It cites a number of examples such as the 18 months that the Beetles spent in Hamburg often performing 8 hours a day, 7 days a week or Bill Gates who had the rare opportunity in early 70s of spending much of his teenage years programming a mainframe computer.

This is put forward as a theory as to why an overwhelming majority of current Premiership footballers were born during the winter months. It is commonsense that this is not because being born during the winter makes for a more naturally gifted footballer. It turns out to be because the age group cut off date for English football is 1 September each year. So young boys born during September are up to a year more physically mature than other boys in the year group. Naturally, they will stand a better chance of being selected for their football team. As a consequence over their childhood they will receive more coaching and playing time (and presumably a confidence that they really are more naturally gifted than other boys in their year group). As a consequence winter-born boys are more likely to gain the requesit 10,000 hours of practice compared to their summer-born counter-parts.

Gladwell analyses academic studies of the annual international maths testing. For many years it has put nations such as Japan, China and Korea well ahead of Western nations. He hypothosises that maths is one of those subjects that requires lots of practice and persistence to grasp (I can vouch for that throughout my studies in Applied Physics!). The Far Eastern nations mentioned spend up to 40% more hours schooling their children than we do in the West. Are our children trained to have a go before (too) quickly asking for help when they are stuck? Incidently, it is interesting to note that each of these maths tests is accompanied by a 120-question questionnaire that asks in detail about each child’s education and home circumstances including parents’ education. It has been found that there is not just a correlation, but an exact match between the thoroughness with which a child completes the questionnaire and the maths test. An extra-ordinary finding.

So what, I hear you ask, has this got to do with marketing? Well I would contest that successful marketing is substantially about persistence and detail. Yes, the ‘Mad Men’ world of big ideas and creativity is important but it cannot work without sustained effort of tracking and optimising campaigns, listening and engaging frequently to customers and measuring returns? The trend in the world of sophisiticated Google algorithms, instant publishing on social media channels and lowered barriers of entry from competitors we’ve yet to hear about is likely to make this more important. So let’s watch out for Chinese marketeers matching their South Korean and Japanese peers.

10,000 hours is about 6 years’ of full time working weeks. So have a think about how much time your organisation is putting into becoming expert marketeers. May be you need to consider buying in external expertise to support your in-house marketing team.

Two days ago, Google pre-announced what looks like a similarly-sized update targeting sites that have built links from low quality sites. This makes sense as it puts a brake on the ‘arms race’ in the number of links required to rank highly in Google. Even in moderately competitive sectors websites have been requiring tens of thousands of links. Google’s definition of a non-spammy link is one that will bring traffic to your website (this is easy enough to check in the Referrals report in the website analytics). Okay, this is a little puritanical and Google expands by advising that a link is a good link only if you would seek it from other sites even if, hypothetically, search engines didn’t exist.

I think it will take Google a few months’ worth of updates to fine tune this new algorithm, however it does provide strong support for WSI’s belief that the future continues to be all about great quality content. So how might we define great content? Well, if it is such good value to your customers or prospect, then surely you will want to promote it on your facebook page or tweet about it. You aren’t going to want to do this if the article or blog post is dull or a re-hash of old information.

Good content will generate links, or of equal importance in this social media world, ‘shares’. The starting point is a good content plan. Typically this will be a 6 month plan of subjects (with bullet points) to be written about – by all means be flexible with it but have a plan.

Content ideas that could be useful to your readers include:

• Case studies relating to individual customers or industry verticals
• Expert how-to guides. These don’t have to be just text, maybe the inclusion of a short video or set of diagram would make it more interesting
• Points of view and informed commentary from your experts
• Human interest stories. Just make sure they are not too internally-focussed
• Background details for general interest
• Industry tips, news and survey results

Don’t forget that your staff may not have the time or be the best to write the content. Often it is better for a professional copywriter (we can help you here) to interview your expert and write up their ideas in a style and voice appropriate to your customers.

Here are some examples of good content that should get your thoughts going for your own business:

• Interesting ideas and advice
• A case study
• Useful information of interest to a visitor

We have yet to find a business that cannot find something genuinely useful to write about twice a month (okay for some clients it does some prodding and persistence!). Invariably, the content when professionally written up receives favourable feedback inside and outside the business and becomes a valuable asset to the business. Indeed, sales teams have been known to print it out and show it to their prospects.

