton, but in all honesty there’s no substitute for walking in to the guitar shop and just trying out as many as you can. A Strat worked for Clapton, but that’s not to say it will be a good fit for you.

I know talking from personal experience I bought my dream bass guitar last year, paid a handsome sum of money much to the envy of my colleagues because it was the instrument my idol played for years. A marvellous instrument that it was, but it just wasn’t me. Much that it did the job superbly, it was the wrong sound and fit for what I do and no way as well suited as basses I’ve got that cost 10% of the money I paid. The moral of the story is; had I have sat and tried it out first, I’d have realised straight away it wasn’t going to work.

Likening that analogy to CRM systems, we bought Sage Act some years ago, based on my previous experience and its reputation.

It was an utter disaster, and didn’t work at all well for the infrastructure we had at the time. Had I have tried it, I would have realised, but in earnest I didn’t and we suffered as a business for it.

With CRM software they’re all much the same, they’ll all do what you want and plenty more besides.

They all have:

• Be Web based (this is the ideal arrangement for so many small businesses)
• Different pricing models, often per user/per month
• Company record database
• Contact details based on Contacts for a Company
• A way of grouping Contacts
• Status that you can assign to Contacts, so you can track your relationship
• Flexible Reporting
• Most have a task list and scheduling
• Most have Workflows
• Most have Document Storage and Management
• All have Contact Notes and History
• Some will integrate directly with your email service
• Many have an email marketing module built in
• Most will connect with external email marketing packages such as iContact and MailChimp
• Some with have a Web-to-Lead style feature that will connect to your website
• Some level of data import and export

These are the core features and the ones that I think are must-haves for most businesses.

My advice would be to try them all out and see what you’re most comfortable with.

• Salesforce for example is one of the market leaders, but many find it unwieldy and over-complicated to use.
• Zoho is another good system I’ve heard good things about.
• SugarCRM is open source (so free) it used to be buggy, but I believe has come a long way.
• Microsoft CRM is a true Microsoft Product fitting the 80/20 rule. It does 80% of what you want out of the box, but if you want that last 20% that’s really useful, it will take 80% of the time and cost. Most people I know who use Microsoft CRM hate it or love it but have had to spend the cost of a new car on it customising it.
• Sage CRM is Sage’s mid-tier cloud based offering. No experience of it, however I have worked on getting website data in to it via a Web-to-lead interface which has had to be developed especially via a third party specialist. I can’t imagine for a second it was a low cost exercise for what so many others do straight out of the box.

One thing is for sure; if you invest time and choose something you’re comfortable with, it will be a long and happy relationship and the software will undoubtedly grow your business.

Choose software you’re not comfortable with but you chose because it’s got a well known name, and you won’t use it and it will end up being a bottomless pit of time and money that will hinder your business.

If software isn’t simple and intuitive to you, it won’t be simple and intuitive to staff and out-workers you may have. If this is the case, it will end up being a chain around your neck, your staff will resist using it and you’ll end up acting as first line technical support which will take you away from what you really should be doing.

Finally, if you have a Smartphone, investigate synchronisation with your iPhone/iPad/Android/Blackberry. There may be an App for your CRM as there so often is when many other products.

Final questions are; data ownership. Who owns it and can you export it?
If this service is terminated for whatever reason, where do you stand?

Links in to your accounting system may also be a consideration at some stage.
Many provide links to Kashflow, QuickBooks or Sage. Don’t get too hung up on this though as more often than not who you’re billing isn’t always your primary contact that you’d have in your CRM. Bear in mind that most CRM packages are sales and marketing focused, whereas your accountancy software isn’t.

Need more help? Give us a call on 01727 739812.

This update fixes the issue. Note that the vulnerability is in the protocols themselves, and Operating System’s other than Windows are affected too. You may want to install the patch quickly, due to the relative ease of intercepting traffic on wireless networks.

There are a number of known issues with the patch, and you may find that some sites no longer work once you have installed it.

This protocol is typically used by online shops and websites that are specially secured.

For more information, visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2643584

Not only have we been building websites that build your business, we’ve also been making babies…well Ali has! Ali became the proud father of a baby girl (Zainab) this month weighing in at a healthy 2.8 Kilos!

Jason’s been playing with other parents in the Camp School Band, to raise money for Camp School.
They raised a record breaking £3,200 this Christmas, so if you want to see Jason dressed up as school boy, now’s your chance!

On a work front, we had a lot of fun at the Business Startup show in Earls Court last month along with Adrian Dixon and his superb ViduCall product.

