The Quartz Effect

the quartz effect  //  Quartz Marketing is an innovative business service that helps companies develop a strong brand presence through developing strong marketing plans and running simple and effective marketing programmes and campaigns that you understand with you.

May 16 / 2:17am

Brilliant Branding Advice

Brandgap

These extracts are from a branding book called The Brand Gap.
I love not only how clever it is, but also that the branding advice is easy to comprehend, It doesn’t leave you feeling like you need to be an expert to digest it.

First
A brand is not a logo

Second
A brand is not an identity

Finally 
A brand is not a product

A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or organisation.

It’s a gut feeling because people are emotional, intuitive beings.
It’s a person gut feeling, because brands are defined by individuals, not companies, markets or the public.

 

Trust
Trust comes from meeting and beating customer expectations
Trust = reliability + delight

Purpose of branding
The main purpose of branding is to get more people to buy more stuff for more years at a higher price.

Charismatic Brands
A charismatic brand is any product, service or organisation for which people believe there is no substitute.

 

Brand Extensions
Bad brand extensions are those that chase short term profits at the expense of long-term brand value.
Good brand extension grow the value of a brand by reinforcing its focus.

 

7 criteria for a stand out name
1. Distinctiveness
2. Brevity
3. Appropriateness
4. Easy spelling and pronunciation
5. Likeability
6. Extendibility
7. Protectability

A great name deserves great graphics!

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May 15 / 11:26pm

Marketing Is More Than An Idea

Marketing

I love this statement – more so I think because I can relate to it completely.

I have been working in a marketing role for a very long time and I could probably count on one hand (two at a push), the number of great ideas I have come up with. Don’t get me wrong, there have been a lot of great ideas that we’ve accomplished over this time wherever I have worked, but not a lot of them came from me.

So now you are probably wondering why I am Marketing Consultant, It’s because marketing is more than an idea.

Marketing is taking an idea and being able to turn that idea into reality, into something truly worthwhile and relevant. It’s being able to run with the idea, see all the elements needed to make the idea work, produce briefs that will allow others to contribute to that idea, manage all the people and the elements throughout the building of the idea and ensure delivery of the idea is accomplished successfully. I can do that!

But marketing is also so much more as well. It’s about looking at a business as a whole and seeing how it should work. It’s about breaking down each individual component of the business and working out how best each component can work together to produce an outcome that will meet the objectives of the business. It’s about seeing the business from the customer’s perspective, breaking down each interaction and putting in place systems to handle each contact. It’s about defining and working on the culture within the organization that will continue to see the company grow and flourish. It's about communicating effectively with our customers, or potential customers. And so on and so forth. I can do that!

But ideas – not often!

And that’s why I love marketing…because it’s so much more than just an idea!

 

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May 9 / 12:43am

So you don't have a website or can't afford one? Don't despair......

Online_presence

So you don’t have a website for your business?  Don’t worry, there’s still plenty that you can do to spread the word online about your business.  The following suggestions are for free online services designed to help you promote your business whether you have a website or not.

Facebook:

Create a business profile page, include contact information, a business description, photos, etc…  Encourage others to become a “fan” of your business on Facebook.  Visit www.facebook.com.

Twitter:

Create a business profile and start “tweeting” about the things that are happening in your business.   To learn more about Twitter, visit www.Twitter.com to get started.

RedBubble:

The perfect place for artists, photographers and creative writers.  Create a profile and stunning galleries and portfolio for your work.  Create products to sell and interactive with a supportive and interesting community of artists. www.RedBubble.com.

Etsy.com:

Perfect for crafters and artists wishing to sell their hand-made items online.  Create a profile to tell your story….and sell your products.  Visit www.Etsy.com to get started.

YouTube.com:

Create a business profile and upload videos of your products or service, show how you are making a difference or how your product benefits your customers.  Visit www.YouTube.com to get started.

