The deadline for filing your self-assessment tax return is fast approaching, and it’s a busy time of the year for both self-employed people and their accountants. Whether or not you should hire an accountant to help you prepare your tax return will ... [Read more]
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It’s critical when you are building client relationships that you keep in touch on a regular basis, especially when face-to-face meetings are restricted. Sometimes knowing what you are up to, or a nice touch on your behalf letting them know you are ... [Read more]
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A business will go through all kinds of stages during its lifespan, and the hope is that it reaches a point where expansion isn’t just an idea to float around, rather it becomes necessary due to its continued success. But knowing when to expand is a ... [Read more]
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When it comes to online marketing techniques, people often mention email marketing as being one of the most powerful. What they don’t mention, however, is that it can have a rather steep learning curve. It’s not that it’s overly complicated, it’s ... [Read more]
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The decision to start your own business is not an easy one to make, and there can be a range of factors both for and against your final decision. However, the best way to make any decision is to have all the information you need beforehand. Some ... [Read more]
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Many businesses use Mailchimp to help them with emails and automation. However, Mailchimp isn’t the only automated marketing software that you can use for your business. If you’re not sure what software to get, then look over these five alternatives ... [Read more]
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Explainer videos are animations that explain your product or service to potential customers. They’re effective for converting web visitors into buyers. According to Internet Retailer, 85% of visitors are more likely ... [Read more]
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1. You have to find, test and train the right people to implement your marketing strategy. I recently chatted with a fast-growing eCommerce company. They told me that 3 marketing agencies had been unsuccessful in running Facebook campaigns for ... [Read more]
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Do you have doubts about video marketing? This article will clear those doubts. According to a report by HubSpot, these are the top six platforms on which web users watch videos: YouTube Facebook Netflix Instagram Amazon Video ... [Read more]
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Image credit: Wikimedia Commons It’s easier than ever to build a business and reach out to the world, but every fresh startup must find a way to handle growing in the shadows of the giant companies that dominate search rankings. Generic keywords ... [Read more]
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Everyone seems to have varying definitions of growth hacking. Wikipedia defines it as “a process of rapid experimentation across marketing channels, product development, sales segments, and other areas of the business to identify the most ... [Read more]
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Source: Pixabay Social media advertising is a very important part of marketing for modern day businesses. If you are not harnessing the power of social media through sending targeted ads, you should start. Millions and millions of people from all ... [Read more]
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If you are reading this article, let me first congratulate you on taking the first step toward running a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign. If you don’t know where to start, or you are stuck and don’t know what to do next - don’t ... [Read more]
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SMEs are the backbone of most developed economies. They are often responsible for producing new technologies, services and products to the global market, and many have the potential to become much larger companies. Whilst they may have a reputation ... [Read more]
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They say that a staggering 96% of all businesses fail within their first 10 years, and this highlights the incredible range of challenges that can undermine SMEs when they first enter their chosen marketplace. While businesses can struggle ... [Read more]
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These days, it’s rare to meet a small business owner who hasn’t had a terrible experience when seeking business advice. Some business owners see internet marketing consultants and agencies as con artists and scammers. Brian Signorelli wrote on ... [Read more]
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Many B2B companies are doing their marketing wrong. That is because creating a marketing strategy for a B2B (business to business) is way more complex than B2C (business to consumer). B2B sales require deliberation from prospects, and more ... [Read more]
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When it comes to SME marketing, I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly! Through The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business programme, The British Library and IDEA London (a Cisco Accelerator) I’ve taught and worked with hundreds of scale up ... [Read more]
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Looking for an awesome eCommerce strategy to boost your online sales? Get the low down on eCommerce marketing from our eCommerce Consultant, Alasdair. We reveal our top tips to in this short video to skyrocket your eCommerce ... [Read more]
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Instagram has become a one of the most lucrative social media platforms for business. Hosting over 600 million users – more than both Twitter and Snapchat combined – it joins the likes of Facebook as a major tool in the digital marketing ... [Read more]
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Are you determined to scale your business? Have you thought about recruitment for your SME? Want more than a lifestyle business? Read on… Scaling is messy. My favourite marketing writer says that scaling a business is messy AND ... [Read more]
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A marketing plan is a must-have for every business owner who wants to build a viable business in the long-term. A solid marketing plan helps you determine which customers to target and how to reach and win them. It also promotes customer ... [Read more]
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Hiring the perfect marketing company is a tricky task. Even deciding what your business needs from a marketing company can be tough in itself. Fear not, this article will help you make the right decision. There are so many marketing ... [Read more]
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I was surprised to learn that Google launched more than 1,600 changes to its search engine in 2016. In fact, Google ran 18,015 experiments last year alone. Why should you care? You should care because for over a decade now, Google has made ... [Read more]
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Use our target market analysis template to define your target market. Marketing is a constant battle between you and your competition. Lots of small business owners lose the marketing war because of this simple reason: They are fighting on ... [Read more]
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More than 80% of consumers start their search process online from home and spend an average of 79 days gathering information before making a purchase, according to research published on MarketWatch. Think about it for a moment. Consumers spend ... [Read more]
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A marketing audit template is an extremely valuable tool for established business owners and their teams. By doing a marketing audit, you get to the heart of the business, uncover challenges and reveal opportunities. But beware of using the wrong ... [Read more]
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According to HubSpot, only 29% of people want to talk to a salesperson to learn more about a product, while 62% will consult a search engine. Search engines have become the go-to place for consumers to discover and learn about companies before ... [Read more]
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Google AdWords gets your business seen by customers at the exact time they are searching to buy what you sell. It doesn’t matter if you sell a product or a service. It doesn’t matter if you are a small or medium-sized business. It doesn’t ... [Read more]
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YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, and the second most visited website according to Alexa. YouTube is all about videos. Web users love videos. They engage better with videos than any other kind of content. This year, ... [Read more]
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Small business owners do search engine optimisation (SEO) to gain higher rankings on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. But doing SEO alone isn’t enough. You need to do SEO auditing on a regular basis. It can be quarterly, half-yearly ... [Read more]
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Case studies are an excellent way to build trust, mitigate customer objections and increase your sales as they work to influence your customer’s purchasing decision. Imagine you’ve just come across brand-new marketing automation software. Your ... [Read more]
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There are hundreds of SEO tips you could implement today to improve your search marketing efforts. Some work instantly, whilst others take a while to get going. If you searched for “SEO Tips” in Google, you'd see plenty of sites promising 100 or 200 ... [Read more]
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What is Crowdfunding? Crowdfunding is a great way to raise money, for a variety of reasons. But as crowdfunding has grown, it has evolved into much more. Some of the biggest names in the world (and biggest companies) use crowdfunding. We are ... [Read more]
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An effective digital marketing strategy can double or triple business revenue. As more people come online, your business’ reach also increases. Whilst more visitors roaming the web equals more prospective customers, this also means more tools, ... [Read more]
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The internet has forever changed the marketing landscape. Consumers have been given more choices and greater control. This results in marketers constantly refining their digital marketing plan. Search engines are often people’s first step to ... [Read more]
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What is PPC marketing? How can I use Google Adwords and Bing to grow my business? If you’ve ever felt uneasy or confused about paid advertising and how it can grow your businesses then you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll ... [Read more]
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How To Use Blogger Outreach To Boost Your SEO Rankings Nailing your on-page SEO is an excellent way to start improving your visibility on search engines, but to really climb the Google rankings, you need to start using blogger outreach strategies to ... [Read more]
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How To Craft A Powerful About Us Page Your About Page is the page your visitors find themselves on during the early stages of the buying cycle, while evaluating possible solutions. When a user clicks on your about us page it means they are ... [Read more]
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Effective Facebook Marketing Tips To Spruce Up Your Social Media Strategy In recent years social media networks have risen to the top of every savvy marketers list of useful marketing tools. Facebook and its fellow networks are no longer just ... [Read more]
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Evergreen Small Business SEO Strategies You Can Always Count On There are literally 1000s of articles on the internet freely available right now to anyone, that could teach you everything you ever needed to know about search engine ... [Read more]
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How To Use Linkedin For Business On the surface, LinkedIn is seen as a social media network for professionals. But dig deeper and you’ll see that LinkedIn is not just for career building, and it’s not just an easy way to advertise your work ... [Read more]
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9 Video Marketing Tips Your Business Can't Afford To Avoid What can you do to make a real connection with your audience? It’s a difficult question to answer. We live in an era of information overload. Consumers are constantly bombarded with ... [Read more]
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What are the benefits of blogging for business and should I do it? The foundation of any small business’s online marketing strategy is getting more enquiries and sales through making sure that when people look for your product or service online, ... [Read more]
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Evergreen Link Building Strategies Your Business Can't Thrive Without The world of SEO moves so quickly that most articles you read about link building strategies will always have a remarkably short half-life. If you read a guide about creating ... [Read more]
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How To Be More Productive At Work Learning how to be more productive at work and in business, is a skill which takes conscious action and deliberate practice. There are many tips, tools and apps available to become a more productive ... [Read more]
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Powerful Gmail Tips and Tricks You’re a business owner, and you don’t have much time. You’ve got meetings to attend, a new product to launch and a business to grow. Your calendar is full and you check your e-mail in the morning to find ... [Read more]
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SEO and Content Marketing: How To Take Advantage of Both Gone are the days when you could succeed in SEO by simply tweaking your website design, keyword stuffed titles and other lame techniques that Google now frowns upon. The horrible thing is ... [Read more]
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Powerful Copywriting Tips To Transform Your Sales Copy Copywriting can be one of the most effective ways of generating leads and sales for your business. It can also be one of the most difficult marketing methods to master. When it comes to ... [Read more]
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Effective Call to Action Examples That Convert Got an awesome product your audience is going to love? Check Attracting enough traffic for good lead potentials? Yup Making more money than you ever thought you would… not yet. So what’s wrong? ... [Read more]
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Effective Email Marketing Tips For Small Businesses There was a time, in the late 2000's, when many internet marketers turned their backs on email marketing. They believed that email marketing was old fashioned, and many predicted that social ... [Read more]