We’ve also being working on some great new WordPress functionality that takes event booking and using Google Maps to a new dimension.

Finally, we’re proud to announce we’ll be running more Workshops in the 2012, so you if you want to make sure you get a place, book yourself on a Workshop now while we’ve still got places.

See you next month!

I put it live, and braced myself and waited for the orders to come flooding in.
Guess what? They never did! Or not at first anyway.

I’ve seen a number of people build a website, put it live and search in Google within the hour only to be met with disappointment.

Getting in to Google
It sounds daft, but Google won’t know about your website unless you tell it.
It’s quite possible that Google will follow a link to your website from another website some time after you’ve launched it, but this could take some weeks.

The easiest sure fire way is to manually tell Google that your website exists.

How do you do this? Well, the easiest way is to search in Google with the term “submit my site to Google” and the rest is very simple.

The way we recommend you do it is to use Google Webmaster Tools. This is a free service and you can register yourself as the owner of your website. Not only this, but you can upload something called an XML Sitemap which explicitly tells Google where your website is and what pages you have. This tool is also an excellent resource for troubleshooting and finding out what Google thinks of your website.

The Sand Box
Once your website is in Google, it in effect gets entered in to a Quarantine area dubbed the “Sand Box“. From Google’s point of view, it wants to know if your website is credible, reliable and a sustainable source of content. What Google doesn’t want to see is a website that’s there one minute and gone the next. Google really doesn’t want to refer someone searching to a website that no longer exists. With this in mind, it takes some weeks for it to monitor, assess and start to rank your website.

How do I know if my website is in Google at all?
Google has a great command for this. Is you type in to Google “site:www.mywebsite.com” (without quotes, and where www.mywebsite.com is the name of your website), Google will show you all the active pages it has for your website in its index.

Are there any quicker ways?
A Google Maps/Google Local Business Listing is your first port of call. These are free, and potentially rank you above the other “natural” Google listings. We recommend everyone has one regardless of their geographic scope.

The best way to keep Google interested and speed your way up the rankings is to have regularly changing and well written content. Blogs are a great way to engage your reader, but more importantly engage Google.

How long does it take to get a full ranking?
For most websites that aren’t changing daily or filled with key-word rich content, expect this process to take around 12 months. Our advice often is to focus on building quality links to your website, and explore driving traffic from any source other than Google, and more often than not Google takes care of itself in the long run. Relying on Google natural rankings alone in your first year can often lead to disappointment.

Building a new website is often like setting up shop in the middle of the country. Relying on passing foot-fall alone won’t work unless you go out and tell people where you are and how they get to your shop. Google in many ways is no different.

Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are also excellent ways to create awareness and drive traffic to your website.

Want to know more?
Here are some other articles you might find useful and if that doesn’t interest you, what about one of our free workshops starting in early 2012?

Our FREE Workshops for 2012

Getting started with Google Local Business Listings
Link building Basics
An introduction to Blogging

1) Contact Details
Contact details should always be offered in an internationally accepted format. For example local phone numbers should be changed from (e.g. 01727 739812 t o +44 (0) 1727 739812).

Also consider use of a local phone number. Skype (and many other VoIP companies) offer local phone numbers (e.g., Skype’s service is called “SkypeIn”), which can be dialled from any phone. You can choose to receive calls either via your computer, or forward them to a landline or mobile. See www.skype.com, www.voipvoip.com or www.mydivert.com for more details.

You may also consider buying domain names for your target country, in which case consider using email addresses for that country, these can forward to an existing email address, so for example if we used fl1group.fr to target a French audience we may advertise enquiries@fl1group.fr which may then in turn forward to our current enquiries@fl1group.com.

Use local addresses if possible. These may be the addresses of local partners, distributors or agents, or could be virtual. For more information on sourcing local addresses try www.regus.com or www.globalvirtualaddress.com – or search on Google. If you’re using a UK address, ensure the country is included.

Finally, if you display your VAT number, VAT registration numbers should have the “GB” prefix.

2) Internationalised English
If you’re not keen to offer different translations of your website’s copy, consider using International English. It is easy for the British to be understood anywhere, so they think, because everyone now knows English. The trouble is it’s easy for us when it’s our first language but it’s not a level playing field if English is not our partners’ mother-tongue.