Not only that, but it should now be increasingly rewarded with good Google rankings. A double whammy.

The highlight was the keynote from the inimitable Avinask Kaushik (‘Google Analytics Evangelist’, author, speaker).  He described three elements of a great business:  Influence – Experience – Value.  Or to say it another way Marketing – Magic – Money.  He urged us to ‘re-imagine greatness’ for ourselves and our clients.  A really interesting challenge that is actually not that difficult when we have the leveler called the internet where location and size can be unimportant.

Avinask showing rise and fall of newspaper advertising spend

Avinask then went on to discuss how to set up a Content Efficiency Report in Google Analytics with the ultimate purpose of enabling a business to understand just three things about its online visitors : Acquisition, Behaviour and Outcomes.  By understanding these three areas of a website (or ‘webpresence’ to be more general) we can optimise the task completion rate (what ever those tasks are that we want to persuade a visitor to undertake).

His take on facebook was characteristically pithy: “Facebook is only used to waste time, so you had better get them to waste time on your facebook page!”  He showed three examples of facebook pages that do just that (I guess in descending order of ‘sexiness’) : Redbull, M&S and National Express.  There are really only four things to track on social media: conversion rate, amplification rate, applause rate and economic value.  (Just the sort of thing that new WSI supplier Sendible.com can be set up to provide a dashboard for).  Finally he quoted @baekdal’s : “social media does not provide any value, it only enhances it” which is hard to beat in 11 words.

I’ve followed Avinask for a number of years now and pleased that he lived up to his reputation (something that is not always the case) with his combination of up-to-date insight and detail how-to.

I’ll try and post some more insights from the other speakers later this week.

1. Have a Purpose
Have clearly-defined objectives, ranging from collecting email addresses, distributing coupons or providing information.

2. Give a Reason to Scan
Scanning QR codes is easy but make sure you give the customer a reason to scan. Clearly print instructions next to the code.
Remember, the bigger the incentive, the more interested the customer will be but ensure that you are truthful else you will lose the trust of your customer.

3. Choose a Good Location
Placing your QR code is as important as what the code is offering. Make your code easily accessible.

4. Create a Designer Code
Attract more customers with a designer code – this can compliment your brand image and gives the customer security if it appears tied in to a brand on offer.

5. Mobile-Friendly Site Access
If you want to send customers to a website after code scanning. make the site mobile-friendly. A desktop website may not show to full advantage on a mobile phone.

If you would like help with your mobile marketing campaign using QR codes, call us on 0845 658 1812

Avoid the Clutter
With other mediums such as Facebook being overrun with adverts, Google+ Pages offers an ad free environment, with no future plans to include adverts.

Interaction
Google+ Pages offers its Hang Outs feature, which enables you to conduct meetings, hold  webinar, make presentations and  provide real time customer service.

Improve ‘Findability’
With the introduction of Google +1, Google introduced its Google +1 which means that pages with more +1s have a higher search engine ranking. By using Google+ Pages presence to interact with clients, you can can improve your search engine ranking.

Direct Connect
The Direct Connect feature allows users to place the “+” sign in front of the name of your business when searching, and the results when verified by Google are instantly brought to your Google+ Page.

Customer Segmentation
You can send more targeted messages by organising your own circles once a Google+ user has added your business to their circle.

Google+ and Google+ Pages are a threat to Facebook due to the sheer numbers of Google users. If you need help to incorporate a Google+ Page into your social media marketing, call 0845 658 1812

Being asked to be put on your mailing list means that they want to receive information, so you can boost your Christmas sales by keeping everyone on the mailing list up to date. Follow these 5 tips:

1. Create Relevant Content
Send out only useful and informative emails. Use genuine special deals only available to email subscribers as an incentive.

2. Send Codes Through Email
Special discount codes are always welcome, in fact statistics report that 44 percent of online shoppers receive codes via email. Offer regular discounts to email subscribers and they will show loyalty. As a bonus, creating unique codes helps you monitor your marketing campaign more clearly.

3. Spend Money in the Right Places
Make your emails worth reading. Hire a professional writer or an artist to make your emails stand out.