LinkedIn:

Create a personal profile for yourself, highlight your business or service and network with others.  Visit www.LinkedIn.com to get started.

Local Search Sites:

Add your business listing to local search directories. In most cases you can include your business name, business description, photos, video and hours.  Follow this link for a list of Local sites that will help you with an online presence: http://websearch.about.com/od/bestwebsites/a/localsearch.htm.

Flickr.com:

Create a business profile and upload photos that relate to your business.

Here are a few other suggestions if you don’t have a website but want to have a presence on the web for your business.

Buy a Domain:

You don’t have to own a website to have a domain/URL (www.mycompany.com).  Buy a domain, and forward it to the above business profile of your choice.  Start marketing your domain by including it on all marketing materials for your business.

Cross Link!

Make sure to inter-link your profiles on the above listed sites where possible to do so.

Other resources you may enjoy:

Create a Free WordPress Blog/Website

Even if you don’t have a website, you can still promote your business by asking your fans and happy patrons to write reviews about you online. You’d be amazed at how many people are writing about their experiences now in blogs and on social media sites – especially when they are on holidays!  If you do have a website, make sure to provide your patrons with your website address so they can include a link to your site as well.

If you would like to discuss any of the above and to discuss how to increase your online presence please contact us at info@quartzmarketing.co.uk.

                                                                                                www.quartzmarleting.co.uk

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Apr 25 / 12:03am

The Difference Between A Blog And A Web Site?

Applesandoranges

What’s the difference between a website and a blog?

It can be a very emotive question but the answer is so simple! The main difference between a website and a blog is intention.

A website is like your shop-front, your office; it’s where you do business. A blog is where you engage with your potential customers and the internet community in general.

What people get hung up about is whether there’s a technology differentiation between blogs and website. The simple answer is, not really. Sure, I could unleash a barrage of technical terminology, but frankly, that’s not my scene. I defer to others – experts – on technical matters because they do it so well! All I care about in my business is how to communicate with those invisible visitors who drop in to either a site, or a blog.

I love an analogy!

So here is the clearest way I know to illustrate the difference between a website and a blog:

Website = business premises

Your website is where your customers come to do business with you, and potential customers come to see if you have what they’re looking for. They could be ‘tyre-kickers’ or they could be ready to part with their hard-earned money. What they want is information about what you can do for them. Sell them a service, a product or a subscription. Whatever you’re selling, you’re in your shop (or office) and they’re coming to see if you have what they need.

Blog = part of the community

Blogging is akin to standing out in the shopping mall, not too far from your store or office and shaking hands with passersby. Not in an in-your-face, ‘here, take this obscure-looking newspaper and read it’ kind of way. Talk about things related to your business. Let everyone know that you know what you’re on about. Eventually, the more they pass by you over a period of time, the more comfortable they’ll feel about stopping and actually asking for your opinion.

You can build a blog format into a website. You can make a website out of a blog. What really matters is the attitude, the intention, and having both in today’s dynamic marketing world is a sure way of attracting more traffic to your web presence.

We have spent this week designing a new look for our Quartz Effect blog and Twitter page; hope you enjoy the new look and feel. If you are interested in us doing the same for you please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

If you want to discuss any of the above please send us an email to info@quartzmarketing.co.uk and we will be delighted to get back to you.

www.quartzmarketing.co.uk

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Apr 18 / 9:21am

Explaining Bounce Rate and reducing it....

Pogopig

Explaining Bounce Rate and tips to reduce it.

One interesting topic in web analytics is bounce rate. Bounce rate, is defined as the percentage of web site visitors who arrive at an entry page on your web site, then leave without visiting any other pages.

We can use this metric to measure engagement of visitors. The higher the bounce rate, the less engaging our site becomes. Sometimes I come to think that bounce rates are open to different interpretations. For example, a high bounce rate means users were not impressed on what they saw on the landing page and didn’t bother to explore. But it could also mean they immediately found what they were looking for on that landing page and is therefore unnecessary to go further. Or the site simply doesn’t provide avenues for the visitor to explore further (broken navigation links, no search function available, etc).