• Use shorter sentences and keep sentences active, not passive.
• Use headings, sub-headings, bullets and bold text to make your text easier to read and absorb.
• Avoid or explain any abbreviations or acronyms, e.g. WEEE.
• Avoid or explain any jargon, metaphors, cultural references and geographic references that may not be understood or may be misunderstood. Explain references to UK or international institutions, standards or legislation, e.g. TSB.
• Try to provide visual support whenever possible, this can include diagrams or just well selected Imagery.

3) Language Translations
A 2004 survey by Forrester found that internet users are four times more likely to buy from a website in their own language. This can be achieved in a number of ways, but generating translated copies of existing pages, using Google’s free imbedded translation tool, or by using a Content Management System with support for translations.

An important point to consider is that one design may not fit all. Chinese and Japanese websites for example read right to left and down the page, so a typical UK website structure would make it very difficult for a local readers. Arabic is another example where text is read right to left, hence a left-to-right European layout would again be inadequate.

From a technical view, web pages need to use international character encoding to ensure that non Western European characters can be used. This is not always the case with many web pages by default.

It’s common for entire localised versions of a website to be built and adapted in terms of layout and content for a local market. For example, quite often imagery and in some cases product names will need to be adapted for different markets, and an special localised copy of the website can often fulfill this need.

Whenever planning and designing an international website, always consider carefully the languages you wish to use first and never assume that “one size fits all”, it rarely does.

Also consider designing the layout of the website with concepts being developed in two languages from the outset. German is a particularly good example, where quite often words are longer. This approach makes it easier to identify potential sizing and formatting issues early on, and can save expensive revisions later in the build process.

4) Local Domain Names and Hosting
It is a good idea to buy local domains (e.g., .de,.fr, co.in, .be ) for all your key target markets, even if you don’t use them yet. You wouldn’t want a competitor to get there first!
Over time you can migrate your foreign language content to these local domains.

In the UK, it’s easy to register .co.uk domain names, however it’s not always the case in other countries. It’s quite often a lengthy process that involves you proving that you are a legally trading business within that country. Having a local partner or agent can help with this, or sourcing a local domain registration agent. Using the latter approach can often be expensive by comparison to registering a domain name in the UK.

If you are investing in a local domain, then hosting it on a local server can make a big impact on Search Optimisation. Remember, Google lets you restrict your search to ‘pages from the [UK] only’ – and many people do this.

Here is a recent interview with Google spokesman, Matt Cutts, discussing the impact of server location on Google rankings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXt23AXlJJU

5) Local Search Engines
Just because your website appears in Google.co.uk it doesn’t mean that it will in the other regional Google searches. It’s also fair to say that outside of the UK and US Google isn’t the only game in town. There are a number of tools that can be used to submit your site in to directories both locally and internationally, and these should always be considered.

Google also has a geotargeting option in its Webmaster Tools (Google Webmaster Tools is a free service from Google, available at: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ – you need to create a Google account first).

This is available for all ‘top-level’ domains (.com, .net, .org) and allows you to tell Google where in the world you would like specific pages of your website to appear.
For example, if you had created a microsite for the USA, with five pages of specific content for the USA, you could use Google’s geotargeting tool to make these pages more visible to people searching on google.com in the USA.

just as it is with your website within the UK, always look to get quality in-bound links from local sources, that link and refer to your website.

Look to obtain links through getting a listing in:
(a) reputable online directory/directories including open source directories; For example Applegate, who are part of Alibaba, a popular international directory. Submit your international pages (or domains) to the relevant country-specific sections
(b) business networking, e.g. creating your own group on LinkedIn;

The update also demotes one of the complainants to the European Commission, Microsoft-owned Ciao, which will almost vanish from many searches as a result of the downgrading.

Many voucher and discount sites have also been hit by the wide-ranging changes. So have some so-called “content farms” such as Ehow and Mahalo.

We’ve also seen websites we work with hit where the subscribe content from a third-party website or are using affiliate linking. Initial research seems to suggest that the publisher of the affiliate program isn’t effected, more the affiliated website that refers to the source website.

For more details visit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/pda/2011/apr/13/google-panda-uk-update-winners-losers

Our Workshops have proven to be so popular we’ve added three more to the series and recruited some experts in their fields to talk about their areas of expertise. Why not take a look and book any you find of interest.

Being a musical bunch and always interested in raising money for charity, we’ve teamed up with the lovely girls at Rickmansworth’s estate agency Sewell and Gardner to play at their Chorleywood Stock event. Chorleywood Stock is a live music event in Chorleywood on Saturday October 8th set up to raise money for Oxfam. If you want to see Alex’s band Brocker and Jason’s band The Kings of Langley, why not come along and take a look.

See you next month.