4. It’s Christmas
Inject the Christmas spirit into emails, in the form of seasonal graphics or offering to donate to charity through each sale. Make emails seasonally appealing.

5. Put Some Measures In Place
Measure the success of your email marketing campaign through email and website analytics. Identify what works and learn lessons for next year.

Email is strong as a marketing medium so if you would like help planning a successful email marketing campaign, call 0845 658 1812

Google fought back, looking to diversify its product offering to enhance its presence in social networking, with failed measures such as Google Buzz. However, the internet giant is back with Google+. This is currently in beta phase but essentially, it is a social media platform with a number of networking tools.

Google is offering Google+ as invitation only, although it has up to 25 million unique users already. What can it offer?

Circles
The Circles function is similar to Facebook’s list where users can drag and drop to create various circles of friends and contacts. Based on the relationship with the account holder, individuals are placed in circles. This has the benefit of making it easy to share targeted messages.

Sparks
Sparks helps the user recommend content. Type in what you want and Sparks will find what it thinks you’ll like.

Hangouts
Hangouts will enable chat between those in Circles. The instant messenger video tool is built into the user interface for easy communication.

Huddle
Huddles or discussion groups allow a Google+ user to create a topic where others can post comments and information.

It seems that Google+ has a variety of well-designed social tools,but whether it wins the battle against Facebook remains to be seen.

QR codes are read by smartphones (using a QR code reader) which links directly to the digital content shared within the code, eg, activating email, instant messenger or connecting to the internet.

As businesses and customers learn to understand the concept, QR codes are becoming more widespread.

Better Consumer Connectivity
Businesses can add the code on offline marketing tools including business cards and brochures, enabling customers to digitally get and save business details easily. The majority of media containing contact details, products, coupons, social network connections can benefit from QR codes.

Where can QR codes be placed?

• On company vehicles
• On product labels and packaging
• On nametags at convention and events
• On restaurant menus
• On event tickets
• On displays in shops
• On property details
• On promotional clothing

Literally the choice is endless, if you use your imagination, to integrate QR codes into your existing marketing plans. The use of mobile phones, which is still in its infancy is an ideal medium to use QR codes to enhance your marketing messages.

If you would like information on improving your mobile website experience with the use of QR codes, call 0845 658 1812.

What are the advantages of a good blog?

• Gain more web traffic from the search engines
• Correspond effectively with existing customers
• Provide a hub for your social media activities
• Establish yourself as an expert
• Humanise your business
• Show enthusiasm for what you do
• Interact with customers.

You can improve your blogging by following the key features below.

Part of the Team
Most importantly, you need your blog to supplement your existing online marketing activities. Establish yur objectives and co-ordinate your existing marketing efforts. 
 
Know What to Say
Keep your blog regularly updated and plan a content schedule. Use RSS feeds, social media alerts and remember, quality is better than quantity.

Know How to Say It
Choose the best voice for your blogging: be business like but don’t be stuffy or too corporate. Talk to your customers, not at them.

Share the Love
Once your blog is established, link to other bloggers and show your interest in what they have to say. YOu will find that they will reciprocate the link.

Be helpful by providing genuine advice and best tips and adopt a conversational tone that will help you become a valued member of the web community.

If you need help with your blog, call us on 0845 658 1812.

Here is what it now looks like:

This shows that when Google recognises that a searcher is looking for a brand name.  In this case, it is a reasonable assumption that the searcher wants to see more information about this brand, rather than, as previously, a list of different directories or other sites mentioning the brand.   This is excellent for sites which Google recognises as belonging to a brand – but how can we ensure that a site is recognised as belonging to a brand.

Well, we can surmise that it will include the following elements:

• A well structured site, systematically linked internally to clearly identify different departments or product sets
• External links pointing to the website with the links frequently referencing the brand name term
• Social media, local and industry directories and other citation sources that reference the brand name when pointing at the website.

The first point should be the result of a well designed website, the latter two points may occur naturally for household brands but more likely will need to be managed via search engine optimisation processes.

We don’t know if this is just a Google test or a definitive new style, however overall, it is a very good news for users as well as an appropriate reward for those businesses that have spent time and effort over many years building up their brand and online presence.