Google Places – How to gain more business locally

February 1, 2012 – 12:38 pm

As a small business you want your presence to be known. There are many ways to do this including setting up social media accounts such as facebook and twittter, paying an SEO expert to prime your website for search engines (i.e. Google and Bing) and a range of marketing and advertising techniques. But what about locally? SEO is a great way to add key phrases to your website such as “Carpenter, Balham, London” or you could spend money on a listing such as Yell or Thompson directory. But there is another way to increase your local radar.  Google Places offers FREE advertising for businesses at the click of a mouse. Sign up and you can also request reviews from clients or customers – this will increase your presence and rankings too.

Once you’ve created a Google Places account Google will send you a postcard to confirm your address. Once you verify this your listing you will be online around 1- 2 days later.

Example

Search for “Logo design Streatham” and Milk it Design Ltd comes up. You can tell it’s linked with google places as it has an address with a flag icon. Click on “place page” to reveal more details.

Google Places for Logo Designer, Streatham

 

You can also click on “Maps” to the left of your search in google to reveal company details and location via google maps.

Google Places - Showing your business within google maps

Google Places is a great way to get your business on the map and boost traffic with local search. Combine this with an SEO strategy to bring in more local business.

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Website Re-fresh – Canvas Funk

October 10, 2011 – 2:35 pm

Milk it Design Ltd have just finished working on a website re-fresh of their own brand Canvas Funk using CSS/HTML and JQuery. The website was updated using a rotating gallery of pop art styles, a new quoting system and a visual step by step ordering / print and production process in their  fun and funky style.

See Live site here >

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New Project – Caroline Collett PR Ltd

December 20, 2010 – 5:33 pm

Milk it Design Ltd has recently finished creating a website for Caroline Collett PR Ltd. The job involved designing and programming a contemporary looking website highlighting the industry experience of Caroline Collett. The website is scattered with interesting insights and testimonials and has an easy to use navigation showing clarity and ease of use. The design is fun yet stylish with an overall sense of elegance.

Click here to view live website >

Caroline Collett PR Ltd - Web Design Project

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Social Networking – Reaping the rewards by using Facebook

May 24, 2010 – 1:13 pm

Here is our first instalment of our Social Networking series of how to increase business using Social Networking sites

Facebook pages are easy to set up and they are free. You can create an individual page via your facebook account and assign it to your company name. Effectively you now have two facebook accounts but they are both integrated within your personal facebook account. Why set up a facebook page? Because you can instantly reach millions of facebook users and you can also reach specific demographics which is another way of enhancing your marketing activity.

Some companies use facebook as their main site; you can add in shopping carts, set up events, keep people updated with new offers and you can grow your network by reaching out to a particular demographic using facebook advertising. This can be for either B2B or B2C.  As a company you might want to promote brand awareness, this would be through interacting with your fans on a regular basis by posting notifications and by adding it to your wall (which in turn adds it to your fans’ walls). This viral activity is an ideal way to market to your fans by getting your name and brand out there.

Thinking of increasing awareness by obtaining more fans?

Maybe you need to increase awareness of your product / company by getting more interest from new fans. You can do this by paying for a facebook advert. The advert will direct to your facebook page and people can have the option of clicking ‘like’. This is a great way to increase your fans, it’s almost like building a database but rather than sending out newsletters in the old fashioned way you have the opportunity to post to your fans walls and via notifications.

How to stay ahead using facebook

  • Set up a facebook ‘page’, you can find out more with their product guide here >
  • Start by inviting your friends to join your company page
  • Consider paying for facebook advertising to reach a specific demographic and by gaining more fans
  • Regularly update your fans by posting on your wall
  • Add a ‘join us on facebook’ to your existing website
Facebook is an invaluable tool for your marketing activities as you can regularly reach millions of people and you can target specific demographics. It’s also a great way of building brand awareness.
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The design and content of a website is never finished….

January 22, 2010 – 6:35 pm

…It doesn’t sound great but it’s true. Designing a website is not like designing a printed item, with a printed item there is a beginning and end. The end is where it gets signed off and printed, it would be impossible making alterations after the print process.

Work in Progress

A website is something that is organic, something that develops over time. As soon as the website goes live there is a sense of ‘what if we try this’ or ‘when will we update that’. If you are a really organised client you might already have milestones for making those changes. It could be extra pages for a campaign or icons for a new service you are offering. For those who do not foresee changes being made in future then don’t be fooled because you will be amazed how outdated some of your pages can appear over time and prospective clients can instantly tell when your website is looking out of date or jaded.

