You are here: Home / Archives for Marketing

Essential WordPress Tools & Plugins

January 24, 2012 By

Since starting my own business just over 2 years ago I have tried countless pieces of software and productivity tools to help small businesses with their marketing. Some I have continued to use since day one and others have been replaced as I found something I liked better or found more useful.

I thought it would be helpful to list some of these favourites over two blog posts. This first one around website creation and management, and the second post about other time saving or marketing tools.

WordPress – Of course! I couldn’t live without it.

For non techies it is so easy to use and I am constantly impressed with the functionality you can add to your basic wordpress site with the huge range of Plugins available. For anyone who needs a website or blog that is easy to maintain and update without needing to pay for the expertise it is ideal. I have a split of clients some of whom manage their site themselves once I have built it and others I continue to manage. What I really love is how easy it is to completely redesign the look and feel of the site.

I have recently installed Jetpack on all my sites, which you need to have a wordpress.com account for. It contains a whole raft of functionality which I am still investigating but the tools I am using most are the site stats, displayed on your dashboard, the subscription widget which allows visitors to simply sign up for RSS feeds (how often I have hunted a site for their RSS feed and given up, losing them an interested reader) and shortcode embeds.

My additional favourite free plugins include:

TinyMCE Advanced – which enhances the visual editor in worpress.

NextGen Gallery – for great photo galleries.

Continuous announcement scroller – great for announcing upcoming events.

Exclude pages – adds a simple tickbox to your pages to exclude them from navigation if you aren’t using a customised menu.

WP Smush.it – reduces image file sizes and improves performance for sites with lots of pictures

WordPress EZ Backup – Does what it says on the tin – however, I do use a paid for solution which now incorporates the backups on the sites I continue to manage – see ManageWP below.

Fast Secure Contact Form – creates great contact forms. Again I do have a paid for plugin for more complex forms.

UnderConstruction – provides a Coming Soon page when I am designing or re-designing an existing site.

And another I am about to try on a client site Business Directory Plugin it looks like it will provide just what I need for creating a directory of recommended businesses.

Additional Paid for Tools

ManageWP – My latest and favourite management tool for all my wordpress sites.

I originally had a free trial which convinced me of the value of upgrading to a paid for version.

ManageWP helps you manage all your WordPress sites from one location, keeping them updated and secure. You can access any of your wordpress site dashboards from one location.

But it does MUCH more than that! It advises you when there are wordpress and plugin updates, which you can perform on all sites with one click, as well as allowing you to install a plugin across multiple sites.

Three other great features are the SEO monitoring, the ability to clone a site – great for building a site in a development environment and then cloning over to the new site – and the Backup function. All my sites are now backed up from this central location to Dropbox (more to come on this). This tool is worth every penny just for the time saving it provides.

Gravity Forms – Allows you to quickly build complex forms, including multi-page forms, conditional logic and order forms  Click here to find out more about Gravity Forms.

If I have missed any tools or plugins that you have found really useful please do let me know in the comments. Need help with your wordpress web site design or management? Get in touch.

Related Posts:

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Your 2012 Marketing Plan – and My Favourite Ladies Online

December 20, 2011 By

As we head towards the end of the year it’s a great time to reflect on how your business has performed. What methods of marketing did you use? What worked and what didn’t, and based on that what you will be doing in the coming year.

I am bombarded almost daily with emails for the latest course or tool to market my business and turn me into a  “six or seven figure business” (don’t you just hate that term?) There are now so many “experts” out there who claim to have had a tough time, an epiphany on how to do it right and then created a programme to solve all your problems. My first New Year resolution is to unsubscribe from almost all the emails I receive, leaving only those that are genuinely useful.

Don’t get me wrong I am not saying all of these programmes are worthless, there are some genuine, hardworking business owners who I do follow, but what is interesting is that they don’t have to do the sob story and the hard sell. Their material doesn’t need it.

Here are a few of those who I will continue to be happy to hear from in 2012 – and without trying to be biased they are all female!:

Firstly, Mari Smith – a facebook whizz – who always gives valuable information and whose facebook updates I rely on for information on the latest changes. The other thing I like about her is she thanks you for retweets and follows back all those who follow her on twitter – many of the so called “gurus” are far too important to follow me!

Another great lady to check out whose blog is always informative – and genuine – is Lynn Terry, you can find her at Clicknewz. If you are interested in doing affiliate marketing Lynn has been doing it successfully for many years and has some great blog posts on the subject, as well as how to really run an online business.

My final recommendation is Natalie Sisson, the Suitcase Entrepreneur. Her travels alone make really interesting reading but she is also a great example of how to run a business from anywhere and her blog posts are always either thought provoking or full of useful social media tips. And she takes the time to respond to comments left on her blog.

What success in your business means to you is personal and different for each person. It’s hard not to be caught up in the hype of the latest sure fire way to market your business, but focus on which direction you want your business to go, and take the Christmas period to do some planning and business goal setting for 2012. Once you really know what you want you can then start working on a marketing plan that will help you get there. Take into consideration what your brand stands for and your budget – you can’t do everything so deciding what is a priority, what you can do without and what you could outsource is time well spent.

Happy planning, enjoy the Christmas break and I wish you a prosperous 2012. If you would like any help with your marketing plan, please get in touch.

 

 

Related Posts:

  • No Related Posts
Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Does Your Online Profile Reflect Your Personal & Business Personality?

November 17, 2011 By

Online Profile and BrandingThe way we do business has changed dramatically with the advent of social media. It’s now possible to find yourself “talking” to the CEO of an organisation, who previously you may have tried in vain to contact by phone or email.

With this comes the relaxing of the formal tone that we used in business for many years. This can have both pros and cons. The upside is that it becomes quicker to build relationships – key in doing business now – and giving people that “know, like and trust” factor that is so important online, where recommendations come by word of mouse.

The downside is that you may go too far, being over familiar with someone you have never met, using slang or worse bad language, and damaging your personal and business brand.

How your social media profiles, website and blog look all give indications to the personality of you and your business. Do you want a formal corporate brand or do you want to be more relaxed and approachable. You need to think carefully about the design elements of your profiles – even background colours can make a big difference to how you come across.

When I build websites and social media profiles for my clients it is really important for me to get a “feel” for their business and the key individuals before I start to look at templates, layouts, images and colours. Only once this is done do I start to think about the copy on the site, deciding on the tone needed to reflect the business and ensure they reach the right target market for them.

Personality and target market are also important in determining which social media tools you use. For those wanting to target or connect with professionals and corporates LinkedIn is the best place to create a presence. Facebook for me is younger, more fun and less formal, it’s where a company can let there hair down a little and let their customers see inside the business. Twitter, I think, sits between the two.

Think carefully about your profile – do some research at other sites and see which ones you want to have a look around and which you are immediately turned off by, and try to work out why.

If you would like some help in designing your online brand,profile raising, social media profiles or website, contact me for a chat – I’d love to help.

Related Posts:

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: , , ,