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News and articles relating to Business for Business have appeared in the press and on websites for some years. Below is a selection of these articles giving an independent view of our services. In addition, articles written by Nigel T Packer and published in the independent press are also included.
published in:
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Business Advisor magazine spring 2006
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Telegraph Business Club July 2006
Web Wise: How to create a Web site
for your customers
By Nigel T Packer
A search is carried out on Google - the most used search engine currently on the internet - every 0.003 of a second, searching over 8 billion Web pages. If your Web site does not match the searchers’ enquiries your chances of trading successfully and your business ‘making it’ on the internet are low. The World Wide Web is like one huge shopping mall, every Web site offering products and services; some ‘shops’ are well lit and easy to access, however, the majority have the lights turned off, their shutters down and the ‘closed’ sign on the door.
Making your company Web site attractive and popular is more than just putting a picture of the product or a description of the service onto a Web page and publishing it on the Web. There are a host of issues which need to be addressed to ensure success, but before a Web developer is even contracted, the bigger picture of strategic marketing needs to be addressed. It is important to understand that marketing is not sales, strategic marketing provides the structure to help us collate information and through it understand our customers. This is information that we need in order to sell successfully.
Applying this to a company Web site, before any development work is carried out on the Web site we have to be clear on who the customer is and why they are likely to buy. In describing the target customer, such factors as gender, age and socio-economic group are essentials while further information such as technical capability and language level can also be useful.
By carrying out primary market research – and this means not just reading reports or looking at statistics, actually get up from your desk and go and ask your customers - we will be able to find out most of this information offering a greater understanding of the customer profile. Including this information in your design brief puts the Web developer in a much better position to produce a site that the end user will feel affiliated to and comfortable with.
What is the objective of the site? Is it to provide information, to produce direct sales, or just a brochure-ware site showing the company and its capabilities? Is it intended to generate enquiries from new customers or to keep existing customers informed? Objectives will include the detailed information on any existing brand identity and the image the company wants to portray to the world at large. Remember your Web site is now the first port of call for a potential customer. Recent research has shown that viewers will make a decision on the suitability of a company in 20 milliseconds based purely on the image they are seeing on their computer screen. What is your Web site saying about your company? Make sure your Web developer is fully informed.
It is also important to identify the gender of your client base. This has been much ignored to date, possibly to the detriment of many businesses. A recent survey reported that women were ‘Dunces of the dashboard’: many of those surveyed did not understand the purpose of most of the switches or lights on their own car dashboard (BBC Breakfast 3/3/06); no comment was made in the report as to why this is, although it just might be because most cars are designed by men. Much research and writing exists on how communication differs between genders; since a Web site is by its nature a communication, it should make sense to have a Web site targeted at female buyers designed and developed by a female designer or team. The same obviously applies to a male audience, if this is your target then contract a male designer to build your site. Recent research at the University of Glamorgan supports this; it has shown that gender makes a big difference in the perceptions of the viewer. According to their research over 77% of Web sites showed a predominantly male design, reflecting the higher proportion of male designers in the marketplace. An interesting statistic when according to Judy Hoyt Pettigrew (author of Women Mean Business: The Secret to Selling to Women), as much has 80% of purchases are made by women.
Another consideration is geography and culture. Is the Web site going to be used to target a particular community or sector? Make sure that this is your focus and provide information that is of value to your viewers. Data that helps the decision making process can be the difference between a sale and no sale. In a recent survey from AOP over 80% of business decision makers use the internet and the content of Web sites to help make a decision on a purchase. Over half of the respondents also cited their trust in information supplied on Web sites.
Once we have a Web site that represents the business effectively in terms of image, content and functionality, what else needs to be addressed? Major considerations in the promotion of the site through search engine listings (not paid or sponsored) are the keywords and key-phrases. Over the past eight years it has baffled me that so many sites are missing this meta-data and have no appropriate page titles. These are essential if potential customers are to find your Web site and offerings. Although it is not obvious to the viewer, the purpose of this information is to provide the search engine with the data they need to place the site in the correct category in the database, which in turn helps the search engine respond to search terms entered by users.
To achieve successful ranking in search engines the title and meta-data must reflect the content of the page it belongs to. Keywords and phrases need to be researched thoroughly, what exactly are your customers likely to enter as search terms into search engines. When writing the content of the page remember that whilst conveying information about the products and services you should include your keywords and phrases - those terms which you have identified are used by your potential customer. It is possible to repeat the keywords and phrases a few times but not too often as the search engines treat this as spam!
Use useful and appropriate page titles - the common use of generic page titles such as “home page” and “contact us” is a waste of keyword opportunity. No-one types “contact us” into a search engine, why would they? Carry out a Web search on these two phrases and see how many there are out there (at the time of writing this was 3.1 billion & 6.2 billion respectively).