Some tips on how to make your website look current

  • Change some images
  • Update your client list
  • Make sure you’re posting blog posts regularly so clients can see you are active (we can all be guilty of not updating the blog!)
  • Make sure you change your promotion icons as soon as the promotion is over. You would be amazed about the amount of companies who still have xmas graphics in February!
  • Think of your website as a shop front. People can easily be put off when you haven’t made an effort to keep your company looking like it is going places
Updating content is key

Not only does updating content look like you are an active and progressive company, it also prompts the search engines to keep indexing your website. This is a good thing as the more your website is indexed the more you are likely to appear higher in the search engines.

Keeping your website updated and refreshed can put you ahead of your competitors. Continually making changes to the content and design of your website shows you are a growing company who is keeping ahead of the game. A website with dated graphics and a sluggish backend is a stagnating and jaded company.

I know which company I would rather deal with.

Website updates

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Website Design and Marketing – The importance of a web presence

June 16, 2009 – 7:35 pm

There are still plenty of businesses out there who have yet to have a web presence and for some the thought of finding a web designer or web design company fills them with dread. Why? Well for those who don’t know about the process of creating a website can easily get bogged down with way too much technical jargon and information overload which can easily make a company stall a project. 

The crucial factor is that having a web presence can increase company’s profits. Fact. Say, for example if you had the option of choosing an interior design company to overhaul your Victorian property, would you choose one with or without a website? Ok if you have a lot of time on your hands maybe you could get someone to pay you a visit with a portfolio. The simple fact is that it’s easy to check out a company’s products and background on the web and this can be done at lightening speed. A simple search on google will do and you can provide half an hours research with good results.

For those companies who have yet to delve into the world wide web or for existing companies that need a re-fresh here are a few simple tips to help you make that move:

Start-up company?

  • Ask yourself a few questions about your company, who is your website aimed at? Is it a niche market or do you offer more of a general service? Do you already have a logo and have you thought about how you want your brand to visually communicate? 
  • Having a good brainstorm can free up a lot of ideas and it will also help the designer achieve your vision while giving your more direction.
  • Find company websites that share your sector. Check out how other people have communicated their product and brand.
  • The technical side. Get a web designer or web design company to explain in simple terms, this will ease communication and will prevent alienation of you (the client).

Marketing your Business

  • Think of new ways you can entice new customers by updating your image and brand values.
  • Search the internet for articles on how to market your business. There are 100s of free articles out there which will help you gain more information to help you move your company forward.
  • Think about clever ways of gaining people’s email addresses. Maybe you could capture people’s email addresses by offering something free on your website? This gives you a chance to send your prospective clients newsletters increasing the chance of potential new business.
By admin | Posted in web design | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Creating outstanding print and design with tighter budgets (budget does not mean cheap)

January 9, 2009 – 8:31 pm

I think we’re all trying to keep our sanity in the credit crunch, or more depressingly known as the recession. Everywhere is all doom and gloom at the moment and it’s reflected in everything you read, see and hear. It’s probably the one common thing that everyone can relate to…in a morbid kinda way.

For companies 2009 is a year for taking stock and getting rid of some of the stuff that is no longer needed. Everyone seems to be in the midst of tightening their purse strings and this can be a good thing for you and for clients. If existing clients have tightened their budgets then see this as a challenge. For graphic designers it’s time to be a bit more creative in coming up with flexible and practical solutions. How can we do this for less while still keeping the creativity? Affordable does not equal shoddy. There are means and ways of working around budgets. Some of the best projects come from working to tight budgets. Money can detract from the creative process. 

Five things to help keep within a client’s budget

  • Think 2 colour rather than 4 colour. Think of creative ways of colour usage
  • A powerful idea and a clear message can outshine the item is is printed on
  • Ditch the extravagant dye cutting and embossing. Stripping the design down can lead to more experimentation
  • Drop the size down from A4 to A5 and see what happens
  • Search for different paper and understand how different stocks can effect the overall message

    By Zac Thorne | Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

    Our website technical stuff

    October 26, 2008 – 10:13 pm

    Website design is not a straight forward activity. Technically you need to get your website to look right across all browsers. This means testing it in Internet Explorer 5, 6 and 7, Safari and Firefox to name but a few. Not all browsers interpret your website in the same way which can cause many a frustration! Eeek, it doesn’t look right in my browser! We’ve fixed a few irritating bugs which have made our website look a bit strange in Internet Explorer 6 (for those who still use it which is apparently around 10% of you). Hoping all looks good, let us know if it’s not the case.

    By Zac Thorne | Posted in News | Tagged , , | Comments (1)