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A marketing plan is the “how” of achieving your marketing strategy. Without a well-thought-out plan you can’t achieve the goals you developed as part of your marketing strategy. And by the way, if you don’t have a marketing strategy yet, we ... [Read more]
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Marketing automation is a software solution which allows you to create highly personalised content that helps nurture leads and generate sales for the long term. With marketing automation you can automate repetitive marketing tasks and processes ... [Read more]
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The marketing mix is an essential tool in building and implementing an effective marketing strategy. It should be used to show prospects why your product or service is different and better than your competitors. In this article you’ll learn what a ... [Read more]
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Creating A Powerful Marketing Funnel Understanding how to maximise your marketing funnel and developing strategies around user experience is at the heart of an effective inbound marketing strategy. An online marketing funnel is used to ... [Read more]
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Blow Your Mind Conversion Rates! A/B test and Get the best results ever. If your conversions happen on the web, then you have the extraordinary opportunity to test your assumptions, designs, and features, and figure out what works. A/B testing can ... [Read more]
By How to Improve your Online Conversion Rates – Apply these 15 Strategies Are you getting the most from your online marketing? You find it easy to bring the right people to your website, but your conversion rates tell a different story? You're ... [Read more]
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Are you struggling to find the best keywords for your business? How are you supposed to know which keywords are the best ones to target, when there is so much conflicting information online. As you probably already know, targeting the wrong ... [Read more]
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Grow's Guide To Advanced Keyword Research We've spent countless hours listening with sadness to new customers who have been disappointed with so-called SEO experts. Many of these SEO experts seem to talk a good game but they rarely seem to ... [Read more]
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So you’ve spent time and effort creating a landing page for your new product, download or service only to realise that you’re not making enough sales. People are coming to your page in droves, but nobody is taking any action. You’re ... [Read more]
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How to Install Google Analytics on WordPress We’ve already talked about some of the reasons why WordPress is a brilliant website platform for smaller businesses, and the ease with which you can install Google Analytics tracking is yet another reason ... [Read more]
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My name is Mike Peake and I have been a journalist for more than 25 years, the past eight years of which have been as a freelancer. I work for a multitude of consumer magazines and, from time to time, the UK’s main broadsheets. As a result, I’m in a ... [Read more]
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How Buying Twitter Followers Can Ruin Your Social Media Marketing Efforts Social media is so beneficial for small businesses because it allows you to actively engage with your target market, as well as build your brand and give your company a ... [Read more]
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It would have been easy to just write a thinly veiled sales article talking about our services and how we totally embody the attributes of a perfect marketing consultant. Instead, we decided to write an impartial guide that would really be of benefit ... [Read more]
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As the name suggests, guest blogging is when someone provides an article to another blog, as a third-party contributor. Guest blogs are usually written for free, unless that author is specifically invited by the blog owner due to their expertise ... [Read more]
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Content marketing is one of the most important elements of your marketing process. It’s about creating, promoting and distributing content consistently, with the goal of encouraging your target audience to take action. Despite its importance, many ... [Read more]
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One of the most valuable aspects of running a blog is opening up a dialogue with your readers through the comment section. Not only does it enrich any blog with extra insight from your peers, but it also gives you a chance to demonstrate your ... [Read more]
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How To Find Open Source Images For Your Blog It’s no surprise that blog posts with images do better on average than those without. According to the Social Science Research Network - 65% of all humans are visual learners, and respond better to visual ... [Read more]
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14 Little-Known Adwords Tips To Increase Clicks and Sales For many businesses, a cost-effective way to get an immediate boost in website traffic is Google AdWords - also known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC). You’ve probably noticed the ads in Google – the ... [Read more]
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As a small business, you must continually think of ways to get your products and services in front of as many people as possible, all without breaking the bank. Using YouTube for your business can be a cost-effective way to grow it, if used ... [Read more]
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Keywords are words or phrases which people use to search for products, services or information online. By understanding what phrases are popular and searched for often, you can optimise your site to target those exact ... [Read more]
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As part of our complete beginner’s guide to SEO here, we’ve set out to give small business owners actionable, practical guides on how you can start improving your SEO right now. If you haven’t already, please read our guide to keyword research, ... [Read more]
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An Interview with Andy McKenna, Owner of Best Reception In our previous blog about call answering services, we interviewed Andy McKenna, who gave us 17 key things that small business owners should look for when trying to choose a telephone ... [Read more]
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Companies like Outbrain have done a huge amount of research into what headlines can increase CTR (click through rates) the most. This means that marketers, as well as small business owners, now have an invaluable insight into how people behave ... [Read more]
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It’s pretty hard to imagine a more insulting put down for a journalist than being called a “hack”. Hacks fill the pages of any newspaper with salacious, trashy stories written in an unimaginative, derivative way. However, as unappealing as that ... [Read more]
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A recent study on internet trends published by KPCB estimated that 8 zettabytes of content will be created and shared every day on the internet. To put that in perspective, 1 zettabyte = 8 trillion gigabytes. To put that another way, if you put that ... [Read more]
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