Once completed the search engine submission process can start. Whilst time consuming review the search engine you have selected and ask if it is relevant to your industry or whether it is likely to be relevant to your target market. Start with your own country search engines and submit to them – ensuring you are following their terms and conditions. Use of free submission services online is not recommended, consider how they make their money! Local regional and national directories should also be used. Many are free for basic listings but there is often a charge for enhanced listing.
In summary the biggest part of the Web site is in the preparation. If you carry out your research into your customers and understand them then you can build a Web site which they will find useful and will purchase from. Remember who the Web site is for - your customers!
Nigel T Packer established Business for Business in 1999 following a broad range of experiences in industry, commerce and the public sector. Business for Business is an internet marketing and eBusiness consultancy, specialising in promoting client’s products and services using the internet. Business for Business also provides independent objective advice, consultancy and specialised training. Nigel is currently the Regional Chair of The Institute of Business Advisers South Wales.
Beware the latest domain name scam
By Marjorie Delwarde | 19 Apr 2005
On the face of it, the Federal Bureau of Domain Names (FBODN) website looks like an ethical US governmental organization. But don’t be fooled; the FBODN is just a cloak for yet another e-business hoax.
With its use of American icons, imagery and references to the US federal government, the FBODN looks and sounds very much official, but as Nigel T Packer, internet marketing consultant at Swansea-based Business for Business, recently discovered, it is anything but.
The FBODN contacted Packer to offer him a domain name for his company with the suffix .info. He explains: “They purported to advise me that they were approached to register my website address and that my details had been given to them. They were checking with me to ensure that I was the person ordering this name.”
“Excellent customer service, I thought, but then they went on to try to sell me the web site address as they put it: 'Ensure no one can use the web address to build a hooky website and make false claims and pass themselves off, destroying my company's good reputation'.”
Packer became suspicious when he was quoted a relatively expensive registration fee of £30. Research revealed that FBODN had recently fallen foul of auDA, the administrator of .au domain names. for the complete articles see:http://www.pingwales.co.uk/internet/fbodn-scam.html
Engineering a new future
A Valleys heavy engineering firm has secured its long-term future
after boosting its customer base by more than 30 times in less than a
year.
Management at Hirwaun-based Bartondale Engineering has put their renewed
success down to the aggressive use of eCommerce, which has helped the
firm develop sales and improve its customer service.
Explains John Hale, Company Chairman: "Bartondale Engineering, in common with most heavy engineering firms, has a long history of serving the steel processing supply chain. We could see the downturn coming, and secured assistance via a Fast Track Regional Selective Assistance grant from the National Assembly in May 2002 to buy Durmech Engineering, manufacturers of coil handling machines."
The success we have achieved since we added the manufacture, maintenance and repair of this machinery to our portfolio of services would not have been possible without eCommerce."
Phil Lewis and John Hale of Bartondale Engineering and Nigel T Packer of Business for Business watch as (foreground) Craig Morris machines a one tonne shaft destined for Thailand.
source: http://www.opportunitywales.co.uk/0-0-0/3-0-0/3-7-0/3-70-5/3-7-60.htm
Business for Business: Making e-marketing a cinch
Business for Business is a Swansea-based e-marketing specialist, providing solutions and strategies for the small and medium sized enterprise sector. The company's owner and principle consultant, Nigel T Packer, established its current offices in Mansel Street in 2002 following market research that identified a gap in the market for search engine optimisation of business websites. To date, Business for Business has assisted over fifty companies with their Internet marketing. They have in turn generated over £2.5 million of orders and over £10 million worth of order enquiries from the global market. Packer comments, "Our clients are currently number one in mainstream search engines such as Google." ... for the complete article see: http://www.itwales.com
Support from the South Wales ebusiness club raises the profile of fertility site.
Real Life Solutions was conceived during early 2002 to provide home fertility tests for couples. The original site design didn't take into account the needs of the customer and wasn't being featured in many search engines.
During the course of the eBusiness club meetings Jacqui Malpass of Real Life Solutions met several key people who were instrumental in making the site more successful.
Nigel T Packer from Business For Business undertook a web site audit and provided Jacqui with an action plan, which included a complete redesign, and a strategy for search engine submissions. source: South Wales Business club
The Russians are coming…
By Dave Merchant, business reporter
The Russians are taking a leaf out of a Swansea Company's marketing expertise after being impressed with their website.
Business for Business was discovered by Nikolai Solovyov, a 24-year-old marketing consultant from Nzhniy Novgorod in Russia, who recently spent two weeks in Swansea being trained in Internet marketing skills.
Nikolai is part of the Russian Presidents Management Exchange Programme, run by the British Council on behalf of The Department of International Development, which is designed to assist the development of management skills for senior managers and marketers in Russia. source: South Wales Evening Post:
