WELCOME! LETS BEGIN. James Marchant Founder of Diligence Digital

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2 James Marchant Founder of Diligence Digital Over 15 years of experience in the digital industry. Hello and congratulations on taking the time out to read our booklet. My name is James and I am the founder of Diligence Digital. If you are at a juncture in your business where you just don t know where or how to start with organising your website or what to do with your online marketing, then put the kettle on and take 10 minutes out of your day to read my simple, no frills, straight to the point guide. At the end of the read, you will have ideas on what you should do next. WELCOME! Just so you know, we build successful websites for businesses and charities. Everything I am going to tell you in this booklet are the same principles we offer and do for our customers. Feel free to contact and ask me a question, my details are above. If your preferred beverage is ready? LETS BEGIN

3 Where to start Every journey in life is made easier when you know where you want to go and how to get there. Building a successful website is absolutely no different. Below I have mapped out the professional s approach, well our approach! Each of these headings are important when building your business online and we recommend that you spend time researching them and even more importantly - doing them! 1 Your Digital strategy Your CUSTOMER DATABASE 3 YOUR WEBSITE 2 YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING PILLARS 4 1 YOUR DIGITAL Strategy A digital strategy is a simple document. One that you collaborate with your team. There is nothing glamorous about this document. It can be as long as you like or really short and to the point, just as long as it does the job! The aim of the document is to provide you and your team with a clear road map for the purpose of your website. When you have mastered these four elements your website and online marketing will be generating leads or sales and you will have the time to tweak and try new things to really get the most out of your online marketing.

4 DIGITAL STRATEGY IS A ROADMAP What is the purpose of your website? What do you want it to achieve? In short, a digital strategy;...is a plan for success...encompasses 6 key elements...needs to be fluid and pliable and can change and adapt to the modern world...must be reviewed regularly, ideally once a month...explains the role for each of your team regarding looking after the website The document is broken down into the 6 key elements. You should work on them in this sequence as each feed off the previous topic. Set of guiding principles Goals and Objectives KPI s Key performance indicators metrics Website Marketing tactics For more information on setting up a Digital Strategy please drop us a line as we can help with our Digital Strategy Setup Service -

5 2 YOUR Customer database Your database is the most valuable asset in your business. All successful businesses have one and use it regularly to generate new business. If you don t have a database or you do but don t use it, then before you do anything this is where you need to start! The database doesn t have to be elaborate to start with, just a simple spreadsheet with name, , telephone and address of your contacts. Start with your inbox and your existing clients. In fact it is shocking that 90% of business owners do not sell to their existing client base, they spend 90% of their time looking for new customers. There is more profit in selling to existing clients as there are no acquisition costs. Even if you have a small client base, it doesn t matter. The more you communicate with them, the more you will get back out. We are regularly asked should I buy a database or how do we grow a database. Buying one is a quick fix, but if you are a small business it probably is a huge expense with no guarantees the data is any good. Our suggestion is to think outside of the box. Start by having a lead generating widget on your website offering something for free that you know your clients will want in exchange for their details. Think outside of the box. Here is a really clever example for you, a new business venture setting up selling guitar s online, no client database, no prospect database, so what did they do? They bought 1000 guitar picks, knowing guitarists use them all the time. Sold them for 1p each online, not surprisingly they sold out as they were the cheapest you could buy. Every pick sold gained them a new customer. The business ended up with a client database of 1000 hot leads. Now they focus their time on enticing them to buy high ticket value guitars. Clever. Put your thinking caps on!

6 1 3 YOUR Website Websites are my passion. I have been in the digital industry for the whole of my working career and I have seen websites evolve over the last 15 years. There was a period of time when businesses just wanted a pretty website that looked better than their competitors, websites back then were still used as an add-on marketing tool. Today they have to be so much more! When e-commerce took off, suddenly big companies were being challenged by people setting up from their own homes. I once worked with a couple that set up from their garden shed selling scuba equipment. Today they own the largest online scuba diving business in the UK and their website IS their business. My advice to you, websites today, not only have to look good but they have to work smart and more importantly have to play the central part in all your marketing activity, including any offline advertising and marketing. I don t have enough room in my little booklet to explain everything as I could write an entire book about this subject. So I have pulled out some key points I know will help you to get started when planning your website.

7 2 Your Home Page and Navigation. You must ensure that your website is easy to use and clearly states what your business does. Competition online is fierce, having fancy animations or strap lines that mean nothing, will mean visitors will switch off and will look at another website if they feel you are not what they are looking for within a very short space of time, so your home page is very important to get right, but it might take time to get it right. My advise, assess your home page after it has been live for a few months, use your websites statistics to see how effective your home page has been at leading visitors to other areas of your website and if the findings are negative, tweak it! My 3 Key points 1 Start with asking yourself this question, What do I want my website to achieve? Once you have the answer to that question everything else can work back from that answer. So whether it is to sell products, to capture new leads, to make your phones ring or to generate Direct Debit donations (if you are a charity). There are lots of goals that a successful website can achieve for your organisation, by understanding your goals you can then engineer the design, development and implementation to achieve them. 3 Your My Top Tip - use video on your home page. Video is one of the most powerful online marketing tools you can use on your website. Search engines love them and people love to watch them. Consider commissioning a 2-3 minute introduction video about your organisation to really help people engage with your brand quickly! It will cost you 750-2,000. Remember this is an advert working for you 365 day of the year, it is worth the investment. content must be professional. Employing a really good copy writer will help set a voice for your website and that voice needs to be in tune with your target audience. Ensure your content is client focused, organisations fall into the trap of talking about themselves on their websites - don t! Your content should guide your visitors on how your services, your products will benefit them or if you are a charity what visitors can do to help you. That s why they are on your website, to see how they can engage with you. So spend time planning the content and structure of your website, ask your web designer to create a series of wireframes so that you can get a feel for the flow and the ease to navigate before committing to the design stage.

8 www 4 squeeze the most from your website and GIVE it the support it deserves! We recommend these 6 pillars Your SIX Digital Marketing Pillars Just like the simple little diagram above suggests, your digital marketing pillars are the supporting structure in generating traffic to your website and positioning your brand online. Anyone can create a website, hey they are offered for free from some providers. But be under no illusion that your website will perform just because it is live. Your website is just one part of your digital journey, don t get me wrong it s important to get your website right, a well thought out website with clear logical process is key to converting prospects, sales or any of your goals. Content marketing Inbound Marketing Social Media Marketing marketing mobile marketing integrated marketing What would you rather have, a fantastic website with NO traffic or a fantastic website WITH loads of people visiting it? My point is, don t ignore this part - other wise you will find you have arranged a great party and probably spent a lot of money securing a cool D.J, but you forgot to send out the invitations!

9 Content Marketing Business is about building relationships and healthy relationships are based on trust. Content marketing is all about building that trust in business. On average a customer will need to be touched multiple times before they buy or commit to your services. Writing professional content associated to your business and delivered via digital channels like your website, a blog, slide shows, videos, webinars, e-books (such as this!) really does help build trust and position you and your organisation with new prospects. Not only that, if you link back to your website from all your published online content, this will help improve your websites position in search engines. Inbound Marketing This heading is quite broad, in short it means marketing that doesn t interrupt your customers path. Blogging and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) are good examples of inbound marketing. You let potential customers discover your website via your digital marketing channels rather than you actively putting it under their nose, such as a pop up banner advert (which can be annoying). So the trick here is to make sure your website is number one on Google, your blog is interesting to read, your social media channels posts are regular and vibrant. Social Media Marketing I hear a lot of people ask is social media really good for my business. This is a really big question, the answer I give is, it will only get more and more integrated into modern life. In the last decade there has been a big cultural shift for social media. Like it or not a lot of people use it on a daily basis. The big three still are Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. If you are not using them in someway to engage with your existing or new prospects then you could be missing a trick. Putting aside all the other benefits, one key growth we are seeing with our clients is traffic referrals from social media platforms. Social Media allows new prospects to follow you, get a feel for your organisation and you can keep them up to date, without them having to visit your website everyday. Think of Social Media Channels as a really quick way to communicate directly without having to spend any money on marketing. Your post appears in their time line, which they probably view many times throughout the day and without knowing it you will be building a relationships with people you don t know, just by posting. These posts have the potential to convert into a customer or supporter. It really is that simple. We also hear a lot that social media is time consuming and people are too busy to actually do it. There are an awful lot of people that do it and see the rewards everyday, it really only takes 15 minutes every day to run your social media channels. We have written another short ebook explaining how, so if you want a copy, my contacts are on the last couple of pages!

10 marketing marketing is still a very good way of communicating with your customers. You will enjoy loyalty and lead generation which in turn will generate growth, but you must do it regularly. To start this pillar, you will need to have an list of your customers or potential customers (refer back to point 2 in this ebook). You will need to put together a strategy of the types of communications to send out and the frequency. Choose an platform to send from, there are a few online - Google Marketing service and research a few. Keep your s to the point and again before you even think about design and content, decide the goal of the . If it is to sell a product, make sure the links through to a dedicated page that carries the same message as that of the . DON T just send them through to your home page! Digital marketing has to be a simple journey from one channel to another to maximise conversion. Mobile marketing When investing in a new website make sure that your request a responsive design. This means the layout of the website adapts to the device the visitor is using, so that their journey is simple and clear not matter how they are viewing your website. Integrated marketing Having an integrated marketing pillar is essential to promote consistency in your marketing. Being consistent will help your customers understand your marketing message and therefore you will see a better return on your marketing investment. For example if you pay for an advert in your local newspaper, provide the reader with a link through to a Squeeze page on your website dedicated to promoting the same marketing message and branding - don t just send them to your home page, you run the risk of loosing that potential customer this way. The squeeze page will also allow you to see how many page views your advert achieved, providing you with decent insight on the success of the advert and if it was a good return on your investment. Don t forget mobile users! The explosion of powerful smart phones and tablets over the last few years is set to increase. Desktop s and even lap tops are being bought less by consumers at home. People like to be mobile so make sure your business is. In some cases having an App is a good avenue, such as providing a location based service, but don t just have an app that replicates your website - in most cases this will be a waste of your marketing budget.

11 WHere to go from here MEET YOUR DIGITAL TEAM Well if you have now finished reading my recommendations (and your beverage), go and spend a couple minutes washing up your cup while your brain subconsciously starts to process all this information. My aim is to have left you with even more questions than answers - sorry! My aim was to give you an insight so you can now use the 4 key points to get started. Asking questions is a good thing we are here to answer questions you might have, why not like our Facebook page and ask a question on our page drop-in clinic. or drop your question on to me: james@diligencegroup.co.uk James Marchant Founder / Creative Adam Harding Technical Director Adam Whitnall Creative Director Marketing your business online is fun and is about learning what works and what doesn t to gain and keep customers. My hope is that I have given you enough information in this ebook to get you started on your digital marketing journey. Follow my 4 steps and you are on your way! Good luck, stay in touch we are here to help! Rhys Bowles Apprentice Developer Gary Moran Developer / Games Designer Lee Foot Search Engine Optimisation