A website with low bounce rate has better chances of achieving its objectives than one that keeps repelling its visitors upon their first visit. That is why it is important to find ways to keep visitors and provide for what they are looking for.

Ideal Bounce Rate
In my opinion, ideal bounce rate is zero per cent, which obviously is close to impossible to achieve. However, bounce rates that fall between 40 to 50 per cent is not bad at all. This is often achieved by good content organization, user-centric page layout and intuitive navigation. Let’s examine different ways to reduce bounce rate in more details:

1. Maintain Top Rankings for Branded Terms
People who find our website using our brand name are quite certain of what they are looking for. And that’s us and not our competitors. These type of visitors are more likely to stay on our site and don’t tend to bounce off. While it is likely that our rankings will be there on top for these brand queries, it’s not always a given. Therefore it is important to ensure that visitors go to our sites for queries related to our brand identity, rather than to somewhere else website.

2. Provide Relevant Content
It is no-brainer for us to provide relevant page content to our audience. But sometimes we don’t know how to do so. Knowing our visitors is one thing, optimizing our pages for them is another. Relevant content can be described as writing good content that is easy to understand (minimize introduction of unnecessary technical term or connect using the language they speak).

3. Build a Clear Navigation Path/Menu
Having a clear navigation definitely helps reduce bounce rates. Guiding a visitor through a logical flow of information enables him to continuously peruse information from our website. Look at Facebook, once you login, there are lots and lots of opportunities to do: view photos, search for friends, play third-party applications. Such clever content organization made
Facebook lord over the others in terms of page views. Related pages, hyperlinked body content and prominent menu items help visitors explore pages within our site even better.

4. Provide Enough Content
Let’s make sure we provide enough information to our visitors. That can be in a form of photos, videos, and related links and of course enough copy. I guess we would love to read a news story that’s also packed with news photos or videos longer than just two paragraph article, right? And when I say enough copy, I am not setting a certain number to accomplish that condition; text content must be enough to address all aspect about the article. For example, if my page talks about my favourite Premier League team, Liverpool, I would like to include information such as team history, stats, players, coaching staff, business transactions, charity events and other related information. Of course I can’t squeeze them all on one page, that’s why if there’s a link to current team roster that could be enough for a visitor to stay on the site rather than bounce off.

5. Update Content Regularly
One of the reasons visitors leave a landing page is that the information presented there is inaccurate, irrelevant or outdated. If my Liverpool page contains information about its team last season — missing the current team info — visitors who are looking for information about this year’s team will surely be disappointed and leave the site.

6. Make Our Content Readable
Having good amount of content is sometimes not enough. There needs to be a proper placement of bold text, bullet points or italics or maybe division of content into shorter, digestible portions. It is important to note that visitors don’t immediately read content, they quickly scan it, hoping to find clues whether the article is interesting or not. If the article is interesting, then good (although that doesn’t guarantee people leaving the page after accessing this page). Using white space can also be crucial, as it provides a breather to a viewer who is possibly drowning in a pool of information.

7. Define Industry Terms and Acronyms
Some people I talk to don’t even know what SEO stands for. But they’re fortunate I am there to answer their query. On a web page, if we constantly bombard people with acronyms (PPC, CPA, CPM) or terms that we can’t seem to avoid using (conversion, bounce rate), we have to define these terms before we proceed (note I did it with bounce rate above). I like the way other websites do it — like Search Engine Watch — that the first time a term is used, a link to that term’s definition is provided.

8. Place Search Function Prominently
For a site with a considerable amount of content (100+ pages), search function becomes a must. But having one may not be enough; its placement should be considered so that it appears at a prominent location on the page. Considering how eye patterns follow a page layout, a search form should be within that path. Remember Facebook emphasized the use of it so that the search form was moved from top right corner into the middle and made the form even longer. Having a search page in the page should help visitors who have the propensity to use search function once the information they are looking for is not on that page. Otherwise they’ll leave and use search engines.

9. Investigate Pages With High Bounce Rates
Somehow we need to look at our web analytics and identify which pages (or keyword referrers and corresponding landing pages) have high bounce rates and ask why so. Too little information? Very bad navigation? Ask colleagues or friends and have another fresh pair of eyes to identify what you might be overlooking.

If you would like to discuss this and any more regarding your online presence please contact us on info@quartzmarketing.co.uk and we will be in touch as soon as possible.

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Apr 11 / 12:07am

Online Credibility and Closing Deals

Seo-pic

When most people think about SEO, the goals they have in mind are more sales leads and better sales leads thus increase in revenue. As a Marketing Consultancy, we tend to think that way ourselves. However, SEO has another role that gets right to the heart of closing sales - establishing credibility.

Suppose you seek to bid on a large construction project. As a preliminary step to vetting your firm, the prospective client may do a quick Google search to see where you rank for highly relevant search terms.

If you have links on the first page or two of results, what does that say about your firm?

If you're invisible, nowhere to be found - what does that say?

B2B firms in particular are prone to think that SEO isn't for them because they're not playing a numbers game. Since their universe of prospects is relatively small, they figure SEO doesn't pay. What's the point of optimizing a Web site in pursuit of a relative handful of leads?

Well, if your average sale is £5000 or £50,000, a handful of leads is very valuable indeed. But even more valuable than acquiring a new lead is closing the lead you already have. It's disappointing to spend a day fishing on the lake and not getting a nibble. But how much worse is it to be reeling in the biggest catch of your life, only to have the line break when it's just in reach?

A well optimized site, which showcases your dominance, is a powerful influencer, sometimes even a deal closer. For some organizations, the credibility-building power of search engine optimization is more critical than SEO's lead production capacity. People trust organic results. And while trust is a critical factor in online shopping, it is even more critical in online - and off line - buying.

If you would like to discuss any of the above or just your online presence in general please don’t hesitate to get in touch on info@quartzmarketing.co.uk.

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Apr 8 / 5:47am

Win a pair of tickets to the first Big Event of the summer

Gigs-photo

There’s never a better time to kick off your summer event programme, but this year courtesy of the guys at House Of Stone, Quartz Marketing invites you to join us at one of the first BIG summer events of 2010:

 

House Of Stone Presents – A Fair Day’s Work For A Fair Days Pay!!!

 

This gig mainly featuring upcoming Artists to help with awareness of tackling injustice in trade and poverty caused in developing countries, is dedicated to the dual causes of Fair Trade and Workers Rights, International Workers Day (1st May) and World Fair Trade Day (7th May). 10 years into the new Millennium the gap between the rich and the poor appears to be widening, the rights of workers are still not globally guaranteed. In the days spanning International Workers Day and World fair trade day it is important that we all recognise that we have a role to play in promoting a fair days work for a fair days pay and a fair price for the product of this work

If you’re looking for your first BIG summer event, this is it and at Quartz Marketing we are pleased to announce that we will be giving away a pair of tickets every Friday until the Friday before the gig. To stand a chance to win a pair of tickets all you have to do is send in an email with your full name to events@quartzmarketing.co.uk.

For event details go to: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=307114558173&ref=ts

 

 

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Apr 8 / 12:04am

A Business Event For You. (Empowering Entrepreneurship In Southern Africa)

Phpemducram

Come and join in with this great event at The Distillers Smithfield, City of London for an event that will explore the business, investment and employment opportunities in Southern Africa.

The event has been set up to offer the opportunity for people with interest in and from Southern Africa that are based within the UK  to expand their knowledge and connections as well as to improve their understanding of what the future holds for them within the region after the FIFA 2010 world cup.

The event will be held in a relaxed and friendly environment, allowing for easy interaction over a few drinks and complimentary canapés. Admission is free but a donation to the WEZIMBABWE Foundation who are the hosts of the event. As Capacity is limited preregistration is required please email events@wezimbabwe.org or events@quartzmarketing.co.uk to book your place.

This event is an excellent networking opportunity and is a must if you are working in or exploring opportunities in Southern Africa. We look forward to meeting you there.

 

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Apr 4 / 10:29am

Achieving Maximum Visibility For Your Website

Search-engine-marketing

I am sure we have all at some stage wondered why we have worked so hard, investing so much time, effort and money to create a really great looking, informative website, complete with everything that your clients will ever need to know, only to realise a few months down the track that you were the only one ever to see it? A very familiar story and some they don’t even know what standing their websites have on the internet.

What is it about all those other sites above you in the Google results pages that gets them noticed by all the major search engines, and thus, by all the potential customers out there? The answer is simple - search engine optimisation (SEO).

Almost every page that has a high placement in a search engine has been optimised - that is, specifically planned, designed and built to rank well - not just to look good. The Internet has so many web pages inhabiting it now that not just any site gets noticed by the search engines anymore - only those that consciously aim at getting noticed will. And as for all the rest, it doesn't matter how good the site or the business is if no one ever knows about it.

The first step is to decide what you want to get noticed for. If you are in property, for example, it will be very helpful to find out what people are looking for when they search for property sites on the Internet, and what it is it that you can offer them. Is it "Birmingham apartments", "budget accommodation" or "house rental"? Try pretending that you are a potential client, go to www.google.com, and look at what keywords you would use to find your business.

Only when you have picked out a niche for yourself should you start optimising. The three most important things in building your sites standing with search engines are:

•Structure - Just like human visitors, "Spiders" - search engine programs - hate wading through a big, messy, badly designed site. Complicated code, malfunctioning navigation and too many sub-directories can all confuse spider programs and prevent you from getting the ranking that you could have.

•Copy - The text on the site, especially hyperlink text, is vitally important to search engines. By reading the text on a site, including the sites title, meta-tags, heading text, body text, and link text to and from the site, the spiders judge what the site is about and how informative it is to customers. Badly written copy, or worse, images instead of text for headings and links can drastically reduce your ranking with search engines.

•Links - The Internet is built on hyperlinks, and the amount of pages on the Internet that point to your page is often a lot more important to search engines, especially Google, than many on-page factors. There are many different ways to get links to your site, but the most common are swapping and buying. Reciprocal linking, that is you and another site both linking to each other, is free and easy, but it is very consuming and not extremely effective. Buying obviously costs money, but since search engines give greater weight to a link that is not reciprocated, it is much more influential. The very best way is to have a website with valuable and interesting content that people want to link to just because they like it!

These three processes are the linchpins on which your website's rankings hang. If these are perfected (which is a process, not a goal), your site will be guaranteed to steadily move up the results list. The most important thing to remember, however, is that none of this will happen if you do not make it happen. Professional advice is highly recommended. Talk to a Quartz Marketing Consultant about your online goals today. Email info@quartzmarketing.co.uk and someone will be in touch.

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Apr 3 / 1:17am

Is my product or service worth marketing?

"if you make meaning you will probably make money but if you start out to make money you will probably not make meaning and you won't make money" Guy Kawasaki The art of the start Stanford University micro lecture

The biggest question you should ask yourself before you start to talk to anyone about marketing is "why is my company or my product not speaking for itself?" Why do I need a Marketer. If your company or your product adds value to someones life then it will naturally market itself so first of all examine what value you are adding to peoples lives.

It may be the case that you are just not communicating that value well enough and that it is this communication that you need help  with. It may however be that people do not see any value at all in your product.

If this is the case it is time to re-examine your product and once you have reached the point where you think that your product can add value to someones life and you can clearly state what this value is it is time for you to speak to your Marketers.

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